Summary: Bella reacts differently from the kiss at the end of the second chapter of New Moon.

AN: So this idea struck me when I was reading New Moon for like the fortieth time because I always get really angry at Bella's reaction at the end of chapter 2 and beginning of chapter 3. So this starts off at the end of chapter 2 of New Moon and goes on its own path from there. So far this is all that I have written, but I wanted to see if there was any interest out there. So please read and review and let me know what you think! Thanks.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. This was written for purely entertainment value (and we shall see if it even has that…)

Chapter 1

That kiss was too good. He pushed himself too far. Farther than he normally would. Something was wrong.

I'm lying awake in Edward's cold hard arms thinking about the kiss we just shared. It isn't sitting right with me. Don't get me wrong, it was great. Better than great; spectacular. But it wasn't right. He never, and I mean NEVER pushes himself that far with me. Something is wrong.

I can't sleep and I'm almost positive Edward knows that I'm awake. He has told me before that he can tell when I fall asleep. Something about my breathing and my heart beat staying even no matter how close he gets to me. I pretend to be mad when he tells me that he does experiments with me to see what he can get my heart to do. Really though, I find it endearing.

But the kiss. It was wrong. Edward is staying as still as ever while I try to comprehend the meaning behind the kiss that he just gave me. The best kiss of my life. It started out normally, with my heart racing. And that seemed to spur him on to increase the intensity of the kiss. He allowed me to get much closer to him than I ever had before. It was amazing.

And then I realized.

I'm sure the sudden jolt that went through my body as the realization hit me did not go unnoticed by Edward. However, he didn't say or do anything in response. He continued to lay next to me, motionless as ever, while my heart pounded away and I began nearly hyperventilating.

I attempted to spring from his iron grasp but all I achieved was a greater stinging to my injured arm as I pushed against his torso. He wasn't paying attention to me. He was far away from this moment. Had he been focused on me and not preoccupied with his thoughts he would have noticed the signs that I was no longer attempting to sleep. Now I was panicked, all because of a stupid kiss.

The jolt to my arm made me scream out in pain. That seemed to bring him back to the moment.

"Bella?" He questioned, because he didn't know what had caused the scream.

"What's wrong?" He questioned again because the only response he'd received after the first was my continued struggling against his arms. I'm not sure why, but my realization came with the sudden need to assert myself, and that couldn't be done while cuddling against him.

"Let go of me!" I nearly screeched as my frustration built from being trapped in his embrace. After hearing the panic in my voice he immediately realized that I was trying to escape his arms, while he had unknowingly held me tighter with his vampire strength.

As soon as I was free I sprang from the bed and was across the room within seconds. I leaned against my bedroom door and looked up at the bed to see his confused expression at my sudden panic.

We continued staring at one another for longer as my heart continued to pound away. "Bella, what is the matter?"

"You bastard!" I meant for the accusation to come out as a yell that could have intimidated a vampire. However, because my chest was still heaving, it came out as a pathetic cry.

Edward looked extremely hurt the second the words had crossed my lips, but that did not stop the anger and the frustration that I felt towards him. His brow furrowed and he looked incredibly sexy as he sat on the edge of my bed, ready to reach out to me at the first sign that such an action would be acceptable.

"I can't believe you." I said, once my breathing was under more control. I probably had tears in my eyes as I made the statement. "You are going to leave me over this, aren't you?" I didn't mean for there to be a question attached to that. But, for some reason, my mouth was in cahoots with my heart, not my mind.

"Bella." Edward dropped his eyes from mine and began studying the rug that was beside my bed. The tone he'd used was one of repentance and sadness.

"That was a goodbye kiss Edward! Wasn't it? That was the exact same kiss you gave me right before I left for Phoenix last spring! That was when you thought you would never see me again. You just gave me a goddamn goodbye kiss!" I was outraged, and I was ranting. It seemed as though saying the words aloud had given my whole idea that much more real.

As I ended my statement with a screech I briefly wondered if Charlie could hear our conversation. But, with the silence that followed I could hear his loud snores coming from the living room where he had fallen asleep on the sofa.

"Bella, it isn't safe for you. Tonight simply proved that fact." His voice was calm; I didn't like the look that was in his eyes. He looked defeated. This was no longer my Edward; he didn't look at me in the same way. His eyes looked cold and hard, like actual pieces of gold, which contrasted greatly with the warm honey that I was used to seeing.

"Edward," For some reason saying his name to the person sitting before me was difficult, the word caught in my throat. This wasn't my Edward sitting in front of me. My Edward would never have admitted so easily that he was giving up on us. "You saved me tonight, that is what happened at the party. I was perfectly safe; I never worried for a moment. Jasper may not have his blood lust under the best control, but we all know that none of you would have let anything happen. You, Carlisle, Alice, Emmett and Esme did not, and would never have let Jasper do anything to me. Hell, even Rosalie protected me tonight, and we both know that Rosalie hates me." Again, I was rambling, but this situation was far beyond my comprehension at the moment. The fact that he doubted himself and his family was incredibly unsettling.

"That isn't the point. You shouldn't have to be protected from my brother, or any other member of my family. If we were a normal human family, all I would have to worry about is my brother hitting on you, not killing you." Edward's eyes reached mine again as he was speaking and I began to see the smallest spark of a fire starting once again in the depths of his eyes. Some relief washed through me, but panic was still touching nearly every one of my nerves.

He was starting to get irritated with me, at the fact that I never shied away from him or his family. This was a fact that had always exasperated him. I'd known that since the beginning.

"Are we back to that? I thought the fact that you were a vampire was settled last spring. You said that you would never leave me!" I'm sure my face was now contorted in anger and pain, but I didn't pause long enough to care about that. "There is an easy way to fix this problem; you won't ever have to be concerned about any of your family members killing me again."

He scoffed as soon as he saw where my statement was going. "Bella, I will not take away your soul! I cannot kill you for my own selfish reasons. You have a life, a family and I can't be responsible for taking you from them." He was no longer seated on my bed. As his voice grew louder, he stood up so that we could be eye to eye for this argument. "Why can't you be afraid of us like everyone else? Why do you keep putting yourself in situations where you are likely to get hurt?" Although I could see the anger growing in his glare, his tone was one of desperation.

"Because Edward, I love you." I was beyond frustrated that this fact was not obvious to him. Why did he have to ask those questions? He already knew the answer. I'd declared my love for him out loud numerous times.

"I'm no good for you Bella, and neither is my family. All we can manage to do is put you in danger."

"Oh my God! Would you stop being so damn pessimistic?" I yelled. Actually yelled, for the first time tonight by mind and mouth seemed to be on the same page and I actually achieved the volume I was going for. "Who cares if you have put me in danger in the past? I survived. And the pain I went through was nothing compared to what I would have been faced with had I not had you in my life."

"Bella, you are human. Time forces you to move on from certain events. You will be able to get over me easily and move on to live a normal human life." Again with the desperate tone. He was killing me with that. Angry and desperate all at the same time. I think he was desperate for me to talk him out of the decision that he had already made, he didn't want to leave me, but from his point of view, that was the only option he had.

"Fine." I'm sure the tears that had been welling in my eyes since the realization hit me were now streaming down my cheeks in full force. The look of surprise on his face clearly said that he had not expected me to give up that easily. Little did he know…

"Do you remember what you told me this afternoon? While we were watching Romeo and Juliet?" My question stumped him, but only for a second as he quickly realized where I was going with the question.

He didn't speak. He simply nodded his head to indicate that he clearly remembered our conversation that had taken place while watching the movie. "What makes you think that I can live without you? What makes you think that I would even want to?"

A look of sadness crossed his features. Maybe he hadn't expected me to go THERE. "Bella." That was all he said.

Was that supposed to be an answer? I studied his face for a few long moments, our eyes were connected, but it didn't seem like he was going to add anything to that statement. I had nothing else to add to our conversation until I received an answer so I simply gazed back into his eyes, crossed my arms and leaned back against the wall to show that I was still waiting.

"You don't need me as much as you think you do." It had taken him several long minutes to come up with those gems of words as he stared at me.

I rolled my eyes. I should have known that he would come up with something like that. "You can't read my thoughts Edward Cullen. You have no idea how entirely I need you!" My scoff was apparently not what he had wanted to hear, but I couldn't care less. "If you don't want me then that's fine."

I honestly don't know what possessed me to say that. It clearly was NOT fine. He would have to be a fool to believe that. He stepped towards me for the first time since our argument began. I must have lost some of the anger behind my words because as he came towards me I noticed that the spark that had ignited earlier in his eyes had now turned to a small ember.

Well, at least that was better than nothing.

"Trust me Bella, my want for you is not this issue here." He was now nearly two feet away from me. The tone that he had just used indicated that he wanted to reach out and wipe the tears off my cheek but he knew that it would be an inappropriate move for the situation.

"Yes it is! You are the one leaving me!" I took a shaky breath, "You are the one that is ending this!" Again I took another heaving breath. "Well fine Edward, we can do this your way. I don't want to have to convince the man I love to stay with me. So you can get the hell away from me now." I turned my back to him and walked out of my bedroom. I didn't even have the courage to look back at his face.

Mostly, I didn't want to see the expression on his face. I wanted to imagine that he was sad about our relationship ending. I didn't want to know if he looked happy or relieved. I just wanted to believe that he was going to be depressed. Just like me.

I hadn't slammed the door when I walked out of my room, I wasn't sobbing as I trudged down the stairs. Silent tears were streaming down my cheeks as I hit the end of the stairs and saw Charlie's still sleeping form on the sofa.

How had he not woken up through that argument?

It was then that I realized that I may not have spoken with the same about of indignation and anger that I thought I had. Damn.

I tip-toed into the kitchen, there was no reason to wake him up now and have him ask questions about why I was crying. I pulled out a couple of cookies that I had baked a few days ago, poured myself a glass of milk and sat down at the kitchen table. I stared at nothing as I munched on my cookies and sipped my milk.

Somehow, this seemed like the perfect situation for milk and cookies.

I didn't know where this was going to lead, what was going to happen now?

Would the Cullen's leave altogether? If not, would Edward and Alice continue to go to school in Forks? Would I still be tortured with seeing him every day?

The house phone rang suddenly which broke my thoughts immediately. I glanced at the clock as I moved to answer the phone quickly so it wouldn't wake Charlie. It was after midnight, who would be calling?

Please let me know what you think!

Thanks -MaryKate