A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, guys! Keep them coming!

Bella

Bella was staring at sharp objects again.

It had become a habit of hers over the last few weeks. If she was honest with her herself - which she rarely was these days - she'd admit that staring at the blades, razors, knives, and pens was more than an odd habit, it was an indulgence.

She saw them as the saving grace that would finally knock her out of her permanently numbed state, for however briefly. If only she could just get up the nerve to use them. So far, the obsession had only gotten as far as just looking, and fondling the sharp objects briefly.

The object of her fascination today was Charlie's shaving kit.

It wasn't that she was borderline suicidal – she really wasn't. She couldn't be. Because part of her, however insane that part was, had convinced herself that somehow he'd be back for her. And she didn't want to end up dead before she could give him the chance.

But no one said anything about enduring a little pain.

She had flirted dangerously for weeks with the idea of inflicting a simple cut to her finger, just to see if she would hear her mind's perfect rendering of his voice again - Bella, love, DON'T – but had chickened out every time.

Still, it didn't make the compulsion to do so any less potent.

Stroking the handle of Charlie's yellow clippers, she let herself think about the last time he'd spoken to her. It was nearly a week ago, when she and Jacob had rode the dirt bikes on the path near his house in La Push. While hanging out with Jacob had been great, as always, she couldn't escape the craving for her secret addiction. Each time she'd heard his voice, like she had that day, the pain in her chest – far more severe than any physical pain she could inflict on herself - was somewhat pacified.

But with each passing day that she didn't, the pain reared its ugly head again to punish her, and more brutally.

She really needed to find something other than masochistic fantasies to occupy her time.

Putting away Charlie's blades and slamming the bathroom cabinet shut, she mechanically washed her face, got dressed, and threw her hair in a ponytail. She didn't care enough to remember what she grabbed to put on. She then followed the smell of burnt bacon downstairs to the kitchen, and sat at the table. It was Charlie's third attempt this week to cook. She stared at him, shuffling his feet awkwardly at the stove.

For him to go to these lengths, she must really look like crap.

"Dad, you didn't have to –" she started, at the same time Charlie said, "Nah, it's nothing, kid. You know, you don't have to do all the cooking around here. I should be doing more to help." He quickly sat down a plate of the too crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, and two plain slices of bread - "Bread's untoasted, just like you like it" – and handed her a fork and a napkin. She attempted the closest thing to a smile that she had left these days - "Thanks, Dad" – and began to poke the food around the plate with the fork.

She did this for a few minutes, until Charlie, pushing his own plate aside, began to clear his throat uncomfortably.

"You know, Bells….Bella…" he began, running a hand through his messy hair.

She looked up slowly.

"You know I care about you a lot, right? More than my life."

Oh, God. Where was he going with this? "Yeah, Dad, I know."

"I know you've been having a hard time of things, lately, and I suspect its mostly got to do with that Cullen kid –"

Oh, no. He was going there.

"Dad, if you don't mind, I really, really, don't want to talk about it." She held his gaze for a split second longer, to make sure he knew she meant that that conversation was done, and attempted to distract him by chewing on two bites of eggs.

Charlie raised his eyebrow at the sight of the fork actually going in her mouth, but was undeterred. "I'm not trying to get into specifics, Bells, but don't you think that, even though things didn't work out with the two of you, you can still, um, get out the house, hang out with friends, maybe even –" he cleared his throat again – "eat a little more?"

Huh. Charlie was more perceptive then he let on. "I do hang out with my friends, Dad. I was just with Jacob last week," she said, deftly ignoring the last half of the question.

"That was a week ago, and that's just Jacob. He's great, but didn't you used to have other friends? What's new with that Jennifer girl?"

"Her name's Jessica."

"Yeah, her. Why don't you ever hang out with her anymore?"

She couldn't answer his question with the whole truth – the truth being that she'd barely even looked at her friends since they left – but she could improvise. Jessica had been giving her the side eye even before she fell into her depression because Jessica wanted Mike, and Mike wanted Bella, even though Bella was with…don't think the name. "She's mad at me, because of Mike Newton."

"Ah, I see. Kid's hung up on you, I'm guessing?"

Charlie was really on his game today with the intuitiveness. "Yeah, I guess. Something like that." She didn't offer anything else.

"Look, Bella, I'm not saying you gotta go out partying every night. But one guy isn't worth this kind of reaction. Try to remember your other friends," Charlie was staring at her intently now, willing her to listen to reason. "You had a great life before this guy breezed in, and you can still have a good life even though he's not around anymore."

Funny, she couldn't seem to remember her life prior to his arrival, so she had no idea whether it was good or not. She guessed she'd just have to take Charlie's word for it.

"Sure thing, Dad. I'll call Jacob today. And when I get to school, I'll ask Angela if she wants to hang out this weekend," she said, hoping that would end the conversation.

Charlie wheezed out a breath of relief she hadn't realized he'd been holding. "That's great to hear, Bells," He got up and put his plate in the sink. "I'm headed to the station. See you later this evening." She nodded at him until he headed out.

Hm. It had been a while since she'd seen Jacob – and when she thought past the misery for just a moment, she realized that she missed him. She missed his sunny smiles, the way he made her do the closest thing she did to laughing these days. She wondered why she hadn't heard from him much this week – but then again, she hadn't called, either – so it's not like she could complain.

She decided that that was what she would do. She would call Jacob this afternoon, and then, they would hang out. The idea excited her enough that she decided to even make good on her promise to talk to Angela – maybe not go anywhere with her outside of school, but she could at least talk to her. She decided that Angela was the only human girlfriend she had who was actually enjoyable to be around. She could talk to her, for Charlie's sake.

And when the school day was over, she would head to La Push for the sake of her own sanity.