A/N: Ah, I guess I can't stick to a simple schedule! Damn me. So here's chapter three, no song to go along with it. My friend Miranda helped a lot with it. Hi Miranda! She's going to co-author a story with me. :) You'll be hearing a lot about her.

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Twilight. Kinda obvious that I don't. Steph's a genius.

Chapter Three – Reunions and a Jealous Edward.

I had a restless night of sleep. My dreams were filled with bright blue eyes and brown hair that morphed into green eyes and bronze hair. Happy already that I didn't have that dream, I hummed to myself as I hopped gracelessly into the shower. Still humming as I blow-dried my hair (something I didn't do too often), I didn't notice Alice eying me with an amused expression on her face.

"What?" I asked self-consciously. Had I put my shirt on backwards? Underwear over pants…? Anything?

"Oh, nothing. You seemed to have a good time with Aaron last night, is all," she smiled.

Groaning, I replied, "It was nothing. I needed a ride home and Aaron offered. That's all." Memories of his hand trailing down my cheek made me blush. She giggled.

"But you want something to happen," she concluded.

"Yes," I blushed a harsher shad of red.

"And anyway, I heard from Edward he offered you a ride, but you declined. Any reasoning behind that?" she eyed me suspiciously.

"He's a jackass. And besides, I thought you were mad at him?"

"I still care about him."

"Ah. I see," I didn't want to get into a fight with Alice, I'd rather spend my time with her elsewhere. Suddenly, I heard Alice loudly clap her hands.

"Okay! Your birthday party! We still need to go shopping!" I groaned. The party was tonight, and everyone was invited. Everyone. The geeks and nerds, the jocks, even the 'queen bee', Lauren Mallory and her two cronies, Jessica and Victoria. All three we hate. They know better than to mess with Rose or Alice, but to them, I'm fair game. Rosalie and Jasper's parents own a house around this area and they were kind enough to lend it to Alice for the party. As long as she cleans up afterward, they're fine with it. Mr. and Mrs. Hale aren't your typical parents; they're insanely cool and rich. They treat their kids with respect, and like they're their friends, while still parenting them. I had to admit, Jazz and Rose were lucky.

"We're going shopping in about half an hour, so I expect you in my room in… two minutes. Got it?" she said fiercely.

"Yes, ma'am," I fake saluted, pretended to march out, awkwardly, with my sense of balance.

Five hours and twenty million some shopping bags later, we were home.

"Food!" I charged for the tiny mini-fridge we had in our room. Much to my dismay, it was completely empty except for a water bottle.

"Nuh-uh-uh!" Alice scolded. I pouted. No food? How would I survive another six hours without any food?

"But Alice! I need food!" I whined, sounding like a five-year-old.

She merely smiled. "Not if you want to eat your cake, sweetie."

"Fine," I snapped. "I'm going to the café." I ran out of the room as fast as I could, looking behind me the entire time. I wasn't really going to the cafeteria, I was just trying to mess with her. Hopefully she knew that. Of course, me being me, I ran into someone and almost fell, but was caught by surprisingly familiar strong arms. Aaron.

"Oh! Th-thanks Aaron. Sorry I ran into you," I blushed.

"That's twice I've saved you from falling." He laughed. "Are you seriously that clumsy?" I opened my mouth to answer only to find that someone else did.

"Believe me, she really is." Alice. I was going. To. Kill. Her.

"Alice," My teeth were clenched. "What are you doing here?"

" Well, I couldn't let you go and eat at the cafeteria," she said like it was the most obvious thing. "So I brought you a bag of chips. That's all you're allowed to eat until the party. And speaking of party," She looked at Aaron. "You're coming, right Air?"

He smiled at his nickname and looked at me as he said "Definitely. Oh, and happy belated birthday, Bella. You never told me yesterday was your birthday."

I blushed. "Thank you."

"So, Bella, we have to go now and decorate!" Alice squealed and pulled me away, making sure I didn't trip.

I threw an apologizing glance at Aaron and he smiled a contagious smile. My breathe caught and I smiled back at him, he was gorgeous. I had that same stupid smile plastered on my face when we got to the Hale's house, when we were decorating, it was when it was almost time for the party that Alice started hounding me with questions.

"Bella! You've had that same silly grin on your face for hours! Tell me, what is it?" Alice was excited for some gossip.

I sighed, I didn't want her to spread around a rumor that wasn't true, something that was merely a figment of my imagination. "It's nothing. Just… just thinking about something."

"Think about something or someone?" she gave me a knowing look.

"Yeah," was my brilliant response. The bell suddenly rang and the cliché 'saved by the bell' fit perfectly.

I opened the door and was surprised to see Jacob Black, old-best-friend extraordinaire standing on the doorstep. He certainly did grow up from that lanky little kid that had a crush on me.

"Jacob," was all I could gasp.

"Hey, Bells. Miss me?" he smiled his trademark smile.

(Yeah, I was going to end it right here, but I decided that was too mean. I love you all. :3 Plus, this chapter is out super late. Eek, majorly sorry about that.)

"I… you… what? Yeah," I couldn't get out a proper sentence. When he heard me reply 'yeah,' he probably thought that was the answer to the 'miss me?' "No, no," I quickly added, "What are you doing here?" His smile disappeared.

"I missed you Bells, I missed my best friend. Charlie missed you too." He was playing the Charlie card.

"Awe, Jake. You know I missed you both too. You're my best friend," I tried to emphasize the last two words, "How's Forks and the Rez?"

"Good, good. Same boring thing, except," he blushed.

"What? Tell me Jake! Do you have a girlfriend or something?" I winked.

"Uhm, actually, yeah. I do," he smiled distantly.

"Awe, Jake! What's her name? She must be pretty amazing to be able to snag you," I elbowed him.

"Leah. Yeah, she is amazing. You should meet her Bella! She's so beautiful, I just…" he was speechless, a good sign. He really did like this girl.

"So you're over me now?" I pouted, jokingly.

"Never," he joked back. "You're almost like my little sister, Bella." He saw my glare at 'little' so he rolled his eyes and said "Fine, big sister."

"Better be, little brother." I smiled smugly at the two-year age difference.

Jake just rolled his eyes.

An hour or so later, with Jacob's help, the decorations were up and people were starting to come. I was lucky that Alice hadn't made me dress up. Instead, she gave me a long brown flowing skirt and a white tank top with matching sandals. I graciously thanked her and wandered around the party with Jacob, his arm around my waist in a brotherly way, stopping every so often to thank people for coming. I was about to go say hi to Edward, but noticed the under-dressed blonde clinging to his arm. He seemed happy enough, being surrounded by half-naked girls, so I let him be. No need to get mad at my own party. I saw Aaron coming towards me, two cups in hand, and took Jake's arm off of me and walked over to him.

"Hey," I smiled.

"Hey yourself," he looked over at Jake with interest. "Hey, I'm Aaron. So, uh, you Bella's boyfriend?" I looked at Aaron in shock. Jake? My boyfriend?

Jake just laughed. "Nah man. She's an old childhood friend. And I already have me a girl back home," Aaron looked relieved.

"Congratulations. So, Bella. Do you have a boyfriend?" I laughed, he was pretty straight-forward.

"Nope. Not yet." He grinned.

"Could I do something about that?" his smile caught my breath for the millionth time today.

"That depends," I teased, "Who do you have in mind?"

"What would you say to dinner and a movie with me, say tomorrow, at six?"

I smiled, "I think I'd say sure."

He grinned. I didn't notice Jacob had given us our privacy until he moved to put an arm around my waist. "How 'bout a dance with me, birthday girl?" he whispered in my ear. My God, his voice was so alluring.

"Sure," I breathed. Breathe, Bella, breathe.

We swayed in time to the music while talking about little things. Aaron was so easy to talk with, to be with. I had dates and boyfriends before, but none that were as easy as my… relationship, for lack of better word, with Aaron. We could talk for hours on end and not notice. It felt like I'd known him all my life rather than a day or two. I was discussing with him how I thought it was stupid that Vanilla Ice stole the bass line from Queen's 'Under Pressure' for 'Ice Ice Baby,' claiming that the little 'ding' made such a difference. He agreed profusely.

It was then that Alice stopped the music and announced to that it was my birthday. "And here she is, the birthday babe herself, Bella!" I blushed furiously and glared at Alice. What was she doing? "Come on, Bells! Speech! Speech!" she began chanting, other people following her lead.

I groaned, but headed to where Alice stood in the middle of the living room, also to the middle of attention.

"Well, you all know me! Bella, yeah, my birthday was yesterday." I wasn't quite sure what to say. Thank them for coming and tell them to have a good time? "if I had my way, I wouldn't even have had this party, but you do have to admit, Alice did a great job with the house." She really did, it looked like a club on the inside, but still with the classic touch of elegance Alice always brought with her. "Thanks for coming, oh and have a great time. Cake's on the table!" I blushed more before practically running back to Jake's waiting arms.

"Oh my god," I moaned, "that was horrible!" I was mumbling into his chest.

He chuckled, "at least you didn't trip Bells! Come on, it wasn't that bad…" He smiled. I turned around and saw furious emerald eyes glaring at Jake who then locked with my wide-eyed brown ones. Edward. He was staring at me unashamedly, completely ignoring the blonde who was throwing herself at him. I blushed and turned away, disgusted that he was such a player.

"Hey Bella! Nice, uh, speech." Aaron grinned his contagious smile.

"Ha, thanks Air." Sarcasm.

"Awe, come on Bella, it was okay!" He pulled me into a hug, surprising me. We hardly knew each other but it felt right. I lightly squeezed him back an he moved so only one arm was around my shoulders. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prick up with the feeling of someone watching me and looked around to see Edward glaring daggers at Aaron. If looks could kill… I saw a million emotions showing in his eyes, anger, confusion… jealousy? Could Edward possibly be jealous? That made me happy. He was jealous of every guy around me? I felt myself smile at the thought. No! I scolded myself. I would not be Edward's next 'toy.' I glared back at him and he looked taken aback. I gritted my teeth to stop from marching over there and slapping him.

Dammit, Edward! It was my party and I didn't need any drama. I resisted the urge to make him more jealous, maybe jealous enough for him to leave, by kissing Aaron on the cheek. Instead, I asked Aaron to take me home.

"I'm not feeling very well." He nodded.

"Must be the cake… Let's go tell Alice."

As we left, I felt eyes on me again and turned to see Edward's confused and bewildered (ha, Miranda!) eyes.

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