This story takes place after Edward left Bella in New Moon. She is attending the University of Washington. All other details will reveal themselves in time, so just be patient.

Chapter 1

Bella touched the delicate skin under her eye with her index finger. It had already begun to darken. She sighed inaudibly as she pulled a well-used jar of concealer from her bathroom drawer and began to apply it to her bruised face. She had barely finished the process when she heard a light knock on the door.

"Bella? Are you almost done? I slept in on accident and have class in fifteen minutes," the voice said gently.

"Yeah Liz, sorry. I'll be done in a minute," Bella answered , and finished applying the rest of her makeup quickly. A fully made up face had become necessary in the previous few months. She opened the door less than a minute later, and came face to face with her roommate. "It's all yours," she said.

"Will you wait for me?"Liz asked as she walked into the bathroom. Their ten o'clock class that morning was the only one they had together, and Liz had desperately tried to use it to get closer to Bella.

"Sure," was all Bella said, walking into her bedroom to grab her backpack. She waited a few more minutes before the bathroom door opened and her roommate walked out.

"Okay, I'm ready. Let's go." Bella got up from where she sat and they left the dorm room silently. After a few moments, Liz finally spoke.

"You know, Bella, that guy from our class has asked about you. Maybe you should talk to him; he seems like a really sweet guy," she said, trying to initiate, once again, another futile conversation regarding Bella's dating life.

"Thanks for thinking about me Liz, but you know I have a boyfriend," Bella answered politely. She hoped desperately that Liz would drop it, but knew it wouldn't end there.

"You know it's not getting any better, don't you?" Liz said gently, resisting the urge to grab Bella's arm and stop her so they could have a real conversation.

"I don't know what you're talking about Liz," Bella said quietly, her voice emitting no sense of emotion. "Everything is fine."

Liz stared at the sad girl walking next to her for a moment before nodding and letting the conversation end, just like so many other conversations that had been left unfinished. They arrived at their destination only a few minutes later and walked into the lecture hall.

The class seemed to last forever to Bella, who's sense of time had slowed to almost a standstill. Every second felt like a thousand years, and it took everything she had to endure the eternity she had left without him.

Bella traced the light scars on the insides of her wrist with her knuckles as the professor droned on about the last thing she wanted to hear about that day. The class was Shakespearean Literature. The play was Romeo and Juliet. The date was September 13th.

Thinking of past pain allowed her to forget the pain in the present. And today, that present pain was almost too overwhelming for her to handle. Exactly one year prior she had put those scars on her wrists. And she didn't know if this year would be a repeat performance.

At least she had Kevin, her boyfriend of four months, this year. He didn't know it was her birthday though. Nobody did. She kept most aspects of her personal life private, and nobody, save for her overly caring roommate, seemed to mind. Not even said boyfriend.

It wasn't a secret that Kevin liked to use Bella as his personal punching bag. Her apathetic demeanor and seemingly ungracious nature, however, caused more people to shy away from her than try and save her. Again, save for Liz.

The class was dismissed and Bella rose from her seat, intending to meet Kevin outside the classroom. He always waited for her after that class. She grabbed her bag and walked toward the door, ignoring the fact that Liz tried to keep up with her.

She saw her boyfriend only a few feet from her, but before she could reach him, she tripped. A strong hand gripped her tender upper arm before she could fall to the ground however.

"Can you watch where you're going at least once in your life?" Kevin hissed in her ear as he helped steady her.

"Sorry," Bella mumbled, keeping her eyes on her unmoving feet.

"Fine. Let's go," he said as he began to drag her in the direction of her next class. Though he had warned her to watch where she was going, it didn't stop her from bumping into another student as they made their way to the science building.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Bella said, looking up. The stranger turned around, locking his beautiful, butterscotch colored eyes with her listless, chocolate brown ones.