Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns these ovely characters, not me :(

Chapter nine: Getting back to the routine

Bella's pov

Edward and I spent the rest of the weekend hiding in his bedroom, mostly naked. We spent hours exploring each other's body, talking quietly about our hopes and dreams, our pasts and our family. Edward asked me to go home to Forks together for the holidays and to my own surprise I readily agreed.

It wasn't until Monday morning arrived that I realized we still had our classes to attend. Alice had been kind enough to drop of a bag of clothes late Sunday afternoon. Edward was sitting on the bed, only covered by a sheet up to his waist. He watched me intently as I got dressed for the day.

"You are so lucky with your classes that don't start until noon," I grumbled as I fished in my bag for a pair of socks.

"Ah, but you will be done at three, whereas I don't get out of class until seven."

I tapped my lip with my finger, pretending to think. "Still, I'd rather stay in bed with you."

He laughed. "You can always skip your morning classes."

"I would never do that and you know it. It's just as unlikely as you skipping your evening classes."

"You know me too well, love."

"And to think that's only after one weekend..." I teased, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"Hmmm and what a weekend," he purred.

"Don't you start with me, Cullen. I need to get ready, or I'm going to be late."

He laughed and raised his hands in surrender. "I'll behave, I promise."

He closed his eyes after that and let me get ready in my own pace. When I finished with my morning routine, I leaned over the bed so I could kiss him goodbye. For a moment I thought he was sleeping, but he quickly snapped his eyes open and pulled me down, half on top of him.

"I'm not sure I can let you go, love"

"You're going to have to, or I will be stuck in my room all night, trying to make up for the classes I missed."

"I could come over and keep you company."

"You're going to do that anyway, because the girls want me home tonight and I'm not willing to go all night without you."

"Sounds good. I'll come as soon as I'm done with my classes."

"Pack an overnight bag, we have another bed to try out."

He nodded eagerly and with one more long, languid kiss he finally let me go. I waved goodbye to him at the door and then jogged down the stairs, my backpack banging on my hip. I took a brief glance at my watch and grimaced at the time. I ran to get to class on time.

Just as I was turning the corner closest to my classroom, I tripped over my own two feet. I was sent sprawling forward, my pack crashing to the floor ahead of me, papers scattered all over the hallway.

Groaning at the pain in my knees and hands, I scrambled to get up and get my things back together.

"Let me help you with that," a gruff voice muttered.

I glanced up and saw a tall guy with dirty blond hair and icy blue eyes, crouching down, gathering my papers and stacking them together carefully.

"Thanks," I murmured, ashamed that my extreme clumsiness had been witnessed.

He simply shrugged, handed me the stack of papers and reach out a hand to help me up. I thanked him again, earning another careless shrug.

The man had bad boy written all over him, but something about him made me think twice before labelling him as one.

"Well, I have to get to class, so...." I trailed off, not really knowing what else to say.

When I turned around to walk away, I felt a soft touch on my shoulder. I looked back over my shoulder to see him watching me.

"You're Bella Swan, right?"

I nodded.

"I'm James Hunter, but that's not important. I know Jacob Black. Be careful around him."

Without any more explanation he turned on his heel and headed around the corner. I frowned at his empty spot. What the hell was that about?

Edward's pov

After Bella left, I stayed in bed for another half hour, before finally dragging my ass out of bed and hopping in the shower. Under the spray I let my mind go over all the great memories we made over the past two and a half days. Bella and I had fallen head over heels in love and despite both of us having trouble with our confidence, we had actually been pretty bold towards each other. I didn't know how it was possible, but I was happy that things had proceeded this quickly.

When I came downstairs after my shower, Emmett was hanging on the couch, nursing a large glass of ice-water.

"Hangover?" I asked quietly.

"No, heavy case of flue. Rosalie left me standing outside her door for three hours yesterday before she let me in. The rain didn't sit well with me."

"That sucks."

"Tell me about it. I've been puking my guts out all night."

"I didn't hear a thing."

"Of course you wouldn't. You were loud enough not to hear me."

I flushed. "Damn it, I need to remember to keep it down. Jacob told me the same thing yesterday morning."

Emmett snickered, then groaned and hurried out of the room, no doubt to pour over the toilet again. I briefly wondered if I should inform Rosalie his illness, but decided it would be best to discuss it with Bella first. Maybe Rosalie wasn't interested in Emmett at all. He had been an asshole towards her, after all.

Emmett came back a few minutes later, looking considerably more pale than a few minutes prior.

"Em, you need to get your ass back into bed and stay there."

"I can't. Rosalie wanted to go out to dinner tonight."

"Do you seriously think she's going to like it if her date has to run to the bathroom every ten minutes?"

His face fell. "You're right. I'll call her."

"Wait, if you do she might take it the wrong way. Let me call her for you."

He stared at me in shock, his mouth hanging open. "You'd do that for me?"

"Of course. You're pretty much the only friend I have around here."

"Dude, that's kind of sad…. We should get you out in public more."

I waved my hand dismissively. "I'm not a crowd type of guy and you know it."

"But it can be fun. Just give it a shot."

"We'll see. For now we need to make sure Rose feels sorry for your sick ass."

He barked a throaty laugh, before he dissolved in a coughing fit. I patted his shoulder before I walked out into the garden and pulled out my cell to call Rosalie. I kept my fingers crossed that she wasn't in class yet.

She picked up on the third ring.

"Hey, Rosalie. It's Edward Cullen. Can you talk for a minute?"

"Oh, hey, Edward. Sure, I just got out of class and have an hour until the next one."

"Good. Listen, I heard Emmett talking about going out on a date with you tonight."

She actually giggled. "Yeah, he hug out in front of our building until I let him in."

"Well, that's where the problem comes in."

"What problem?"

"Emmett's got a very bad case of the flue. He's been puking his guts out all morning."

"Oh, my god. How is he doing?"

"He'll live, but right now he's in no state to go out tonight. He didn't want to disappoint you, but I convinced him to let me call you and postpone the date."

"O, I feel so guilty now."

"Don't. He doesn't blame you for anything."

"Thanks for calling, Edward. I'll go see how he's doing tomorrow."

"I think he'll love that. I will probably see you tonight, Bella invited me over."

"Sure, see you tonight and tell Emmett to get better soon."

We said goodbye and I returned to Emmett to tell him what Rosalie had said. He thanked me again, but I waved him off. I needed to get ready for class anyway.

Bpov

The day in school was tedious. I wanted to be back in Edward's arms, but I was forced to spent time alone until later tonight. Throughout the day my short interaction with James Hunter kept popping back up into my head. I really wanted to hunt the guy down and make him explain exactly what he meant, but I was sure I didn't really want to hear it. I had managed to get over my infatuation with Jacob on my own and for now I could still see him as a halfway decent guy, but I was afraid of what James' story might do to change that.

When I was done with my classes I went home, as I had promised Alice and Rose. As I walked in the door, I could hear Alice singing along with the radio, while Rosalie was providing her background harmonies. I laughed to myself. Those girls were insane, but I loved them either way.

"Hey, Bells!" Alice greeted enthusiastically.

"Hey, Al. Rose. How was your weekend."

Alice started giggling. "We should be asking you that. How's Edward?"

I rolled my eyes when she wiggled her eyebrows. "He's wonderful."

"We need details, babe," Rose interjected before Alice could speak.

"Hey, that was my line!" she complained.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again. Instead, I went into the living room and flopped down on the sofa.

"What do you want to know?"

"Is he big?" Rose asked, smirking like she already knew it.

"Yes."

"Oh my god, how big?" Alice asked, squealing.

"Big enough to make me fear he'd never fit, but to be honest, I hardly have material to compare him too."

Alice waved her hands as if to calm a group of hysterical girls. "Show us with your hands."

I groaned. It wasn't that I didn't know, I was just a bit embarrassed how well I knew to show them how big Edward's goods were. I had only known him since Friday for crying out loud!

Taking a deep breath to suppress my sudden self-consciousness, I held up my hand to indicate his girth. "And..uhm. He longer than both my hands."

Rosalie gaped at my hands. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

She fanned herself. "I can only hope that Emmett won't be a let down after I've heard this."

Alice winked at me. "Looks to me like your boy knows what to do with it too. You look blissful."

"It's not just the sex that makes me smile like this. He's sweet and caring and really smart. And we're in love with each other."

The girls awed at the same time, causing me to go into a fit of laughter that just wouldn't stop. When I finally settled back down, they wanted to hear all about our weekend.

"Fine. When we got to his place on Saturday we really just wanted to go to his bedroom, but, of course Jacob was there."

The girls groaned. "What did he do?"

"He threatened to call my dad and ask his permission to shoot Edward. I beat him to it and called Charlie instead. Turns out, Edward's parents live in Forks too and Charlie is good friends with his dad. He practically begged me to go out with Edward every time I visited him over the past year."

"Get out of here, that is so freaky!"

"No it's not. It's just a coincidence."

Alice huffed. "I don't believe in coincidences. This was meant to be."

"Don't be ridiculous."

Rose intervened and told me to get on with the story.

"Okay, so Jacob stomps off and Edward and I go up to his room. We had sex and it was incredible."

"Didn't it hurt? I mean, my first time hurt like a bitch," Rose muttered.

"It hurt, but nothing too bad. He was really sweet and waited until the pain subsided before he moved."

"You are one lucky girl, Bella," Rose said quietly.

"I know," I whispered.

Epov

I managed to make it to the girls' apartment around nine. Classes ran late and Jacob was at the house when I came back, keeping me from packing my bag, by nagging me about going on a double date with him and a new girl he wanted to get into his bed. I refused, but he kept trying to talk me into it. I finally got away when he went to the bathroom.

When I walked up to their front door I could here them squealing and giggling. For just a moment I hesitated. Maybe they'd rather have a girl's night. But then I thought about Bella and I simply knocked.

A few moments later the door was forcefully yanked open, revealing a flushed, but smiling Bella.

"Hello, love."

"Hi," she said, throwing her arms around my neck.

I kissed her softly, while I picked her up off the floor and held her tight to me. A soft giggle broke us apart. We looked at each other, then smiled and turned to where Alice was beaming up at us.

"Come on, you love birds. Jasper is getting antsy to see this movie."

Bella grinned. "He picked it out. Apparently there is enough eye candy in in for us girls and enough action for you guys."

"What is it?"

"Transporter. He actually wanted to get all three movies in the series, but we convinced him that we'd rather have three movie nights than one extremely long one on a school night."

"Sounds reasonable," I laughed as I followed her into the living room.

She told me to drop my bag in her room, which I did before returning to find them all settled in, ready for the film. I grabbed Bella's sides and lifted her off the chair she was curled up in. I sat down with her on my lap a second later.

Bella kissed the side of my neck. "I love you," she whispered in my ear.

"I love you too. Now let's watch this movie, shall we?"

She nodded and returned her attention to the tv. I caught Jasper's gaze. He gave me a nod and an approving smile. I guess I had been approved.

A/N: It's been a while, but I hope there will still be some readers out there that were hoping to see another chapter to this story. I have renewed inspiration for this one, so I hope to get the chapters out quicker from now on.

Thank you for reading and please let me know what you think.