This is a minichapter (that's why its so short). Just as I was about to plunge into the next chapter, this little bit came to me, and I figured that I should share it with you all anyway, despite how short it is. Hope you all like.

Disclaimer: still don't own Twilight.

Alice Says

"I'm surprised you came Bells," Alice said, not taking her eyes off of her magazine. She must have had a sixth sense to know it was Bella coming. "I figured you were ignoring me much like you were ignoring my brother."

The words stung, but Bella braved the pain. "I'm so sorry Alice," she said apologetically. "So much has been going on–"

"And I would have known about it if you had returned my calls," Alice said icily, cutting Bella off. Her eyes lifted from the magazine and shot daggers into Bella. "Or maybe if you had called me yourself and told me what was going on. Instead of me having to snoop around and figure it out. I thought friends told friends things. Are we not friends?"

The last thing Bella wanted was to have another Cullen hate her. "Please Alice," she pleaded. "I know I've been handling myself the wrong way. I just so confused about everything. And I know I should have come to you in the beginning. And I can completely understand if you don't want to talk to me now, but I–"

"Shut up Bells."

Bella fell silent almost immediately. Alice gave a long sigh and closed her magazine, placing it flat on the table in front of her. Then she stood up. "Come on Bells, let's walk and talk."

They were in the library – when Bella had called Alice to find out where she was, she had replied to come here. "You're not mad?" Bella queried.

"Of course I'm mad Bella," Alice said snappishly. "Just because you and my brother have a falling out doesn't me that you and I have had a falling out. And I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, cause all of my brother's little girlfriends do this: try to get in the good books with me because they know how Eddie and I operate. And then once Eddie leaves them they leave me too, but," Alice looked directly at Bella at this point, "I thought you were different. I thought we were cool without Edward's help. And yet you acted just like the rest of them."

Crying had become so natural to Bella in the past couple of days that she wasn't surprised to feel the water building up in her eyes. But she held them back, knowing that they wouldn't help resolve anything. "I'm sorry Alice," she whispered. "I should have known that we were still friends even if things ended between me and your brother." It would take too much Edward's name and 'ended' in the same sentence. "I guess I just thought it would be less complicated for you to choose between us."

"Well let's get one thing clear from the get go," Alice said. "My brother always fucks up when it comes to girls. He may be every female's eye candy or whatever, but he was no idea what he's doing sometimes. The only time I ever side with him on anything concerning his relationships is when I like the girl." Alice smiled, and Bella found it to be the most comforting thing she had seen in days. "Lucky for you, I still like you."

"You have no idea how grateful–"

"Yeah, yeah, all of that later," Alice said waving it off. "Come on, walk and talk. I've already heard Edward's version of this situation more times than I can count." She rolled her eyes, probably at the memory. "What I need know is your version of things."

The two of them left the library and ended up circling the quad a few times while Bella explained what the last couple of days had been so far: her dispute with Edward over the recital, her misunderstanding of his intentions, the unnecessary bickering that turned into the inevitable break up.

"Well let me stop you there," Alice said. "He didn't break up with you. Not if he didn't say the words.

"It might as well feel like he's broken up with me," Bella muttered. "I haven't heard from him since the last time we talked, and that was two days ago."

Alice shrugged her shoulders. "Well even if you guys did 'break up', he's definitely not over it. In fact," her face took on a thoughtful expression at this point, "he pretty much did the same thing you just did – blamed himself for everything and wondered if there was an outlet for you guys to patch up the good thing you guys had going on." Then Alice rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I hate melodrama."

Bella managed a laugh at that, but then sighed. "Sorry that we're being so dramatic."

"It's because you guys are so in love with each other." She put a teasing spin on the words 'in love'. "You both want to fix things, you both want to take the blame, but you both don't know what to do." Alice grinned. "It's actually kinda cute in a way."

"Thanks," Bella said, less than pleasantly.

Alice picked up on her tone. "Hey, don't get mad at me. We could have brainstormed on how to fix this whole thing before it got this point if you had just picked up your damn phone the first time I called you."

Bella fell silent at that. Alice walked over to one of the nearby benches positioned under a shady tree, then took a seat. Bella followed her and sat down beside her.

"Well, the good news, as I said is that Edward is sad," Alice reminded her. "Normally, when him and his little girlfriends fall out, he just gets over it and finds a new girlfriend. And trust me, there are girls throwing themselves at him now that it seems like you guys are over."

Bella didn't need Alice to tell her that. She had seen it herself: walking to and fro from class and seeing various and always gorgeous blonds and brunettes attaching themselves to Edward's arm while being dressed as scantily as possible without being completely naked. She also noted that he never truly reciprocated their advances, but Bella felt that it was only a matter of time before one of the blonds or brunettes won him over.

"He's devastated," Alice admitted. "I've only seen him act like this once before, back in high school, when he was dating this other girl. And even then, it wasn't this bad. All he does now is sit in his dorm room and churn out all this really depressing music about love and lost love and blah." Alice shuddered. "It's so unlike him. But then again, that gives us hope does it not? Cause it means he still cares about you."

"Right," Bella said. She totally understood Edward churning out music about love and lost love, she must have made pages and pages of the same thing herself as well. "The real question is how do we fix things?"

"Well I would suggest talking to him, but it seems like that option is out." Alice touched Bella's knee affectionately. "He may be hurting over you right now, which shows us that he cares, but he's probably trying to force himself to get over you. And if he's doing that then chances are, meeting for conversation is out."

A wave of sadness came over Bella at the thought of Edward consciously trying to rid himself of the feelings he had for her. "So what do I do?" she said, desperate.

"You have to do something that will really get his attention," Alice said. "Something that he won't be able to avoid being affected by. And then that way, once you have his attention, you can tell him that you still care about him and still want to work things out."

"Like what?"

Alice smiled. "You'll come up with something good I'm sure Bells. You're a smart girl. And if you really like my brother as much as it seems like you do, you'll go the lengths to make things better."

"And you think Edward will hear me out?"

"I know he will. He may be stubborn at times, and not all that good when it comes to girls he really likes. But at least you know that he does really like you, and that's enough to know that you have the upper hand here. It'll feel right – the idea – when you come up with it."

The idea, at that moment, hit her like a ton of bricks. She almost couldn't believe she didn't see it before. And from Alice's expression, Bella felt that Alice knew all along Bella was going to come to this conclusion.

"I have an idea," Bella said. "But I'm going to need your help."

"Well that's why I'm here Bells," Alice said brightly.

They spent the whole day together, planning. And the following few days as well, were devoted to perfecting the plans. Alice, at times, would drop hints that Edward was getting curious as to why the two girls were suddenly spending so much together. Then she assured Bella that this was good, because this was Edward wanting to know what Bella was up to ("the interest is still there, and that's all that's going to help us now").

The day before the plan was to be put into action, Bella lay awake in her bed, her bedside lamp being the only light in the room. Butterflies fluttered incessantly in her stomach, but she tried to calm them. This was not the time to get nervous. She refused to let things fall through her fingers after all this hard work: planning and processing.

She reached for her digital camera, and flipped through the menu out of idleness. Her fingers stopped when she reached a picture of her and Edward. She remembered when this picture was taken, one random and not particularly special day when she, Edward, Jasper, Alice and Emmett were hanging out together in town. Edward was standing behind her, arms around her waist, and holding her close, his cheek pressed against hers. They both were wearing this large smiles – Bella's so wide that her eyes were half closed. Her hands were resting atop Edward's where they laced around her waist.

She closed her eyes, taking herself back to that day. They were walking through town: Alice wanted a new pair of sunglasses. Emmett just needed to get off campus. The three of them – Emmett, Jasper and Alice – walked ahead of Bella and Edward, while the two of them sauntered together, hand in hand, hardly looking at anything besides each other's eyes.

"You guys are too in love," Emmett had joked. "It's almost kinda sickening to watch. It's like Jasper and Alice all over again when they first started going out."

"What, Ali and are still like that," Jasper said, grabbing Alice playfully around the waist and pressing his lips to her cheek.

It was then Edward moved behind Bella, holding her close. He whispered in her ear, "I hope we end up like Jasper and Alice: together and blissfully happy for always."

Edward gave her a playful squeeze at that point, which made Bella start smiling brighter than she already was. It was at that point when Alice reached for Bella's handbag and sifted through it for a camera. "You guys look so cute right now, I have to take this," she was saying as she pulled out the digital camera.

The snapshot was taken, and now here it was on her camera. They both looked happy.

And Bella knew in her heart that they could still be happy like this. This situation that arose between them was not a major one, not one that was to be the end of all of their relationship. They were stronger than this mild disagreement – a situation that got out of hand because they both handled things wrong.

Bella was ready to handle things the right way. She could still feel the remnants of that day flitting through her mind. Right after the picture was taken, Edward turned her around his arms so that she was facing him.

"You mean so much to me, Bella Swan," he told her.

"You mean the world to me Edward Cullen," she replied, only moments before he kissed her softly.

Bella sighed to herself, placing the camera back on her nightstand. Then she turned out her light, her nervous replaced with the tender feelings that followed thinking about Edward. She knew she was ready to fix things, to return to be blissfully happy and together for always with the only person who mattered that much to her.

Final chapters are under way! (continue to bear with me if you don't see them tomorrow)

Until my next update, reviews are always appreciated

--Brin--