The night was young and fresh and full of potential. I walked down the cold empty streets alone; everything was silent accept for the pattered steps of my feet. I gripped the brief case a little tighter in one hand as I continued at a casual pace. The light glowing of my watch gave me a subtle reminder of the time; 1:45am. I was perfectly on time. Turning down a dark alleyway I could see the faint silhouette of another body not far away. My footsteps slowed down until finally coming to a halt when I was a few meters away from the other person. They had cleverly hidden away in the shadows hiding away from my line of sight. Personally I preferred my presence be known but hey whatever.

“Have you got it?” He asked his voice bouncing off the 3 walls that surrounded us the noise surrounding me. I didn’t answer but simply gave a single nod staring where I thought his face was intently. I knew he could see me, if the white suit didn’t give it away the fact I was standing under a dimmed street light had to help.

“50K as we agreed earlier?” I confirmed as I casually nodded again my hand tightening n the brief case again.

“Let’s do this then” he muttered taking a slow calculated step out of the shadows and into the glow of the night sky.

This was always my favourite part of a deal; the physical transaction. It put the men from the boys, the fearful from the risk takers and a good amount of the time the living from the recently deceased. He paused for a moment watching me intently unsure of what to do. I didn’t move but just stared at him. I could feel a faint smile beginning to play of my lips as the adrenalin began to flow freely.

“Another step if you please.” I asked lightly my voice just above a whisper only loud enough for his ears. Hesitantly he obeyed taking a small step forward as he instantly became visible to the naked eye. What was with these guys and dressing to disappoint. It was always a big clique with them all; every last one. He wore all black from his cheap imitation sneakers up to his messy black mass of hair on his head.

“Cash I hope.” I said repeating our recent phone conversation where I had laid down the rules; these guys were not very smart. I had leant to always repeat what you wanted over and over again or you would never get anywhere. If you didn’t get anywhere really what was the point of business; an angry businessman and a dead idiot?

He nodded silently making slow deliberate movements as he reached inside his black fake leather jacket and pulled out a white envelope. Not many people had seen a wad of $50 thousand dollars cash of course. But then again would you have been able to have realised he was holding 50K if you walked past. No you would have thought he was a strange possibly insane man standing in the middle of the street holding a white envelope at 1.45 in the morning. I think what was in the envelope would have been the last thing on your mind. From his general scruffy appearance you most likely would have been hurrying past keeping your eyes to the ground or if you were from the more cowardly side of New York running back the way you had come. But if you were a true coward what the hell are you doing walking around in the middle of nowhere down a deserted side street at 1.45 in the morning. Maybe you were in fact the insane one after all? If you find yourself in this situation at anytime perhaps consider consulting with a profession shrink more commonly know as a psychologist.

Now back to the 50K in cold hard cash. It was not like in the movies where you opened a briefcase and it was all stacked in perfect hundred dollar bills. To be honest if you really thought about those movies how would that even work? Firstly who would spend that much time making the money neat enough to fit in the case; money was a very delicate and fiddly thing to handle a task like that could take hours. Secondly how could you ensure that once you had that money perfectly arranged that by the time you came to giving it away that it would be in that former condition still? After all you would have had to had picked up the briefcase at some time and either driven or walked somewhere with it. And it you did that nobody wants to look like the suspicious tool carrying a brief case upright with a hand supporting the bottom to it would move. You would either get laughed at or worse; much worse, robbed. Thirdly once you finally get to making the transaction (if you have already been bothered enough to organise the money and managed to get it there neatly) how is the recipient meant to count it? I mean come on be serious; people who trust someone who says there is 50K in a brief case without counting first? That is a law everybody learns and often learns this through trial and error. If you can help if you really don’t want to learn this lesson through making the mistake of not counting it then getting back home and realising your 20K shorts. By then the other half of the deal is long gone and likely to be laughing at your stupidity and vowing never to see you again. So no, a money exchange of this magnitude is done cleverly and efficiently. Firstly I made sure as to inform my business associate here of my few simply rules.

1. All money is to be in unmarked untraceable $100 US notes; that’s really just a basic custom to any of these exchanges. I also don’t want useless$50 notes everywhere; it stuffs my counting process and it just looks so much neater as all $100 and in my world appearance is everything.
2. So I might not want it in a brief case but I want it nice and countable (yes that is a word). All notes are to be facing the same way. I want it in $5000 sections that are each sectioned off with a blue rubber band. These groups of $5000 are then to be all connected together by a single green rubber band. You may be asking what the need for specific colour rubber bands is. Well firstly in my years of experience I have found green and blue rubber bands to be the most secure at holding money. Something about the similar colours seems to go well with the money and they all just hold together. It also makes my counting far easier with being able to differentiate the sections. It is also fun to think of the effort that these guys would have had to go through to spend a few dollars on specific blue and green rubber bands. Who does not love making people go through unnecessary trouble. Most of the time you can get people to do anything useless if you make is sound necessary and important enough. This money is then placed in a white envelope. I personally prefer envelops from Office Works but some people find them slightly over priced and no different from regular supermarket style envelopes. But really if you are willing to pay 50K for my… services I’m sure you can splurge a few dollars on extra tough strength white envelopes. There also just that slightly brighter shade of white which I really think makes all the difference. Appearance is everything after all and I really do love the colour white. Well the shade white considering white is not in fact a colours but let’s just not get into that right now. On the front of this white envelope ‘Gabe’ is to be written in plain unjoined hand writing. All through primary school and high school teachers pressured me into joining my hand writing or in their terms ‘cursive’. I knew from an early age that I was not one for nice hand writing and would be much better off spending my time learning to count and not having to write out thousands of line of ‘the fox sat on the box’ always having to remember not to join my b to the o. As the years went by my handwriting did not improve from the illegible scribble cursive writing had mutated it to. It was in early high school I say ‘screw this’ and went back to normal writing. The result was simple clear writing you could UNDERSTAND! From now on I have always insisted in printed script as if still trying to take one more stand against those dumb ass teachers.
3. Now where was I? Oh yes, now the envelope is to be left unsealed but don’t be ignorant and leave the envelope flapping around. Use what amounts of a brain you still have left that hasn’t been drugged, flogged or drunk to death.
4. We will meet where I decide at what time I decide on what day of what month I decide. No decisions will be made to you as I'm a lot more trust worthy than you are. On that note you are to come alone unless stated otherwise. If other life forms are detected (and I mean any life forms) all transactions will be stopped I will leave but I will not ensure your or the other life forms survival.

Is that so much to ask for? I personally don’t think so but the way half my customers act you would think I had asked them to jump off the freaking San Francisco Bridge with concrete tied to their feet wearing nothing but a snorkel. Honestly if you want to do business with me we do it my way; most people really understand I mean that after the third or forth repetition. This particular customer had been fairly quick at picking my rules up I think he had a natural born talent for it. Maybe he could make a nice living out of being about to understand rules quickly. Then again what he was doing now seemed to be making him quite the money anyway; like I always say why stop a good (or bad) thing if its making you a crap load of cash?

Title:	A Moment of Truth
Date:	2008-10-31 @ 22:55
Security:	public
Music:	Panic at the Disco
Mood:	bouncy

Title: A Moment Of Truth
Author: Pour_champagne
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
Characters/Pairings: Bella x Edward, Bella x Jacob
Short summary: One night of drunken pleasure turns into a future disaster as Bella has to face the truth about her actions and the unexpected problem that comes with it. You don’t have to be Alice to know how their going to react to this… delivery.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone in this story... oh how I wish I did though...

I had driven for almost an hour to a random town as far away from Forks as I could. I hadn’t told Edward where I was going out of total embarrassment and had more or less disappeared late afternoon. The entire trip here I half expected to see him and Alice in his Volvo racing after me thinking I was off with the werewolves again. Even though it seemed crazy to just leave I knew if I had gone to a store in Forks and bought my supplies the rumours would spread like wild fire quickly; this was defiantly something I really didn’t need right now to top everything off.

‘The one fault of living in a small town where everyone knows everyone’ I mumbled to myself annoyed as I pulled up to a small chemist that seemed almost deserted.  My body seemed to move on its own through the isles looking up and down the shelves; I grabbed what I came for and went to the counter. The cashier; a girl in her late teens looked me over eye brows raised.

“Whatever” she mumbled to herself scanning the item as I paid blushing silently.

The drive back to Forks was a slow one in my old truck; I was continuously staring down at the plastic bag I had wrapped up tightly laying on the passenger seat, it seemed to be taunting me wordlessly.

Although the trip home felt like forever once I saw the faint lights of the Cullen’s house approach my stomach rolled and I felt another wave of nausea pass through me, the third today.

It wasn’t until then that I realised it was dark, I looked at my watch; it was 10 pm how had I been out so long! As soon as I opened the door Edward ran to me with inhuman grace and speed pulling me into an embrace; I buried my face into his chest inhaling his scent; this seemed to calm my stomach for a moment as my body relaxed a little. He pulled me back a little gently as he studied my weary face.

“Bella what’s wrong? Where have you been, you look terrible!” his face was full of concern, I could he had been distressed the whole time I’d been gone. I tried to act calm and natural twisting my face into what I hoped could pass off as a smile as I steadied my voice.

“Oh I’m fine Edward, stop worrying; I was just out with umm...” I racked my brain for an excuse “with Angela, we were shopping.” I knew how false that sounded but Edward didn’t seem to notice as a small smile formed on his perfect face and before I knew it I was in his arms again. I relaxed a little in his arms resting my weight on him and yawned I suddenly felt completely exhausted.

“What’s in the bag?” he asked casually though I could hear the curiosity in his voice, he wanted to know what had been so important to keep me away so long. As he tried to gently pry it away from the clasped fingers I quickly pulled away from his hands and blushed looking up at him guiltily.

“Oh it’s… just some stuff I picked up today” It wasn’t a lie but I still felt bad for not telling the whole truth.

He pulled me upright again laughing a little and giving me a crooked smile that made my heart melt.

“Ok, now go upstairs and sleep, you look exhausted!” He said pushing me gently towards the stairs, I was glad to have an excuse to go upstairs.

“I guess this is goodnight then” I said weakly turning to get one final look at my prince charming.

“Good night Bella, I love you” The words hung in the air and I was struck by a stabbing sense of again guilt, I ran up the stairs towards the bathroom feeling pathetic.

I had almost made it into the bathroom when I was blocked by Alice. Her pixie features where turned into a concerned frown as she looked up at me, something was on her mind. I sighed internally, almost irritated; I had enough to worry about!

“Bella, your bladder can wait a sec, we need to talk; there’s a bit of a” she struggled to find the right word, “problem.”

 I gulped, how did she know, had she seen me in a vision at the shop? I nodded signalling her to continue gripping the plastic bag tighter.

“Now remember don’t tell Edward because you know how he has a tendency to overreact” I nodded again dumbly, not trusting my voice. After her quick warning she went straight to the point.  

“Well for the past month or so I haven’t been having any visions of you” I looked at her unknowingly holding my breath. “You haven’t been with those dogs again?” she asked suspiciously. I froze in fear trying to think up a new lie, one not far from the truth.

“Umm well I have been seeing a bit of Jacob lately” I managed to rush out my hand trembling slightly.

“The thing is though I can’t even get visions of everyone else if your there with us.” She continued I looked at her shocked. “Its like there werewolves are almost following you somehow,” she sighed shaking her head “I just can’t figure it out. Can you think of anything that could have happened in the last month to block me out?”

My body froze, I was at a loss for words, and did that mean what I thought it did? Oh no, this can not be happening!

“Bella are you ok? Snap outta it.” Alice’s voice was thick with concern as I snapped out of my panicking premonition.

“I’m fine Alice,” my voice held a hint of impatience and worry as my eyes focused behind her to the bathroom. This lie was starting to come easier each time I said it; I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine.

Even if I got to the stage of being able to say it with it sounding false I would know the truth, I wasn’t ok and unless I got away now it would only get worse.

“Ok then Bella, you seem distracted so I’ll talk to you more about this when your more…yourself. Just maybe keep away from those dogs for awhile they always seem to cause trouble when you’re around.”

“It’s too late for that!” I wanted to yell out to her, to tell her what was happening, to have some support but she was already gone by the time I had looked up

I sighed deeply as I locked the bathroom door behind me; the click of the lock was comforting though I knew it would do nothing to stop a vampire from entering. It would however give me the few precious moments of privacy I needed before Edward came searching.

I looked down at the plastic bag with another stab of guilt as I took of the box out of the bag with shaking hands and read the instructions carefully. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath; it was time for the moment of truth.

I sighed in frustration flipping through the last of the costumes on the hanger. This years Halloween was turning out to be one big disaster.

It had all started a few days ago.

“Here Ryan have another!” Brendon called to me over the blaring music passing me a shot. I readily gulped it down feeling the alcohol fizz in my system. We had just performed a big show in Vegas and were out on the town celebrating. The buzz of the crowd was still fresh in my mind and I felt ready for just about anything.

Spencer and Jon came over carrying a handful of shot glasses and sitting between us on the couch in the club.

Jon stood swaying slightly; he looked tipsy, as he passed the shots to each of us.

“A toast; to partying!” He yelled loud enough for us all to hear as we swallowed the burning liquid. It was going to be a crazy night.

***

I woke up the next morning to the light burning my eyes. I tried to sit up but my head felt as if it was being opened with rusty pliers. Falling back down with a groan I tried to remember what had happened. With as little movement as possible I looked around to see where I was. With a deep sigh of relieve I realised I was in the tour bus in my bed still fully clothed from the night before.

The relief was short met as I jumped in surprise when Brendon’s phone began to ring at what sounded ridiculously loud.

‘Urgh!” Brendon mumbled from his bed across from me.

“Phone” I slurred back hiding my head under my pillow trying to block out the incessant ringing.  I heard him fumbled around for a moment and then the click of his phone as the ringing stopped.

“Yeah…?” He mumbled as I peered up at him from under the pillow. He was lying in the tangle of sheets still fully clothed as well. His hair was standing in wild positions messed up from sleeping as staying out partying.

Now as my brain began to wake up I could smell the strong odour of alcohol radiating from us both… how much had we drunk? The bus had been trashed empty bottles of beer and tequila lying scattered around the floor.

Brendon mumbled a few incoherent things into the phone as his sleepy expression was quickly changed to confusion.

“We agreed to what..?” He asked as I waited the person at the other end talking quickly.

“And wrote what…?” He suddenly fumbled around searching in the back pocket of his tight skinny black skinny jeans. Carefully he unfolded a small crumpled piece of paper and read through the messed scrawl that looked scarily similar to my hand writing. I watched Brendon’s face carefully as he read the words in shock horror before returning to the phone conversation.

“You’re kidding me right?” There was a short pause before he hung up annoyed. “Fuck!”

***

Brendon refused to reveal any details until we had all successfully managed to get out of bed and collapse of the couch. This was of course after we had all overdosed on pain killers and Jon had made his morning ‘wake me up’ coffee.

“Okay what the hell is going on?” Spencer asked breaking the momentary silence as we all looked expectantly to Brendon.

He simply laid the crumpled paper on the coffee table for us to read.

Everybody scream
Everybody scream
It's almost Halloween
Do the trick or treat
Do the trick or treat
It's almost Halloween
Everybody scream

I read through what looked like a chorus before looking back to Brendon dazed.

“What this shit?”

“Our new song” he sighed letting his face fall into his hands looking defeated. We all stood frozen waiting for him to continue.

“I just got a call, supposably we thought it would be a great idea to write a Halloween song and then make a music video for it.” He mumbled from his hands “We start filming in a few days you better learn the music.” He sighed tossing a few more pieces of paper at each of us. I studied mine realising it was tabs for the song; by the looks of the hand writing I had even done the honours.

“Cant we get out of this?” I asked panic starting to rise; and not the good sort either. The one that usually ends with ‘at the disco’.

“Nope, I already asked we signed the shit and everything. We’re so fucked.”

 ***

I can’t say we didn’t try. Each one of us each took a shot of calling and getting our sorry asses out of it but there was no luck. The next day when we were all feeling a little more… clear headed an email arrived.

‘See you guys at filming tomorrow. Don’t forget to bring a Halloween costume!’

We stood in silence for a moment reading and re-reading the email before breaking out in a simultaneous:

“Fuck.”

***

And that was how I ended up standing here looking for a costume for a stupid video we were making for a crap song we had written while we were pissed; this was turning into one bad Halloween.

Running my fingers past all the materials again I tried to sort out what to do. Everyone else had the perfect costumes for tomorrow; Brendon was a vampire, Jon was Frankenstein and Spencer was… well I personally thought he looked like an over grown teddy.

I heard the sound of familiar foot steps approach me standing close behind looking over my shoulder.

“Any luck yet Ryan?” Brendon asked his hands flicking through the costumes.

“Nothing” I sighed slumping over a little in defeat. I didn’t turn as Brendon walked around humming as he thought.

“I’ve got it! Let’s view the poll!” He ran and grabbed his laptop running back as we surfed onto the internet.

“There’s a poll?” I asked confused as he clicked here and there loosing me at Google.

“Of course; there’s a blog about it on our myspace and everything. People started a poll of what we should wear. It’s crazy right!” He laughed as we both read through the results. My face lit up as I smiled.

“Perfect”

 ***

Okay so maybe it wasn’t such a crap Halloween as I originally thought. It turned out my luck kept on running as we went over for filming. Maybe I didn’t exactly match the rest of the band in their black and red outfits but these bandages really showed off my ass; I made one hot mummy if that’s even possible.

Now to be honest we may have had a little more to drink before actually playing but that’s only so we didn’t look like total dicks running around in synchronised dance moves. It turned out to be actually kind of… fun…wow who would have thought?

 ***

We finally finished filming as I collapsed on a camping chair bandages and all. I looked up to see a girl standing off a few meters away fully dress as none other than a devil. I laughed at the irony.

There's a devil in the corner
In candy apple red
Dressed up like a fire
Burning through my head