BPOV
"You promised! In Phoenix, you promised you would stay-!" "As long as that was best for you," he interrupted me. "NO! This is about my soul, isn't it?" I shouted, furious, the words exploding out of me-somehow it still sounded like a plea. "Carlisle told me about that, I don't care! You can have my soul. I don't want it without you-it's yours already!" He took a deep breath and stared, unseeingly, at the ground for a long minute. His mouth twisted the tiniest bit. When he finally looked up, his eyes were different, harder-like the liquid gold had frozen. "Bella I don't want you to come with me." He spoke the words slowly and deliberately. I felt my heart shudder at the words. I stared into his eyes and saw that he had let go of the love that I felt. "Well…Okay….That's different…" I couldn't go on for fear that I would surely shrivel up and die with pain. His eyes rippled as he saw the hurt advertise itself in my eyes. I looked at him for a minute longer and then stoped all the pain in its tracks. I couldn't dwell on it else I would cease to be. "Everybody else has gone. I thought that it would be better if I said goodbye alone." He said. I heard the doctor at the hospital last spring as he showed me the X-rays. You can see that it's a clean break, his finger traced along the picture of my severed bone. That's good. It will heal more easily, more quickly. The thought hardened my resolve. If he wanted me to heal and move on I would, it would be the last and only thing that I would do for him. "Goodbye Bella," and with those words, he turned and walked into the forest. I wanted to follow him. Every fibre in my being screamed at me to go after him, but I restrained knowing that it would only make it harder for me in the long run. I stayed like that for an immeasurable length of time staring into the forest. I wanted to go inside but my brain was frozen, it only came back to reality when it started raining. I moved my feet towards Charlie's but they moved so slowly I thought it would be an eternity before I would reach the front door. Eventually I got there and went and curled up on the couch and let the tears run.
It was like that, two hours later that Tayla found me. I had voiced my concerns to her about Edward, so when she saw me she immediately realised what had happened at sat down next to me. A garbled sob came out of my throat as I went and curled up at her side. She put her arms around me and let me bawl my eyes out. After about twenty minutes, my tear ducts ran dry and I finally lapsed into silence. I sat up and took several deep breaths to steady my self and smiled wobbly at her. I realised that my tears had soaked a stain right down the front of her shirt. "Oh My God! I am so sorry look at your shirt! I totally ruined it!" I felt bad and she felt exasperated. She sighed angrily at me. "Honestly Bella! I think you come from another planet. How can you be worrying about my clothes when you are obviously in a state of heartbrokenness?" I chuckled once humourlessly. It was a sad sound. I heard Charlie's car pull up into the driveway and I jumped up. "Tays, tell Charlie that you came round for dinner and that I went to have a shower. He can't see me like this!" She nodded quickly and grabbed one of the magazines that were lying on the table, transforming into the essence of cool. I looked around once to see that everything was in order and ran up the stairs to my room to grab a sweater for her to mask the tears. I ran down the stairs threw it at her and ran back upstairs. I only just made it out of sight before the front door opened and Charlie walked in. "Oh, hello Tayla, how are you darl?" I didn't hear the answer because I stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower to make the charade believable. I looked into the mirror and stared at my face. I could see that even Charlie would see that something was wrong. I stripped and stepped into the hot stream. It took me at least twenty minutes before I was calm enough to face Charlie. I turned of the water and wrapped a towel around myself and set myself in front of the mirror to set my face into a friendlier mask. I got dressed and went downstairs to see that Charlie had settled into the couch and was talking to Tayla. I tried to smile and when that failed I just gave up. I went over and hugged dad and went into the kitchen. "What would you like for dinner dad?" I asked over my shoulder. I didn't get an answer immediately so I knew that he was watching the television. I sighed and opened the fridge door and took out what I would need for fried chicken. By the time the chicken was in the pan, Tayla had wondered in and was staring at me in the face ready for if and when I would start crying again. "Tay, don't worry I can hold it in as long as I need to. I'll be okay for about another three hours." She smiled at me and then laughed at my attempt to smile back. I hugged her tight and then went to the stove to turn the chicken over. In ten minutes Charlie, Tayla and I were all sitting at the table chatting and eating dinner when Charlie made a really bad move and asked a REALLY bad question. "So Bella, where is Edward tonight? You too haven't been joined at the hip as much as you used to lately." I felt the nausea rise in my throat and the tears build up in my eyes. "He's gone on a trip with his family dad." I said, or rather, tried to say, but it came out all strangled. I couldn't stand being there any longer for fear the tears would betray me so I got up from the table and ran out of the room and up the stairs. I heard Tayla apologise and walk up after me. I dropped down on my bed and the tears spilled over. Tayla sat next to me and let me ruin her shirt even more. The tears kept coming and coming so much that I thought that they would never stop but Tay stayed with me the whole time rubbing my shoulder and letting me get it all out. She was a real friend.