A/N: Hey everyone! I just want to thank all of you for the overwhelming response to the first chapter! It was amazing, you guys are awesome! Btw, updates are never this late usually. They are usually a few days apart at the most a week. I was just on a trip out of state and have been tired out and a bit sick, so it's taking me longer. Anyway, so this chapter is in a little bit of Bella AND Embry's POV. We aren't going to elaborate on Jacob's jerkiness until later on! So… enjoy! And I will update quicker next time… promise!

Disclaimer: As mad as it makes me… Twilight is not, nor will it ever be mine. It belongs to the amazing Stephanie Meyer.

Bella POV: I woke up in the morning slightly groggy and wishing I could sleep just a little bit longer. Then the shock hit me… none of these thoughts had plagued me after sleep since before he left. Now, the feelings that usually got any attention post sleeping now were anxiety, trauma, terror, and abandonment.

I had expected it to worsen since Jacob had chosen to remove himself from my life completely… but I never thought that it would get better.

No! I chastised my foolish brain. No matter how hard you try to forget it will come back. It always does. But the part of me that believed all my suffering over Edward was gone just kept shouting at me, and I could barely trust my rational side anymore. Wait… I had just thought Edward's name without flinching… twice! Maybe it was because I was excited that I actually had something to do today.

This whole day felt as if it was dragging on forever! As soon as my shift at the Newton's was over, I found myself sprinting for the entryway, not even bothering to answer Mike when he called, "Where's the fire?" as I ran past him.

I didn't care what any of them wanted to know. I was ecstatic to go spend some time with my new friends down in La Push. I felt as though I was being pulled there by some sort of invisible force, much like steel ropes. For some strange reason, it made me feel normal. Even though it was strange… I didn't care.

Embry POV: I was so pumped because Bella was coming to hang out at Quil's place with us today!

To be perfectly honest, from the first moment I had seen her in Jake's garage I've had a humungous crush on her. Sadly, I knew it could never be. Jake got there first. And just judging by the way he looked at her, I knew not to even so much as think about it. They hadn't even been 'together' though.''

Cullen had torn her heart up so viciously after he left her. She had trouble even forcing a smile on her breathtakingly beautiful face. Oh, how I wanted to take Edward Cullen down and beat him until he realized that by abandoning Forks he left the most beautiful angel battered, broken, and scarred.

Now that Jake was out of the picture, there was a huge part of my soul commanding me to go to Bella and confess my feelings to her. But the part of me that was still feeling as though I would be stabbing Jacob in the back won out.

I probably never would've told her anyway. I was too shy and nervous around girls that weren't my mom, family, or a toddler. And Bella… well, let's just say that whenever I saw her face and heard her voice it would take me forever just to detangle my tongue and put it back in my mouth, let alone speak with her and have an actual conversation.

But still, I always felt a kind of tugging feeling in my chest whenever I thought of Bella. Usually, I would just dismiss it as my crush acting up on me again. Somehow I knew it was something more intense than that. It was more than the 'it's just a crush' normality. I didn't know or understand what it was but… I could feel it coursing through my veins like molten lava. Even if I so much as attempted to act on these strangely intense feelings… Bella wasn't ready for any type of relationship right now. I was smart enough to know that much.

She'd barely recovered from what Jerkward put her through and Jacob had probably torn a whole new hole in her heart along with the previous one. I knew I couldn't even hint any feelings anyone. Right now it would be mine and Quil's job to fix her. And I would make sure I succeeded in being a good friend and source of comfort to her if it was the last thing I did.

As noon finally hit, I found myself glancing anxiously at the clock every five minutes. It was almost as if the clock was going slow on purpose, teasing me because it knew how badly I wanted to see Bella. By about 12:30 I couldn't take sitting alone any longer. I left my mom a note telling her where I would be for the rest of the day and then ventured off towards Quil's house.

Dang, I really need to save for car parts or something, I thought as I finally reached Quil's house, panting and out of breath. We may both live on the rez, but it's a twenty minute walk between houses for Taha Aki's sake!

He answered the door before I even had the chance to lift my hand and knock.

"Hey, man! Saw you walking up," he said brightly as he stepped aside to let me enter his house. "Mom and grandpa are out in Seattle for the day buying a bunch of junk to remodel grandpa's bedroom to look like the forest. He wants to feel like he's 'running with the wolves,' we both howled with laughter at that. All those silly old legends they believed.

Quil's dad passed away when he was about six years old. I never knew who my dad was. He left my mom when she was pregnant; mom never spoke about him. She only said he was a good man when they met, but he'd gone and left her. But she was just glad that she'd gotten me out of the whole thing. I was her best blessing. Or so she'd always told me.

That was all one of the reasons why Quil and I could confide in each other so much. We were both basically dadless. But at least he had his grandfather. He had a father figure. I mean, I had grandparents too, even a set of great ones, but they live on the Makah rez so I don't see them very often. So it's more like I just don't have them at all. Still love them, just wish I saw them more.

The two of us plopped ourselves onto his couch with a ginormous bucket of popcorn and turned on Man vs. Food, taking bets on which of the food challenges we could meet or beat. We wrestled one another when we got too competitive. I always won even though Quil was beefier than me. He had a big head, and it got to him during fights.

Suddenly, we stopped and recalled the last time something like this had happened. Jake had been with us and all of us goofed around and broke up the other two's fights, just like we'd always done. Now we were all alone. The Three Musketeers had fallen apart. That thought alone was enough to set me off.

"Jacob is probably the biggest moron in the world! Sam and the others probably put him on Steroids and now he's so addicted that he's lost his mind! That's why all this happened in the first place! He isn't the type of guy to just drop his friends and not give them any good reasons why. Especially not if that friend was Bella Swan. It always seemed like he cared more about her than anyone else in the world. I might've figured he would've at least told her what was going on. Guess not. Quil, I'm telling you bro, there is something seriously wrong with him."

I looked up as I finished my rant to see Quil staring empathetically at me. "Trust me, man I know what you mean. I never expected him to drop Bella the way he did. He would've never been that harsh either if he ever did on the off chance he decided to drop her. Especially not after the way the Cullen incident destroyed her. He always told us about wanting nothing more than to burn Cullen's butt for what he did to her, and now he's basically just gone and done the same thing. It's just not a natural 'Jake-like thing to do. But there isn't much we can do seeing as he won't listen. All we can do now is be the best friends Bella's ever had. And we will make her happy. We will be the ones to give her a reason to live again," he vowed, his eyes hard and set determinedly.

"So after today you're going to keep inviting her over again to hang out with us? This isn't just some onetime thing you're doing in an attempt to make a move on her or give yourself a healthy conscience boost? Because you know her heart is very fragile at this point right? She isn't ready for that right now," I told him.

That and you don't like the thought of her being with any other man but you; especially not Quil, my brain mocked me.

Quil rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah I'll be gentle with her heart, Emmy-bear," he laughed, teasing me with my mom's stupid nickname for me. "You focus too much on that Shakespeare garbage from English lit. Focus on something more manly, like car races or football," joked.

I just played along, knowing it was best right now to let him have his pleasure making fun of me for being a giant softy. We fought about that for a few more minutes until we heard the doorbell ring. My heart raced frantically. Bella was finally here.

A/N: Wow, that was a long chapter! Took me a long time to finish! We learned a bit about both Quil and Embry in this chapter! The next chapter will have more friendly fluff in it, maybe some cute Embrella moments too! It will be up within the week this time, I promise! I don't have anything going on right now so I should be able to work on chapter 3! But only if you review so please get on it! Love you guys!

Thanks for Reading!

-thewolfgurlgleek :) xoxoxoxoxo