Leah walked up to the front door straight from the forest and knocked.

"The door's open, Leah!" I yelled as I threw a fuzzy blanket across the back of the sofa and trailed into the kitchen in search of my coffee.

"Summer?" Leah called in the entrance way. I popped my head around the corner of the kitchen.

"Hey, come on in. I'm not dressed yet, but I'll be ready to go soon," I explained. I heated my coffee in the microwave before taking it and padding down to my bedroom. I kicked my slippers off, stripped my pajamas, and dressed quickly in my jeans and soft black sweater. When I opened my bedroom door, I called Leah in while I put on my makeup.

"God, this room reeks like my brother," Leah drawled as she sat on the edge of my made bed and crossed her ankles. She lounged back on her elbows and stared at me as I applied mineral foundation to my face.

"Well," I chuckled. "He spends the most time in here. I'll have to try to remember to air it out next time for your delicate senses," I drawled sarcastically. Leah smirked; I started sweeping on eyeshadow and liner.

"Where are we going today anyway?" Leah asked as I swiped on blush, lipgloss, and put everything away hurriedly.

"Colt and his friend Toby have something to do, so I'll drive them to Port Angeles. I figured we could shop or something for the rest of the day, get some lunch, and then come back here and watch sappy movies. Do you want to spend the night?"

"Um…" Leah hesitated. I watched her expectantly. She shrugged. "Sure?" It sounded like a question.

"Well you either want to or you don't," I said simply as I grabbed my purse and flicked off the light. We went down the hall and into the living room where Colton and Toby were waiting.

"I want to," Leah decided. I locked up the house and we piled into my little car before I started off for Port Angeles. I put on girl power songs so that Leah would enjoy the ride a little more, and I actually caught a few smiles from her along the way.

When I pulled into Port Angeles, Toby directed me to the area of town he and Colt wanted to be in. I pulled up to the pier and put the car in park as I turned around to look at Colton. His big green eyes stared back at me, open and honest, knowing that I was instantly going protective mother-hen on him.

"Got your phone?" I asked. He held it up for my inspection. I nodded. "Get out. I'll pick you two up at three."

"Awesome, thanks Summer," Toby told me as he hopped out.

"Love you, Sum," Colton told me quietly.

"Love you, too," I called as he got out and shut his door. I felt Leah's eyes on me as I pulled out. "What?"

"He really likes you. Your brother," she elaborated. I turned the music down a little and shrugged.

"We're pretty much it for each other. He kind of has to like me," I explained. Leah nodded.

"Yeah, Seth mentioned your parents," Leah whispered. I glanced at her, shocked.

"He did?" I asked, surprised. Leah's left shoulder popped up quickly before going back down.

"He didn't really mean to. We hear each other's thoughts in wolf form. No one really wants their thoughts read, but it just happens."

"Hmm," I murmured. The wolf telepathy was new information. I pulled up to a strip of stores. "Well, we are here to shop. I'm not the only one who is going to try on clothes, so put that in your mind right now. If you end up liking something, I'm buying it for you, no exceptions." Leah's eyes widened just the slightest as she looked at my fierce glare.

"You know, you can be kind of scary if you try," Leah decided as we climbed out of the car. I smirked, locked the vehicle, and we headed in to the shops.

Our day passed in one of those movie-montage ways where the main girl stars go shopping at a mall and try on ridiculous outfits and laugh and giggle all day. It was obnoxiously cliché, but Leah seemed to need the girl time more than I had originally anticipated. I found that I liked her a hell of a lot more than my first impression had shown me, and she was really the one true friend that I had made since moving in to our latest safehouse. Other than Seth and my brother, and the few acquaintances I had at Forks High, Leah was pretty much it.

At lunch, we started the heavy stuff, and our moods turned somber and almost mournful.

"Sam and I dated for a long time," Leah began as she stirred her chocolate milkshake. Her lips were etched into a dreary frown across her pretty tan face, and her eyes stared just past mine, remembering and reliving. "Everyone was pretty convinced we were going to get married. I think we were just waiting until graduation, and then he was going to propose. I thought my life was close to perfect. He was everything.

"And then he got sick, and stopped talking to me. When he finally did come around, he wasn't the same. He was distant. My cousin Emily came up for a visit, and that's the last time Sam was truly mine." Leah's dark eyes found mine suddenly, and they were full of anger, hatred, agony, sadness, and bitterness, all roiling inside of her. "I had to find out later that he was seeing Emily in the trees. Then he…they had a horrible accident, and he scarred her face. She was in the hospital, and then they were publically together."

I waited for a long while, just watching Leah, before I knew she was ready for me to speak. Our lunch was gone, the bottom of Leah's milkshake was melted, and my water stood in front of me, half full.

"Tyler had always been there, for as long as I can remember. There wasn't a day that went by that he wasn't with me. We did everything together; I played cars and swords and he played Barbie and house. Our parents were all best friends and had grown up with each other. When we got to high school, it just seemed natural that we would date. Everything about our relationship was perfect. He brought me flowers when I stayed home sick; I cooked him dinner on Thursday nights; I was a cheerleader; he was the star quarterback. We were really happy."

Leah's night-dark eyes watched my face. I knew that I was blushing. Talking about Tyler with Seth's sister was just weird, no matter how much I liked her or how close we were becoming.

"What happened? Why did it stop?" Leah asked stiffly. Her posture was ram-rod straight, her eyes troubled as she looked in to mine.

"One night, my dad came home really upset. He asked Tyler to leave, and I went with him." I paused here, biting my lip as I remembered that horrid night with so much regret. "When I got home, my dad was gone, and there was a letter to me on my bed. It said that he was going back to Iraq to finish his tour, and he didn't know if he would be coming home. Two weeks later, we found out he was dead."

"What happened to him?" Leah asked, shocked. I gnawed my lip between my teeth, biting back tears. Strong, tough Leah was the last person I wanted to cry in front of.

"He was killed on duty. And one of his friends stopped by the house after the funeral and handed me a note. It was from my father, telling me that my mother had cheated on him with Tyler's father and that he couldn't live through the pain on her betrayal. His plan was to get killed on their next mission. And he did." I paused here, after my father's death; the story was mostly logic and mechanical for me to tell.

"My mom went nuts. Literally, she pretty much lost her mind. She became a vampire and just shut down emotionally, and then she attacked Colton one night, and I knew that I had to get him out of there. Tyler gave me a ton of his dad's money, said it was all his fault any way, and set up a safehouse for Colton and me in Nevada. When my mom found us, he relocated our safehouse. He's been taking care of us for two years now, and I could never repay him; I couldn't put a price on my brother's well-being. We used to talk every day or every other day on the phone, and I went back home for his dad's funeral.

"When I got there, one of our friends was comforting him. Caroline had always been pretty, but mean and stuck up. She had really changed, and Tyler fell for her. I guess I could kind of see why. But I didn't understand why he would date her when I still thought we were a couple. He said he didn't have the heart to tell me." I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "That boy is such a liar. I cut ties with him and moved Colton on my own, and we've been on our own since August."

Leah didn't say anything for a long time. She stared at me with her dark eyes, and seemed to be searching for something inside of me. We stood together at the same time and moved towards the parking lot to head to a book store close by.

When we were in the deep loveliness of Barnes and Noble, Leah seemed to find herself and her questions.

"How…how do you deal with it?" she asked. I looked up into her face-she was taller than me by a good few inches-and felt my face change into one of confusion.

"Well, first I got pissed. I broke a few things by throwing them at the wall at a friend's house. Then I cried for a while-a few days, I think. I scared Colton half to death. After I calmed down emotionally on the outside, I started by dating any guy I could get in my clutches. I just hooked up randomly with people. I mean, I didn't sleep with them, but we went pretty far. And then one day, Colton just looked at me…like he didn't even know who I was anymore. He hated all of the guys I brought home, and honestly, they were all assholes, but…I just…stopped. And then I met Seth, and since then, I've been able to deal with it a lot better."

Leah seemed to think on that. I took my books up to the counter and paid for them and handed Leah a bag.

"What's this?" she asked. So far, I had only managed to buy her two tops and a new pair of jeans.

"Well, one of those books is for Seth to use for studying. He's been having problems in his English class, so I grabbed a translated copy of his next Shakespeare play. And the other book is for you."

"What's it about?" Leah demanded, looking through the bag. Though her voice was hard, I could see the excitement showing in her face.

"Well, it helped me a lot when I started to feel abandoned. It's this author that I really like, and it's an easy read. I think you might like it," I shrugged. Leah looked at me hard for a long minute. When she threw her arms around me suddenly, books and bag and all, I was shocked, but quickly returned the hug.

Leah pulled away a little gruffly and scratched her twitching left eye.

"So, the cure for having your heart broken is to…find another guy?" she asked me skeptically. I shrugged.

"How do you expect to get over Sam if you never look for a better guy?" I put up. Leah's glare was instant.

"Sam was the best."

"That's what I thought about Tyler."

Our look lasted longer this time, Leah's was piercing and a little confused while mine was mostly defiant. I only wanted her to understand just exactly she was putting herself through.

We walked towards my car slowly, each stewing with our own thoughts. When I unlocked the doors and we climbed in, I paused after I had started the vehicle.

"Leah," I began hesitantly. I felt her eyes on me, but I stared straight out my windshield into the rainy, dreary day outside. "All this that I've told you today…a lot of it is really private."

"Seth doesn't know you mean," she assumed. I nodded cautiously. Leah's heavy sigh made me turn and look at her in question. "I'll try not to think about all you've told me when he's around."

"So you're not going to give me a regaling speech on the wonders of an honest relationship and demand I tell your brother?" I snorted. Leah shrugged with one arm and smirked.

"The way I see it, you're stuck with him either way, honest or not. But it's your call-not my relationship," she stated. I laughed and pulled out of the parking space and headed to the pier to pick up Colton and Toby.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? I know Leah's a little out of character, but I'm doing my best to keep her a little bitter.

Also, this does have a little Vampire Diaries TV show flavor, but I'm only using the Tyler/Caroline relationship-in my own way-and their kind of vampire/werewolf system. Summer and Colton's mother is like a Katherine, but way weirder and worse.