Faking It Chapter 3: Vicious World, a twilight fanfic

I was going to wait until tomorrow to upload chapter 3, but my ten reviews have made me giddy, so here I am. Seriously, every review is brilliant and to all of you who've added my little story to your favorites, I love you. Each and every one of you.

Some unfinished business; I keep forgetting a disclaimer, so here it is:

I don't own Twilight or any of the characters, I'm just goofing around. I'll go back and fix this on the first two chapters.

And a BIG chapter 3 disclaimer: I do not claim to make any assertions about the nature of anyone's relationship. I'm making it all up. What you all do (or don't do) in the privacy of your bedrooms is your own concern.

And lastly, despite what Edward said in the last chapter, I have nothing against Taylor Swift. She seems like a lovely girl. I have Love Story on my ipod. It's a cute song.

Here's chapter 3.

BPOV

"Bella" his voice was low and rough in my ear, his hot breath blowing across my neck, sending chills across my skin. His fingers were sliding up my ribcage, brushing the underside of my breasts, about to slip over my nipples.

I arched into him, desperate for closer contact.

His knee pushed in between mine and my thighs fell open for him. His weight pressed against me…everywhere. He flicked his tongue out to lick a trail from my ear down to the hollow at the base of my throat.

My hands fisted into his hair, pulling him closer.

"Edward…."

I shot awake, panting and faintly sweaty and….aroused. Fuck. That was hot. And inappropriate. And pathetic. Sex dreams about movie stars, even ones I've actually met, are just sad.

My phone was ringing.

I fought my way out of my tangled damp sheets, pushing my tangled hair off my face and I snatched the phone off the bedside table. Aro's office. I pressed accept.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Bella," it was Heidi, sounding far too sunny for this early in the morning, "Is this too early?"

"Um, no. Not at all, Heidi. What's up?"

"Aro was wondering if you were free to come in for a chat this afternoon around two?"

"Oh, sure, yeah, I can be there."

"Great! The car will pick you up at 1:30."

"Really, Heidi, I can…." Click. "…drive myself," I finished to the dead line.

I flopped back on the bed. I needed a shower. Ice cold.

"Bella, sweetness!" Aro called out as Heidi opened the door and ushered me in.

Emmett, Jasper and Rose were already there.

Aro waved me towards the leather chair next to his desk, which was sort of weird. I usually sat on the couch. But I sat where he indicated.

I glanced back at the others, but their faces held no insight. They looked as apprehensive as I felt.

"So, Bella, have you seen this?" Aro asked as he spun his laptop to face me. The browser window was open to TMZ .

And there was me…with Edward Cullen.

It was from that party at the club two nights ago. I remembered the moment. He said something and stepped towards me as he did it, lowering his head so I could hear him. That was right before I pulled back from both of them and their head butting and left with Jasper. But the way the picture had been cropped, and the angle it was taken from, there was just him and me in it. The picture had caught me mid blink, so my eyes were lowered to the ground, and I was smiling just a little, and it looked so….intimate. It looked like we were together, sharing some really private moment. If I saw it and didn't know what was going on, I know what I would think, which was exactly what TMZ was thinking. The caption said "Edward Cullen goes hunting again…and snares a Swan".

Fuck. Double fuck.

This was so far beyond awful. I felt sick, and angry. Who the hell would say that about me? And why? What gave them the right? I felt tears stinging my eyes and started shouting to keep myself from crying.

"Aro, it wasn't at all like it looks in that picture! I swear! Nothing…I mean nothing happened!"

Aro smiled and held up a hand to stop me.

"Bella, I know. And it hardly even matters. Lord knows, none of you owe me any explanation of your personal lives."

I opened my mouth to vociferously object again but Aro cut me off.

"However, shortly after this hit the internet yesterday morning, I received a phone call, and I took a lunch, which brings us to an interesting opportunity." He leaned back in his chair like he was gearing up to tell us a story.

"Did I tell you I went to law school? I did, although obviously my life took me on a very different path. A friend of mine from law school also ended up as a publicist in LA, oddly enough, although he handles actors and I focus mainly on music. He and I have stayed friends although rarely do we work together on anything. This morning, though, we may have found a chance to do so."

Aro leaned forward and clicked open another tab in his browser and a page of paparazzi photographs of celebrity couples spread out across the screen.

"You recognize these couples, don't you?"

He gave us a moment while we all studied the screen.

"Sure," Emmett piped up. "They're all pretty well known. What's all this about?"

"Well, Emmett, you may be surprised to know that none of these people ever actually dated each other."

He gave us a moment to absorb that, which was good because we needed one.

"Wait..." I started, "That's Jennifer and…."

"Yes. Fake." Aro said patiently.

"And Tom and…" Jasper sputtered.

"Fake as well," Aro replied.

"But that's Nick and Jessica," Rose exclaimed.

"Fake."

Her face collapsed and she murmured softly, "But I liked that show…"

Aro gave her a kindly look. "I know, dear. It's never fun to find these things out."

"What do you mean, 'fake'?" I pressed. My stomach was starting to clench in an unpleasant way. I had absolutely no idea where this conversation was headed, but I had a feeling I would not like it.

"These couples were never romantically involved in any way. None of them."

"Why would they pretend to be?"

"There are many reasons these arrangements are made. For a long time it was usually to protect one or both parties' sexual preferences. And that still happens. Sometimes it's a rather formal arrangement, say for a highly rated reality show. But most of the time it's simply that each party brings a certain kind of desirable publicity to the other. What matters is that there's something to be gained by both parties."

"So this is common?"

"Common enough."

"Everything you see in the magazines? That's all fake?" I was stunned.

"Oh, no, no. By no means. There are plenty of genuine couplings in Hollywood. Love survives, even here. I just mean to open your eyes to other, more creative means of promotion."

"Promotion?" I just kept asking stupid questions, my brain afraid to get at the root of what we were discussing, although my gut already had a pretty good idea and didn't like it.

Jasper, though, had no such fear. "Just cut to the chase, Aro, and tell us what you've got up your sleeve."

"My law school friend, Laurent, happens to be publicist to Edward Cullen. And yesterday, after this tidbit hit the internet, I received a phone call from him. We had lunch, and he has made us a very intriguing proposition." Aro stopped and leaned back in his chair, flexing his fingertips together, fixing me with his steady, steel blue gaze. "You and Edward Cullen. An arrangement."

"WHAT??" I shot out of my seat.

Aro quickly held up a hand to calm me. "Please, Bella, let's just discuss the whole thing in detail before you dismiss it out of hand."

"You want her to whore herself out to Edward Cullen??" Emmett roared behind me, "I don't think there's anything to discuss!"

"No, no, no," Aro's patient demeanor never faltered. "There would be no actual intimacy between them. He would never lay a finger on her, if she so chose. Will you at least listen to the situation before you refuse?"

I looked back at the others. Emmett and Jasper looked tense, but controlled. Rose looked calm, willing to listen. I trusted Rose and her instincts above anything else. If Rose wanted to listen, then I would listen.

I took a deep steadying breath and raked my hands through my hair to push it off my face. I slowly lowered myself back into my chair.

"Explain it to me. All of it."

Aro gave me a tiny smile and reached for a file on the right side of his desk. He passed it across to me and I took it with trembling fingers. I set it in my lap and opened it, leafing through the contents. It was a stack of magazine and newspaper clippings plus some pages printed out from gossip websites, all about Edward.

"Edward Cullen is an extremely gifted actor, perhaps the greatest of his generation," Aro began. "He's also a mess. Since he came to Hollywood four years ago, he's left a swath of destruction in his wake that has shocked even unshockable Hollywood. I suppose there have been others before him who have had more spectacular flameouts. But they weren't as talented as he is and thus the loss was not as great. It's not so much the level of his destructiveness, it's what it has consumed. He has gone from being the most sought-after actor in a generation to being virtually unemployable. Directors are still desperate to work with him. His talent is not lost. But studios won't touch him without very expensive insurance riders. In short, he has a massive image problem and it's seriously in need of fixing or he risks losing his career entirely.

"He has had far more than his share of female companionship, but his name has rarely been linked with any one young woman long enough to make the headlines. Edward, it seems, does not do girlfriends. And that's where our sweet Bella comes in. You, my dear, are exactly what Edward needs to convince people he's back on track. Not just a steady girlfriend, which he's never had, but America's new sweetheart. The girl every mother wishes her son would bring home to dinner."

Emmett snorted in laughter, "Do any of these people actually know you?"

I heard Rosalie's hand make contact with the back of his head. But I didn't respond, my mind was too bust absorbing every damning word Aro spoke about Edward. I'd had some vague sense of him as a Hollywood bad boy, but I had no idea it was as bad as this. I was reading headlines as I flipped through the stack of clippings…"Cullen involved in brawl at LA nightspot", "Cocaine found in Cullen's car after traffic stop", "Actor Edward Cullen involved in serious car accident: hospitalized with injuries, alcohol believed to be involved"….the laundry list of bad behavior went on and on. How he hadn't landed in jail or rehab by this point was frankly beyond me. But I guess that's what fame and money could get you.

Rose cleared her throat now and spoke up.

"And what does being with Edward do for Bella, exactly?"

"Despite his issues," Aro continued, "Edward is still a very hot social commodity in Hollywood. Quite possibly because of them, actually. He may have problems getting cast, but he certainly has no problem getting invited anywhere and everywhere. And he's still very much considered Hollywood royalty. In the very top tier of players in this town. Right now Bella, and by extension all of you, are very hot, but also balancing on the knife edge of being a flash in the pan. The show just ended a few months ago, you're all still fresh and new. People are waiting to see if you turn into bona fide, long-lasting superstars or if you turn into a Trivial Pursuit answer. Now your job is to make the brilliant music that will cement your reputation. But my job is to make sure people are paying close attention to you when that music is released. And linking Bella to Edward will most assuredly make sure that happens. This goes beyond the usual curiosity people will have about two celebrities dating. There is also the story of a very bad boy being redeemed by a very good girl, and the public loves a good redemption story."

Aro seemed to have finished laying out his argument in favor of this…thing. What the fuck are we even supposed to call it? My head was still swimming with questions and I had no idea how I even felt about any of this.

"Does Edward actually want this? Have you talked to him?" I certainly didn't know him well after our brief encounter, but I really couldn't picture him being game for something like this. My stomach clenched unpleasantly and I worried for a moment that I was going to throw up.

"Laurent is putting the proposal to him right now, the same as me. If both parties are amenable, we can go from there."

I felt a shiver of distaste at this cool, detached discussion of our potential relationship. Did people really do this? Enter into these polite, business-like arrangements? Through the looking glass. Seriously. I swallowed hard and squelched down the urge to throw up again.

"What exactly would she have to do?" Leave it to Rose to hammer out the gritty details.

"Go to a few strategically planned dinners at popular restaurants, making sure to be seen and photographed coming and going…arrive together at a few parties like the one at Geisha the other night…go to a baseball game or a concert together…be his escort to the various upcoming awards shows and movie premiers, pose on the red carpet together, that sort of thing. It really doesn't take much to link your names, then the gossip rags usually take over and start filling in the blanks for themselves. You'd be asked about him in interviews, of course, but we'd prepare a few responses for you that would work for most questions. It's really not hard. And aside from perhaps holding his hand and allowing him to stand a little closer to you, there's really nothing …compromising about it. Of course, sometimes others choose to include more public displays of affection. It would be entirely up to the two of you about how far to take the charade and how public to make it."

I stood up abruptly again. I'd heard plenty. Enough for today, that's for sure.

"I need to think about this, Aro. I don't need to decide right now, do I?"

"Of course not, darling," he soothed, reaching out and squeezing my fingers. I let him, then I pulled my hand away and crossed my arms firmly over my chest. "Go home and do some thinking. You should all talk it through together and see how you feel. We'll talk later."

I tried to give him a reassuring smile, but I was way too overwhelmed and I'm sure it came out as a pained grimace. I turned on my heel and hurried out of the office. I couldn't breathe in there anymore. I sensed the others scrambling out of their seats to follow me. I passed Heidi in the outer office without a look and made a beeline for the elevators. I punched the button hard and waited, and that's where the others caught up to me.

I felt Rose's arm come down across my shoulder.

"You okay?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm just freaking out a little right now. It's a lot to take in all at once."

"I know," Jasper chimed in, "Who would have ever guessed that Nick and Jessica were a fraud?"

A nervous laugh escaped me, in spite of myself and the tension was broken. Emmett and Rose joined in the laughter. Leave it to Jasper to fix everyone's mood.

"So, what do you want to do now, little cousin?" Emmett asked, hands in his pockets.

I sighed heavily. "You know what? I really want to sing. Can we just go play?"

"We could head over to the studio and do some more work on that new song we've been hammering out," Jasper suggested.

"No, not the studio. Nothing for the album. Just something fun, for us. Like we used to do."

"Then let's go to our place," Rose said. All our old equipment is stored there. Let's go have fun and make some music!"

We ended up in the great room at Emmett and Rose's house (yes, they had a "great room"). The label set us up with all new equipment at the studio when we started working on the album, so all our ramshackle stuff from Seattle was stored at Emmett's. It took us a little while to get it all set up and cabled, but finally it resembled something like our set up had been in our living room in Seattle. I felt better already.

"What should we play?" Jasper asked, tuning his bass.

"Ooohh, how about that Pink song?" Rose suggested excitedly. "We had such a good time working that up for the show. It was fun. And Emmett kicks the drum line!"

Emmett waggled his eyebrows at her from his stool behind his drum kit and spun his drumsticks around his fingers like he was twirling batons.

"Okay, let's do it. Count it off, Em." Jasper commanded.

This was exactly what I needed. I reconnected with myself again for just a moment, all this crazy Hollywood celebrity stuff just falling away. It was just me and my family and a great song. I felt my head clearing the longer I sang.

But every song eventually ends and I knew we had to talk about this. Emmett went and got us some beers and we sat on the floor in a loose circle. Jasper kept his bass in his lap, idly picking away at notes, mostly just to keep his hands busy, I knew. This was us at our most basic; the four of us, on the floor talking. We had always been like this.

"So, Bells," Emmett began "Since I'm the one who's actually your blood relative here, I feel like I should be looking out for you. How do you feel about all this?'

"Thanks Em," I leaned over and patted his knee, "But you know I think of us all as family. And it would be really helpful to me to hear what my family is honestly thinking. Emmett?"

He looked down at his hands while he picked at the label on his beer bottle for a minute, gathering his thoughts. With Emmett, this sometimes took a while.

"Well, on the surface, it seems kind of creepy and wrong. But when Aro explained it, what you'd really have to do, it doesn't really seem like such a big deal, you know?"

"And if the publicity really does help the band.,.." Jasper murmured. He scrubbed his hands over his face in frustration. "Jesus, I fucking hate that we even have to talk about this."

"I know," I said, picking at a corner of the carpet, "It's pretty dismal. But that part about us becoming a Trivial Pursuit answer sort of freaked me out."

Everybody murmured in nervous assent. It freaked us all out.

"But let's be perfectly clear about one thing, Bella" Rose said sharply. "You don't do anything, I mean anything…you don't feel comfortable with. You just say the word and we tell Aro thanks but no thanks."

"Sure, sure. But you all feel like it would be a good thing to do?" I really needed to know what they thought. If I saw revulsion or even disapproval in any of their eyes, I couldn't face myself in the mirror any more.

They cast looks at each other and shrugged.

"It doesn't seem like such a big deal, I guess. If you're cool with it," Jasper said.

"I mean, you'd probably be going to all that stuff anyway. So you have to sit next to Edward Cullen while you do it. Big deal." Emmett reasoned.

"And plenty women would find that to be incentive enough right there," Rose smirked.

At that I laughed. She was right. Geez, so I have to spend time with a drop dead gorgeous Hollywood actor. What was so hard about that? So the press would talk about us and say a lot of stuff that wasn't true. It wouldn't be bad stuff. I wasn't going to pretend to be his sex slave or anything. I was going to pretend to be his girlfriend. His nice, normal, stable girlfriend.

I was secretly more than a little worried about my own reaction to him, how wildly attractive I found him, how he'd been flirting with me. But this was business. I was sure he'd forget all about that and keep it strictly professional. I just hoped to hell I could.

"Okay," I said, steeling my resolve, "I'll do it. Let's call Aro."