A/N: Yes, I have taken forever update and I am very sorry! However, lots of stuff happened, I finished my second year of college, got engaged (WOOT!), and was busy working and studying for grad school entrance exams in summer. Now I'm in my junior year and took a course overload last semester and this semester, so it is a miracle I am updating at all. If you are still reading this thank you so much, I have felt guilty for not updating! You are all so awesome, please forgive? I will not promise when I can update again, because something will probably come up, but I will definitely try for around later this month. And for frame of reference, this story in general starts in the fall of 2010. Without further ado…
BPOV: Flashback – Spring 2004
Bella adjusted her dress and smoothed it down, making sure she was put back together. Alice, of course, looked perfect next to her as they stood in the bathroom at their senior prom.
"You know Bella, you are so lucky to have Edward," sighed Alice. "I hope when we get to college I can find someone that I can have that kind of relationship with."
Bella smiled, knowing how lucky she was. "Alice, of course you will, you are amazing and the right guy is going to come along and realize that. Come on, I don't want to keep him waiting, I think he is ready to go."
The girls went into the hallway of the event center, saying goodbye and Bella walked up to her boyfriend of 4 years.
"Hey handsome, ready to go?"
He smiled at her and nodded, leading her out to the car. The ride to her home was silent, but Bella didn't think anything of it, they were both tired, it had been a long but good night. Edward pulled his Volvo into her drive and opened the car door for her. As they stood on her porch she leaned against him, and reached up for a kiss, but he pulled away. She looked up at him, confused – he had never pulled back from her before.
"Hon, everything okay?"
He took a deep breath and her heart began to beat wildly – she was not having a good feeling about this.
"Bella, we can't do this. Long distance just isn't going to work. We can't make it work, I mean, we are only 18," he said, running his hand through his hair. She could hardly breathe, not wanting to believe what she was hearing. "We're too young, we can't tie ourselves down like this. We don't know what love is. I wish you the best."
And with that, without even a look back, he walked back to his car, and backed down the driveway, leaving her watching his tail lights drive away. She sank down on the porch steps, not caring that she was probably ruining her dress. Bella wasn't sure how long she sat there, sobbing and her heart shattered into a million pieces. She knew she was young, but that was the only guy she had ever dated, the major part of her life for so long, and honestly, the only one she ever wanted for the rest of her life and he clearly no longer wanted her- it hurt so bad it was nearly a physical pain. After a time, her mother came out and took her inside. The next two weeks were torture, seeing him every day, and seeing the looks on Alice's and her classmates faces. She looked forward to graduation, so she wouldn't have to see him anymore and she tried to convince herself that she hated him, that it was a good thing they weren't together anymore. But, she didn't succeed; she was pretty sure that deep down she may never get over him, that a piece of her would always belong to him.
BPOV- Present Day
Bella was at a loss at what to say during the car ride back to her apartment. What was she supposed to say? She was pretty sure that 'Hey Edward, I still am madly in love with you and want to marry you and have babies and wake up to you every morning for the rest of my life' may not go over very well at that point in their friendship. She groaned internally, hating the feeling of confusion and awkwardness that she felt with Edward. This man was her best friend for 8 years of her life, the one she could talk to about anything and her first and only love, she thought it wouldn't be that hard to just say something, anything. But, she just could not get her mouth to open and any words to come out. And wasn't she crazy for wanting back the guy that hurt her like that, who left without a really good explanation? Not to mention his sucky timing.
Before she knew it or had formulated any plan for their conversation, they were in her apartment, sitting on her couch, just staring at each other. Edward looked nervous as well and she suddenly didn't know what she wanted him to say. Did she want him to regret breaking up with her? Common sense would say yes, but she didn't want him to have kept emotional distress for all these years, causing him any sort of pain. Great, she thought, I've lost it, that is completely crazy.
"Well-" they both started at the same time and then stopped, laughing nervously. She gestured for him to go first, smiling slightly.
He ran a hand through his hair, then took a deep breath. "Bella, you have no idea how much I regretted that night. I just thought that if we were so far away, it wouldn't work, something would happen and we wouldn't be happy. I wanted to protect you and keep you happy, not stick you in a long distance relationship for four years when you could move on, find someone else and be happy."
Bella just stared at him. "So, instead of talking to me about it and asking how I felt, you just made decisions for the both of us on your own?" She didn't want to make him upset, but it ticked her off that he wouldn't even ask her how she felt about their situation. Granted, it was 6 years ago, but if they were going to have a relationship, they needed to get past this- and she really wanted them to have a relationship again.
He nodded. "I knew it was a mistake after graduation. I probably knew it was a mistake before I even said anything, but I didn't admit it to myself until I saw you leave after graduation, knowing that was the last time I'd probably ever see you expect for a hello every so often at reunions. Bella, I'm so sorry. I wanted to talk to you, but I thought I had hurt you too badly and I didn't want to confuse you and thought you'd move on to someone more deserving. I should have talked to you about it and not let my fears get ahold of me."
"Dang right," she responded, softening her response with a smile. While she didn't like his methods, she could see where he was coming from in a twisted logic kind of way. "So, what do we do now?"
Edward looked at her nervously. "If you haven't decided I'm a giant screw up, then I'd like another chance. As soon as Emmett said your name and I realized you weren't married or seeing anyone, I was so happy. I want another chance Bella, I really do."
She was quiet for a minute. "Edward, I do as well. We haven't seen or talked in 6 years, so if we date, we'll have to get to know each other again. Just promise if down the road you get the idea in your head about making decisions for us you will talk to me? We can't do this if we don't communicate or trust each other. We have bigger things to deal with now, we aren't in high school anymore."
She watched as his eyes light up and she smiled. They spent the rest of the night talking and catching up on six missed years. After Edward left, Bella climbed into her bed and fell asleep happy and excited for not only her new relationship with Edward and the first day of teaching Monday.
A/N: Review please! Next chapter will be the girls reactions and the first day of school!
