Cover ups

'I swear," I declared, hoping to everything on God's green earth that Mike wasn't screwing around with some chick from out of town.

Yet the instant I said it the pit of my stomach sunk to the ground. I knew that I had gotten myself into some serious shit.

As soon as the party ended, I bolted my sorry ass out of there, racing as fast as I could to Mike's house. Whether he was or wasn't doing anything, I had to ensure that I hadn't just told Bella a complete lie. My palms were sweaty as I turned the nob to enter the house without knocking. My heart pounded in my ears as I thundered up the stairs ignoring the light "Welcome back, Edward," that Mike's mother called to me.

I threw the door open to see Mike lying in bed alone and sweaty. For a moment I was relieved. because it looked like he did, indeed, have a fever. Until he opened his damn mouth.

"You just missed her. Gorgeous girl she is. And oh the sex..."

I didn't care if Mike had pants on under the sheets. I flung myself at him with the intent of beating him within an inch of his life. He luckily dodged my first few blows enough to jump out of bed and put pants on over his boxers.

"What's your problem, man?"

"What's my problem? I just spent the last few weeks covering for you. When I knew that you were probably up to something like this. Not to mention that I just made a promise that you have just broken!" I declared.

"How can I break a promise for you? You were the one who made the goddamn promise!"

"I swore to Bella that you were serious about Alice, that you would never hurt her, that you would stay true to her."

"Well, looks to me like you're the one who made the mistake here. Not me," Mike shrugged.

"Not this time. You just made a huge mistake. You just lost the two most important people in your life. You're definitely losing Alice. And there's no way I'm ever walking through your front door again unless it's to smash your face into a wall," I stated before turning on my heel and starting out he door.

"Why do you even care? I've done this before. And this is the first time you've ever called me out on it like it was a bad thing," Mike realized. A glaring pair of eyes jabbed at me. He finally closed the distance between him and me. "I can't believe you're looking down on me when you do exactly the same to all of your girlfriends. You're such a hypocrite, Edward."

"Not anymore."

Mike let out a chuckle that made me cringe.

"Why the change of heart, bro? You used to be just like me only luckier. Why are you all of a sudden for fidelity and loyalty?" Mike interrogated. I wasn't even sure that I knew the answer. But I realized it was true. Not only did I want to keep other girls out of Mike's bed to keep my promise to Bella, but I wanted to stay in my own bed with only one girl, if I managed to convince anyone to trust me after my many indiscretions.

That was it: Bella.

And Mike saw it.

"Ah-haha. I see, I see. You've caved. You don't care about Alice. You only care about your chances with Bella...When the hell did you start caring about Bella?" I had to give him credit. It was a good question... "Well, when you're ready to get back to the land of bachelor ville, I'll be slumming it out old-school."

He had barely finished his sentence before I slammed the door in his face.

Did I really want Bella? I knew I wanted to decipher her past. Who didn't? She was Forks' greatest mystery. I knew I didn't want to hurt her, she seemed to be through too much of that already. I wanted to keep her trust, but did I want a "chance" with her?

Maybe Bella would be...generous. I mean I could always pull the "how could I have known" card out of my ass. But Bella was smart. People have said that she's not that great of a liar, but that could be because she has such a great lie detector, she second guesses herself when she lied. I wouldn't know. I still hadn't dove deep enough into the Bella pool to know.

And by the looks of things, I never would.

But I thought of one thing that could possibly save my sorry ass.

What if I got to Alice first?

It didn't seem likely, but it could work.

The next morning I had to bolt out the door. There was no way Mike was going to play sick today. Not after my discovery. I had to beat him to the school. I had to tell Alice myself.

But I didn't know how to find Alice in the mornings. Only how to find Bella. I settled. It was the next best thing. Besides, wherever Bella was, Alice was sure to be in a matter of minutes.

I was out of breath by the time I caught up with her.

"Bella, Bella, Bella, Bella, Bella, Bella!" I repeated, calling her to attention.

When she stopped and turned to face me, I grabbed her by the shoulders, staring her in the face, gasping for air.

"You okay?" she wondered.

"Mike. Is. Cheating. On. Alice."

"I thought you said..."

"I thought Alice was different to him...but then I got this really bad feeling and went to check it out myself. And he admitted it. Straight to my face. No shame," I explained.

"And why are you telling me this? Why aren't you telling Alice?"

"To hell if I know where she is. I figured you could help me find her. We have to tell her before she finds out for herself. She needs to be the one to call things off. Slap him in the face for it before he has a chance to make a fake apology."

Everything clicked in her head.

She realized I was trying to be the good guy.

"Where would Alice be?"

"She always waits by where he parks his car in case he gets over his bug - though I guess it never really was that serious..."

Without thinking I grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the student parking lot. I didn't feel her pull away, but I was sure she didn't exactly appreciate the sudden contact. Frankly I didn't care. My only chance at salvaging my relationship with Bella was to help Alice. And this was the only way that I knew how to do that.

Sure enough we reached her, told her, and held her through the crying. All before Mike even pulled in.

"Alice, I'm so sorry. He's only done this once before. I didn't think he would do it to you. You just seemed to be so different. He seemed so different. Like you had changed him...I really thought he was ready to settle down. I told you as soon as I knew."

"I appreciate it, Edward. I understand. He's your best friend. You don't want to think the worst," she accepted. "I'm sorry you two have - well, gone seperate ways. I'm sure it hurt pretty bad to mark all of that friendship off as a waste..."

"Not really. Not when I realized that what he was doing didn't just affect you and him. I didn't care at that point," I admitted.

"Still. I understand why you waited so long to doubt him. I know what it's like to hope for the best in your friends even if they seem so assured that they're right."

I realized at that moment that she was talking about Bella.

Alice let Bella be. But she didn't like it. She wanted Bella to find love. To prove her wrong. She wanted her friend to be happy. And to be able to share that happiness with someone who would die by her side. I always thought that Alice had accepted Bella's determination to stay as far from that world as possible. But really, Alice couldn't be more vulnerable inside.

Then it struck me.

Why would Alice be saying these things so bluntly in front of the subject?

Bella was nowhere in sight.

"Where is Bella?" I asked.

"She slipped out a while ago. I was wondering why...but sometimes it's just better not to even wonder with her. Wait just a second...Where's Mike. His car's over there, but I didn't see him pass us...did you?"

My stomach dropped the way that it did after I had sworn to Bella that Mike was faithfully.

Mike wasn't going after me. He wasn't accusing me of ruining his engagement with Bella. Because his old friend Edward The Pimp would never have ratted him out to his fiancee. Enter Bella in between Edward the Pimp and Mike the Douche Bag and Edward the Contrite is born, fully willing to accept the consequences of betraying his trust...

He didn't blame me. He blamed Bella.

And Edward the Contrite was not ready to accept that concequence...

Alice and I pooled our brains together, Alice thinking of places that Bella would go, where Mike would follow while I thought of places that Mike would chase her to. Everywhere we looked was a bust. It seemed like Bella and Mike were nowhere to be found.

Until I got a crazy idea.

Alice had a confused look on her face as I began heading towards the auditorium. The last time I had seen Bella was right before I had mentioned that Mike had cheated before, using illness as an excuse like he had with Alice. I was slowly deciphering Bella. Anger was a weapon for her. It was her excuse to keep men away. It was what repelled men away. But it was also a shelter for her. A sheild. Like mentioned before, a repellent.

I remembered the day that Eric had triggered her anger that day at rehearsal. The day where she was seated next to Eric. Rehearsing a play where I had to play her love interest.

And I was also going off of the assumption that she walked off in anger after realizing I suspected Mike before I came forward. Realizing that I knew I might have been lying at the party.

I had betrayed Bella's trust. She was angry. And returning to a place of anger.

In a perfect world, my assumption would be right.

But as we all know, the world is most definitely not perfect.