A/N: This chapter probably could have gone on for about 10 more pages, but I think 25 pages on my end is plenty. So, on you go.

BPOV

Boy, he sure was pretty, I thought to myself. Those green eyes were even more beautiful up close, and his smile … he was delicious.

"Bella?"

"Huh?"

"Bella!" Alice shouted in my ear, almost causing me to fall off my bed.

"What?"

"Whats wrong with you?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she and Rose sat on my bed.

"Nothing," I responded quickly.

She narrowed her eyes as she studied me. A slow grin spread over her face.

"You've got a crush on Edward Cullen!" she shouted triumphantly.

"No. Nope. You're way off base," I denied.

Rose cocked her head to the side and looked at me.

"I think you're right, Alice. She's has been acting strangely since he started hanging out with us."

I grabbed a pillow and tossed it at them. "You guys don't know what you're talking about."

"Uh huh. Denial. The first sign," Rose said.

Alice giggled and began to sing, "Edward and Bella sitting in a tree …"

"Something you want to tell me, Bells?" Dad asked from the doorway.

"No. These two don't know what they're talking about. I do not have a crush on Edward," I said through clenched teeth.

My sisters began snickering beside me as I lied. I wasn't ready to admit that I had a crush on the pretty boy.

"Well, he seems like a nice kid. Emmett and Jasper like him well enough. So, you know, if you're going to crush on some boy, at least make it a nice one."

"Dad!"

He gave a chuckle and started back down the hall.

"Oh, yeah. Nee wants to know what you guys want for dinner tonight?"

"Chinese!" Jasper yelled from the living room.

"Pizza!" Emmett boomed from the living room.

"Fried chicken," I suggested.

"Ooo. That sounds good!" Alice said as she gave Dad a puppy dog look.

"Fried chicken it is. So, who's going to go get it?"

We all looked at him. "Fine. Back in twenty."

I spent Sunday being lazy. A thunderstorm was upon us, and it was the perfect day for curling up in bed with a book. I was warm and cozy under my blanket when Mom came into my room.

"Want some lunch?"

"What are you making?" I asked suspiciously.

Mom narrowed her eyes at me. "Tomato soup from a can. Think you can handle it?"

"Sounds good," I replied with a grin.

"I swear, you'd all think I was trying to poison you with the way you all react whenever I cook."

I could't hold back my snicker. Mom swatted me before leaving. Stretching, I got up and made my way over to my old computer. It took the monster forever to boot up, but once it had, I logged onto my Facebook. Nothing exciting was going on there, so I decided to look at Edward's page. I wouldn't admit it to anyone, but I wanted to know more about him.

His page was pretty bare, and I noticed that he only had a handful of friends. Clicking on his photo album link, I began to make my way through the photos on there. I wasn't stalking him. I was just curious, I told myself.

I clicked on a picture that he'd been tagged in and saw him standing on a baseball field wearing a baseball uniform. Holy hotness! The boy was gorgeous to begin with, but add in a uniform … cue swoon.

I continued to click through all the pictures and stopped when I came across one of him and a girl. He had his arms around her waist, and they looked blissfully happy. The picture was tagged with Edward's name as well as the name Tanya Denali.

I clicked on her name and it took me to her page which was public. Stupid girl. That's how crazy people found you. Quickly, I scrolled through her page and came to the conclusion that she was one of those popular girls. Funny, I couldn't see Edward dating a girl like that. She had over a thousand friends, and she was tagged in a ton of pictures. Most of them taking at parties where she was wearing skimpy clothing. I shook my head in disgust. Edward apparently didn't have good taste in women.

"Whatcha doin?" Emmett asked from over my shoulder, scaring the crap out of me.

"Nothing. Go away."

"Who's that?" he asked, pointing at a picture of Tanya.

"Um …"

"Is that Ed? Dude! Is that chick his girlfriend?"

"Maybe," I said with a sigh.

Emmett leaned over me, getting into my personal bubble.

"Are you stalking Edward?"

"No," I denied. "I was just curious as to what his life in Phoenix was like."

"You could just ask him, you know?"

Rolling my eyes, I closed my Facebook and turned to face Emmett.

"Is there something you wanted?" I asked him.

"Mom says lunch is ready."

Mondays sucked to begin with but add in crappy weather and crappy attitudes, and they sucked even more. Every single one of us was in a crabby mood, and the five of us were snarky with one another from the moment we got up.

All I wanted was to be left alone but sadly, that didn't happen. My locker just happened to be next to Jessica's, and she decided to talk to me.

"… and then, she was all up in my face. I mean, really! Who does that? You know?"

I had no freaking clue what she was on about, so I made some nodding motions and continued to ignore her until she said, "I'm going to ask Edward out."

What?! My head flew up, and I banged it against my locker. Ouch! That freaking hurt. Rubbing my head, I said to Jessica, "Huh?"

"I said, I'm going to ask Edward out."

"Good luck with that," I mumbled, not as quietly as I thought I had.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. "What's that supposed to mean? Why wouldn't he want to go out with me?"

"Why would he?" I countered, then felt bad about saying it.

She let out a gasp and pointed a finger at me. "You want him for yourself!"

"He's a person, not a possession, Jessica."

She tossed her big hair back behind her shoulder and gave me a glare. "You're just jealous."

"And you're delusional."

I watched as she stalked off and felt a pang of pity for Edward. Jessica could be relentless, and I had a feeling she was going to harass and annoy him to death. And, I wasn't jealous because there was no way in hell he'd say yes. Right?

I closed my locker and started down the hall toward Edward's locker, so that I could warn him. However, when I got to his locker, he wasn't there. Figuring, he'd already headed to class, I made my way toward my first class of the day.

"Shit! Sorry, Bella!" Edward said as he skidded across the wet floor and collided into me.

"No prob. You okay?" I asked as I steadied him.

"Yeah, yeah. Running late. Overslept, and I'm not used to driving in rain," he rambled as he shoved stuff into his locker.

"Better get used to it. It rains here, like three hundred and fifty days out of the year."

"Great," he muttered.

"Oh, by the way. I should warn you that Jessica is going to ask you out."

A look of horror crossed his face, causing me to crack up.

"No, no, no," he said, shaking his head. "Why me? Why can't she ask someone else?"

"Sorry, Edward," I said with a grin.

His eyes narrowed. "No, you're not. You think this is funny, don't you?"

I shook my head all while laughing. I couldn't help it. His reaction was too funny, and I felt relieved to know that Jessica didn't stand a chance.

I'd just left my math class when I spotted Edward dashing down the hall to the guy's bathroom. Not too far behind him, I saw Jessica.

"Have you seen Edward?" I overheard her ask Lauren.

"I think he went to the bathroom."

I watched as she parked herself across from the bathroom. As much as I couldn't stand her, I had to give her props for persistence. Snickering, I caught up with my brothers in the lunch line.

"I think one of you may need to go save Edward," I told them.

"Why?"

"Jessica's stalking him. He's holed up in the bathroom."

Emmett shook his head. "Poor guy. I'll go rescue him," he said, handing me his lunch tray.

I didn't fail to notice that he didn't give me any money to pay for his food. Huffing out a sigh, I dug into my wallet and paid for both our lunches. Minutes later, I saw Emmett walk into the cafeteria with Edward, and they looked to be arguing.

"How could you let her corner me like that?" I heard Edward hiss to Emmett as they got closer to the table.

"Dude, I'm sorry. It's not my fault that little freshman girl ran into me. I couldn't very well run her over, now could I?"

"Whatever," Edward scowled as he sat down next to me.

I pushed Emmett's tray of food over to him before looking at Edward.

"She got you?"

He let out a sigh, running his hands through his hair.

"Yeah."

We all tried to control our snickers, but it didn't work.

"It's not funny," Edward growled. "It was awkward, embarrassing, and I feel like a total dick telling her no."

"Did you want to go out with her?" Alice asked.

"No, but I still feel bad for rejecting her. It sucks to be turned down," he mumbled.

He had a point. It did suck being turned down, and the fact that he felt a bad about turning Jessica down made me like him even more. He was too freaking sweet. Just one more thing I liked about him.

After school was over, I headed to the Forks Diner to fill out paperwork and maybe even start working. I was kind of excited about having a job. I knew that would change quickly, but at the same time, it was a sense of freedom. I'd have my own money and wouldn't have to rely on Mom and Dad.

"Hi, Bella! Come on back, and we'll start the paperwork," Mrs. Stanley said after I walked in.

I followed her to the back, and twenty minutes later all my paperwork was filled out. Mrs. Stanley handed me a notepad and let me get to work even though I wouldn't normally start working until six. By nine, I was exhausted and my feet hurt. I hadn't really thought about how hard waitressing could be, and I now had a new found appreciation for servers. I made about nine dollars in tips. It wasn't a lot, but it was something and it was mine.

I got home a little after nine and was greeted by my parents.

"Hi, honey. How was your first day at work?" Mom asked.

I flopped down on the couch, groaning as I kicked off my shoes. "It was good, but oh my God, my feet hurt."

Mom let out a laugh. "Waitressing is hard work. I waitressed in college when your father and I lived in Jacksonville. I made some great money."

Dad huffed. "What your mother is failing to tell you is that she wore these little shirts and tight shorts."

I shuddered at the image as Mom grinned and told Dad that she had to work with what she had.

"But don't you even think of doing that," Dad said, pointing a finger at me.

I barked out a laugh. "No worries, Dad. First of all, I'd freeze if I wore anything skimpy and secondly, I don't own any of that kind of clothing anyway."

Saying goodnight to my folks, I headed down the hall to my room to catch up on my homework.

By Wednesday, Jessica had asked Edward out four more times, and I was starting to get pissed off. Not that I had any right to be. It wasn't like he was mine, but I couldn't help the way I felt and it was putting me in a foul mood. Not to mention that some asshole at the diner had tried to grab my ass.

"Bella!" Emmett hollered as he barreled into my room later that night.

"What?" I snapped.

He held his hands up in surrender. "Whoa, baby sis. What's got your panties in a twist?"

I let out a sigh. "Sorry, Em. I'm just in a bad mood."

"Would that have anything to do with Miss Stanley?"

I shrugged. I wasn't ready to admit to my older brother that I was sporting a major crush on Edward. Apparently, I didn't have to.

"You know that Edward won't say yes to Jessica. Why don't you ask him out? It's obvious that you like him."

I opened my mouth to deny it but nothing came out, so I closed it.

"You do like him, right?"

I nodded.

"So, what's the problem?" he asked, sitting next to me.

"I …," I took a moment to gather my thoughts. "It's stupid, but I want him to ask me out. I know that seems old fashioned and all, but …"

"But, it's what they do in all those classic romance books you read," Emmett said.

"Yeah. Besides, we've known each other that long. He probably doesn't even like me like that."

Em let out a snicker as he rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. That boy has a major crush on you. I can nudge him along if you want."

I shook my head. The last thing I wanted was for Edward to feel coerced into asking me out and that's what I told Emmett. He headed back out my door then stopped and turned to face me.

"You know, we're planning on going to the movies this weekend in Port Angeles. Why not ask him to join us," he suggested.

Thursday morning, I caught up with Edward at his locker, and he looked tired and stressed.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, concerned.

"I'm fine," he told me, not even looking at me.

Something was definitely wrong. Reaching out, I touched his arm, turning him to face me.

"Talk to me, Edward."

His gaze met mine before quickly looking away. "Nothing. It's …," he paused, "personal."

I decided not to press it and changed the subject. "So, I … uh, was wondering if you were doing anything this weekend?"

"Not that I know of," he said as we began walking down the hall.

"Do you want to go to the movies this weekend?" I blurted out more from nerves than anything.

His eyes widened and a blush graced his cheeks. "Yes!" he said, almost too quickly causing me to giggle.

Oh, God. I was becoming one of those giggling girls. Then, I realized that he might think I was asking him on a date when I wasn't.

"So, um … is everyone going or is it just us?" he asked me quietly.

"Everyone," I said, and I saw his face fall a bit, but he quickly recovered.

"Sounds good."

"Great. I'll give you more details once I have them," I told him as he stopped in front of his classroom.

My day passed in a blur until gym class. We had just started our volleyball unit and halfway through class, I was beaned in the head by the ball. I looked across the net and saw Jessica smirking. I narrowed my eyes.

I wasn't one to fight a girl over a boy, but I was damned if I was going to stand there and let her come after me. Before I could retaliate, Coach Clapp yelled at Jessica and warned her not to purposely hit anyone again. Now, it was my turn to smirk.

As I came out of the bathroom in the locker room, I found Jessica whispering about me to Lauren and some of their pathetic cronies.

"I cannot believe her! I told her that I was going to ask Edward out, and now she's hanging all over him. I can guarantee that she's the one that's preventing him from saying yes to me," she told them.

I wasn't hanging all over him! I couldn't help that he preferred me to her.

Spotting me, Jessica and her friends glared at me before tossing their hair over their shoulders and stalking out. It was almost comical.

Gathering up my stuff, I left the locker room and went to my last class of the day. I hated my economics class and always seemed to drag on and on. Today it was worse because Lauren was in there with Jane and Victoria. The three of them weren't just idiots but horrible gossips, and they spent the whole class period whispering about Jessica and Edward.

"Can you believe that Jess asked Edward out?" Lauren whispered to Jane.

"I know right? I mean there's no way he'd ever go out with her. She's too 1980s," Jane whispered back while Victoria nodded in agreement.

I felt kind of bad for Jessica. She thought that Lauren was her best friend, yet there Lauren was, gossiping about her behind her back. I wonder if Jessica knew.

"No kidding," Lauren said. "I'd have a way better chance with him."

"It might be social suicide though. James can't stand him," Victoria told her while examining her nails.

"James can't stand anyone but Alec. I bet if you got Edward away from the Swans, you could make him popular in no time," Jane told Lauren.

I rolled my eyes. Poor Edward. The boy was going to have to deal with two women going after him.

Later that evening, Emmett called Edward to see if he wanted to spend the weekend at our place, and I prayed that he'd say yes. I wanted to spend some more time with him. Just to get to know him and you know, maybe ogle him a bit. After Edward got the okay from Dr. Cullen, he followed us home on Friday.

"You'll be bunking in our room," Jasper told Edward as they lead him into the house.

I headed toward my room to drop off my stuff, then headed upstairs to Em and Jas's room. Propping myself in the doorway, I took a moment to just look at Edward while he was engaged in conversation with my brothers. He was so beautiful with his crazy, unmanageable bronze hair, and deep green eyes.

"What's up, baby sis?" Em asked, interrupting my ogling.

I shrugged. "Just wanted to know what our plans were for the weekend?"

"I was thinking movie and dinner tonight, and then we'll just wing it the rest of the weekend. Sound good?"

"Sure," I said nodding. "What movie are we going to see?"

He shrugged then hollered for Rose and Alice. Soon, we were all jammed into the boys' room, finalizing our plans.

"No, Alice! I refuse to go see some shitty chick flick," Emmett said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Language, Emmett! Don't make me wash your mouth out with soap!" Mom hollered from down the hall.

We all snickered as he got busted.

"Sorry, Mom!"

"What about that new vampire movie that just came out? It's got romance for Ali and violence for you guys. Plus, eye-candy all around," Rose suggested.

A few hours later, we left for the movies. Alice and Jasper took the small Honda that they shared while the rest of us rode in Emmett's Jeep. We got to the movies and before I knew it, I was sitting next to Edward in a dark theater.

The minute the lights went down, I could hear the kissing commence by the couples on either side of us. It was a bit awkward until I reached over and smacked Emmett, effectively separating his lips from Rose's.

"Ow! What was that for?" he hissed.

"If you're going to make out, please do so elsewhere. Or at least move down the row, so we don't have to hear it," I hissed back.

He let out a huff as I reached across Edward and smacked Jasper as well. I saw Edward fighting a smile and heard a small chuckle come from him.

"Sorry," I whispered. "They tend to get carried away."

"No worries," he whispered back.

The movie began, and it was horrible. It was about a rather emo girl who fell for an unattainable guy who just happened to be a vampire. The vampire dumps her, she becomes a pathetic mess; throw in some werewolves, a fight, and some make up making out and you have the recipe for a horrible movie.

"Why did we agree to see this again?" I asked as we left the theater and headed toward the lobby.

"I don't know. Blame Rose," Jasper laughed, as he dodged a slap that Rose sent his way.

Edward had excused himself to use the restroom and was on his way back to us, when we all heard Jessica holler out his name. He cringed before plastering on a smile as she practically assaulted him.

"Edward! Hi! What are you doing here?"

"Uh … I just got done watching a movie," he said, stating the obvious.

Jessica put on a pout as she reached out to touch his arm. "You should've asked me to come with you that way you wouldn't have to watch a movie alone."

A bunch of people came out of a different theater, preventing me from eavesdropping anymore. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but he looked pissed. He said something to her before pushing through the crowd to us.

"Everything okay?" Jasper asked.

"Yeah, everything's fine," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets, a scowl on his beautiful face.

"Edward?" I asked, stopping him before we climbed into the Jeep.

"Yeah?"

"You know you can talk to anyone of us about anything, right?"

He nodded before giving me a small smile. "Thanks."

Later that night as I climbed into bed, I couldn't help but wonder what was bothering Edward. Jessica must have said something to him but what?

I tossed and turned for about an hour before finally getting up and heading toward the kitchen. I stopped when I saw a figure sitting on the couch in the living room. Slowly, I made my way into the room and was a bit startled to see it was Edward.

"Hey," I said softly.

He looked up at me with red-rimmed eyes. "Hey."

I sat down next to him and took his hand in mine, giving it a gentle squeeze. We sat like that for a while before he finally spoke.

"I found out on Thursday that a friend of mine from back in Phoenix is in the hospital fighting for her life."

"Oh, Edward. I'm sorry."

"She was my girlfriend at one point but about eight months ago, she got heavy into partying. Drinking, drugs, having sex with strangers. Needless to say, I broke things off," he told me quietly.

My mind flashed back to the picture of Edward and Tanya that I'd seen. I had a feeling she was the girl that he was talking about.

"Her sister, Irina, emailed me and let me know that Tanya, my ex, was in the hospital. She'd overdosed on cocaine and is fighting for her life."

I didn't know what to say, so I kept my mouth shut.

"I thought hanging out with you all this weekend would be the perfect way to forget about things for a while. Sure the movie totally sucked, but it kept my mind focused off of Tanya. Then, Jess showed up and … ugh!"

"What did she say to you?" I couldn't help but ask.

"She told me that I should have invited her along, so I wouldn't have to watch a movie by myself. I told her that I didn't watch it by myself, and she demanded to know who I was with! I told her it wasn't any of her business, and she got mad."

"She's a fruitcake," I told him. "But, she isn't alone. I heard Lauren telling some girls that she was going to ask you out."

He ran a hand through his hair, causing the strands to stick up all over the place. "What the hell is wrong with all these girls? Why do they want to go out with me? I'm nothing special."

"Hey! Don't say that. Of course, you're something special. It's just that to Jessica and Lauren, you're a new, shiny toy to play with."

A look of pure horror crossed his face. "I don't want them playing with me!"

I cracked up until I had the horrible image of Jessica playing with Edward's body. That couldn't be allowed to happen. If anyone was going to play with him, it would be me. And that thought, caused me to blush. Not something I usually did.

"I should've lied to Jess and Lauren when they asked me if I had a girlfriend. That could've prevented this whole mess."

I let out a snort. "That would've just made you more attractive to them. They would've seen it as a challenge."

We talked for a while more before he let out a huge yawn. We said goodnight and went our separate ways. Once in bed, I finally fell asleep dreaming about Edward.

a/n: As always, I love to hear to what you thought of the chapter!