Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it..

Prologue of sorts:

All I know is that it wasn't easy falling in love with Embry Call, and much to the dismay of my friends it was not by any means love at first sight either. Sure Embry was a sweet boy and all, but I was determined to find me a man. Someone whose arms I would feel protected in, someone who was remarkably mature and chivalrous, and of course, my man needed to be outstandingly good at kissing. I mean I wanted to experience the kind of kiss that makes your toes curl and your breath shorten. I wanted romance to ooze out of this fantasy relationship. But you see, while I was looking for all of these things, I was too distracted to notice that I had had him all along.

A/N: I will be continuing this story for sure but not for at least a week seeing as I have some massive studying to do for my midterms so please review and if there are at least 10 by the time I get back, I will happily continue.

Chapter 1-In which it was only the beginning

Holly's POV:

"Holly, cut it out!" Embry begged between gasps of laughter as I plunged my fingers into his sides. His wildly long legs flailed around as he desperately tried to get out of my reach, but I was too quick for him, I already had him helplessly pinned to the ground.

"Say it!" I squealed back at him triumphantly grinning at my sheer moment of brilliance. For it was a common known fact that everyone knew Embry was hopelessly ticklish.

"All right, all right, okay!…you win! You win!" By now he was laughing hysterically and he sounded very much like a little girl, when in fact he was actually going on 16. He was 2 weeks older than me, and he never let me forget it. We had grown up together so he never missed a chance to say stupid remarks like "respect your elders" and others along the same lines. Though in my opinion he was the one that acted more like a baby.

"Embry you're such a pushover." I scoffed as I playfully shoved his limp body as he tried to catch his breath and recover from his little episode. He just ran a hand through the wispy, black hair that hung in his eyes and rolled his eyes at me condescendingly.

"You know one of these days someone is really just going to come out of nowhere and take full advantage of you and you're going to let them." I stated matter-of-factly as I plopped down on the floor of his living room in a spread eagle position.

"Oh like you haven't done that yourself or anything." He mumbled then smirked down at me. I just closed my eyes and started to hum a tuneless song to myself, choosing not to respond. He could win this one if he wanted to. I could feel his fingers winding in my blonde ringlets as he spun some of the loose curls around his index finger. I didn't open my eyes until he made one of his random exclamations. In long moments of silence he tended to come up with completely random but sometimes mildly interesting things to say.

"You have freckles." He said in astonishment. I opened my eyes to see him lifting his eyebrows in curiosity and tilting his head to the side. I only got freckles in the summer and to be completely honest I absolutely detested them. They always made me look younger than I really was and on top of that I had always been an extremely tiny person so the freckles on my nose and shoulders didn't make it any better. I was already scowling at this fact when his previously occupied index finger went out to touch a dot on my nose. Which I scrunched up and I grimaced in return.

"Since when do you have permission to touch my face?"

"Didn't know I had to ask." He shrugged his shoulders and smiled nonchalantly.

"You're impeccably rude you know that?" I said lifting myself up on my elbows to better glare at him.

"I'm sorry, I forgot girls don't like being reminded that they have freckles." He mocked me lifting his hands in the air as if to surrender. He really could be a real smart-mouth sometimes that Embry. I still remember the day I made him cry cause I dropped that crazy bear of his in the ocean when we were 6. He kept telling me I was doing it on purpose, that I was trying to drown Howie. I remember saying "Gosh Embry it's just a stupid bear. Plus no one ever misses anything that's ever lost in the ocean." So of course in his little fit of tears he spat something at me that only a true smart-mouth would say in return to that. "Maybe you should go for a swim sometime."

I believed I tackled him after that, even though we both knew he didn't mean it. He would never say something like that and mean it. Embry was just far too nice to say that. He was the kind of guy everyone's mom always begged them to bring home. He was sweet, charming, funny and good-natured. Only problem was he was way too shy for his own good.

"Hey remember Waif?" I asked smirking a bit at the odd memory of Embry's first girl infatuation. Her name wasn't really Waif but I always called her that cause she was always so tall and skinny. And bland, like a wafer cookie. Also her last name was Leif, so it was just pure fun to call her Waif Leif.

"Yeah…Ana." He stared dejectedly at his hands for a moment as the blush crept up his neck to tinge his cheeks a faint pink. He'd always had tanner skin so you couldn't really tell much if he was blushing, but he actually did a lot of it. I could tell cause I was always around him seeing as he was my best friend and all.

The reason he was blushing is a pretty funny story. It started out when he was starting to like this girl a lot and since she was in our homeroom class I persuaded him to talk to her. He was scared, naturally. So scared in fact, that he was shaking and stuttering and all that. If you ask him of course, he's never actually admit to it but trust me, I was there. Anyways he was so embarrassed by the time he got up to her, he was so worked up that all he got out was a small "Hi" before he threw up on her. She screamed this shrill screech and started paling drastically with this increasingly disgusted look on her face. Making a scene, but who wouldn't with Embry's pancake breakfast all over their hair and cashmere sweater. All the while I'm the only one in the room that isn't staring in shock, but cackling like mad, holding my stomach and everything. And I'm not even exaggerating, after that he turned so red he ran out of the room and didn't come back to school for at least four days. He insisted that it was the flu, but I knew the real reason. She still won't look at him without turning pale. He can't look at her either, he told me every time he does he gets nauseous.

"You need to learn how to pick up girls" I said grinning widely and shaking my head back and forth slowly. I doubt he ever could, not unless he tried very hard anyway. He's not the smoothest guy in the world, but I could bet you anything he'd sweep you right off your feet if he really wanted too. I think Embry's got many hidden talents. And I have this theory about him…

"Teach me." He begged exasperatedly and chuckled some at the sound of his desperation, pulling me out of my reverie.

"Sure thing. First off you have to get rid of some of that ridiculous hair," and as I said this his hands lurched up to clutch at his hair and he stared up at me with an absolutely horrified expression. I just put my hand down to pull him up too since I was already standing. I was thinking about a walk along First Beach, it was always so calming in the summertime when the sun was going down.

"It's covers up your pretty eyes too much don't you think?"

"I have pretty eyes?" He questioned looking happily surprised as he attested himself in the mirror hanging by the front door.

"Sure you do." I laughed and simply patted him on the shoulder. Embry was never one of those kind of guys who received compliments like crazy, nor would he ever let the few he got go to his head. He was an extremely humble person.

"Let's go to the beach, and I'll explain some more of the basics."

"Alright let's go, wait…you weren't really serious about my hair were you?"

I just laughed again and took hold of his hand pulling him out the door. He always took things way too seriously. So sometimes he'd never pick up on the fact that I'm just poking fun at him. Sure it would come to him later and he'd get me back for it eventually I suppose. But he usually trusted that whatever I said was more or less the truth.

Embry and I were best friends, we were complete opposites but after growing up together how could we not be best friends. I mean, I'm not too much of a sap, but I really liked the idea that we'd always be there for each other you know? Like no matter what happened my good old Embry would back me up. I thought we'd be friends forever. I think we even made a pact when we were kids that we would.

It was the night I crawled through his window on one of the many rainy summer nights that year and jabbed him with my finger till he woke up while whispering his name over and over again. Embry was a really heavy sleeper usually so he just hugged his pillow tighter and stayed in his fetal position. When I eventually got him up I remember saying that we should promise to stay friends. I had been worried cause he was going on a cruise with his family the next morning and at 10 I honestly thought he'd ditch me and find a new friend while he was there. So I made him prick his palm with the small sewing needle I stole from my mom and I did the same. It was the sort of pact that I had seen on TV. It made sense to me too. If we held hands and mixed our blood together it would strengthen the promise.

At least, that's what I thought before what happened anyway. Before he left for good a little over a year ago. He never called me back, and I was never allowed to see him. Not that I even wanted to anymore, that was a long time ago. Nothing that good could have lasted so long anyway, something was bound to come and mess it up. So I didn't even bother questioning why he said what he did when he told me he didn't want to see me ever again. I just took it… nodding and walking away.

Embry's POV:

I hadn't seen her in what felt like over a decade, when in all actuality it was just about 2 years ago. I lay on my bed holding my head and staring at the ceiling as everything quickly came back to me like a gigantic wave rushing in during high tide covering up every other thought in my head. All I could see was her expression when I told her. It was like a terrible horror movie playing pictures in my head over and over again, never letting me forget. She just stared at me emotionlessly as my fists balled up in anger at her passiveness.

"Holly I just can't ok?! I can't be friends with you anymore." I all but shouted at her, I was glaring down with my eyes averted to the ground so I wouldn't have to watch the play of emotions on her face as she replied.

"I don't understand." She stated softly and smoothly. This reaction was not what I expected so my eyes shot up to meet hers. She didn't look sad or rejected. Not even lonely, it was as if it was all just a void. Her green eyes were sparkling and her delicate blonde waves flew like a halo around her head. How could she just stare at me? After everything, after knowing me for every day of her life how could she just take this? I started to feel the heat crawl up my back and my hands start to shake. I closed my hands into fists quickly so that she wouldn't see how much this was all hurting me. And so that there would be no chance that I could hurt her, no matter how much I wanted her to cry for me, to beg me to stay with her.

"I don't want to see you ever again." I said boldly and as calmly as I could. I wanted to be brave and strong but everything inside of me was falling apart and I felt like I couldn't breath anymore. It was as if the smallest hope I had had that she would miss me, even if just a little, vanished before my eyes as she just nodded acceptingly and turned around, walking away. There was nothing left, she truly was gone. And the fact was, that I would miss her. She had been everything I had ever known for so long that I couldn't even imagine my life without her. And now as the distance between us grew and my ears rang with the desolate silence of being alone, I knew that I would never see her again.

I had had countless nightmares about this for a while but lately they had been fading away. I had been slowly forgetting about her, that is until I saw her today. For the most part I would never cross paths with Holly at all because she lived on the entirely opposite end of the reservation and none of us really went out that far into the outskirts. Even when we were all patrolling we didn't go anywhere remotely close to where her house was. It was pretty much as if she could have never existed and the world could have kept on turning. But today it was as if she was why the world was turning. Seeing her for the first time in over a year jolted me so much I think my body actually swayed. It was as if the breath was knocked out of me from shock, and I consider myself beyond lucky that I had been alone just then. If any of the guys had seen this they would have never let me live it down.

She was swinging a very small girl with ringlets like her own by her wrists in the shallow part of the ocean. The little girl squealed and giggled as her knees grazed the low tide ripples while Holly grinned a mile a minute. Her hair was much longer than it had been but it still flew around, framing her face like a halo and her eyes still sparkled the same when she smiled. She was wearing a red poke-a-dot bikini with a see through, long sleeved dress shirt over it, that was way too big for her. I couldn't see the freckles on her nose from where I was standing but I knew they were there and I could picture them clearly. She was outstandingly beautiful, and from the looks of it, very comfortable with who she was, and where her life was going. But above all of that, she was happy. The radiant glow of her smile made that much obvious. She had never needed me, it was I that needed her. I wondered if she even ever thought of me on occasion. If she remembered, if she wanted to. So many questions were dripping from my tongue they felt like acid, eating away at me, desperately begging to be asked. Only I couldn't make myself step forward. I was as if a part of me was telling me not to ruin anything for her. That by going up to her wouldn't change anything, I still couldn't be her friend anymore, not after what I had become. So instead of battling it out some more with my two warring point's of view. I turned around and sprinted in the direction of my house. I couldn't believe the whirlwind of emotions that she had caused to explode within me. I had missed her a lot more than I thought was ever possible that I didn't even know I how I had made it this far without her.

I lifted myself up into a sitting position on my bed and dug my fingernails into my comforter and squeezed my eyes shut, hard. I didn't want to hurt her again, and if I were forced to leave her again than I don't know how I could take that. But I had to see her again. It was as if ever cell in my body was being drawn to her, like magnets. I missed her so much it was starting to make my stomach ache. So selfishly I shoved myself off the bed and broke out into a run back to the beach so that I wouldn't have much time to change my mind when I got there. First beach was where I actually met her for the first time, so it was slightly ironic going back there to meet her all over again.

The sun was really hot that day and I remember staring at my toes angrily trying to pick the sand off of them. I hated the rough feeling of sticky, dry sand and it was really starting to annoy me. Not to mention the fact that my mom was also doing a fair job of putting countless layers of sunscreen all over me, which only spread the sand to not just my feet, but all over my body. I mostly hid under the umbrella that day. At 4 I was beginning the stage where you want to defy everything your parents tell you to do and try to be your own individual person even though you and your parents know that's an impossible feat.

I scowled as my mother's high school friend pulled out the camcorder that was permanently soldered to her right hand and zoomed in on my face.

"Hiya honey, why don't you go play with my Holly over there while I talk to your mommy, would that be alright?"

No, of course it's not, I remember thinking but I got up anyway and walked over to the tiny little girl with blonde curls and lots of multi-colored scrunchies and bows in them. She was sitting in the wet sand with her clean feet wiggling waiting for the tide to come up and surround her before retreating back again. She didn't even look at me when I sat down next to her, she just said, "The water's cold today."

I nodded and watched her toes wiggle some more. They were clean while mine were covered in sunscreen coated sand. When I looked back at her she was smiling and wrinkling her nose at me. I remember waiting for a few minutes for her to explain herself only she still didn't say anything.

"What?" I finally sighed as the water lapped up at our feet.

"You smell like vanilla."

"Sun lotion." I corrected her, while I cocked my head to the side and stared at her with a doubting expression. I didn't know much then but I did know that sun tan lotion was not vanilla scented.

"Yeah and vanilla." She said back matter-of-factly. I just shook my head and looked back at the water happily as it cleaned all the excess sand off my feet. I didn't realize it then, but later I remembered that I had eaten a vanilla ice-cream cone about two hours before I went to the beach. I had washed the melted ice-cream off my hands so I didn't even think about it. But she still smelt it and I still to this day find that kind of remarkable for just a little girl to be able to distinguish.

But she had always been a very remarkable person. I knew that the second I saw her today, that I wouldn't be able to stop myself even if I wanted to. Sam didn't know, nobody knew about Holly. Maybe Jake and possibly Quil. But knowing Quil he had probably forgotten her just like I almost had. And if Jacob remembered her, he knew enough not to mention her to me. So no one knew that I was within a few feet of my prior best friend. The only other one besides my mother and my brothers that had ever looked after me and cared for me.

But when I got back to where she was before I didn't see her. I could feel my shoulders drop and my chest heave dramatically. I had run so fast to catch up with time and fix things with her that I hadn't even realized that it was almost dark. I kicked a stone angrily and trudged closer to the water before plopping down in the sand. I don't know how long I planned to stay out there, but I wasn't ready just yet to go back to the guys. I had to be in a better mind frame or they would know something was up. I picked up a random stick and began drawing lines in the sand with it with my back curved into a perfect C. I'm not really sure what I had been expecting. Even if she had been here what could I have said to make things better? It was a rather stupid idea to come down here hoping like I did. I always knew that here would be no going back on what I said as I watched her retreating figure walk away from me for good. I lied…but I lied with reason. And it was only to protect her. I chastised myself for even coming her to wait for her. I had promised her that I didn't want to see her again and by coming back it would only hurt her more. But as soon as this thought came to mind, the defiance started to take form in my head I got up from the sand feeling like I could go home again.

"Embry Call."

My breath caught in my throat and my back went rigid. I spun on the balls of my feet quickly only to find the sparkling green eyes of my former best friend staring back at me. She had a sort of crooked smile and her hands her clasped together lightly hanging loosely in front of her slim figure.

"Long time no see." I choked out weakly.

She just shrugged one of her shoulders in reply. And her smile widened.

A/N: Please please review, if I get more than 10 by next week I'll continue my story, constuctive critisism would be nice as would any suggestions you would like to make. Thank you thank you.