Fufu: I had a whole explanation but it was just messing up everyone else. Confusion is okay at this point. The story is from Nessie's POV, so that's not something you can know for sure.

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Chapter 37

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There was a certain clichéd reassurance about the front porch. It had been done, countless times. There was no originality at all in the location, which was perhaps the reason it was so over-used. There was nothing about a porch, the same porch you walked passed every other day of your life without noticing anything about it, that could possibly distract you. The front porch it was.

Selecting the location dictated other decisions. It would have to come at the end of the date or at the very beginning. Since it was a little too awkward to kiss Frank the second I saw him, the end it would be. It would also be a good idea because the setting could perhaps allow him to infer my intentions. His involvement was essential to the whole process, after all.

Once those decisions had been made there was the small matter of making sure it actually happened—which meant removing various family members from the house. Their interference would be the fastest way to scare Frank away, so they simply couldn't be home.

Edward had denied speaking to Frank after he had read his thoughts and concluded he wasn't a serial killer. That hadn't stopped me from acting petulant, even though Bella had sworn he would never dare intimidate Frank, since she had begged him not to (my mother had dated a vampire and was therefore inclined to give me more social freedom than my father). I had simply assumed my father had gotten Jasper and Emmett to go in his place. I was going to have to apologize for that, later.

Right now...I was just hoping everyone had followed my instructions.

There was a benefit for the hospital tonight and everyone save for Rosalie and Emmett had gone. Despite my pleading, everyone agreed there had to be someone at the house. Carlisle and Esme would have been my preference, but Carlisle couldn't not go. Hopefully, Emmett kept Rosalie distracted. While she liked Frank and had encouraged my relationship to not-Jacob, she might change her mind if she heard us on the porch, not talking.

Keeping my thoughts distracted prevented me from worrying too much about what I had to do now that Frank was by my side, walking me from his car, our hands occasionally brushing as we moved alongside one another. The car was technically his friend's, but it was in much better condition than the Rabbit Jacob refused to abandon, and while it would have been safer if I drove, I hadn't picked a fight in deference to his masculine honor. It's not like I would get hurt in an accident and I should be able to see one coming enough in advance to prevent it.

Nothing drastic had happened, fortunately. We had eaten dinner in a cute little cafe and had a marvelous discussion on Sartre and Camus, before going to see the only foreign picture that the cinema at Forks had. I had spent most of the movie with my head on his shoulder, complaining bitterly, as the subtitles had been utterly inaccurate and had completely ruined the movie for me. I arrived home at a reasonable hour, with only one thing left to do.

Kiss Frank.

Too bad it wasn't that simple.

"Thank you for driving me home," I said, standing just in front of the door, making no move to go inside. Would it be too obvious if I took a step closer? Would the candy I had been compulsively sucking on all night still be flavoring my breath? Would I be able to do this with even a semblance of dignity intact?

Frank had been paying attention to me before—most of the night, in fact—but now his eyes were darting around. "Your place looks really nice," he observed. "Really, really nice."

I was less than a foot away, with something like seventy percent of my skin bared, despite the cold. He could pay less attention to the decor.

"It's great. So am I going to see you sometime this week?"

Finally, his gaze returned to me. "I've got a test Wednesday. I'll call you Thursday?"

"Okay," I said, standing there stupidly. I was a genius. Why was my head empty that moment? I just balanced on the balls of my feet and wondered if I could sound any dumber. "Well, good night, then."

"Good night," he repeated.

He took a step, but thankfully it wasn't off the porch. It was towards me.

Finally.

I almost ruined the moment by pulling away and throwing one of those wild, screaming fits with strange dance moves that was usually the domain of crazed fans. Inside, that's how I felt. And that someone had torn out my belly leaving a big gaping hole where it used to be, where the breeze could rattle around freely, leaving the rest of me shivering violently. There was a moment where I worried about the state of my heart, because such rapid pulsating could not be healthy...and when I realized I couldn't recall the number of beats per minute of the average adult human heart while at a state of rest I began to panic.

Luckily, there wasn't enough room to allow me to escape. His hands were on my hips, gently, easy to break away from, even if I hadn't been able to break his hands with little to no effort. A little desperately, I tried to recall half of the information I had collected in the past little while on kissing. It didn't seem to be working. Acting like I was paying attention was probably a good start.

Paying attention might be even better. I exhaled and reminded myself I could do that.

Frank was in front of me, his arms around my waist, the two of us standing so close together I could feel most of his body alongside mine. I didn't mind, even though it was nothing like anything I had ever experienced. His body was softer, far more yielding, and though he had started accompanying his brother to the gym recently, his arms were never going to be as thick as a werewolf's. When I put my arms around his neck, I didn't have to reach as far as I usually did to hug a male. Frank just a little taller than Charlie and it made everything far more comfortable, now that I thought about it.

Okay, what next?

It would probably be a good idea to look at him, I scolded myself, instead of just staring at his collar bone. But when I looked up, he was looking right at me. I had to drop my eyes, just a little bit, staring at his lips instead while a furious blush spread across my cheeks.

"Nessie?" he said. "Is it—"

"Good," I squeaked out. I wanted to die, just a little bit. Stupid vocal chords. But Frank seemed to get the idea, because his lips descended downward.

I did two things as I waited for him to close the gap between us. One was remember how to breathe, and I must say I did that admirably, if not consistently. The second was to tilt my head gently to the right. Ninety to ninety-three percent of the population was right-handed (Frank was one such person) and those odds implied he would move to the right and this way the two of us could avoid having our noses collide.

That last bit of knowledge calmed me down. Just because I was going to be bad at this didn't mean I was a complete moron.

There was pressure against my lips, first, and then the feeling of external wetness. Was it supposed to feel so...mushy?

Refusing to allow myself to ruin the moment, I demanded my brain shut off. It didn't work as well as I had hoped, but it did allow me to become aware, for the first time, of the warmth that was spreading through my body, and the lightness I could feel in my breast, of the tingling in my belly.

It even allowed the part of me that could see an action and repeat it perfectly, eventually, to kick in. I started kissing him back.

It was...nice.

Frank pulled away first and I panicked at that too, afraid I had accidently...I didn't even know what I was afraid I had done, just that an apology almost spilled out before I could stop it. Fortunately, Frank acted first.

His mouth split into a grin.

I almost collapsed in relief.

He didn't look disgusted or embarrassed for me or in a hurry to run away from my sloppy attempts at figuring out exactly what I was supposed to be doing. He just looked happy and it relieved me enough that I could smile back.

"I've wanted to do that for a while," he admitted, still holding me.

"Me too."

"I'll talk to you Thursday?"

"Yeah," I nodded as we slowly pulled apart. "Good night."

I held his hand until he was too far away and I had to let go. He was still staring at me, which is why he almost fell down the stairs. Bringing a hand quickly to my face, I tried to muffle my giggles, waving as he left, watching him drive out of sight. I was too happy to stop laughing and I hurried inside so I could celebrate in private.

Closing the door, I almost fell against it, my legs like jell-o. Giggling rather uncontrollably to myself, I gave a sigh of relief. Now that it was over...I sort of just wanted to do it again.

Finally, I pushed away from the door and went to find Rosalie. She would want to hear all the details. But it wasn't Rosalie I found in front of the television.

"Did I go to the wrong house?"

"Funny," Seth said from his position on the Cullen family sofa. "Was that you making that high pitched noise before?"

"No," I lied as I sat down beside him. "What are you doing here?"

Holding out the bag of chips towards me, Seth explained, "Emmett invited me over. Only then Rosalie walked in looking like...Rosalie, so he ditched me. I would have gone home but they're in one of their moods, so for the sake of my sanity, I thought I'd stay here. Where is everybody?"

"Benefit. They're fighting again?"

"Yup. Aren't you going to ask what he did to her, this time?"

Seth would never admit the words aloud, so I didn't bother to inquire after the tone of voice. Loyalty was far to ingrained in Seth for him to ever admit to being angry with Jacob. But I was pretty sure I was right. Seth was angry. He was angry because Leah was hurting and it was all my fault.

But it would be pointless to try and get him to confess, so I changed the subject instead.

"Seth? Can I show you something?"

"I don't really want to watch the dirty details."

"Oh no," I said in a sickly sweet voice. "I'm sure you'll appreciate this topic of conversation. Apparently, you can't stop talking about it."

He looked a little suspicious, but I plastered on a smile and placed my hand on his cheek.

Frank and I were walking down the street after the movie, looking for his parked car, holding hands ever so casually. Seth would feel the giggling nervousness I couldn't help transmitting, but I tried to focus his attention where I wanted it, on what Frank was saying.

"Your brother plays the piano, too, right?"

"Yes, actually. He's a great pianist."

Everyone had agreed that Edward and I looked far too close in age to get away with ignoring the situation any longer. Father and daughter was out. Brother and sister was in. I had pushed for twins, simply because the resemblance was uncanny. I didn't want to have to figure out how old I was; everyone would just assume I was his age.

No one was looking too closely at the Cullens now. The people in Forks had mostly forgotten about them, except at the hospital. The people in La Push had never cared about them to begin with. It wasn't the safest of lies, but we couldn't leave for another year, at the very least, and so it would do for now.

I continued: "How did you know that?"

I hadn't talked about Edward much. I loved my father, really, but I did not want to be talking about him on a date.

"Seth told me," was Frank's reply. "He said the two of them were really good friends?"

"Yeah," I laughed. "The two of them are pretty adorable together. In a really strange, what-could-those-two-people-possibly-have-in-common sort of way, but still cute. Why were you and Seth talking about my brother?"

"Brady got into another fight," he began, "With some asshole. And Seth and I were just talking...he was trying to defend Brady, saying sometimes that sort of Neanderthal crap was okay. Then he mentioned your brother...and how he ripped some girl's head off when she wouldn't stop stalking his girlfriend."

"Really? Seth told you about that?" Hopefully, not the part where he meant it literally.

"Yeah. He told me lots of things about your brother. It was hard to get him to stop, actually. He told me about the things he did for his girl, like how he stopped a moving car for her, saved her from a whole group of guys who wanted to...you know, how he took on Jacob Black for her..."

Frank had started to sweat just thinking about it. I wanted to cry. And laugh.

I pulled away from Seth and glared, instead. He just blinked at me, still not getting it. "So I told him a couple of stories about your dad," he shrugged. "He didn't figure out Edward's a vampire."

I sighed, then not so patiently explained. "You basically told him I have the scariest brother on the planet."

"Edward's not that scary."

"That's because you're a werewolf, Seth, and therefore incapable of being scared of the things you should be scared of. Frank does not know the extenuating circumstances that caused my father's actions. You painted my father as this crazy man who will rip a guy's throat out when he thinks a woman is being treated wrong—no wonder Frank is scared to get too close to me. Badly done."

"Are you mad at me?"

Of course not. You couldn't be mad at Seth, especially not when his hair was all ruffled and his eyes were so wide, scared of what I would say. He looked so worried that no one with the slightest bit human feeling could be mad at him.

"Just next time you feel the need to talk about how great my dad is, please keep it to yourself."

"Fine," he said. "I am sorry. I didn't mean to...anything."

I settled onto the couch and helped myself to more chips. "It's okay. So, why are you watching The Sound of Music?"

"They sing."

"Once again, I ask, why are you watching it?"

"Oh, come on, Ness. Think of your favorite things. Then it won't be so bad."

I groaned as Seth laughed, before he began flipping through the channels. There really was nothing on, but we debated the merits of infomercials versus sports reruns. Or I debated the merits, while Seth muted the vapid woman on the television and tried to guess what she was saying.

Seth was trying to sell me an Ab Coaster when we heard the front door open. It was a good thing Seth didn't hop off the couch to run and greet my father—Edward was not the one who came in the room a moment later.

"What are you two doing here?" I demanded as Jacob and Leah came through the door. The house was being invaded—no wonder my family hadn't wanted to leave it unmanned. No sooner had they entered then they somehow managed to get Seth on the floor, as they plopped themselves down on either side of me.

"We came looking for Seth," Leah shrugged as Jacob reached a long arm down to grab some chips from said werewolf. Jacob added, "And Leah didn't want to wait until to tomorrow to find out how it went."

"Jake's the one who watched for the kid to drive past."

"It was your idea."

She stuck out her tongue at him and then turned to me. "So...? How did it go?"

"Good. I guess."

"Leah," her brother said as he flipped past the singing nun, "Did you ever think that maybe she might not want to talk about it in front of the whole world?"

"We're not the whole world. Don't you want to tell the three of us?"

That wasn't a fair question. I always wanted to tell Jacob everything, I needed Leah's expert opinion on the subject and I could not come up with a perfectly logical reason for not wanting to tell Seth.

"Come on, Nessie," Jacob agreed. "We have to make sure he kept his hands in appropriate places."

Booming laughter rang out, calling out for Seth, who quickly got to his feet. "You two are creepy, by the way. I'm going to find Emmett."

Great. Jacob and Rosalie were going to both be here to inform me all the ways Frank better treat me unless he wanted a slow and agonizing death.

"You can't complain," I informed them. "And no teasing. Those are the ground rules."

"Why would we do that?" Leah shrugged. "Jake is now fine with this."

The man himself agreed with her, then grinned, "Though I still reserve the right to break his face if he breaks your heart."

"Not if I get there first, Fido," Rosalie announced as she entered the room. Leah actually got up and let Rosalie sit on my left while the female werewolf perched on the armrest right behind Jacob, towering over us all.

I started talking just to shut them all up.

They kept most of their inane comments to themselves, though occasionally during my narrative the werewolves would start whispering like schoolchildren, until Rosalie would threaten to send them to the corner if they didn't stop. But I reached the end before they ventured a proper remark.

"You little slut," Leah laughed.

"I didn't even use my tongue," I defended myself. Oh no. How in the world was I supposed to figure that out?

"That was a joke." Rosalie gave a beatific smile, stoking my long, straight hair. "You're so happy you're not thinking straight."

I had been happy. Now I was just panicking again. I had barely accomplished one step, let alone mastered it and they were already making me worried about the next. Useless guardians—at least Jacob still loved me.

"Leave her alone," he scolded them. "She did great tonight. Heck, my first kiss I think I got her eye. You didn't accidently blind anyone tonight, so you're doing good, Nessie."

"Thank you," I said as he wrapped an arm around my waist and kissed the top of my head. I glanced up and couldn't help the notice Leah was staring at us. The expression on her face wasn't easy to decipher; something akin to horror, but less drastic...more like disbelief, I guess, intermingled with sorrow. Sorrow had become too prominent lately.

But she started talking, instead. "Did you feel some fireworks along with the butterflies?"

"Wouldn't that just cause the butterflies to catch fire and die horribly, painful, fiery deaths?" Jacob wondered. She hit him on the back of the head, which seemed to restore her spirits.

I giggled. "You're both ridiculous. Fireworks and butterflies and magic are all just silly clichés that people come up with because saying I felt a surge of this and that hormone is highly unpoetic and human beings seem to have the inescapable need to romanticize everything. "

All three of them looked at me with varying degrees of pity. "Oh sweetie," Leah said, "Maybe you were doing it wrong."

Or maybe that sort of elation—a highly unrealistic and fanciful state of ecstasy that only existed in the communal imagination—was only possible for me to experience with one other person. But I did not mention that, for while Jacob was a physically interesting specimen without his shirt, I had no desire to test said hypothesis.

The sound of the front door opening echoed, yet again, warning me that the rest of my family was coming. Alice was in the doorway before I knew it, Bella just behind her. I was going to have to do this all night. At least I had delivered the proper result.

"I knew it," Alice declared, clapping happily. "Well, I didn't know it, know it, but I knew it. I don't even need powers, I'm so good."

Bella was already hugging me. They were all ridiculous, but I hugged her back.

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TBC…