I seem to be the mother of excuses lately, but I've been super sick and I feel horrible that I left you with that ending for over a week. So…I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!

The summer flew by, it seems like only yesterday I was finishing my last day of junior high.

I spent everyday at the Cullens, but I was rarely with Alice. Most of the time I was with Emmett, Rose and Edward. Jasper was with us too from time to time. He always looked sad, but he never gave up hope that Alice would come around and come back to him.

He still waited for her until she came home, most nights and still called her every night, but she rarely said a word to him and ignored most of his calls.

For her seventeenth birthday we all chipped in to buy her a necklace. It was a silver heart with a slight crack down the middle and on the back it simply said, 'Friends Forever JEREB', for our initials. When she opened all she said was, "Oh" and then left. No thank you, no smile, no nothing.

I have never seen her wear it or say anything about it, it's probably still in its little velvet box. Unlike, the golden locket I received on my thirteenth birthday, I rarely take it off. But that again is a difference between me and Alice. I was beginning to appreciate things more, like my friends. She used to, but that is just another thing that changed.

As summer came to an end, Renee and Phil were going to visit Phil's parents in Florida. Phil being my step dad and I had no relation to these people. Renee saw no reason for me to have to go with them. So I was to stay with the Cullens for the week that they were gone.

"Have fun Bella, see you in a week" Renee shouted out the window of Phil's suburban.

"Bye mom" I called back. I saw her pick up Cole's little hand to have him wave good-bye to me, I waved back and turned to go inside.

I walked in without knocking like normal, but this time I wish I had. I looked around, but found no one. 'They must be in the kitchen' I thought. I heard muffled voices coming from that direction, but as I came closer I could tell that they were angry.

I leaned as close to the door as possible without anyone detecting my presence.

"No, Alice what were you thinking?" I heard a stern voice that sounded like Carlisle's. There was a slight pause, "No you weren't thinking" He continued.

I was confused, what was going on? I leaned closer.

"Stay calm Carlisle, we both know what she did was wrong, but we can't go overboard. She's a child, she's going to make mistakes" Esme said sweetly.

"But it's not just this once! She's been getting away with too much lately. When you came to us, you were nothing like this! What's going on with you?" Carlisle said aggravated.

I heard a couple muffled cries from, who I assumed was Alice, but what did she do? I closed my eyes and listened as hard as I could, but the voiced became hushed and difficult to understand.

"Are you spying?" Emmett whispered in my ear. I jumped 10 feet back. He laughed. "I thought you were better than that ballerina. You're stooping to my level, just to find out some information" he shook his head in discouragement.

I put my hand on my heart, he almost gave me a heart attack, "Shut up Emmett!" I said slapping him, "What happened?" I said pointing at the door.

He shrugged, "They've been having these little meetings a lot lately. I don't know what they're about, but this ones been going on for awhile and I'm hungry. They better hurry up so I can get some food."

I rolled my eyes, "You don't even care about what's happening with Alice, you're just concerned about your stomach!"

"Bella, face it. She doesn't care about us anymore, why should we care about her?"

I wanted to scream, but maybe he was right. She didn't care about us, her 'friends'. We've been patient, we've waited for her, let her have her space. She's still pushing us aside like a pile of dirt, maybe it was time to just let her go.

Esme came running out of the kitchen, "Oh Bella, you're here" she said putting on a fake smile and quickly wiping the tears from here eyes, "Why don't you go put your stuff in Alice's room. That's were you'll be staying. Emmett can help you."

I nodded and grabbed my bags. This as going to be awkward, I haven't spent more than a couple of hours with Alice since before she left for Seattle.

Emmett must have sensed my nervousness as we climbed the steps up to the third level, "You don't even have to sleep there Bella" he smiled, it wasn't as magical as Edwards, but it still made me feel better. "You can come sleep on the floor in my room if you want."
I laughed, "I've seen you're floor and I don't think I want to sleep on top of dirty socks."

He smiled, "It's just an offer. Esme also sees how you and Alice are growing apart. She just wants you guys to be friends again, she can see how much it's hurting you and I think its hurting Alice, she's just not showing it."

"Wow Emmett, I didn't think you were capable of saying anything like that."

He shrugged and put his arm around me, "You both are like little sisters to me. I don't like to see you fight."

I smiled, he was like the big brother I never had, but was he right when he said that Alice and I were growing apart. I thought I was just giving her, her space. But maybe in giving her, her space we began to drift in two opposite directions.

We got to Alice's room and Emmett dropped my stuff in the entry, "I'll be right back Bella, Rose is calling me."

I grinned, Yeah that would be a minute, try an hour. He dashed out the door and down the steps. I unpacked a few of my things and looked around the room, not much had changed. Maybe she hadn't changed as much as I thought.

I noticed a bouquet of red roses sitting on her window sill. Who gave her flowers I wondered. I walked over to them, there was a small envelope attached. I opened it…

I love you and I will wait for you until the last petal hits the floor – Jas

I wanted to cry, that was so sweet; why was Alice being such a jerk. I counted the roses, fifteen of them, Jasper's lucky number. Sitting next to the roses was a CD. I know I should have left it, but curiosity took over.

I looked around to find a CD player and put it in and a song began, it sounded sad. I listened closely to the lyrics

You say you gotta go and find yourself
You say that you're becoming someone else
Don't recognize the face in the mirror
Looking back at you

You say you're leavin
As you look away
I know theres really nothin left to say
Just know i'm here
Whenever you need me
I'll wait for you

So i'll let you go
I'll set you free
And when you see what you need to see
When you find you come back to me

Take your time i wont go anywhere
Picture you with the wind in your hair
I'll keep your things right where you left them
I'll be here for you

(Comeback to me – David Cook)

It was exactly how I felt about Alice, and I'm assuming Jasper did too. We all thought that she was finding herself, and we all continued to wait for her to come back, but it seemed now that she wasn't coming back.

I heard footsteps running up the steps, I quickly stopped the song, but the last words stayed in my head, "You find you, come back to me".

Alice burst through the door and looked around, then at me. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

She's rude, I thought. I took a deep breath and said the nicest I could, "I'm staying here for the week, Esme told me to put my stuff in here."

She nodded and disappeared into her bathroom. This wasn't my friend.

I decided to go find Edward or Emmett, they were sure to brighten my mood and of course, they did. Just being with them made my mood better.

It wasn't until dinner that I had to face her.

I grabbed a slice of pizza and a handful of chips. "Come on Bella" Rose called, Emmett and Edward were sitting next to her outside on the ground. Emmett wanted a picnic tonight, so that's what we were doing.

I smiled and went to the fidge to grab something to drink.

I heard a weak, "Bella" from behind me. I turned around to see Alice sitting at the table by herself, "Will you come here, I need to talk to you."

I looked outside the big window to see Edward having Emmett in a head lock and Rose laughing on the side. I had waited for Alice to say those words for months, but now that she did, I would rather be outside having fun and laughing with them.

"Bella" she said with her puppy dog pout, "please?" It was some of the old Alice I knew. I smiled and sat down next to her.

"That stupid puppy dog pout gets me everytime" I laughed.

She joined in, "Then it's not that stupid is it?"

I shook my head, "I guess not." We sat there in silance for awhile, something that used to rarely surround us.

"I suppose you heard about my little meeting with Carlisle and Esme early" she said as she stared at her food.

I nodded, "What was that about?"

She looked out the window and then back at me, "I don't know why they're freaking out so much, I mean it was nothing."

"What was nothing? What did you do?" I questioned.

"It's nothing" she said moving her eyes to the ground, "I was driving home last night with Mark and Mandy."

"Hang on, who's Mark and Mandy?"

"My friends, I thought you knew that" I shook my head no, "Oh, well anyways I was driving too fast and I got pulled over, I had a sip of a beer before I left so, I had alcohol on my breath so I got a minor and a DWI."

She made it sound like it was no big deal, I didn't really know what to say, so I just sat there dumbfounded.

Alice continued, "It was just a sip. Carlsile and Esme are just overeacting. It was nothing." Her voice began to fade as if she was talking to herself. "I mean talking away my phone, for a whole week."

Was that why she was talking to me, that stupid phone was gone. I watched Emmett try to attack Edward from the back, but Edward knew he was there and moved just in time so Emmett feel flat on his face.

Jasper had joined them, he was staring at me and Alice. I immediately thought of the flowers and the CD back in Alice's room, "Alice, what's going on between you and Jasper?"

She gave me a confused look and said, "We're taking a break right now." I simply nodded, "Oh Bella, you have to meet Owen, he's so hot!"

"Oh really?" I asked with fake enthusiasim.

"Yeah, he's like a god" I let my mind wonder as she continued. Had she really just dismissed Jasper that easily for this Owen. And more importanly, did Jasper know about this so called 'break' that they were on?

The night went smoothly and I would occationally see glimpses of the old Alice. We stayed up late talking about random shit, we made malts at three o'clock in the morning and ate them while watching the Titanic in Alice's room.

"Alice what's been going on?" I asked her quietly.

She stared at me for a long time, "What are you talking about?"

I wanted to slap her, the hell she knew what I was talking about. "You've acting been different" I sighed. "You're not the same person I met two and a half years ago." She looked at me funny, but I continued, "It's like you no longer realize that being here is the best thing that's ever happened to you. You're ignoring us, you're real friends and you're boyfriend has been waiting for you and continues to wait because we all believed you needed your space. But we've given it to you and you've ran away."

She looked at me and just continued to stare, "Not everyone is as lucky as I am. I noticed that in Seattle. When I saw all of my old friends and how their lives were going, I noticed that I didn't deserve this. I don't deserve you or Jasper or this room or anyone. I'm not good enough."

"Alice you're good enough, you've been lucky and you deserve this and us. Just don't run away from us because we need you and want you."

She smiled and we both laughed. We continued to watch the Titanic and eventually fell asleep watching it.

It was something I had been hoping for, for months. I woke up on the couch with a smile on my face, Alice was across from me sleeping, just like we used to do when we fell asleep watching TV.

I got up to use the restroom, when I felt a sharp shooting pain in the bottom my left foot and screams followed.

Alice shot up, "Bella? What's the madder?" she asked groggily.

I sat on the ground, shattered glass all around me, trying to hold in more screams.

Edward rushed in moments later, "What happened?"

Alice looked around, "She must have steped on that glass" she said pointing at the statered malt glass beneath my bleeding foot.

"Get Carlisle" he said frimly pointing at the door. Alice did as he said and ran out the door. "Bella, it's going to be alright" he comforted, moving me onto his lap and wrapping something around my foot.

I nodded afraid that if I would open my mouth I couldn' t stop myself from screaming.

Alice returned with a tired looking Carlisle, "What do we have here?" he yawned.

"I think she needs stiches Carlisle, it's bleeding pretty bad" Edward said worried.

"Let me have a look" Carlisle said squating down next to Edward.

"Bella, I'm so sorry. That was my glass" Alice cried. I patted her shoulder, still scared to open my mouth.

"I think Edward's right Bella, let's get you to the hospital." Carlisle said putting his hands on my knee.

Edward stood up with me between his arms and carried me down the steps and into Carlisle waiting car.

He placed me in the back seat and crawled in next to me. Only then did I notice that he wasn't where a shirt, he perfectly chisled chest made my heart skip a beat.

Alice climbed in the passenger seat and Carlisle took off.

We arrived at the hospital in record time, Carlisle stiched me up quickly and most of it was painless do to the large amount of painkillers Edward requested I get.

"Alright Bella, I think that's it" he smiled finishing the last stitch. "Alice why don't you come with me and get some crutches for Bella."

Alice nodded and followed. "Crutches?" I asked worried.

Edward laughed his musical laugh, "You don't think you can walk on that foot do you?"

I let out a large sigh, "Great, crutches don't help they uncordinated." He chuckled, I smaked him. "Don't laugh, you don't even have a shirt on. Isn't that a rule in hospitals, that you have to have a shirt on?"

He laughed even harder, "Luckily I know the doctor."
I rolled my eyes, "No, seriously where's your shirt?"

He pointed at a pile of white cloth, next to the sick covered in blood, "What do you think I put around your foot."

I blushed, luckily or maybe unlukily Alice returned with my death sticks.

On the way out of the hospital, I tripped once and lost my balance twice. But Edward was there each time to catch me.

That week passed quickly, Alice helped me with anything and everything. She didn't want to hang out with Emmett, Rose, Edward or Jasper. But she was willing to become close to me again, at least for the time being and that was ok with me. At least she was letting someone in.

Renee came to pick me up and just about died when she saw me. I asked Carlisle not to call her so that she wouldn't worry and he agreed so this was the first time she heard about my little accident.

It took her awhile, but she eventually calmed down and was alright with my decision to not tell her until now.

As we walked or rather Renee walked and I hobbled out to the car I saw Carlisle hand something small and pink back to Alice. Who's eyes lit up like a kids at Christmas time.

She flipped it open and her entire being changed, it was the same as it had been all summer, back to the Alice that I didn't know.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Alice, can you help me please?" I begged. I was babysitting Cole, but I was unable to carry him around because of my wonderful crutches.

She hesitated but agreed to be over in a couple minutes.

When the doorbell rang, Cole began to scream. I hobbled to the door and Alice popped in. "Thanks so much Alice, I just can't do anything with these things." I said pointing at my crutches.

She nodded, "Where is he?"

"The living room but…" never mind I guess, she made a mad dash for the living room leaving me in the dust.

She gently picked him up and began to rock him back and forth slowly. She looked so motherly, but again, she was glued to her phone.

It was like I was good enough for her when she could communicate with her other friends like Mark and Mandy and Owen or who ever. She was gone again.

Cole slowly drifted off to sleep, Alice brought him upstairs to his room and placed him in his crib.

"I have to go" was all she said and then hopped into her porche and left. I swear I heard her mummble, "I don't deserve anything" as she ran out the front door.

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