I've been busy, okay? Yeesh.

Chapter 17 – One Last Chance (Jasper's POV)

Only a few hours had passed since the horrid episode in the meadow, but the agony of it made it feel like an eternity. I had tried my hardest not to think about what happened, not to think about her, but I couldn't. I needed some way to see her again, to talk to her one last time, before I would cut all ties between us and just… disappear. Die serving the Confederate Army. But how? She would never want to see me face-to-face. It would have to be in secret, so she wouldn't know – at least, not until I wanted her to know, if I ever did. That still didn't answer the question of how, though. Suddenly, I had an idea. Carlisle and Esme were having a masquerade ball this weekend. If I could just find Alice, I would be able to accomplish all that I wanted: I would be able to see her again, talk to her one last time; hopefully, I would even be able to dance one last dance with her. It would be perfect. But how would I find her? It was unlikely that either my cousin or Bella would betray their best friend like that. So who did that leave?

I paced back and forth, trying to think of another way to find Alice. Just then, a memory came to me, of a day a few weeks ago. I had been out walking through town when I had spotted Alice from a far with Isabella, Rosalie, and few other friends… What were their names? Suddenly, I remembered. Lauren Mallory, Angela Weber, and Jessica Stanley. I smiled. I had my way to find Alice. You should tell Emmett and Edward about this. Maybe they'd like the chance to talk to Rosalie and Isabella.

The next day…

Edward's POV

I paced back and forth across my room in frustration. Maybe I could go see her and apologize…no, she wouldn't listen to me; she'd just throw me out of her house. Maybe I could send her a letter…no, she'd probably burn it. There has got to be a way to get Isabella to talk to me again! But how?

Knock, knock. "Mr. Masen?" Reuben called.

"Yes, Reuben?" I answered.

He opened the door. "A messenger has just arrived from Mr. Whitlock. He is requesting your presence at his house immediately."

"Very well." I grabbed a jacket and hurried downstairs. Within minutes, I was pulling up outside of Jasper's house. Not surprisingly, Emmett's carriage stood in the driveway as well. I walked over to the front door and knocked. The butler let me in and showed me to one of the smaller parlors in the house. Jasper and Emmett were waiting when I walked in. Both acknowledged me with a quick head nod.

"So, Jasper," I asked once I was seated. "Why did you call us here?"

"I have an idea that I think you both might be interested in hearing," he replied.

"About?" Emmett asked.

"About how to give us at least a chance to talk to Alice, Rosalie, and Isabella one last time. Maybe even apologize or try to make them see things through our eyes."

"What were you thinking?" Emmett asked.

"We can try to find them at Carlisle and Esme's masquerade ball. We'll all be wearing masks, so they won't know it's us."

"One problem, Jasper," I said. "They'll be wearing masks too. How will be able to tell if it's really them?"

"I already thought of an answer to that," he told me. "Remember Lauren Mallory, Jessica Stanley, and Angela Weber?"

"I'd rather not," I replied, shuddering as I remembered the utterly repulsive Lauren Mallory and the equally repulsive Jessica Stanley. Both had ambitions to become Mrs. Edward Masen, which I was desperate to avoid. Angela, the third girl, had been my favorite of the three, because she was smart and trustworthy and absolutely enamored with Ben Cheney.

"Well, they're friends with Alice, Rosalie, and Isabella," Jasper explained. "And I thought maybe, just maybe, they could lead us to them."

Emmett and I stared at Jasper in shock, mouths agape. "You're crazy," I said.

"Are you kidding, Edward? It's brilliant!" Emmett said.

"It'll never work," I argued. "Remember how drawn to them we are? I'm almost a hundred percent sure they feel the same thing. They'll know it's us before we can say a word."

"Edward, we have to try," Jasper reasoned. "We've got nothing to lose by trying and everything to gain."

"What do you two have to gain? Do you really think you can end their engagements?" I asked.

"I could care less about whether or not Alice leaves him," Jasper said. "I just need to talk to her."

"I'd be thrilled if Rosalie left Royce, but as long as can try to make her see sense, I'm happy," Emmett injected.

I sighed. "Fine. I can tell I'm clearly outnumbered here. I'll agree to try, but I still don't think we'll succeed. So what's the plan?"

"Well, the first logical step is to go find Jessica, Lauren, and Angela and see if they'll even be willing to help us," Jasper said. Reluctantly, I followed them to Jasper's carriage. We went to Lauren's house first, since it was closest, and were informed that she was at Jessica's house with Angela. We hurried over.

Jasper led the way up to the Stanleys' front door. He knocked and the butler appeared. "Can you please tell Miss Mallory, Miss Stanley, and Miss Weber that Mr. Whitlock, Mr. McCarty, and Mr. Masen are here to see them?"

"Yes, sir." The butler led us to a small parlor and left to get Jessica, Lauren, and Angela. Not to long had passed before they appeared in the doorway. Lauren and Jessica's eyes went wide when they saw me. Fortunately, I had had the hindsight to sit between Emmett and Jasper, so neither of them could get close to me.

"Edward!" Jessica cooed, completely ignoring Jasper and Emmett and forgetting her manners. "What a pleasant surprise! Whatever brings you here?"

"Unfortunately, this is not a social visit, Miss Stanley. We come to you on business." My answer was both a reminder that I did not care for her and a subtle hint at her forgotten manners.

"What sort of business?" Jessica asked.

"Please sit down, Miss Stanley, Miss Mallory, Miss Weber, and we'll talk." They sat.

"So whatever is this business of yours, Mr. Masen?" Jessica asked again, this time remembering her manners.

"Why doesn't Mr. Whitlock tell you about it? It was his idea."

"Well, Mr. Whitlock?" Lauren prompted.

Jasper cleared his throat. "I'm fairly certain by know you have heard all about the unfortunate incidents that passed between Miss Alice Brandon and myself, Miss Rosalie Hale and Mr. McCarty, and Miss Isabella Swan and Mr. Masen."

"Yes, we are aware of them. Our deepest sympathies, especially to you, Mr. Masen. If you ever…" Lauren began, but Angela cut her off.

"Yes, we heard about them from the ladies involved. Do continue," she said. Thank you God for Angela Weber and her common sense, I said to myself.

"Well, we deeply regret the misunderstandings that passed between us and them, and wish to remedy them. Unfortunately, Miss Brandon, Miss Hale, and Miss Swan do not seem receptive to our attempts at reconciliation."

"That's very unfortunate, but perhaps for the best, Mr. Masen," Jessica said. "Perhaps you should consider other…"

"And how does this concern us?" Angela spoke over her friend for the second time that day.

"We were hoping you'd be willing to help us in reconciling with your lovely friends," Jasper said.

"How do you propose we do that?" Angela questioned.

"Currently, Miss Brandon, Miss Hale, and Miss Swan to not seem to take to the sight of us too kindly. We believe that, if we were to talk to them without them knowing it was us, some of the damage could be undone. We plan to find them at the Cullens' masquerade ball this Saturday evening and talking to them then."

"And you need our help to find them," Angela stated.

"Yes," Jasper said. "We will not be able to search for them too closely, for fear of revealing ourselves and our intentions, but you ladies should be able to search them out quite easily, since you are their friends. Then, all we ask of you is to point them out to us and we will take care of the rest."

Angela paused to consider what we had asked of her. Jessica and Lauren were trying to disguise their murderous feelings. I had to stifle a laugh. Of course they would never help. Why would they help me find Isabella when they wanted me for themselves?

"While I must admit that I am sympathetic to your cause, gentlemen, I'm afraid I cannot help you," Jessica said.

"I cannot either," Lauren said.

"I'll help you," Angela said. Five mouths dropped open in shock. "I can see that Miss Brandon, Miss Hale, and Miss Swan are important to you and I want to help you fix this problem. I don't like seeing my friends so hurt."

I recovered first. "That's very noble of you, Miss Weber," I said. "Would you be interested in helping me?" I knew that Isabella and Angela were close, and, frankly, I would have the best chance of success if I had Angela's help.

"I would be glad to, Mr. Masen," she answered. Lauren and Jessica's faces went from shocked to furious.

"Well, Miss Stanley, Miss Mallory, would you like to reconsider helping us?" Emmett entreated them, speaking for the first time since we had arrived.

Lauren hesitated. "Very well," she said finally. "I will help as well."

"I will as well," Jessica conceded.

"Thank you, Miss Mallory," Emmett said. "May I entreat you to assist me?"

"And Miss Stanley, will you assist me?" Jasper asked.

"I would be delighted, Mr. McCarty," Lauren said, not bothering to disguise her apparent disgust and contempt.

"As would I, Mr. Whitlock," Jessica said in the same manner as Lauren.

"Thank you ladies," I said as we stood to go. "We are in your debt." Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. "Ladies, if you don't mind my asking, have you picked your dresses for Saturday evening?"

"Yes, we have," Jessica said. "May I enquire as to why you wanted to know this?"

"What colors will you be wearing? This way, we can find you more easily." It didn't help us to arrange a way to find Alice, Isabella, and Rosalie if we couldn't find the girls who would help us find them in the crowd.

"That's a smart idea Mr. Masen," Angela commented. "We will gladly tell you. I will be wearing lavender."

"I plan to wear magenta," Jessica said.

"And I plan to wear green," Lauren said.

"Thank you, ladies. We will see you Saturday." We turned to go.

"Wait, you haven't told us what color suits you will be wearing," Angela said. "We need to be able to find you too, don't we?"

"You are right, Miss Weber," I told her. "I will be wearing black."

"My suit and mask will be a silver-gray," Jasper said.

"And mine suit is a basic black and whit suit with a white mask," Emmett said. With that, we bid them goodbye.

Once we were safely in the carriage, Jasper let out a sigh of relief. "I didn't think they were going to agree to this," he confessed.

"If it wasn't for Angela, they might not have," I pointed out. "We really owe her a lot. If she hadn't interrupted Jessica and Lauren those times…. And when she agreed…. That really tipped the scales in our favor."

"And did you see how Jessica and Lauren were staring at Eddie the whole time?" Emmett chuckled loudly.

I growled. "Emmett, you know you are not allowed to call me Eddie. And two, they can stare all they want. They're never going to be Mrs. Edward Masen, so they may as we get over their little obsessions with me."

"Relax, Edward, I was just joking," Emmett said. Then he turned serious. "Do you really think this will work?"

"At this point, Emmett, I think all we can do is hope. It's not in our hands now," Jasper said. As much as I hated to admit it, Jasper was right. We had done all we could. Now we simply had to sit back and hope that we could trust Angela, Jessica, and Lauren and that we would get our second chances.

And there you have it. The big masquerade ball scene is up next. Plenty of drama, amour, and heartbreak. Should be fun.

xoxoxoxoxoxo, TwilightTeen212