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un-betaed

Prompt: Laugh

Word Flex: "Did you do this?" He asked.

"Okay," Alice said in a low voice, "just act natural."

"But I thought you wanted me to act like you told—"

"Bella!" She spun and bared her tiny white teeth at me until she saw I was teasing. Then she acted exasperated even though she was smiling.

It was almost eleven o'clock at night and we were just now going out. An hour later and it would have been the curfew I had in high school. I joked about it earlier to Alice and she said that was the way it worked in college. I wanted to yawn just thinking about it but I didn't dare. Not in front of Alice.

I was actually quite comfortable in jeans, a fitted shirt and flats. We had spent a lot of time and effort dressing like we spent no time at all. Alice said it was important that we didn't look like we were trying too hard.

A boy in a party t-shirt and a baseball cap was manning the gate door with a hand stamp.

"ID." He sounded bored but looked us up and down and wasn't sorry about it at all.

Alice handed over her driver's license. I stuck my hands in my back pockets and tried to look like I wasn't underage.

"Jasper inside?" She asked the boy sweetly, letting him know that he was carding a senior's girlfriend.

"Shit," he mumbled, glancing at Alice's license then back up to her. He straightened a little then nodded and waved us in.

"He didn't even card me!" I said in a loud whisper as we walked through the backyard.

"Bella, look." Alice grabbed my arm. "Emmett at ten o'clock." Baseball star Emmett McCarty was casually leaning up against the side of the house looking hotter then anyone had a right to. A girl next to him was dutifully holding his beer for him while he texted someone on his phone.

"Crap," I said under my breath. I was blushing already.

"Let's find Jazz then we'll casually stroll over. He knows you from class, right?"

"Sort of."

"Well, I'm sure he's noticed you at least. We'll take it from there." She smiled brightly and waved at a pledge to bring us two plastic cups of beer. I didn't want to tell her that the sociology class that Emmett and I shared had 300 students.

Fraternity houses are disgusting. The tile in the foyer was slick with… something and everything smelled like watered down beer. Alice obviously knew where she was going so I kept my mouth shut and followed along.

"Have you ever met Jasper's roommate?" Alice asked as we headed upstairs.

"Alice, I've been here for two weeks," I laughed. "I haven't met anybody. Hey-" I jumped when someone grabbed my arm.

"Sorry girls, the party has to stay down— Oh…" The guy that had his hand on my arm let go. He smiled sheepishly. "Hey, Alice. Sorry, I didn't see that was you. How's it going?"

"Just fine, Seth," she smiled. Alice was always smiling. I think my natural state was a perpetual look of confusion. "Have you met Bella?"

"Hey," Seth nodded in a respectful way. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," I called as Alice dragged me upstairs.

"Do you know everyone here?" I asked, wrinkling my nose as we weaved down hallway after hallway. Now I could add pot to the list of yucky frat house smells.

"It's required for pledges to recognize the senior's girlfriends on sight. They know my name, my major and that I'm a Kappa Mu."

"Wow. That's um, kind of creepy."

"Tell me about it." She stopped in front of a closed door and knocked. I leaned against the wall to stay out of the way. Seth didn't know what he was talking about. There was definitely a party up here too.

"Yeah." A voice called from inside.

"It's me," Alice called, rolling her eyes at me. I grinned.

The door swung open and there was Jasper in all his scruffy glory.

"Hey babe," Jazz pulled Alice into his arms and kissed her on the top of the head. They had one of those coupley moments before he noticed me standing there. "Bella! How's big college life treating you, baby?"

"Fine," I frowned, looking to the side to see if anyone heard. The last thing I wanted was for everyone to think I was some little freshman.

"Y'all come in." Jasper ushered us through the door, making a face when he saw what we had in our cups. "Ally, you're drinking horse piss darlin'. Throw that shit out."

Jasper lived in some sort of suite; two tiny rooms connected by a tinier bathroom. I sat gingerly on the edge of the bed while Alice tumbled with Jasper into a recliner. I tried to look interested in the TV blaring ESPN.

I walked in the bathroom under the guise of checking my lip gloss but I really just wanted to give them some privacy. Not bad, Alice, I thought, inspecting my mouth. That stuff really does stay on. As much as I bit my lip that was a miracle.

The bathroom door from the other bedroom flew open and banged into my leg hard before I had a chance to move aside. I yelped like a baby.

"Shit, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were there." A cute guy with the most amazing green eyes I had ever seen retreated back behind the door but leaned in, probably wondering who the strange girl in his bathroom was. He wasn't wearing a shirt and I was afraid to look lower to see if he was wearing pants.

"Edward!" Jasper called from the recliner, "Fix these girls a proper drink, y'hear? They've been in the horse piss again."

Edward threw a quick smile at me then glanced into the dark bedroom behind him. "Kate, I'll be back in a minute."

He turned back toward me. "Do you mind?" He asked politely.

"Oh! Oh, God, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," I babbled as I backed out of the bathroom.

Jasper fixed me a bourbon and coke, which was really pretty good.

"Watch out there, Baby Bell. That will knock you on your ass," he said in a way that made me think my ass on the floor was a foregone conclusion. That would probably happen without the drink but I didn't say that.

Edward and the mysterious Kate started banging the bed into the wall so Jasper suggested we go downstairs for a bit.

I was feeling a little out of place. All the girls here looked so fabulous. It was like they knew some answer I hadn't even figured out the question to.

"Don't tell him that I kind of have a thing for Emmett," I whispered frantically to Alice while Jasper had stopped to talk to someone in the hallway.

She gave me a stricken look.

I gasped. "You didn't."

"I'm sorry! But he would never say anything, you know that."

"Oh my God. Let's just go home, Alice. I have a bad feeling about this. Please." I wrung my hands, feeling slightly sick. I wasn't a sorority girl like Alice. She had been my best friend since we were kids but she'd had two years of this kind of life while I stayed home to take care of my dad. For me, junior college had felt like an extension of high school more than anything else.

"Okay, okay." She sighed. "I'll take you home. My keys are back in Jazz's room though."

"I'll come with you."

After she whispered to Jasper we walked back down the hallway. I waited outside while Alice got her purse. A stunning girl with strawberry blonde hair came and stood beside me in the hallway.

"Hi," she said, slurring her words a little.

"Hello." I murmured, trying to decipher her sorority necklace. It looked like she was a Kappa Mu like Alice.

"I've been looking for Edward. You haven't seen him have you?" She pouted at Edward's door. It was dark inside and it looked like he wasn't home.

"Oh I just saw him," I said, eager to help. "He's in there with Kate."

The girl was suddenly extremely sober. And that bad feeling I had earlier? Was nothing compared to the bad feeling I had now.

"Did you say Kate?" She stared at me.

"Um. You know, I'm not sure who—or even if there was someone else in there. I'm probably wrong. I usually am about things like this." Alice? Where are you?

The girl with strawberry blonde hair suddenly erupted like a freaking volcano and started banging and kicking the door, screaming like a lunatic. Alice came out of Jasper's room with her mouth hanging open.

"Oh crap," she whispered, glancing at me. "Tanya! Tanya, honey what are you doing? He's not in there." Alice got close enough to grab Tanya's arm so she'd stop putting marks on the door. "Come on, Irina's downstairs. She said she wanted to talk to you."

Everything might have been okay if Edward hadn't opened the door right at that moment in nothing but unbuttoned jeans and sex hair.

"What the fuck, Tanya? I'm just trying to sleep. I'll call you tomorrow." He glared at Alice and me.

"This girl says Kate is in your room," she growled in a voice that sent chills up my spine. "Is that true?"

Edward's eyes flicked to me before he stepped out in the hall and pulled the door shut behind him.

"No, of course it's not true," he scoffed. "You know I wouldn't do that to you."

Alice touched my hand and indicated that we should slowly and quietly back away.

"Then why would she say that? She said 'Kate' not just 'some girl'. If she's in there Edward Cullen, I'll tear her fucking head off and then I'll make you regret you were ever born."

I shot Alice a holy shit look. She nodded and mouthed, Come on.

Edward's door opened again, only this time a girl (presumably the mysterious Kate) was standing there half dressed with a triumphant smirk on her face. Totally on purpose.

Edward groaned and smartly got out of the way, wincing when they tackled each other and something crashed in his room. He came closer and towered over me.

"Edward," Alice warned.

"Did you do this?" he asked softly. His eyes were hard.

"I didn't know," I whispered, hating myself for cowering.

Suddenly he straighted up and grabbed my upper arm, hard. I instantly felt reprimanded, like I was nine and my father was dragging me home.

"Edward, what are you doing?" Alice trotted beside us as Edward walked me down the hall. "Seriously. She didn't know about any of this. Come on, stop, you're scaring her."

I was past scared. I figured I would wake up any time now.

Jasper saw us when we reached the backyard but by then it was too late.