Disclaimer: I own nothing Twilight or Twilight related and this is why I'm sitting here writing fanfic and not living in a beach house in Malibu.

Leah POV

Leah sank to the ground, watching him walk away and biting her lip to keep from crying out loud, and every piece of happiness she had ever imagined in her life walk away right along with him. Her memories drifting back to the day that this all started. He'd been gone for weeks, barely a word spoken to her since he returned like a different person had invaded his body, but still she'd held out hope of things returning to something like they had been for the past three years. Then Sam walked up to her and broke her in a thousand tiny pieces with a seven words, seven simple words that she'd been able to spell in first grade, seven words that sent her heart straight into her throat, leaving her choked and unable to speak.

"I'm not in love with you anymore."

And she knew from the look in his eyes, it wasn't exactly the truth. Leah knew Sam well enough to be able to know the way he furrowed his brows when he was lying and bit his lip to keep from blurting out the truth that lay just beneath the surface of the falsehood, created just to save them all the nightmare that his real feelings would cause them all. There were other words, but they sounded tinny, far away like background noise, while the earthquake that raged inside her head was the loudest thing she had ever heard. The sound of her world breaking in half was deafening.

So she did the only thing her body could gather itself up to do, cutting him off in midsentence with a sharp slap to the face that left her hand stinging and his skin blotchy and red from the force of the impact, and just turned to walk away without a word. Not that there was anything she could say right now anyway. She'd forgotten how to speak.

Other than going to school, she'd locked herself in her room for weeks, eating only when her body's complaints forced her to take in something to keep things from shutting down completely, going through the motions with the rest of her day, like she was on autopilot. Her mind was a cauldron of mixed emotions, burning and boiling like lava until it started to burn at the insides of her thoughts, making her bitter.

La Push was a small town, and try as she might, Leah couldn't avoid Sam, couldn't avoid Emily, couldn't avoid seeing them together, and putting the pieces of the puzzle into the right places. And then today, here he was, a few feet away with more news. It was like every time he opened his mouth it was to break her all over again. She could see it coming before the first words ever left his lips.

"Leah, I…" He looked nervous like he was afraid she was going to kill him, even though he had a distinct advantage over her in size. "I had to tell you myself. I didn't want you hearing it from anyone else, but Emily…"

She cut him off again, her words smacking just as sharp as the slap she had given him before, even if they didn't leave a visible mark, "Just shut up, Sam. Save it for your conscience when you realize what you threw away. I'm not blind."

Leah choked on her words again, running her hand over her eyes with an exasperated sigh as she tried to collect herself, the silence hanging heavy in the air between them until even the sounds of the world around them seemed muffled by it.

Sam took a step closer, and she held out a hand to stop him. "Leelee, I…"

She simultaneously wanted him closer and farther away, but this something in between was unbearable. She was dying on the inside and trying her damnedest not to let it show in her eyes.

"I said shut up, Sam, and don't call me that ever again. Just go," she looked up at him when she spoke, her face stoically unemotional, until he took another step closer, and instead of collapsing against his chest like she wanted to do, she let the rage fly, almost screaming, "Go away! Go back to Emily, and leave me the hell alone. I can't do this anymore," fists clenched at her sides, she stared daggers at him until he just turned and walked away.

Sam POV

Guilt is a powerful thing, something that a man can carry with him forever, something that Sam knew all too well. Biology made him something he never dreamed he would be, changed everything about him in the space of a few short weeks that left him forever burdened with being the one responsible for Leah's broken heart. He didn't think he would ever be able to forgive himself for that. As happy as he might be with Emily, something he had no control over the way he had no control over the turning of the Earth or the way the storms rolled over First Beach from the ocean, that happy would always be poisoned for him. Some part of his heart would always be hers.

He knew it would be worse if he tried to stay; nothing was going to be able to fight the force of nature that drew him to Emily like a moth to a flame, damning all the consequences or broken hearts he left in his wake, including his own. He had the common sense to know it would kill them all trying to fight that battle, so he decided he would be the bad guy and break things apart now before it got too out of control.

He knew when he walked away that she would never forgive him. Some part of him never wanted her to, because he sure as hell didn't deserve it. He probably wouldn't ever forgive himself either, not that he could tell her that; she wouldn't understand it any more than he had.

"Stupid," Sam muttered and banged his head on the steering wheel, setting off a short beep of the car horn when he climbed into the truck he drove around town that had belonged to his cfdad. He just sat there for a minute, trying to process what had just happened but not able to make any more sense of it than he had before, so he just cranked up the truck and drove away as rain started to fall, leaving her behind in her own front yard like the asshole he was pretty sure he had become.

He wasn't alright, not anything close to alright, but he was able to put up a good front, able to keep it from everyone else, especially Emily, that his heart was forever going to be torn in half between the person the wolf inside him was pulled to like gravity and the person who would always be his first love. She had been able to give him everything she was, but he would never be able to give all of himself, and that probably wasn't fair to any of them, but there was nothing he could do about it.

He almost felt like a murderer, like he had killed the Sam and Leah that had existed, blissfully unaware of the way things would be, only a few short weeks ago. He had to pull the truck over to the side of the road then because it hurt to breathe, like someone had stabbed him in the chest when the tears came unbidden and rolled across his cheeks in sobs that racked his entire body.