I visited Edward after school with a pot of chicken noodle soup and a Get Well! card the class made for him. Alice hadn't been at school—she caught Jasper's sickness, and was the reason why I made so much chicken noodle soup.

"Hey," Alice said as I walked into her room. Except her nose was all clogged so it came out like, "Way."

"How are you doing?" I asked, handing her the soup. She blew her nose, which wasn't the most pleasant sight I'd ever seen or heard, and threw the Kleenex off to the side of her bed where a waste basket was, filled to the top and overflowing with tissues.

"Bad," she replied, and blew into another Kleenex. "Ob-ee-luss-lee, Bella."

I paused for a few seconds, translating ob-ee-luss-lee into obviously. "Oh. Well, sorry. Here's chicken soup. Is Edward—"

"In tis 'oom." Alice shot me a dirty look and blew vigorously into a tissue. "Tanks for da support, best fwend."

I couldn't help it. I giggled. She sounded like a three-year old.

"Get out before I twow a dirty Kleenex at you," she said threateningly, and I gladly got out of there and walked towards Edward's room, chicken soup in hand.

I knocked three times before entering. "Hello?"

Okay, so I was still pissed at Edward. I mean, he made out with Rosalie in the closet when he said to meet me there. Was that a sign that he wanted me to dump him? And if it was, what the hell was he doing throwing rocks at my window in the middle of the night?

"Come in," came his voice from inside.

I walked in and looked at Edward, trying my best not to be empathetic towards that jerk. His arm was bandaged up, and he had a Band-Aid on the side of his forehead, with a remote in his hand, staring at the TV from on his bed. "Hey," he said when he saw it was me.

"Hello, Edward Cullen." I crossed my arms over my chest, but not before carefully placing the chicken soup and Get Well card down on his desk.

"You really shouldn't be that mad." He lifted his elbow a little, emphasizing his broken arm. "You threw a desk chair at me."

"Yeah." I huffed hair out of my eyes. "Well you made out with Rosalie Hale, you asshole. You were all, Meet me in the closet, blah blah blah. And so I met you in the closet, and I'm greeted by Rosalie Hale depriving you of all oxygen."

"Bella, that's what I've been trying to tell you." He winced as he sat up, his back against the pillows. "That's what I was doing outside your window. You wouldn't answer my IM's, or my calls, or the door. So what was I supposed to do? I thought it was romantic. And then I saw this thing falling towards me, and at first I thought it was you, so I tried to catch you. But it wasn't you. It was a freaking desk chair. And I was thinking, What the hell, why did she just hurl a desk chair at me?"

I blinked. "Wait, what have you been trying to tell me?"

"Rosalie kissed me. I didn't kiss her."

"Oh, please." I shook my head. "That's just about as old as It's not you, it's me. And that's pretty old."

"I know. I know. But it's true, Bella. I swear. I'm sorry."

Contemplating whether to believe him or not, I tapped my foot. What if he wasn't lying, and he really was sorry, and I turned him down for no good reason? Or what if he was lying, and I didn't turn him down, and then I caught him making out with Rosalie again? What would I do then? I had already experienced enough pain and heartbreak the first time, and I did not want to go through that again.

"Let me make it up to you." He pointed at the top drawer in his desk. "Look in there. Take what's in there."

I opened the drawer and saw a bunch of pens and pencils scattered around. Wow, I thought. Normally when a guy wants to show affection for you, he would buy you a rose or a tulip or a teddy bear or something. But, naturally, when, for the first time, a guy wants to show affection for me, he tells me to have my choice of a number two pencil.

"Oh gosh," I muttered, not even trying to hide my sarcasm. I lifted a pencil out. "This means so much, Edward. Thank you."

"Bella, I don't want you to take my pencil. I need those for our math test tomorrow, anyways, so put it back. It must be in the other drawer."

Oh.

I opened up the drawer, and gasped audibly, lifting out a beautiful white porcelain mask, with sequins going around the eyes. "Is this for me?" I was almost afraid to ask this question, because with the luck I was having today he'd probably ask me to deliver it to Rosalie at school the next day.

"Of course it is. Isabella Swan, will you go to the Masquerade Ball with me?"

I gasped again and rushed forward to give him a hug, accidentally knocking the chicken soup off the desk in the process. I considered going back to clean it up but I was too excited to care that much at the moment, so I nearly tackled Edward and said, "Yes! Yes I will!"

Whatever. I'm weak-willed.

There was a pause, and then Edward said in a raspy voice, "Um, Bella?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't take offence to this, but can you get off of me, because you're kind of hurting my arm."