Hello, everybody! I can't talk for too long right now. I am supposed to be going over my textbooks (bleh) before school starts, but that seems too boring when I have a laptop right in front of me. I'm going to be in so much trouble if my mom catches me. I'm risking my freedom to update another chapter for you guys, so please leave reviews!

I own Twilight! Oh, wait, that's just the name of my imaginary cat. (I know, I'm crazy.) I do not own Twilight that you guys are thinking about. That particular Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

I sat down and patted the space next to me. Alice approached me cautiously, watching my response.

"Well?" she inquired after a few minutes of waiting patiently.

I looked up into Alice's dark gold eyes. She was monitoring my every move and reading every emotion that flashed across my face before I got a better control over it. I knew Alice wasn't someone who could be fooled easily. Seven months ago, I would have laughed at anyone who even tried.

However, I was more skilled in lying now. I had fooled countless friends, family, and even Jacob into believing that I was completely over Edward. Of course, I might have suceeded only because I believed that I was over him myself. I knew that there was a very good chance of failing, but I had to try.

First, I focused on changing my face back to the way it had been before she had told me why she was in my room. Alice knew me well enough to read what I was feeling by looking at my eyes, so I forced every emotion but indifference to leave. Next, I repeated, "Don't blush, don't blush, don't blush," in my head. Finally, I took a small breath to calm myself down.

Looking down at my hands to feign remorse, I whispered, "I'm sorry, Alice, but I don't think you'll be able to influence my decision."

"Why?" she demanded.

I got off the bed and went through my make up bag to look for a hairband. I had learned from past experiences that I couldn't keep a blush out of my face when someone was staring at me the way Alice was staring right now. I saw the black hairband I was looking for a few seconds after I started the search, but I pretended not to notice it. When I couldn't put off anymore, I pulled the hairband out of the bag, pulled my almost-dry hair into a pony tail, took a deep breath, and turned to face her. "Because I've already made a decision."

Many expressions crossed Alice's face. Shock, disbelief, denial, indecision, and a bit of understanding before she suppressed her emotions with indifference. "You have?"

"Yes, I have." Keep the answers as short as possible, Bella.

"Oh. Well, who's the lucky guy?" she pressed without much interest.

I worked on keeping the blush away. I was close to winning her over, and I wouldn't let a blush ruin everything. I tried to sound sorry, and I was sure I did okay. "I'm very sorry, Alice. You're my best friend, but I really think Edward and Jacob deserve to know first."

She stared at me, and I stared back. I had almost won her over. Just a few seconds . . .

"Fine," she said at last. I didn't sigh in relief. I had messed up quite a few lies by doing so. Instead, I sat back down on my bed, grabbed the pillow, and hugged it like I would with a giant stuffed teddy bear.

When Alice continued to stay silent, I grew a bit nervous. What if she was still questioning my lie? What if she convinced me that Edward was right for me, but after becoming a vampire I realized Jake was who I should have chosen? I had to make this decision on my own.

To stop the reconsidering Alice was probably doing in her head, I asked, "How many nights are you staying? Not that I want you to leave."

Alice smiled at me. I almost sighed, relieved, but caught myself just in time. "Jasper and I are leaving at six in the morning tomorrow."

"Does anyone know you guys are here?"

"No. Everyone else was hunting and I knew they wouldn't get back for another two days. If we leave tomorrow morning, we can get back home and dispose of all the evidence that might give away the fact that Jasper and I were visiting you in Jacksonville right in time."

I frowned. "Why didn't you tell them?"

"If I told them and Edward came back or something, it would make him a bit suspicious to hear all of us trying to keep him out of our heads," she rolled her eyes.

"Oh," I answered lamely. She didn't say anything.

A loud knock made me jump on the bed, jostling it, but Alice wasn't surprised at all. She didn't even blink! Oh, wait, psychic. Yeah.

"Bella?" I heard Renee call right outside the door. I turned to Alice to tell her to hide, but she wasn't next to me on the bed like she had been a second ago.

"Come in, Mom," I called back.

The door opened a tiny crack, and Renee poked her head through it. "I was just wondering if you wanted any ice cream. It's hotter than ususal tonight and I didn't want you to feel the need to book a plane ticket out of here by tomorrow."

"That's fine, Mom," I lied easily. I actually wanted ice cream very badly. Jacksonville felt like a huge, steaming bathroom after living in Forks for such a long time. "I'll get some for myself later if I need to."

I expected her, or more like wanted her, to leave me alone, but she only opened the door a bit more to squeeze through the opening. As she sat down at the foot of my bed, I joked, "Mom, I won't kill you for opening the door. You didn't have to squeeze through a tiny opening like that."

Renee smiled. "I know. I've been working out over the past few weeks and I wanted to see how much stomach fat I had tightened up."

I jokingly pushed her stomach. "Mom, you don't need to lose any weight. And I'm not just saying that because I'm your daughter."

"I didn't say I needed to lose stomach fat. I just wanted to get some abs."

I laughed. "Sure, Mom. Let's see how long this one lasts."

Renee pouted for a second, but brightened up when she saw my make up bag. She jumped up, ran to retrieve it, opened it, and gasped. "Bella!" she exclaimed.

"What?"

She just looked at me. "You've finally learned the value of make up! Oh, honey, I'm so proud of you!" she yelled, giving me a hug. "How long have you been wearing make up?"

I sat her down on the bed and told her to calm down. "Mom, it's just make up." When I saw that she was about to object, I added, "I've been wearing some ever since my first date with Jacob."

Renee smiled widely. "I would really love to meet Jacob someday. Actually, when fly to Forks for your graduation, I have to meet him!" she giggled.

I smiled uncomfortably, but she didn't notice, too excited of the fact that her daughter was finally wearing make up. In a way, I was relieved. I didn't have to explain that Edward had showed up at the movies and asked me to take me back. And not to forget the fact that my current boyfriend had been born with a hatred towards the Cullens.

When I didn't answer, Renee snapped her fingers in front of my face. I blinked. "Earth to Bella?"

"I'm sorry. I'm just really tired," I said, faking a yawn. I had practiced fake-yawning to get out of talking to Charlie at night when I had done something wrong. Like running into a tree on my bike to hear Edward's voice or something. I had to answer to his questions in the morning, but my "sleepiness" bought me some time to come up with an excuse.

"Oh, I should let you sleep." Renee got up and walked towards the lamp. "We can do something fun tomorrow. You, me, Phil, and Anthony."

"Sure," I agreed, getting under the covers. Renee leaned down to drop me a kiss on my forehead.

"Goodnight," I whispered as she turned off the lamp.

"Goodnight, sweetie," she murmured, closing the door behind her.

Everything was still in the room for a second. Then, I heard the click of the lamp being turned on. I looked up, but didn't see Alice anywhere near the nightstand.

"Okay. How long are you planning to keep this up?" Alice said from the foot of my bed, making me jump. I straightened up, staring at her with confusion in my eyes.

Alice sighed. "Bella, I can't deny that you've gotten much, much better at lying, but you can't fool me. Especially not when I can see the future." I groaned. Damn it. I had forgotten all about that. "And just to let you know, your future is not set."

I didn't answer, leaning back and closing my eyes.

"Alice."

"Yes, Bella?"

"Can you promise me something?"

"No, Bella. You need to talk about this with someone."

I blinked at her. How did she know what - oh yeah, psychic. When I recovered from my shock, I said, "Alice, I really appreciate you coming all the way to Florida to convince me to choose Edward, but I have to make this decision on my own. What if I choose Edward, but realize that Jacob is the one I should have chosen when it's too late? And what if I only chose Edward in the first place because of what you told me, and not what I believed?"

I took deep breaths to calm myself down. I had gone a bit overboard with my outburst. "I'm sorry," I added to break the tense silence.

Alice shook her head. "No, you're right. I can't make these decisions for you. You have to make them without anyone bothering you about who you should choose. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You only wanted to help me. We can talk about something else," I smiled hesitantly.

She frowned. "I would love to chat, but I have to go."

"What?" I almost shouted. Alice had put her finger over her lips right before I opened my mouth. "You're leaving right now? I thought you weren't leaving until tomorrow morning," I said sadly. Who knew if Alice and I would meet again? If I didn't choose Edward, I would probably never see her again.

"Well, Jasper wants to talk to you and then he has to go hunt. I have to go with him. I'm sorry, Bella."

"Jasper wants to talk to me? Right now?"

She nodded. "He's right outside the window. Would you like him to come in?"

"Wait. I want to ask you one last thing," I whispered. I knew Jasper would still hear, but I wanted to keep this question between Alice and me as much as possible.

Alice smiled. "Of course, Bella. Even if you don't choose Edward, we'll still come see you every once in a while. We can exchange e-mail addresses. It's just . . . you won't be seeing me as often as you would if you chose Edward."

"Wouldn't it be hard for you to be my friend when I'm dating a werewolf, your mortal enemy, after breaking your brother's heart?"

Alice's smile didn't disappear, like I had expected it to, but it did get smaller, more forced. "It won't be easy, but we'll understand Bella. Don't worry." She leaned over to give me a hug that I returned wholeheartedly.

"Thank you, Alice, for being such a good friend," I whispered.

She got up. "You make one hell of a friend, too, Bella." We giggled. "I'll send Jasper in," she said, walking over to the window, squeezing through the small space gracefully, and disappearing into the dark.

I sat back down on my bed, waiting for Jasper. I giggled quietly, picturing Jasper trying to make it through the small hole of a window. I jumped three feet in the air when I heard a voice right behind me.

"What's so funny?"

"Jasper! You almost gave me a heart attack!" I whisper-shouted. He chuckled.

I crossed my arms and sat back down on the bed when I realized that I was standing up. Jasper came to sit next to me. "Why are you here?" I asked, a bit harsher than I had intended to, but he deserved it for scaring the crap out of me.

Even in the dim light coming from the small lamp, I could see his mouth pull down at the ends infinitesimally. I continued to stare at him, waiting patiently for him to speak.

"To apologize."

"For what? Scaring the hell out of me when I was least expecting it?"

"No."

"Then?"

"Bella, I know that you don't blame me for Edward's decision to leave Forks. But, no matter what you think, I need to apologize. Because if I had just hunted on the morning of your birthday, I might not have gotten as wild as I did at the sight of your blood. And maybe, if I had practiced being around you a bit more, I might have gotten used to the smell of your blood. I could have walked out of the room like Alice, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, and Edward did if I had just been more careful," he whispered the end.

"Jasper," I said sternly. He looked up, surprised by the tone of my voice, probably. "You have to stop blaming yourself. I can tell by the way you apologized just now that you've been thinking about this for a long time. To be completely honest, I think that's stupid. It's not my fault I'm human and it's not your fault you're a vampire. Please, please grasp that. You can't blame yourself for what you did because what you did was perfectly normal for a vampire. Please, Jasper, let this go," I pled.

He stared at me for a long time. I stared back fiercely. He needed to understand this.

Finally, he smiled. "Thank you, Bella."

I smiled back victoriously. I knew Alice would want to thank me for a good ten minutes for doing this: making Jasper see that it wasn't his fault Edward had left. He would have found some other reason to leave me, I thought bitterly. Jasper looked surprised by my sudden change in emotions, but I just smiled and whispered, "You're welcome."

Jasper seemed to hesitate about something, but when I gave him an encouraging smile, he hugged me tightly for a few short seconds. I returned it cautiously, not wanting to make him comfortable. To be honest, I was also a surprised. I knew Alice was a very hug-loving person, but I had never thought of Jasper as a very "Alice" person. He had always seemed so formal and stiff. I was more than happy to see what Jasper was really like.

When we pulled away, he told me to get under the covers. When I did, he turned off the lamp and whispered, "You would make a great addition to the family," before disappearing out the window.

How was that? I know, I know, I changed Jasper's personality a bit. Sorry to those who love Jasper just the way he is in Mrs. Meyer's books. Anyway, PLEASE leave reviews!