Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story.

A/N: Yay! New Chapter. Please R&R :) I will add links to Bella's and Rosalie's outfits for the party sometime this week.

I don't know how I expected him to react. I didn't necessarily expect him to turn cartwheels and leap for joy, but I didn't expect him to react this way either.

Edward didn't attempt talk to me again. In fact, he hardly even looked at me. Even after we left the apartment he was silent the entire drive back to campus.

I knew that he must be feeling incredibly guilty about what almost happened earlier and we needed to talk. Except, I had no idea what to say or where to begin. Tonight had been both one of the best and one of the worst nights of my life. It was wonderful, because Edward finally realized he had feelings for me, and he told me I was beautiful. And it was horrible because, although he wanted to be with me, he wanted to be with Rosalie more.

I couldn't understand why he was so determined to have a committed relationship with (of all people) Rosalie.

Rosalie, the girl who makes out with guys in clubs to get free drinks.

Rosalie, whose aspiration for the rest of the year is to win a wet T-shirt contest.

This was who he wanted? The thought made me feel sick to my stomach. It was true, that she had spent more time with Edward, but she didn't care about him, not the way that I did. It frustrated me to no end that he was so blinded by her long legs and good looks that he couldn't see that.

I turned my back to Edward and stared out the window while we drove.

The weather in Arizona was usually predictable: sunny and hot. For a couple of months out of the year monsoon thunderstorms would hit. The skies would be clear all day, and then out of nowhere the wind would pick up, the clouds would come in, and then rain would start pouring down. Tonight looked like it was going to be one of those nights.

Sure enough, when we pulled around to the parking lot behind my dorm, the images outside my window became wet and blurry and the pitter patter of rain drops clanked against the metal of Edward's car.

Edward hopped out of the car as soon as it was stopped. He ran around to the passenger side of the car, held my door open for me, and waited for me to exit the car.

Okay, I can take a hint.

Still, part of me hoped that now that he had time to think things through, he would realize that what he felt for me wasn't wrong and we were meant to be together.

I stepped out of the car and the rain instantly soaked through my hair and clothes.

And as I stood there, looking at Edward, I half expected that he would pull me into his arms and tell me whatever feelings he had for Rosalie didn't matter, because he wanted to be with me.

I kept hoping….

And I was disappointed when he didn't.

"Is it really such a bad thing realizing that you like me?" I asked.

He sighed heavily then said, "It's complicated. You…you were one of my best friends. My only friend really, I should have never crossed that line."

Were? The way that he referred to me in past tense worried me. He didn't want to spend time with me anymore? No. He couldn't mean that.

"Edward, we're still friends. Aren't we?" I questioned, anxiety creeping into my voice.

"I don't think I can ever look at you as just a friend anymore…No, I don't think we can be."

"You don't want to see me anymore?" I whispered.

He grabbed my hand in his and lifted it to his face. He laced his fingers through mine and held it there. "How can I be close to you when all I want to do is touch you, when all I can think about is kissing you?" He cupped my jaw with his free hand and traced his thumb across my lip. He then trailed his hand down the side of my neck and brushed wet hair away from my face and off my shoulder.

"I can't." He said, sadly and then moved away from me. "It would be too difficult for me now."

No, this can't be happening.

My arms dropped limply to my side and I swallowed back the lump that was rising in my throat.

"You're doing this because of her?" I questioned, even more anxious now.

He didn't say anything. Though, his silence was confirmation enough.

This was wrong, so wrong. The only reason I continued to go along with this stupid lie, was because I didn't want to lose him. And now I was losing him anyway?

"Please Edward," I begged, "You don't mean it. I know you don't." I chocked out.

"I'm sorry." He said. "Please don't make this harder for me than it already is."

"Did you sleep with her?" I challenged. Why else would he want to stay with her?

"No! That's not what this is about."

"Then why do you like her?! What is so great about her that you won't even take a chance on us?"

"I don't know. I guess I keep hoping that she'll change, that she'll go back to being that sweet, shy, girl I could talk to about anything, who was always excited to talk to me too. I hope that she will stop throwing herself at other guys and realize what she has in me. I hope that one day I will be able to get along with her in person, as well as I do on the computer. I didn't expect that our relationship would be easy… but what we had in the beginning was wonderful; I guess part of me isn't ready to give that up."

Everything he said he wanted in her, all the things that was trying to hold on to, had nothing to do with Rosalie! Those were all things about me.

I couldn't believe how stupid I'd been. All this time, I thought it was his attraction to Rosalie that was holding him back. It wasn't Rosalie at all that was keeping us from being together, it was me.

He didn't want to be with her. He hardly knew anything about her. And here he was about to break off our relationship for something that wasn't real. The girl he really wanted was standing right in front him. He was making a huge mistake. He didn't understand.

"You're wrong, about her. She's not the person that you think she is, it's all a lie." I said urgently.

"Stop it Chloe! I can't do this right now." He said dismissively. His voice was hard and cold. It irritated me to no end that he was willing to throw everything we had built together away without talking to me about it first.

"No!" I shouted back, even more determined now to prove my point. You WILL listen to me. "She doesn't love you. And she doesn't respect you. Hell Edward I don't even think she really likes you that much. She doesn't have feelings for you the way I do. She will never want you the way I want you. She will never understand how smart, and sweet, and amazing you are because She's! Not! Me! "

Let him think about that.

"Why are you doing this Chloe? Why are you trying to break us up? She's you friend." He scolded.

"Roommate." I corrected. "Rosalie is my roommate."

"Rosalie?" His eyes furrowed together in confusion. Then, as he began to understand the meaning behind my words, sadness, and then rage colored his features.

That's right!

If he wanted to be with her, fine! If it was Rosalie he wanted, then it was Rosalie he would get.

"Rosalie, goes out every weekend because she can't appreciate spending all her time with just one person. Rosalie has no idea what she wants to do with her life and only signs up for classes because she thinks the teachers are hot. Rosalie has had at least 7 boyfriends in past 6 months, and—he'll love this one— Rosalie is dating Emmett McCarthy, the football player."

"Damn it!" He shouted. "What else has she been lying to me about?" He slammed the passenger door of his car so hard I thought the window would shatter from the impact. Then he turned away from me and stormed around to the front of the car.

"Edward!" I yelled after him. I regretted what I'd said about Rosalie as soon as the words left my mouth. Sure I wanted him to know the truth about her, but in hindsight, I realized that probably wasn't the best way to tell him.

"EDWARD!" I called out to him again.

And he ignored me.

I sloshed after him and caught him by his arm just before he reached his car door.

"Edward will you wait—" And then his lips were on mine. They were cool and slick from the rain, and moved forcefully against my own. He wrapped one arm around my waist and pinned me firmly against his body. I wrapped my arms around his neck. I held on to him as tightly as I could and I kissed him back.

There was nothing gentle or innocent about the way we went at each other. It was savage and raw and desperate. Edward pressed me back against the hood of his car as we both poured all of our anger, frustration and desire into this kiss.

It was perfect, and it was wrong because it wasn't a kiss between Edward and Bella, two spirits who'd reunited after being apart, it was a kiss between Edward and Chloe, the best friend of the girl who'd betrayed his trust.

I knew that if I wanted to be with him, really be with him, I couldn't continue to lie to him. I had to tell him.

"Edward." I gasped, reluctantly breaking away from his lips. "Way—"

He lowered his mouth to my neck, and he proceeded kiss and nip at the skin just above my collar. As soon as his lips touched my throat, my body felt weak and my bones felt like they were made of water. It wasn't long before my arms were no longer able to support the weight of my upper body. They slipped out from under me and I fell flat against the cool metal of the car with Edward lying on top of me.

I almost forgot why I wanted to stop him, almost.

"Wait a minute." I said, pushing against his chest. "I need you to listen to me."

He leaned back slightly so that he could see my face.

"What's wrong?" He panted. "Isn't this what you wanted?"

"Yes…No…not this way."

He grabbed onto my arms and pulled me to my feet.

"Chloe?" He was confused but he wasn't angry. Not at me at least. His eyes were warm and he held my hand while he waited for me to explain why I'd stopped him.

He really had no idea. He trusted me completely. It never crossed his mind that I'd been lying to him too, even worse than Rosalie had. Moisture welled up in my eyes, and no amount of effort could have stopped the tears that spilled over.

"What is it?" he asked concerned.

I inhaled a shaky breath and then I told him everything.

"Why?" He asked, as he raked his hand through his hair, "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"I was afraid that you wouldn't like who I was. I was afraid that I wouldn't be good enough for you."

"What have I ever done to make you think that?!" He yelled, his voice harder and colder than I'd ever known.

"After you saw her, all you could talk about was how beautiful she was." I answered meekly.

"I thought she was you! You were the most beautiful person in the world to me. You could have been three feet tall and missing both arms and it wouldn't have mattered. It never would have mattered! I fell in love with you! Not your face, not your body, you!"

"I know that now." I whispered.

"Do you know how bad it hurt to think that you had found someone else? Do you know how much it tore me apart when I thought I was falling for another girl, when all I wanted to do was hold on to you? Do you have any idea what you put me through?! And for what? Because you had some pre-conceived notion that all I cared about was your appearance."

"I didn't mean to…I—I didn't know you felt that way." I cried.

"How could you not, when I spent every single night that we talked telling you how much I cared about you?"

I didn't have an answer for him. It was easy to see that now. At the time it wasn't so clear.

Edward was crying too now. He wiped his hand across his face to remove the tears that had spilled out of his eyes and leaked onto his cheeks.

"Do you know what hurts the most?" He continued, "Not that you've been lying to me pretty much since the day we met, having to admit that kills me, but its not the worst thing about this. What hurts the most is that you couldn't trust that my feelings for you were real. Even after everything I said to you, how could you believe that I was so shallow and petty that all I would care about are your looks? I thought you knew me better than that."

"Edward I'm so sorry." I choked out.

"You're always sorry. It's not good enough this time."

"Edward please don't do this." I begged.

He shook his head back and forth and in a tone of voice that was disconnected from any strain of emotion he told me, "I want you to stay away from me. Do not call me. Do not text me. Do not write me. Do not email me." He slid into his car before I had a chance to react and sped out of the parking lot.

I was awakened by the alarm on my clock/radio Saturday morning. Any other Saturday, I would have hopped out of bed, brushed my teeth, pulled on some comfortable clothes and headed over to the library to read for a few hours.

Not today.

As soon as I got home last night, I climbed into my bed and went to sleep praying that I would never have to wake up. The buzzing of my alarm only reminded me that I would have to endure one more day of my miserable life without Edward.

I grabbed the clock/radio off my bed stand and yanked it as hard as I could. I pulled the cord out of the wall and one it stopped buzzing, I used all my strength to chuck the horrid machine at the floor.

"Have you lost your mind?"

"Leave me alone Rosalie, I'm not in the mood to spend my morning arguing with you."

"Morning? Bella it's 6:00 at night."

"What?" I sat up in my bed and gaped at Rosalie, who was wearing a full face of make-up and had her hair pinned up in rollers.

"You've been asleep all day. You were out cold when I got up this morning, so I reset your alarm to give you a couple more hours to sleep. When it went off the second time, I just set the thing to 6 o clock."

"Thanks I guess." I said. I collected a handful of my hair and focused on twisting it around in knots to let Rosalie know I was done interacting with her.

It didn't work. She came and sat down on the edge of my bed. She lightly touched the back of my hand with her fingers and said, "Hey, what happened last night."

None of your business.

"Nothing, why do you ask?" I said as casually as I could.

"Oh Bella, can you just stop and have a straight conversation with me for once. Edward was here this morning."

I dropped my hands away from my hair and looked at Rosalie with wide eyes. She knew she had me.

"You left your backpack in his car last night; he stopped by to drop it off."

I felt my heart drop into the pit of my stomach. He was here. He had to know how desperately I needed to see him again and he didn't ask her to wake me up?

I had a million questions for her. I went with the one that was simplest and would give me the most information. "Did he say anything…about me?"

"NOPE, you first." She said, "What happened."

I told her everything that happened last night, minus the time with Emmett and the plan we had concocted to seduce Edward.

"I knew it!" She exclaimed. "He wouldn't even look at me this morning. When I answered the door, he handed me your backpack and he told me, 'the same thing I told her goes for you too Rosalie' and then he left."

It really was over. I laid back down on my bed and turned onto my side so that my back was to Rose.

"Bella…"

"I already know Rose. You told me this would happen. You were right and I was wrong. You're always right, just leave me alone."

Then, Rosalie did something I didn't expect. I'll never understand why she did it, but I was forever thankful to her. She climbed into the bed behind me, she wrapped her arms around me, and she held me while I cried.

"Bella" She whispered after a while. "Can I tell you something?" She continued to stroke my hair while she waited for me to answer. I nodded, giving her confirmation to continue.

"I never meant for things to happen with Edward the way they did. I had every intention of helping you, you have to know that. Jealousy is such a strange thing. I've never had to share anyone before. I've never had to fight for anyone's attention. I'm used to getting what I want, when I say I want it. With Edward it wasn't that way. I didn't realize how jealous I was until it was too late.

"At the club, when you left Edward and me alone together, he said the most amazing things to me. Guys tell me I'm beautiful all the time, but no one has ever told me how smart I was before, or how nice I was, or how much they enjoyed just talking to me. I knew that he was saying these things for you, but I couldn't understand why he wouldn't be saying them to me. And for a while, I really thought that he thought I was different. I actually thought it was possible for someone to appreciate me as more than just a pretty face.

"But I was wrong. When we were together all he ever wanted to talk about was you, your hobbies, your family, your favorite books. Any time I tried to mention something else he would look at me like I was from another planet. It was then that I knew, that no matter how hard I tried, I would never compare to you in his mind.

"It made me angry that I was going out of my way to make him like me and you didn't even have to try. And then I started to become jealous of him too.

"I've known you for two years, he's known you for two weeks and you've already spent so much more time with him than you ever have with me. I know you and I don't have much in common Bella, but I don't have many friends. You are the only person, other than my parents of course, who has been there for me when I needed it. I couldn't let him steal you away from me, so I did everything I could to keep you apart."

I wanted to scream at her. I wanted to pull out her hair and punch her in the arm but at the moment I didn't have the energy, physically or emotionally to do either, so I laid there quietly in her arms, and let the new wave of tears that came upon hearing Rosalie's confessions wash all the anger out of my body.

"It will be okay," She said, "you're better off without him anyway."

"Rosalie I love him." I whispered.

"I'm sorry," She said, after a long pause, "I didn't know."

"And now it's too late." I cried "He doesn't want to see me anymore. He will never know."

Rosalie sat up, and pulled on my arm, yanking me with her. "Okay, that's enough of this. Get up and get dressed, were going to have some fun now."

"Rosalie I don't want to—"

"I'm not taking no for an answer! We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, take your pick."

Again, I didn't have the energy or the motivation to argue with her, so I complied with her request.

I did feel a little bit better after I took a shower. I pulled on one of the outfits that Emmett had picked for me at the mall yesterday. Rosalie did my make-up. She straightened my hair and pulled it into an elegant side swept ponytail.

It was around 9:30p when we arrived at the party. Sharon lived in one of the few older two story houses in Tucson, Az. Her family built the house in the 70's on a plot of land in the desert about 15 miles outside of city limits on the north east side of Town. Perfect for parties, Rosalie had said. There was no one around for miles so Sharon never had to worry about noise complaints from the neighbors when she threw one of these things.

I'd never been to a house party before and I didn't know what to expect. To my pleasure the house, wasn't stuffy and overly crowded like the club was. It was really kind of mellow. They had turned the kitchen into an open bar, and the majority of the house guests were hovering around the kitchen and dining area. Those that weren't hovering around the alcohol were scattered through out the living room and back patio.

"This isn't so bad." I said to Rosalie.

"It's still early." She responded, "Come on." Rosalie grabbed my hand and led me to the kitchen/bar area. No shock there.

"You want something?" She asked.

"No I'm okay."

She shrugged her shoulders and mixed herself a drink in one of those red plastic cups.

"We're going to have a good time right?" She asked. I nodded, although I knew I was lying. I was really just trying to make it through the night.

"Emmett should be here soon." She said, "Do you see anyone you know?"

"No." I responded.

Rosalie scanned the crowd and I spaced out while she gossiped about several people that she recognized from school.

"Oh my God Bella look!" Her voice was urgent enough that I actually made an effort to look up and see what had her so excited.

At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I couldn't believe that he would come here after what happened last night.

If it wasn't for Rosalie, I would be at home in bed right now crying my eyes out. When Edward left me last night, he was even more distraught than I was so this was the last place I expected to see him.

"I'm sorry Bella, I didn't know he would be here. We can leave if you want."

"I'll be right back." Told her and made my way across the room towards Edward. I was pretty sure that he didn't want to see me and even more sure that he didn't want to talk to me, but I didn't care. I would probably never see him again. I would never get another chance to tell him how I felt about him.

He didn't react once he saw me approach. His face was carefully composed into an emotionless mask, and it was impossible to figure out what he was thinking.

"Edward, Hey." I said nervously.

"Hi." A tall voluptuous blonde stepped into view beside Edward. She wrapped both her arms around his waist and kissed him on the cheek.

Oh. I hadn't noticed her before. This was awkward. Awkward and uncomfortable. Any ounce of confidence I'd felt before was gone. I wanted to run back to my room and crawl away and die.

"You brought a date." I stammered. It was all I could think to say to him now.

"Who's your friend?" The woman who clung to Edward asked. She glanced at me briefly, and I could tell be the expression on her face that she wasn't impressed by what she saw.

Edward cleared his throat and then he introduced us.

"Tanya, this is Bella, Bella Tanya."

Tanya?! As in his ex-fiancée Tanya. The same Tanya who cheated on him and broke his heart. I couldn't believe it, what was he doing here with her?

"Charmed." She said. Then she giggled and played with his hair. She was a year or two older than Edward and was stunningly beautiful. She had breast implants, and a teeny tiny waist, which gave her an hour-glass figure.

In one of the many conversations that I had with Edward, he'd told me that they'd grown apart, because although they were attracted to each other physically, they didn't really connect intellectually. About two weeks after they'd broken up, Tanya tried to get Edward to take her back. She'd cried and begged and pleaded with him to give her another chance. He told her he couldn't.

I always thought that he said no to a second chance with Tanya because he was looking for a relationship that went deeper than what he had with her, a relationship that was based on more than just sex. Apparently I was wrong.

She flaunted him right in front of me, constantly touching him and rubbing her big fake breasts against his body. And he was letting her!

"You know Edward, you're right. I have no idea where I could have possibly gotten the impression that you are the least bit superficial." I said sarcastically, then I pivoted on my heel and stormed away from him.

I rushed back to the spot where I was standing with Rosalie prior to going to talk to Edward and she was no where in sight. Of course she wouldn't wait for me to get back. I imagined that Emmett probably showed up they were off in a broom closet somewhere making out.

"It's not what you think." Edward strolled up from behind me behind me and whispered into my ear. I spun around and glared at him.

"It's not? So you're telling me that you didn't come to this party with your ex girlfriend who lied and cheated on you and betrayed your trust one day after you broke up with me for pretty much the same reason?"

"What Tanya did isn't even remotely similar to what you did and you know it."

"You're right I would never cheat on you." I said angrily.

"And don't forget we were never dating." He shot back, "You never gave me that chance."

"You're such a hypocrite." I said softly, after a few seconds of silence passed between us.

"Look Bella…" Edward started, but then was interrupted.

We were approached by a young guy, who looked to be close to my age. He was about 5'9 with dishwater blonde hair and brown eyes.

"Hey, looking good Swan." He said.

"Do I know you?" I asked somewhat curious, but mostly irritated that he'd interrupted my conversation with Edward. He looked vaguely familiar to me, but then so did a lot of people.

"Yeah, we have Biology lab together. I'm James remember."

"Oh yeah." I said.

There were 40 people in that class and I didn't really remember him at all. I hoped that if he thought I did the conversation would end there. It didn't.

"I never expected to see you here," James continued, "You don't really seem like the partying type." He chuckled, "Can I get you a drink or something?"

"No. That won't be necessary," Edward answered for me, "She doesn't drink."

Excuse me? Last I checked Edward Cullen didn't want anything to do with me. In fact, he had moved on rather quickly with skanky ex girlfriend. He had no right to dictate what I did with my time and who I did it with.

"Oh I don't?" I challenged. "Really Edward, I though you knew me better than that." I mocked, throwing his words from yesterday back at him.

A/N: Sorry for the cliff-hanger. Trust me it is much much better to end this chapter here. Next Chapter will be the rest of the party.