Chapter 5: Baseball Bat

I was getting ready for Bella's birthday. I don't know why, but I was nervous about what I was going to wear. Gaw I sound like a girl! I finally settled on a pair of dark wash jeans and a blue button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I grabbed my leather jacket, wallet and phone and headed down stairs. I was just about to text Jasper when him and Emmett came through the door.

"Hey guys. Where are the girls?"

Jasper rolled his eyes. "They're meeting us there. They had to get ready, and you know how long they take."

I just laughed and walked out the door with the guys and hopped into Em's jeep. We rarely drove here, but it was kind of cold, and the place was far. Once we got there we walked right in (it helps to know the owner) and grabbed a booth on the second level. We had just had our drinks delivered to us when the girls walked in, all holding hands.

"Damn that hot," Emmett said.

"You do realize one of those girls is our sister, right?"

Emmett opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. "Ok, Rose and Bella are hot doing that. I'm going to tell Alice to cut that crap out."

I couldn't take my eyes off of Bella. She looked so beautiful in a blue strapless dress that puffed from the waist to above her knee. She looked so bright and happy. We all rearranged our seating. Emmett, Rose, Jasper, Alice, Bella, then me.

"Hey," I leaned over to Bella so she could hear me. "Where's Jacob?"

"Oh he had to go up to his uncle's this weekend. Some sort of family emergency thing. I believe he said his cousin Paul was in the hospital."

I just nodded, and kind of did a happy dance in my head, glad I could have more of Bella's time. Once the girls ordered their drinks, we all got into the normal conversation; school, work, life.

"Oh, hold that thought. I have to go grab something." Alice hopped up and disappeared into the crowd. We all just laughed at her.

"Ok, I've only known here for a year but does she ever stop?" asked Bella.

"No." We all answered at once and laughed.

"But we wouldn't have her any other way," Rose stated.

Just then, Alice came dancing back with a cake in her hands, with candles lit; how I have no idea. Then Rose placed one of those plastic birthday crowns on Bella's head. Bella's cheeks became the brightest red I had ever seen on a person.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Bella, happy birthday to you." We sang.

"And many moooooorrrrrrreeeeee," Emmett ended.

Bella just laughed, closed her eyes for a second. Then she held her hair back and blew out the candles. We all started clapping. Jasper pulled her in for a hug, then Emmett and Rose, and lastly me. Alice proceeded to pull out plates from God knows where and cut the cake.

"Really guys, you didn't have to do this. I rarely…well actually never do anything for my birthday. I didn't need all this."

Alice huffed. "Isabella Marie Swan! You of all people deserve this. After all you have been through and had robbed from you, you deserve a break and a celebration!"

Everyone seemed to agree, and understood what Alice said. Though I agreed, I had no clue what to whole speech derived from.

After we enjoyed our cake and drinks, Alice grabbed the girls and they all went down to the dance floor. We watched them from our seats, laughing at them dancing together. Bella didn't seem like to type who went clubbing and dancing a lot, but she was having the time of her life.

"So Eddie boy," Emmett said. I groaned at the nickname. "You crushing on Bella or something?

My jaw hit the table. "What, huh? No no. She's just a really cool person. I'm glad I'm getting to know her." I sat for a second, then finished, "And besides, she has a boyfriend."

Emmett just rolled his eyes and took another sip of his drink. Just then Bella came up to the table, out of breath.

"Jas, Em, your honeys want you down on the dance floor." They scooted out of the booth and headed down. Bella slid into the booth next to me and took a long drink.

"Thirsty much?" I asked.

She giggled. "Just a bit. I haven't dance that hard in….well ever actually."

She took another drink and then leaned against the seat. "Oh hey, by the way, I have you book you left at the tree yesterday."

"Oh thank goodness. I thought I'd lost it for good!"

I laughed. "Nope, its safe and sound at my place."

"Thanks Edward. You really are so sweet."

We smiled at each other for awhile, then her phone vibrated. She looked at it, and her face dropped. She looked over to the dance floor scanning the dancers. I was trying to follow her gaze while keeping a close eye on her face. She looked so sad and I was trying to figure out the cause of it. That's when she gasped and I finally saw what she was looking at. There he was, Jacob, on the dance floor with that waitress from the bar, grinding against each other. Then to top it off, they started making out. Bella was frozen.

"Bella, I'm so sorry." I really didn't know what to say. She wasn't moving.

"Bella." I turned and saw everyone had come back to the table. Alice had her arms crossed and called out again. "Bella, what do you want to do?"

Finally Bella moved…but her expression was not one I was expecting. He looked pissed and angry and….evil. She got up, straighten her outfit, and went over to Rose. She whispered something in her ear, and Rose's face lit up. Rose turned to Emmett and fished his keys out of his pocket. Then the girls turned and started walking away. Us three guys looked between each other before one of us spoke.

"I think we should follow them," Jasper said.

I jumped up and followed the trail the girls were on. When we noticed they went out of the club, we all looked at each other confused. We step outside, trying to figure which way the girls went.

"Go girl! Let 'em have it!" We heard Rose's voice to our left and started down that way. We came to a parking garage and heard the shattering of lights. We took of running in the direction, and were surprised at what we saw.

Sweet, loving Bella, was beating the hell out of some truck. She had the baseball bat from Emmett's jeep in her hands, swinging at the headlights busting them to pieces. After the did that, she took the keys out of Rose's hand and started scratching the truck up. On the hood, she started writing something. As we slowly moved closer, we noticed she had written in perfect cursive "Cheater".

She continued for a couple more minutes destroying the car, then she looked over at us. She smiled, tossed the bat over to Emmett who barely caught it since his jaw was on the ground, like mine and Jasper's were. Then, her, Rose, and Alice walked up to us, arms around each other.

"So boys, shall we continue this party at Alice's place."

We just continued to stand there, while Bella giggled.

"Let this be a lesson to you guys…don't get on my bad side."

The girls walked past us towards their car and hopped in. Alice called from her window, "See ya at my place."

Jasper, Emmett and I just looked at each other.

Jasper was the first to speak. "You know, I only have eyes for Alice, but what Bella just did was kind of…"

"Hot!" we all said. I looked back at the truck, kind of feeling sorry for Jacob, but then remembering what he did. I realized how easy he got off. Part of me wanted to go back in there and punch him in the face, but I knew that wouldn't solve anything, and Bella would probably think I was weird for doing that.

"Alright, well, we better head to Alice's before the girls wonder where we are," Emmett said. We laughed all the way to the jeep, and all the way to Alice's apartment.