Since that was only the prologue, it's only fair to pair that with the first chapter as well. So, here you go!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, its characters and its components


Alice – "I do it because I love my older brother, and because I want him to be just as happy with someone as I am with Jasper, and as Emmett is with Rosalie and as Carlisle is with Esme. It must get overly tiresome to have to deal with so much intimacy in his coven, and then return to a life of loneliness. And maybe Eddie likes to act like he is extremely unbothered by his state of bachelorhood, but I know the man better. So I do this because I am on his side, and his well-being is my well-being. I only have good intentions at heart."

Chapter One, Movies

Edward

I could tell something was up when I entered the family sitting room. Everyone was there – Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper and Alice. The final four were dressed like they were ready to hit the town. Alice had a knowing glint in her eyes as she watched me. I felt like I was in the middle of an intervention, and my human instinct – if I still had one – would have told me to run. Instead, I ventured into the room apprehensively.

"What's going on?" I asked no one in particular.

Rose huffed in an angrily way, but said nothing. I immediately tried to narrow in on her mind, but I was treated to a repeated 'this fucking sucks'. Oddly enough, she was thinking it in a way that I could tell she was trying to block out what was actually going on. And as I quickly jumped into everyone's mind, I realized everyone was doing the same: Emmett was thinking about Rosalie naked, which made me churn, Esme was thinking about her garden, Carlisle was thinking about the hospital's recent intake of patients, and Jasper was thinking that I should talk to Alice. They were all doing it so aggressively that it was obviously unnatural.

So I went with Jasper's thought. "What are you up to Alice Cullen?"

She grinned at me. "I'm up to you and me getting Bella so we can all go to the movies tonight."

And then I realized, rather frustrated, that today was Saturday – the Saturday that Alice had planned as a way for me to get with fucking Bella Swan.

"You're kidding," I said darkly.

"Kid you not," she said to me. "We're all dressed. I'll give you a minute to freshen up if you like, and then we can go. Everyone else will meet us at the theater."

"This is fucking ridiculous," I spat.

"See, he thinks so too!" Rose screamed, standing up in defiance.

In the moment that she broke her concentrated thoughts, I probed her mind. It's not fair for us to block our real thoughts on this situation just because you want him to date a goddamn human, Alice!

I turned on Alice immediately. "You forced everyone to focus their thoughts elsewhere because of all of this!" I screamed at her.

"I didn't want someone else's thoughts to influence yours!" Alice yelled back in indignation, standing up as well.

"No one is going to influence my thoughts because my thoughts are already set. This is not happening Alice!"

"Why not?"

Rosalie began the list in an angry list: "Because it's dangerous, because it's a stupid idea, because Isabella Swan isn't even that fucking pretty–"

That last one made me angry, and I snapped on Rose. "Hey, you don't have to insult the girl. She's actually very pretty."

Suddenly, the room fell unnaturally quiet. I glanced back at Alice, who was staring at me with a winning expression. I suddenly regretted my words. "Not that it matters how attractive or not she is," I said quickly.

"Right Eddie, right," she said in a victorious tone.

"Al, watch it okay," I said warningly. "You're treading on dangerous paths."

"Thank you," Rose said in snappish agreement.

I flinched, I couldn't help it. Rosalie and I hardly agreed on anything. Having her agree with me now, even though I was completely in the right, did nothing but unsettle me. I turned to someone whose agreement I would value a little more.

Once Carlisle and I made eye contact, his true thoughts came pouring in. Admittedly, Edward, this endeavor that Alice is suggesting could be potential dangerous. But I trust you inexplicably Edward, and I have always been proud of your control in tense situations. And most of all, I love you, son, and I want to see you happy with someone else, just as much as Alice does.

Esme's sweet and motherly toned chimed in soon after: Edward, dear, one date will not hurt. I know you better than for you to do something you might possibly regret. And you might end up having fun with this Bella girl. And wouldn't that be nice?

Great, Alice poisoned both my parents. Although, Carlisle did see the concern in this whole situation – he just believed I would be strong enough to handle things.

I was beginning to feel defeated: now that everyone was not aggressively concentrating on something else, their thoughts collectively went against I and Rosalie's anyway: Emmett thought that Bella was cute enough to go on at least one date with and Jasper swore up and down that he had his thirst under control, if that was part of the reason I was so adamantly against this whole thing. Why ask them to think about anything else Alice? I thought sarcastically to myself: they had already been on her side.

I growled in frustration. "Fine," I muttered.

"Yes!" Alice cheered.

"Edward!" Rosalie said in a shrill.

"I'm going to change my shirt and then we can go, and let's do this quickly before I change my mind."

"Yes, sir, I'll get the Volvo running."

"Alice, stay the hell away from my car."

"Yes, sir!" She didn't care really what I said at this point: she was already too consumed with the joy that came with my agreement.

"Edward, are you losing your mind!" Rosalie hissed at me, chasing me up the stairs as I went up.

Possibly."You know there's no point in arguing with her Rose, once she has her mind set."

"Please Edward, she's going through all this trouble because of you. Don't you think we all would have supported you if you were against this? I did."

Yes, and in the strangest of ways, it did nothing to make me feel better about declining. "It's whatever, Rosalie."

"It's not whatever!"

"Could you relax?" I snapped at her. "If you don't want to come with us–"

"Forget it Edward," Rose said in a cold tone, walking away from me and going back down the stairs.

Sometimes I wanted to lunge at that girl, hands first, in hopes that they went around her neck. But I had too much love for Emmett to do all of that. So I just tried to soothe my rattled demeanor, taking the rest of the stairs one step at a time.

Bella

I stood in front of my closet, pondering hard on what exactly to put on. Edward and Alice would be at my door in twenty minutes, and I still wasn't dressed.

I had told Alice yesterday at school that everything was a go for Saturday. My dad was excited that I was getting out of the house with a group of kids from school – he was afraid that the only friend I was going to make was the only one I had always had in this place: Jacob Black. And while he wasn't against my relationship with Jacob, Jacob did live all the way in La Push, and therefore wasn't really accessible at all times.

Alice seemed more excited than me this time about my acceptance, which made me feel good. She told me that she and Edward would come by place around seven-thirty so we could catch the eight-fifteen showing of Transformers. I tried to read up a little on the first Transformers movie so that I wouldn't be completely lost during its sequel.

Now, with only eighteen minutes left to go before the Cullens arrived at my door, I was still in my black bra and panties. Certainly, I had never been one for fashion, and I had always been comfortable in that setting. But now I felt incredibly out of my league, going out with the always beautiful and incredibly stylish Cullens and I owned not even a good knock-off from some famous designer. I sighed in defeat, knowing that I could stare into my closet all day, and nothing magical would happen, so I opted for my favorite pair of jeans and a green top.

However, even though I had no fabulous clothing, I could make for it by making my hair fabulous. I curled it so that it fell in big loose waves, before pulling it half up, leaving the back out to fall over my shoulders. Once I added a little pink gloss to my lips and took a long look at myself in my full-length mirror, I decided that while I would never be as gorgeous as a Cullen, I managed to make myself look decent.

And just in time, because I heard my dad making awkward small talk with a distinctly male voice – Edward.

I pulled on my black flats and told myself to keep my cool. The most unattractive thing I could possibly do right now is act like a spellbound idiot because I was hanging out with the Cullens. And 'spellbound idiot' wasn't quite the impression I was going for.

Just keep telling yourself, Bella: they're regular people just like you.

Yeah, oh so regular, came another thought, because regular people are extremely rich and extremely beautiful.

Great, I was mentally at war with myself!

"Bells, your Edward friend is here."

Well it's now or never, Bella.

I took a deep breath, grabbed my purse and left my room. I went down the stairs slowly, not really wanting my clumsiness to act up now as I approached Edward Cullen. He was standing in our miniscule foyer, hands in his pockets. He was focusing intently on something off to the side – our television, perhaps? He looked gorgeous in a simple fitted black polo, jeans and white sneakers, and his facial profile was enough to make me swoon. Somehow I thought he would be waiting at the bottom of the stairs, watching me as I came down. Instantly, I inwardly scolded myself: did I think this was some teen romance movie and he was going to watch me descend in slow motion as if I was the girl of his dreams?

"Hey," I said, making my presence known to him. Then I thought about it, and the 'hey' sounded so empty, so I said, "Hey Edward."

"Hi Bella," he said tightly, glancing only briefly at me. Then he turned to my dad. "Officer Swan, a pleasure to meet you. We won't keep Bella out late."

Edward walked out of the house without waiting for me, so I bade my father a hasty goodbye before trotting on after him. Alice was standing on the other side of the car, her face lighting up when she saw me.

"Bella, you look great," she said brightly.

I blushed. She must have said that just to be polite: Alice herself was dressed in a sparkling silver top that was off the shoulder, a straight black miniskirt and a pair of black pumps with sky high heels. I wondered how she was managing in such difficult shoes, but then I remembered not everyone lacked coordination like I did.

"You look amazing," I told her, hoping I didn't sound like a doting fangirl or something.

"Thanks, get in." She said just as she opened the passenger door and slid inside the vehicle.

I opened the back door on the driver's side to the silver 2009 Volvo S40 and got in. Once I had the door closed, Edward took off in a hurry.

"Don't drive too fast Eddie," Alice said to her brother.

"So which one of you is older?" I asked politely, trying to be conversational.

Edward let out an amused snort to which Alice gave him a hard look. Then she turned back to me and said, "Eddie's older than me. He's actually the eldest out of the five of us, if you can believe it."

I couldn't – I was almost certain that Emmett was the oldest, or maybe even Rosalie. As if Alice had read my mind, she said with a smile: "Most people guess it's Emmett."

"That had been my guess," I admitted. "But when you say 'oldest', do you mean he's the first adopted, or oldest in years?"

"Edward was the first adopted," Alice said quickly, turning her attention away from me.

"Who's the eldest in years?"

"God, you were right Al, she is a curious one," Edward said suddenly, his voice hard.

I suddenly felt nosy, and that Edward was insulting me for being such. I kept my hands laced together in my lap and said nothing else for the rest of the ride.

Edward

You don't have to be so mean, Edward.

I leaned over and turned on the radio on to provide distraction. Although I could speak softly enough that Bella wouldn't even know I opened my mouth, I didn't want to risk it.

"I agreed to coming to this excursion of yours, not to being civil," I told her.

Well that makes everything great Eddie, thanks. Because when I wanted you to agree to this, I wanted you to act like a spoiled brat as well. I'm getting everything I ever wanted.

"Everything has to be about you doesn't it?"

I'm doing this for you, idiot.

I replied by saying nothing. It wasn't as if I had asked her to set me up with someone, and certainly, if I had my pickings, I wouldn't have asked her to choose some inquisitive human girl from my high school.

My head was suddenly filled with more scenes of Bella and I being incredibly happy: us standing ankle deep in ocean water with our pants rolled up to our knees, holding hands; her affectionately counting the thousands of shimmers on my glistening skin as I laid back in the sun. I fixed Alice with a hard glare, and she stopped.

Just stuff I've seen happening, and I thought I should let you know.

Alice's visions didn't always come true. If I made a strong decision not to get close to this girl, all these visions would be for naught.

In the next instant, I saw Bella out with someone else, though the other person seemed to be a blur. But the way she was snuggled up next to him, I could only assume it was a male. Fine with me.

Stop it Edward, Alice thought bitterly. You're not even giving Bella a chance. She's a nice girl, and she's good for you.

"You're right. She could be like a bag of chips, and whenever I get the urge to feed, I can just snack on her."

I know you Edward: you wouldn't drain her. Not unless you had ulterior motives….

The next vision that filled my mind was of Bella sitting in our kitchen behind the island, her already milky complexion completely washed out and bright red eyes flashing. She was laughing with Emmett over something unexplained. Surprisingly enough, she looked extremely happy with…

...being a vampire? Get real Edward.

I slammed on the brakes, shook up by the vision, but thankfully we were at the movie theatre. I quickly fixed the car properly into one of the nearer parking spaces before getting out of the car. Alice got out right behind me, and soon she was in my face.

"Look, you," she hissed. "Be nice, okay? We'll already have enough attitude from Rose to deal with. You, plus her, will just make for a bad night, and then Bella will think we don't like her."

"We don't," I insisted.

"I do, and you might too if you quit being such a douche." She stabbed me in the chest with her pointer finger at that last remark. Then she bounced off towards the theatre entrance, presumably to give me and Bella 'alone time'.

Her thoughts reached me soon enough: Be the gentleman I know you can be, Eddie. You might even like it.

I groaned: that was the part I was afraid of. Against my will, I had already found myself attracted to Bella this evening when I saw her come down the stairs. I had looked just before she turned her head towards mine, then made a point to focus on anything but her. She looked great in the slim fitting jeans and the fitted, sea-green strapless top, each article of clothing accenting her soft curves. And with her hair pulled back, I could hardly miss the disarming innocence and endearing shyness in her chocolate-colored eyes. Then, by the time we got to the car and she blushed after Alice's comment to her outfit, I found myself faced with desire to taste the blood that was rushing attractively to her cheeks. Never have I ever found someone's blushing so damn appealing – I actually had to swallow venom that had been welling in my mouth when I looked away from her.

And now all these visions from Alice about my possible happiness with Bella Swan? As a human? And then a vision of her become a vampire, like myself? It seemed much too complicated in theory to be real: it felt that it would be easier just to be mean.

"Edward?"

Bella's soft and shy voice filled my ears, and I turned to face her. She was standing only a few inches behind me, eyes fixed on the ground with that attractive flush on her face. "Is everything alright?"

I sighed in defeat, and told myself it wasn't Bella's fault that Alice was getting all these crazy thoughts. I put on best smile and tucked my hand under her chin, titling her head upwards. "Everything's good."

She shivered, but didn't pull away from my touch. "Your hands are so cold."

Fuck. I snatched my hand away from her skin. "Yeah, guess I had the AC up too high in the car," I replied quickly as my cover. "Come on, let's go meet up with the others."

I couldn't afford to be careless like this. Just because Alice thought Bella would be able to handle my true nature doesn't mean I agreed with her.

Bella

Transformers was confusing. As the movie played before me on a huge screen, I began wishing to myself that I had just watched the film instead of reading up on it on Wikipedia.

I was seated between Edward and Alice, with Edward in the aisle seat. Next to Alice was Jasper, naturally, followed by Rosalie and Emmett. The final two were completely ignoring the movie, too engrossed in each other's kiss to care – they had pushed up the arm rest between them and everything. Jasper and Alice had pulled up their arm rest as well, but only so Alice could snuggle closer to Jasper's side. Thankfully, they weren't mauling each other, because that would have simply made things more awkward between me and Edward.

More awkward than they already were.

I'm not sure why I didn't pick up on this sooner, but I now realized that Edward and I were the only two here that weren't a couple. The arm rest separating us was suddenly so obvious I felt as if it was taunting me. Every fiber in me wanted to lean on Edward's perfect body and rest my head against his chest while put his arm around me. But as I took shy, quick peeks at his face, I found that he was either extremely focused on the movie or just completely uninterested in even glancing in my direction.

I fiddled nervously with my fingers and fought the urge to say something to him – we were in a movie theatre for god's sakes: not really meant for conversation. But I wanted to know if I had upset him in some way, or if he was mad at me. The way his brow crinkled together gave a vibe of irritation, even if it was the cutest crinkle I had ever seen.

Suddenly, he turned to me, and his expression warmed so instantly that I could feel my face flushing. He gave me a sweet, crooked smile and whispered, "Are you enjoying the film so far?"

I tried to think of some coy way to answer, but instead, all that came out was the truth: "I'm a little lost, because I've never seen the first one." I stopped for a moment, then added, "I mean, I can tell who are the good guy versus who are the bad guys. I mean, the word Decpetacon is clear enough to show whose side I should be cheering on." A nervous giggle left my throat at this point, and then I fell incredibly silent: I realized a moment too late that I had started blabbing.

Edward watched me for a moment, an amused smirk on his face. "Well," was all he said.

I wanted to die of sheer embarrassment. "I mean, other than that I'm fine," I added helplessly, not wanting to go on another tangent about nothing.

"Right," Edward said before turning his attention back to the screen.

Good ass job Bella. He finally looks at you, and you fuck things up. I took a deep breath before asking him, "Are you enjoying the movie so far?"

"Shush!" came the harsh and angry voice from behind. "Some of us are trying to watch the movie still!"

I felt my face reddening further. If a god existed, He'd save me from the humiliation beginning to creep over me.

"So do you want to go outside?" Edward asked casually.

I so desperately wanted to keep a straight face, but I couldn't mask my surprise. "Outside?" I blurted out, a little too loudly.

"Shush!" Harsh and Angry said again.

Edward chuckled to himself, then leaned in closer to me. Soon his nose was only an inch away from me. "Not all the way outside, just in the lobby. We'll wait for everyone to get out there."

"You don't want to finish watching the movie?"

He shrugged one shoulder, then gave me that adorable crooked smile again. "It doesn't matter, come on."

He took my hand and led us out of the aisle and up to the exit. Again, I was in shock at just how cold his hand was. Of course, I certainly wasn't warm either – not with all that unreasonably cold movie theatre air-conditioning blasting at me – but his hand was oddly chilled. But I like it, his icy touch: when he had touched my face earlier, my skin broke out in pleasant goosebumps, though that could have had little to do with the temperature of his hand, and more with the fact that it had been on my face in the first place.

"It's pretty cold in there," I ventured once we were out of the theatre.

He looked back at me, eyes widened only for a split second. He dropped my hand instantly, then stuffed both of his in his pockets. "Yeah, I get cold pretty easily," he told me quickly.

It was a pattern: as soon as I brought up his hands, he seemed to get defensive. What was the big deal? Some people got really cold quicker than others. I bravely decided to tease him, "Maybe you should wear more than just a fitted tee next time you come to the movies," I said, smiling.

He reciprocated my teasing, with playfulness of his own. "How would you get a chance to check me out properly if I wore a sweater?"

I blushed, imagining Edward in sweater, and said in a murmur, "I'm sure you could pull off a sweater nicely."

He grinned at me, and took a step closer. "So you are checking me out?"

My face got hot. "I didn't say that!"

"But you didn't deny it either." He took another step towards me. "And trust me Bella, you don't have to say it."

I frowned at myself: was I that obvious? Then again, wasn't everyone undeniably attracted to Edward? I went with that route, "Well you are good looking."

"Thank you," he said with a smile. He added in a cool tone, "I'm also way out of your league."

Abruptly, my heart fell into my stomach, then dissolved in my acidic gastric juices. I was certain I was staring at him with my jaw open, dumbfounded, but I was too busy battling the hurt trying to follow the sting of his words. Suddenly, the pleasant demeanor Edward had only moments ago, faded into the hard, cold exterior had had in the car. He took another step towards me, completely closing the gap between us, and stared down at me – his amber eyes blazing with dangerous intensity.

"Listen Bella, you seem like a nice enough girl, so let's end this before anything starts," he said darkly. "I am not your type. You are not my type. Nothing would ever work out between us, though my sister believes differently. The point is, I'm telling you that your attraction to me is futile because nothing will come of it."

My breathing had gotten heavier, and I certainly felt like I was going to cry. Rejection wasn't something I was new to, but this kind of rejection opened up a whole new world to the term – a world that burned my chest and hurt all over. I dropped my head, unable to hold his gaze anymore. I wanted to say something – Why? How? What did I do? – but nothing came out. Nothing could come out.

"If you want, I'll take you home now."

I could only nod weakly in response.


I'm supposed to be watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Hopefully it will be just as good as the first!

Reviews are always welcome.

Until my next update!

--Brin--