Thanks to 'SweetXSacrifice' and 'The Stalker of FanFiction', because they really encouraged me to do this chapter, and gave me good advice. . Err… chapter 2. It's got less swearing for all you people who seem to have an issue with that, okay? Enjoy.

I tried to leave the house then and go straight to Jessica's house, but Edward was adamant on stopping me. He grabbed me around the waist and put me back down on the bed as soon as I had got up.

"What are you doing Edward?" I practically screamed.

"Shh Bella! You'll wake Charlie and besides, there's nothing you can do about it now, it's the middle of the night for goodness sake!" he whispered at me.

I couldn't even retaliate because I was so fuming. There was a red haze in front of my eyes as I thought of Jessica as I had seen her earlier that day. I remembered her yelling into her phone, telling her secret love that 'she knew he wanted her'. Oh crap.

"Edward?" I asked quietly trying to keep the emotion out of my voice. "You haven't…you know? You haven't done anything with her have you?"

His eyes turned soft and he started to rub my back. "No Bella. Of course not, do you still not realise that I love you. You and no one else, I promise."

I nodded and lied down. I had to believe what he had just told me, if I, for one second, doubted it, I would probably do something I would regret later on. Such as telling Edward to leave. If I did do that, I would regret it badly, and it would take a while to get him to believe that I didn't mean it.

Edward lied down next to me and took me in his arms. We stayed like that for what felt like hours and I listened calmly as he comforted me, telling me that the whole issue could be sorted out with a few words on our behalf to Jessica. I had a feeling that it wouldn't go like that, and that I would get seriously angry. The thought was kind of appealing. I pushed it from my mind though, knowing it would only bring back the haze in front of my eyes. I looked out the window into the night, as Edward's words formed a bubble of numbness in my head. Eventually, I fell asleep.

"Edward?" I croaked groggily when I woke in the morning.

"I'm here Bella," I heard from across the room.

I sat up and was confused when I saw him stood right at my door. Then it clicked. And boy, did it click hard. Jessica. That was the only word that ran through my head.

"Move please." I motioned for Edward to get out of my way, but he didn't budge an inch.

"Please!"

"No Bella. You're not going over there. You can see her at school, where you'll be surrounded by an audience."

I scowled at him. "And what difference will an audience make?"

"Hopefully the difference between whether the 'talking' is going to end up as a fight."

I could see that he was trying to make this as easy as possible. I decided to behave.

"Okay Edward," I told him. "I will not go and see her today. I would like to ring her though, just to get a few things straight."

He rolled his eyes but let me pass all the same. I stopped quickly at the top of the stairs to check if the cruiser was gone, so I knew if it was safe to bring Edward down. It wasn't there, so I turned to let Edward know. Unsurprisingly, he was already behind me, ready to follow down the stairs. I went straight into the kitchen and to the phone. Jessica's number was stored in the phonebook so all I had to was speed-dial it.

Edward stood opposite me, near the back windows across the room. His face looked torn, he clearly wanted me to do what I felt like doing, but it hurt him all the same. I guessed it was because he wasn't able to stick up for me as he must have wanted to.

The phone rang. And rang. And rang. I was getting no answer. Finally, the ringing noise stopped, only to be replaced by the answer machine.

"Hey, this is Jess," Jess the boyfriend-stealer, I added in my head, "Leave a message, ciao."

I thought it through in my head quickly. I didn't want to give much away; otherwise she wouldn't ring me back. "Hey Jess, it's Bella. I need to have a word – I need to talk to you – urgently. Ring me back as soon as you get this please." I slammed the phone back down on the hook and turned to Edward, steam practically coming out of my ears.

"That friendly enough for you?" I asked him.

He nodded at me. "Breakfast?"

"I'll get it myself, thanks." I turned my back to him and got out a bowl into which I poured cereal and milk. I grabbed a spoon out of the drawer and went into the living room, not stopping to check if Edward was following me. I didn't care if he was or not, he was infuriating me. Why was he so against me fighting with Jessica? She deserved it. She deserved it SO much.

I half-collapsed onto the sofa and turned the television on. I was aware of Edward parking himself next to me, but I made a point of keeping my head turned away from him, staring at the screen of the T.V and nothing else. I kept my head on the screen for the duration of my breakfast. I wasn't really watching it though; I had my mind on more important issues. I only snapped out of the daydream I was having – severely hurting Jessica- when I heard the familiar jingle from the advert about the machine that cut up your vegetables for you. I sighed and decided to make a move. It was a nice day outside again, I realised with relief. That meant that I could get out of the house and try to forget about the whole Jessica thing until tomorrow. I went back into the kitchen, washed my cereal bowl, dried it, and then put it away in the cupboard below the sink. Edward was already in my room by the time I got there, but I studiously ignored him as before. I knew the whole thing wasn't his fault – really. It wasn't his fault that he was so absolutely gorgeous that everybody wanted him. However, I didn't want to talk to him because I was too afraid that my mouth would open before I thought about what I was going to say, so I decided to keep it safely closed.

A shower was first on my agenda, having not gone for one the night before. I grabbed my toiletries bag and made my way out of my room. I grabbed a towel from the airing cupboard as I passed it and then went into the bathroom. As soon as I closed the bathroom door, I let out a big sigh. It was nice to be myself and be able to think over the situation without someone watching me and studying my face- which was what Edward always did. I turned the shower on and let the hot water run for a bit. I undressed and then tested the shower. I liked it hot, but not enough that it burned, so I turned the cold water on slightly. When I had it just as I liked it, I stepped in. It felt so relaxing that I ended up concentrating on the water instead of thinking about the problem at hand, as I should have done. The shower started to get colder and I realised with a sinking feeling that the hot water was running out. I was thoroughly enjoying the shower; it was making me pleasantly numb. I shut the water off reluctantly and got out. My towel was warm from being on the radiator and I wrapped myself in it. After a while of standing there – wasting my life away – I set about brushing my teeth then getting dressed. I wore black shorts and an orange vest top to celebrate the weather. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail after I had dried it, to stop it from irritating me all day. I still hadn't decided on where I wanted to go but I knew I wanted to do something… out of the ordinary. I didn't want to go to the library or to the beach in La Push. I didn't want to see anyone I knew – except for Edward.

When I got back into my room, Edward was sat on my bed looking forlorn. I thought that now was the time to say something, he looked hurt.

"What's up?" I asked him. I meant it to sound concerned but it came out a bit rudely.

"Just... I don't want you to hate Jessica for this. She doesn't seem to know how badly she's affected you, and anyway, you two have been best friends since you arrived in Forks practically. You don't want to waste your friendship with her because she's done something slightly wrong," he told me.

"Edward! She's trying to steal my boyfriend! Wouldn't you be a bit annoyed if someone tried to steal me away from you?"

"Of course I would Bella. But I would let you go with them if you wanted to."

"So what are you saying? I should let you go? Edward… do you want to go?"

Again, as last night, his eyes turned comforting and even a bit hurt. "No Bella, I don't. All I'm saying is that I think you should take things slowly with her. She's obviously going to be a bit hurt if you turn on her. Try and take care of it as maturely as possible."

I was getting angry again so I simply nodded at him.

I sorted out some laundry, knowing that Charlie wouldn't bother doing it later. That fat-ass had trouble getting up the stairs sometimes. When I had done that, Edward asked me a question that had been bugging me.

"What would you like to do today?"

I stopped wiping the window that I was cleaning and thought about that.

"Something… different please." I requested.

His mind, working super-fast, as always came up with the best suggestion possible.

"How about we go hiking?"

Normally, I would be opposed to hiking. It was just a danger zone for me, but today it seemed appealing. It was hot, and I felt like doing something active that would require my full concentration. Besides, hiking normally meant Edward would run with me on his back for some of the way, and that was something I could do all day, everyday. "I would love to go hiking," I told Edward with a smile. He seemed genuinely pleased that he had thought of a suitable activity.

We set off half an hour later, straight to the woods by my house. The trail through the woods was starting to fade, no one bothered to hike here anymore, ever since the 'animal' trouble a while back. Surely if they knew that it was actually La Push residents transforming into overgrown wolves, to protect them from other beings, such as vampires… they wouldn't be so scared. Anyway, it wasn't like I ever needed to use a trail with Edward there. He preferred to go the hardest way possible. The hardest way always seemed to have a large amount of upturned roots and hidden holes for me to trip over and fall into – not that I cared. He was always there to pick me back up. We set off to the East, neither of us actually knowing where we were headed. We hiked for about ten minutes in silence until Edward suggested we walked in a large circle so that we ended up back where we started.

"Sure, but obviously, you're going to have to direct us. Not all of us have impeccable memory." I laughed at the thought of me trying to lead us through the woods. Everything looked the same to me, all of the trees were just large things with brown trunks and green leaves. I laughed again at the sound of my laughter the first time. It was ironic how I could be so happy when I had such a big problem. My heart fluttered when I looked up at Edward in front of me and realised that it was because of him that I was so happy. Literally, my hero.

"We're about three quarters of the way around Bella. We should be back in about an hour," Edward turned to tell me.

"Oh," I sighed.

"What? Is there something wrong?" Edward asked.

"Please can you run?"

Edward laughed. He looked ecstatic at the thought of running. He seemed to completely phase out while running and that was another reason why I loved it. I loved to see him happy. He backtracked to where I was stood and swung me onto his back effortlessly. I hung on around his neck and put my legs around his waist.

"Ready?" He asked me with a wink.

I giggled and he took that a yes.

Suddenly we were flying, or that's how it seemed. The trees were blurred so much that they appeared to be a solid brown and green wall to me. No doubt Edward could still see everything in perfect detail as he ran at about eight miles an hour. Not once did he stumble or nearly hit a tree. We swerved in and out of the trees on the rugged terrain for a very short time. It always shocked me how we got to our destination in a matter of a few hours, when technically it should take a lot longer. He put me down gently and I smiled at him.

"Thanks for the ride." I told him.

"No problem, love," he replied.

I took his hand and together we walked back to my house. It had been about three and a half hours since we left, and Charlie was still not back. I went straight to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of apple juice.

"Sorry, I'm all out of blood," I said to Edward sadly. He slapped his thigh, pretending to be disappointed. I laughed.

The rest of the day passed slowly. Edward and I watched T.V, talked and kissed. It was an excellent day… until I heard the phone beep. It was signalling that it had a voice message for me. I leaped up, all of a sudden remembering Jessica. I ran into the kitchen and pressed the voice-mail button.

"You have one new message," said the answering machine mechanically, in its weird accent. I gave Edward a look out of the corner of my eye, but he was stood there, casual and calm. I waited for the phone to give me my message; it seemed to be taking longer than usual.

"Message one," it said. Then on came a voice I didn't want to hear. "Hey it's Sam, Charlie. I was wondering if you had any more information on the vandalism case? If so, please ring me as soon as possible, goodbye."

The deep voice that boomed through the house maddened me. Jessica clearly had some idea that I knew what was going on; otherwise she would have rang me back by now. I calmed myself down quickly, not wanting to frustrate Edward.

"Maybe she hasn't heard the message yet?" Edward said, trying to reassure me. I nodded and smiled. I told him to follow me back into the living room, where we had been before. He followed and we spent the rest of the day watching television. I was thinking about what to do tomorrow. I didn't know if I should go and see her at her house or whether to just leave it until Monday at school. I didn't want to take things too far, but I was just so ready to hit out.

I fell asleep that night in Edward's arms as usual but my dreams didn't bring me any solutions to my crappy problem.