*** I do not own the twilight series or characters.

Chapter nine

I drove back towards Charlie's place feeling rather pleased and surprisingly light hearted given my major decision I had just made. After all, that was almost three years of time that I had just laid to rest.

My mood improved even more after seeing a Volkswagon Rabbit parked in Charlie's drive way, a rather smug looking Jacob leaning against the side of it. "Bella!" he yelled. "Bella I have this great idea!" He just looked so excited I couldn't help but grin at him.

"Ok Jake but first I need you to help me with something" I replied. He looked at me confused for a moment as I broke into a fit of laughter, feeling lighter than I had in longer than I could remember. "I need your help moving Kevyn's stuff out."

For a moment there was shocked silence. And then with a shriek I thought only girls could make, Jake picked me up in a bear hug, squeezing until I begged him for some oxygen. "Great job Bells, I knew you were strong enough! Now let's go get that scum bags stuff out of your house."

Excited at the prospect of hanging out with my best friend for at least the next couple days, I wrote a hasty note to Charlie explaining my need to head home and we took off, driving separately and making a game out of the long drive by seeing how many times we could cause the other to have to break. Now usually I was not quite so careless, my mother Renae always telling me I was her middle aged child, but just the feeling of being free had set this whole new Bella out in the open.

We arrived back at my apartment, I took one look at it and decided that maybe I was not quite as ready to throw everything out as I thought. I broke down, sobbing while Jacob came through the door and just wrapped his overheated body around mine. I cried for my loss of Kevyn, for the pain he inflicted on me, for what I had to look forward to, and for the unknown that was always so scary for me.

Finally after what seemed like hours my crying turned to mere sniffles and I looked up, realizing Jacob was still there, a look of pain and helplessness on his face. "I am so sorry Bella, tell me what I can do to help" he whispered.

"Make me laugh" I simply replied. And that he did. By the end of the night we were eating pizza, playing RockBand and making complete fools out of ourselves. I found myself trying to stay awake and Jacob picked me up and placed me in my bed, crawling in next to me.

"Jake," I complained, "what do you think you are doing?"

He just laughed, "Relax Bella, I won't try anything." I don't think I was supposed to hear the rest but as I was drifting to sleep I swore I heard, "at least not yet."

I woke up sticky and hot, realizing that Jacob's body was still lying next to mine and he was radiating pure heat. I threw the covers off and instead of trying to get some more sleep I tip-toed out of the room and went to the kitchen. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and fed the cat, started some coffee and took a peak outside to see what kind of day I was going to have. As weird as it sounds so often my mood is greatly effected by the weather. If it was sunny I was almost bound to have a good day, and if it was rainy or cloudy, well usually put quite the damper on it.

Today was going to be a good day. The sun peeking through the morning clouds were welcoming me and I decided that first thing first was to get all new bedroom stuff. I couldn't imagine continuing to sleep in the same sheets as I did with Kevyn. Just his name was causing me to flinch at this point.

Once Jacob woke up we headed out shopping, both of us dreading it but knowing it had to be done. I found myself constantly trying to find the colors of autumn. Red and browns for that angels beautiful hair, yellows and golds that reminded me of his eyes. I shook myself back into focus, noticing Jacob looking at me with a smirk. "What?" I snapped at him, causing him to burst out in laughter.

"Nothing, it's just I had this whole conversation with you and the whole time you were looking at the sheets like you wanted to make out with them!" he said laughing loudly.

I playfully smacked him and decided that if I was so happy just imagining Edward that I certainly sleep void of any nightmares. I picked out a set of brown sheets with yellow/gold trim and a deep red comforter. I threw in a couple of matching rugs and even some brown curtains to help keep the sun from shining through in the morning. It was a lot sunnier here than in Forks after all.

Pleased with my purchases for the day we headed back to my place for a quick lunch, noticing that if Jacob was to stay here much longer I would surely be eaten out of the house. I was so excited to put my new room together that it couldn't wait and as I placed everything in it's rightful spot Jacob took care of the old reminders of Kevyn. "I think you are having a little too much fun doing this" I smirked at him, watching as he was literally shredding the sheets to pieces and then throwing them forcefully into the trash.

He looked up at me and grinned, "what, I can't help that I am just thrilled you are rid of that piece of scum."

I smiled outwardly however it still hurt to be reminded of my loss, no matter how bad he was for me. I was determined to put my memories and feelings of hurt in a Kevyn drawer and lock it up, so that night we once again did nothing but laugh. We watched movies until I was straining my eyes to stay open and quickly fell asleep listening to Jacob's heavy breathing as he too slept on the floor next to me.

**Now all you ExB fans, do not fear! I promise that he is coming back soon and yes I am keeping cannon pairings! Be ready for the next chapter where I introduce some more characters and a little more Edward!