The dawn was about to hit and I had the best seat on the Olympic Peninsula. In that moment, I was happy where I was: Mount Olympus. Surrounded by water on three sides, the peninsula offered awesome water features for the sun to rise and fall over. At the rate the light intensity was increasing, I knew the sun would break over the horizon in 2.365 minutes.

I smelled Rosalie and Alice before I saw them. I pulled myself out of the snow to greet them as they whirled before me. Rosalie hesitated. I could tell she didn't know what to say. Her and Emmett were close so this was going to be awkward.

"Logan, your eyes." Rosalie frowned and pointed to my two very blood-red eyes.

"Frowning isn't pretty," I whispered, trying to make a joke. I failed miserably.

"I wonder why they don't turn gold? You certainly have drained enough deer, elk, and bears to qualify as a vegetarian," Rosalie suggested. It had been months since I had last feasted on a human and when I lost control of my eyes, they never turned golden. It saddened me.

Alice turned the tide of the conversation. "I saw you on the roof," she said succinctly. "But I didn't know that was going to occur. Both you and Emmett were, um, changing your minds too fast. I would've stopped you from leaving the cafeteria if…"

I held my hand up to stop Alice. She saw that decision fast enough and stopped talking. I looked away from my sisters and toward the impending dawn. Refusing to make eye contact with them I said, "I had to get it off my chest. I thought it would help me feel better or even maybe, Emmett would feel the…" I didn't finish. Even the words, the thought, the wish was too much for me to even utter at this moment. I felt sick. "Who else knows, you know, everything?"

Alice muttered, "Only Edward and me."

Rosalie interjected then. "Logan, everyone else knows something is up at least. I know Emmett enough that something big is up. He tries to hide it, which means it's big."

"What happened after I left?" I asked.

"Esme gave a verbal berating to the principal over the whole guidance counselor thing and then we left. Emmett was tight-lipped in the car, which gave him away. Carlisle came home from the hospital and the silence in the house spoke louder than words. He thought that someone had a slip up at parent-teacher conferences," Alice explained.

"What about Esme?" I thought that for some reason Esme knew everything. Mothers were like that and Esme, I knew, knew me better than I knew myself.

"She knows, but won't ask. I think she knows that this has to work itself out on its own. It was like this when Carlisle suggested that I mate with Edward and later with Emmett. I won't lie to you, a strange cloud will permeate the house for now," Rosalie cautioned.

"Rose!" Alice began. "This is way different than you and Edward or Emmett. Nobody expressed the interest or feelings that Logan does for Emmett. This is going to be way different." Alice was right.

"Great…" Rosalie said to herself.

"Look Rose, I'm sorry for causing this situation, but it is what it is." I was incensed at Rosalie's narcissism.

"It's just," Rosalie started, but Alice waved her off.

"Rose, don't," Alice advised.

"No, he has to know." Rosalie could be so headstrong. "Logan, what made you think he would reciprocate? I couldn't tell you the amount of females that he's been with granted none of them stuck. Did you know that he's had 'relations' with Irina on a thousand occasions?"

I fought the urge to growl. "But it doesn't change how I feel and how I feel when I'm around him. It's like there is this connection. His proximity and especially his touch sets my heart, body, and soul alight. I can't concentrate when I'm around him because there is this electricity that courses through my body. It so distracting."

Rosalie picked some dirt out of her nail. "If I would have known this would happened, I would not have gone alone with the others. I just thought you just had like, a crush."

Meanwhile, Alice was observing a very interesting boulder over her shoulder. I knew she had something to say. It was written all over her crinkled brow. I stared at her until she opened her mouth to speak. "Logan, is it like your body is getting a massage, but no one is touching you? Like your eternally relaxed, but tense—all at the same time."

I nodded. It was all the communicated need for Alice to begin searching the future for an outcome that wouldn't break my heart. She walked away to be alone with her thoughts. Perhaps she was trying to protect me from the grimace that was taking over her face. The future didn't look well.

"What?" Rosalie was still stuck on the massage thing. It would be confusing for her. She had never been in love, true love that is. She never really loved that human man that destroyed her life. She just didn't know it at the time.

"Yeah and it sucks. I can't be around him without getting drunk it seems." I knew that much was a sure bet.

"Then what will you do?" Rosalie asked. "You're not going to leave, are you?"

"The thought did cross my mind, but where would I go? At least being miserable here is better than being miserable and alone. I mean—I am alone, but…"

"You're not alone…" Rosalie grabbed me in a hug, which surprised me. Rosalie wasn't the most affectionate vampire on the block. I appreciated it all the same.

We raced down the mountain and into the house. Esme and Carlisle were conversing in the kitchen, but they stopped when I jumped out of the tree and through the kitchen window. I opened it for Alice and Rosalie who popped in.

"Hey guys," I said timidly as I walked passed them. Rosalie and Alice stayed behind. I turned quickly to look at them and everyone seemed to be biting their tongues. I continued to my destination: my room. I need a hot shower and to get ready for school. I came around the corner and saw Edward standing in his room immersed in a book.

I continued around another corner and his scent increased exponentially. And there he was… Sitting on the floor outside my bedroom door. He got up and straightened himself out.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," I replied and walked past him. I walked into my room and Emmett would have followed if I didn't close my door in his face. I stood there for a minute refusing to move. Emmett did the same. Eventually, Emmett walked away and I heard him walk down stairs. I shook myself out of it and entered my bathroom. The scalding water felt great on my depressed skin.

I would have stayed there all day, but Rosalie busted herself into my bathroom, covering her eyes of course. "Hurry up, we don't want to be late to school."

"Fuck school," I replied curtly.

"Language!" I heard Esme say from the kitchen below.

"Sorry, Esme."

Rosalie started to tap her foot. I shut off the water and grabbed a towel to dry off. I wrapped the towel around my torso and exited the shower. I met Rosalie's eyes, but she said nothing. Walking into my bedroom I saw none other than Emmett Cullen sitting on my bed with his head down and his hand cupped in the other.

"Can I help you?" I tried to say softly, but as soon as I finished I noticed the sarcasm all too much.

Emmett raised his head and gave me a once over with his eyes. I saw his eyes darken and he hesitated. He probably felt uncomfortable with me being just a towel after "the conversation." I put my hands on my hips and waited until he spoke.

"Nah, I'm good," Emmett said.

"Well, you'll pardon me while I get dress for another wonderful day." I grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him up and out of the room.

I closed the door when he started to say, "But what about…"

Click! The lock would never hold a vampire especially one so huge and muscular like Emmett Cullen, but the symbol wasn't lost on anyone in the house. I knew this because the house was dead silent.

"He was talking about me," Rosalie said as she sat at my desk.

I rubbed my hands together trying to get the paralyzing electricity out of them. The more it dissipated, the more I wanted it back. I looked up at Rosalie and mouthed the words, "Even when I'm hurt and mad, I can't even touch him. He affects me so much. "

Rosalie responded with raised eyebrows.

I walked into my closet to pull clothes out. Rosalie joined me and before I could object to her presence, she mouthed, "Please, I'm going to make you look fierce."

"Are you on Team Logan then?" I mouthed back.

A wink was Rosalie's only response. She did make me look fierce. She proceeded to dress me in nothing more than a royal blue v-neck and a pair of brand new jeans, which she surreptitiously tore at key locales to create the illusion they were old jeans. Both were tight in exactly the right places.

I felt a little underdressed given that the Olympic Peninsula in late October wasn't the warmest or driest place. I was about to voice my concern, but Rosalie put her finger to my lips and said, "No, the shirt stays. It color shows off your eyes and the 'v' of your torso."

I looked down at my well-defined muscles and had an errant thought. "You mean man-cleavage?" I laughed a little.

"Fat men have that!" Rosalie corrected, but let out a giggle.

I gathered up my stuff and went down to the garage to see Edward and Jasper in the back of the Mustang and Alice in the front-passenger seat. Good insurance that Emmett wouldn't join me in the Mustang for the first time in months.

Rosalie came up behind me and I asked her, "Team Logan?" She backhanded me as she passed and jumped into the Emmett's jeep.

I got into my Mustang and backed it out into the garage.

Emmett barreled out of the house and into the garage, but stopped. He and I made eye contact for a second before I took off. I heard Rosalie say, "Come one big boy. Drive me to school."

The ride to school was obviously different than it had ever been. I didn't like it, but at the same time it provided me sanctuary from Emmett. As much as I wanted to be near him, my family knew I needed to be away from him. And this is how I knew my family had my back. They had Emmett's back too, but it was okay. I didn't want Emmett to be ostracized by any means, but I too didn't want that fate either.

Emmett passed me on the highway into town and when he parked in the student lot, I made it a point to park elsewhere. Little did I know that I had parked in Nate Farling's spot. As I got out of the Mustang, Nate drove up in his truck honking and throwing expletives that would make Esme's ears bleed. I did the only thing I could think of, I flipped him the bird with one hand and hit the lock button on my key fob with my other hand. The horn beeped and it told the onlookers that shit was going to go down. If fucking Nate Farling wanted to throw down today, then I would quite literally destroy him. He picked the wrong fucking day to mess with a fucked up vampire.

Nate jumped out of his truck and got right into my face. "Move your piece of junk out of my spot or I'm going to move it for you."

I could have bit his face off.

Before I had the chance though, Emmett's hand separated Nate and I. "Back off Nate," Emmett commanded. His temple was throbbing.

Let out an exasperated sigh. "Emmett, I got this."

I snapped my fingers to get Nate's attention. His temple was throbbing too. I had enough of this steroid-infused asshole. "Listen, Natey, I parked here first and I don't see a sign for 'roid Rogers' parking only. If you'd like, I can go inquire in the athletic office about the school's policy on steroid use. Perhaps they can issue out the sign!"

A crowd started to form around us and Nate knew I had him. I warned him, "And if there is so much as a scratch on my car when I leave today, you and I will re-visit our encounter in the woods. Speaking of which, how is your shoulder? Big game this weekend!"

Two sides of Nate's brain were duking it out for supremacy. One side wanted to (try to) kick my ass. And the other side, the more rational side, said to keep the steroids a secret, play in the upcoming game, and therefore, he needed to walk away in the here and now.

I raised my eyebrow. "Have a nice life, dumbass." I turned my back to him and made my way to the stairs.

Nate would have thrown a punch at the back of my head had a few teachers weren't making their way toward the crowd to see what was going on. Emmett left Nate too and caught up with me.

"Hey…" Emmett tried to start, but I cut him off.

"Emmett, I don't need a hero," I spat.

School went by quickly for a change. I was successful at giving Emmett the cold shoulder the whole day and even in gym. I had played it cool around him with only one no-so minor hiccup. After gym, to continue the human façade, Edward, Emmett, and I would always shower in the boys locker room. Today, I needed the normalcy so I took a shower as well. After I finished, I came back to my stuff in the locker room and Emmett had conveniently perched himself right next to me. He disrobed in a flash and the steam that permeated the room gave him a moist sheen. He just sweating sex. My eyes betrayed me when they phased to red and then black. Black equaled lust—either blood or sexual. It was definitely the latter.

Emmett let me know that he knew as well with a little wink and a huge smile. His dimples came out to say hello to.

What the hell!

"Agreed," Edward said from the other side of the locker room.

Anger flooded through me. Why is Emmett torturing me like this? I thought about what he had said on the roof: "I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable." Yeah, right. Is this how it was going to be? Him being beautiful and me being pathetic, pining over something, someone I could never have? So many questions; I'm sick of questions!

Emmett walked into the shower area and I quickly got dressed and packed my bag. As I walked out of the locker room, I ran into Alice, who too was smiling brilliantly. I had enough of smiles too.

"Want to get out of here?" Alice was twirling the keys to my Mustang in her finger.

How the hell did she get those? I wondered.

Edward walked by and intentionally bumped into my shoulder.

Yep, I had my answer.

"Just don't stand there," Alice chirped. "He's getting out of the shower as we speak!"

Yep, and that is all I needed to get the hell out of there.

We took a quick gander around the gym. All the humans were busy doing what humans do (e.g., breath, sweat, and whine), so Alice and I ran like the vampires we were out the door and into the Mustang.

I was going to protest the seating arrangement—I didn't like not driving my Mustang—but Alice cut me off. "You would drive over a cliff. I've already seen it."

"I would not!" I challenged as Alice sped out of the student parking lot.

Alice nodded knowingly. Oh, geez. I'm such a sap.

Alice drove us north to Port Angeles. There wasn't anything for us to do so we drove down to the harbor and watched the boats and ferries scurry about. We sat perched on the hood of the Mustang, both of us were musing in our own little worlds.

"What should I do?" I thought out loud.

"He loves you, Logan," Alice said without looking at me.

I was incredulous. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. He does."

"What do you mean? What have you seen?" Silently, I thanked God for Alice's abilities.

"I haven't seen anything," Alice said. "At least nothing that should be of concern to you."

Then I cursed Alice for not sharing. She was lying.

"Well, okay…" I mused. "How about this—what should I do?"

"Force his hand. Force him to love you back. He's your soul mate. He doesn't love you like a friend. It's more than that.

Forcing Emmett's hand seemed impossible. I mean, I practically threw myself on him last night. One would think that if the other felt the same, he would reciprocate. Emmett didn't. He didn't even seemed fazed by the whole thing. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." Emmett's fucking words blasted through my ears again. Damn him!

"Yep, force his hand," Alice said again. "And you'll get your chance… now."

And there was Emmett's scent. The damn fellow followed us all the way up here. I watched him walk at a human's pace down the side walk. When he approached, he held out his hand to me. His face was expressionless, unreadable. I didn't know what he wanted, but Alice did. She pulled my car keys out of her pocket and handed them to Emmett. He turned away and buckled himself into the driver's seat. Did I mention that I hated when others drove my Mustang? Emmett honked the horn and I jumped off the hood. Alice knew it was coming and just giggled to herself.

As I opened the door to the passenger side, I pulled the front seat forward so Alice could hop in the back. I may be pissed as hell at Emmett, but there was no way that I was going to sit in the backseat of my own fucking car. I was just too stubborn for that. Besides, the animal could mess up my settings. He already did too. He was adjusting the mirrors. As if he needed mirrors in the first place. At least Alice would be in the car to break the tension that was already seathing out of the car.

"Yeah, no," Alice said as she walked past me and towards the street. "I'm going hunting. Have a nice ride." She turned around to meet my angered face.

I was shooting daggers out of each eye.

Alice's gaze told me what she was thinking. If I didn't know better, I would've believed I had a mind scanner suddenly.

Force his hand, she thought to me.

Yeah, well, what the fuck does that mean?

I groaned loudly and got into the vehicle with Emmett. The car was swirling in his scent so I did my best to not breath.

"Where to boss?" Emmett asked.

I folded my arms. "Anywhere."

Nothing was said in the car until we entered Ocean Shores, which was on the other side of Forks. Emmett drove us to a park near the woods and shut off the car. After a five-minute lull, Emmett spoke first, "Why are you being a douche bag to me?"

I wanted to laugh, but I also wanted to keep my icy exterior.

"What? You aren't going to talk to me now? You know, that hurts, a lot," Emmett admitted.

Oh great, I was totally being the douche bag. Hurting Emmett was the last thing I wanted no matter how I felt.

"Fine. Here." Emmett took the keys out of the ignition and put them in my lap. He got out my car and started to walk away.

"Wait," I said under my breath. He acquiesced. I got out of the car and into the cold wind. "I can't change how I feel and I'm sorry for that. I wish we could just go back before I blew it and told you."

Emmett turned to face me. "It was hurting you more keeping it bottled up. This is the aftermath, the morning after. It sucks now, but in the long run, you'll feel better. I'm sure."

"Morning after?" I almost laughed at the sexual overtone. Jeez, even when I was at my worst with him, he still could make me laugh, or try to at least.

"Well yeah, now the awkward seeps into the friendship. Our goal is not allow that. You're still my best friend, Logan," Emmett's voice was full of conviction. He pulled me into a hug and I wanted to melt into him. I kept myself stiff against his body.

"It's not going to be the same," I said into his chest.

"No, it'll be better," Emmett responded.

"I'm sorry about the way I've acted today. I'm just going to take sometime to get used to the fact you know how I feel about you. I'm probably going to behave weirdly and I'm sorry about that."

"I can take it," Emmett said.

"You drove us all the way down here just for a five minute conversation?" I asked.

"I waited for you to make the first move. You didn't so I stopped here and forced the issue. Besides, the drive back hopefully will be full of normal conversation so I'm happy we have a long drive."

"Yeah, well I'm driving. This is my baby remember?"