A/N: I had to split the next two chapters in half. It turned out to be the longest chapter I have ever written at around 16 pages. I felt it was a bit of an eye sore for posting it all at once.

Disclaimer: S. Meyer owns it all.

-oo-

Ch. 2

Five years earlier…

November 2004

"Bella"

I groaned, further burying my head into my warm pillow.

"Bella, wake up. Alice is on the phone." I registered the voice as Charlie.

I gave a few short moans before rolling over and facing him. I blinked a few times and noted that the clock read 8:15 p.m. I quickly did the math in my head and guessed that I had been asleep for over three hours.

I quickly stuck out my hand from under the covers for the phone. Once Charlie handed it over, he quickly exited the room.

I held the receiver to my head, but I made some sort of grunting noise in a form of a greeting.

"Bella! How are you feeling? You missed so much at school today…" Alice's high pitched voice poured out of the receiver.

"Exciting day huh? What could have possibly happened at Forks High? Jessica Stanley finally fall over her big hair? And I am feeling okay, just a bit of a headache after that nap" I responded.

"Well, several things happened. I don't know how much to tell you over the phone though" she said in a quiet voice; something very unlike Alice.

"What happened? You can come over if you want."

"I can? Good, cause I am already here!"

I heard a car pull up outside of my house. I peeked through the curtain and noted Alice's yellow Porsche parked behind the Chevy. I don't know how many times I have told her that her car did not fit in with this town. Of course that was an invalid argument, especially since Alice, herself, did not fit in with the town either.

"Why didn't you just knock or wait until you got here? You know you don't have to call first" I questioned.

"I will be up in a minute. Bye!" I heard a click on the other end and I quickly turned off the cordless. I made my way downstairs, slowly. My body still felt like it weighed a heavy amount.

By the time I got to the bottom of the stairs, Alice had entered the hallway talking to Charlie.

Once he left to go on to the living room she took in my appearance, "Bella, you look like crap. Couldn't you have put on one of those sweat-suit sets that I bought you for your birthday?"

"Oh! Excuse me! I could barely keep myself upright for five minutes. The last thing I was thinking about was what I looked like" I said defensively, putting my hands on my hips.

"Let's go upstairs. I need to talk to you" Alice whispered, pulling on my hand as she made her way upstairs.

Once we settled into my un-made bed, Alice just stared at me.

"What is it Alice?"

"I have good and bad news for you."

"Okay…"

"First the good news. I found out that Jazz has feelings for me!" she squealed excitedly, "We had to write poems for the creative writing class we are taking together. Well he gets up in front of the class and totally blows us away. You know how he is, quiet but soulful. Anyways, once he sits back down, he places a copy of the poem in front of me and there is a note written on top of the page. I look down and it says 'In honor of you.' How romantic is that Bella?"

I just sat there for a second, trying to take in the whole thing. Once the words caught up to with my brain, my face broke out into a huge smile. I leaned across the pillow that was in my lap and wrapped her in a big hug.

"I am so happy for you Ali. I know that you have been going back and forth with telling him for a year. How many times have I told you that he reciprocated the feelings? He doesn't have to say them aloud for his emotions to be visible."

"I know. But I had to hear him say it, ya know?" she said.

"I get it. What is going to happen with you two now?"

"I am not sure yet. I would like to take it to the next level. He said that he was going to call me tonight. He wasn't going to be home until after 9:30 though, so I have some time before he calls."

"Okay, now with the other news…" I pushed.

"Oh Bella. I don't know how to tell you" Alice whispered, her eyes going wide.

"It can't be that bad. Is Edward okay? Emmett didn't sit on him again, did he?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood with a joke.

"No. Em didn't do anything this time. But it is about Edward."

"What about Edward?" I asked, unsure on if I wanted to hear bad news about him.

"Well…um…h-he asked Tanya out at lunch. To be exclusive. You know how they went out on a few dates" she grimaced as the words flew out of her mouth.

My mouth must have been hanging open. I felt my eyes slightly water from the damn tears that I didn't want to make an appearance right now. A dull ache started in my chest at the same time. I unconsciously rubbed the spot over my sweatshirt, still staring at nothing.

"Bella? You can't blame him though. He doesn't know how you feel. I told you to tell him, now he went off and asked her" Alice stated with a look of disgust on her face.

"Edward and Tanya? No! What does he see in her? Besides that she is beautiful and obviously his perfect match. She doesn't have any brains and she is a complete bitch!"

"Bella, it will be okay. It can't possibly last that long…" Alice said, placing a soothingly hand on my knee.

"Alice. Thanks for telling me. I think I want to be alone right now" I said quietly.

She looked at me for a moment before silently nodding. She gave me a quick hug and then exited my room, closing the door behind her. I was still facing the window, not really seeing my surroundings.

The tears really began to fall then.

I had been in love with Edward Cullen for almost four years; possibly even longer. We had been best friends since pre-school; he rescued me from the treacherous sandbox. I had been trying to work up the courage to tell him since freshman year, but whenever the time came, something always got in the way.

Now Tanya was in the way. She had transferred from some school in L.A. at the beginning of the school year. She really was quite beautiful, only second to Rosalie. But since Rose had graduated the year prior, Tanya quickly climbed the social ladder. She somehow became the head cheerleader.

Edward had officially become the quarterback once Emmett stepped down from his throne last year. I could always be found at the Spartan games. Edward's jersey number and name printed on my shirt. Alice and I had started our own little cheering section for our favorite player. Jasper would always quietly sit and shake his head at our goofiness, but Alice and I both knew he wasn't serious.

About a month ago, Edward showed up at the Homecoming dance with Tanya on his arm. Nobody, not even his five best friends, knew about it.

How perfect. The head cheerleader and the quarterback, all was right in the world, I thought bitterly to myself.

I sat like that, with those thoughts, for a few hours before I felt exhausted. I threw the covers over the head and prayed that tomorrow would be never come, because I knew my heart would break all over again once I had to see them together.

-oo-

March 2005

Four months. For a relationship that was only supposed to last a few weeks, the one between Edward and Tanya sure seemed to be working.

He was careful with her around me, almost like he knew that the sight of them together disgusted me. Whether he knew or not, I was a little grateful.

Another factor that made me feel a little better was the fact that none of my other friends liked her either. Tanya was pushy and a control freak. How Edward could stand her was beyond all over our comprehension.

Jasper couldn't believe her level of vanity…and he was related to Rosalie. That is saying a lot.

Emmett, my lovable bear…who usually got along with everyone. She attempted to stop a gaming marathon one day and Em had never forgiven her.

Rosalie didn't like her for obvious reasons…vanity really was the legitimate issue.

Alice tried to warm up to her, mostly because of Edward being her brother. Tanya had criticized Alice's allegiances, asking how she could be friends with someone like me. Poor Alice came over to my house crying, and I attempted to calm her down.

Obviously Tanya held no warm feelings for me, and the feelings were reciprocated. I did not attempt to hide my disdain in front of Edward. He grew frustrated with all six of us constantly bickering.

After the incident with Alice, he slowly began to withdraw himself from group activities. He was constantly fighting with Emmett and Jasper now. They were almost like brothers, and that was a hard one to see.

The last straw came on the last day before Spring Break when Edward stormed up to us, his face too red for his pale skin.

"Which one of you girls placed that shit in her shampoo?" he rounded on Alice and I.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Don't tell me you didn't notice her hair is now a nice green color. I know one of you was behind it."

"No Edward, I did not notice. I attempt to ignore that she even exists. How dare you accuse us, your family for most of your life. I am sick and tired of you defending her to us. What happened to you?" I spit out.

He looked taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered, "Me? What happened to me? What happened to you Bella? And not just you, all of you!"

Jasper slowly made his way in-between Edward and me, attempting to diffuse the situation.

"I can't do this anymore. You all need to accept that Tanya is staying in the picture. She means a lot to me and today was the last straw. Just stay out of my way from now on" he said before turning back towards the school and Tanya.

"We had nothing to do with what happened to her Edward. I promise you. Who are you going to believe? Her or me?" I asked quietly, a bit of pleading in my voice.

Edward stopped in mid-step. His shoulders tensed up before he half turned back to me. We looked at each other for a full moment before he responded, "I am sorry Bella. But I am taking her side this time."

As he made his exit, Jasper wrapped his arm around my shoulders and guided me to his car. We were halfway to my house before I realized that we had moved.

"What does this mean now?" I asked.

"It means that he needs his space. We need to back off of the Tanya-bashing. I am not going to lose my friendship with him for a high school romance" Jasper answered.

"I can't back off. I will not sit around and pretend that I can stand her. Edward must be blind, what he sees in her is beyond me" I scoffed.

Nobody said anything after that. I played with the dial of the radio before giving up and turning it off. We finally arrived in the front of my house. I quickly said my goodbyes and made my way into my house.

After the events of the last hour, I felt exhausted. Before I even comprehended anything, my head hit the pillow, letting me fall into an instant sleep.

A few hours later I woke up to a clear night with the stars on full display. A rare time in Forks.

I moved my hand to brush the curtain aside when I felt a piece of paper under my shifting leg. I picked up the folded up paper and read the two words in the elegant script that I knew belonged to the most important boy in my life.

I'm sorry.

I let out a drawn out sigh and thought about what he could have possibly meant by the words. He must have climbed through the window like he had done almost every night the last summer.

-oo-

Early May 2005

After I had found the note that Edward must have left while I took my nap, we reached some type of truce. He still did not talk to me as much as he used to, but we were civil to each other.

School was quickly winding down, which meant graduation was right around the corner. Only a little over a month to go.

Rosalie and Emmett were already attending University of Washington in Seattle and Jasper, Alice and I had decided to follow them up there. UW had a really good English program and I felt justified in accepting the admission. The six of us had planned to try and go to the same school together, but that all changed with Tanya.

Edward had gotten the acceptance for admission to UW easily. He had some of the best grades in our class. To appease his dad, he also applied to a few other schools that had good pre-med programs.

Instead of accepting UW, he took us all by surprise and decided on Dartmouth. We all knew that Tanya was behind it. Like I said, it had always been the plan that all of us would attend school together. Since Tanya didn't like any of us, she pulled out all the stops to separate us.

-oo-

I had just made it home when I noticed Edward pulled in directly behind me. I hopped out of the truck and eyed him as he got out of the car, alone.

Wow, he managed to escape the grasp of T-pain, I thought to myself.

I had taken to calling her that when he wasn't around. She was a pain…in my ass.

I raised an eyebrow at the unexpected visit. Edward noticed and just gave a slight shrug in response.

I made my way up to the porch, motioning for him to follow. We didn't say anything as we made our way into the living room. He sat down on one side of the couch while I took the other.

The silence was a bit unsettling, but I couldn't bring myself to break it.

"I miss you Bells" he said suddenly.

"I miss you too" I responded.

He turned towards me then and looked me over.

"You're too skinny. Eat more" he stated.

"I am not! Your just not around much to notice anything anymore" I snapped.

"Don't do it right now. I didn't come here to fight" he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb.

"Then why are you here? I bet she doesn't know you're here, huh?" I sneered.

"I just...ugh…I wanted to say congratulations on making it into UW. I am really proud of you."

"Thanks. I was happy when I got the letter. It would be even better if you would be coming with us, you know?" I replied, more softly this time.

"Dartmouth is better for me" he replied automatically.

I gave him a weird look.

"That sounded a bit forced to me. Are you sure that is what's best?" I inquired.

"Yes. They have a wonderful pre-med program. I know I promised I would attend school with all of you, but this is for the best" he said, finally looking at me again.

We sat there in an awkward silence for a few more minutes before Edward abruptly got up.

"I should go. Tanya is probably waiting for me. I am late already" he said, walking towards the door.

"Um, okay. Thanks for stopping by" I answered as the door closed behind him.

Something is going on. She has some how brainwashed him, I thought to myself.

-oo-

A/N: Okay…so did you like it? Hate it? Let me know…I don't know if it is completely boring or not. Reviews get a teaser for next chapter. I think I may start doing that. :-)