"Nessie come on! By the time you're ready the bonfire will have burnt out!" came Jacob's shout from my bedroom. I was currently standing in front of my mirror in my walk in closet checking over my outfit one last time. Tonight was the leaving party the pack were throwing for me, and my last night in Forks, at least for now. I'd decided on a red bikini, Jacob's favourite colour on me, and a black sarong that stopped just above my knees and tied around my hip. My hair was down and full of its natural volume and curls and I'd gone with a natural make-up look. Tonight wasn't about trying to make Jake fall in love with me. Tonight's look was for me. Because I wanted to look and feel sexy and grown up in a place where I'd felt like the little girl since the day I was born.

I walked out the closet to Seth's wolf whistle, which was soon quietened by Jacob's swift hit to his side. Seth started laughing instead earning an eye role from Jacob.

"I take it I did good?" I asked jokingly as I did a spin.

"You always do good Nessie," Jacob said standing up from the bed and walking over to me, kissing me on top of my head. I felt the blush as it blossomed across my cheeks.

"Thanks," I replied shyly.

"Come on kids, there's a party in need of a single wolf," Seth winked as he also stood up from the bed and made his way out of the cottage.

I could never understand Seth. He, as well as all of the wolves, was an attractive, well-built man with an awesome personality. Yet I'd never seen him stay with one girl longer than a month. He was always moving on, never getting serious with anyone. It made me sad to think he never would. This line of thought made me look over at Jacob in the driving seat next to me. Jacob was by far the most attractive of the wolves. He was dedicated, loyal, funny and kind. Any woman's dream man. Yet I'd never seen him date either. Maybe that was because of me. But not in the way I'd once hoped. He wasn't saving himself for me, he was just too busy babysitting me to find anyone he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. But then why did he hang around with a bunch of vampires for the last 7 years? I know he was friends with my mom when she was a human. Maybe he originally stayed to stay close to her, and then ended up becoming my best friend as well.

"You excited Nessie?" Seth asked appearing between the two front seats, pulling my from my train of thought.

"Excited for the party? Yes. Excited about leaving? Not even a little bit," I replied.

"Aw come on, I know you'll miss me but starting somewhere new is exciting. And you get to go to school! That's good stuff Nessie. A couple of weeks at your new place and you'll be forgetting all about your wolves," Seth said, trying to make me feel better. He did manage to bring a small smile out of me, if only because of his use of 'your wolves'.

"I'll never forget about you boys," I said, turning around to smile at him. Not long after, we arrived at the beach. The party looked like it was already in full swing. I could hear the music from inside the car, and could already see at least 30 people. It looked like the whole pack and their families had shown up. My family chose to stay away tonight, although Jacob could have allowed them into La Push for the night, a lot of the people that lived here were unsure around vampires so they had declined his offer, insisting tonight was about my goodbyes to the pack and that they didn't want that tainted by any awkwardness.

I stepped out of the car to cheers of my name, and red cups rose in my direction. It wasn't quite late enough to light the bonfire yet, so the wolves were hanging around the BBQ instead, none of them being brave enough to give up their place in line to come over and say hi to me.

I walked over to the group of girls trying to catch the last of the sun's rays for the day. It was Emily who saw me coming first, and stood up to pull me into a hug.

"Hi girl!" Emily's loud greeting brought my arrival to the attention of the rest of the girls. Most of them were girlfriends or wives of the wolves, some of them just good friends like Jake and I. But they were all my friends and I'd miss them a lot when I left, even if I didn't spend as much time with them as I did with the boys. "Sure you can't stay here with us? I don't know if I can feed all of the pack without your help!" she joked.

There's normally a big pack meal once a week, and when Sam was still actively phasing Emily always had food ready for any of the wolves if they stopped by. It used to be a big joke that I'd have to move into Jacob's when he became alpha of both packs so that I could take over Emily's role as pack feeder. At the time I loved the idea of helping the wolves in any way I could so I started hanging out in the kitchen with Emily at these pack meals learning how to cook. Jacob swears I'm an even better cook than Emily now but his opinion is biased.

"Sorry, I've tried everything I can to stay here but I have to go," I replied sadly.

"I'm more worried about how depressing Jacob's going to be when you go," Kim said. Kim was Jared's wife. I shook my head as I took the space on her towel she had just made for me when she moved over.

"He'll get over the loss soon enough and find some new girl to replace me,"

My comment was met by a scoff from Leah, who had not moved from her position of lying down, her sunglasses perched over her eyes. Leah was the only female wolf of Jacob's pack, and, much to my dismay, one of Jacob's best friends. It's not that the two of us didn't get on. We got on fine when there was a group of us. But when it was just me and her, she turned on me, looked at me with disgust and almost hatred. I'd never brought it up with Jacob because I didn't want to put him in an awkward situation, but I was pretty sure everyone else was aware of the tension between the two of us.

"Problem Leah?" I asked, portraying a bored tone. I noticed a few of the girls exchange worried looks. Our fights tended to get quite explosive.

"Many. But don't worry vamp, he won't replace you. Even if he wanted to," she said.

"Aw shame, you could have finally made your move, its only been, what, 8 years? Isn't that how long it takes to get out of the friend zone?" Leah let out a bitter laugh.

"You tell me. I know it's not me you're trying to impress with that skimpy outfit."

"I'm going to see how Rachel's doing at the BBQ," Emily interjected, trying to defuse the building tension. "Come say hi with me Nessie," she suggested. Unwilling to spend any longer with Leah I agreed.

"She's really not a horrible person Nessie," Emily tried to insist as we made our way over to where Paul was trying to take over the grilling.

"I know she's not, that's what annoys me the most. It's only to me she acts like a complete bitch,"

"Language Ness!" Jake shouted jokingly as he wrapped his arms around me from behind and lifted me off the ground.

"Ahh put me down Jake!" I screamed, trying to contain my laughter. Instead of putting me down he threw me over his shoulder so I had a lovely view of his bum. And so the rest of the beach had an excellent view of mine. "Come on Jake, I feel like I'm flashing everyone," I laughed.

"As if I would let that happen," he replied, pretending to be offended. It was then that a four year old little boy appeared in my line of sight, standing just behind Jacob, looking up at me with a toothy grin.

"Aunt Nessie!" he exclaimed.

"Will!" I squeal in excitement. Will is the first child of Rachel and Paul, and Jacob's nephew. When he was born Rachel insisted on making him call me aunt, despite me not technically being one. She claimed I was around Jacob so much I may as well be an aunt to baby Will, especially as he rarely got to see his real aunt, Rebecca, who lived in Hawaii.

Upon hearing my exclamation Jacob turned around, so I was now facing away from my favourite toddler. I huffed in frustration.

"Hey Will! Where you been hiding?" Jacob asked excitedly. I loved watching Jake interact with Will, he was so great with him.

"I was with Leo," he replied. Leo was Emily and Sam's oldest and would be in the same school year as Will. "Why are you carrying Nessie?" he asked innocently.

"Because she used a bad word," Jacob replied seriously. Will wondered around so that he could see me again. He tried to look disappointed but I could see the hint of a smile in his face.

"You shouldn't say bad words aunt Nessie," he said. I heard Jacob struggle not to laugh as the blush appeared on my face.

"I promise I won't say another bad word if mean uncle Jake lets me down," I tried to bargain. Jacob turned again.

"What do you say little man? Think we should forgive her?" Jake asked Will. The small gap of silence made me think they were pretending to think about it.

"Yeah, just this once though," Will giggled. I was soon on the ground again, Jacob having to quickly put his hands on my waist to stop me falling over. And I'm pretty sure he left them there for longer than he needed to.

I turned away from Jake to bend down and hold my arms out for Will. He jumped into them and threw his tiny arms around my neck. "Will you come visit me?" he asked as he stepped away, yet I remained bent down so I was eyelevel.

"As often as I can" I replied, pushing some of his long black hair out of his face. He had once seen an old picture of Jacob with his long hair and had instantly decided he wanted to be just like him. Will's hair was currently just to his neck, but his mom was dying to get it cut to a regular length.

"Nessie!" Rachel called as she made her way over to me, Emily now in charge at the BBQ. She also opened her arms wide and pulled me in for a hug. "Another sister leaving me, I must be cursed," she said teasingly as she stepped back.

"Ah I'll still be here don't worry sis," Jacob said from behind me, his arm landing around my shoulders. Rachel smiled at the movement then was distracted by the toddler pulling at her pants, clearly unhappy with the lack of attention he was receiving.

"Is the food ready yet?" Will whined.

"Just a few more minutes, come on I'll take you to the front of the queue," She gave him a wink then turned to me again, "I'll try and catch up with you later, enjoy your night," she smiled.

And the rest of my night continued in a similar fashion. Wolves and friends came up to me in small groups wishing me well, asking about my new adventure and most frequently, asking if I thought I could handle being away from Jake for so long. Honestly I didn't know how I would cope, he was the brightest part of my day. But I didn't have a choice, so I'd have to learn how to live without him, at least for a little while.

It was getting late now. A lot of the families with small children had said their final goodbyes and called it a night. Seth was sat near the bonfire, making out with some girl I'd never seen before. The rest of the wolves were also relaxing near the bonfire with their significant others. I'd just been to say goodbye to Sam, Emily and their kids who were the last family to leave, when I noticed Jacob standing on his own near the water.

"Hey, party's over there you know," I said when I got closer to him. He just turned his head to smile at me. He looked sad as he held his hand out to me.

"Take a walk with me?" he asked softly. I took his hand in mine and pulled him in the direction of the rocks to the far side of the beach instead of answering verbally.

We walked in silence for a few moments, both of us lost in our own thoughts. It was only when we were behind the rocks, safely hidden from the rest of the party that we stopped. Or Jacob stopped; I kind of just crashed into him.

Instead of saying anything, he tightened his hold on my hand, and pushed some of my curls that had fallen in front of my face behind my ears.

"You're so beautiful Renesmee," he said sweetly, staring into my eyes. I blushed and glanced down at the sand between us. He put his hand under my chin and lifted my head up so that I was looking at him again. His head moved forward and all of a sudden I felt my heartrate triple. He was going to kiss me. After everything he'd said, he was going to kiss me.

His lips landed on mine before I was ready. Although, are you ever prepared to kiss the love of your life? He didn't seem to mind that I had no idea what I was doing. Our mouths were closed, one of his hands on my chin, the other holding one of mine. As kisses go it was extremely innocent. But it was perfect. After only a few seconds he pulled away, a small smile on his face.

"What was that?" I said breathily, still in shock.

"I always wanted to be your first kiss," he said simply. "Didn't want some punk to steal it from me,"

"I wanted you to be my first kiss too," I smiled up at him. "Does this mean what I think it means?" I asked hopefully. Jacobs smile started to disappear, as did my hope.

"Nessie you're still leaving tomorrow, and I'm still staying here. It doesn't change anything between us. It just means you know I love you, the same way you love me,"

I nodded my head, fully understanding what he was saying. He didn't want me going off on this new adventure with a serious boyfriend back home. It's much easier to maintain a long distance friendship than it is a relationship, or so I'd imagine. He was just letting me know he'd be there for me when I came home. It made my worries over him replacing me lessen. Despite this, I still felt tears build behind my eyes.

"Don't cry," Jacob pleaded, noticing the wetness.

"I'm just really going to miss you," I cried, as the tears started to fall. I was instantly folded into Jacob's strong arms, his scent surrounding me, making me feel safe and warm all at once. There was no better place in the world than being in Jake's arms.

"I'm going to miss you too Ness, more than you can imagine," he whispered into my hair, squeezing his arms around me. And out of all of the goodbyes I'd made tonight, this was by far the hardest.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi! I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of the reviews and those that have favorited/followed the story. I'm really excited about where I want to take this story so I hope you all stick around to find out!

I also want to apologise for anything that doesn't make sense in the story. I'm from northern England (Newcastle!) so some of the translation from English slang to American might get confusing. Just bear with me please :P