A/N: Hola, my darlings. Bear with me on updates. I know I'm behind. I am buying a house, have school, work, AND I just finished my second book, which I hope to be able to tell you about soon. Updates should be more frequent for my stuff soon. Anyway. Enough excuses. Onward.

Alice was humming. She was completely fucking trashed. Typically that meant some serious shit was going down. I'd experienced the whole spectrum with Alice. I wouldn't have been surprised at screaming, crying, overt sexual behavior, destruction of property. Been there, done that. But humming?

That was new.

It was almost four in the morning and the last guests were finally leaving. Alice was lying on the couch, curled up like a cat and happy. I grabbed a throw and spread it over her. She opened her eyes, blinking like a sleepy cat, and she smiled at me. It was a rare smile. Peaceful.

Before I could turn away, she grabbed my arm. "You remember my dream?" she said, her words slurred. "The one with your girlfriend?"

I sighed because I had a feeling I knew what she was going to say. I wasn't about to rock the boat though. "Yes, I remember."

She yawned and closed her eyes. "I think it's Bella."

It was surprising what an effect those words had on me. It was as though my brain had been given permission to give voice to desires I had. Of course I knew I was attracted to Bella. Attraction wasn't the type of affliction anyone could ignore. I thought about her too often, about the minute things, the silly things that made me smile.

Beautiful bodies are a dime a dozen. Everyone owned beauty in their own unique way. Attraction was trickier than merely parsing out physical beauty. It was all about the details and my growing obsession with them.

"You shouldn't say those things to me," I said to Alice. "You shouldn't put those thoughts in my head."

Alice was already asleep, of course-the brat-and it was too late.

When the last guest left, I made my way back to my room. The only thing on my mind, besides Bella, of course, was sleep. Imagine my surprise when, as I made my way from the kitchen to the hall, I heard her talking in frantic whispers. Worried for her, I turned towards her room and peeked in her door.

"Are you freaking kidding me, Emmett?"

She was standing in the middle of my room with my barechested brother. Jealousy and anger hit me like a punch to the gut. Emmett was the one who'd insisted we couldn't have a female roommate because one of us would sleep with her, and then he…

Luckily, my brain caught up with me before I could do something stupid. Emmett was half-naked, blanket cinched around his waist, but Bella was fully clothed and way out of my brother's personal space. And there was a sheepish woman in her bed pulling on clothes.

My brother pulled out his best grin; the one that got him out of trouble with Mom-dimples and everything. "Sorry, Bella. Peter and Charlotte fell asleep in my room. Besides, it was a little more private up here, ya know?"

"More private than your own room in your own apartment? I'm not picking up what you're putting down here, buddy."

As she spoke in a whisper-yell, she continuously poked him in the chest. At the end of her tirade, she stamped her foot and waved her finger in his face. "You and I are not friends right now. At least not until all my sheets and blankets are cleaned. Drycleaned."

With that, she whirled and stormed out into the hallway, straight into my chest because I didn't step back fast enough. One of my hands caught the wall to keep us both from going down in a tangle of limbs. I slung my other arm around her waist to steady her, thus keeping her pinned against me. All of that might have been fine except I didn't let her go even after we were both safe. I was struck dumb and slow by her pretty, wide eyes.

"Hey, Bella. Really, I-"

I stepped away from Bella and pushed off the wall as my brother came into the hallway behind her followed by the mystery blond. He looked between Bella and me, and I saw how much he wanted to ask what was going on. Luckily for him, he was just smart enough to realize being caught having sex in someone else's bed didn't leave him with a leg to stand on.

"Look, I'm sorry," he said. "We'll get out of your way."

"It's a little late for that, slick. If you think I'm sleeping in that room until it's been thoroughly disinfected, you have another thing coming." Bella glanced at the blond. "No offense."

"None taken. He didn't tell me it wasn't his room." She folded her arms and glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "So all the fabulous geek stuff?"

"So not his."

Emmett laughed nervously and shrugged. "Hey, we had a good time anyway, didn't we?" He didn't wait for an answer. He kissed the girl. She squealed, but then she giggled and melted against him.

Bella sighed. "Don't let him send you home. Get a good cuddle out of my misery at least. Look at the man. He looks like he gives good cuddle."

The girl stopped shoving her tongue down my brother's throat long enough to flash a grin and a thumbs up. "On it."

Emmett pulled the girl back into Bella's room and shut the door behind him. Bella shook her head and turned around. She stopped short when she saw I was still there. Her smile was shy. "Guess I'm sleeping on the couch."

As she brushed by me, my mind snapped on again. Out of instinct, I grabbed her around the wrist and drew her back to me. I was momentarily shocked by her nearness but recovered quickly. I took a step back and let her go. "Sorry. Alice is asleep on the couch."

"Really? I thought for sure she'd be with you tonight."

"I… Why would you think that?"

"Err. Well, Emmett and Jasper told me you and she are on again, off again."

I laughed. "Emmett and Jasper aren't as well informed about anything as they think they are." I shook off the annoyance. It was late, and I was tired. "It's the opposite, really. I would bring her to my room except Alice gets a little handsy when she's drunk, and since we both agreed we'd rather be friends than lovers, I'd rather avoid that scenario.

"Anyway. Long story very short, you can sleep in my room if you'd like. The sheets haven't been used for more than sleeping. I promise."

She looked as though she was going to argue, but when she opened her mouth, she yawned. "I'm way too tired to say no, but you're not going to pull any of this sleeping on the floor crap. We're both adults." She took me by the hand and pulled me along behind her before I could protest.

I should have said something. My feelings for her were changing, and that was bound to make things complicated. But I was dead on my feet and a little bit tipsy besides. I let her pull me into bed.

She was beautiful, and in my sleepy state, I was content to have her close. Having her there, it was obvious how much I'd been trying not to feel this pull for her. I had no idea what I was going to do about it, if anything, but I couldn't deny it was there.

"So Alice," she said with a yawn as she settled, her hands tucked under her cheek.

My stomach twisted and my defenses raised. I forced myself to take a deep breath and remember Bella wasn't like everyone else. "You were great with her tonight. She takes people off guard, and they don't usually react well." And I hadn't minded the view either. I was only a man, after all, with eyes on top of that.

"You love her," she said.

"I...what?"

"I don't mean you're in love with her. I mean you care for her. You're attached."

I was quiet a moment, wondering how much to divulge. "I know she's a little off, but there are reasons for that. She gets a lot of crap when she's really a very sweet girl."

"She's like you, isn't she?"

"What do you mean?"

"Hurting." Even in the low light of the room, I could see her eyes were open and on me. "I would listen, you know. If you ever wanted to talk. It helps."

"Does it?" Suddenly I wondered if there was a reason she was able to see people, see Alice and me, the way she did. Did pain recognize itself in others? The made my heart ache. I had to fold my arms tight across my chest to stop myself from reaching out to her. Instead, I said, "Same goes, you know. If you ever need someone to talk to."

She sighed. Her eyes were closed and her words thick with sleep. "I know, but I don't want to."

Only a second later her breaths evened out leaving me to wonder what it was she was hiding.

A/N: Much thanks to my lovely Bella, awesome partner. And thanks to songster for beta work. Much heart everyone.