Her smile (so fucking gorgeous, wow) just widened at my shock that she'd, somehow, managed to sneak up on me. I could only imagine how I looked right now.

"You look a bit different when you're not covered with mud," she said, her smile fading into a shy pout. "Took me a bit to recognize you, but the hair gives you away."

I just stared into the pools of her eyes for a beat too long, then assumed my safe, smiling resting face reserved for the most human of interactions. "Hello! So nice to see you, Bella. Erm - " Oh good, Emmett and Jasper are still here - "You've already met Jasper, but here's his boyfriend, Emmett. Emmett, meet Bella!"

Emmett smiled bigger than I'd ever seen him smile before. "I've heard about you! You saved Rose for us, didn't you?"

Bella's smile returned and she looked down. One braid slipped over her shoulder. "I don't know if I would call it saving. But if you'd seen someone go down in a rock-slide, you'd dig them out too I'm sure."

"Eh, not sure I would if it's Rose we're talking about," Emmett quipped, shooting me a wink and a broad smile. "Anyway, we'll leave you to it. Nice to meet you!"

I should've been grateful that Emmett steered Jasper away, and from the looks of it went on to fend off a grimacing Edward, but all I could feel was a lurch in my stomach. If I could sweat, I'd be sweating now.

"So!" Too bright, too eager, shut up. "I saw Beau Swan called up there. Your brother I assume?"

Bella's eyes returned to meet mine. She looks so different in a dress. "Yeah! He's technically supposed to be a junior this year, but he's graduating early. Took mostly AP classes and dual credits. Charlie and I are so proud, but we'll miss him when he moves on to bigger and better things."

So that explains why I didn't notice him before. I wouldn't be caught dead (heh) in an AP class.

I looked around. "Is he around? He or Charlie? I'd like to congratulate him."

"Oh I'm sure they're around somewhere, but you couldn't drag me back into that sweaty crowd for anything."

I glanced back at her. She was staring at my legs again.

"Want to get someplace more..." I hesitated, before finally facing my fears, "more private?"

She blinked. "I'd love to."

It was misting, as it so often did, just outside the cafeteria. The overhang saved her shoes and my hair from the moisture, but a part of me wanted to go wild with her - tear our shoes off, run across the grass, and let the rain plaster our clothes to our bodies.

"So," she said, so close and yet not close enough, "you gonna tell me what's up with you?"

I removed my cap and stepped out of my unzipped polyester gown with a grimace. "What do you mean?

She hesitated, watching as I folded my graduation clothes and straightened my sea-green dress. It was well made - an antique, from my early days as a human. It was back in style, luckily, and breaking it out of the pine box was an exhilarating experience. It hugged my curves and flared at the knees into a little pleated hem, and the boat neck collar scooped low, flattering my collarbones and the rise of my breasts. I hoped she was looking at them, but I was afraid to check.

"You... you survived a rock-slide."

This again. Fuck. "Because of you."

"No," she insisted, voice growing surer. "I've seen people caught in rock-slides at Mount Rainier all the time. My dad and I are park rangers there and... if someone gets buried in one they don't come out alive. Especially not under-equipped white girls in shorts and no shoes."

Her eyes flashed to mine, then back down. "No offense."

"None taken," I said thoughtfully.

She paused, then began blurting out a cascade of words. "It was like you were your own boulder, displacing literal stones in a landslide, pushing them away like they were nothing, and when you got buried you just sat there for what felt like forever and I was so horrified... just so horrified, and I didn't even know if it'd be worth digging you out because I was so sure you were dead, but you weren't, you were just sitting there like a frozen TV dinner, waiting for me to unearth you like the world's worst archaeologist, and I just - "

She pressed a hand to her mouth, staring out across the grassy turf to the ridge of trees.

It took a lifetime, but she finally spoke again. "I know it sounds crazy. But the moment I touched you I was sure you'd died. You were so cold. Your eyes were open and glassy but then you blinked."

I wanted so badly to touch her, but my skin was still cold and dead. How could I comfort her without telling her that she was right, that I'd died much too long ago?

"And now," she blurted, "Now I'm just making a fool out of myself in front of the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, and - "

She gasped and whipped back to stare at me, hand reaching for her mouth again.

My whole body ran wild with tingles. She thought I was beautiful.

Her thinking so wasn't unusual. Most people found me beautiful. It was a disgusting side-effect of being a vampire; the unusual good looks I took advantage of in life, not understanding their danger, were my strongest trait in death, magnified to an unforgiveable degree. Men stopped in the street to stare at me. Women's jaws dropped in stores. I once even caused a car crash by unwittingly distracting two drivers in an intersection. But for Bella to find me beautiful? That made being supernaturally dead almost worth it.

But I couldn't function. I couldn't hope to assemble the right words to reassure her, to soothe her embarrassment. All I could say was a whispered, "No, you're beautiful."

Pathetic. Insufficient.

She blinked and her dark skin grew ruddy. I could feel the increase in her body temperature from three feet away.

"We still getting dinner?" she stammered.

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes."