-:- 5 -:-

Betas: ChocolateMango and Edwardsfavoritebrunette

Summary: Family comes first. We all know that, and so does Edward, yet he is falling for the girl that broke his brother's heart. What do you choose: love or family?

-:- For the love of a brother -:-

"Edward, it's almost time to drive your brother to school!" Esme yelled from the first floor. His mother's voice rang in his ears painfully. Edward pretended to still be asleep, but he was wide awake, and had been, for quite a long time now.

"Come on, Edward! Get up! I'm not asking again!" Esme shouted, while he heard her footsteps on the stairs. She was going to drag him out of bed, like she had done pretty much every morning since freshman year, but that plan wouldn't work that day. Edward had been sitting, ready to go, on his bed for the past three hours.

"You're…up?" His mom asked, confused as she opened the door. "That's the first time in three years that I haven't had to pull you out of bed." She looked at her oldest son and scrunched her nose. "Okay, what is it? Are you going to ditch school? Go see a girlfriend? Are you doing drugs?"

Edward laughed. "Easy, mother. I'm not going to ditch school, and there is no girl in my life."

That last one was a lie that came out easily.

"Good, that's good," Esme mumbled. "Emmett wouldn't handle it well if you came home with a girl. Rose seriously messed with his head. I still can't believe that girl, she was wonderful and yet―"

Edward felt uncomfortable as he tried not to listen to his mother's rant. There was a girl he liked. A girl who was out of his reach, for sure. It was the girl who happened to be his younger brother's ex-girlfriend, Rosalie. As if love wasn't hard enough already.

Edward had gotten up early that day to get ready for her. He wanted to look his best today because he had two hours to spend with Rosalie in Biology.

With an uneasy feeling, Edward got into his car with a silent Emmett. On the way to school, Edward struggled with a million questions. How could he fall for his brother's ex? And more importantly, what should he do now? Should he tell her? Or should he just wait for this stupid crush to be over? The guy code still existed, and Edward was pretty sure that dating your brother's ex stood in the top ten of the don'ts list.

Edward looked at Emmett. His otherwise joyful brother was looking sadly out the window―dark bags under his eyes marked the lack of sleep. Edward wanted to say something to make him feel better, but found that he couldn't. Rosalie stood between them now, even though Emmett wasn't aware of Edward's feelings.

Before Edward could say anything, the school came into sight, and he parked the car.

"See ya later?" he said quickly to his brother. "And take care, man."

Emmett grunted a response and Edward walked away quickly. He tried not to notice the stares and whispers that were thrown at his brother, but in this little school it was almost impossible not to know everything. Every student, and probably every teacher, knew that Rosalie had dumped his brother after three years of dating. They had been joined at the hip and then…they weren't anymore.

First period dragged on and on. It seemed like the clock was going backwards, and Edward couldn't concentrate one bit in class. He just had to get through the first two hours and after that, he would get two hours with Rose.

For the first time, he actually wanted to go to Biology.

"One more hour and I see Rosie," Edward said aloud without realizing it.

"What's in one hour?" Jasper asked next to him.

"Uh, we get our Biology tests back. I'm pretty sure I aced it." Edward smiled, trying to cover up his previous mistake. Luckily, Jasper seemed oblivious to his uneasiness.

"Yeah, I think I did well, too," Jasper replied, before looking back at the blackboard to write down their homework for the next lesson.

Finally, English ended, and in between classes the only thing that could be heard in the hallway was gossip about Emmett and Rosalie, the power couple that had broken up. There were a lot of speculations about what had happened, but there were only a handful of people who knew the actual truth.

Edward tried not to get involved and most certainly didn't answer any questions. After five minutes of going back and forth in his mind, he finally made his decision: he was going to tell Rose that he liked her. With newfound courage, he walked toward the biology room.

I have to tell her, he thought to himself. When he entered the room, he saw Rose sitting in the back row, looking out of the window, absentmindedly playing with her golden blond hair. She was as beautiful as her name suggested, even though she looked incredibly sad. Edward felt his heart clench.

A few more seconds, and then I'll tell her―he mentally prepared himself―What's the worst that can happen, right.

He counted in his head, and made his way toward her.

"Rosie, you're far more beautiful when you smile," he said casually, hanging onto the desk in front of her. "You okay?"

"Fine." She sniffed. "I'm just not feeling well."

"Can I get you anything? Nurse Julie has something for everything."

Rosalie didn't answer, but fixed her icy blue eyes on Edward. "No, thank you. I don't think Julie has anything that can fix this."

After her comment, Edward scrambled to think of something that would cheer her up. He didn't like seeing her so sad. Maybe he should just spill it and tell her how he felt…maybe that would cheer her up? Or it would freak her out…either option was better than seeing her so sad.

"Rose, there's something I have to tell you," he started, but to his surprise, Rosalie started crying, almost bawling, while drawing all the attention in the room to her as big tears rolled down her cheeks and onto her neck.

Edward told everyone to stop staring, and luckily they listened.

"I have to tell you something," Rosalie struggled to say through her tears. "I made a big mistake, Edward. I should have never broken up with Emmett. I still love him, so much." She sighed loudly, trying to recompose herself and not to ruin her makeup. "I miss him, every day more and more, but I don't dare to tell him that. He was so angry when I told him it wasn't working for me anymore. I just, I don't know what do." She pulled angrily at her hair, but then looked up again.

"Do you want to talk to Emmett for me? Please, Edward." She took his hands in hers, gently squeezing them. Edward was stupefied. Their break up happened over a month ago. He hadn't known she was still so into Emmett.

Maybe Edward had acted like an idiot, thinking he could tell her how he felt about her. So stupid.

"Of course I'll talk to him, Rosie," he said, lighter than he actually felt. "Anything for you."

"Thank you, Edward," she said gratefully as she leaned forward and gave him a kiss on his cheek. "What did you want to tell me?"

"Oh," Edward said, dumbfounded. "Nothing, it wasn't important."

He took his things and sat down in the far end of the room, putting as much distance between Rosalie and him as possible.

In a way, Edward had expected he would feel bad, but he felt…relieved. Emmett and Rosalie would be happy again, and in the end, that was what's most important, right?