A/N So I know this is the second chapter I've uploaded today, but I have the flu so I've had nothing to do but play with Jazz and Bella! Thank you to my first three reviews and also to all the people who favorited, I love the love! But I'd really like some more reviews to keep this going! So to all several hundred of you who read but didn't review, let's get on that k?
Side note: I feel like it's nice to promote other writers, so I'll say that right now I'm reading Darlin' by RemyKilday and The Girl Under The Bed by Nostalgicmiss. Go check them out!
Bella
Alice and I politely ducked the boy's invitation to hang out—by which they meant going to some random party, or at the very least getting drunk and playing Xbox—and spent the evening essentially reenacting a cheesy sleepover movie. Rosalie, who truly was the female counterpart of Jasper (Or was maybe just hoping to get into Emmet's pants) had decided to stay with the boys, and announced she'd come by our house later.
I wore a flimsy purple camisole and matching boxer shorts and was sitting cross-legged on my plush, baby pink area rug while my sister brushed my hair.
"Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you? 'Been here all along so why can't you see-e-e?" I sang loudly as Taylor Swift's voice filled my room. "You belong with Me-e-e!"
"You're terrible." Alice laughed
"Maybe, but I'm better then you and you know it." Alice started to twist my hair into two long French braids. She was slightly obsessed with my hair )as it was exactly what her's would look like if she had the patience to grow it out) and liked to play with it. A little wavy dark strand landed on my face and I blew it out of my eyes exasperatedly.
We were being way to loud considering how late it was, but our parents were still out with Jasper and Rose's parents doing God knows what so our volume wasn't really an issue. At this point it was late enough that we had decided to just pull an all-nighter.
Earlier we had stopped for dinner at the Boat House Café; the very same restaurant that our mother had been the hostess at 20 years ago. The name was supposed to be ironic; it was actually the nicest restaurant on the island. The wait staff was used to serving the over privileged children of vacationing business men, and had a reputation for having no problem serving alcohol to minors. Especially is those minors had no problem paying the $400 bill, plus tipping 25% for their trouble. I had never tested that rumor first hand, but I'd seen enough drunken teenagers stumbling home after dinner growing up to believe it.
We were silent for a good minute listening to the song. "So, looks like you noticed how hot Edward's looking this year." Alice said finally. I groaned. We'd already covered fashion, celebrity gossip, all of Rosalie's winter hookups, and the newest Twilight movie. I had been ducking the subject of the boys all evening and it was bound to happen eventually.
"Well apparently you have because he looks exactly the same to me." It was a lie. I had noticed, but that didn't mean anything. I thought Dr. House was hot too, it didn't mean I wanted to do anything about it.
"Oh, cut the crap Bella! You've been all over him since you got here." She threw her hands in the air exasperatedly.
"I have not!" I was seriously confused; as far as I was aware I hadn't been doing anything we hadn't done every other summer since puberty.
"Well then are you trying to make Jasper jealous?" Alice pressed. Thank god I had my back to her and she couldn't see my blushing.
"God no! Why would I do that?" I was serious too, that had never even occurred to me, not that it would have worked if it had.
"Be serious! I know you've liked him forever" Alice said.
"I have not." I said again
"You're such a liar. I mean really Bells, so the boy's gorgeous, big deal, it's never gonna' happen" I squirmed uncomfortably. My foot suddenly felt warm. It was an unfortunate thing that happened when I was anxious or uncomfortable. Some people's palms sweat, my left foot gets warm. I had been told it was normal; sometimes your body sends signals to your limbs in the face of discomfort, usually on only one side; but it was still annoying.
"I don't even –"
"So are you over Jasper then?" Alice cut me off "'Cause all I'm saying is if you're going after Edward now I'd like some warning." Suddenly she tugged on my hair. Hard.
"Damn! What the hell was that?" I screamed, clapping my hand to my head.
"Sorry, my finger was stuck."
"It's okay" I muttered. At least the subject seemed to be closed
Alice
The first night on the island Bella and I decided to skip hanging out with the guys and have some sister time. Thank God! I silently amended. I wasn't sure I could handle another hour of Emmet's dirty jokes, Edward's puppy love, and The dysfunctional twins, Jasper and Bella pretending there wasn't anything going on. Those two were like the anti Ross and Rachel.
It had been a really frustrating day for me. I had looked forward to coming back to the island all year. I had romantic notions about living out one of my teen romance novels, and if that was ever going to happen it was definitely going to be on an island called Amore. But unfortunately, it didn't look like that was in the cards for me. No, that girl had always been Bella, not that she was aware or intended to do anything about it. It was frustrating as hell to listen to my sister complain about how she'd never had a boyfriend because no one liked her. No sweetie, you've never had a boyfriend because you're too dense to see it when someone's into you, and thus you're holding out for a fairytale relationship that's never gonna happen. I wasn't jealous. Not by any means. It was hard to explain even to myself. I guess it was more like it just didn't seem fair that she got so much attention and I knew she didn't even notice. I loved Bella. She was my best friend as well as my sister, but she was also a tease and no one but me seemed bothered by it.
I clearly had some self esteem and bitterness issues and I knew that, but just because I was thinking this stuff didn't mean I was going to let it spill into my real life. Actually, I would like nothing more then for Bella and Jasper to finally pull themselves together and work things out. It would make all of our lives easier to not have watch the train wreck that was their friendship blow up before our eyes.
This was where my plan came in. I knew how to play guys for my own benefit, so I figured that it would be simple to play those two against each other. Hopefully, by August they would either finally get it on, or "breakup", but at least something would happen. It obviously wasn't working for her to pine after him while he man-whored around with every other girl on the island all the while pretending they were best friends.
The first thing was to find someone to help. Edward was out because he was apparently still harboring some sort of crush on Bella. Rosalie wasn't even remotely capable of keeping a secret for any length of time, but even if either of them had been up for it my natural choice of a partner in crime would have been Emmet. The boy was diabolical, and I knew he liked Rose, so as far as I could tell there was no conflict of interest. I'd talked to him while we walked to the Boat House earlier.
"Great!" said Emmet clapping his hands together "shall we?" he smiled and offered me his arm which I gladly took. We started walking down the beach towards the path through the woods that lead away from Edward's house. Edward himself ran right past us, yelling to Bells as he went.
"Oh, poor Edward." I said to Emmet pretending to pout "Could you feel that tension in the living room? God!"
"Are you kidding? Poor Edward?" Emmet chuckled "More like poor Jasper!"
"What do you mean?"
"That dudes setting himself up for a world of pain with Bells, those two are like Ross and Rachel on crack!"
"I know right!" I exclaimed "I thought I was the only one who—wait, you watch Friends?" He glanced at me exasperatedly.
"Not the point Ali. I just wish those two would get their shit together before it splatters on the rest of us you know?"
"Totally. We should really try and push them in the right direction."
"What did you have in mind?" he grinned wickedly.
"I don't know, I just thought maybe if we could get Jasper to realize he wants her, and Bella to quit thinking she's not good enough and there's no way he could ever like her…"
"And how do you propose we do that?"
"Well, maybe you could talk about her and see what he does and I'll do the same with Bella."
"Ali, guys don't really do that. We're not going to braid our hair and talk about feelings." He rolled his eyes.
"No, not like that, I mean talk abouther, see if he gets jealous."
"I like the way you think." He laughed "Oh! You know what you should do? You should hang all over Jasper and see if she cares or he stops you."
"I don't know, that could backfire…"
"Well don't be obvious about it. Trust me, I think jealousy is what's going to work best."
"So you're going to help me then?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm totally in."
So that was how I'd found myself sitting on Jasper's chair, rubbing up against his leg. I thought maybe I'd seen a reaction from him at least. Edward had been unknowingly brilliant pulling her on to his lap. Jasper definitely noticed that.
Now, I was sitting in Bella's very pick bedroom braiding her hair. I laughed a little at the irony of what Emmet had said earlier. We were literally braiding our hair and talking about feelings. I suddenly had an idea. "So, looks like you noticed how hot Edward's looking this year." I said. I could almost see the cogs in her brain working to try and figure out what I was talking about.
"Well apparently you have because he looks exactly the same to me." She finally said. Oops, maybe it did sound like that's what I meant. Well I guess as long as she thinks I like him anyway…
"Oh, cut the crap Bella! You've been all over him since you got here."
"I have not!"
"Well then are you trying to make Jasper jealous?" There. Now I've given her the idea. That's all I'd wanted to do.
"God no! Why would I do that?"
"Be serious! I know you've liked him forever"
"I have not." She snapped
"You're such a liar. I mean really Bella, so the boy's gorgeous, big deal, it's never gonna' happen" I squirmed uncomfortably. I didn't mean that, I was just hoping she'd get defensive and admit that they could be together.
"I don't even –"
"So are you over Jasper then?" I cut her off, and then just for the sake of the ruse added: "'Cause all I'm saying is if you're going after Edward now I'd like some warning."
I hoped this plan wasn't going to backfire.
Jasper
"Well I could see, you home with me, but you were with another man, yea!"
What the fuh—! You've got to be kidding me.
"I know we, ain't got much to say, before I let you get away, yea! I said, are you gonna be my girl?"
"Arrrgggg!" I groaned into my pillow. "Shut up!" I wasn't ready to get up yet. My head was already pounding and I feel like I was going to puke.
"Well I could see, you home with me, but you were with another man, yea!"
"Emmet man!" Edward's voice barked. "Pick up your damn phone!"
"And then change your ringtone" I added grumpily.
"Okay I'm going, God!" Emmet moaned.
"I said, are you gonna be my g—"
"Hello?" Emmet said groggily. "Hey. Nouhthing, jus' woke up." He slurred slightly "'S no problem." He paused. "No, I'm just tired." I hated only being able to hear one side of the conversation, even if I wasn't even sure I could lift my head just yet. "Fine. See you in like…thirty? Kay, bye." he slammed his phone shut.
"Who was that?" I asked, sounding hung-over and bored even to my own ears.
"Bella. She and Alice and Rose want to meet at The Coop." Ugg I thought that means getting up. I forced myself of the bed and stumbled on my way to the bathroom.
My mouth tasted fuzzy—like a truck stop. I rinsed it out under the faucet and popped a piece of gum to be safe. My slightly too long hair was sticking up in every direction. I tried to comb it out with my fingers.
"You need some hairspray man?" Emmet asked from behind me. "I bet your sister has got a headband or some bows you can borrow." He cackled at his own joke.
"Screw you dude." I punched his shoulder a little harder then I'd meant to and grinned when he complained.
"Play nice ladies." Edward yelled from my bedroom. I rolled my eyes and stalked reluctantly back into the bedroom.
My room was huge. Like the size of a middle class living room. It was also freakishly clean for a guy's room (judging by Edward and Emmet's which were disgusting), but that was probably because I kept barely any stuff in there. Apart from the furniture and the navy blue bed and rug or whatever (chosen by my mom who's only passion in life is coordinating furniture) the only personal crap in here were my clothes, my guitar, and a random football or two. In fact, if it weren't for the framed pictures on the wall above my bed (again, chosen and hung by my mom) you wouldn't have any way of knowing who lived in here. The first was of my family; my parents and Rose and I on vacation in Bermuda. The second was taken by Bella last summer and showed Edward and I carrying our surfboards while Emmet gave Alice a piggyback ride in the background. And the third was me and Bells when we were about 11 or 12. We were in the backyard of her house obviously laughing while holding on for dear life to a wildly swinging tire swing. For whatever reason, that was the only picture where I was smiling.
"Dude what are you doing? We gotta meet the girls, let's go!" Edward groaned from the doorway.
"Fine, sorry I'm coming." I said, pinching the bridge of my nose while trying to focus on anything but my pounding skull.
"God, I should really get some different pictures." I mused aloud.
"Whatever man. Do whatever you want." Edward said lazily.
Bella
The next morning Alice, Rose and I got dressed and went to meet the guys at Coop de Villa for breakfast. I called Emmet to ask them to meet us and immediately knew that I had been right; they had been drinking. Probably all night. I didn't even want to think about the girls who had probably replaced the girls and me at whatever party they had gone to, while we had been watching The Breakfast Club and eating Oreos with peanut butter.
I rolled out of bed, ignoring Alice who was still asleep and grabbed the first clothes I saw—jean shorts and a shrunken white Yankees t-shirt—and went downstairs and made a pot of coffee and poured three bowl sized mugs. Apparently my parents weren't up yet, so I filled the pot with water again and changed the filter and everything so all they would have to do was hit start. I went back upstairs with the bowls of coffee and Ali was coming out of the bathroom looking really slutty in this super low-cut tank top and really tiny shorts. I was already annoyed and she wasn't helping matters any. I shoved a bowl at her and stomped back into my room.
We got to the restaurant before the guys did, which was amazing because we were half an hour late. We ordered another whole pot of coffee for us and some V8 juice and three different types of pancakes for them. I'm not sure what it is about pancakes, they must like soak up the alcohol or something. We were pros at this, taking care of them when they were hung-over. It wasn't something every 18 year old girl aspires to be good at, but it had kind of become necessary in the last few years what with everything we had been through.
About 20 minutes later, the little bell on the door sounded and they wobbled in. Their hair was disheveled and all three were sporting huge aviator sunglasses. I laughed as the hostess tried to greet them and both Emmet and Edward groaned and covered their ears. Jasper waved a hand at her and she immediately felt silent. How did he do that? They wended their way between the 50's diner style tables with minimal difficulty, and finally spotting us, sat down at the booth. Emmet threw himself down next to Rose and put his head on her shoulder. "Arrrrgggg" he groaned "I feel like shit"
"I know sweetie" she cooed stroking his hair "we ordered you some chocolate-chip pancakes to make it all better." It was times like this that I thought Rose might actually make a good mother someday. Jasper sat down next to me and collapsed onto the table.
"Drinking is bad." I heard Edward state as he sat down as well. "Let's never drink again."
"Nah man" Jasper mumbled into the table "then we'd never be drunk again." I short him a disapproving glance, which he missed.
"Not worth it" said Edward.
"So worth it" moaned Emmet. Fortunately, then the pancakes came and put an end to the conversation.
We didn't really talk about anything else for the next hour. Alice, Rose and I took turns force feeding the boys Pancakes and V8, while all the while downing cup after cup of coffee ourselves. At one point Emmet got up and vomited in the men's room. He came back looking a lot better. The waitresses were all watching us bemusedly. This wasn't exactly odd behavior in this place, and they were used to us, the same way the staff at The Boat House abetted the whole thing in the first place. It was a wonder they weren't all arrested. Hell, it was a wonder we weren't all arrested. But then again, this was the island. Every waitress between the ages of 16 and 30 had something of a crush on one or more of the boys and lived for the days they could waft around bringing us unnecessary condiments and looking daggers at the girls and me.
After about an hour and a half, yet another pot of coffee, and several circular conversations about what exactly was in V8 juice, all 5 of us were pretty near fully functional. Years of practice had prepared us to run the New York Marathon hung-over if necessary. Edward threw down a couple of hundreds courtesy of Dr. Cullen (I did the math, he'd just tipped the waitress $85 on a $115 dollar check), and we left. On the way out the door we passed Jasper and Rose's parents coming in.
"Hi kids!" squealed Maria shrilly. We all winced. Maria meant well, but she wasn't exactly what you'd call intelligent.
"Morning Mom" Jasper greeted her cheerfully and then, as if the temperature had suddenly dropped 50 degrees, "Morning Dad" he muttered sounding bored. I tried to catch his eye to see what was going on, but he looked away from me. We all just stood there silently for a long moment, even Rosalie seemed reluctant to get involved with her brother's apparent issue with their father. She grabbed Alice's arm and the two of them began inspecting the display in a nearby store window. When it became clear that no one else was going to say anything, feeling suddenly and inexplicably protective, I stepped in.
"Hi Peter, Maria, it's so nice to see you!" I said. Edward, Emmet, had wandered a few feet away and were hovering awkwardly. They didn't really know the twin's parents as well as I did, and definitely weren't on a first name bases with them. Alice and I on other hand had spent basically every waking hour and some not at their house since we were born. That is, until we were in middle school when they picked up and moved from our town in suburban Connecticut to move to New York. After that, we'd seen less and less of each other until eventually the only time I saw Jasper or his family was on the island.
"Oh Bella" Maria trilled, apparently not noticing anything odd "look how pretty you've gotten. Oh Peter, would you just look at her? Her father must be beating the boys away with a stick!" I felt a blush creeping across my cheeks.
"Yes, quite lovely." Peter smiled at me. "Tell your parents we hope they'll join us for dinner again tonight."
"Oh yes!" said Maria "It's absolutely no fun around here without Charles and Renee."
"I'll tell them" I promised "but you'll probably see them before I do" I forced a smile and reached over and put my hand on Jasper's arm "Well, we'd better be going" I said pointedly
"Oh, of course" Peter sounded relieved "It was nice to see you Bella." He nodded at his son, who was staring down bewilderedly at my hand on his arm, and opened the door to the restaurant. Maria gave a little wave and followed her husband inside leaving us alone.
"What the hell was that about?" I asked softly turning to face him.
"It's nothing" he muttered "come on, let's go." and for the second time since I'd been there he left me standing alone and headed off in the direction the others had gone.
Will write for reviews! Even if you didn't like it I want to know! Also, I like writing what people want so if you have an idea let me know and maybe you'll see it in a future chapter!