Hey hey hey! So I was going to post this last night but FFnet was being a douche and wouldn't let me upload the chapter for posting. But here it is now! And some of you have expressed a concern over Bella's anger and others a concern over Edward being held for all the blame, remember, they are both young, they are both human, and they both have their reasons for things. Also, Edward's lack of contacting Bella by Facebook or by calling her was also questioned and is addressed below. So, just know that all possible reasons for things will either be explained below or will be in future chapters. And this story is coming to a close, I figure there are only a few chapters left and it'll end. If I write another one, time will tell, but first my second novel will be finished before I write anything else.

So, without further ado, Twilight Crystal is my beta and I only own the plot.

Cover Girl Chapter 19

"Are you sure about this?" Edward asked Benjamin and he nodded.

"I'm sure. You have to make the first move because she sure as hell isn't," Benjamin told him and Edward knew he was right. It had been two weeks since the knee to the nuts and Bella hadn't even acknowledged him, even when they saw each other around campus.

"Okay, so I just get the food and wait for her, then offer it to her when I see her?" Edward asked, extremely doubtful that it would work.

"Yeah, she's not going to make a scene here in front of all these people," Benjamin replied but Edward was still hesitant.

"How do you know for sure?" Edward asked as he started placing items on the tray, a grilled chicken sandwich, a mixed fruit cup, a can of diet soda, and a chocolate cupcake complete with chocolate sprinkles.

"Because I know this shit. Now just be a good boy and do as I say. Who is the one who hangs around girls all the time?"

"True," Edward replied as he paid for the food and moved to sit near the entrance to the dining commons.

He had made sure that Bella was eating in that location before setting the first phase of Operation Talk to Bella, affectionately called OTB by Benjamin, in motion. Bella ate in the dining commons every Monday and Tuesday when she had morning and afternoon classes near the building. The rest of the week she ate at other various places around campus…not like Edward had stalked her to find out her schedule or anything.

He sat waiting with the tray of food, watching the door like a hawk for Bella to enter. Her class should have already let out and Edward was counting the seconds to her arrival. It was exactly ninety-seven seconds before she arrived, and when she did, Edward stood, picked up the tray, and headed toward her.

"I got you lunch, can we please talk?" Edward asked, his voice and expression hopeful, but Bella just stood there with a shocked expression on her face.

"Please, Bella? I'm trying to fix this," Edward said again, his voice soft but his emotions and body tense. "Please?"

Still, she didn't speak, but she finally moved; however it wasn't in the manner that Edward wanted. Instead of taking the tray and sitting down, she turned around to walk away. The problem was that Edward had moved entirely too close to her, and given their height differences, her shoulder hit the tray, pushing it up and over onto Edward's chest. At the same moment, her heavy messenger bag swung out and hit Edward directly in the crotch. His resulting jar and clenching muscles firmly cemented the tray right against his chest, chocolate cupcake and all, and the grunt that came out of his mouth drew the attention of the entire dining hall his way.

The entire room was silent for three heartbeats before the chuckles began, slowly at first, and then spreading across the room. Bella had exited the hall before Edward had time to say anything else, and being that he was in pain and covered in food, he honestly just wanted to get out of there and forget the measly attempt at getting her to speak with him. The problem was that Edward couldn't really move without making a further mess, and his boys were screaming in protest to Bella's messenger bag assault.

Benjamin appeared beside Edward, easing the tray of ruined lunch away from his chest, but no matter how careful he was, food still dropped to the floor and the mess was all over Edward's shirt, chocolate frosting piled up right against his nipple. Edward sighed heavily, breathing through the massive throbs of pain coursing from his crotch, and then slowly held his head high and walked from the dining hall, leaving the sounds of embarrassment behind him.

Benjamin caught up quickly and started discussing what went wrong and what their next plan of action was in OTB. Edward wasn't concerned at the moment. All he wanted to do was take a shower, trash the shirt he was wearing, and ice his boys…again. Benjamin seemed to notice that he wasn't in the mood to talk, so they fell into a comfortable silence as Edward dripped frosting and sprinkles all the way back to the dorms. As he passed out that night, he thought about the next step in OTB and hoped that his boys would come out intact.

It was a week later and Benjamin and Edward were standing down the hall from Bella's classroom, ready for phase two of OTB. Benjamin assured him that this one would work but Edward had his doubts.

"Okay, I wore a cup just in case," Edward whispered over his shoulder as he looked around the corner, waiting for the classroom door to open and Bella to emerge.

"Smart move," Benjamin chuckled and Edward gave him the finger behind his back.

A moment later the door opened and people started streaming out. Edward watched for Bella and began to worry when she didn't come out, but finally, after even the professor had left the room, she walked out, her arms laden with books and her messenger bag slung over her shoulder. Edward slowly approached her, his hands protectively in front of his crotch just in case she decided to go all Chuck Norris on him again. He didn't think his boys could take a repeat attack like she had issued before.

Benjamin had suggested that Edward just try and take her books for her so as to not give her a chance to object or injure him, so Edward did just that, reaching for the load in Bella's arms without even notifying her of his presence. His arms brushed against hers as he attempted to procure her things, but Bella looked up quickly, saw Edward, and her grip tightened on her possessions.

"I'm just trying to help," Edward said as he tried to pry her stuff from her arms, but Bella held on and glared at him.

"I don't need your help," she seethed as she tried to yank her things free from his grasp.

Edward, stubborn as could be, fought for control and dominance and yanked back harder. He could feel her grip loosening and he pulled once more, trying to do the chivalrous thing. All hell broke loose when the tug of war ended suddenly as Bella let go and Edward's force caused the momentum to take over. The papers and books went flying, scattering all over the hallway as Bella growled out loud, a high pitched screech mixing in with the low rumbling sound.

"Jesus! Ever heard of 'no means no'?" Bella yelled at him as she dropped to the ground and began to gather her things.

Edward stooped to help her and each item he picked up was quickly snatched out of his hands by her.

"I was just trying to be nice!" Edward shouted back, his anger quickly getting the better of him at her outburst.

"You and nice don't belong in the same sentence. First you throw me out; then you throw my stuff all over the place? Real smooth!" Bella admonished him and Edward felt his face flush with anger at her accusation.

"I wouldn't have thrown you out if you hadn't lied to me, and just now I was trying to help you out but apparently you don't need any help with anything!" Edward fumed and he stood up, throwing his hands up in frustration.

"I don't need help from you, I'm fine taking care of myself," Bella huffed as she picked up the last of her stuff, stood quickly, and walked off with her head held high.

Edward watched her go through narrowed eyes and then saw Benjamin appear from around the corner as the people who had stopped to watch the exchange began to disburse. Benjamin slowly approached him shaking his head.

"If you're going to make this work, you're going to have to control that temper of yours. I know being a ginger gives you a little leeway on being a hothead, but you have to rein it in even if she explodes like that on you. I'd say that take two was a massive failure," Benjamin said as he walked past Edward and motioned for him to follow.

"I tried," Edward said when he caught up to his roommate. "She just gets me all worked up!" he tried to say as an excuse but Benjamin wasn't having it.

"Worked up or not, if you blow up like that every time she gets you excited, even if you get a chance with her again, it will be over before you know it. That kind of reaction is volatile and unhealthy. Tell me you and she weren't like that before."

"No, actually we were best friends, always in good spirits around each other. And yeah, if one of us got mad, so did the other, but never at each other."

"Good, that means there is something there to work with, we just have to get you back to it. Now, let's go hash out 'Phase 3 of OTB' over some pizza. Watching you two got me hungry," Benjamin said and he and Edward headed out to try and figure out what else they could do to get Edward back on Bella's good side.

Edward had his blue tooth in his ear, listening to Benjamin relay Bella's position on campus while Edward prepared Phase 3. He listened to Benjamin prattle on in his ear as he unloaded the numerous bouquets of flowers all over her truck, even going as far as tying a few balloons to her side view mirrors. The centerpiece was a very sentimental card he had taken over two hours to pick out, reading through all of them until he found the one that he felt belayed the empathy and sorrow he felt at hurting Bella.

He knew that he should have called or gotten in touch with Bella right after he received the letter from her, but at the time he was still angry and didn't feel that he was to blame in anything. It took time for him to realize that he had been so wrong. He assumed most of Bella's anger stemmed from his throwing her out, refusing her after she had confided in him. But he was a dumb teenage boy who hadn't ever had the experience of a real relationship. Sure, he had dated girls, and he had fooled around, but he hadn't ever gone all the way and had never gotten serious with anyone. He was young, stupid, naïve, and inexperienced. He also had never had to work to get a girls attention. Being the other Cullen, he had groupies just because of who his brother was. If he wanted a date, there were multiple girls lined up, not that he ever took advantage of it. But in the end he was essentially just an overgrown child; most guys were until they were in their mid to late twenties or even older.

Once he had realized he was the one in the wrong, it was too late to simply call or write Bella, he needed to do it in person. The remorse he felt wouldn't have been conveyed properly over a call, text, or email. He wanted to make it up to her the right way, but Bella wasn't allowing him to. Maybe she would after Phase 3.

Edward finished placing the last of the bouquets of flowers all over her hood and tied the last of the balloons to the truck, and then he moved off to the side, sitting on a bench nearby to watch her reaction. He was in plain sight of her truck so he could see everything, but it also meant she would be able to see him.

Just as he sat, he heard Benjamin letting him know that Bella was heading his way and Benjamin was close behind her. Edward started watching for her, eager to see her reaction and he hoped she was more receptive to his latest attempt at getting her to talk to him and understand that he was sorry for everything.

A minute later she showed and he watched her come to an immediate stop as she saw her truck and the mass of flowers and balloons and the card sticking up in the middle of it all. She looked around and finally spotted Edward, glaring as her eyes met his. She stalked toward her truck, never taking her glare from him until she actually reached the results of phase 3.

Edward was growing increasingly worried that she would react negatively, and his worry was justified. When she reached the truck he watched her pull something out of her pocket, and then she was wielding a small pocket knife as she grabbed at the balloons, cut the strings, and then popped them violently. Next the flowers received similar treatment of death, but she instead beat them against the ground, throwing the cellophane wrapped empty stems toward Edward.

She stopped when there were only a few bouquets left and the card. Edward still sat watching her, unable to leave until he saw if she accepted any single part of his gesture. When she grabbed the last few bouquets and the card, he grew hopeful, but as she turned and walked toward him with them, his hope was dashed.

The bouquets were gripped in one fist and she began to swing them at Edward, flower petals flying everywhere around them as she growled. And then once the stems were empty and discarded in his lap, she pulled out the card and ripped it in half before dropping it at his feet.

"Just stop, Edward. Nothing you say or do is going to work. Just drop it!" Bella screamed at him and then turned and stormed back to her truck, jumping in and backing out of the flower graveyard she had created.

"Well, looks like she isn't a flowers kind of girl. Are you sure she's the same girl you knew back in the day?" Benjamin asked, coming up behind Edward.

He turned and began brushing the petals from his hair and shoulders and looked up at Benjamin, a realization forming at his roommate's question.

"She is, but I just realized that we've been going about this the wrong way. I know what I need to do," Edward said and he got up and headed back toward his dorm, Benjamin by his side, as he relayed his ideas for OTB 2.0.

So there you have OTB 1.0. It was a massive failure. And yes, Bella is acting a bit immature but she's had a LOT of time to stew over what Edward did to her. And when she wrote the letter to him she was hurt initially and took all the blame on herself. But I know we ALL rethink things, replay them in our minds and think of things we should have said in the moment, or ways things should have gone after the fact. Bella's done that as well. And Edward is naive and immature and inexperienced so he's fumbling through this with no real example of how it should be done. Give them a chance because they will finally come out more mature in the end. Trust me on this. See you in a few days hopefully!