Chapter 7

Thank you for all your reviews and most importantly, thank you to my beta Lady Gywndenn.

I was lying in a burned out basement

With the full moon in my eyes.

I was hoping for replacement

When the sun burst thru the sky.

There was a band playing in my head

And I felt like getting high.

I was thinking about what a

Friend had said

I was hoping it was a lie.

Thinking about what a

Friend had said

I was hoping it was a lie.

Neil Young – After the Gold Rush

Bella sat down stairs in her den with Emmett. They were waiting to get some news about Rose from Alice.

The drive home was awful. The only time Rose spoke was when she asked Bella to pull over. Bella had to stop the jeep four times before she brought Rose safely home.

No one said a word as well. Everyone was too stunned with what happened because something like this never occurred. There were the odd times that one of them got sick from one too many, but it never ended being like the way Rose suffered.

"Maybe she got that stomach bug that has bee going around," Emmett said after breaking more than thirty minutes of silence since they got back.

"Maybe," Bella said, but she doubted it was a stomach bug.

It was already late and with no reply from Alice yet, Bella began to get worried. The way Rose reacted when she saw her charging down the stairs was familiar to Bella. She had seen that expression before back and in New York and she only hoped that wasn't the case, for Rose's sake.

"Alice should have called by now," Emmett said anxiously.

He had been like that ever since the car ride home, but it had gotten worse since he wasn't getting any solid answers to what was happening.

"If Alice doesn't call by one, I'll call her," Bella reassured.

They fell back into the miserable silence that overtook them minutes before. This time they watched the digital clock on her iPod.

At exactly 1:00 AM Bella picked up her phone. She couldn't wait any longer and when she looked over to Emmett, he was just about to lose it.

Before she located Alice in her contacts list there was a knock on the sliding glass door.

"See? There's nothing to worry about," Bella said more to comfort herself than Emmett, "That's probably Alice."

Bella quickly walked over to the back door. She couldn't see out side because the light from the inside was reflecting on it, but she opened it anyway expecting Alice.

"Edward?"

He was standing out side the door with a large box in his arms. His hair was disheveled more than normal but it worked for him at this hour.

"Hey, I saw your light on. Figured I would be able to drop this off now."

She looked at him perplexed, until she recognized the art supplies she asked for in the box, but she couldn't figure out why he'd come over now? At this time.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

"Yeah. Sure. Come on in." Bella quickly ushered him in. "Sorry I thought you were Alice."

"Hi Emmett," Edward called out when he noticed him sitting on the couch. Emmett grunted and completely ignored him.

Bella would have called Emmett on his rude hello, but he resumed to stare back into her phone, telepathically urging it to ring.

"Sorry, I didn't know you had company," Edward leaned in and whispered.

Bella sighed and shook her head. "Don't worry, you're not intruding, if anything you're a welcomed distraction," she gave him a weak smile.

Edward immediately frowned, "Is anything wrong? Sue said you would be gone for the night, so I was surprised to see the light on."

She led him into the den. "Yeah, um the party got cut short."

Bella was back to her nervous self when her thoughts returned to Rose. She began twisting her hands wishing the phone to ring with any news.

"Rose got sick," Bella stated.

"Rose?" Edward placed the box near a chair. "The girl from Hale Equestrian?"

"Yeah, we're just waiting for a call to find out if she okay." Bella hated sounding nonchalant about the situation, especially with what she knew.

"She had too much to drink," she answered before Edward had a chance to ask and sat back down.

Edward smirked, "That would do it," and sat himself down in an overstuffed chair.

Her phone buzzed and Emmett snapped it open to read the text, "R is asleep and I'm going to bed. Talk to you tomorrow. A.

"See? She's fine," Bella said forcing out a smile.

Emmett sighed in relief and leaned back on the couch, stretching himself out with a small smile.

Bella had reason to feel anxious about Rose's wellbeing, but what made Emmett react so strongly? Unless… She smiled to herself, when she figured that Emmett didn't even realize his true feelings for Rose. He had never had that kind of concern for anyone. Most of the time he told Bella to walk it off when she got sick.

"So, paint anything interesting lately, Edward?" Emmett asked, getting himself more comfortable on the couch.

That was not what Bella hoped for. Emmett said he would leave when he had word on Rose. Now she wanted him out, especially since Edward showed up, the tension Emmett was creating with his attitude towards him was ridiculous.

"Everyday?" Edward answered casually.

Emmett looked smug, and it looked to Bella like he would say something to egg him on, but she quickly cut in, "Oh before I forget…" she jumped up from her seat and ran to her room to get her wallet.

In the ten seconds it took her to locate it and run back into the main room she saw Emmett staring Edward down. Edward didn't seem to mind, if anything he looked amused by Emmett's behaviour.

Edward looked over to her and smiled, "Bella, I offered Sue to take the kids tomorrow to the bread and honey festival tomorrow, want to join us?"

"She already has plan with us," Emmett spat before Bella could reply.

"Emmett!"

He looked over to her and shrugged, "What? It's true," he muttered.

Bella shook her head at Emmett in disbelief. True or not he shouldn't have been such an ass.

Thankfully, Edward didn't seem affected by Emmett's tone. "We'll in that case I'll probably see you there," he said with a chuckle.

"Sure," Bella replied shyly, embarrassed by Emmett's behaviour.

Emmett then yawned exaggeratedly. "Well I'm getting tired," he stated. " I'm sure you are as well Bella. You should get some sleep."

She looked at Emmett confused and trying to understand what he was doing. It all fell into place when Bella noticed that he was staring at Edward the entire time he spoke. Emmett was trying to give him the social cue that he should leave, but Edward only smirked at him and remained in the chair.

"Yeah, okay. I'll see you tomorrow," Bella said.

Emmett made no move to leave.

"Bye, Emmett." she prompted him again.

Emmett stood up, "Yeah forgot. I don't want to get you in to trouble." He turned towards Edward, "Charlie is really strict when it comes to Bella having late night visitors," he said matter of factly.

"Emmett, what are you talking about?" Bella asked, knowing very well what he was trying to do.

"I don't think he want to leave you alone with me," Edward commented.

"You got that right!" Emmett seethed.

Bella was hoping that Edward wouldn't pick up on what Emmett was trying to do, but that wasn't the case and it only embarrassed her more. Not having the energy to tell Emmett off and to save face, she decided to ignore him.

"Do you want anything to drink," She asked turning to Edward.

Edward smiled widely, and alleviated some tension in the room.

"Water would be good," he replied.

"I'll be right back. Come on Emmett I'll walk you out."

Emmett tried to stand his ground, but eventually relented when Bella shot him a look from the basement stairs.

She watched as Edward casually wave to Emmett before he stormed up the stairs after Bella.

"I'm not leaving you with him," he said when Bella was pushing him towards the front door.

"That's not your choice to make," she stated sharply, "And maybe if you had been a little nicer, you could have stayed."

"I don't trust him, Bella. He's sneaking around the house, coming in through the back door like some peeping tom."

Her jaw dropped at his comment. "Emmett, he's welcomed here."

Bella opened the front door and motioned him to walk out.

Emmett tried to protest, but she cut him off before he could say anything.

"Goodnight Emmett. I'll deal with you tomorrow," she said curtly and hoping he wouldn't fight her.

"Don't you dare come crying to me," he muttered and left.

Bella softly closed the door and sighed. No one was acting like themselves today, she thought as she padded to the kitchen to grab a couple of bottles of water. She reasoned that Emmett's worry was transferred from Rose to Bella and figured she would forgive him tomorrow—only if he apologized.

"Sorry about that," Bella said when she came back down with two bottled waters.

"No worries," he said sympathetically taking one of them.

Bella got herself comfortable on the couch across from him and yawned while she toyed with her iPod. It had been a long day for her.

"Did you have fun? He asked.

"When?" She looked up at him puzzled.

"At the party?" he laughed. "Tonight?"

"Oh, that. I guess." Bella had been so concerned about Rose that she overlooked where the incident took place.

"You guess?"

"Yeah, I had fun," she answered unconvincingly.

"Was it Rose getting sick?" he asked picking up on her tone.

Bella nodded, and frowned in worry when she recalled Rose shoving her out of the way and the fear in her eyes.

"A little hangover never hurt anyone," Edward reassured.

"I don't think she was drunk or at least drunk enough to get sick," she whispered.

Edward managed to read in between the lines, "Bella, What happened tonight?" he asked, his voice filled with concern.

Edward was the only one that Bella felt she was able to talk to about this and at least get his opinion about it. Maybe she had read too much into it and Rose's reaction was because she didn't want to get sick in the middle of the room.

"Bella?" he said softly waiting for her reply.

"I think Rose might have been sexually assaulted," she mumbled.

Edward frowned, "Bella that's a very serious accusation. Why would you think that? Was there any physical evidence?"

Bella's eyes brimmed with tears and she shook her head quickly in reply. When she replayed it all in her head, there wasn't anything to indicate that something was wrong, except for Rose's eyes. Not a hair was out of place on Rose and she was wearing a highwaisted skirt with a sleeveless shirt tucked, and that was still intact.

"Then why would you assume something like that?" he asked moving from the chair to the couch to sit beside her.

"Her eyes. Her expression. I saw it once before… A friend of mine in New York was date raped. She ran to my place after for help and… I've never seen anyone afraid like that," she said looking up at Edward, unable to hide her own fear of what happened to her friend and now possibly Rose.

She felt Edward put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him to comfort her.

"Rose was so scared, she would have clawed through me if I hadn't move out of her way," Bella said somberly.

"Did you mention this to anyone else?"

"No. God no! Like you said it's an assumption, I don't want to worry anyone."

"Good. Keep it that way."

Bella pulled away from him and stared at Edward in disbelief.

"Do you want my advice or not?" he asked.

Bella nodded.

"First off," Edward started, "You don't know that it happened or even what happened, so you're right not to say anything. Secondly, if you do talk to anyone else about it there is a possibility of people in town finding out. Midland would go over a frenzy over something like this and it would only make things worse for Rose whether you are right about this or not.

"As for Rose, don't even mention it to her or push her. Hopefully nothing did happen, but if it had you need to respect her privacy until she comes to you or someone else.

"If what you're assuming is the case, would you have known who it was?

"There were almost a hundred people there." Bella slapped her hand to her forehead at the realization, "It could have been anyone."

"Yes, but it's still an assumption," Edward said reassuringly, "You could be wrong."

"But I don't jump to conclusions and also, I don't think it's right to stay quite."

"It may not be, Bella, but there's nothing you can do until Rose comes to you or until you know for sure."

She nodded solemnly. Although she didn't like the idea of keeping silent, she knew Edward was right.

She glanced at Edward and gave her a small smile, even though concern still lined his face.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's not me you should worry about."

"I think it is," he said under his breath.

She wanted to know what he meant by that, but he acted like the statement went unheard.

Footsteps sounded from upstairs and Edward quickly got up from the couch. "It's late, I should get going."

She watched as he went over to the sliding door, and then immediately remembered why Edward was there in the first place.

"Wait!" she said jumping up from the couch and grabbing her wallet from the coffee table, "how much do I owe you?"

"Don't worry about it," he said, waving her off.

"But-"

"Think of it as an early birthday present."

"How did you-"

"Lucky guess," he smirked

"That's too much," she protested.

He ignored her and slide the door open, "don't forget to lock up behind me."

She was bewildered at how easily he waved off her offer to pay him back for the art supplies. There was at least two hundred dollars worth of products lying inside the cardboard box that he brought in.

Bella tried again to reason with him before he closed the door behind him, but he cut her off again. "Can you do one favor Bella?"

She nodded dumbly. Edward said her name many times, but she would never tire from it or would she not respond to it when he used it.

"Next time Jacob has a party like that, try to stay home."

"Why?"

"It's risky enough to go to parties that big when you know the people there, but with strangers and alcohol involved… for yours and Rose's sake I do hope you're wrong, but I'm afraid that there is a small chance that you might be right."

Edward left before she had time to respond. She had confided in him, hoping that he would tell her that she was completely wrong, but that wasn't the case and now, Bella was left to worry about Rose, for the rest of the night by herself.

Bella had a restless night sleep. She racked her brain replaying the incident over and over again, but there was more to prove than to disprove her assumption. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe she did jump to a conclusion, but she would never know because she wouldn't approach Rose about it until she came to her.

The following morning Bella woke up tired. She quickly showered and headed for Rose's house. She earned a couple of questions from Sue before she left since she wasn't expecting to see Bella home so early.

Bella just told her that the party was a bust and decided to come home. Her reply was convincing enough that Bella was able to leave without more questions thrown her way.

When she got Jasper and Rose's house, Rose was still asleep

She spoke with Alice and she told Bella that they wouldn't be going to the bread and honey festival since Rose would be hung over. Bella was a little upset of the change of plans, but she understood that Jasper didn't want to leave his twin and Alice didn't want to be separated from Jasper.

Bella wanted to talk to Alice about last night, and what she thought had happened, but Bella knew better and kept quiet. She quickly said goodbye and decided to go over to Emmett's house earlier than she had planned.

When she got there, Emmett was in a foul mood, but the moment he found out that Edward left only fifteen minutes after him, he seemed to be less agitated.

For the sake of turning a bad into a worse one, she kept quite about Emmett's dislike towards Edward. Knowing how stubborn Emmett was, she needed to conserve her energy for that argument.

By three o'clock Bella and Emmett made their way down to the fair grounds. The festival was held beside the community centre that over looked the river.

The bread and honey festival was an annual event that was held during the Fourth of July weekend and only got its name because fifty years ago they started serving free bread and honey to entice people to go to the town fair. To this day the tradition stuck.

Bella and Emmett skipped the free bread and honey and went straight to the ticket booth to purchase a handful of ride tickets. Jacob soon found them and Bella was quickly disappointed that she would end up the fifth wheel when Jacob brought Lauren and Jessica with him.

Jacob didn't seem too upset that the others were not going to make it, but he did hope that Rose would feel better soon.

There wasn't much for thrill rides when it came to the festival. But what the carnies lacked, they made up with rides of the spinning variety. Those rides were used to test Bella's and her friends' equilibrium endurance, thereby making the Tornado, Music Express and The Rotor focal rides for them.

"Count me out on this one," Bella said when everyone decided to take a few spins on the Music Express that played really bad 80's pop metal.

Bella had survived the Rotor three times in a row. She had no problem being stuck to the wall caused by the gravity force due to spinning, and the Music Express would be a walk in the park for her. But the fact was, it was a two seater and she didn't want to creates conflict by forcing someone to sit alone.

"Come on Bella. It's not like you to miss out on a ride," Jacob urged, "I'm sure you can handle it better then all of us combined."

"Exactly! I have nothing to prove. You, on the other hand do, so go," she said lightly.

Lauren called for Jacob in a sugary voice and Bella laughed when she looked over to Emmett who had the sheer look of contempt across his face; Jessica, who was oblivious to Emmett's expression, snuggled extra close to him.

"Lauren can always go on by herself," Jacob said, and brought her attention back to him, "You don't have to be the fifth wheel."

"I know that," she replied, but she wasn't in the mood for Lauren's glares for the rest of the day if Bella took her place on the ride. "Look, don't worry about it. I'll be fine," she concluded.

The lines where short and there was very little turn around, the majority of people stayed on after issuing the operator more ride tickets from their seats.

After the ride started for the third time with everyone still on, Bella got tired of waiting and decided to wander around.

After a few minutes of walking she spotted Leah and Seth with Edward. They were standing right beside him as Edward played skee ball. Leah started to jump up and down. It appeared that Edward had won a prize for them. In a matter if moments, Leah and Seth were both picking out two of the larger stuffed toys from the games dealer.

Bella wasn't sure if she should approach him, and eventually would have decided against it if he hadn't turned around and noticed her.

He smiled and waved. Bella lifted her arm to wave back, but before she had a chance to acknowledge him bare arms slithered around her torso. One hand slide down and rested comfortably low on her pelvic bone and the other held her mid-drift firmly with a thumb sweeping against the under side of her breast.

She tried to pull away from the intruder, but he just pulled her closer to him and nuzzled her neck.

"There you are. We didn't know where you ran off to," Jacob murmured in her ear.

Bella was livid. This time she gathered more force and managed to pull herself away from him. He had never in life laid a hand on her so seductively.

"What the hell are you doing?" Bella screamed and slapped him hard in the chest. It was only then that she noticed that Jacob wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Easy Bella," he chuckled, "I'm helping you out. You know? Make him jealous."

"What—why?—I don't—Agghh!" she was at a loss for words and hit him again, "You're officially a jack ass."

"Jack ass or not, my plan worked."

"What are you talking…" Bella turned towards where Edward was and saw that he was nowhere to be seen.

She turned back to Jacob angry beyond belief. "Don't ever touch me like that again," she spat.

"I was wrong and I'm sorry. Please forgive me," Jacob pouted.

Bella still saw the mischief in his eyes. Jacob was far from sorry; it looked to her as he was still enjoying the reaction he got out of her.

"Don't push your luck. I'm too pissed off to see any of your charm. I'll see you later."

Bella turned around to storm off, but she walked right into Emmett and almost lost her balance.

Emmett steadied her, "Hey, where are you going?"

"To go find Edward, " Bella said pulling away from him.

"Why?" Emmett growled.

"I wouldn't go there, Emmett," Jacob chuckled.

"You," Bella pointed to Jacob, "Get over yourself. And you," she said pointing at Emmett, "Stop acting like Edward is a piece of scum. I'm sick of it! You don't even know him!"

"And you do?" Emmett retorted.

"No, but at least I'm giving him a chance to get to know him."

She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Lauren and Jessica were staring wide eyed at Bella's out burst.

"They're all yours," she told them and stormed off to search for Edward.

A/N: So, what do you think? Please trust me with this story. I know it's a slow start, but once the story reaches its critical point… well… please trust me.

If you have any ideas of what you think will happen, please let me know. I love to hear the readers' thoughts of where this story is going.