AN: if you're a new reader, welcome! This is my new ONE-SHOT that I've been working on despite my two stories still waiting to be updated -.- oh well. Enjoy!

If you're a returning reader, this is what I've been up to. I tolddd you. Sorry…lool 3

Song I listened to while writing this— Heroes- David Bowie (yes, im a pathetic Perks fan xD)

If you're obsessed with music matching up with writing, listen to it starting from the kiss and then finish it off even when you've finished reading the last sentence. (:

Oh, and happy prom season! (:

DISCLAIMER: ALL TWILIGHT CHARACTERS BELONG TO STEPHENIE MEYER.

Bella POV

"Got it. Leave it on my desk and I'll take a look at it when I get in the office," I told Angela as she hurriedly agreed and hung up. I slipped my phone back into my purse, adjusted my lopsided sunglasses, and headed into the Dish like I did every morning.

"Hey, Jessica!" I greeted the familiar face that turned around.

"Hey, Bella!" she grinned. "Your regular?"

"You bet," I said, beaming.

The Dish was unusually empty for a Friday, so Jessica was able to make me my order immediately, and I sat down at a table and pulled my phone out. This month's issue was supposed to get to the printers today, and I had to make sure everything was progressing correctly. Of course, this led me to have little to do today at work other than brainstorm possible ideas for next month. I nonetheless took the time to dress up in my favorite work dress today, left my hair down and curly, and applied the bare minimum of makeup I used maybe twice a year. I was feeling… optimistic.

I shook my head and chuckled at myself as I checked my texts. What was I optimistic about? A raise? Not happening. My boss was nice, but he wasn't that generous. What else was left?

…Dates?

I pressed a fist in my mouth to keep from laughing out loud like a weirdo. I hadn't had success in the dating department since like…ever. Last month Mike Newton asked me out, but you don't have to ask me twice why I won't date him. You can just see for yourself. I then had a three-day fling with a co-worker, Tyler Crowley, but I think people have that "no dating co-workers" rule for a reason; it ended badly and he resigned.

I sighed at the fact that I hadn't gotten any texts in the last twenty seconds and then amended it to a double sigh as I finished reflecting on my dating life. I hate hey-we're-done-for-the-month-so-why-are-we-even-he re days. They give me too much time to think.

"Excuse me?" a deep baritone interrupted my pitiful thoughts.

I whipped my head up to meet the greenest pair of eyes I'd ever seen. I blinked a few times like I was looking into the sun before I continued looking at the rest of this face. My eyes moved down past the eyes to the nice, straight nose. But wait! They skipped a step. They went back up immediately to the hair, and what I saw could not be described as one color. It was red and copper and bronze and just wonderful. I resumed my path and landed on his lips, which were turned up in an amused smirk.

Ahh. Knows he's pretty, I see. Of course he does. He did in high school, too.

I had just run into Edward Cullen after six years.

"Your inner ramblings must be quite entertaining if you have such a vast range of emotions on your face." He spoke again, still smirking. He sounded just like I remembered.

I thought back to what I had been thinking and blushed. If he'd been sitting here the whole time, he probably noticed when my fist was in my mouth.

"Yes, they are," I sniffed, trying to figure out if there was still some way to save myself.

The Adonis laughed, and I took the time to appreciate the rest of his body. He was wearing jeans and a white fitted t-shirt that framed his modest muscles really well. He had sunglasses on top of his head, too.

By the time he was done laughing, I was staring back at my coffee cup. Years of experience had made me quite an expert at perving.

"Don't you have a job?" I blurted as I looked back at him. What. What the hell? What if he doesn't remember me? I go straight from seeing him for the first time in years to asking him if he had a job? Why didn't I ask him what his name was?!

His eyes narrowed, and he replied to my question with a question of his own. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

I swallowed. I know people take reporters and interviewers for people that are experts at telling lies, but frankly I suck at it. I tried not to flush as I replied, "I don't think so."

His eyes narrowed further. I felt the sudden need to explain myself further. "I mean I think I'd remember meeting you before."

He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I sighed. Way to go. Instead of maintaining your dignity you go inflate his ego some more.

"I've got to get going," I said, and averted my eyes from his hypnotizing stare. I just couldn't do this. My high school years were flooding back into my thoughts and it was starting to hurt.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his grin fall a bit as I got up from my stool and gathered my things. As I turned to go, he stopped me, his hand warm on my arm.

"Wait."

I turned and he looked completely composed, the grin on his face once again.

"Sorry. I think we got off on the wrong foot. Hi. I'm Edward Cullen. And you are….?"

Did he still not recognize who I am? On one hand it hurt, but on the other…

I smiled at him, took his hand, and said, "Marie. Marie Dwyer. Nice to meet you." Maybe starting over isn't a bad thing.

-.-.-

"So, Marie," he grins lopsidedly again. "What do you do?"

We're outside now that he's finished his drink and I tell him I have to get to work. He quickly says he'll walk me there even though it's only a short distance away. I smile at how he hurriedly catches up to me as I try to distance myself at least two feet away from him.

I'm still uneasy with this plan.

"I write articles for a magazine," I say concisely.

"Oh… so you're one of those," he says.

I whip my head back at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know, those coach purse carrying, sunglasses wearing, mocha frap ordering types who really don't have nearly as much money as they lead us all to believe," he sniffs.

My mouth falls open. "This… this is a gift from my friend!" I screech, pointing at the purse. Alice has a keen taste for anything branded. "And these were ten dollars at target!" I point to my shades.

This whole time, Edward is trying to keep himself from laughing, but he completely falls apart. I wearily glance around and notice that he is indeed making a fool out of himself on a New York sidewalk.

"I'm just kidding. Jeez, it's really easy to piss you off," he chuckles. I'm not amused. I huff and try to walk faster than him, but two strides of mine are one of his, and getting all sweaty isn't very attractive.

He still has that wicked glint in his eyes as he pokes my arm. "Hey, Marie." For someone built so man-like, he sure is immature. He doesn't act his age in the slightest. And I wish he would stop saying my name. It keeps reminding me that I'm lying to him.

"What?" I roll my eyes.

"I'm new to New York. And I was wondering… if… when you get off work, you could show me around."

I turn around and narrow my eyes at him. He looks genuine enough. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Well, you were too mad at me for me to make a request and actually have you answer yes," he chuckles. I huff. I guess that is true. I'm taking major risks here, but I want to genuinely get to know him now that we're finally out of high school. And he doesn't seem to recognize me, so what's the harm in having a little fun for closure's sake?

"Maybe," I say childishly. "So… meet me here at three?"

"Sure." He lazily salutes me and then lopes off in the other direction.

I mutter under my breath before yelling, "Do you even know where you're going right now?"

"Nope!" he smiles. "Don't worry about it!" And breaks into a jog. I shake my head. He's still the same.

-.-.-

"Bella!" Alice trills as she lets herself into my cubicle-type thing that my boss calls an office.

"Hey, Alice," I grin.

"Whoah," she says like I have something on my face. I instinctively touch it. "You look super happy today. What's the occasion?"

I bite my lower lip. I don't want to hear her lecture me.

"Nothing. Just excited it's Friday… but I really don't know what I'm doing here."

"Yeah, I don't even know why you came," Alice admits, seating herself on top of the desk. "Angela and I are going out to lunch in half an hour. Why don't you come and ditch this place for Angela's afterwards?"

Shit.

"I, uh… can't. I have work to do."

Alice scoffs. "You just said you don't know what you're doing here."

Shit shit shit. Why didn't I give him my number or something? I'm so stupid!

"Uh, I meant to be all… philosophical, you know? Like, what's my purpose in life, what am I doing here, etc." I mumbled. And the Oscar for best actress goes to Bella Swan.

Alice narrows her eyes and says, "Nice try. Something's going on, but I'm too hungry to argue with you. You're coming with. End of discussion." She skips out of the room and I'm queasy with horror.

We have lunch and I'm not invested in the conversation at all. Alice notices and I can't do much to cover up.

"Okay, so meet you guys back at my place in a few?" Angela asks, getting up first.

"Uh, I just remembered that I forgot something at the office! I'll, uh, meet you guys there."

Alice sighs, shakes her head, and miraculously lets it go. "Okay, Bella. See you."

-.-.-

Fifteen minutes later, I'm sitting on the hood of my car, laughing until tears are streaming down my face. I wipe at them and sip on a lemonade slurpee as Edward smiles and looks straight ahead at the setting sun. We're in a Taco Bell parking lot, enjoying the cool evening breeze.

"You know I would kill anyone else who attempted to sit on the hood of my baby?" I quip.

"Yeah, I figured you were like that," he grins lazily. He lays back and props his head up with his arms. "But I'm up here, aren't I?"

I don't know what to say to that. I look away, down at my cell phone, which has been ringing every thirty minutes. I would think that Alice would just get it and stop calling, but she's persistent.

I bite my lip and turn it off.

For the past three hours, I've taken Edward to every place I can think of that I can still afford. We had walked to my apartment where I'd taken out my beat up truck and motioned for him to sit in the passenger seat. He'd objected at first, because he was a man and God forbid he let the woman drive, but I told him to get over it and he only grumbled for about five minutes before excitement took over. He said he'd already seen the Statue of Liberty, so I took him to the Empire State building. We also went on a ferry just for the heck of it. We passed Broadway and Edward just liked to turn and look at the lights. I said maybe someday we could go to a show. He smirked at me then, and I rolled my eyes, wondering why I even hinted at wanting to hang out with him again if he was just going to assume it with his cocky personality anyway.

After a while, he said he wanted to know where there were good places to eat, so I considered taking him to an Olive Garden. He instead suggested Taco Bell. I think that was the point in time where my girly bits were activated. I, Bella Swan, hate it when guys go over the top for dinner. Two chalupas and numerous hot sauce packets later, here we are, and I think I am a goner.

This is dangerous, my mind says. But I don't care. I am on the hood of my car on a warm May evening with Edward Cullen. It was my dream when I was in high school, and now it is happening.

I guess we never really do grow up.

After another hour of bickering, I finally suggest we head home. I'm anxious to turn my phone back on and hope Alice won't murder me when I finally get back to her. Edward agrees, and we're off once more.

There's some sort of palpable tension in the car as we ride along in silence. It occurs to me that we've been talking to each other a lot for two people who have just met and don't seem to have much in common. And I haven't been nervous and sweaty around him… well most of the time.

I pull up next to some well-off looking apartment complex and Edward steps out. I chuckle and am too late to hold it in.

"What?"

"I don't know," I say, getting out of the car without thinking.

"Are you walking me to my doorstep?" he jokes, and I hit his arm playfully. This whole day has been rather backwards; me driving him around and now me leaving him at his door.

When we get to it, we have nothing to talk about for once. And then he speaks.

"Marie."

I am looking at my sickeningly expensive ankle boots when he speaks, and the tone of his voice makes me not want to look up. I might just blush until my face can blow a thermometer up.

"I need to tell you something."

That's it. He knows, he knows, he knows.

I sigh in resignation and close my eyes. "Yes?"

"I… I'm not really new to New York."

I lift my gaze immediately, cocking up an eyebrow as I look at him incredulously. "Then why…?"

He sighs, and it's the first time I've seen Edward look less than sure. "I wanted to get to know you."

I open my mouth, and then close it again. He'd just met me, though!

"I've actually seen you at the Dish a few times." He scratches his head as if it will make this news any less awkward. He shuffles back and forth on his feet and I swear I see the beginning of a blush outline his cheeks. "I know it sounds kind of stalkerish, but I just didn't know how to start conversation with you until you started making faces at your coffee!"

I burst out laughing. "Edward, that is the funniest thing I've ever heard," I wheeze. "And it's perfectly fine. I, uh… kind of enjoyed this." Now it's my turn to look at my boots again.

His grin is back. I can feel it. "Well, I'm glad you felt that way."

I giggle like a two-year-old and look up briefly. "I should get going."

"Bye, Bella."

I turn around to go, but then freeze.

He called me Bella.

I whirl around to see him with a soft expression.

My eyes fill with tears. He knew. He knew, yet he dragged me all over all this time, only to throw it back in my face.

Edward sees the look on my features, and as I get ready to stumble-run back to my car, he grabs my arm swiftly.

"Hey, whoa! What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" I shriek at him. "You knew! You knew and you had a great time watching me make a fool out of myself, changing my name and laughing at your jokes!"

"Bella, yeah, I knew it was you," he says, his brow furrowing as I try not to full-out sob. "But what's wrong with that? Being you?"

"Don't you remember anything?" I cry. "I was an awkward piece of shit in high school. You were, as much as I hate to admit it, the epitome of perfection to me when I was a sophomore. You knew I liked you, but I knew I was too awkward to ever fit in with you. I accepted that. I embraced it because as much as you liked being arrogant and sometimes an asshole, you never took it out on me. You were always courteous."

Edward is silent as I dry my stupid tears and continue despite my humiliation. "When I saw you at the Dish today, I thought maybe if you knew it was me, Bella Swan, you would remember how awkward I was in high school and still think that. So I told you my middle name and my mom's maiden name. I didn't think that you'd go complete asshole on me and sit back to watch me humiliate myself!" I exclaimed, the tears coming again. This day had gone from perfect to utter disaster in a matter of minutes.

"Whatever," I huff. That was me when I was a teenager, and this is who I am now; a get-up-and-move-on kind of girl. "It was nice being with you today. See you around," I say sarcastically as I move to leave again—but Edward's hand, which hadn't gone slack even as I yelled at him, is still gripping me like a vice.

"Bella, you weren't humiliating yourself. I let you go with it because you seemed so certain of yourself when you were 'Marie,' and I knew that's how the real you is like. I didn't want you to think of me like you did in high school, like I'm better than you or something—which, by the way, is not true."

He whirls me around to face him and keeps going. "The Bella I knew in high school was shy, quiet, and beautiful. I loved waving to you in the hallways and seeing you smile. Every day, I wondered why we weren't friends, or why you wouldn't talk to me. Now that I know what you thought of me, I'm really upset that I didn't reach out to you."

He is now impossibly close to me, and I will myself not to look into his eyes. Who knows what kind emotion is swimming in them.

"Bella, you were in no way, shape, or form beneath me back then. All either of us had to do was say hi to one another and we could've been best friends… or maybe even something more." I shiver as his voice takes on a husky quality. I notice for the first time how dark it is outside and how the streets are unusually quiet for New York.

"I thought you didn't like me or something, or that you thought I wasn't worth your time," Edward says, shaking his head. "And now here you are, changing your name because you thought I didn't like you. It's ridiculous! You're wonderful. You always have been. So much that I had to lie to you to get myself the guts to hang out with you."

I've wiped away the last of my tears by now, and am staring into the forest green of his eyes as the night finally envelops us. I feel like I'm in a cheesy romantic movie or something with the sentences that are coming out of his mouth. It can't be happening. But I realize something; if there's one thing I've learned from living in the real world it is that you never know what's going to happen until you try. I had wanted to be an art major going into college. I came out in love with writing and landed a job at an amazing magazine. It was all because I'd allowed myself to fall in love with writing—something I had detested in school.

I smile up at Edward's tantalizing eyes and nod. I understand what he is getting at. Maybe it is time for me to truly give myself some credit.

"Thank you," I whisper, and spring up on my toes to press my lips against his. He moans in surprise, inhaling slightly, then tentatively wraps his arms around me and kisses me back. It's a second before I can no longer keep the smile of my face. I can't believe I just did that.

"Call me," I wink, then run back to my car, biting my lip the whole way. I seriously can't believe I just did that.

"I don't have your number!" he yells, still in a daze. His eyes are wide, and the sunglasses that sat so well on his messy head are crooked now. I giggle and do the most stalkerish thing I have ever done.

"Is yours still the same one you had in high school?"

"Yeah."

"Then I have yours!" I screech. I blink left and pull back into the street, slowing to see his reaction to my statement. His eyes widen for a second, probably wondering how I got it, and then he throws his head back to let out a carefree laugh.

"See you later, Bella Swan!"

I snicker and gun it to my apartment complex. The New York lights dance all around me. My window is open, and it's a bad idea because my hair is down and flying into my vision, but I don't care. I'm like Edward's carefree laugh. An orchestra of rushing cars goes on around me. I consider circling back just to go through a tunnel like in Perks of Being a Wallflower for a moment because of how great I feel.

I finally feel whole.

AN: Shh. I'm still listening to the song. Lol xD

If you're wondering what's been going on in RL, visit my profile! I sometimes update it with my inner ramblings and you can laugh at how busy I am -.-

I'll try to get to my other stories soon! I couldn't get myself to write, so I decided to write this to make up for the time you're all waiting for the other chapters. Please review and you'll get Edward's phone number… and free tickets to Broadway. (; See ya! xx