Ms. Meyer owns it. I just play with it.

A Night Out

"Bella! Over here!" I heard Rose calling my name over the crowd in the small bar.

I never knew what it was called because the name of the place wasn't up anywhere, but in a town this small it was the only bar so it didn't matter. It was only big enough to seat about 50 people max. The small size is why it was one of our favorite places to go whenever we were both home.

The walls were decorated with random beer advertisements and photos of just about anything as long as it was old. If they played any music it was low enough to be easily talked over, and there were no pool tables or dart board. Basically it was used for drinking and talking, that was it. Though I noticed they must have recently put in a TV by the bar. I walked to the table where she sat with a martyred expression.

"You're late." Rose scolded me at the same time she hugged me.

"I know, I'm sorry. I was having dinner with my mom and the place was pretty crowded so we got held up. Speaking of crowded ... What's going on in here tonight?"

"I forgive you. I don't know, looks like they were having an old man convention. " She gestured around the room, and sure enough, it was full of forty and fifty-something men. There were only three other women in the bar, and they worked there.

"Ah. I see. And how many free drinks have you had so far?"

"Just two. I wanted to wait for you before I got completely tanked. You know, in case someone here thought they might want to bundle me up and lock me in their basement."

"Good thinking. From the looks of it, you might not have been too far off." Several men stared at our table, and a few didn't look too sane. "Although I may not have tried to stop them from taking you." I smiled and chuckled.

"Are you STILL holding on to that? We go through this every time we see each other. Let it goooo." A very amused expression played across her face.

In middle school I had a slumber party for my fourteenth birthday. I only invited three girls, which turned out to be two too many. While I was in the shower the other girls convinced Rose it would be fun to pull a prank on me. They snuck in to the bathroom while I was showering and removed my clothes and all the towels. I had to come out completely naked and shivering like crazy. It wasn't funny then, probably closer to absolutely mortifying, but it was funny now. Scarred me for life though. Now I can't even stand to be completely naked in a room by myself. After showers I even put my bra on over my towel before I will pull it down. Of course that doesn't even happen until I have my underwear on underneath.

"Here, I already ordered you a beer." Rose slid an ice cold Bud Light towards me.

"Ugh. I would love to have that with you, but my mom is sleeping and I don't want to bug her for a ride home. Not to mention that you'll need a ride yourself. It's your turn anyway."

"That's right, you got to drink the last time. I had almost forgotten." She raised her bottle from the table and said, "Here's to best friends that let you drink yourself silly, then drive you home, and hopefully never tells anyone what you say while you are intoxicated."

Rose and I laughed out loud at the recalled conversations that we had when either one or the both of us were drunk. We always swore we would never repeat those conversations or hold the inebriated party responsible for what they said. Being that our voices were decidedly different it caught every ones attention and you could hear the lull in conversation. That made us laugh even more.

"So how is your mom doing? I haven't seen her since the last time you were home."

"You know, I think something is going on with her, but I can't figure out what."

"What makes you think so?"

"Well, when we were at dinner tonight she kept acting like she wanted to tell me something but, never got around to saying it. It was like she kept changing her mind at the last minute. Part of me thinks she might have a boyfriend, but she doesn't know how I'll take it."

"How would you take it?"

"I don't know. I know she loves my dad and she always will. No one could ever replace him, and it would be really weird to see her with another guy, but if it makes her happy then I think I'd be okay."

"Well, let's just hope she snags one of those good looking single doctors at the hospital."

"Yes, lets. Let's also hope that he has a large inheritance and no other living relatives to speak of."

As the night came and went so did the drinks. Rose was drunk, but I'd seen her worse. The best part of it all was that we hadn't had to pay for a single thing we ordered. There was a table of older gentlemen seated about two tables down that were entertained enough by our laughing and Rosalie's pretty face that they were content to watch our good time from a distance. For now. I knew at least one of them would come over before the night ended. Although I was used to the extra attention when I was with her, it still made me uncomfortable. I didn't like to be looked at.

We had talked for two hours straight about where we had been and what we had been doing. The conversation eventually took a natural course towards relationships. I participated in that part as little as possible, hoping it was just enough to keep her interest in my love life at bay. Apparently not.

"So, Bella, are you dating anyone right now?" Rose looked genuinely interested, but I didn't want to get in to it.

"No, I am perfectly happy being single right now. I have no desire to date anyone for the time being," I said. Hopefully that would make an effective end to that specific line of questioning. Again, I was proven wrong.

"Oh my God, what ever happened to Edward Masen? I thought you two were gonna end up married with fifty babies by now."

I looked down at the table and thought about how to best answer that question. I stuttered with a beginning twice before I sighed and said, "I broke up with him during my sophomore year of college and haven't talked to him since. You know that. I don't know where he is or what he's doing. I would be the last person to know what he's up to. "

"Really? Your mom hasn't heard anything?" I was confused by the fact that she looked confused. I chalked it up to the three martinis and two beers she'd had.

"Trust me, if my mom knew anything she would have told me by now. She's not the best at keeping that kind of stuff to herself. Then again, I haven't asked."

Just then I felt someone standing behind my shoulder. We looked up at the man, probably mid 40's, and not terribly unattractive. He was one of the group that had been sending drinks to our table. Here we go.

"Hey ladies. Me and my friends been waitin' for ya'll to come over and thank us all evenin'. What's takin' so long?" He sounded like he had been smoking his entire life, and smelled like it too.

"Didn't you know that it takes women seventy five percent more time to get ready than men? We're going to make the most of our dedication and sit here for a while so others can enjoy our efforts." I hoped he would take the hint.

He snickered, "We ain't picky. It's only fair to come thank the men that's been droppin' money on you all night."

I laughed, "Well, you know women are bad with directions. We didn't want to get up from the table because we were afraid we would get lost on the way over there."

I suddenly realized that a joking, soft blow-off probably wasn't going to work with this guy. I did feel bad that they had been paying for everything and I was going to have to be rude. Also, I really, really dislike confrontations.

Just then two guys, about our age, and not unfortunate looking at all, walked in. The sound of the door opening caught my attention. The look on my face must have been something because the taller one got an amused expression and then started heading in our direction, trying to ascertain what was happening. It was obvious that we were more than a bit uncomfortable.

The older gentleman hadn't been affected by either of my brush off attempts, "Me and the fellas were 'bout to go grab a smoke in the parkin' lot. You ladies wanna come?"

"Hey, great, you guys are still here. We were afraid we'd missed you." The guy who had been eavesdropping promptly sat beside me, threw his arm over my shoulder, and said to Rose, "Sam's up at the bar getting us some beers."

I turned to look at him and smiled, "We've been waiting for you all night. What took so long?"

"Oh, you know how it is for policemen. My job is my life, I was giving my chief the rundown on what happened when I shot that perp yesterday."

"Oh, well I hope it all went okay." I hugged him for effect, which surprised me because I'm not the type of person that likes physical contact. Especially with strangers.

When I released him, he looked up to the other gentleman who was still standing there, watching what was happening. "Is there something we can help you with sir?"

"Naw, I was just headin' back to my buddies." He nodded to Rose and me, "You ladies have a good night." He turned and walked back to his table where his friends were laughing. They all got up and left the bar.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Bella, and this is my friend Rosalie." I held out my hand for him to shake it.

"Pleasure is all mine. My name is Jacob, and this is Sam." Just then his friend pulled up a seat beside Rose.

"Dude, you're working fast tonight." He handed Jacob a beer,

"No, these to ladies just needed a little help is all. Just saving a couple of damsels in distress."

"I think that we had it under control, but thanks for your concern." I was surprised at Rosalie's tone. Normally she wouldn't mind the company of a cute guy. Maybe it was the drinking, but whatever is was, she wasn't being very friendly.

"Don't I know you? Yeah, you work with a buddy of mine." Sam was talking to Rose. "Do you know Jason Jenks?"

Rose replied and the two of them began a somewhat amicable conversation. I couldn't believe that she wasn't being more polite since they did help us out. Maybe the other guys had freaked her out a little bit.

Not wanting to be rude, and still a little grateful, I turned to Jacob. "So, you're a cop?"

"No, no. I am not a cop, my dad runs a very small horse farm on the outskirts of the reservation at La Push and we're on a run for him." He smiled a little at my interest. "That was just for your man-friend's benefit."

"Ah, I see. Nothing like the threat of a trigger happy, psycho cop to scare off the crazies."

He laughed. "It worked on me before so I thought I would give it a try."

"So you stalk pretty young girls in bars often enough that you know what threats work to get rid of people. I should be scared." I took a sip of my water.

He chuckled, "Ouch. That hurt. I am not a stalker just an observer. You aren't drinking?"

"No, don't want to chance getting pulled over by one of the cops like you."

"You are full of jokes aren't you?" He had turned his body completely towards me and was leaning closer to me.

"Well, that's me. The funny friend with the great personality. Rosalie over there is the looker in this relationship so I have to work with what I've got." I looked at Rose and she and Sam were getting along a bit better, but she wasn't paying him as much attention as he obviously would have liked. A touch on my hand pulled my attention back to Jacob.

"I wouldn't go that far. You're personality isn't that great, and you're jokes aren't that funny. You must be prettier than you give yourself credit for." He was obviously joking.

I looked away and shook my head, smiling. I had been so used to avoiding being around guys that I hadn't seen where this was going until it was way too late. Now he thought I was flirting, and maybe I was, but I didn't want him to get the wrong idea.

"Not me, I'm a realist."

"So do you live around here?" He was obviously interested, I needed to back off a bit.

"Um, yeah. I just moved back home with my mother this morning. I don't have a job." There, that should slow him down a bit.

"You should get a job where they sell fishing gear."

I had no idea what he meant. "What? Why?"

"Because I'm buying you hook, line, and sinker."

I burst out laughing. I couldn't help it. It had to be the single worst come on line I had ever heard. He was laughing too.

"See, I have some jokes of my own, I knew you would laugh with me." Thank goodness he had been joking.

I had to take a deep breath and said, "Oh no, you've got it all wrong. I'm not laughing with you, I'm laughing AT you."

Jacob started looking around me for something.

"What are you looking for?"

"The skin you must have shed to get in here. There is some venom in you. It burns!"

"Ah, clever. I'm mean as a snake. I get it." I shook my head at him. "You should bring a flute with you next time, maybe you could charm me in to doing a little dance for you."

WHAT THE HELL did I just say? Where did my mental filter go? I hadn't even been drinking.

"Hey, Bella, I'm not feeling too good all of the sudden. Can we go?" I looked at Rose and she was looking pretty uncomfortable. Saved by the drunk girl. Thank God I could still leave with some dignity.

"Yeah, of course. It was nice to meet you Jack, I mean Jacob, sorry. You too, Sam, was it? You guys have a good trip." I stood up and grabbed my bag and helped Rose out of her chair.

"Hey, if I give you my number will you promise to call me sometime?" Jacob had stood too and was watching me with a hopeful expression.

He had been very nice, and he'd made me laugh, so I didn't want to hurt his feelings. "Sure, just write it down for me." I knew I wouldn't be calling him. I so didn't need that in my life right now.

He wrote it on a clean napkin along with his name. I looked at it closer and noticed that he had included his home address and an email as well. "My my, somebody must be desperate."

"No, just thorough. Do you need some help getting her to the car?"

"No thanks, we've got it. I appreciate your help. Goodnight."

"Good night."

Rose and I turned to go. When we reached the exit I could feel that it had gotten a bit cooler out than I had expected.

I led the way down the sidewalk to my car. It was a three year old Toyota 4-Runner. I didn't need a car that big, but my dad bought it for me the year before he passed away. He also left me a nice chunk of change from his life insurance policy. I hadn't touched any of it though. It was sitting in the bank, waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. Procrastinating again, I guess.

"Take me home driver. I have a empty apartment to get to."

"Where's your sister? " Rose shared an apartment ten minutes outside of town with her older half-sister Vicky. Their father had left Vicky's mother for Rose's mom. Rose wasn't quite planned so her sister was eight years her senior. Aside from DNA they didn't have much in common, but it was a place to live.

"Oh, she went to see her mom in Tacoma. She won't be back in town until Sunday."

"Why don't I just stay with you tonight? I haven't seen you in forever, plus we can talk since we didn't really get to earlier."

"Umm, no, that's probably not a good idea. Vicky is really weird about people being in the apartment. She's so OCD about it that she probably rigged the place with cameras."

"Okay, so come stay with me then."

"Fine by me, but you're cooking me breakfast in the morning."

"Deal."

We chatted on the way home and pulled in to my mom's driveway about an hour later. We went in the house and crept quietly down the hallway to my room. There was a note taped to my door.

Bella, your brother called. He's coming by to get some

of his equipment in the morning. Be up early for breakfast.

Hope you had a good time. How is Rose?

Love, Mom.

"Oh hey look, Emmett is coming by tomorrow. Looks like you'll get breakfast, and I won't even have to cook it."

"Fantastic, I hope your mom makes some of those fried potatoes. Those are the best."

I shut the door to my room and turned to go to my dresser. Rose was already there going through my clothes. I wasn't going to stop her since she was now fully undressed except for her underwear.

I laughed at her, topless, rummaging through my drawers with one eye shut and the other barely squinted open.

"Do you ever keep those things holstered?" We were close enough that she never minded being that way around me, but I never felt comfortable doing the same. I didn't even like seeing myself naked, I couldn't imagine being that way in front of someone else with the lights on.

"If you don't help me find a shirt I WILL sleep in your bed like this."

"Disgusting. I don't know why I'm friends with you." I laughed while I opened another drawer and handed her a tank top and pajama shorts.

I grabbed a set for myself and changed, then plopped down on the bed beside her and turned off the light. I laid there and started working to relax my muscles. I had a bad habit of tensing up for no reason. Just as I was about to drift off Rose asked, "Why did you turn the lights off?"

"So I could go to sleep?"

"Yeah, yeah. I know what you are doing. Spill."

"About what?"

"I never pushed you about it back then because I could tell you were hurt. To be honest I hadn't thought about it in a long time until tonight, but it's been four years and it's time you gave up the goods. What went on with you and Edward?"

Crap. I was hoping to avoid doing this tonight. She was right though. I had purposefully not talked about it for a long time so that I wouldn't have to re-hash everything. There was no way to tell the whole story because I wasn't even sure what the whole story was. Damn her for bringing him up.

"Well, long story short, I had an early mid-life crisis, broke up with him , then avoided his calls until he left me alone."

"I know you don't think I'm going to settle for that. Start at the beginning and go from there."

I heaved out a sigh. "I don't know what happened exactly. I started freaking out about being engaged so young, and I knew that if I put the engagement on hold he would be upset, and then he wouldn't trust me if I told him it was just because I needed time to grow up. So the only conclusion I could come to at the time was to break up with him and save him the pain of not trusting me."

"Wow that sucks rocks, Bella."

"I know."

"You seriously never tried to talk to him about it? Or me?"

"No, like I said, I know how he would have reacted and I was too hurt and ashamed to talk to anyone else about it."

"You do realize that you could have been completely wrong about the whole thing right?"

"I didn't at the time, but I did later. It was too late at that point and I didn't want to hurt or confuse him anymore than I already had, so... Doesn't matter, what's done is done."

"Again, wow. The way you used to talk about him I always thought you would have done anything for him. You know, true love and all that jazz."

"So did I. "

"Is that why you don't date anymore?"

"Not really, that was four years ago. I dated around for a while, but I honestly got tired of the whole thing. Getting to know someone and then finding out they are completely different than you thought just grew old. Not to mention I hated the game playing. It was always funny when I told guys I didn't like to play games, because then they tried to figure out what game I was playing. I didn't want to waste any more time on it. I'm happy for now, and that's enough. When I get lonely enough I'll jump back in to it."

"Well, let me know when you decide. I'm sure we can find a certain Native American boy that would take a heartless girl like you."

"Aww, thanks. I hate to think that he's gonna be waiting for a call that will never come."

"Huh?"

"I'm not in the right frame of mind to be dating anyone. He was nice, cute, and funny, but I don't plan on seeing him ever again.

" I can't believe you are going to waste a completely good phone number, and email, and home address." She laughed.

"Me? What about you, his friend seemed nice enough and you wouldn't even give him the time of day. Maybe that old guy should have stayed, I'm sure he would have been more than happy to occupy your attention tonight."

"Shut up and go to sleep."

We both giggled and then quieted back down. A few minutes later I could hear her breathing slow and I knew she was asleep. I laid there and continued to think about Edward and wondered idly where he was and what he was doing. I hoped that he was happy where ever he was, and that I hadn't scarred him for life when it came to women.

I closed my eyes and drifted slowly in to a restless sleep.