Let me know about any misspellings or grammar mistakes that I make in here. Otherwise I have to go back through every chapter and that will take forever. Be nice and review about how badly I type…don't worry it is an ongoing joke in my family that I can't spell to save my life, I'm not insulted.

Dedication: ERIN, the first to review on my last chapter and the 2nd longest review telling me what I can improve on. (FYI: you have a better chance of getting your name here if you tell me things I can improve on.)

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I checked the piece of paper again, yep, right place. Deep breaths, she is stressed out enough for the both of us. I got out of the car and walked up to the porch, pushed in the white button and waited. Jacob gave me Bella's number and told me that if I set it up, he would let me take the Rabbit to get to the Swans. Bella was overjoyed when I called. She had wanted to talk to me to, but calling the Blacks' would have made things kind of acquired.

Bella appeared at the door, pale as ever, "Hey, um…you want to come in?" At least I wasn't the only one uncomfortable.

"Sure,"

We both sat on the couch. The tension in the air was making my stomach flip.

"So, what is it you wanted to ask me Stephanie?"

"Um, Steph," I corrected, "No one calls me Stephanie unless they are really serious. The questions, well, I was somewhat interested in how you felt about Jake. He is falling apart." Her face fell just like Jake's had when I told him where I wanted to go.

"Jacob and I never really closed. We just ended. I left his house one day and never spoke to him again." She smiled warmly, though I could tell I was picking at wounds here.

"Did Edward tell you about the invitation?" I asked

"No," she tilted her head to one side and looked at me.

"Well, Edward sent Jacob one of your wedding invitations, and that is where I heard about you and Edward. I just…wanted to know if you wanted him to attend. To be some sort of closure. I don't really know why the two of you can't be friends though, your still you, vampire husband or not."

"You don't know the whole story do you?" She looked down at her hands.

"I was trying to get it out of Edward when Jacob showed up the other night, and Leah told me some, but I am missing pieces."

"Before I tell you, will you tell me something?"

"Sure, ask away."

"Why do you want to know?"

I took another deep breath, though the tension was almost all the way gone, "It started with me wanting to know what was bothering Jacob, but now…" a tear ran down my cheek.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked.

"I…want…to…know…because…" I got out in short gasps, "Because, your story with Edward sounds so familiar. I just wanted to know, if you would be happy." I was looking out at the rain.

"How does it sound familiar?" Bella brushed a tear from my cheek. She was kind, and friendly, we may be friends some day.

"I…I was in love with a…" could I say it? "a…vampire to. We lived in Seattle. He was my best friend and yet…"

"What was his name?" I looked back at Bella's face.

"Julius." That was the first time I had said his name aloud for a long time, "My father died when I was six. That was when I met Julius. He helped me through loosing my father…and, after years of being my best friend…we…"

"You were in love with him." Bella was so friendly. I don't even know why I opened up to her. Maybe it was because she knew what I was talking about and wasn't a bias party. Who knows, but she was generally interested, and was comforting me. She felt like the older sister I never had, knowing what I was going through, no problem with me falling to pieces like that.

I nodded, "Yes. He was my best friend for ten years. Then…" I couldn't say it, "We broke apart. A few months later I met Jake, and I can't see him sad over all of this vampire mess, I can't. But I can't just tell him you made a mistake falling in love with Edward, because I know what it is like to love them, I know what it is like to care for one of them so much you want to become one just so you never loose him."

"Is this what Edward meant when he told me that you wanted to compare our lives? That was all he would tell me."

"He knows," I choked, "He knows everything. I didn't tell him intentionally. I just thought it. Nothing's really secret around him."

"You could say that." She laughed, "Even though he can't read my mind, he still sees right through me."

"What? He can't read your mind?"

"Oh, you don't know that part. Well, Edward can't read my thoughts. We don't know why, but he just can't see what I am thinking. I probably should answer your other question to, the one about why Jacob and I can't be friends after I marry Edward." She said the word marry with a lot of hate. I nodded, motioning her to continue, "Well, because Edward is going to bite me, after the wedding. Jake and I can't be friends be cause moral enemies can't be friends."

"Oh," that was all I could think of as a comment.

"So what else do you want to know?" Bella smiled.

"Anything and everything you will tell me."

"Deal, if…"

I perked up, "There is a condition."

"Yup, if I tell you my story, you have to tell me yours."

I really didn't want to say ok to that, but what choice did I have.

Bella told me everything. I learned about her first day at Forks High School, all the way to the day before yesterday. She told me of her birthday party and what Jasper had done. She even told me about Edward leaving and how the whole world was a blur for months before Jacob. She told me about learning Jacob was a werewolf. She told me everything about how she felt for Jacob, and for Edward, and why she chose the latter in the end.

"And that brings us up to today. My story isn't finished yet, so I don't know how much help that was, but now you have to tell me yours." We had moved into the dinning room and she had made both of us some spaghetti. She was a fabulous cook. We talked like old friends, laughing at jokes, smiles on our faces. I felt for her when she told me about her hard times, and I was happy when she told me about her happy ones. Like I had said before, sisters separated a birth I tell you.

"I don't know how I can top that one."

"Oh, come on," Bella slurped up some noodles, "I want to know."

"Well," another of the many deep breaths that I had taken today, "We moved to Seattle when I was 15, but I had already met Julius by then. He had settled down near our small Canadian town. He was playing a 20-year-old, but in real life he was around his 17th birthday when he was bitten. My father died of cancer a month after my sixth birthday. That was when I went to see Julius. He was a therapist and I could talk to him about anything I wanted. I was different from his other cases, treated differently anyway. After I got somewhat over my father's death, I still went to see him. For two years after that I was taking weekly sessions from him. I just couldn't stay away from him. Even to a nine-year-old he was absolutely beautiful and kind.

"After I started middle school, I had to stop the sessions. He was a child's doctor, and I was no longer considered a child in his book. After that it was e-mail. I was the only one of his patients he kept contact with after he moved away. He was living in Alaska. He was interested in everything about me. Soon I was 14 and starting high school. We moved south to Seattle for that. My mom wanted to start over with a new life in a new country. My mom knew nothing of my contact with Julius; I don't even think they met to say more than how my sessions were going. I had told him where I was living, and he came to see me one day.

"It was my 15th birthday, and I was just about to go to sleep after having a party with my friends when he showed up. He was in my room before I could blink, his eyes, I remember, had a wonderful golden tint. Nothing had changed about him. He was still the young man I knew in my childhood. Absolutely nothing had changed, but his eye color. In our old town there were rumors that Dr. Mark's eyes, Julius's, showed his mood. I never believed it because I always knew them to be red, bright red.

"Now they were the only difference in the look of Julius's face. It was that night that he told me what he was. In Alaska he had me some vampires who drank animal blood, and so he tried it out. He told me that my blood smelled more wonderful than anything to him. He just couldn't hurt me though. The way I spoke to him in our sessions, the way I thought, even as a child, intrigued him. The only reason he had left was because he wanted to see if there was a way for me to know about him. As far as he knew he was still breaking the Volturi's laws by telling me, but he didn't care.

"He snuck in to talk to me in my room after that. With in weeks we were telling each other we loved each other. It was the high point of my life. Julius was my tutor, my love, my best friend, and at times he would play the father role and told me when I was heading down the wrong path. If only time could just have paused right then and there. To live the same day over and over, without any worries about the future." I looked up at Bella. She had put her fork down and was listening intently. Her intrigue was completely understandable.

"You can keep going," said Bella. Her hand went in a circle motion trying to get me to continue.

I looked down at my cold, half eaten plate and shook my head, "I don't know if I can. You don't understand, I have put all of this behind a wall in my mind and I think that if I keep tearing that wall down, soon there will be a flood. I just…" my hands were folded in my lap.

"You really shouldn't keep this all hidden you know. Who better to understand how you are, or were, feeling than me? I know what you went through falling in love with him. I just want to know why he is not by your side any longer."

"That is just it, he is. He found me in La Push, and not once, but twice, and who knows how much he has been using his wind to keep tabs on me." Bella raised an eyebrow, "It's like Edward reading minds, or Alice seeing things, he controls the air around him. Any particle of air within so many miles of him is under his disposal. He doesn't have to get close enough for the wolves to pick up his sent before he can know what is happening. All he does is ask the wind and it tells him.

"Julius used to use that to tell me he was near. Use the wind to whisper me a message. It was our secret code. I would mumble something under my breath and the wind would pick it up for him."

"So what happened that was so horrible?" Bella asked.

"He killed. That was it, he killed. The sun was out so he couldn't come and watch me at school. I was always a little off the days he wasn't there, but I managed. That day my mother's car was in the shop so she had dropped me off at school and would come to pick me up after. I waited for hours. The school was completely empty. I took the time to finish my homework and finish my book I was reading, Inkheart I think, and I hadn't even started it by that morning. If you have ever seen it, Inkheart is not some small book either. It may not be big, but is sure isn't small. I had completely finished it. That is when I chose to go in the school and call her cell. I dialed, no answer. I tried it again and again, no answer. By that time I was worried. I walked to one of my friend Elisa's, who lived close to the school, and stayed there.

"By 9:00 we filed her as a missing person and I was going to stay at her house for the night. Eliza drove me to my house and we went in to get some close and things I would need for the night. She had gone into my room, and I would go to the bathroom to get my toothbrush and hairbrush and things. By that time I was already scared out of my sanity. And in that bathroom, I think I lost what little I had to retain. My mother's cold pale corpse was on that floor, drained of all blood. I'll spare you the details, it is still painful to think of.

"As far as the police know my mother's murder was never solved. Her file will very likely stay that way for as long as her memory exists, but I now know what really happened."

Sorry about the cliffy. This chapter was getting very long and I wanted to split it down the middle. This very likely could be the worst cliffy I have ever left you with. I have to let my sister on the computer in like 30 minutes so if the next chapter is not up by then, then I will get on at the next chance I get. Off to finish Stephanie's story…

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