A/N: All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer

I want to apologize to everyone for taking so long to update. Things have been very crazy in my life the last few weeks. My husband deployed this past week and the week before that we drove out to Illinois to visit my family and while we were there my dog died suddenly and unexpectedly. With that being said, I want to dedicate this chapter to my dog, Payton. I love and miss you.

I hope you all enjoy this chapter and please review if you have time. Thanks for all the reviews, readers, and my beta. Also, special thanks to all those wonderful messages people wrote regarding my husband. He really enjoyed them as well. Again, I am sorry for the lack of update.

Chapter 16

BPOV

There he stood right in front of me. Perfect like always.

Perfectly Edward.

And I had just kissed him. And he definitely kissed me back. And the kiss was incredible. No, it was more than incredible. It was…

"Bella." Edward quietly said breaking my train of thought. I tried to fight back the urge to smile or even worse, hug him. The last thing I wanted was to make him think I was some kind of crazy obsessed teenage girl. I found myself nervously playing with my sleeve.

"Edward." I whispered back to him as I bit my lip before anything really stupid came out of my mouth like how much I like him.

What looked like a grin quickly appeared across his face but disappeared just as fast. And then he stood there staring at me with an expression on his face that I couldn't read. And I internally started to freak out a little bit. He wasn't saying anything.

Nothing.

A minute passed by.

Still nothing.

He doesn't feel the same way as I do. That's the only explanation I could come up with. I mean, it was just a game.

We were only playing a game.

It wasn't real.

I had to say something and fast. Anything. But what?

Just a game.

Game.

Then I knew what I had to say even though it was the last thing I wanted to tell him because it was going to be a lie. "Edward, I don't want anything to be weird between us." That was the last part of this conversation what would be the truth, on my part anyway.I paused for a second as my gaze shifted down toward the floor. I couldn't look at him as my dreams crashed down around me. "I know it was just a game and we're only friends…"

It was quiet for a moment and I was afraid to look up. I'm pretty sure my face was bright red and I didn't want to embarrass myself further.

Friends.

I had fought with the notion of being Edward's friend for so long and now that I have it, it seems wrong.

Not enough.

I heard a rather large sigh come from Edward's direction. I quickly looked up and found him looking across the room at something I wasn't sure of. "Friends…" His eyes then locked with mine. "Right." He said as he half smirked and laughed at the same time.

That answered any doubts I had in my mind whether or not Edward wanted us to be anymore than just friends.

He didn't.

It was silent for another minute before Edward started to shake his head in confusion. "I came over to ask if you needed a ride home."

Huh?

Humiliation was an understatement. All along I thought Edward wanted to talk to me about what just happened in the basement when really it was about a ride home? This cannot be happening to me.

"No." I blurted out. It was my turn to shake my head at him in confusion. "No."

"No?" He questioned a little surprised.

There was no way I was about to get in a car with him after everything that happened. And anyway I couldn't. "I drove my mom's car." It was the truth and she would be pretty upset if I left it at Mike's house.

"Oh." He quietly murmured.

Then he looked down a little…disappointed? No, that can't be right.

He continued. "I thought maybe you had drank…" He paused again for second which was unlike him. "…or something."

Was he saying I smell like alcohol because I haven't drank anything all night? Did my breath stink when we kissed? Please, God no. But the whole place smelled like alcohol. Maybe that's why he asked. I looked at him; he was waiting for an answer. "I didn't drink anything."

He nodded his head. "Okay…yeah…good."

Obliviously things were already weird between us because of the kiss and there was nothing I could do about it. "Are you going?" I asked him.

"Going?" He questioned back at me.

"Home?" I replied. Isn't that what he was just talking about?

He nodded his head yes. "I'm tired; tomorrow's going to be a long day…" I completely forgot about my mom's wedding until he mentioned it. "Anyway, I don't belong here."

What kind of statement was that, he doesn't belong here? "Then why did you come?"

He scrunched his face. "Jasper wanted to come."

"Oh." I responded. So, it was Jasper's idea, not his. I'm sure I looked a little bummed out.

"I mean Mike and I aren't really best of friends. We aren't friends at all." He shook his head in disgust. "I actually hate him."

"Okay…" Mike was the last person I wanted to talk about.

Before I could say something about how I knew the hate thing was mutual between Mike and him he interrupted me. "I'm glad I came though."

He was glad.

"Me too…" I couldn't help as a small smile appeared across my face. "…that you came."

"Yeah…" He flashed his crooked smile. I wanted to die. "We should do it again sometime." He said as he looked all around the room expect at me.

Now I was getting really confused. Do what again? Kiss? Go to Mike's house? Have an awkward conversation?

"Yeah." It only seemed appropriate to say something and I didn't know what else to say.

Just then Jasper came up from behind me and put his arms around my shoulder. "Bella!" He shouted as he squeezed me harder. "I can't wait for tomorrow!"

"Me too." I replied only to be polite. Really, I wasn't looking forward to getting dressed up and seeing Edward with Alice. Silly, I know. Alice likes Jasper not Edward. And Edward would never do anything with her. But I want Edward to be my date. Not Jasper.

Edward looked a little annoyed with Jasper but I couldn't tell why. "I'm going to head home Jasper."

"Okay, I'm gonna stay here." Jasper responded. "What about you Bella?"

I looked at Edward who seemed to be anticipating my answer as much as Jasper was. "I think I'm going to go home too." I really did need to get my rest.

"You both are boring." Jasper yelled as he started to walk away toward the basement and I could only imagine that another game of some sort had started.

I looked up once more at Edward. He was fidgeting with his keys. "Are you sure I can't drive you home?"

It sounded to me like he really wanted to for some unknown reason. "My mom's car is here. I don't think she would be very happy with me if I left it here."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He said. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah." I gave him one last smile. I watched as he left out the front door and walked to his car. Once he was in his car and driving down the street I made my way out of the house and to my mom's car. As I sat down in the driver's seat I took a deep breath before starting the engine and heading home.

---

The whole ride home I couldn't keep my mind off Edward and of course the kiss.

The kiss.

I giggled to myself. It's not like I've never kissed anyone in my life before because I have. Well, one other person. I was thirteen. It sucked. And I'm pretty sure it was because it wasn't Edward.

Edward.

I, Isabella Swan, kissed Edward Cullen.

Okay, I am a crazy obsessed teenage girl.

A crazy obsessed teenage girl in love with Edward Cullen.

I rolled my eyes. How pathetic can I be?

Before I could answer that question my cell phone started to ring. It was Hailey. Just the person I needed to talk to. I flipped open the phone so I could talk to her on speakerphone while I was driving.

"Hey Hailey!" I practically yelled into the phone.

"Bella! You sound like you're in a good mood." She laughed back at me.

No, an amazing mood.

"An amazing mood actually." I corrected her.

"Does it have to do with a certain boy?" She asked.

Was it that obvious? "Maybe."

"So it does! Spill it!" She shouted and I was happy she was on speakerphone otherwise I would probably be deaf now.

I giggled. Crazy obsessed teenage girl. "I got to kiss Edward."

"Oh my God!" I could only imagine she was jumping up and down. "Tell me everything! What happened?"

"Well…" I started to say but she cut me off.

"What was it like? Everything you thought?" She squealed out.

"You know the party at Mike Newton's house I told you about?" I had to start at the beginning.

"Yeah! Wait! Why was he at Mike's house?"

I couldn't help but laugh. She knew they hated each other too. "I guess Jasper wanted to go. Anyway, we were playing spin the bottle and it landed on Edward so we kissed." I paused for a second. "So I mean it wasn't a big deal or anything…"

"Not a big deal? You got to kiss Edward freaking Cullen. That's a big deal no matter how you look at it."

"You're right." It was a big deal, to me anyway. "But we're only friends."

"Maybe for now." Hailey had more faith in Edward and me then I did. "What was the kiss like?"

A huge smile appeared across my face. "Incredible, amazing, perfect."

"Bella! I mean what kind of kiss! Short? Long? Tongue? Details!"

My thoughts wandered to the kiss. It wasn't terribly short or long. There was definitely tongue. I licked my lips involuntarily at the thought. And he moaned. "He moaned."

"He moaned!" I didn't even realize I had said it until I heard Hailey repeat it to me.

Just then I turned down my street and something caught my eye. Parked in my driveway was a silver Volvo. "Hailey, I have to go. Can I call you tomorrow?" I managed to get out as I stared at the car.

"Ugh, fine, but you better tell me everything tomorrow."

"I will." I said as I hung up the phone.

As I drove into the driveway I saw Edward leaning against his car. I pulled into the garage. I quickly got out and walked over to him. Before I could say anything Edward spoke.

"Bella, I really need to talk to you…"