Hey everyone! Thank you for your reviews and adds! I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I'm still having computer issues and I hit a big brick wall of writers block. I knew what was going to happen in this chapter, but I was having a hard time getting it down on paper. I think it came together okay, but I'm not so sure. Please let me know what you think and thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with Twilight.


Chapter 8

The next day it was almost as if the last couple of weeks hadn't happened. Andrew and I were meeting at the diner for lunch and I was busy getting ready. Mom had taken Alex to Port Angeles for school clothes shopping, which I would be doing with her this weekend. Dad was at work and I had no idea where Brandon or Braden were, so, I had had the house to myself since after breakfast and I was enjoying the quiet.

I had already showered and was dressed with my hair up in a simple pony tail on the back of my head as I went through shoe organizer trying to find the seemingly missing right shoe of the black flats I wanted to wear with the jeans and dark green sweater I was wearing. It may have been late August, but it was chilly already and once again sweater weather. I rolled my eyes when I found my missing shoe tucked in with a pair of flip flops before I closed the container and slid it back under the bed. I slipped into my shoes before I moved over to my dresser and picked up the locket that Andrew had given me for my birthday.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror after I clasped the chain of the necklace around my neck and brushed my bangs from my eyes before I smiled slightly. I had opted to wear my contacts and, like always, I wanted to look nice when I met up with Andrew and I figured I accomplished that that morning. I grabbed my wallet and my cell phone and tucked them into my jeans pockets before I left my room and then the house, locking the door behind me.

I opted out of "borrowing" Brandon and Braden's car which was still parked along the driveway, and decided to walk to the diner. I was leaving early enough and I could use the exercise since I hadn't gone on any morning runs with my brothers lately.


I was walking along the road, heading towards the diner when I noticed Andrew down at the docks. He was leaning against the railing as he stood on one of the walking docks. I smiled slightly and headed down the path that lead to the docks and made my way to where he stood.

"Drew," I said as I got closer and Andrew straightened and turned around to face me. He smiled and I smiled back before I found myself scooped up into his arms. I laughed as I wrapped my arms around his neck and he lifted me from the dock. He chuckled before he caught my lips with his and kissed me chastely. My right hand found his hair as I sighed against his lips before he settled me back on the dock, but didn't break our kiss as he leaned down and kept his hands on my upper waist. Slowly, he broke our kiss and my hand slipped from his hair as he righted himself and my hands slid down his chest. "That was a nice hello," I said with a smile and he grinned.

"It was, wasn't it?" he asked and I laughed as I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him, my head resting on his chest. I heard him sigh softly as he wrapped his left arm around my waist and hugged me back, while his right hand went to the back of my neck. He kissed the top of my head before he rested his chin on the top of my head. "How's your day been?"

"Good, but it's even better now," I said quietly and he hummed in agreement as his left hand ran up and down my back.

"You hungry?" he asked me softly and I pulled away from him slightly. His arms left me as I stepped back and turned to look out at the ocean in front of us, my hands resting on the weathered wood of the railing.

"A little, but could we stand here for a bit?" I asked quietly before I looked at him. He smiled and nodded his head before he mirrored my stance along the railing, his body close to mine. I smiled at him and rested my head against his arm as I looked out over the horizon.

"Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?" Andrew asked me softly after a few silent minutes between the two of us. I had been looking up at the sky and the sun barely shining through the thin clouds out that day, but my head had still been resting against him. I lifted my head from his arm and turned my head up to look at him, a blush racing across my cheeks, as I laughed quietly and shook my head.

"I'm not beautiful," I said and he cocked an eyebrow as he moved and rested his weight on his left hand that was leaning on the railing. He really did tower over me now and it felt like his body encompassed mine. However, it wasn't intimidating like one would think it should be. It was actually comforting and I liked the feeling I had whenever he stood close to me like he was. "I'm not," I said lightly. "I'm cute, maybe pretty on occasion, but not beautiful."

"You are beautiful, Liv," he said. "From the inside out and that statement right there makes you even more beautiful." He raised his right hand to my face and leaned down to me. His lips barely brushed mine but he didn't get much farther than that.

"Andrew," came a deep voice and the two of us pulled apart only to turn and see DJ standing a few feet away from us, his arms over his chest. Despite the weather, he was shirtless and dressed in a pair of basketball shorts and tennis shoes.

"What do you want, DJ?" Andrew asked tightly as he straightened up and moved to stand in front of me, blocking my view of his brother; but I looked around him and saw DJ uncross his arms as he walked towards us, shaking the dock a bit as he did so.

"You weren't supposed to leave the house today," DJ said.

"So, what, did Dad send you out to track me down?" Andrew asked.

"No," DJ said, his voice even. "I was . . . out for a run when I saw you guys."

"Sure you were," Andrew said, sounding far more pissed off than he should have been.

"I was," DJ said with a smirk and I walked around Andrew to stand at his side. DJ's eyes went to me and he gave me a small smile. "Liv," he said with a slight nod of his head.

"Hi DJ," I said.

"Why don't you head on home," DJ ordered more than asked and I opened my mouth to respond, but Andrew cut me off.

"Don't tell her what to do," Andrew said as he took a step towards his brother and DJ raised an eyebrow while I reached out and took hold of Andrew's right forearm. However, he just shook my hands off and walked over to his brother before he shoved DJ's chest, surprisingly making DJ stumble back a bit. "Just get the hell out of here."

"Relax, little brother," DJ said as he held up his hands and glanced at me quickly before he returned his eyes to Andrew.

"You know, I'm sick and tired of you and Dad telling me what do," Andrew said. "You're not going to tell Liv what to do."

"Drew, it's okay," I said, but he didn't pay any attention to me. He just reared back and punched DJ hard in the face, actually knocking DJ down onto the dock. I gasped and ran over to Andrew and took hold of his arm again.

"What the hell is going on?" came a voice I knew well. It was Dad, but I kept my attention on Andrew.

"Drew, you need to calm down. You're blowing this way out of proportion," I shouted as I gripped his trembling arm, but Drew shoved me off of him. He shoved me so hard I fell back. I slipped on the damp dock and went over the railing of the dock and into the chilly water, hitting my head on the edge of the dock as I went.

I gasped as I broke the surface of the water, the pain in my head making the world around me a little fuzzy as I looked up to see DJ at the edge of the dock, relief filling his face before worry settled in his eyes as he held out a hand to me. I reached out with my right hand and weakly took hold of DJ's warm hand before he enclosed my hand in his and pulled me out of the water with ease.

"Liv, are you okay?" DJ asked as he settled me on the dock. I nodded and tried to sit up only to have the world spin and I fell back against DJ. "Whoa," he said softly as he tightened his hold on me. I closed my eyes and sighed heavily. I felt like I was going to throw up and even with my eyes closed everything felt like it was still spinning.

"I feel sick," I said softly as I laid my head against his warm chest and the next thing I knew DJ had picked me up bridal style. I kept my eyes closed and my head against DJ's body as he carried me.

"Is she okay?" I heard someone ask, I recognized Brandon's voice.

"No," DJ said quickly. "You got your truck? You need to get her to the hospital."

"Yeah," Brandon bit out and DJ's pace quickened. "I'm going to fucking kill him."

"He didn't mean it," I said weakly as I opened my eyes and saw my brother walking beside DJ. Brandon looked at me, a scowl on his face.

"I don't give a shit," Brandon said. He tended to swear when he was seriously pissed off. "The next time I see him, his ass is mine."

"Brandon, I'm okay," I said.

"The fuck you are," Brandon said as he opened the front passenger door of his truck so violently, I thought he was going to tear the door from the hinges. "You're bleeding from the side of your head and you can't even sit up." I didn't know I was bleeding, but the fact that it felt like there was a jackhammer pounding on the side of my skull, I shouldn't have been surprised. DJ settled me in the seat and even put my seatbelt on me.

"Here," DJ said softly as he pulled a cloth from somewhere and pressed it to the right side of my head. I winced and hissed softly. "Just hold that there, okay?" he asked and I nodded slightly as I put my hand on the cloth, holding it to the side of my head while DJ moved away and Brandon closed the door. I sighed and closed my eyes as I tried to push away the nausea I was feeling.

"You keep your brother away from my sister, DJ," I heard Brandon's muffled voice say.

"Like I haven't tried to before," DJ said back, "and besides, after today I don't think we'll have to worry about him disobeying Dad again." I didn't even have the energy to try and figure out what that was supposed to mean.

"Yeah, well, like I said," Brandon said, "next time I see him, he's mine; and you can tell him I said that."

"Whatever, Brandon, just get Liv to the hospital," DJ said and seconds later Brandon was in the truck and speeding down the road. We didn't say anything to each other as he drove and I couldn't get my mind off Andrew. I didn't know why DJ showing up made him so angry, and I was more concerned about him than I was about myself. I was going to be fine, but if Brandon made good on his word, I wasn't so sure that Andrew was going to be.


For a little over a week after the whole dock incident, I had tried to call Andrew. However, my calls all went straight into his voicemail and I gave up after leaving my twelfth message. Brandon and Braden were MIA, but when I asked Mom and Dad just told me that they were working; which made no sense since Dad was home. However, I knew why Dad was home. He barely let me out of his sight the first two days, only leaving me on my own when I was in the bathroom or my bedroom. It wasn't until Mom told him that I wasn't going to disappear that he finally went back to work and stopped hovering.

I had suffered a mild concussion and it had taken three small stitches to seal the cut on the right side of my head, just at my hairline. When I got home from the hospital, Mom and Alex were already home but Dad and Braden weren't. Brandon left shortly after he made sure I was in Mom's capable hands. Mom immediately started fussing over me the second I was in the door. Even Alex seemed concerned and was helping Mom get me settled in my room. I tried to tell them I was fine, and that they didn't need to fuss, but they ignored me.

For once I had to the house to myself. Dad was at work and Mom had gone to the grocery store, with Alex in tow. Since I finally had a few minutes to myself for the first time in a week, I decided to actually call the Uley house to see if I could talk to Andrew. I wanted to find out if he was okay and to tell him that I was fine and that I wasn't angry with him for what happened. So, I dialed the familiar number and waited.

"Hello," came Emily's voice after the fourth ring and I plastered on a smile.

"Hi, Emily, it's Liv," I said.

"Oh, hi, Liv," Emily said lightly.

"Is Drew around?" I asked and I heard Emily sigh heavily.

"He is, but I'm afraid he can't talk right now," Emily said.

"Please could I talk to him, Emily?" I asked. "I really need to talk to him and it'll only take a minute." It felt like an eternity before I heard her sigh once more.

"Okay, but only for a minute," Emily said.

"Thank you," I said and I heard shuffling on the other end and muffled voices before I finally heard his voice.

"Liv, I'm so, so, sorry," Andrew said gently, sounding as if he was struggling to speak to me.

"Don't be," I said. "Drew, I'm fine. I really am."

"I can't see you anymore, Liv," he said after several quiet seconds.

"What?" I asked; my heart feeling like it fell to my feet as I stood in the kitchen.

"I can't see you anymore," he said again.

"Are you kidding?" I asked, not really believing that I had heard him right.

"I'm sorry," he said again.

"Drew, what happened was a freak thing," I said. "You were pissed at your brother and I should have known better than to get in the middle of it. You don't have to break up with me because of what happened."

"I'm not breaking up with you because of that, Liv," he said.

"Then what is it?" I asked. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because this isn't going to work," he said. "I shouldn't have things get that far on Saturday. I should have just took your hand and walked away. Because of me you got hurt, and I don't want anything like that to happen again."

"Drew, it's not going to happen again," I said, my voice shaking as I fought back the tears that filled my eyes.

"You're right," he said. "It's not going to happen again because we're not going to see each other anymore." It sounded like the words actually pained him to say, and I didn't want to believe them because of that.

"Drew, please don't do this," I said as a few tears rolled down my cheeks.

"I have to," he said.

"Did I do something?" I asked. "Did I do something wrong to make you want to end this?"

"No," he said sternly. "You didn't do anything and I never said I wanted to end it, Liv."

"Then why are you?" I asked, my voice raising and echoing off the walls of the kitchen.

"Because I have to," he said. "I can't hurt you anymore than I already have."

"And ending things like this isn't going to hurt me?" I asked.

"I'm sorry," he said yet again and I rolled my eyes.

"Sure you are. Did you even mean it when said you loved me?" I asked bitterly.

"I wouldn't have said it, Liv, if I didn't mean it," he said lowly.

"Forgive me if I don't believe you," I said. "Was this all some kind of joke?"

"No," he said tightly and I laughed sarcastically as I wiped at my face with my free hand, but the tears refused to stop falling.

"Whatever," I said. "I thought my dad and my brothers were wrong about you, Drew, but they weren't. Goodbye." I hung up the phone and slammed the cordless receiver down onto the counter before I lowered my head and let out a soft sob.

"Liv?" came Brandon's voice and I lifted my head to see him and Braden standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

"You two finally got what you wanted. Drew just broke up with me," I said through my tears and their shoulders slumped slightly as they shared a look and then looked back at me. Neither one seemed particularly surprised. "I hope both of you are happy," I said as I walked towards the doorway and shoved past them before I ran upstairs.

"Liv!" Braden yelled, but I ignored him and slammed my bedroom door shut before I threw myself on my bed and let myself cry in earnest.