I could make a bunch of excuses as to why this chapter did not come out sooner, but let's just get on with the story, shall we?

If I jumped off a cliff and died…

What would Seth do?

God, I'm such a weenie.

Despite my internal alarm which was currently going on overdrive, I shifted on my knees to get a closer look at the sheer drop.

If you looked out straight out ahead, it didn't even look that bad. The ocean looked cool and calm. The beach only a couple vertical hundred yards away. I could totally swim there, right? I imagined the fall, slicing cleanly through the water as my world went cool and wet…

But then my gaze shifted and raced down the wall of haggard rock, stopping when they met the white-capped hats of the waves. They seemed frustrated as they battered, over and over, against the unmoving cliff. The jagged tips of rocks appeared every couple of seconds when the waves receded, only to be swallowed up again. Just looking straight down brought on a wave of nausea. The wind suddenly seeming to be edging me closer, pushing me off…

In other words, pretty nice from far away. Up close? Different matter entirely.

Why did I feel like this should be a metaphor for something?

I groaned and rolled over on my back. It wasn't the most comfortable position, what with the moss dampening my already damp shirt and rocks poking into my spine. But the wind was nice. If I concentrated hard enough, just like last time, it was all I could feel.

I didn't quite know what I was expecting when I came here. I trudged along the highway for a while, then, next thing I know, I guess my subconscious or something (okay, okay, maybe it wasn't all my subconscious) naturally gravitated towards all things Seth-related. Because I came upon a driveway. And it was his driveway. Going up to his house.

And after I found out first-hand that driveways or about a hundred miles longer when you're not riding up it in a motorcycle tucked into the arms of a sex-god, I spent twenty minutes loitering in the woods skirting his house. I sure as heck wasn't going to go in – desperate, much? Which, I mean, I was, but he probably would think I was stalking him or something – but do I dare cross his yard? What if he was at home and he saw me? Or, even worse, if he was at home but he didn't see me? Or if he saw me and didn't do anything?

Which, hypothetically, was what I wanted. But I still obsessed about it, because that was just all I seemed to be doing these days. Obsessing and crying.

At some point I saw Leah storm into the house from somewhere in the woods, scaring the bejeezus out of me. A couple minutes later I saw her storm back out, her back facing me. That was when I decided: I was going in.

Across. Whatever.

Head held up high, I crossed the yard of my one true love.

Nothing happened.

Which was totally what I wanted. I mean, it's not like I was insanely disappointed or anything when no Seth came running out the door looking all cute in a polo, or anything of the sort.

Nooooosireee.

After that, I didn't want to waste all of the energy that had been put into my courageous walk across the front yard. So I kind of twiddled my thumbs for a while, but eventually came up with a wonderful decision:

I would find our spot again.

"Our spot," meaning the clearing near the edge of the cliff. The one where Seth spun me around in his arms while I gleefully kissed him then proceeded to pool my innermost thoughts to the most delicious peanut butter sandwich I had ever eaten (because he remembered I didn't eat meat!), then kiss him some more in the sand, all wrapped up and warm and safe against his chest.

Yeah.

That spot.

Next thing you know – Surprise, surprise! Bailey's in the woods again!

The path seemed much longer then I remembered. And much scarier, when I didn't have a six foot tall beacon in front of me to be my guide. In fact, I was just about to turn around when I tripped over a root and almost went splat right into the clearing.

And it was nice.

The view was still pretty great, the wind was still refreshing…

But there was something that wasn't there. I pulled my arms into my chest and kept looking over my shoulder, as if expecting something amazing to happen. Something that would ignite that little spark that made this place feel so special last time.

Which is when I realized something. Something that was probably quite obvious to most people, but let's just remember that I wasn't in the most stable mental state right now. I mean, I had freaking run away, only to end up in the back yard of the exact person I was trying to run away from.

Which was just a bit pathetic, if you thought about it.

Lucky for me, I had decided a couple minutes ago to just stop thinking. It made life easier.

Anyways, the thing I realized-

"Geez, where the hell have you been?"

I screamed, completely unsuspecting of the shape that suddenly appeared behind me. At this point I was standing back up, staring into the subtly darkening sky. The surprise sent me rearing back, one heel sipping over the edge-

Leah grabbed my arm, pulled me roughly back.

"Way to kill yourself, Bailey. What are you doing?"

I stood there, heart pumping violently from the adrenaline rush of almost having died. Leah still hadn't let go of my arm, and her grasp kind of hurt.

She looked…

She looked different.

The same well-worn scowl was on her face, but it seemed half-hearted. The wind blew her hair in whipping motions around her head, and some of the pieces stuck to her cheek. Her voice was condescending as always, but raw.

Leah… terrifying, tough, strong Leah, had been crying.

"I know you can talk, okay?" She sounded exhausted. "I'm not gonna… like, hurt you or whatever." She glanced down at her grip encircling my arm, and quickly let go. I stared at the tear marks on her face. She looked out towards the ocean.

"Wha- what was the question?" I stuttered. She rolled her eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"I- I- what are you doing?"

"I'm looking for you, idiot. Ian freaked when you weren't at home."

"Oh." My eyebrows drew down when I remembered Ian. Ian. Any anger I had held for him evaporated. How could I ever run away? How could I ever leave Ian? Though it sounded stupid now, I repeated my original purpose to Leah. "I'm running away."

I saw her smirk in profile, still looking out to the ocean. It was hard to hear; the wind seemed to steal the words as soon as they came out of your mouth. "Oh, really?"

"Mh-hm," I said, nodding vigorously.

"Fat lot of good that'll do you."

"I- what?"

"Nevermind."

She crossed her arms, and it was silent for a minute. I stared at her, staring straight ahead. She sighed.

"So… are you just gonna stay here for a while? 'Cause that's cool and everything, but Seth'll kill me if I don't get you home by night…"

I scowled, not liking the way she made me sound like a petulant little child. My expression changed, though, when her words registered. "S-Seth?" I asked, my voice breaking. "Does he…"

"Does he know you're here?" She finished for me.

I nodded.

"No. He's too busy breaking chairs."

I pondered over that for a minute, then eventually decided it wasn't worth the effort to ask her what she meant. Not to mention the fact that his name felt like a kick to the gut.

I realized that my whole existence was hanging on the thread of the fact that he was going to show up at my house tomorrow.

Which didn't make any sense. I was the one who didn't want to see him, right?

"How did you find me?"

"You smell."

"Hey! I-"

"Just kidding. You do, but not, like, bad or anything. I followed your scent."

I didn't answer. She must be killer at hide-and-seek.

"So, are you going to head back soon?"

I crossed my arms. "I- I can't go back."

"Uh, yeah you do. Hate to break it to you, but camping out here or whatever wouldn't be-"

"But- but I ran away!"

"Yeah! You did! Great job, mission accomplished. Time to go home."

I looked down at the ground. Leah didn't get it. She was mean, she was arrogant, she didn't understand anything.

"No."

She sighed.

"Why are you here?" I muttered, kicking at the rocks, not even sure she could hear me above the wind.

"I told you. You can't just pick up and leave like that without expecting people to come after you, okay? That's stupid." My chin jerked up fractionally, because that was what I had expected. I hadn't thought anybody would miss me. "And," she added, sounding deeply tired, "I have to explain. A lot."

I waited expectantly. She stared back evenly at me.

"Well?" I finally asked, my voice not coming out quite as commanding as I would have liked.

"How about if you start walking back with me, I'll do the explaining then."

"I'm not a kid, Leah."

"Yeah, I know. Kids have more common sense then you do."

"You-"

"Sorry, sorry, that was mean. Just- it's about the imprinting. I'm guessing Ian probably told you about all of the stuff I told him… all of the-"

"I know what you're talking about," I hissed, closing my eyes.

"Yeah, well, I was lying. About everything."

"No you weren't," I mumbled. "Seth said he imprinted on me. He said it."

"Well, not about the imprinting. But about all the other stuff, like how he was using you and…"

I let her voice trail behind me as I turned back towards to the woods. I knew all of this. I knew she was lying about all of that. That wasn't what was bothering me. And that was why I had come here, so I could hide from everything. Hide form all of the tears and anger and hurt faces and "I hate you"s that were currently tainting my mouth.

"Hey! Wait up! I just-"

"I know you were lying, Leah."

She followed after me, crashing as I was through the undergrowth, back the way I had come. The branches blocked out any remainder of sunlight, staining all of the plants to a color close to black.

"Wait- you did? Then- then why the hell am I here? Isn't that the whole reason you were fighting with Seth? I wasn't joking when I said he was breaking chairs, you know. He literally shattered one of our dining room chairs, and now I'm totally gonna have to clean it up before mom gets home, because God forbid he ever do something responsible. Well, besides for you. He's pretty responsible with you. What was I talking about?"

I kept walking, focusing all of my energy on not tripping on a root and sprawling on the ground. I just did not feel like talking about this anymore. Seth didn't understand, I didn't fully understand, why would Leah be any different?

"Right. You and Seth. Then- oh my gosh, wait up! I'm just trying to talk to you, geez!"

"We're not really fighting," I said, not really caring if she heard me or not, my voice taut. "Well, I- I mean, we are. But not really. I am fighting with him, cause- well- it's cause of the imprinting. It- it freaking pisses me off, cause it means that he doesn't really love me. It means that all of my sucky qualities are still sucky, but he just doesn't think so, cause- Shit!"

My foot crashed painfully into a rock, sending a jolt of pain all up my leg.

Leah stared at me for a moment, hopping up and down like an idiot and clutching onto my injured foot.

"Did you just cuss?"

I collapsed onto the ground. I- I was done. I was just done. I wanted to curl up and sleep and not wake up until everybody I ever knew was dead.

Leah sat down quietly next to me. She didn't say anything for a full two minutes, just sat there. The night seemed to press in on us, all of the sounds of the forest seeming to come awake once the sound of my mindless stumbling and crashing and killing of various undergrowths wasn't disturbing it.

It was very dark.

I was suddenly glad she was there. Even if it was just because it made the night less terrifying.

"I know what you mean," she said quietly.

I pressed my fingers against my eyes, shaking my head. How could she know what I meant?

"It was the same with Emily," she continued quietly. "It didn't seem right. She was… was just always so good, you know? And Sam was an ass. I still loved him, but he was an ass. And then all of a sudden he says that he loves her, and she's supposed to love him back… but it just didn't make sense. He had no reason to love her except for her genes. So why did they stay together?" Her next words were so quiet that I barely caught them.

"Why did she love him back?"

I slowly raised my head to look at her, eyes wide. How had Leah, Leah of all people, managed to put into words the exact thing that I had been feeling, struggling to explain even to myself?

This was a Leah I had never seen before. Her eyes weren't guarded, her mouth wasn't set.

She just looked sad.

"You loved Sam?" I asked. I immediately knew the answer to my own question – I had seen it, seen it in the way she looked at him, in the way she looked at Ian.

She nodded.

"But then he imprinted on Emily," I stated.

She nodded again.

"So that's why you're-"

"Such a bitch?"

"I was going to say sad."

"Oh. Well. Yeah." She traced a pattern in the dirt with her hand. "I know this may not seem possible for you to think… but I loved Sam as much as you love Seth. You're human, I'm- I was human, we had the same capability to love. And I promise, I loved him so much that it hurt."

Her eyebrows puckered, voice getting caught. Her finger ground deeper into the ground. "We were going to get married. I was going to have his children."

"Oh my gosh," I whispered.

"And then Emily came in, and everything just…" Her hand relaxed. She dropped her chin to her knees, closing her eyes. It was too dark to see her tears, but it was just something that I could feel in the air between us. I wanted to reach out to her, to touch her shoulder or something, to-

"Anyways," she said abruptly, lifting her head back up. "I didn't come here to give you my crap story. I came here to get you back with Seth."

"But…" I didn't understand. Hadn't she just told me why imprinting was wrong? "But you just said…"

"I just said the imprinting sucks. If you're not the one imprinted on. But you are. And- think about this, okay? I'm trying really hard here, considering that it seems like my whole life I've been coming up with reasons why imprinting is wrong. But, I know to you it seems unnatural and everything. But what about love isn't unnatural? How can two people – two people – out of the seven billion or whatever there are – find a soulmate in each other? I mean, really, what are the chances? And why do those two people, even if they are complete friggin opposites, why do they just happen to fall in love with each other, with that specific person, instead of the billions of other people out there? Imprinting is just like normal love, except better, because Seth loves you more than any human is capable."

"Bu-"

"And," she said, getting into it. I heard her slap her hands to the ground, rustling the leaves. "Why. The hell. Does it matter? He loves you, for God's sake! He really, really loves you! Why does it matter why he does? I would kill somebody for that, Bailey. Just love him back! You two were meant for each other- literally created for one another, okay? Just- just stop thinking, stop trying so damn hard. Let him love you."

"I- but- I-" I took a deep breath. Who was I kidding? Why prolong the inevitable? Why ruin my life, why ruin his?

"Okay."

"Okay? You'll… you'll stop giving him all this crap? Do you promise?"

…

"Promise."