A/N - i know i know i know, its really short, but i came up with a bit of a block on how Edward would react. however, we go back to Bella next chapter, and boy do i have some fun planned for her :P Please read and review :)

EPOV

"Edward, for god's sake, go hunting! Your eyes are pitch black. You can't keep on like this for another 3 years."

"I will hunt when I need to hunt." I knew I was being harsh on Alice, as she was only trying to help, but I couldn't face going hunting right now. Thousands of miles away, my reason for existence was in pain, and I had only been able to comfort her from afar. And now I wouldn't speak to her for a whole year.

The phone calls were torture in disguise. Even though it was wonderful to hear Bella's voice, and to talk to her about everything and anything, each time ripped the gaping hole in my chest wider open.

"Edward... I can't even begin to imagine what you are going through... If ever I had to be apart from Jazz, I don't know what I would do, but seeing you like this...its causing all of us pain. We all miss Bella, she belongs with us, but it's only another 3 years. You can't let yourself slip back in to the shell of the man you were before you met her. Bella wouldn't want that."

I sat in silence, watching Alice staring at me. There was real concern on her face, and real sorrow. None of the family had been the same since Bella was ripped away from us. There hadn't been as much joy or jokes. We were just getting on with our lives the best way we knew how.

In the beginning I had simply not talked to anyone, preferring to wallow in my own grief. Alice had quickly pulled me out of that, when I had gone 4 months without feeding and was wasting away. We had agreed that Bella wouldn't be informed of my stupidity, as long as I never went that long again without hunting.

They had even persuaded me to enrol in a new high school, about 5 months after the Volturi had taken Bella, and I had agreed. Maybe the monotony of human life would help to keep my mind off Bella.

It was 2 weeks into the term, however, that some random teenage girl by the name of Lilly found out my phone number. I had no idea how she had managed it, but then again I wasn't as alert as I usually was. Within a week I had received 2 pictures of her naked, and I was angry to say the least. So angry, in fact, that I had been forced to see a body that wasn't my Bella's, that I threw the phone with all my strength against my bedroom wall. Let us just say that neither the phone, nor the wall, survived.

That was the end of my attempt at high school. Carlisle faked a letter from Yale, claiming that I had been offered an accelerated scholarship to study at the college. The high school of course immediately sent me off, so proud to have one of their students going to Yale, and they never contacted me again. So instead of being at school, I sat at home and played my piano, helping Esme and just generally moping around. It wasn't much of a life, but it was enough to keep me vaguely sane.

It had been a year and a half since I had dropped out of school, and Carlisle was still trying to persuade me to join him at the local hospital. I tried to explain to him that it would look to weird, the boy who was transferred to Yale only a year ago, suddenly turning up as a doctor, but he insisted that we could pass it off as a work experience placement.

But I didn't want to follow Carlisle around all day doing mundane jobs. I wanted Bella.