Disclaimer: All things Twilight belong to the wonderful Stephenie Meyer. I just want to play with them for a while.

Chapter 5 Misplaced Affections

BPOV

As Edward quietly slid into the chair beside me, he casually draped his arm on the back of my chair. I could feel the warmth radiating from him through my vampire cape, as he leaned in and whispered in my ear, "Um, Before our 'mates' get back to the table, I, er – I wanted to ask you to save me a dance later?" He seemed a little hesitant or maybe nervous. He pulled back and looked down for a moment before looking up at me through his eyelashes, waiting for my answer. I caught my breath for a moment; he was so beautiful. How could someone like him be interested in someone like me? But all the signs were there. I couldn't deny it. He's been glued to my side since he got here. And the few times we've touched I could feel a current of electricity there I've never felt with anyone.

When Edward first walked up to Emmett and Alice and introduce himself, I was still on a confidence 'high' from my encounter with Garrett. Rose and Alice had been teasing me about Garrett and my apparently flirtiness from the moment we got inside. However, I didn't care. I was having fun! I was determined to squash my insecurities for one night and see where it would lead me. It's only one night. It's not like my life is going to change that drastically because I decided to 'throw caution to the wind,' so to speak, and act more confident than I felt?

So I was determined to get to know this tall, lean, bronze-haired, green eyed football player. He was sooo handsome in his red and white football jersey with a double 00 on the front and the name 'Cullen' emblazoned across the back. Even though he had on shoulder pads, I could still tell his shoulders were broad and covered in strong muscles. He didn't wear any of the normal football pads that go with the pants, which was fine by me. This just allowed better viewing of the muscles of his legs and tight butt.

When Edward turned to me to introduced himself, I decided to just go with it and do what my friends would do. I found myself asking about Emmett's soft spots and then I winked at him. Ugh! I hoped I didn't look like I had a twitch in my eye or something. For a moment I thought he didn't hear me because his face just froze. Of course Rose decided to try to embarrass me. I mean really, Rose and Alice want me to be confident, but then they are always trying to embarrass me and get me to blush. They are NOT helping.

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when he asked if I had a soft spot for football players. But then I got lost in his emerald eyes. I still remembered the question; I just couldn't believe my ears. Was he asking if I liked him? Was he interested in me? His reaction outside in line was something else. So I asked him what he said, just to be sure I wasn't dreaming. I felt my cheeks get warm and ducked my head. Then he was touching my face and caressing my jaw. It felt like fire and ice, and all I could do was nod. I about lost it when he leaned in and breathed in my ear that he preferred vampires. W-O-W!

And now here he is asking me to save him a dance. I smiled and decided play with him. I furrowed by brow a little as I slowly said, "Yes..." I let my view trail off so it sounded like I wasn't sure about it.

Edward's face was confused for a moment as he stammered, "Wel-well if that's okay. You don't have to if you don't wa-"

I cut him off with a coy smile and said, "I was hoping for more than just one dance."

Edward's face lit up like a Christmas tree as he whispered, "You can have all my dances." But then he paused to look up at Rose and Alice approaching with a man dressed in a vampire costume. "But your 'mate' there might not want to share you," he nodded in their direction.

I glanced up and saw a tall blond man in a vampire costume. He was dressed in black pants and a black button up shirt that several of the top buttons undone. Over the shirt was a somewhat ornate black vest that looked a little like tapestry with swirls of gold, red and purple. The look was completed with a long, high collared vampire cloak that swirled around the edges as he walked. 'So this is my mate' I thought – nice. And then I noticed it. He was holding something, or rather someone's hand. Alice?!!! While they approached, my smile got bigger and bigger.

"I don't think that will be a problem." I whispered back to Edward. "I think Alice used her fairy dust on him." I quietly laughed as this vampire and Alice looked at each other for moment too long to be considered a casual glance. I could feel my chair start to shake a little as I heard Edward chuckle softly beside me.

"I think you're right.," he agreed. "I want to have a little fun with them. Are you game?" he said looking at me with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

"What do you have in mind?" I grinned back.

"Let's see if we can get that little pixie as green as her dress is." he said before leaning over to Emmett whispering for him to move over one more chair so he would be in between Alice and the Bella's 'mate.' Emmett didn't look too happy to be giving up his spot next to Rose until Edward told him what we were up too. Emmett, Bella, I want you two to act like you are really into this guy and Alice." Edward whispered

"Hey, I'm not going to act like I'm into some guy. Not gonna happen, Dude." Emmett said with a disgusted look on his face, folding his arms in front of him.

"You dope! Bella's going to do that. You act like you're into Alice." Edward shot back.

"What about Rose?" Emmett said.

"Edward, I think you should act bored with her. It will really get her mad." I whispered back. All three of us grinned at each other before straightening up in our seats. Edward dropped his hand off the back of my chair and scooted his chair a little bit away from me. Emmett moved over into his new seat.

"Hey Bella, look what Alice found for you?" Rose quipped, smiling a little smugly. "Everyone, I want you to meet my cousin, Jasper Whitlock." Rose laughed.

"Your cousin, really?" I said with one eyebrow raised. I stood up, ducked my head a little, and curled my index finger at him, motioning for him to come over to me. "I'm Bella Swan, your date for the evening." I said emphasizing the word date. "Please have a seat next to me," I said in what I hoped was a seductive voice motioning to the seat to my left.

Alice and Rose just stood there with their mouths open in shock. Jasper looked at me, then at Rose and then back to me again before releasing Alice's hand and walking over to take a seat next to me. Then Emmett grabbed Alice's hand pulling her into the seat next to him. Alice shot me a dirty look and it was all I could do to keep my face calm. Edward, of course, proceeded to sigh and simply nod to the seat next to him for Rose to sit in, acting like he was bored. Rose walked a little stilted to her seat next to Edward who proceeded to look anywhere but at her.

Edward decided to introduce everyone else to Jasper in his most bore tone. "I'm Edward Cullen. That's Emmett McCarty." He said motioning to Emmett, who gave a friendly 'Yo' just before kissing Alice's hand. Alice proceeded to almost choke. "Emmett's date is Alice, um, Alice I don't know your last name." Edward said, still bored.

"Oh, it's Alice Brandon." I purred, looking up at Jasper. Jasper's eyes widened briefly before he started to fidget.

"Well, obviously you already know Rose." Edward continued flipping his thumb over at her like she was hardly worth mentioning. This caused her to look at Edward with narrowed eyes.

For the next 20 minutes, I flirted with Jasper, Emmett fawned over Alice and Edward ignored Rose. I don't think Alice heard half of what Emmett was saying to her, she was too busy glowering at me as she watched me flirt with Jasper. I was constantly touching him, batting my eyelashes, and hanging on his every word as he squirmed uncomfortably in his chair. In the meantime, Rose was trying to talk to Edward, only succeeding in eliciting one-word answers from him. Finally, she just huffed and folded her arms, while she glared at Emmett who was paying far too much attention to Alice.

I glanced over to Emmett, who looked up at me and gave me what he thought was a sly wink. Rose of course caught it and I heard her cough a little too loudly. I looked over to see her expression change from anger to recognition as she realized what we were up to. I winked at her and subtly tilted my head to Edward. Rose grinned wickedly before she turned to Edward and started in on him. She put one hand on high thigh and started playing with his hair with her other hand as she whispered in his ear. Edward's face turned beet red. I glanced at Emmett who losing control of his emotions as he watched Rose and Edward. Finally Alice broke…

"Grrrrrrr, Bella! You get your hands off him!" Alice said threateningly as she jumped up from her chair.

"Rose! What are you doing?!" Emmett yelled as he, like Alice, jumped out of his chair, knocking it over. Edward looked over at his friend with a slightly frightened look on his face. That's when Rose and I busted out laughing. This of course did nothing to calm Alice or Emmett. When I looked over to Edward and winked, a grin spread over his face as he realized I had double-crossed him and Emmett with the help of Rose. The three of us looked at an angry Alice and Emmett and a very confused Jasper.

"I don't see what's so damned funny!" Alice huffed at Rose and me.

"You should have seen your face, thinking I was going for Jasper. So offense Jasper," I said apologetically.

"None taken," He said with a relieved sigh while wiping the imaginary sweat from his brow.

"Rose, what was all that with Edward?" Emmett demanded.

She laughed and said. "I couldn't figure out what was going on; how things could change so quickly. Then I caught your wink to Bella, and I realized what was going on. Bella looked at me and she knew I had figured it out, so she nodded for me to turn the tables on Edward." She said laughing.

"What! You betrayed me?" Edward said turning to me. He clutched his heart in feigned hurt. "How could you do this to me, love?" He said, sticking his lower lip out in a pout. As soon as he pouted his lips at me, I caught my breath. I groaned internally. I had never wanted to kiss someone so bad in my life. Wait, what did he call me – love?

I brought my hand up and touched his cheek as I leaned and whispered in his ear, "Forgive me?"

"I'll always forgive you, Bella?" he said giving me a crooked smile that nearly stopped my heart.

"Bella, I'm going to get you for this." Alice laughed, completely over her anger.

"Consider it payback for all the makeovers I've had to endure." I shot back with a snicker.

Jasper still looked a little confused until Alice and Emmett traded places. We all looked around at each other, and started to laugh at how we had all paired off. Emmet had his arm around Rose, Alice was perched in Jasper's lap and Edward held my hand, rubbing soothing circles on my skin.

*****************************************

The entire nightclub was pulsing with the beat of the music. It was intoxicating. We could hear loud cheers and chanting from the bar below. Emmett, Rose, Edward and I got up to get a better view of the group at the bar doing body shots. As we stood at the rail looking at the party below, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and almost groaned when I saw it was Mike Newton. He never seemed to miss an opportunity to ask me to dance, and I never missed the opportunity to say no. He was a little on the clingy side and he could never take a hint.

"Hey Bella!" he leered ogling my chest. "You look scrumptious." He said trying to sound sexy, I'm sure, except that his voice cracked. As he stood in front of me, he started to move his hips around like he was dying to get on the dance floor. Of course his moves just made his look a little on the spastic side. Mike was dressed in swimming trunks and flip-flops. He had smeared zinc oxide on his nose and was holding a round flotation device. His pasty, hairless chest was pathetic. I'm sure he thought his physique was something to behold.

"Hey Mike." I grimaced as I exhaled loudly. I felt Edward stiffen beside me as he snaked his arm around my waist. I heard Emmett cough back a laugh.

"Let's dance. You know you can't refuse the Mikester." he sneered as he saw Edward's arm on my waist.

Before I could respond, Edward narrowed his eyes at the 'Mikester,' and snarled, "She busy."

Mike stiffened and glared at Edward and sneered, "I think she can decide for herself. She's a big girl. Unless you're afraid of a little competition?" Then Mike turned to me and said, "Bella, are you going to let this 'jock' make your decisions for you, when you could have the total package?" as he motioned to his body like a game show host. "Brains and brawn, babe." he said with a smile. I felt myself vomit a little in the back of my throat.

Suddenly, Edward's arm was gone. "Bella, love? Will you please hold this." I looked over to Edward only to let out a gasp as I came face to face with his naked chest while he held out his shirt for me to hold. "I need to get these shoulder pads off so I can pound this guy." I just stood ogling smooth plains of his pecs. I found myself wanting to run my fingers of his perfect six-pack abs. "Bella?" Edward chuckled. I looked up to see an amused smile on his face. "See something you like?" I nodded and blushed profusely as I took his shirt, but I couldn't tear my eyes away. Edward removed his shoulder pads to reveal his strong broad shoulders.

I was vaguely aware of someone else gasping. I reluctantly turned my head to see Mike, mouth open, staring at Edward's chest as well. I was thinking how strange Mike's reaction was to Edward, when Mike let out a little 'squeak' and then he quickly walked off, disappearing into the crowd. Edward took his shirt from me and quickly put it on. "That was weird." I heard Edward mumble.

Suddenly Emmett howled with laughter. "Bella, I think you have some competition for Mike's affections." I looked at Rose who started to laugh and a knowing look crossed her face. Edward's face was clearly confused. However, when I thought about Mike's reaction to Edward, I realized it was similar to mine.

"Oh!" I yelled at my epiphany. I a fit of giggles overcame me as Edward scowled at the three of us, still not understanding where this was going.

"Ahhh Eddiekins." Emmett sighed as his laughter began to subside. I noticed that Edward grimaced at Emmett's use of that sappy nickname. "I think the Mikester likes someone," Emmett said with a huge smile.

"Yeah, he likes Bella. Did you see the way he was looking at her? I sure did, and I didn't like it." Edward started to rant.

"No, Edward. He likes you!" Rose gasped still in a fit of laughter. "Did you see the way he looked at your chest? His reaction was the same as Bella's!" Rose declared.

"What!" an incredulous Edward exclaimed. This of course caused another fit of laughter from the rest of us. Edward started to pout a little that we were have so much fun at his expense.

"So Eddiekins," I said sweetly. "Why did you take off your shirt? Trying to get the Mikester to notice you?" I giggled.

Edward scowled at me, but his eyes we warm. "When he started referring to himself as the total package with brains and brawn, I couldn't resist showing him some real brawn," Edward said a little sheepishly, ducking his head a little. I started to laugh.

I motioned for him to bring his head down to mine. "Edward, you weren't jealous, were you?" I whispered in his ear.

"No!" he said a little quickly, but I could tell he was lying. "Of course, now I'm a little worried I have an unwanted admirer." He said with a slight frown.

"Let's go sit down before you attract anymore unwanted attention." I said as I notice several women eyeing Edward appreciatively.

Alice and Jasper were still at the table having a quiet conversation. They looked up at us with quizzical looks on their faces at our approach while we continued to laugh at Edward's 'situation.'

"What's so funny?' Alice asked as we all sat down. Edward slipped his shoulder pads under the table.

Emmett and Rose proceeded, through fits of laughter, to relate the story of how Edward was the object of Mike's admiration. Rose made sure to include the part about me ogling Edward's chest, much to my embarrassment. We were laughing so hard we were crying. As the giggles subsided, we all let out sighs of relief.

Alice suddenly jumped up. "Girls! It's time to dance!" She squealed. She looked at the guys and said, "It's a girl thing. Why don't you stay here and order some more drinks. We'll be right back." She said pulling Rose and me out of our seats. "Bella, lose the cape." she said, glancing at my costume.

I felt a little self-conscience revealing my costume completely, but I was getting a little hot with this thing on. I was having so much fun I decided 'what the hell'. My newfound confidence was making this evening one of the best I'd had in a long time. As I let the cape slip off my shoulders and placed in on my chair, I heard a sharp intake of air from Edward. He was looking me up and down with a silly grin on his face.

"See something you like?" I said looking at Edward with a smirk.

"Oh yeah!" he said as he reached for me. But before he could wrap his arms around me, Alice pulled me out of his reach.

"Later, lover boy," Alice playfully growled at him. I smiled apologetically at Edward's stunned face as Alice pulled me towards the stairs to the dance floor below.

A/N:  I know, lots of fluff. However, that's what this story is. Hmmm. Maybe I'll add some drama in the next chapter.

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