This is a collaboration with with lovely and hysterical Jessica0306. Our storyboard was written on a napkin at a restaurant.

Thanks to Project Team Beta for their Beta Skills Extraordinaire.

The characters belong to S. Meyer. The things we make them do are all us. Please don't copy, steal or try to pass off as your own, kthnx.

The Beginning of the End

I stared at him in complete shock, completely fucking angry at the situation we currently found ourselves in. His actions, his words, and his inability to keep his fucking mouth shut had brought us to this point.

"Don't you dare, Edward. Don't you fucking dare try to blame this all on me. You knew what you were getting yourself into with me. I never hid the type of person I was, what my priorities were, or what I expected from you and our relationship," I screamed.

I was shaking with anger, but I couldn't tell if I was more angry with him or with myself. For the moment, I chose him.

Without even thinking, I continued. "I thought you understood that. But I guess I was wrong, because you are just like everyone else. Wanting me to change, expecting me to change, see and desire what everyone else thinks I need in my life. Well, guess what? I see it. And I still don't fucking want it," I spat.

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, and as soon as I saw the look of hurt on Edward's face, I realized my monumental mistake and I realized that I had been fooling myself for a really long time. The truth was, I was lying. Lying to him, lying to myself, lying to everyone. I wanted it, I wanted him and everything he wanted to give me, but I just couldn't make myself say the words.

Just as quickly as the pain spread across Edward's face, it disappeared.

"You're lying," he said, with a devilish tone to his voice. "Fuck. I can't believe it. You're lying to me right now." He was laughing, almost maniacally, but he continued on his rant. "I know you so fucking well that sometimes even I can't believe it. And you want to know how I know you're lying, Bella? Because when you lie, your ears turn bright fucking red and right now, they are crimson."

Traitorous ears...

The woman in me wanted to run to him, but the stubborn fool in me couldn't let that happen.

"Think what you want, Edward, but the fact remains. I am who I am, and you thinking you can come into my life on your fucking white horse wanting to save me like some knight in shining armor doesn't change anything for me. It doesn't fill me up with all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings. I don't need to be saved."

Another lie.

He stalked towards me, a look of pure determination on his face as he said, "Oh, yes you do, Bella. You desperately need to be saved from yourself and you don't even realize it. God, it's no wonder you've never had a relationship that lasted longer than 10 fucking minutes. It's not because you don't want to, although that's what you have spent your entire life convincing yourself. It's because you can't. You have made yourself so impossible to love that no man in his right mind wants to even attempt to to break the hard exterior you have built up around yourself," he said, his expression softening and showing only the love I knew he held for me.

My will was faltering. How did he do this? How did he manage to make me so angry and then make me crumble at his feet with just one look?

I was about to argue when he stopped me by placing his finger to my lips and said, "But I want to, Bella. I want to be that man for you. Why can't you just make room in your carefully planned out life to allow that? What's the harm in allowing that?"

He was standing in front of me now, his hands cupping my cheeks and his thumbs running in smooth cirlces on my skin. I could feel his hot breath on my face and the trembling of his body as he placed soft, gentle kisses on my eyelids. I felt myself melt into his touch and tears well up in my eyes as my chest constricted and a sob broke through.

The 300 pound elephant in the room was now standing on my feet. Edward was asking me to let him in, to let him love me, to make room in my life for him and the happiness he could bring to it. And as I stood there looking at him, seeing his own unshed tears glistening in his eyes, waiting to spill down his cheeks, I wanted nothing more than to give him what he wanted. My heart was screaming at me to say yes, but my head was telling me that I didn't know how to let him in. All I knew was how to walk away.

Removing myself from his grasp, I took a deep, shaky, breath.

"Edward, I can't. Please understand. I just can't give you what you want, what you need," I pleaded, offering no more of an explanation than that because, the truth was, I had no other explanation. There was nothing stopping me from throwing myself into his arms and giving him the piece of my heart that he so badly wanted, that I so badly wanted him to have. And yet, I just couldn't take that leap.

I turned around and started to head for the door, the sobs working their way through me.

"Bella," he whispered, and I could hear the sadness and despair in his voice. I stopped and made no motion to move, I just waited for him to continue. "If you leave, you're ending what we have, what we could have."

Without even turning to face him, I sighed and said, "I know, Edward."

*****

Sooooo, after reading some amazing stories for the past year and a half, my buddy,Jessica0306, and I decided to get our butts in gear and write one. Welcome to our first fanfic! We are so excited to be doing this and have a lot of things in store for these crazy kids, so stay tuned and enjoy the ride. Oh, oh, oh....and, please review?