Disclaimer: I own it! (sees people in scary black suit and sunglasses) I mean I don't own it. :( Stephenie Meyer does. Although I do own the plot (or lack of)

"No, Edward. I don't want a party."

Another year had come and gone. I was another year older. One more year with Edward but it was a year of growing further and further away from him and his eternal age of seventeen. I was older than Edward, too much older in my opinion. It was a thought that pained me at every moment. Could it ever be too late to change someone?

We were a mismatched pair now. He looked like he still belonged in high school and I, well, didn't. Edward had begged me to go out and make a life for myself but I knew the pain of our separation and that was something I was not willing to bear again.

It was the argument we had, had almost every day since I turned 19. And here we were, on that familiar leather couch, him not drinking my blood and me stubbornly not leaving.

"Don't worry, love. Nothing big just a celebration of your life." The teasing was apparent in his voice. He knew how much I despised parties now. Edward pulled me closer to him on the couch and kissed my cheek. I snorted.

"You make it sound like a funeral." His dazzling smile faltered and his angelic face creased into a frown. We were at a stalemate. I didn't want to discuss birthdays and he didn't want to discuss funerals. I raised my eyebrows at his devastated expression. "It's going to happen sometime."

His lips tightened into a thin line and he dragged his topaz eyes away from my mucky, brown ones. I squeezed his hand reassuringly. It was his fault that I continued to grow older and further away from him at every moment and Edward knew that. It killed him just as much as it was literally killing me but there was no way I could ever turn me. There was an imaginary list of reasons that I knew like the lines of Edward's face. I understood his reasoning but that didn't mean I was happy about it.

I decided to let him think on it. I needed to think too. I pushed myself off the couch and looked back into Edward's troubled eyes for consent to leave him alone. I tried to smile at him but it was weak. He just rubbed my hand and let it go. Sometimes there was no need for words.


I stared away from the house and into that gloom yet so familiar forest of Forks. I knew he was watching me. That's something he did best, making sure Bella didn't get herself in trouble. There was an audible crunch of grass behind me. I opened my mouth to tell Edward I just needed some time alone but a large brotherly hand rested on my shoulder, it wasn't him.

"You okay sis?" Emmett asked. There was no real concern in his voice. He knew my and Edward's fight routine as well as I did. It wouldn't take long for one of us to give in. I nodded silently as wet, salty tears trailed their way down my mortal, constantly wasting cheek.

You can't fool Emmett, though. He pulled me into a cautious bear hug. It would no good to break my fragile bones now.

"Come on, let's go eat some cake." I lifted my head out of his chest to eye him questioningly. He chuckled knowing what my seemingly confused look meant. "Well, you can do the eating. I could if you really wanted me too but it would have to count as a gift and I'd have to return the other one."

Emmett took my hand to make sure I didn't trip and we started to walk back to the mansion where my procession, I mean, party was waiting. Before we opened the door, he gave me a delicate lace handkerchief to wipe my face and another one of his comforting hugs .

"Happy 71st Birthday Bella." I couldn't help but cackled, like the old woman I was, at what an oxymoron that statement was.

A/N: I hoped you liked it. I wrote this while avoiding homework, I was trying to make it so you think she was younger (20's) but I don't think it worked that well XD. Anyway, let me know what you thought of it and I'll give you...an imaginary trip to Egypt!