This chapter is just a little guy, but he packs a punch. I'll submit the next one right away when this one goes up, so you won't have to wait too long!

Thanks for reading. No, for real. I love you.

Thanks to jajo for being a super junior validation beta! Thanks to Project Team Beta for hooking me up with twanza and sandandsirens, who are taking this story to a whole new level of awesome (or trying really hard to, despite my sentence structure issues and flagrant misuse of words). You two are ze best.

Thanks to RoseArcadia for the banner and the forum thread!

Disclaimer: Twilight isn't mine.

Bella

I wake up late, smiling and feeling like I'm on top of the world. That is until I open my eyes. I'm alone and it's hot, and my stomach clenches as I flash through the last night. I bolt upright in bed.

Why am I alone?

I hear water running in the bathroom and relief washes over me as I roll out of bed.

"Edward?" I ask as I peer into the open bathroom door. He grins at me, brushing his teeth with my toothbrush and I can't contain my happiness. I run over and hug him hard and look in the mirror. We look sexed. Relaxed. Together.

I suppress the urge to squeal like a schoolgirl as he grabs my hips and sits me up on the counter. I brush my teeth while he kisses my forehead, eyelids and earlobes. I trail one hand up his shirt and down is chest, hooking it in the waistband of his shorts and pulling him closer.

My stomach chooses that moment to growl loudly.

"What time is it?" I wonder with my mouth full of toothpaste.

"Noon," he says, playing with the ends of my hair. I hop down off the counter and spit in the sink.

"I'm starving," I say, rubbing my stomach through my thin t-shirt.

"Me too."

"I can't cook," I remind him.

"I can," he smiles. I'm impressed, but a bit skeptical. I briefly consider going to Rose's but bet they're done with breakfast, and don't know if I'm ready to face the Spanish Inquisition just yet. I thank god my unused kitchen is stocked.

He makes an omelet while I sit on the counter next to him suggestively eating a banana. We kiss and eat and touch each other the whole time. I'm whole. He's teasing me, but it's not cocky and we definitely aren't just friends anymore.

I don't let myself dwell on this, though. I don't need to define it to make it real, to make last night real.

And the man can actually cook, which makes him that much hotter.

When we finally descend to the beach, our friends break into applause and catcalls. They almost seem relieved, like everything has settled into place. Or maybe I'm projecting.

Either way, I can't keep the grin off of my face. I look over and he has the same expression playing at his lips. We jump in the water and find each other, mirroring our position from the night before and slowly bobbing around in circles.

It's the best day ever.

July goes fast and I'm happy. So happy it would be annoying if we weren't surrounded by equally happy people. Edward and Emmett have practically moved in with us, spending every night at our cabins. We do everything together. It's bliss.

In the back of my mind, though, I'm acutely aware that this will end in a few weeks. We all have to get back to school and Edward and Emmett are going to have to go back early for the start of football practice. We try not to talk about it, but when early August arrives, I can feel the sadness in our daily activities. It's like the date reminds us that time exists, and is going by fast. I start to notice that we have awkward silences when we're all together, and we don't laugh as much. Edward and I spend more and more time alone, and so do the other couples. I wonder if we're trying to get our fill before it ends.

I start to wonder about Texas and if I would like it there, but Edward doesn't bring it up. I try not to let it hurt, but it does a little. I have the means and the grades to get into any school I want. I don't live that close to my dad anyway, so a few extra states wouldn't be that big of a deal. I consider what's tying me to Seattle, and wonder how tied he is to Texas, but we don't talk about it. It just sits there.

A few days later at breakfast Alice announces she's moving to L.A., and Rose announces she's moving to Texas. I'm so happy for my friends that I cry and hug them.

I don't have an announcement.

That afternoon I'm in the kitchen making lunch - it's been determined that I can be trusted with sandwiches. Rose and Jasper come in from the beach, bantering back and forth about something or other, as usual. Jasper gets a beer from the fridge and leans against the counter. Rose sits watching me spread mustard on the bread. It's weirdly quiet, especially with the two of them in the same room. I look up and find them appraising me.

"What?" I say, a little annoyed. There is pity in their faces, like the way people looked at me after my mom died.

"Bells, we're just a little worried about you, that's all," Rose starts. I hate the maternal tone in her voice.

"And why is that?" I snort. I realize that I sound like an insolent teenager but can't stop. I use excessive force to screw the lid back on a jar of pickles.

Rose is speaking quietly, like you would to a scared animal. I'm known for being a little bit of a hothead and I recognize that she's trying to avoid pissing me off. It's not working.

She looks sideways at Jasper and continues, "Shit. Okay, so Emmett has been telling me some things about Edward, and how things are in Texas, at school and stuff, and I'm just wondering-"

"Seriously?" I interrupt. "You think I don't know this? Look, I'm not moving there. We haven't discussed it. At all. As far as I'm concerned this is just a summer thing," I lie, my chest aching despite my defiant tone.

Her voice hardens then; I can see that the Swan temper is going to flare, regardless of her attempts to keep me calm. "I know you, Bella, and I see the way you look at him, and I just want you to be prepared." She doesn't say for what, but it doesn't matter, because I know.

"Yeah, well I am. So just … whatever." I grab the sandwiches and go back down to the beach. I'm not hungry anymore. He's sitting in a lounge chair, maybe sleeping. He doesn't look up when I sit down on the dock across the beach. I watch him for a while and this icky, uncertain feeling that I've been suppressing, settles into my chest. I think I'm trying to figure out what he is, who he is. The person that I met last month isn't the same person sitting on the beach. He looks up just then.

"What are you doing all the way over there?" He strolls over, a little sweaty from the sun, picking me up and kissing me hard.

Rose and Jasper come down the stairs and I don't look at them.

That night for the first time in a month Edward and I don't have sex. We just hold each other all night. I have a hundred things to say and two hundred questions, but no words. I can't sleep.

The next day is the worst day ever.

Tanya looks like a supermodel. Her accent twangs and her cutoff shorts hang on her hips just right. She shows up that morning, running down the beach from Esme's cabin and into Edward's arms.

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