A/N: All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer

Big thanks to everyone that read and reviewed the last chapter. Also, thanks to my beta – JennBell. I hope you all enjoy this chapter; I had a lot fun writing it. Please review.

Chapter 12

BPOV

Once I got into my house I went straight to my room to cry.

How could I just sit there and go along with Edward dating Jessica?

I mean, he doesn't really like her, does he? He said he only wanted to find someone that Rosalie hated, not someone that he actually liked. There was no way he could like Jessica.

I can Only Hope.

I stayed in my room sobbing until I heard my mom get home and then made my way downstairs.

"Hi mom." I said when I got into the kitchen. She smiled at me and I knew my dad had probably already called her about the Edward situation. "Did you talk to dad?"

She rolled her eyes. Of course she had. "Yes." She let out a little sigh. "I really don't understand what his problem is with the Cullen's. Edward is a good kid."

True.

"Yeah, I don't know." I answered.

"I don't know either." She said while looking thru the mail. "But Bella, if Edward is that bad of a driver maybe I should try to switch my schedule around so I can take you."

"No!" I screamed out. My mom dropped the mail quickly and quirked an eyebrow at me and I knew my face was probably bright red now. Crap! I guess I screamed a little too loud and now she probably saw it written all over my face that I liked Edward. "I want to drive with Edward." There was no denying anything now.

"Do you?" She smiled. "Rumor has it he just became single."

"Mom!" I didn't want to have a conversation about Edward or any boy for that matter at the moment. "We're just friends."

She lifted her hands up in defeat. "Okay, Okay."

I gave her a half smile. "He's going on a date with Jessica anyway."

"Jessica Stanley?" She looked completely shocked.

I shrugged and nodded yes at the same time.

"How do you feel about them going out?" She asked.

Like crap!

"They are only going on a date." I had to correct her. They're not going out per say. Right? "And there is nothing I can do about it." I shrugged again.

Really nothing I could do about it.

She must have seen it was upsetting me because she put her arms around me. "I don't think it's going to last long."

"I hope not." I didn't even mean to say it. It kind of just slipped out.

She pulled away just then and a strange smile appeared across her face. "Don't hate me."

Huh?

This can't be good.

"You know the reception hall Phil and I wanted for the wedding?" I nodded yes. "It's booked for the day we wanted so we had to change the date…" She paused then.

"Okay so when?" I asked a little confused.

And why would I hate you for that?

"This Saturday." She nervously said.

What the…

"Mom! Saturday? What about dresses? Invitations?" There was no way we could get everything ready in less than a week.

Is she crazy?!

She laughed. "Don't worry. Esme and I will take care of all of it. And tomorrow we're going dress shopping so I'll pick you up from school."

Unbelievable.

I gave her my best excited expression. Really what else could I do about it?

This day couldn't get any worse.

"I know!" She practically jumped in the air. "You should ask Edward to go with you to the wedding."

I wish.

"Mom, that's okay." There was no way I could do that. He would say no and I'd embarrass myself in the process.

She looked a little disappointed. "Maybe I should talk to Esme about it…"

"No!" I cut her off. "You better not!"

She let out a sigh. "Fine."

My mom and I talked for a while longer and she thankfully didn't bring up anything Edward Cullen related for the rest of the night.

---

Edward picked me up at 7:30 like usual the next morning. When I got into the backseat he gave me an annoyed look. I shrugged. Really, sitting in the backseat seemed so natural to me now. We didn't really talk much on the way to school. I kind of figured he's not a morning person. We reached the school about ten minutes early compared to when we normally got there because there was no picking up Rosalie anymore. Edward didn't even stop to drop me off before reaching his parking spot. As soon as I got out of his car I started to walk toward the building.

"Bella!" I heard Edward yell from behind me. "Wait up!"

This is different.

Edward never walked or even talked to me after we got to school before. But I guess he only did that because of Rosalie. I stopped and waited for him to catch up.

"Were you trying to ditch me?" He asked.

I shrugged. No, I really wasn't trying to ditch him. "No."

He rolled his eyes and I could only assume that I didn't sound very convincing. "Let's get inside." He paused while covering his hair from getting wet from the rain with his backpack. Which I had to laugh about. I mean his hair couldn't get any messier. "We should find Alice and Jasper."

Hmm… He really did want to be friends.

Once we reached the door he opened it for me. Perfectly Edward. Then I followed him down the hall toward the cafeteria. Alice and Jasper were sitting at a round table talking. Edward sat down and I sat next to him.

"Bella!" Alice squeaked out.

I had to smile at her. I really liked Alice. "Hi Alice."

Then I turned toward Jasper. He was staring at Edward then at me. "I thought we were mad at Bella?" He asked while returning his gaze on Edward.

Edward reached across the table and smacked him on the head. "What would give you that idea?"

And I could only imagine Edward had told Jasper yesterday to be mad at me.

Jasper had a confused look on his face for a second staring at Edward. Edward's eyes got wider. Then Jasper turned to me and the confused look disappeared and was replaced with a large grin. "Bella, Hey! Glad you're sitting with us now."

Okay, that was weird.

"Hi Jasper." His grin got larger. "Thanks I guess." There was something I obviously didn't know about, but I wasn't about to ask.

I sat in the cafeteria with them for the rest of the morning listening to Jasper and Alice talk about last weekend's party. Of course no one mentioned Emmett or Rosalie. Once the first bell rang letting everyone know there was only a few minutes before first period started I got up and walked toward my locker to get my books.

That's when I saw Jessica and Lauren giggling next to my locker. When Jessica saw me she made a high pitched squeal and I had to cover my ears. "Bella! Where the hell have you been?"

I wanted to make her jealous by saying with Edward but I knew it wouldn't work considering she had bigger news to make me more jealous.

"Guess who called me last night?!" She was jumping up and down like a six year old now.

Edward Cullen.

But I couldn't say it. "Who?" I asked as though I was interested when I really wasn't.

"Cullen!" Lauren blurted out.

Jessica pushed her for saying it before she could. "Cullen! Can you believe it?"

Yes.

"Cool." I said while opening my locker and grabbing my book.

Jessica grabbed the locker door and opened it wider so she could see me better. "Don't you want to know why?"

Of course I already knew why but I had to amuse her. "Why?"

She started giggling even more. "He asked me out on a date. AHHH"

I turned around and rolled my eyes and then turned back to face her. "Cool."

"We're going out tonight." She had the biggest smile on her gross face.

Tonight?!

Edward never said anything about it being so soon. I wanted time to try and convince him it was a bad idea and now I couldn't. "Cool."

"I know, right?" She sighed. "He's so hot!"

That's all she cared about. There was more to Edward Cullen then just his looks.

I started to walk toward my class but apparently she wasn't done. "I wonder where Cullen is going to take me."

I stopped mid step and turned to face her. "You know… He has a first name… It's Edward." Then an idea popped in my head. "But you should call him Eddie. He likes that."

"Eddie, that's kind of cute." She smiled and this time I smiled back at her. "Eddie." She repeated.

And I laughed to myself knowing she would definitely call him that and he wouldn't like it.

Oh well.

The rest of the day went pretty uneventful. During lunch I sat with Jessica and Lauren because it only seemed like the right thing to do. In biology class Edward talked a little more to me during lab about things that weren't associated with the class. I didn't dare ask him about the date he was going on tonight. It would upset me and I didn't want to know about. Mike caught up to me before I could reach the girl's locker room and invited me to a party at his house this Friday. I said no. That was the day before my mom's wedding and anyway Mike would be there so I don't feel like getting harassed by him. And in gym class Alice asked me to be her pickle ball partner which I was grateful for.

After school I walked to my locker to get my jacket before walking outside to find my mom. She was parked right in the front of the school and I was pretty embarrassed. I looked once more over to where Edward's Volvo was parked. He had just reached his car. He looked up and met my gaze and smiled. Perfectly Edward. And Jessica would be seeing that tonight. With that thought I grimaced and hopped in my mom's car and she quickly left the parking lot.

EPOV

Shit.

I'm really not looking forward to my date with Jessica tonight. Honestly, what was I thinking?

Jessica Stanley?

Anyone was better than Jessica Stanley. Lauren was better and that's saying a lot.

When I reached my car I turned around once more to look at the school. I immediately saw Bella by her mom's car. She was looking at me so I smiled in return. She quickly got into the front seat. Ha. Well at least she sits in the front seat for her mom. Lucky. Then I got in the Volvo and slumped down.

I had gotten so used to Bella in my car, even though she never really said much, that without her it seemed empty. Lonely.

I started the car and the drive to my house. And I found myself occasionally looking in the rearview mirror at where Bella should be. And even worse I almost turned off on her street. Pathetic I know, but I was alone for the first time since Rose and I broke up.

Thankfully, at least, I told Jessica I would pick her up at 5:00 which was the time I usually picked up Rose. I guess her company would probably be better than being alone.

Once I got home I went up to my room to take a quick nap. I woke up around 4:30 and took a shower. When I was done I threw on a pair of jeans and a polo shirt. I was planning on waiting until 5:00 on the dot to leave my house so I didn't seem too eager but couldn't wait any longer. I had to get out of my house. It was so empty.

When I got to Jessica's house I was planning on getting out and walking to the door like every gentleman should do but I couldn't. Jessica was standing in her driveway waiting for me. She ran over to the front side passenger door and hopped in. I thought about telling her to sit in the backseat but immediately decided against it. The backseat was Bella's. She started rambling on right away before I could even say hello.

This is going to be a long long night.

I was going to take her to a restaurant in Port Angeles but decided it would probably be better to stay in Forks incase I had to suddenly leave if she annoyed me too much. Anyway, people would see us there and Rose would definitely hear about it. There really isn't much selection to choose from in Forks so I took her to the same diner Bella and I went too yesterday. The food was okay, it was loud and cheap so it was perfect.

The hostess smiled at me. She was the same one from yesterday and probably thought it was weird I was back with a different girl. I had to laugh at the thought. This time I didn't ask for a table in the back though. I wanted one in the loudest part of the restaurant and thankfully that's what we got.

I ordered the same thing as yesterday; a cheeseburger and Root Beer. Jessica ordered some kind of chicken salad thing and water.

Typical girl.

I guess it was now time to talk but I really didn't know what to say to her. Thankfully I didn't have to start the conversation. She did.

"Oh my gosh, did you see Mrs. Cope today?" She asked.

Um no.

"She had like this huge bandage on her forehead. She looked so funny. I guess she fell or something the other day right in her office and hit her head on the desk, crazy right?"

That's really not that funny.

"Oh and did you see what Ashley Cooper was wearing today?"

Who the hell is Ashley Cooper and why is it important to me?

I shook my head no.

"Well she had on this skirt. Like real short white skirt. And you wouldn't believe it; she was bending over in class and flashed everyone…"

Um okay…

"…And the crazy thing about it was she had on superman underwear! I mean, who wears superman underwear?"

Who cares?!

"I mean last time I checked we were in high school and she was a girl…"

Doe she ever come up for air?

"… Oh and did you hear Eric and Angela are going out now? Yeah, like they got together after the party this past weekend. I mean you should have been there…"

Thanks for bringing it up.

"But you could go to Mike's party on Friday. It will be a lot of fun. His parents will be out of town and everything."

Sounds like a lot of fun. Not.

How much longer can this actually go on for? I can't even get a word in. Not that I want to or anything.

Big mistake.

"…And can you believe Mr. Banner is making us dissect frogs. I mean gross."

Thanks for ruining my appetite.

"…I mean when in the future are we ever gonna need to know how to dissect a frog? I mean, your dad might need to but not us…"

Please stop.

"Eddie, are you even listening to me?"

What the hell did she just call me?!

Now for calling me that I'm really not going to listen to her.

But of course I had to nod yes so she thinks I am.

I tried to zone her out as much as I possibly could but her voice was so annoying and giving me a huge headache.

"Lauren…"

I wonder what Jasper is doing right now.

"…Hotdogs…"

The Volvo really needs an oil change.

"…Heidi and Spencer…"

Maybe I should get a haircut this week before the wedding.

"…Zit on her face…"

I really hate Chief Swan.

"…on YouTube…"

Who the hell does he think he is threatening to take away my license?

"…I really need to shave…"

Maybe my parents will let me a get a cat.

"…Online the other day…"

Or maybe a dog would be better.

"…Bella Swan likes you…"

I need to get out of…

Did she say what I thought she just said?

"Huh?"