Bella

A loud whoosh of air left my lungs, my back slammed against the wall, and I doubled over slightly, as if I had been punched in the stomach.

At least, that's what it felt like.

Out of all of the excuses, apologies and arguments that I could have predicted, the 'L' card wasn't involved once. I mean, I cared for him more than anyone else, I spent every waking moment thinking of him, wishing I was with him; every sleeping moment dreaming of his god-like features, he held my heart in the palms of his hands. Did that mean that I loved him? It might have, before.

Did I think he could have ever felt the same? Maybe, before the bet. Now, I felt as though I could trust nothing that came from his traitorous lips. It was probably all a lie. If the past month had all been a lie, or at least, started on a lie, then how could I ever believe that what he said wasn't?

I braved a glance up into his piercing emerald eyes, and the small smile that graced his lips, and the little voice in the back of my head told me to swoon, for he was truly a work of art. A work of art who had just announced his love for me. If I chose to give in, to ignore all of the gut instincts that had served me so well over the last seventeen years, I could declare the return of my feelings to him, my undying love for him that would remain forever strong no matter what. We could kiss passionately like in a fairytale, and he could whisk me away like a knight in shining armour. The knight I just couldn't forget was nothing more than a Trojan horse, a lying, manipulating man whore in nothing but cheap silver foil. I had given him everything, like the fool I was, and I could never take that back.

No. I couldn't continue to act like a Lauren, or a Jessica. My mind was set. I reluctantly dragged my eyes away from his, and focused intently on the carpet at my feet, as not to be distracted by his eyes.

"'I love you' isn't enough, Edward. It's too late."

His breath caught in his throat, and I felt his body tense.

"Bella no, please, I-" he began quickly, almost tripping over his words in a desperate attempt to get them out of his mouth. Unconsciously, my eyes trailed their way back up to his face, just for one last look. His expression of pure despair broke my heart, his breathtaking eyes shimmering with unshed tears. He looked anguished, and my resolve almost cracked apart and fell to the ground around my feet.

"You need to leave." All of the emotion drained from my voice, leaving it monotonous and dead; it felt as if it sapped all of my energy with it. I suddenly felt exhausted.

For what felt like hours he stared into my eyes, and it was as if I was baring my soul for him to see. I hardened my expression, and I pressed my mouth into a tense line to keep everything I wanted to say so badly inside them. After an eternity, he flinched, backing slowly, dejectedly, away from me. Whatever he was searching for, he must have found it.

He turned sharply, and without looking back, he bolted for the door, letting it slam behind him. The last thing I saw was the flash of bronze that I caught out of the corner of my eye before my legs could no longer support me, and I collapsed up against the wall.

Edward

Before I even registered where I was going or what I was doing, I dived into my car, and drove. The forests that towered over both sides of the narrow, winding road suffocated me, and I've never felt a stronger urge to escape than I did then. Angry tears silently slipped their way down my trembling cheeks, and the shaking, tense hands on my steering wheel didn't feel like my own, for I don't believe I could have controlled them if I'd wanted to.

My mind raced before my eyes, and of all the emotions that surged through my body, my intense rage at Emmett was what consumed me. How could he do that? How could he ruin the only good thing I had ever had? I growled loudly, and threw my fist into the hair leather of my steering wheel.

The horn blared out loudly, and all of the birds from the dense woodland flew up and into the air like a billowing cloud of smoke.

Barely minutes later, I ended up at the top of the driveway to the house. A quick glance at the rapidly darkening sky told otherwise, and the clock on my dashboard confirmed it. I had been driving for almost five hours.

What worried me most was not that I had managed to find my way home in the state I was in, but more that I had almost entirely lost all recollection of the time. Jasper, resident psychiatrist, would call it a semi-conscious psychotic blackout, or something equally as ridiculously over-analytical. Time just flies when you're having fun, right? I cringed at the thought, as I slammed my car door behind me.

Jasper.

Just as we had begun to make up for the last few years. I inwardly cursed Emmett and his enormous mouth. My life had been going so damned perfectly. Great friends, happy family, brilliant soccer prospects, the most amazing girl in the entire world, perfect. I suppose it's true what they say -whoever 'they' may be- when something seems too good to be true, it's probably because it is. Or it won't last. Good things never last? Something t3

6o that extent.

I dragged a still trembling hand through my hair as I stumbled towards the house, the toe of my shoes scuffing the gravel every now and then, showering pebbles and clouds of dust into the air. I absent-mindedly thought of the birds in the woods. I was disrupting everything today.

As I reached the steps, I broke into a haphazard sprint, and rammed the key I had produced from the back pocket of my jeans into the lock. The door swung open with ease as I shunted my body weight into the stained wood, and without looking back, I slammed it loudly behind me. I had seen no other cars in the driveway, so I hoped this meant I was alone. Company really wasn't top of my list at that moment. I barely even registered the staircase beneath my feet as I raced up them, wanting to be in the solitude of my room as soon as I could be.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the bedroom door closed behind me, and my knees buckled under me; I slid down into a pathetic ball of nothingness on the carpet. I stared unconsciously out of the window in front of me, to the almost black sky. The stars glowed brightly, and a small voice in my head noted aloud how they weren't anything compared to the glimmer in Bella's chocolate brown eyes. My fingers wound themselves back through my tousled hair and I pulled roughly, the sharp pain echoing out from the roots right the way through my body. I winced slightly, but didn't move my hands.

Out the corner of my eye, I could see the glow from the street lights outside illuminate something on the night stand next to me. I reached out and grabbed it, almost dropping it in disgust when I realised what it was. The cover glared at me mockingly.

In A Month: Sweep Any Girl Off Her Feet

Trying to catch her attention? Want to make a good impression on that special lady? Or just want to improve your social skills when dealing with the opposite sex? Well, you've found the right book! We're here to help!

I scowled.

With fumbling fingers, I opened the first page.

Step 1: Assess the situation.

I grabbed hold of the to top of the page, and almost smiled to myself when the room was filled with the ever satisfying riiiiiip. Staring at the page in my hand, I had to blink tears away from my eyes. I moved my gaze back to the book.

Step 3: Treat her with respect.

I had treated her with respect. I let her in to places I'd never let people before. I'd treated her as more than my equal, I had treated her exactly as what she was. My superior, in every way. I made another grab at the page, and felt a couple of sheets beneath my fingers. Swiftly, I tore through the offensive paper, and threw them aimlessly to the ground beside me.

Step 7: Listen to her.

I always listened. Not because the stupid thing told me to, but because I was genuinely interested in everything that she had to say. She wasn't another bimbo, she was opinionated; something that was rare to find with such beauty.

A few more pages that were hanging limply from the internal binding broke loose as I crossed my legs beneath me.

Step 15: Find something about her that is truly unique.

Everything. Every fucking thing. Her laugh, that warmed the deepest pits of my soul, her smile that could melt the Arctic, her warm, inviting eyes, her soft, yet strong touch, the way she crinkled her nose mid-orgasm... I groaned. That was something I'd never be seeing again. The thought chilled me to the very core. I had blown it. I'd lost my everything, and I was in anguish.

I cried out, and grabbed a fistful of the remaining pages yanking them out whole. With as much energy as I could muster, I threw them into the air, filling the throw with everything I felt inside. The paper fluttered down around me as I buried my face my hands, and let out a tortured groan. When I looked up at the chaos that was surrounding me, the feeble remnants of the book, I caught sight of the only remaining page.

Step 28: Enjoy the benefits of your hard work!

You've come a long way in a month, now you can sit back, relax and reap the rewards. Don't let on that you had outside help, this probably won't look to good on your part; The only thing you have to do now is be yourself.

Never have I understood the expression 'I could have cried' more. Benefits of hard work my ass. As I moved to kick the sheets into a messy pile under my bed, an idea struck me.

As quickly as I could, I gathered the pages up and shoved them into the cover of the book. Within seconds, I was out of the door and into my car, gunning my way down the drive. I didn't care if she wasn't home. I would wait on the lawn for as long as I needed to.

Bella

As soon as he left, Rose came in.

"Bella..." she gazed down at me sympathetically. All I managed to say was a weak attempt at 'take me home'. She nodded solemnly.

At my request, she dropped me at the door and drove away with a remark about calling her when I felt up to it, or something. I wasn't listening. Going through the door and walking down the hallway felt like a blur, and I had no idea how I'd made it up the stairs and to my room without tripping. With all the energy left in my body, I flung myself face down onto the bed, and did what any girl would do in the cliché situation – I cried. I cried everything I was feeling out of my body, the betrayal, the anguish, the impending sense of eternal loneliness. It was true that Edward had meant the world to me; I should never have trusted him the way I had. I was truly a fool, I had fallen for the same suave façade that every girl in the 10 mile radius fell for.

After what felt like days, I ran out of tears to cry. My body trembled, but nothing came.

A quiet tap from my window brought my out of my subconsciousness, though after a few seconds of silence, I began to think that I had imagined it.

"Bella!"

I shot up suddenly, holding my breath. Another pelt at the window.

"Bella, open the window!"

Hesitantly, I made my way over to the window and opened the curtains. Below, on the driveway, lit up by the porch light I'd forgotten to turn off, was Edward, holding what looked to be a stack of paper. I threw the window open and leant out of it, careful not to lose my balance.

"Edward, stop. You can't do this." I hissed out into the darkness, though I wanted nothing more than to run outside and wrap my arms around him. The bitter wind whipped through the open window, and I began to shiver again.

"All I ask of you is that you listen to me, Bella. No more than that. Five minutes of your time, then I'll leave." His voice cracked mid-sentence, and my heart broke. I said nothing.

He lifted a piece of paper closer to his face, and quietly cleared his throat.

"Step 1: Assess the situation." I covered my eyes with my hand. I didn't want to hear it. What was he intending to achieve? Was he trying to mock me?

"Edward-"

"You hated me, more than anyone else." He turned the paper over.

"Step 2: Understand what has been preventing your success so far. You hated me. I was a douche, and you despised me for it." If I thought my heart had broken earlier, I had been wrong until now. I loathed the fact that he believed I hated him. It was a terrible feeling, almost of guilt.

"Step 3: Treat her with respect. I tried Bella, I tried so hard. I treated you like the goddess you are."

My eyes began to prickle with tears as he reeled off 'steps' from his list.

"Step 5: Be yourself. I was, I was never anything but myself with you. You made me so happy, it was impossible not to be! You always saw right through any of the crap I tried to give you, resistance was futile." My throat burned as he continued, increasing speed and merging numbers together in a rush.

"Step 12: Don't be too pushy. That was one of the hardest. It was impossible to walk away from you, to see you with anyone else. I wanted you all to myself." Try as I might, I couldn't stop the smile that broke it's way across my face. That was so...Edward of him.

"Step 27: Put her first. As soon as I found out about what Emmett had told you, I left. I didn't even give the game a second thought. You are my everything Bella , a lousy soccer game could never compare." I gasped. The final game had never even crossed my mind, I had been so focused on myself. Had he really sacrificed his whole career and chance at a scholarship for me? My heart swelled with an emotion I didn't recognise. It seemed to consume me whole.

"And finally. Step 28: Enjoy the benefits of your hard work. Hard work, Bella. I've worked hard for you, because I want you. Deep down, I've always wanted you. I wanted you to want me too. The bet was only an excuse to pursue you in the first place; it was the initiative I needed to get my ass into gear and step up to the challenge that was you. Isabella Swan, I couldn't possibly imagine a life without you, so please, for the sake of a stupid book, don't make me. I can't live without you." His shoulders sagged, and he looked exhausted. "I love you."

Before I even thought about what they were doing, my legs backed me away from the window in a hurry. I heard Edward call out my name from outside, and he sounded distraught.

"Bella, please!"

I flew towards the door, and took the stairs two at a time. The deadbolt on the front door just couldn't open fast enough, and the instant I heard the lock click open, I was outside and running, bare foot, across the grass.

Straight into a surprised, and slightly worried-looking Edward. He flinched as if I was going to hit him. I suppose it was a shock when I did the exact opposite, and all but dived on him, holding him as close to me as I could.

"And I love you." I stated, with my head held high, and a smile playing at my lips. His face exploded into a grin, and he pulled me closer.

"Promise me something, Bella." he said, his voice full of severity.

"Anything."

"Never run away from me again. Never-" he paused in between words to press a kiss to my lips. "leave me-" To run his fingers through my hair. "again."

As I looked up into his eyes, I forgot all about how freezing it was, and how little I was wearing to be out on the lawn in the middle of the night. I forgot all about the neighbours who would be peeping out of their windows. I forgot all about the bet, and the book, of whose pages were spread across the grass, because none of that mattered. All that mattered right then was Edward and me. That was all that would ever matter from now on.

"I promise." And with that, he closed the gap between our lips.

Voila. Only the epilogue left, we do hope you've enjoyed this! :D Reviewwww x