December thirtieth. That night will forever live in my mind.

I'd been single for a while, you see, as my last serious boyfriend hadn't been since April of that year. Edward and I had met online, on a social/dating website where you could meet people from your local area. He lived a few hours away, but we talked every day, and we slowly fell in love. One night, he told me he was joining the Marines and was leaving before Christmas. I wanted to see him before he left, so he came to see me that weekend, and we spent the whole day together. When he left, I cried like a baby. I wrote letters to him every day. But it didn't last.

I had a breakdown basically; I couldn't stand not seeing him. I went into a full blown panic, and I sent him a break up letter, tears splattering the page. I felt horrible. But when he came home, he came to see me, and we rekindled. But again, it didn't last. We were on and off for months, and finally, we just called it quits.

I was lonely for a long time after that. I had deleted my profile when I started dating Edward, but I decided to remake it. I'd had it probably since around October, maybe a little earlier, when around Christmas, this guy Jacob messaged me. He lived the next town over from me, and we started talking. I gave him my number, and we texted a couple times. One night, I was bored out of my mind, and decided to ask Jacob to hang out. He agreed, as I could already tell this guy had a massive crush on me. I drove to his town and met up with him at the church by the high school, since he apparently lived right by it. It was dark, but I could see the light of his cell phone as he approached my car. He opened the door and climbed in, and I swear my heart stopped.

Sitting next to me was the most gorgeous, amazing guy I'd ever seen. I looked into his eyes, and I felt like my whole world lifted away, and we were the only two people here. I quickly gathered myself and smiled, giving him a one armed hug. We decided to go walk around in downtown Port Angeles, since it was the night before New Year's Eve. We walked and talked for hours. I felt like I'd known him my whole life. Before he left that night, I asked him if he wanted to come over tomorrow to celebrate New Year's with me and my Dad, which he happily agreed to. He gave me a kiss, and I felt a million fireworks go off in my head.

The next morning, I asked Dad if Jacob could come, which he agreed to. I picked Jacob up at his house around six, then we picked up the pizza on the way home my dad had ordered. As we came inside, my dad was already on the couch watching TV. I announced our presence, and he got up to shake Jacob's hand. They seemed to get along instantly, and for the rest of the night, we all ate pizza and watched the New Year's Eve special on TV. When the ball dropped, Dad hugged me, shook Jacob's hand, then announced in a half hearted voice that he was going to bed. As soon as he was out of the room, Jacob kissed me sweetly. Then, as he pulled away, he whispered to me

"So does this mean you're my girlfriend now?" I laughed and nodded, and he smiled the biggest smile I've ever seen.

We went through a lot in the first few months. One night, while Jacob and his dad were over playing cards with me and my Dad, my mom called, and the second I answered, she started crying. I asked, panicked, what was wrong, and her words made my heart drop.

"The cancer's back." After talking about where it was and what was going to happen, I hung up and then burst into tears. Jacob was immediately by my side, holding me and rubbing my back.

"It'll be okay, Bells," he whispered soothingly. That was just mid-January. By the beginning of April, Mom was in the hospital on a breathing tube, in a medically induced coma. And by mid-April, she was gone. I remember running out of her room and down the hallway, and the second I went through the double doors, I saw Jacob, and cried hysterically.

"She's gone!" I cried, flinging myself into his arms and heaving on his chest. "She's go-o-one!" Jacob was silent, just rubbing my back and holding me, but I could feel how tense he was. For the next couple nights, Dad let Jacob stay, and when I woke up crying, Jacob would come into my room and hold me, calming me down until I fell back asleep. He really was the best thing that had ever happened to me.

No matter how many times I doubted myself, no matter how many times I thought all hope was lost, Jacob was there for me. And I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him the minute I saw him. I asked mom if she approved of Jacob, since she had met him a few times before she died, and she did. When I asked her if it was okay with her if I married him, she seemed surprised, which is why I guess she wanted to think about it. But I think she approved over all, knowing her.

By my birthday, Jacob had proposed to me. A lot of people thought we were too young, that I was probably "knocked up" and that was the only reason we were getting married. But we both knew we loved each other and it was only a matter of time. We got married in a small ceremony in a garden that one of Dad's friends owned. Jacob cried when I walked down the aisle, and seeing him cry made me cry. But I knew we were both happy that we were finally about to become husband and wife.

After our wedding, we moved into a little house in Jacob's town, not too far from his Dad's place. We had gotten most of our furniture from family and friends who had spare stuff lying around. And by the time the year of my mom's death rolled around, we were expecting a baby. We soon found out it was a girl, and I knew I wanted to name her after my mom in a way. So when that day came, a cold, January morning, and they placed my little girl in my arms, and the nurse asked me what her name was, Jacob looked down at us, smiling, and said

"Abigail Renee Black."