Sorry, again, about the delay...i had computer issues. i swear when the laptop sees me it says to itself, oh look, here comes lea, let us open and close documents for no reason, turn myself on and off, and freeze up at crucial moments. grrr. hahaha, anyway, here we go with chapter six, hope you enjoy it, and jen, have some fluff. :D.

P.S. darcyM. New Zealand. whoooooooooo! :D and also, thanks for the meganormous review, twaz sensational.

Chapter Six

I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.

- Spike: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

He burst through the door, slamming it behind him. I couldn't look at him. I didn't want him to see that I was upset, and I didn't want to look in his eyes as he told me it was over, because he found someone else.

I could feel him glaring at me, and I could almost imagine his expression… his eyebrows furrowed in frustration, his eyes glinting angrily… he always used to run his fingers through his hair when he was agitated, too. I furiously snapped myself into the present - now was not the time to be nostalgic.

"Bella, what the hell was that?" Edward demanded.

"What the hell was what?" I retorted, finding it harder and harder not to look at him with each passing moment.

"That!" he said, and in my peripheral vision I could see him flailing his arms. "Being rude, storming off… Tanya didn't know what to think."

My eyes flashed, and immediately I was fired up. How dare he? Put her before me?

I whirled around to face him.

"Sorry," I spat, "for not being a model ex-girlfriend. Now just go back to your darling Tanya and leave me alone, you complete prick!"

Edward's expression had frozen on his face, and even in my rage and heartbreak, it still occurred to me how handsome he was. I glowered at him, breathing heavily, hating him and loving him all at the same time.

"Why are you crying?" he asked after a pause, sounding subdued, and almost shocked.

I ferociously wiped the tears from my face. "Because I'm upset," I said, in a well, duh tone of voice.

"Why are you upset?"

"Why do you think, Edward?!" I exploded. "You can't just show up here with your new girlfriend and expect me not to be upset about it!"

Edward did a double take.

"What? Girlfriend?"

I sniffed, looking away from him. Despite weeks of wanting to see him and speak to him, more than anything, now I just wanted him to leave.

"Bella, Tanya isn't my girlfriend. She's my cousin."

I froze. "She what?"

"She's my cousin. She's visiting me from Denali - she wanted to come with me tonight because she wanted to meet all my friends. And you."

"Oh," I huffed, relief and embarrassment rushing through me in equal measure. I sat down on the side of the bathtub, my legs too tired to support me anymore, and I held my face in my hands. I always managed to make such a mess of things.

Edward didn't say anything for a while, and then I felt him sitting down beside me.

"How could you think she was my new girlfriend?" he asked me, sounding sad.

"I don't know," I answered into my hands, my voice coming out muffled. "I didn't know what to think."

"You obviously think badly of me, if you could assume I would do something like that to you. Show up at a place I knew you'd be, with some piece of fluff on my arm?" He now sounded almost insulted.

"Of course I don't think you could do something like that, Edward," I hastened to say. "It was just me… jumping to conclusions, thinking the worst…" I sighed.

We sat in silence for a while, and I was all too aware of his arm, which was almost touching off mine. He was so close. I had wanted him this close to me for weeks, wanted to talk to him and hear his voice and see him, and tell him everything I had ever thought about saying to him… and yet I just sat with him, in silence. The words I wanted to say… they didn't want to come out.

I wondered what he was thinking. I wished I could talk to him, and that it wasn't this hard.

Eventually, I couldn't take the silence anymore, and I looked up at him. He met my eyes straightaway, and my breath caught; he was so close. I could kiss him, if I wanted to. If he wanted me to. I hated how unsure I was towards him now. I couldn't stand feeling like that any longer, and I knew that's why we were cooped up together in a bathroom at Jessica Stanley's engagement party - we had to sort this out.

"Edward," I began.

"Bella," he said, at exactly the same time.

We both stopped, and smiled a little. His gorgeous green eyes were hooked on mine, and I had to drop my gaze onto my hands, which were twisting in my lap. I needed to think straight. Being too close to his face wasn't good for my concentration.

"You go first," he said softly.

"No, you," I protested.

"No, seriously, you," he insisted, and I gave up.

"OK," I said, clearing my throat. Here I go, baring my heart on my sleeve… "I never wanted to go on a break."

"Neither did I," Edward said immediately.

"But -" I began angrily.

"I don't know why I said it, but it just came out," Edward interrupted, agitated. "I was just so sick of fighting with you… and I felt like you weren't listening to me, or taking me seriously… I thought some breathing space would give us a chance to calm down. But then… you never called, and every time I picked up the phone to call you… I chickened out. I couldn't believe I had even mentioned going on a break, and I didn't know how to tell you I didn't mean it - I was so embarrassed - but then you never called me, so then I started to think you wanted this whole break thing to happen…" Edward stopped for a breath; he'd been talking so fast I had had to work hard to catch it all.

"That's crazy," I said, hurrying to get a word in edgeways. "Why would I want to go on a break?"

"Well, we were always fighting… I thought you were sick of me."

"I was sick of the fights, Edward… but I never for a second thought we weren't strong enough to work through them. When you mentioned going on a break… I thought you had given up."

Edward ran his fingers through his hair, and sighed loudly.

"We messed up, Bells," he said. "We just wasted the last two weeks apart for no real reason at all. Just stupid misunderstandings."

"I didn't think there was no real reason," I argued nervously, yet determined to talk about this. "I thought it was because of Jacob."

Edward stiffened. "Oh?" he said, and there was a certain coolness about his tone now.

"You didn't like my friendship with him -"

"It may have been friendship for you, Bella, but I'm sure it wasn't that way to him."

I was too shocked to say anything for a second.

"Oh my God," I spluttered, "this is like déjà vu! This fight cannot be happening again!"

Edward huffed, annoyed. "You're just not listening to me, there's a surprise -"

"No, Edward," I interrupted, furious, "you are not listening to me. I am sick of having this argument with you, because I feel nothing towards Jacob, and it does not matter how many moves he makes on me - nothing is going to come out of it! Now will you get that through your thick skull!"

Edward had shut up, and I actually thought I had finally gotten through to him.

"Hang on," he said, after a minute, "you said how many moves he makes. Has he made a move on you already?"

My heart stopped. I couldn't lie to him. I knew that if I lied to him about this, then I could kiss our relationship goodbye.

I took too long to answer, frozen with panic, and Edward's fingers took hold of my chin, gently but firmly, and forced me to look into his eyes.

"Look at me and tell me nothing ever happened," he said, and I was overwhelmed with the sudden memory of Jacob's face being too close to mine… I couldn't meet Edward's eyes. I heard the click of his teeth as his jaw set, his mouth a hard line.

"When?" he growled, gripped my chin a little harder then I'm sure he meant to.

"The other day," I whispered.

"What happened?" he demanded, his tone almost dangerous.

"He kissed me -"

"You kissed him, right," Edward snapped, letting go of my chin and turning away from me. My heart broke.

"I did not kiss him," I said, my voice strong and insistent, despite the fear I could feel welling up inside me. "He was the one who kissed me -"

"How do I know that?"

He might as well have slapped me. "Excuse me? How the hell can you say that to me?"

"How the hell could you kiss Jacob?" he retorted, still refusing to look at me.

"I did not kiss him!" I raised my voice, so that maybe it would sink in. "And anyway…" I thought wildly, searching for something, anything, that could justify this in some way. I said the first thing that came into my head. "We were on a break!"

Edward finally looked back at me derisively, one eyebrow arched.

"We're not in an episode of Friends, Bella."

"Yeah, but Ross had the right idea!" I said, almost hysterical. "I thought we were broken up! Technically, I could have kissed anybody I wanted to, because I thought this relationship was finished!"

Please, don't let me lose Edward because of this. Please, please, please…

"Did you want to kiss him?" Edward asked me, and he no longer sounded angry… he was just devastated. I was surprised he couldn't hear my heart cracking into more little pieces.

"Of course I didn't," I said vehemently. "I pulled away, I told him it was a mistake, and I can't even face him now… my relationship with you means more to me than anything, Edward. You have to believe that."

"I drove you to him," he mumbled, morosely, holding his head in his hands.

"You didn't drive me anywhere," I disagreed. "Just to the brink of insanity."

Edward chuckled despite himself.

"It's true," I continued, hope now rushing in full force. Maybe he could get past this. He hadn't run out on me yet. "All I did was lie in bed all day, watching romantic movies, stuffing myself with chocolate. I didn't leave my room, I didn't do anything. I drove Alice and everyone crazy. When they eventually got me to leave my room, all I did was drink. I was a mess without you, Edward," I said quietly, looking at my hands again. I sensed him looking up at me, but I didn't want to meet his eyes. I just listened to the sound of his voice.

"I stayed in bed all day, playing the Xbox until my eyes hurt. I got take-out when I felt hungry and every day I picked up my phone, dialled your number, and argued with myself over pressing the 'call' button. I never pressed it. I put it down, and told myself that tomorrow, I'd talk to you, tomorrow, I'd work it all out. Every day was the same. Emmett would try and get me out of bed and make me do things, but I didn't want to do anything. I just… didn't work without you, Bella," Edward sighed. "I still don't."

My mouth twisted a little… we were both so stupid. If one of us could have just called the other… everything would have been fine. There would have been no need for any of this hurt.

"You sent me that text?" I had been wanting to know why ever since I had received it.

"I just… wanted you to know I still cared. I thought you'd call me… but then you sent me the same text back, and it made me feel a little better, so I decided I'd call you… but I just couldn't press that button."

"It's OK," I said, and I meant it. I leant my head on his shoulder, hesitantly at first, but I just needed to be near him. Edward responded without even thinking about it; he leant his head against mine, wrapping his arm around my waist. I closed my eyes, never feeling more content and better in my life. I wanted to stay like that, and have time stop, and never have to move or change.

"I'm sorry," Edward said, after a while. "For everything."

"I'm sorry, too," I replied.

Edward wrapped his other arm around me too, and my heart sped up a little.

"So, what happens now?" he asked, but I could hear that familiar, teasing note in his voice… the one that my Edward used.

"I have no idea," I said, attempting to control my breathing, as I felt his lips touch my ear. "I missed that episode of Friends."

Edward laughed, and his breath on my skin sent shivers down my spine. "Well then, I reckon we should just make it up as we go along," he said, now trailing his lips along my neck.

I mumbled an incoherent reply, too busy concentrating on what Edward was doing… his grip on my waist was tightening, and his lips were creating a path along my jaw line, moving closer and closer to my own lips, leaving a trail of goose bumps and tingles behind them. I slid my hands up his chest and locked them around his neck, knotting my fingers in his hair and pulling myself as close to him as I possibly could… and then his lips were pressed against mine, and I couldn't think anymore; everything I breathed and felt and tasted and heard and wanted and needed was Edward, and nothing else was important, nothing else mattered… because as long as I had Edward, the heart that was beating so erratically and loudly inside my chest was whole and healthy and unbroken.

I kissed him back furiously, trying to make up for every lost second, minute, hour, day, that had been wasted and spent without him. He kissed me with same kind of fever and urgency, his hands gripping me tightly; I clung to him too, never wanting to let him go again.

I didn't want to pull away, and I could sense he didn't either, but the last thing I wanted was to get carried away in Jessica Stanley's bathroom in the middle of a party, so I reluctantly separated our lips, my breathing wild and out of control. He pressed his forehead against mine, gazing at me from under his eyelashes.

"Damn, I missed you," he said, making me laugh.

"I missed you too," I whispered. "Don't ever tell me we need to go on a break again."

"Only if you agree to take me back, even though I've been a complete idiot," Edward grinned.

"Deal."

Eventually we were composed enough to leave the bathroom, sniggering and holding hands like two silly teenagers in love. We rejoined our friends, beaming, and they cheered as their eyes homed in on our intertwined hands.

"About time," Alice squealed, hugging me.

"Finally," Rosalie said, hugging me too.

Emmett turned to Jasper and held out his hand.

"Pay up, ye of little faith."

Jasper rolled his eyes and dug his hands in his pockets, grimacing. "I didn't have faith that they wouldn't work it out, I just expected it to drag out a little longer -"

"I don't want to hear your sob story, Jazz Man, I want my twenty bucks," Emmett interrupted.

"I personally think the two of them have dragged it out long enough," Rosalie commented, shaking her head.

I blushed and ducked my head, leaning into Edward's side. She was right. Life was way too short for procrastination, and I decided then and there to never leave anything until the last minute if I could do it sooner. Because what if it was too late? What if I had been unable to salvage mine and Edward's relationship?

I shuddered at the thought.

Being with Edward again made me feel like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders; I felt carefree, light-hearted, happy… and I could fully appreciate all those feelings, because I knew what it was like to be so depressed and wishing I could just feel better.

I felt better, now, definitely.

Epilogue, coming up next. Expect a wait, coz i haven't even started it yet, but i'll get on it. also, i must start writing something new... ;)