I took in a deep breath and stepped out into a dimmed down light as the background music started and crowd's cries and cheers went quiet. I was so nervous, more so than I had ever been before. My heart was racing and I felt so hot in the face – it was like I was standing out in the sun in the middle of summer. You can do this Jake, I thought and calmed myself down enough so I could breathe evenly.

I took the microphone into my hand and started to sing the first few words of the song. 'You can run, you can hide. But you can't escape my love. Here's how it goes, you and me, up and down at this time.' And instantly, the flashbacks started, and somehow, they seemed to make the song so much easier to sing.

I was going to see Bella again today. We were both dating and stupid young teenagers in love. I hadn't ever felt anything for anyone before. She meant the world to me. She was like the air I needed to breathe with. I didn't know what I would do without her. Since my mum died, she was the only thing which made me smile and laugh.

I smiled with the thought as I walked down to first beach, where I was meeting her. Charlie was going to see Dad and drop off some fish he had caught the other day, so her visit was only going to be brief, but it was better than nothing. I would try and convince Dad in going and seeing her and her father tomorrow if I could. I often did it, and he often went with what I wanted with knowing how I felt about her.

With walking along the shoreline, I watched the ocean's water seep in and out before looking up to see Bella walking towards me. I smile widely with seeing her. It felt like it had been months, even years, when really it had only been a week or two since I had last seen her. I would have seen her every day if I had my driver's license. I couldn't wait to turn sixteen so I could start driving. Sadly it was two years away though.

With running up to her, I wrapped my arms around her tightly and kissed her with everything I felt. She giggled and looked away from me slightly. I saw redness appear in her cheeks as I looked down to her. God she was beautiful!

"I missed you," I murmured, and kissed her cheek again. She looked up and smiled at me shyly, but didn't say a thing. My eyes narrowed slightly with sensing something wasn't quite right. "Are you okay?"

She smiled slightly and nodded, but still, she said nothing. "I need to talk to you about something, Jacob," she whispered in a cracked tone and sat down on a log just behind us. I really didn't like how she had spoken and how she was acting. It was so unlike Bella. She was always lively and cheerful around me.

"Sure," I murmured and sat down on the log beside her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. She stayed where she sat, glaring down at the sand below us. I knew something wasn't right with that either. She always leaned into my side whenever we sat on the beach together, especially when my arm was around her. I bit my lip and looked away as she looked up to me. I could feel she was searching my face for what I feeling and thinking, but I didn't show a thing. I was good with hiding what I was feeling, at times.

"I love you Jacob, you know that . . . but," she paused and then looked away again. I looked to her with shock of hearing the 'but.' What had changed? What could change in a week or two? Nothing, I hoped. I just hoped this was some kind of conversation about her wanting more from me. Anything else, I didn't want to hear unless it was good.

"But?" I whispered and looked out to the horizon, still trying to hide what I was feeling – the feeling of fear.

She took a in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I've found someone else at school. Edward Cullen. He's my age. I think . . . I'm too old for you Jake. I'm sorry."

I looked back to her and held her gaze. Age couldn't be a thing. I acted and behaved older than even my best friend Embry and he was two years older than me, he was Bella's age. She was just making up excuses to make things better for me, but it wasn't working.

I shook my head. "Bella, you're not too old for me," I said. She stayed quiet after that. I started to think about it for a minute and then thought it might not have been she thought she was too old for me, but rather, I was too young for her. That frustrated me.

I looked to her from the corner of my eye, with my head hanging. "Or is it the fact that I'm too young for you?" I whispered. All she did bite her lower lip, close her eyes and shake her head. I knew the answer to that. That was what she thought. I was too young for her . . . I knew when she was lying. "Hell, Bella, I act older than most of the seventeen year olds around here."

She sighed deeply and took my hand into hers. "That's not it Jacob. It's just, the way I feel around him. It's like I am living in a fantasy or something."

"You can't live in a fantasy for all your life Bella," I murmured. No one knew that better than I did. I acted like I still had mum after she died when I was nine. I thought it would make things better, but it didn't. It only made things worse really. I did it for a whole year before realizing it wasn't helping anything.

It felt so right to have Bella. How could this be happening? I closed my eyes and reopened them, hoping it was just a dream. But . . . it wasn't. I still saw the beach in front of me. The ocean's waves rolling in and out again, and the sun setting in front of us. I could still hear the water crashing on the cliffs not far from us and the wind going through the trees above us. It was the perfect summer's night. I wished I was spending it with Bella being mine still. Mine and no one else's!

I looked back to her from the horizon. The sun had just set, the light was dimming down with the night slowly setting in. "So, this is it?" I whispered, trying to cover the pain in my voice, but failed to do so.

She nodded and stood to her feet with hearing Charlie calling out for her. Just her nodding cut through me like scissors to paper. "Can we still be friends?" she asked then.

I knew it was going to hurt me with just being friends with her, but I still wanted her in my life, somehow. I needed her. I didn't know what I was going to do if I didn't have her. I had loved her since I was little. We were always together. She was always there for me when I needed her and I was always there when she needed me too. I hoped we would still have that, somehow.

"Sure," I answered and stood to my feet too. She kissed my cheek and ran off towards my house, where Charlie was waiting for her to go. I stayed on the beach, watching as her father's police cruiser went out our driveway and headed back towards Forks. Maybe one day she would realize we were meant to be together. . .

I knew I should have known way back then to give up on being with Bella, but it had been impossible. No matter what I did, who I hung out with, always, in the back of my mind, I was thinking of no one but Bella. I had given other girls a chance, countless times, but none of them summed up to how I felt when I was with her. It just didn't matter what went on in my life, it never seemed to complete me, until I was with her. I just couldn't shake the love I felt for her. Even with knowing how she felt for Edward. He was like a drug to her. She was addicted to living in the world of fantasy. He was rich and could give her anything she wanted, and yet she didn't want anything of it. She just thought he was perfect. He was her prince on the white horse to come and sweep her up off of her feet like a princess. Little did she know . . . that she was my princess already! I would have done anything for her. I didn't think he would have done the same though. She loved him, more than he loved her, I could see it. And I was sure, at a drop of a hat, if he found someone else, he wouldn't think twice about Bella.

All I could do was hope one day she would grow up that little bit more and realize . . . he wasn't the flawless prince she thought he was and that she couldn't live in a fairy-tale fantasy forever. A few times she had come so close to seeing it too. The first time was when I was seventeen, three years after she had left me for him.

I was staying in Seattle with Embry for the weekend, just hanging out and having some time away from home. It was later when my phone rang its ringtone for texts. I walked over to the kitchen bench where it was sitting and flipped it open to find a text from Bella.

I need to talk to you.

My eyes narrowed at her text. The last time I had heard those words, was when she broke up with me. I wondered what it could be about. I hoped nothing was wrong and that Eddie hadn't done something. I quickly texted her back and told her to meet me outside the motel Emb and I were staying at. I thought how ironic it was that Bella was attending college in Seattle now, so she was still close to her father.

I went outside of the motel and leaned against the red brick near the door. I looked out to the car park just in front of me. The only vehicle which was parked in it was my red rabbit on the far end, parked next to the fence and near our room. I had parked it there so I could keep an eye on it, just in case. Embry was out with a few friends of his at the local club, seems he was eighteen. I would have gone too, but I didn't feel like looking for trouble with being under age still. I didn't look for trouble usually.

A couple of minutes passed and I finally saw Bella getting out of a taxi just outside the black gates of the motel. I walked over to where she waited and entered the code in the security lock so she could get in. The very second the gates opened, she ran into my arms and wrapped her arms around my neck tightly while sobbing.

"Hey, hey, what's the matter Bells?" I whispered into her ear and held her tightly to me.

"Edward broke up with me," she cried.

I didn't know what to think after hearing that. Apart of me thought maybe it was another chance for us to get back together again and then another part of me felt sorry for her. I knew just how much she loved him. But he wasn't her. He was everything she hated. Flash, popular, and a total dress up kind of guy. Bella hated fancy cloths, parties, attention and being known.

"Come on, let's go inside," I said with my arm around her. She nodded and leaned into my side as we walked into the small motel room and closed the door behind us. We went over to the black couch as Bella started to explain everything. He had found someone else and had broken up with Bella a couple of hours ago. The thing was, she had been thinking about me for the last couple of days and wondering what to do. To me that was a sign that maybe she had realized she wasn't mean to be with him and now she was here with me. Though, I knew it was only natural she would come to me when something like this happened. I was her best friend after all and none of her college friends even came close to understanding her like I did.

My arms stayed wrapped around her tightly as she rested her head on my shoulder. I sighed silently. I hated seeing her so upset. I was just glad I was around when it happened, so I could comfort her.

"Jacob?" she said after a minute of silence, and then looked up to me with softened eyes.

"Yeah?" I asked, and ran my hand down the side of her face, and over her soft, smooth skin.

"I love you. I never should have left you," she murmured and sat up straight. I held her dark chocolate eyes with the shock of her words hitting me hard in a good way. I didn't know she still felt that way about me. I smiled with seeing she really did mean it.

My hand rested on the side of her face as I kissed her softly like I used to, but that didn't seem to be enough for her. She pushed me back into the arm rest of the couch with a crooked smirk on her face and kissed me again, but this time, with more urgency as she started to unbutton my shirt quickly. I was surprised by her actions.

I smiled with thinking of that night we spent together while still singing. It had been the best night of my life, but, not the last either. Bella was the one who completed me to no end in my life – something that everything else in my life failed to do. She just made me feel so alive and lucky.


Let me know what you think guys! - Sky 3