Edward tried to keep me from going, but Alice stepped in — she'd seen that I'd go, after all. As much as he'd like to, Edward can't argue with Alice's visions.

Even though I myself had doubts.

There was just no way. No way on earth that she'd want... me?

I hadn't come to terms with apparently being gay. I hadn't even let myself think the word yet —

Lesbian.

That's it.

I sat in my car, facing the diner Bella was going to arrive at any minute, and only saw Royce's face. His jealous, sneering, leering face. How he'd spit and jeer whenever another man dared look at me, or I even acknowledge being the object of attraction. And how dare I even have female friends...

Her name had been Vera. I'd known her all my human life, and we'd been so close. Even when she married a man who didn't deserve her, but was so blissfully happy with. Even when the baby came.

I thought at the time that I'd been jealous of Vera's happiness, her relationship, even her child. I thought I wanted the happiness she had, in all its simplicity and lack of glamour and riches. But, as I reflected on how my heart leaped when I was with her, how I'd follow the waves of her brown hair with yearning eyes, how I'd relish our early sleepovers and girlish, carefree attitudes towards our bodies and general lack of dress... I saw the parallels between that and how I felt about Bella.

I thought I'd just found a bosom sister in Vera. But I was wrong.

Royce hated my closeness with Vera. He'd tried to isolate me from her — whether to make me dependent on him, or because he saw what I didn't, I didn't know. But it did me no good to agonize over Royce's motivations now. Because Royce King II was dead.

And I'd killed him.

No, don't think of that now. Don't think about how he begged, how he cried and demanded mercy...

There was a sharp rap on my window.

"Rosalie? Hi!"

Oh god. She was here. And I'm still sitting here like a dope.

I composed myself and emerged from my car into the misting rain, towering over Bella Swan. She was smiling her broad, white, eager smile, and I could swear her eyes were sparkling. She was dressed very simply in jeans, combat boots, and an oversized flannel over a black tank top. She made me feel overdressed, as well as a couple other things...

"Wow, you look gorgeous!" Bella said, filling the lull. I was endlessly grateful — I had no idea why being around her turned me into such an awkward conversationalist.

"You'll have to teach me to do my makeup like that sometime," she went on, "I'm hopeless when it comes to eyeliner. Love your blouse by the way."

I looked down at myself, suddenly glad I couldn't blush. I'd almost forgotten what I was even wearing. Alice had insisted on dressing me up like some Barbie doll.

"It's just purple," I said lamely.

Bella laughed. "Okay. Just purple. Let's go inside, I'm freezing!"

Then, before I could run away screaming, Bella grabbed my hand and moved to lead me inside. She jumped at the coldness of my skin, but didn't let go.

"You poor thing, you're freezing too! Let's get some warm food in you."

And so Bella led me into the diner, holding my hand. If she hadn't gripped me so tightly, I may have floated off into the sky like a balloon.

It was toasty inside, both from the HVAC and the rising body heat of the people packed into the building. I was assailed with so many different scents — Italian seasonings, over-proved breadsticks, salty sweat on the cook's neck, unwashed asses, women's perfume and men's cologne, and a deep current of blood pounding beneath it all. But there was just one I cared about, just one that would keep me grounded in all this... and there it was. Bella's floral, distinctly human smell.

A smiling waitress seated us in a creaking leather booth, and only then did Bella release my hand. I missed the contact of her skin immediately. Every moment not touching her was a waste.

"Anything I can get you two, or do you need a minute?" the waitress asked, clicking her gum.

"Just Coke for me," Bella said, watching me expectantly.

Oh. I have to act. Right.

"Just water please."

The waitress just smiled and disappeared.

Bella turned her deep pools for eyes on me then. "So!" Much too bright. "How've you been?"

I blinked. I hadn't done much since yesterday. Just stress-tinkered on the BMW. Would she be interested in that?

"Not much," I said instead. "It's just been a day! Not a lot of trouble I can get myself into in just one day."

Bella laughed. It sounded like the peal of a silver bell. "I think we both know that's a lie. And I better not catch you back up on Rainier again after last time."

"Oh. Right."

"Besides," she went on, leaning one elbow on the table between us, "Surely there's something you can report?"

I shrugged. "Um. Well, I like to work on cars. BMWs mostly. The undercarriage just makes more sense on German cars to me at least. They leave more space to work in between parts."

Bella was smiling, eyes fixed on and invested in mine.

Encouraged, I continued. "I haven't owned one yet, but I've heard Kias have a lot of space too. Plenty of room to add in trick parts and tune up the engine to have a little more oomph."

"So you like to drive fast, huh?" Bella said with a wink. "You're lucky my dad's not a cop."

"Well," I laughed, "You could say that. Mostly I like working on the cars to make them go fast. Driving them is a bonus."

I worried the edge of my nail. "Did Charlie used to be a cop?"

"Eh, for like a year or two." Bella just shrugged. "Years ago. In Seattle. The SPD was less corrupt then, but he still couldn't bear the environment. It's a real boys club. The year he left, the department let a cop off the hook for the shooting of a black trans woman. Put him on administrative leave with pay. He knew then he couldn't keep working for a place like that."

"That's terrible."

"Yeah. He told me then that there are good cops, but they're usually chased off the force by the bad cops. Here lately it seems like all the good ones have finally quit."

I picked my nail more insistently. "I know a thing or two about bad cops standing up for their friends. Even when they're not on the force. My f... ex-fiancé got off scot free for some real shit he pulled off. Hence the ex part."

"Oh man, Rosalie," Bella breathed.

"One water and a Coke!"

The waitress reappeared and placed our drinks in front of us. Bella and I both leaned back — we'd been inclined towards one another across the table. Huh.

The waitress pressed pencil to paper. "Now, what can I get for you two gal pals?"

I repressed a snort. Bella kindly asked for mushroom ravioli. I paused a beat, then begrudgingly ordered spaghetti. It'd be easy enough to swirl on my fork, cut up, play with, and spit in a napkin.

"Feeling daring, are we?"

"Huh?" Graceful, Rose. Bah.

The waitress had bustled off. Bella stared, expectantly. "Daring! Spaghetti is notoriously messy."

Her eyes darted to my breasts, then back up. "Wouldn't want to ruin that beautiful shirt."

Again, I was glad I couldn't blush. "I'll be careful! And anyway, Alice picked this out for me. It's not my favorite."

Bella laughed and shook her head. I felt like I was missing the joke.

A comfortable lull took over our table. Bella appeared to be deep in thought — she kept knotting and unknotting the end of one of her braids. I just kept picking at my nail, grateful that my cuticle was incapable of breaking.

"Fiancé, huh?" Bella said suddenly.

I blinked. "Yeah. A while ago."

"And how old are you? Eighteen? You just graduated."

Ice ran down my spine. Stupid.

"Nineteen, actually."

"Hmm. Didn't realize Dr Cullen consented to child marriages. Or maybe there's something you're not telling me?"

I stared into her eyes with my dark gold ones.

She held my gaze, then sighed. "Rose, I saw you survive a rockslide. I dug you up, for God's sake. Or maybe you just let me believe I did. Something tells me you could've crawled out just fine all on your own."

My mind jumped to an image of me as a zombie, hair ratty and clothes tattered, lurching out of some moldy grave. She was too close to the truth.

This is why I was no good at having friends. Why I'd never tried before, or even really spoken much with anyone outside my family. I didn't have the necessary filter to keep up the human charade. And now I might have ruined our existence here for everyone.

But... maybe Alice had seen this too. How else could we be together? How else could she kiss me and not wonder?

"Breadsticks!" the waitress said, voice much too bright. She thumped a basket of them between us, and we leaned back again.

She deposited our food and whipped away just as quickly as before. I only registered that she was blonde, and that Bella had smiled warmly at her and watched her go.

An odd feeling stirred in my gut, one not entirely unfamiliar but also one I couldn't easily name. It was uncomfortable. Maybe I'd remember it later, when my mind wasn't so... muddled.

Bella dug into her ravioli with gusto, obviously savoring it. It was refreshing to see a woman enjoy her food. I didn't quite copy her, but I employed the familiar motions of twirling up the noodles, moving them around the plate, and cutting a few up so that it appeared I was eating. I even took a few nibbles and spat them out in my napkin.

She eyed me, fork in her mouth. She had a little sauce on her face, but I didn't want to say anything. It was cute.

"You alright there, Rose?"

A jolt went through my body when she called me that again. "Hmm? 'Course!"

"I know you think you're being sneaky, but I just wanna keep an eye out for you."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

She let her fork drop with a clank against her plate. "You're not eating."

I stopped twirling my noodles. "Of course I am."

"No! Just... stop." She placed her hands flat on the tabletop, as if it was the only thing keeping her from exploding.

"Rose," she went on, voice tight. "I witnessed you survive something no human should. Your skin is like a freezer and you talk about having a fiancé 'a while ago.' Now you're not eating, and unless you fess up to having an eating disorder I'm inclined to believe that something else is going on. I'm tired of giving you a zillion chances to explain, so I'm going to be straight with you. I asked you to dinner..." she closed her eyes and braced, "because I want to know what the fuck is up with you."

I didn't know what to feel, and yet I felt it all. She didn't feel it, did she? She's just... curious?

So, Edward was right all along. I put my family in harm's way for nothing.

"I'm not in the mood to be gaslit, Rosalie. So if you're gonna keep this up I might as well go home."

"No!"

I surprised myself with the ferocity of my response, both vocally and emotionally. I was surprised even more to find my left hand covering one of hers she'd laid flat on the table. We both stared at them, frozen, waiting to see what would happen next. She was holding her breath, and her heart was thudding so loud it felt like it encapsulated us both in the booth.

I spoke first.

"I don't... I don't mean to be so cryptic. I don't want to lie to you."

Her eyes were very soft. "So don't."

"But I promised — "

"Rose, listen to me. Anyone who tells you to lie for them only wants to protect themselves, not you."

I barked out a derisive laugh. Tell that to the Volturi, then. I'm sure Aro would understand.

"Okay. You already know something is... wrong with me. And if I and my family disappear now that'll only make things worse. So, I'll tell you."

She frowned.

"But not all at once," I warned. "I don't want you to... I don't know, run away from me."

She covered my hand with her free one, then rubbed my thumb with a comforting motion. My skin began to warm from the contact with her living flesh.

I took a deep breath. "Okay. Here goes nothing."