and what's the future
It's been five years, and Bella is happy. She is married to the man she loves, and she is happy. And if she sometimes stares off into space and think of heat and warm arms surrounding her, well, no one is completely immune to passing regrets.
xxx
It's been fifteen years, and Bella is content. Sometimes the nights seem to stretch on forever, and she misses sleep. But she did it for love, she did it for love, and she tells herself she isn't just telling herself that to make it true.
xxx
It's been fifty years, and Bella is cold. She puts on sweater after sweater, bulky ones and pretty cashmere ones that Alice bought her, but it doesn't help.
xxx
It's been a hundred and fifty years, and she realizes now that she never knew eternity could be so long. She never realized it hurt so much to mourn without tears, either.
who will choose it
Jacob changes for fifty years, but the rest of the pack has long since stopped, and he realizes it's time to give up. It's a losing battle he already lost, one he never even had a chance of winning, and he isn't going to wait for something that will never come. She took so much of his heart already, and he won't let her take the rest of his life as well.
And to tell the truth, the memory of her human face has faded, and he no longer knows if the girl he loves exists anymore, or if she's gone forever.
Jacob knows he will never imprint, and he doesn't mind. He's fallen in love once, and look at how well that turned out. It's probably best if he doesn't try again, he thinks.
Title, headers, and summary are from the song Are You Out There by Dar Williams.