Jasper, Emmet and I spent the entirety of that afternoon gaming, and I have to admit that it was a lot of fun. I always felt like I had more in common with my brother's than with Alice and Rose, and that they understood me a whole lot better. After having beaten Emmet at Soul Calibur IV no less than twenty-one times in a row, we decided to take a brake and just hang for a while.

Emmet turned on a CD and the surround sound system, and we all leaned back in the couch.

"So, Bells," Emmet said with a devlish smile, "when will we get to officially meet your new boyfriend?"

"Emmet –" began Jasper.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Em. Why would you bring that up?"

"Sorry! Man," he replied, laughing, "I was just trying to mess around with you. And it obviously worked."

He grinned at me and I couldn't help but smile at his spiteful sense of humour. Typical Emmet. I punished him by giving him a hard kick in the shin, but decided to let the matter slide for once. Jasper was looking at me, smiling friendly.

"Are you toying with my emotions again, Jasper? 'Cause normally, I would – you know – murder Emmet when he'd say something like that."

"Not this time," Jasper chuckled. "This is all you."

"Yeah, maybe you've gone soft. Maybe it's 'cause your heart's started to melt –"

Before he could finish the sentence, the largest couch cushion in the room hit him straight in the face, muffling the last of his words. I had a good laugh at his baffled expression once he emerged from behind it. In a matter of seconds though, his face cracked into a smile once more.

Sighing lightly, he reached out and nudged my knee with his knuckles and said: "You're so much better this way, Bella. Smiling and laughing. I've really missed this."

Suddenly embarrassed, I didn't know how to reply, so I looked out the window instead.

"It's true," agreed Jasper. "We all miss happy Bella."

There was an awkward moment were neither of us said anything (what was I supposed to say to that?), and then Jasper addressed me in his thoughts.

… know we don't mean anything bad by it ... love you no matter if you're happy or sad … we just prefer to see you happy …

In that instant, a car drove up onto the driveway. Thinking that I'd better stay out of Alice's way, I was just about to vanish up the stairs when Jasper put his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't run from it, Bella. It'll only make it worse."

"Well, if I stay, I'll make it worse."

But before I had the time to get away, Alice and Rose burst through the door, covering the floor in an insane amount of shopping bags. Emmet went immediately up to Rosalie and kissed her on the cheek, while Alice rambled for a moment about this rude salesperson they had met, and the insane sale in this one store, and this gorgeous dress she had tried on but was too small for …

Oh God, I thought. I'll die if I have to listen to all this. How the hell does Jasper do it?

When finally she had gotten it all out of her system, she went up to Jasper and kissed him on the lips, practically ignoring me even though I stood like two feet to his right.

"How was your afternoon?" she asked cheerily.

"It was great," Jasper replied, pushing a streak of hair behind her ear. "We played some Xbox."

"That's nice."

They watched each other in silence for a moment – you know the way couples sometimes do in cheesy chick flicks? – and I thought momentarily of sneaking away while they were preoccupied. Before I could, though, Alice suddenly turned to me, gave me a smile that I felt was slightly forced, and said: "And what about you, Bella? How was your afternoon?"

"Err," I said, taken aback by her straightforwardness, "it was good. Great, even."

… about time …

For a moment, all of the people in the room smiled at me (and do I even need to tell you how annoying it is when that happens), and then Alice replied: "Good. I'm glad to hear it."

Before I had any time to comprehend what had just happened, the two couples made their way to their respective rooms, leaving me alone in the living room with all my confusion.