Oneshot, ficlet. New Moon during the month chapters following Edward's departure. Events leading up to it are however not the same. Characters are Stephenie Meyer's possessions, I just wrote the words…

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Separation.

Separation was easy? Or was it hard?

Bella shook her head and stared at her ceiling. This was the latest night in a month of insomnia that she had lain awake and done this. Tried to rationalise the way she was feeling, trying to rationalise her relationship with Edward. Something that in itself was not rational.

A girl and her vampire. Ridiculous.

Was it really possible to love a vampire in the same way you loved another human? The answer to this question Bella didn't know. She'd never felt this way about anyone else. And yet…

Edward wants me to try.

She thought back to Sunday night, she'd just got out of a warm shower and was reading while she waited for Edward to return, he'd been away hunting all weekend with Emmett and Jasper, but had promised he would come and see her as soon as he got back. She was reading when she heard Charlie go to bed, she was reading when her bedside clock turned 0:00.

Midnight. Reading Romeo and Juliet while waiting for a vampire.

Romeo and Juliet. Bella laughed to herself as she realised the cliché, 'we are so much more than star-crossed' she said to the ceiling. It didn't reply.

"I don't want you to need me. I don't want you to wonder what your life could have been without me. Go out there and live it. I won't be in your way…I'm leaving" She'd heard the words, yet not believed them. She still didn't, she kept waiting for the pain, for her heart to break and…nothing. She was numb to the words. Numb to those feelings she wished would come, anything to end the nothingness she was experiencing.

She thought back to a time before the reality of vampires, before she knew Edward. How romantic they had seemed to her then, frightening of course but it was a thrilling fear all the same. Now she knew the truth, they were still romantic and at times Edward frightened her, never on purpose of course, but the thrill was gone.

Or is it? Isn't that just what he wants me to think? So he can 'free' me from being 'bound' to me, as he put it?

It wasn't rational, being in love with a vampire. Bella knew this, she knew how dangerous it was, she'd been lectured by Edward enough on that subject. Bella felt that being with Edward was the only sensible option, yet he had been the one to turn away.

Bella closed her eyes and held her breath. But just for a moment. She exhaled and opened her eyes. The ceiling was unchanged. She was unchanged.

"Change is hard," she thought "separation is easy."

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First shot at a Twilight fic, inspired by separation but didn't come out exactly as planned. Please review!