Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

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"It looks great in here." I drop my bag on the floor behind Alice's bedroom door as I take in the most recent changes she's made. She's always creating new things and rearranging.

Alice gives me a tight smile. "Thanks."

Rosalie pinches the corner of a piece of sheer fabric that's draped over a lamp shade. "I love this!" She adjusts the strap of her purse on her shoulder. She didn't bring a bag. She's not going to stay. It's a sore subject now, but I'm hoping it's more of a matter of us just making it through this day, and then things will go back to normal.

Alice hums in response before pulling out her phone. The smile she gives to whatever is on her screen is genuine.

"What is it?" I ask.

She lifts her shoulders as she giggles. "Jasper's texting me." She throws her phone on her bed. "What should we do?"

I look at where her phone has landed, crushed velvet now surrounding a water and glitter-filled phone case. "Are you going to answer him?"

Rosalie laughs. "She's making him wait."

I nod, knowing what it's like not wanting to seem overeager.

Alice's good mood turns at the sound of Rosalie's voice. "I'll answer him when I'm free. Right now, I'm busy with my friends. When are you leaving?" she asks Rose, but she's not looking directly at her.

Rose examines her nails, looking uncomfortable as she picks at her polish. "An hour or so."

It's an awkward sense of déjà vu, but there's no question if we've been in this situation before. Rosalie leaving to hang out with Alec is nothing new. We'd just thought we were done with it, that she was done with him, but now that she's agreed to hear him out, it's hard to tell what she's really thinking.

"Will you just argue the whole time?" I ask, thinking of all the times I've talked to Jake since we broke up. He may not be completely mean every time, but he can't seem to talk to me without an attitude, and my constant irritation tends to be on full display.

"Maybe, but if it's not productive, I'll just leave. If I'm willing to hear him out, he's answering anything I need to know." Rosalie tucks in her lips, and I immediately regret asking.

"I'm sorry."

She nods and looks away. "It's fine, but, Bella, even if you're not going to push to make things official with Cullen, you should at least make sure you're exclusive."

My stomach drops at the thought, but she doesn't know what it's like when we're alone and the way he makes sure I know that he's not interested in all these girls who make it clear that they're interested in him. Anyway, he can hardly stand other people, and we talk all the time, so while I may get jealous or uncomfortable with the attention he gets at times, I've never felt like he'd actually see anyone else.

"Enough of the sad talk. This is a sleepover." Alice looks at me and tilts her head. "Can I tryout this makeup tutorial on you? I watched it the other day. It's nothing weird. I promise. I tried doing it on myself, but I couldn't get it right."

I shrug. "Sure." We have no plans to leave her house, and if it's too much, I can always wash it off.

After we set up in Alice's bathroom, Rosalie participates here and there, but it's clear her mind is somewhere else. I catch her eye and smile. I know how it is having an ex-boyfriend who won't go away, but I don't have any questions for mine. I just want to keep moving on with my life.

Rosalie checks her phone. "All right, I'm going. Send me pictures of Bella when you're done."

"Okay," Alice says and really looks at Rosalie for the first time all day. "You can always come back after you talk to him, if you want."

She tucks her lips in and nods. "Yeah, maybe."

When Rosalie is gone, Alice lets out a big sigh.

"You think she'll get back with him?" I ask.

Alice shakes her head. "I think she'll drill him about if he was with anyone else before they took their "space" from each other." She swipes a brush along my cheek bones. "She's not going to get the answer she's looking for. I bet he's just looking for someone to hook up with while he's home for the holidays. Hopefully, she'll see that. It's all ridiculous. He's the worst."

"Ya," I agree. I barely know the guy, but I don't like the way he treated or still treats Rosalie.

My phone buzzes from where I placed it on the counter. I catch Edward's name on the screen. I refrain from reaching for it, so I don't hurt Alice's feelings. I can appreciate someone ignoring distractions while with friends, but it's hard when everything in me wants to talk to him.

Alice laughs and offers me her hand to help me stand. "I don't care if you talk to Cullen. He's not Alec. Come on," she says as she leads me back to her room. "Unless you want to make him wait awhile."

As Alice reads her texts from Jasper, I look at my phone.

What are you doing?

I count to five before I respond. Making you wait before I answer you.

Oh.

My phone rings before I get a chance to respond. "Hello."

"Why?" Edward asks.

"Why what?"

He huffs. "Bell-a, why would you do that?"

"Are you pouting?" I laugh.

"Maybe," he says with a laugh of his own.

"You only waited for like a minute." I smile at Alice who is typing away on her phone.

"Still, though. What are you really doing?"

I glance in the mirror at what Alice has done for the first time. It's definitely more than I would ever wear outside this house. "Makeup tutorials."

"Let me see," he says.

I pull the phone from my ear to snap a photo. We need to get one for Rose anyway, but my eyes get stuck on the icon to turn this into a video call. I press it.

He accepts, and it's easily the best decision I've made all day.

"Nice," he says as I turn side to side so he can see the embellishments Alice has done on the corners of my eyes.

I bite my lip as I look at the way the sun lights up his features. Being outdoors suits him. "La Push?" I ask, catching sight of a familiar corner store in the background.

He nods. "Is that Alice's bedroom?"

"Yes." I turn the phone slowly, giving him the complete view.

"Bella Swan," Alice says. "Are you giving Cullen a tour of my bedroom?"

"Um, yeah. Sorry." I turn the phone back so it's just showing me.

"It's okay," she says, and then silently claps as she mouths an O-M-G.

Seeing her overjoyed excitement, I see the way my own isn't as extreme. I love that he called, and I'm so happy to be talking to him, but she seems to be ready to jump up and down with giddiness. I can't help smiling, while also realizing that giddiness is still something I'm feeling. It's just more below the surface now instead of a constant O-M-G—Edward Cullen is actually talking to me.

"What are you smiling at?" A male voice asks in the background before I see a hand on Edward's shoulder and a face comes into view. "Hey, Bella. How are you?"

"Good. You?" I ask to who I'm assuming is Jared. I know what Paul looks like, and the only other person Edward has mentioned being friends with in La Push is Jared.

"Let me see." It's a girl's voice this time, and her request has the phone image going to the sky before I'm face to face with another person I've never seen before. "Hi, Bella. It's nice to meet you," she says. "I like your," she points to her own eyes, "eye shadow."

"Thanks."

"I'm not sure what we've got going on tonight, but you should come out with us some time," she says.

I don't have time to react before another male voice says, "Who is it?"

The girl who's name I still haven't gotten says, "Bella."

"Oh," he says. "He let you talk to her? He never lets me talk to Bella. Can I see the phone?"

"No," Edward says before he asks for his phone back.

"Hi," he says, smiling at me and then glaring at someone else.

"Who was that?" I ask, not sure if I should take the invitation to come out as an actual invitation or if the girl was just being polite. If Edward wanted me to come out there, I might have to think about it instead of avoiding La Push at all costs.

"Just Jared and his girlfriend," Edward says. "No one needs to talk to Paul. Hey! Ow!" He looks behind him. "What did he just throw at me?"

There is a response that I don't catch before Edward is looking at me and saying, "Hey, can I call you back?"

We end the call. I had no intention of ever going to La Push again, but maybe I could. Edward seems different out there, freer. I don't know what to make of it all, so I look to Alice and ask, "Edward's friend, Jared, who is his girlfriend?"

I set a stopwatch on my phone, and we both laugh when I tell her to go.

Her thumbs fly across her phone before she slaps the bed, and yells, "Got it, stop!"

I almost drop my phone in my haste to pause the timer.

"Jared Cameron's girlfriend's name is Kim. I'm not seeing a last name, but do you need it?"

"No," I say. I turn the stopwatch on my phone her way, showing her the time.

She points at the numbers. "Make a record of that. We should time me all the time, but hey," she says as she sets down her phone. "Can you check on Rosalie? You're better at acting neutral about all this than me, but I'm already worried."

Agreeing, I send Rosalie my photo and ask how everything is going. When she doesn't answer right away, we decide to let it go and keep ourselves busy by making sundaes and watching movies.

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"Goodnight," Edward says. He called me when he got home, but Alice and Jasper have just been periodically texting, so we don't talk for long.

"Goodnight," I say back. "I'm not going to sleep yet though, and I don't want to lie to you. We're going to watch another movie."

He laughs. "I know. It's okay."

When I'm off the call, Alice says, "You should have him pick up Jasper, and they can sneak through my window."

I look toward her bedroom from my spot on the couch. "Would your mom even care if they came over here? Why would we sneak them in?"

She shrugs. "Probably not, but it'd be twenty times more exciting if she didn't know."

I shake my head, laughing as I try to pay attention to the movie. Last I heard, Jasper was with Emmett. "Sneaking" the three of them into Alice's house without Rosalie here would be awkward.

Alice may love watching the same movies hundreds of times, but I find it incredibly boring. I close my eyes and eventually, give into sleep's pull.

Somewhere in the far away distance, I hear a phone. Mentally, I answer it, but no one is there. When I hear a phone ring again, this time, I'm sure it's mine. I squint while my eyes adjust as I look at my phone screen. There's a message from Rosalie, complimenting the photo I'd sent to her earlier and then asking if we're awake because Alice isn't answering. I nudge Alice, "Answer Rosalie."

Alice yawns as she looks for her phone. It triggers a yawn of my own. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and answer Rosalie as well, telling her we fell asleep, but we're up now.

I try to rub the tightness out of my neck from the awkward position I fell asleep in as we wait to hear back from Rosalie. Minutes tick by and Alice starts huffing and puffing out her air, so I text Rosalie again, asking if she is okay.

We get up and take turns in the bathroom. Both of us fell asleep before brushing our teeth, and I still have a bunch of eye shadow caked on my eyes. I meet Alice in her room after getting off as much makeup as I can.

"Anything?" I ask.

"No." Alice glares at her phone. "If she doesn't answer, we're going to have to go look for her."

I sit on her bed, not opposed to the idea, but I have no idea where we'd look.

My phone dings, and I read it out loud, "Yeah, sorry. I'll see you guys on Monday."

Alice scoffs as she waits to receive her own reply, but it never comes. "She's back with him, isn't she?"

"I don't know." This may be what I tell her, but what I'm thinking is that I think so.

"I hate him, Bella. I really hate that guy." She starts crying, so I reach out and pull her toward me.

Her tears soak into my shirt, and I'm not sure what else I can do to comfort her. I really don't know for sure if they're getting back together, but I don't want to go back to being constantly left out of Rosalie's life. Before it was normal because I didn't know any different, this time, I understand more how Alice felt when she'd lost Rosalie.

I consider patting her back or making shushing noises but instead, I squeeze her arm. "He'll be away at school most of the time anyway, so I'm sure we'll still see her. It won't be like before."

Alice nods and burrows her face into my shoulder.

"And plus," I continue. "She might not have gotten back with him. I mean, it took her forever to tell us they'd broken up in the first place. She might just need some time to think."

Alice pulls away, her eyes looking bloodshot and puffy. "Yeah, maybe." She smiles but scrunches her nose. "It'll be okay. I know that, but I thought McCarty and her would make really pretty babies someday."

I can't help but laugh as we climb under the covers. "Let's just hope she's been thinking of their children tonight."

I reach back and get my hand under the cloth covering her lamp, so I can turn it off. It crosses my mind that Alice had called me Isabella Cullen when I first told her about him and now, she's talking about Rosalie having babies with Emmett. She's really toned down the way she talks about Jasper now that she's actually talking to him.

"Hey, Alice," I say toward where she's laying. In the dark, I can't tell if she's facing me or the wall.

"Yeah?"

"You haven't been talking about Jasper as much as I thought you would."

I hear her swallow. "I know." It's quiet for a while before she says, "None of this is going the way I imagined it would."

I get that same pit in my stomach I got when I found out that Rosalie was considering talking to Alec. "You still like him though, right?"

The bed moves as she shifts positions. "Pshh…of course. I guess I just don't really know him like I thought I did."

"I get that. You can't really know someone just by watching them."

"And by watching, you mean stalking?"

"Yeah, that," I say with a laugh before texting Rosalie a goodnight. I'm not surprised when she doesn't reply.

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Author's Note:

Thanks so much for reading! Thank you to YourVixen for prereading and dazzled eyes22 for betaing. You're both amazing!

I've been pushing myself to get back in the habit of writing and have been working on this story a lot. I've also posted my entry into The Perfect Date contest.

I hope to be back with another chapter here soon.