Disclaimer: I do own a copy of Twilight; however, I don't own the actual rights to said book … :(

This chapter is dedicated to iluvthecullensSOmuch who was my 1,000th review! And to everyone else who reviewed who got it up that high! I really can't thank you all enough! Seriously, I screamed when I saw it got to 1000, and then danced around and screamed some more! You all are … amazing! And to add to the great news, I got over 100 reviews for the last chapter! First time thats ever happened! So I am doubley (yes... it's a word) happy! :-D Also this chapter is dedicated to myf.13 who wrote a review longer then one of my chapters!! That is … insane!

Chapter 16: Pretend Dating

BPOV

Emily's house was just as I remembered, and I couldn't help but smile when I saw the room above the door, which I knew was hers.

"Should we ring the bell?" Edward asked me.

I thought, "I have another idea." I said and walked towards the garden in front of the house.

I started to pick up woodchips, but didn't miss the curious glance I received from Edward. "We'll throw them at her window!" I explained.

"Don't you usually throw rocks?" he asked, picking up some woodchips for himself.

"I tried that once," I said, "It didn't end to well…" I drifted off.

"What do you mean 'it didn't end to well'?" he said, mocking my grim tone.

"Well, what they don't specify is that you should throw pebbles." I began.

"You didn't!" Edward started to laugh.

"Sadly, I did." I replied, "I threw a rock, not a big one mind you, but I guess big enough, and it cracked Alice's window." Edward laughed harder and I glared, "That is why I say we throw woodchips, same effect but much less damage!"

"I can just picture your face after breaking the window," Edward said and I threw a woodchip at him, "Fine, fine. Let's start throwing them then."

I began to chuck my woodchips at her room window, laughing along with Edward. Not more then a minute later, Emily opened her window, looking upset.

"Alright," she sounded annoyed, "Danny that is so not funny!"

"Danny?" Edward replied, faking hurt.

"Who is that?" She squinted, "Edward? Is that you?"

He laughed, "Yep, it's me, and I brought a friend." He said pointing towards me.

"Is that your girlfriend?" she asked, I opened my mouth to speak but she continued, "Hold on, I'll be down in a minute. I feel stupid yelling out my window like this!"

When she closed the window, I smiled shyly at Edward.

"Why does-" I started, then Emily came running out and gave Edward a giant hug.

"I've missed you Edward!" she let go of him, and turned towards me. "You must be the girl Edward forced into a relationship, hu? How'd he do it? Blackmail?" she slapped Edward gently, "Totally kidding."

"You don't recognize me, Emily?" I asked, sounding sad.

She studied me for a couple minutes, then her eyes grew giant, "Bella?"

I nodded and she engulfed me in an enormous hug, squealing.

"It's been way to long!" she said, after she released me. "You look amazing! Edward didn't me you were coming." She shook her head and hit Edward again.

"Hey, don't hit me," Edward said, holding his hands up in defense, "We wanted it to be a surprise, plus Bella wasn't sure if she could go until a few days ago."

"Sorry," I said, looking innocent, "you look great too!" I said, changing the subject, "You dyed your hair red!"

She nodded, "Yep, I wanted a little change, do you like it?" she asked nervously.

"It looks awesome," I said, "Oh my gosh, I just can't believe I'm here again! It's just as I remembered."

"Yep," she replied, "Same old, same old. Dad tried taking down the fort a couple years ago, but I wouldn't let him."

I gasped, "The fort! Edward do you remember the fort?!"

He just laughed, "Yes, Bella I remember the fort."

I bit my lip, "Can we, um, go see it?"

They both laughed this time, "Sure Bella," Emily said, looping her arm with mine and walking towards the backyard.

Once we reached the backyard, and I saw the fort, I broke free of Emily's grasp and ran up the stairs of the fort to get to the small, wooden room.

I smiled as Edward and Emily came up the stairs, and laughed when we all managed to sit down.

Edward was ducking his head, and folding his legs under himself, Emily was squished up in a little ball in the corner, and I had to pull my legs to my chest to give enough room to my friends, but it wasn't enough. I was pressed up against Edward, and still hitting Emily's legs.

"Alright, either we've grown or this tree house has shrunk." I laughed.

"It must be the second," Emily said, winking at me.

"Man, I haven't been up here in ages," Edward said, reminiscing. "Remember that time we tried to paint it? What color did we decide on? Sky blue?"

"Yea, but we didn't have any paint, so we tried using our nail polish!" Emily finished.

"That worked well," I smiled at them. "We got maybe an entire plank painted?"

"If that," Emily said, "I remember Courtney was so mad at us for using up her nail polish!"

"Is Courtney here?" I asked.

"Yea, um, I think the entire group is back actually," she paused thinking, "yea, we are! Have you seen anyone else?"

"Not yet," Edward said.

"I should call them," Emily said, pulling out her phone and calling them each, one by one.
The message was same for each of them, "Hey it's Emily, come out to the fort for a surprise." Then she'd hang up, no questions asked, short and sweet and to the point.

Within a few minutes I began to hear mumbling.

"She called you to?" a boy asked.

"Yea, wonder what is so important." Another boy answered.

"We haven't been to the fort in ages," a girl commented.

Emily put her finger to her lips, telling us silently to be quite, and walked down the stairs to the ground.

"Hey guys," she said ecstatically.

"Hey," they all said back, "what's up?"

"Guess who is back?" Emily said, and pointed up to the fort.

Edward walked out, grinning and stepped down the stairs. "Hey."

I could hear the groaning, "You called us out here to say hi to Edward?"
"Hey!" Edward said, sounding offended.

"No offense man," a boy said, "It's just we just saw you a couple months ago."

I silenced a laugh, "We did miss you though," a girl said quickly.

"You know who I missed?" Edward asked, pausing, "Remember Bella Swan?"
I positioned myself near the exit of the slide, getting ready to slide down once I was announced.

"Well, she is here!" Edward said, and I pushed myself down the slide.

"Ta-da!" I shouted, coming out the slide, I went to throw my hands up in the air, dramatically, when I tripped and began to fall.
I closed my eyes, preparing to make contact with the ground, to fell a pair of strong arms around me. I looked up and saw that Edward was holding my waist.

I blushed, and he stepped away as soon as I was steadied. "Hi?" I said, meekly to everyone.

The girls squealed, just as Emily did and ran to hug me while the boys stood there, wordlessly. "Hi!" I greeted the girls, hugging them back.

When the hugging and greetings were done, I looked over at the boys, who still stood there, speechless. I could recognize them all, even though they'd clearly grown up a lot since I'd moved. "Um, hello?" I asked, waving my hand in front of their face "Matt? Danny? Nick?"

I saw Edward frown from beside me, and make what sounded like a growl.

That snapped them out of their trance, and then all ran to hug me.

"Bella," Matt said, hugging me first, "You look great!"
"Thanks," I laughed, and hugged Nick who agreed with Matt by repeating the same exact words.

Danny was last to hug, "Hey Danny," I said shyly, other then Edward he was the one I was most attracted to.

"Bella, beautiful as always," I blushed, and hugged him, letting go after I heard Edward clear his throat rather loudly.

"So what brings you in this part of the neighborhood?" Kelsey asked, "Or I guess I should say this part of the country."

I laughed, I seemed to be doing a lot of that lately, "Well we have a long weekend up at college and Edward invited Jasper, Alice and me to come up here with him."

"Alice and Jasper?" Nicole asked.

I nodded, "Yea, my best friend and roommate, and her boyfriend, who just happens to be Edward's roommate as well."

"Wow," Matt said, "Small world, you guys met back up at college?"
"Yea," I said, and filled them all in on the story of how we met again.

"It's destiny!" Emily said, "You two meeting again, the fates have something planned. I can tell."

"Alice said almost the same thing," I told Emily.

"Well brilliant minds think alike," Emily said, winking again. "So how long have you two been dating?"

I reddened, realizing we never cleared that up.

"Well-" I began, "We aren't really."

"Really?" Danny said, moving closer to me.

"That is," Edward said quickly, "we haven't been dating for long."

What?! I thought, and quickly glanced over at Edward who mouthed 'go along with it' to me.

I narrowed my eyes at him, but nodded, unsure of his reasoning, but honestly I could think of worse things to do then pretend to date Edward.

Edward put his arm around my back, and I leaned in slightly.

"Aw, you two are so cute," Nicole said, "What was your first date?"

I froze, but luckily Edward recovered, "We went laser tagging." He said simply. I guess it wasn't a complete lie, unlike the one we were telling our friends now, for a reason unknown to me.

"Yea, it was fun." I said, grabbing Edward's arm, "Edward, can I speak to you for a moment?" I asked.

"Sure Bella," he said nervously.

"We'll be right back," I said to our friends and walked around the house for privacy. "We are dating?" I asked Edward.

"Well, um, no" Edward said, not meeting my eyes.

"Then why did you say we are?" I questioned.

"I don't know," Edward said, still looking at the ground.

I put my hand under his chin and lifted his head so he was looking at me, "Edward, why did you say we were dating?"

"I think Danny likes you," he said, not answering my question.

"So?"

"So, it's not smart leading him on like that, or even if you two did hook up, we are leaving in three days, Bella." He said.

"So you said we were dating so I wouldn't 'hook up'" I made air quotations, "with Danny?"

"Yes?" Edward said, making it a question.

"If you're going to lie to me Edward, you might as well make it believable." I rolled my eyes.

"I-" he paused, and ran his hand through his hair, "I don't know why I said that. Something just came over me, okay? I'm sorry, we can go tell them you're single if you'd like."

"No…it's okay, I guess," I said, and saw Edward's eyes brighten, "I mean, it is only for a couple days, right? What could possibly happen?"

"Right," Edward said, happily.

"And I mean, we can always fake a breakup if it gets too weird or something." I said, thinking out loud.

"Right," Edward said, less happily.

"We are going to have to tell Jasper and Alice before they get here though," I said, cringing and the idea of having that conversation with Alice.

"Yea, where are they I wonder?" Edward said looking down at his watch, "It's nearly 10 p.m., where could they be?"

"It's nearly 10?" I said, frantically, "Alice hates driving at night!"

"I'm sure she's fine, Bella." Edward said, assuring me.

"We don't know that," I said nervously.

"Want to go back to my house and try calling them again? It's getting late anyways. We can hook up with everyone again tomorrow." He said.

"Yea," I nodded, "let's head back."
"Think we should um, hold hands or something?" Edward asked shyly.

"I suppose," I said, lacing my fingers through Edwards, suppressing a smile when I felt how well they fit there.

We walked, hand in hand, back to the fort.

"We are going to head back guys," Edward said to the group.

Everyone groaned in response.

"We have to get back to my house, our friends still aren't here and we think they may be lost." Edward said, hoping they'd understand.

"Oh, ok," Emily said, frowning slightly, "I guess it's late anyways, and I'm getting eaten alive," she said smacking her arm where a mosquito was.

"Meet up again tomorrow?" I asked, hopefully.

"Of course," Nick said, "want to meet back here at um, one?"

"One?" I asked.

"I sleep in late," Nick said bashfully.

I laughed, "One it is then, see you all then." I waved and walked away with Edward.

On the way back Edward called Jasper only to get a voicemail again.

I sighed and called Alice.

"Hello?" I heard Alice say.

"Ohmygod!ALICE!Areyouokay?" I asked quickly.

"What?" she asked.

"Sorry, I said are you okay?" I repeated.

"Oh sure, I'm fine." She said offhandedly.

"Is Jasper with you?"

"Yea, he's right here. Want me to put him on," she asked.

"Um, no," I said.

"So what's new with you?" she asked.

"Oh nothing, just dating Edward now and freaking out about where my best friend and her boyfriend are!" I said, sarcastically.

"You and Edward are dating?" I heard her ask excitedly.

"Well," I said, "Not real dating, fake dating, you see-" I paused, "Wait, stop trying to distract me! Where are you two?"

"Well," she began nervously, "we are in our doom room."

"What?" I said, "Did something happen on your way here?"

"Um, not quite, Jasper got, um, sick on the way up and we came back here." She explained.

I heard Jasper coughing in the background, "Oh well, tell him to get better then." I said, realizing it would just be me and Edward for the weekend.

"Yea, I'm nursing him back to health," she said, returning to her perky voice.

"Ok, well I guess I should go, bye Alice." I said.

"Ok, have fun this weekend, love you!"

"Love you too," I shut the phone and turned towards Edward, "It seems we are on our own this weekend."

"What?" Edward asked, confused.

"Jasper got sick so they went back to campus, Alice told us to have fun though." I shook my head.

"So they aren't coming at all?" Edward said.

"Yep, it's just us this weekend." I said just as we reached his house.

"Ok," Edward said, smiling his signature half smile as he opened the door for me.

A/N: -gasp- A lot of you predicted that Alice/Jasper weren't going on the trip, so congrats on predicting that! And I'd like to take this time to again, thank you all for helping me get to one thousand! That is truly outstanding! Can we make it two thousand?! Maybe? Obviously not now or soonbut eventually- you can help me get there by leaving your feedback in the form of … REVIEWS! Then after you REVIEW, check out my new poll!