A/N: Sorry I took so long to update; I had a little bit of writer's block to overcome...and this was a really busy week. I love you all for reading my story, but some reviews might be nice too!

Special thanks to milady89 for favoriting my story! And everyone who has put my story on alert! This is all very exciting to me.

Chapter 5: Dinner Time

"I, uh, I, um…I-I'm fine" I finally stuttered out. I was still completely enveloped in his face. Suddenly a roaring laugh came from the car and I pulled to look away. The hugest man I had ever seen stepped out of the Volvo, with scary-looking muscles and brown, curly hair. A tall, blond boy stepped out behind him.

"Rose, baby, I think your girl hit her head. Way to go, Eddie," the giant guffawed.

"Shut up, Emmett. And don't call me Eddie." The god turned back to me, "Are you sure you're okay? This is all my fault. Can you stand up?" At that point I had to giggle; I mean I really just banged my knee a little.

"Really, I'm fine. I just cut my knee a little bit. No big deal. I'm Bella, by the way." I flashed him a smile.

"Well, it's wonderful to meet you, Bella. I'm sorry it had to be like this though. I'm Edward, Alice's brother. That joker over there is Emmett," he gave me a goofy wave, "and this is Jasper, Rose's brother."

"And my boyfriend!" Alice danced over to him and kissed him on the cheek. I could tell they were unbelievably in love. It was really sweet.

"It's a pleasure," Jasper took my hand in his and shook it.

"It's nice to meet you all," I said, "And this is my best friend, Jen." She smiled and waved to everyone.

"So, you guys are like, all paired up?" Everyone laughed, but I turned bright red. How could she ask that to people we barely knew?

"Pretty much," Rose laughed. "I'm with Emmett here," she kissed him, and grabbed his ass. I could tell that they weren't secretive about their sex life. "And as you know, Alice and Jasper are together. Edward's single though." She shot a glance at me, and I turned redder, if that was possible. "But we're going to be late for our reservation. Edward, pop your trunk so we can get some of these bags in." I had forgotten that I was hungry, but now that she mentioned it, I was starving. I thankfully put half my bags in the trunk.

While the boys parked, we walked to Rose's car and put the rest of our bags away. Then we started walking over to P.F. Chang's. Jen kept throwing me glances and Rosalie and Alice were all giggles. Finally, I just asked, "What? Is there some big secret I should know about?"

"Edward loves you." Alice squealed.

"What?! I just met him. I've barely spoken to him. How do you know he loves me?"

"Oh be quiet, Bella, you love him too," Jen chimed in.

"No I don't! Again, we just met." What were they talking about? There was no way I could love him, at least maybe not yet. I mean, he was absolutely perfect, and he rushed to me like a knight in shining armor, but he was beautiful; I could never hope for him to even be interested in me, let alone love me. We turned the corner to the restaurant and the guys were standing there, waiting for us. They seemed to be giving Edward a hard time, but he was just looking at me. Why was he looking at me that way? How was I looking back?

Alice was pealing with laughter, "Trust me, Bella. You guys just don't know it yet." Jen vigorously nodded in agreement.

"Shouldn't you be texting Jake or something?" I glared at her. She smiled and looked down at her phone.

We all walked in the restaurant together. Alice was holding hands with Jasper, and Emmett and Rosalie had their arms wrapped around each other; eliminating the space between them. Jen walked in behind them, but Edward seemed to be waiting for something. I reached for the door handle, but he stepped in front of me and held it open, "After you," he said, staring directly into my eyes. I had to look down so he couldn't see me blush.

"Thanks," was all I could think to say. We followed the group to our table, where conveniently, the last two seats were next to each other. They weren't even trying to be sneaky about it. Edward pulled my chair out for me. He really was the definition of a gentleman, and I liked that, a lot. Immediately everyone seemed to settle into their own conversations. Even Jen was still busy texting Jake under the table. That left Edward and I to talk. "So, tell me more about how all of you met each other."

"Well, like I said, Alice is my sister. We were both adopted by Carlisle and Esme after each of our parents died."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to tread onto a sore subject. You don't have to go on if you don't want to." I felt terrible for him. I couldn't imagine what I would do if either of my parents died, let alone both.

"No, it's fine, really. I've been a Cullen for so long now, I think of Carlisle and Esme as my parents. See, when I was about 4, my parents were on their way to the Chicago Opera and were hit by a drunk driver. They died on impact. But Carlisle worked at the hospital with my birth father, so he took me in and they raised me as their own." I could see that he really loved Carlisle and Esme, and that he was serious when he said he thought of them as his parents. I was happy, at least, that he could feel that.

"Now, the Hales, Rosalie and Jasper, are twins. And Rosalie fell for Emmett, so he became part of our group, too. We moved to Forks from Chicago the summer before high school. Esme grew up there when she was a girl and had always wanted to move back. So, of course, Carlisle would do anything for her, and we moved. Alice took to Forks High School right away. She became best friends with Rosalie and started dating Jasper pretty much as soon as we got there. I liked Forks, but I never really felt like it was where I belonged." I stared at him, completely wrapped in his words. I could listen to him talk all day. "I'm sorry, I'm talking too much."

"No!" I shouted too quickly. I blushed, and ducked my head. I willed my face back to its normal color and tried to catch myself, "I just mean that I'm really enjoying your story."

"If you're sure, I want to make sure that I'm not taking over the conversation," I nodded in encouragement. "So, yeah, I liked Forks, and I had my good friends there, but I loved Chicago and the big city. Anyway, Emmett was in one of Rosalie's classes sophomore year, and from the moment she saw him, she was smitten. We formed our group there, and eventually I learned to love Forks. We all decided that we were going to stay in Washington and go to college together. So here we are today."

"Wow, well, I know what you mean about going from big city to small town. I'm so used to Phoenix."

He smiled, "Maybe I'll help you get adjusted. Now I've talked enough about myself. Why did you come to Washington?"

At that moment, the food came. I smelled its delicious aroma as it was set down in front of us. I had forgotten again that I was hungry. It seemed like Edward just did that to me. I piled some chicken and shrimp on my plate along with some rice before answering his question. I noticed he seemed to not take his eyes off me the entire time he got his food.

"So, I actually was born in Forks," I started. He looked surprised, but didn't stop me, "and when I was 2 my parents got divorced. I left with my mom to Phoenix. I visited Charlie for 2 weeks in the summer every year after that until I was ten, when I decided I hated Forks, and never wanted to go back there. So I kept in touch with Charlie over the phone, but I hadn't seen him at all. He flew down and I saw him for the first time in 8 years at my high school graduation. Anyway, in high school, all I could think about was that I've never traveled, other than between Phoenix and Forks. So I decided I would try to get a scholarship so I could go away for school. Unfortunately, out-of-state tuition is really expensive, and so are private schools, so the scholarship money I did get offered me two choices: Arizona State, or Washington State.

"Well, Arizona's literally no more than fifteen minutes away from my house. It was tempting to stay. I knew Rene and her new husband, Phil, needed me. I usually cooked for them and pretty much was the adult most of the time. But, of course, I knew that I needed to get away. Rene wanted me to stay, I know, but she did encourage me to try out here. Needless to say, Charlie was thrilled. So I packed up my life, and Jen and I road tripped up here."

"There are always student loans to help out if you want to go somewhere else," he said slowly. However, as I looked in his eyes, it was like saying that to me was painful to him.

"Yeah I know. But if I can go to school without having to pay a cent and worry about repaying those student loans later, I'd be stupid not to take advantage of it," I looked at him, "and, I sort of hit the jackpot in the roommate department. There's no way I'm rocking the boat with that one." He and I both chuckled.

"Jen's not coming to school with us though?" he asked.

"No, she's going to Arizona State, but she starts later than we do, so she's spending the night tonight and I'm going to drive her back to the airport tomorrow. Plus, everyone in Phoenix would kill me if I tried to drive up here all by myself."

"They're right, you know. It's not safe for a girl to be travelling alone. It would be horrible if something happened to you." He touched my arm, and a jolt of electricity surged between us.

I tried to regain my composure, "Yeah, you never know, a crazy driver might try to kill me when I was crossing the road."

"I am truly sorry about that, Bella. You're right, I could have killed you." He hung his head, refusing to look at me.

"Edward, don't be ridiculous. We were in a parking lot; you weren't going fast enough to kill me. It was an accident; don't beat yourself up about it. I was just teasing you." I didn't mean to upset him. I wish he would just accept that it was an accident and let it go.

"Ahem." Suddenly, I was aware that there was someone in the world other than Edward. I looked up and met Emmett's glare, "Are you two ready to go? We're going to be late to the party. I want to get trashed tonight!"

"Em, I don't think there's enough liquor in the world to do that," I responded. He laughed, but the rest of the group looked a little shocked.

Jen looked up from her cell phone, "I see Bella has finally arrived!"

I blushed a little, "Yeah, I guess I'm just getting comfortable with you guys."

"Yay!" Alice squealed and ran over to me to sweep me into another bone-crushing hug. I was going to have to ask Edward how she did that. "Well, we have to hurry. We still have to go home and get ready! Bella, I can't wait to get you into your new clothes!" I sighed. Bella Barbie seemed to be an inevitable part of my future. The boys walked us back to our car, where Alice squeezed Jasper and gave him a quick peck, "I'll miss you Jazzy, I love you!"

"Love you too, Ali. I'll see you soon." Jasper replied to her.

Rose and Emmett were having a full make out session on the hood of the car. "Love you baby," Emmett said as he smacked Rose's ass.

"Love you too," Rose bit his bottom lip before pulling away to the driver's side of the car.

Jen had already jumped into the backseat, which left Edward and I alone again. "Well, I guess I'll see you in a couple hours, then," I said to him, nervously running my fingers through my hair.

Edward opened the door for me, "Yeah, I'll see you soon. Have a safe ride home."

"Thanks." I slid into the car as Edward shut the door behind me. Jen immediately perked up, looking at me with a huge grin on her face.

"So, Bella! You and Edward are like, so perfect together!" she gushed.

"What do you mean?" I responded, trying not to smile.

"Oh wake up, Bella! The way he looks at you is so obvious! Whenever you speak, he looks at you like you're saying the most important thing in the world. And you're the same way with him. You guys were in your own conversation all of dinner; it was like no one else was around."

The other girls got into the car. "She's right," Alice said, "I've never seen my brother look at anyone like that before. I gave him your number. He'll probably be texting you—"

Beep Beep Beep. My message alert went off. It was a number I didn't recognize, but I had a feeling that I knew who it was:

Hey Bella, it's Edward. Alice gave me your number, I hope that's okay. Well, anyway I'll see you soon. E.

I felt a smile spread across my face. Edward was texting me! I heard all the girls giggle, but I just read the message over again. He was so considerate all the time. Could I really be falling for Edward already though?

"So what did you guys talk about?" Alice wanted to know.

"Oh nothing really, just getting-to-know-you kind of stuff," I answered, "He told me how you all met and I told him why I came to Washington."

"Well, we're going to make you look hot for tonight. Eddie won't know what to do with himself." Rosalie said, and we all burst into laughter.