A/N: Whoa! Quick update this time. Thanks to my awesome betas!

Disclaimer: All recognizable Twilight characters belong to S. Meyer. I however own "White Carpets and Wall Sconces."

"Get the fuck out." His words kept echoing in my ears. The hard, flat, lifeless tone of his voice did nothing to soften the blow. "Get the fuck out."

"You okay honey? We're here." The cab driver turned to look at me with a somber expression on his face.

"I'm fine," I told him as steadily as possible, wiping my cheek with the back of my hand and handing him the money I owed him.

"Pretty girls like you shouldn't be crying on Valentine's Day," he told me. I smiled sadly.

"I guess most pretty girls don't screw up like I did." I reached for the door handle. "Thanks very much" I told him, climbing out into the street.

"Bye Miss." He waved as he pulled away from the curb, leaving me alone, staring up at the front of my building, hoping and praying that Jessica wasn't there.

I trudged up the stairs and pulled out my keys, fumbling with the lock and trying to stop the steady flow of tears running down my cheeks. I was such an idiot. I should never have touched anything. I should never have looked. I should never have even so much as considered attempting to play his music. Composition was a very personal thing. There was no possible way I could ever know how he was feeling when he wrote it or what it represented.

I stepped into the dark apartment and took in the familiar scene. Closet door slightly ajar, the blue light from the TV flickering softly, meaning Jessica was definitely home, and shoes strewn haphazardly around the entrance way.

"Hello?" I recognized Jessica's voice instantly, even if we hadn't spoken in weeks. I'd hoped to avoid confrontation with her at this point.

I sighed heavily. "Hi Jess" I said, hanging up my coat in the closet and clicking the door shut. I looked around, realizing that it seemed like we were alone. She stepped into the hallway so I could see her. She was wearing sweat pants and an over sized t-shirt, her hair was pulled back in a messy bun and she had a spoon and a tub of vanilla ice cream in hand. "Where's Josh?"

Jessica smiled a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. "Josh doesn't believe in Valentine's Day" she told me, sliding the spoon into her mouth and licking the ice cream off of it.

"Oh," was my brilliant reply.

"What are you doing home? I haven't seen you in forever. Why aren't you with Edward?" I heard the barely concealed disgust in her voice, but ignored it.

I gulped. Home. I hadn't referred to the apartment as home for a while. Home had been where Edward was. I felt a fresh batch of tears pool behind my eyes and I closed my eyelids, hoping to will them away.

"Bella?" She took a step closer. I felt her hand touch my shoulder. "What's the matter?" She sounded genuinely concerned. She took my arm and led me toward the couch and sat me down, her worried eyes never leaving my face. "Bella, I'm sorry about everything. I overreacted. You can date whoever you want."

I flicked my eyes to hers and the new tears poured down my face. I felt them drip off my chin and onto my chest. My body was shaking, but I wasn't making any noise; just sad, desolate, silent tears of remorse. I felt like my body was breaking in two and no matter how hard I tried to keep myself together a stronger force was prying me apart, splitting down the middle.

"Oh God, Bella you didn't break up did you?"

What was the answer to that? Get the fuck out. That sounded pretty final to me. Edward never spoke to me like that. And what I'd done was unforgivable. Had it been any other night it may have been, but it was Valentine's Day, the day I knew was already a trial for him, the day he had tried so hard to make perfect. I ruined it. I fucked everything up.

Jessica's tiny arm was around my shoulders and I buried my face in her shoulder, unable to stop the sobs. I tried to count the number of times I'd been in Jess's position and her in mine. I couldn't believe the change in roles. I never imagined she would be comforting me, and certainly not after the fight we'd had.

"What happened, Bell?" She stroked my hair softly, waiting me out. I shook my head. I couldn't tell her, I couldn't say anything. "Bella…"

"Just say it," I choked out quietly. "You told me so, right?" It was all I could think of to say. Because she had told me so, and I hadn't listened.

"No," she soothed, rubbing circles on my back. "No, of course not; there isn't any point in that," she told me. "Tell me what happened."

I shook my head. I couldn't. "I can't," I stuttered through my tears. "I just want to sleep."

"Okay," Jess whispered as I pulled away from her. "If you need me, I'm here" she told me, and my heart almost broke. This was why Jessica was my best friend. I couldn't believe I'd left her behind for so long.

Edward's Point of View

"What do you mean she left?" Alice was standing, hands resting on the counter, eyes furious staring across the kitchen at me. I'd come out of my room early to start the day and forget about the night before, and I was sitting, sipping my coffee, minding my own business and brooding over Bella and everything that had happened the night before. "People do not just leave on Valentine's Day. What did you do?" She slapped the counter top loudly, as if to prove a point and then stalked, cat like around the corner to stand in front of me. "Tell me everything, Edward Cullen or so help me God, I will torture it out of you."

I stared past her, not ready to talk, and sipped my coffee once more. I had a hangover. I'd drank the entire bottle of champagne after Bella had left. After I'd sent her away. Couldn't Alice just go away?

"Where's Jasper?" I asked listlessly.

"Not your concern." She sat down across from me and settled her elbows on the table.

"Alice, I'm not in the mood. Screw off."

Shock and hurt flashed across her face momentarily. It wasn't often that I spoke to my little sister that way. Those emotions were quickly replaced with anger. I felt the slap before I even saw it coming. Her tiny hand flashed out and collided with my left cheek, a sharp snap sounded in the room. "Snap out of it," she gritted between clenched teeth.

"Go away, Alice" I told her, rising and striding, purposefully, despite my headache, from the room and down to the basement. I needed to be alone with my thoughts; my irritating sister trying to pry information was not going to help this time. I was furious with Bella, but more so, I was furious with myself. I was an idiot. How could I do what I did to her? She had caught me off guard, which I knew wasn't much of an excuse. The things I'd said, the tone I'd used were inexcusable. I thought you loved her, I chided myself. You don't talk to people you love like that. You don't say those things. You don't overreact. You should have explained things to her a long time ago.

I rubbed my face in my hands. I knew I should have explained things to Bella, explained my past, but it had never come up, so I saw no need. I didn't expect it to hit me so hard. I felt like I'd been broadsided by an eighteen wheeler.

How do you think she feels?

I didn't want to think about how she felt right then. I wanted to sink into my dark hole of denial and self loathing and self pity.

I sat down in the old, crusty recliner and crossed my arms over my chest sulkily. I was not going to think about anything but me, and my damned headache.

I wasn't sure how long I sat there, alone in the quiet, thinking more about Bella than I had any intention of. I thought about her laugh, and her smile, and her poor attempts at dancing, and the way she set her hand over mine on the gear shift when we were driving. I thought about her soft hair and her mesmerizing eyes and her long legs and her mouth. I thought about how serious she was about studying, and how she helped Alice cook, and how she managed to get Emmett's crazy sense of humour. I thought about how she seemed to fit into my family perfectly. And I thought about how I'd screwed everything up.

The door creaked, but I didn't look up from my hands. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I didn't want to see anyone.

"Edward? Bro? You ok?" Stupid Emmett, it was pretty fucking obvious I was not okay.

"Fucking fabulous," I said monotonously.

I listened to his heavy footsteps descend the stairs and heard him lumber over. The old couch creaked under his weight. "You want to talk about it?"

I resisted rolling my eyes. "Yeah, I'm sitting here alone because I want to talk about it," I drawled sarcastically. Idiot.

"Shut up. What happened?" I could feel his eyes on me and I stole a glance over towards him. He was sitting, feet apart, elbows on his knees, leaning forward, watching me intently. His face was relaxed, his head cocked slightly to one side.

"She knows," I whispered. He cocked his head further, like a curious puppy. "She must know…" I let my voice trail off.

"About Charlotte?" The name pierced my ears like a knife. I nodded slowly. He shook his head in response. "Why would you think that? Have you told her?"

I pulled my knees to my chest and pressed my eyes to them. "No," I mumbled. I hadn't told her. I should have, but I didn't. There never seemed to be the right time. "Maybe Alice did."

"Not likely," Emmett told me. "What happened?"

I linked eyes with him, mine flat and angry, his curious. "She played…her song."

There was a long silence. "And….?"

"I told her to leave."

"Because she played a song?" Typical Emmett, he was totally insensitive.

"It was not just any song Emmett." He didn't understand how personal composition was. He didn't understand how it was a part of me, a part of me I didn't want to share with anyone.

"Where did she find it?"

I growled at him, frustrated. "Keyboard" I grunted, hugging my knees closer to my chest. "Under other music," I added.

He sighed loudly and rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Shit Edward… I get that you're upset…but you should probably talk to her."

I shook my head frantically.

"You're acting like a child."

"She needs to mind her own business."

Emmett leaned closer to me. "She's practically living here. She might possibly look around your room once in a while."

"Whatever," I shrugged. "I'm pissed off."

Bella's Point of View

"I don't know Ange; she's not talking, or eating. She's just sleeping." Jessica's voice floated through my closed door. There was a pause. "Days…Three I think…..Yeah….I think you need to come over….No, he hasn't…..She won't, I asked."

I knew they were talking about me. Jess had been threatening to call Angela for the last while, but I hadn't really been ignoring the world for three days, had I? I pulled out my cell phone and checked the date. February 18th. It really had been days. I had missed two days of school now, and I didn't care. I was too furious with myself to care about anything so trivial as school. I had been ignoring my missed calls list as well, and for a moment I debated looking, just to see. I took a deep breath and scrolled down.

Alice. Alice had called me eight times since Friday afternoon. There was a call from Mike, which I ignored, and one from my mother, which I put to the side for later. Alice had called eight times. I wondered what she wanted. There was a missed call from a number I didn't recognize too. I sighed. My voicemail was full, but I wasn't ready to deal with it yet so I put the phone to the side and rolled back under the blankets.

I didn't want to think. I didn't want to think about him, and what he had said, and the dead look in his eyes when he told me to leave. The way he handed me my jeans and was trying to pick up the glass with his hands was heart breaking. I couldn't shake the cold feeling.

But beyond being sad, I was furious. I hated how he'd spoken to me, and I despised how he wouldn't tell me what was going on. I couldn't believe how irrational he was, and how arrogant. I hated that he wouldn't talk to me or let me into his life. I wanted to be part of him. I wanted to know him. And he kept shutting me out, and this was the last straw. No one would tell me anything about this Charlotte character, and I had a feeling that she was the key that opened the box.

So when Jessica told me to call him, I told her I wouldn't. I couldn't call him; I couldn't go crawling back so he could tell me to leave again. It wouldn't happen.

"Bella!" I rolled over and groaned. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I had just gotten back to sleep. "Bella I'm coming in so you'd better be decent."

I'd never heard Angela sound so forceful before. "Fine" I grumbled, sitting up and pulling the blankets around my shoulders. The door swung open to reveal a frazzled looking Angela and a worried looking Jessica.

"What are you doing, Bella? This isn't you. What is wrong with you? Pining in bed for three days?" She crawled up beside me and took my face in her hands, making me look at her. "Wake up! You're being ridiculous. If you're this upset, call him, apologize or make him apologize or…something. Anything, but you can't stay cooped up in here for days on end. It's silly. You'll make yourself sick. You haven't eaten, Jess told me, and you're just sleeping. You haven't said ten words. Yeah, she's told me that too. Now snap the heck out of it."

I just stared at her, dumbfounded. I was sure my eyes were as big as dinner plates. Angela was never so assertive. She never said that many words in a row.

"You look like a fish," she told me, and I couldn't help but smile a bit in spite of my bad mood. "There we go. Now, what is the matter?" She reached behind her and pulled out a tub of Ben and Jerry's and three spoons. "Spill." She handed me a spoon and one to Jessica and she came to lie on the bed beside me, making herself comfortable.

"I'm pretty sure he hates me," I started out, taking a tiny bite of the ice cream and closing my eyes, willing the tears to go away. "I'm pretty sure he hates me…and…I'm pretty sure I love him."

Edward's Point of View

"You're not going out driving in this state." Alice held the keys away from me while Jasper stood between us, watching carefully.

"Give me the damn keys Alice. I need to drive."

"Driving is the last thing you need to be doing right now," she told me, her voice shrill. "I will call your mother if you don't start seeing reason."

Alice had been driving me crazy all weekend, and I hadn't been allowed out of the house in days. I'd gone for a walk with Jasper the night before to get out, but it hadn't helped. I needed to drive. I needed to feel the power of the engine, to feel the control over something big. I didn't even have control over myself, but I needed to be able to control that machine. I needed to be able to feel the revs and know that I was making it do that. Consciously making that reaction happen.

None of us had gone to school. Everyone had stayed around the house. Even Rosalie had stayed. Alice had been threatening to call our mother for the last twenty four hours in an attempt to make me talk, but so far Emmett was the only one I'd said anything to.

"I want to drive," I growled again, reaching for the keys in vain. Jasper put his arm up and shook his head.

"It's a bad idea and you know it," Alice told me. I didn't care. I was feeling reckless.

"There will be no one with me," I snapped, crossing my arms and glaring at her.

"I don't want you to get hurt."

"I won't. I'm a good driver."

"I don't care. I can't believe you'd be so irresponsible as to drive in this condition. After everything that happened, you should never want to get behind the wheel of a car tired and angry again."