As unwarranted as it was, we took the precaution of keeping a watchful eye on Bella today. Alice had not seen any set plans for Bella making an escape on us, but we couldn't take the risk. She was unpredictable, even for the predictor herself. In knowing that, I told Alice to take my car home so she would have more time to prepare, and so I could watch over Bella throughout the day.

Classes passed exasperatingly slow today, and I found myself paying more attention to Bella's studious habits than the actually work being studied. Not that I needed to pay attention to it; I've been in the same classes with the same curriculum for the past century. I had no doubt that I most likely knew more than the teachers did by now. Still, going to school and pretending to learn something new was better than not doing anything at all, as well as more acceptable. Now that Em and Rose had graduated, for the umpteenth time, they at least had an excuse for traveling around the world. If someone saw me doing that, they would report me for truancy and brand me a hooligan.

At long last, the day was over, and I walked with Bella to her car as per usual, but instead of making my leave, I opened the passenger door for her to get in. She stopped dead in her tracks, stubbornly crossing her arms in disapproval. "It's my birthday, don't I get to drive?" She seemed unchanged in her decision on the whole "no-birthday" nonsense, so I decided I might as well have some fun with it. "I'm pretending it's not your birthday, just as you wished."

I had to fight back the smile that threatened to break my composure as she answered, "If it's not my birthday, then I don't have to go to your house tonight..." She was playing just as dirty as I was, but I still had a few tricks up my sleeves. "All right." I agreed, shutting the door, and returned to the opposite side, now holding the driver's side door open for her. "Happy birthday."

"Shh" She scolded lightly, making her way into the car in defeat. As she drove, I pretended to tamper with her old radio, offended by its quality. A hint to the gift Em and Rose had more than willingly donated. "Your radio has horrible reception," I remarked. She frowned, her eyebrow puckering just the slightest as she spoke, "You want a nice stereo? Drive your own car." Her tone reflected the irritation she had towards the situation, a tone in which I had never heard from her before and found rather amusing, and I pressed my lips together firmly, fighting back the smile.

The car came to a stop in front of Charlie's house, and I felt it the perfect opportunity to try out that "dazzling" effect I presumably had on her. Very carefully, I reached over, cradling her precious face delicately within my own hands. Barely grazing her warm skin, knowing that even the slightest flinch could break her, and whispered softly, "You should be in a good mood, today of all days." I listened to the flutter of her heart. "And if I don't want to be in a good mood?" I gazed deeply into the mysterious depths of her eyes, and answered simply. "Too bad."

I could see the dazzle factor had been working on her, but not quite enough. Further adding to my manipulation of her mind, I leaned in towards her, pressing my lips against hers. Fire to ice. Her lips seemed to have melt mine into oblivion, and before long, I found myself caught up in the moment. And as Bella wrapped her arms around my neck, egging me on for more, I noticed she was as well. A smile broke my lips from hers slightly, and I released her face and removed her hold on me. What I wanted more than anything was to leave her arms around me. I wanted to go on with the kiss, and do the same as she did. To show every ounce of love I had for her in that one moment of intimacy. But I knew I could never do that. Not unless I wanted to be standing over her grave the next day.

"Be good, please." I let out a sigh, and the temptation to feel the warmth of her lips on mine again was too overwhelming, so I pressed them gently against hers. Forcibly dragging myself away, I folded her arms across her stomach, just as she had done before. I watched curiously as she lay a hand across her thundering heart, desperately wanting an in to her mind, a chance to see what she saw. Thankfully, she thought aloud, "Do you think I'll ever get better at this? That my heart might someday stop trying to jump out of my chest whenever you touch me?" I took that into consideration and, as I listened to the mesmerizing sound of her heart thudding loudly inside her chest, I wished for it not to. "I really hope not." She rolled her eyes, unamused by my fascination of her strange human ways, and decided to change the subject, "Let's go watch the Capulets and Montagues hack each other up, all right?" I obediently followed. "Your wish, my command."

Watching as Bella set the movie up, I sprawled myself across the small couch. It wasn't comfortable-to me, anyway. Nothing was "comfortable" when you had no reason to need comfort, but it was a good enough reason to get as close to her as physically possible. She sat herself on the edge of the sofa, and I rolled my eyes. Bella was very observant, yes, but completely oblivious. I wound my arms around her waist and pulled her gently to my chest. She didn't seem to have any further objections to our seating arrangement, so I let her settle, quickly wrapping her old afghan on her so she wouldn't freeze against my icy touch.

As the movie began, I frowned, displeased as always. "You know, I've never had much patience with Romeo."

"What's wrong with Romeo?" She asked, taken aback. It sounded as if I had offended her in some way, but she made no further notion to defend him, so I answered her question as simply as I could, though I could go on and on stating what was wrong with him. "Well, first of all, he's in love with this Rosaline-don't you think it makes him seem a little fickle?" I skipped the part about how he seemed to move on from one girl he presumably loved to the next, and continued, "And then, a few minutes after their wedding, he kills Juliet's cousin. That's not very brilliant. Mistake after mistake. Could he have destroyed his own happiness anymore thoroughly?" By the end of my rant, it had occurred to me that I had upset Bella, and she sighed lightly, "Do you want me to watch this alone?" As if I would miss the opportunity of seeing her reaction to one of the greatest love stories ever written. "No, I'll mostly be watching you, anyway." I admitted, quite bluntly.

I began doing as such as I watched the skin on her arm raise into a billion tiny bumps, just from the touch of my finger. It was quite extraordinary. Of course, in school, you learned about how the nervous system works and why the body produces such reactions to its environment, but seeing it in action was something entirely different. A new response formed in my mind that I longed to see. The tears produced by witnessing a sad event. Crying was one of the many things we could no longer do as immortals, but for humans, it was simple. A lost love, or some other tragedy, for example, would do it for most. My curiosity raged, "Will you cry?" I asked, hopeful. "Probably, if I'm paying attention." She admitted. "I won't distract you then." I promised, brushing my lips across the feathery edges of her hair.

Try as I might, I couldn't help but whisper Romeo's lines to her. They were as true to Juliet as mine were for Bella. An inexplicable love, never to be shaken by some minor family quarrel or even the boundaries between mortal and immortal. Before long, the tears began to silently stream down her face. With each drop that fell, a wet streak ran from her dark lashes to the end of her jaw. One or two of them actually dropped to my skin, leaving the most soothing sensation. I smiled at the show of her human relation to Juliet finding her husband dead, and sighed quietly, taking a piece of her hair in my hand and using it to dry her tears, "I'll admit, I do sort of envy him here."

"She's very pretty." Bella so wrongly mistook my reason behind the envy, and I scoffed at her words. Like anyone, especially a mere actress, would ever compare to the remarkable, indescribable beauty of Bella. Like anyone would ever hold my attention, either way. "I don't envy him the girl--" I corrected, "Just the ease of the suicide." My tone lightened as I explained, "You humans have it so easy! All you have to do is throw down one tiny vial of plant extracts..."

Bella's horrified gasp interrupted me, "What?"

"It's something I had to think about once, and I knew from Carlisle's experience that it wouldn't be simple. Carlisle tried to kill himself in the beginning...after he realized what he'd become..." Taking in her deadened silence, I figured a little comic relief would help lighten up the mood, "And he's clearly still in excellent health." Bella squirmed in my arms, staring into my eyes with disbelief that I was rambling on about such a thing.

"What are you talking about? What do you mean, this is something you had to think about once?" Her eyes were full of demanding questions, and I had half-wished I hadn't brought the subject up in the first place. "Last spring, when you were...nearly killed..." My mind drifted momentarily to the single time I thought I had almost lost Bella. The time where James-may he rot in hell-almost took away every reason I have to live in this world. If I had been just a second too late, if I didn't have the strength to save her and ended up destroying her forever, there wouldn't have been a second thought that I would be sure to follow. I was simply not going to live without her...I couldn't.

"Of course I was trying to focus on finding you alive, but part of my mind was making contingency plans. Like I said, it's not as easy for me as it is for a human." I waited for her to take it in. Watching as her eyes glazed over deep in thought, thoughts in which I longed to hear. I imagined she was thinking of the same thing I was. My eyes fell to the first movement she made; lightly grazing the scar that had almost left her drained and nearly dead; a scar that would forever stand as a reminder of the dangers I was putting Bella through everyday. Perhaps I was strong enough to stop then, but still, not strong enough. I struggled to pull away from her only life support, feasting on it like the monster I am, and almost killed the one person I had ever truly loved. I still struggle today in trying to restrain myself; the human side of me-which was only recently returned with the help of Bella-wanted to push past every line I had made in order to keep Bella safe, but the vampire side of me wanted to take her now. The constant fight between man and beast always kept me in a turn, but in general, I was a selfish creature. Only taking in what I wanted, with no consideration of others. Bella spoke again, "Contingency plans?"

I rolled my eyes, "Well, I wasn't going to live without you." As if that was even physically possible. "But I wasn't sure how to do it-I knew Emmett and Jasper would never help...so I was thinking maybe I would go to Italy and do something to provoke the Volturi." It was a grim thought, but true nonetheless. The last thing I would ever wanted to do was to be involved with those ancient solicitors. Even I'm not as selfish as they are. They wanted power and nothing more, and my power was one they constantly sought after. "What is a Volturi?" Bella sparked.

"The Volturi are a family. A very old, very powerful family of our kind. They are the closest thing our world has to a royal family, I suppose." Royalty, before the Magna Carta, anyway, I added mentally. "Carlisle lived with them briefly in his early years, in Italy, before he settled in America-do you remember the story?"

"Of course I remember." She seemed reluctant enough to admit.

There was so much I could say about them, both good and bad, but I only needed to stick to the point for now, and concluded, "Anyway, you don't irritate the Volturi. Not unless you want to die-o-r whatever it is we do." I was content with not having to do either one, because Bella was safe. She was still alive, and I would always remain with her, until the very end.

She quickly placed her hands on either side of my face, her eyes tense. "You must never, never, never think of anything like that again!" She ordered, and I sensed that I had stirred up some scare within her. "No matter what might ever happen to me, you are not allowed to hurt yourself."