Much gratitude to Frannie for hosting the Song to Story contest which brought One Look to life, and for being an amazing beta.

Thank you so much for the support and for reading and reviewing.

Bella moved to Chicago at her English teacher's suggestion, like I mentioned in 'One Look' and she hadn't thought about who was linked to that city until she was there.

Now, on with her reaction to seeing Edward and his red eyes.

Bella lived close to the Northwestern University campus. We went up three flights of stairs in an old apartment building until we stopped in front of a door that looked ready to collapse if someone breathed too hard on it.

I suppressed any comment about her safety because she was no longer mine to worry about. But it still worried me how unsafe this door was.

"Shit," she mumbled when the door opened after only one twist of the key in the lock.

I took a step closer, bringing me flush against her back. Bella's breath hitched, and her heart rate stuttered. "I apologize," I whispered, sidestepping her.

"Uh, looks like my friends beat me home," she said nervously. She opened the door, and the boy from her group peered at her over the back of the couch. "What are you doing here?" Bella demanded.

His wide blue eyes stared at me in fright. Since when does she bring boys home? Can't she see how dangerous this dude looks? He shivered, dragging his eyes to Bella. "I wanted to make sure you got back safely."

"Well…I'm back safely," Bella answered seriously. "Is Lydia at yours?"

"Yeah."

"Tell her to lock the door when she comes home," Bella said sternly, catching the end of my hoodie, pulling me after her.

I have to warn her. She's so innocent.

I bit back a laugh at this boy's internal struggle.

"Bella? A word?" he called after us, his voice raised a notch too high.

"Go to him. I'll wait." I stopped in the narrow hallway we were walking.

Bella winced. "Pretend to go deaf for the next five minutes," she mumbled, heading back to the living room. "What, Mitch?"

"Who's that guy?" he whispered hotly. "Do you even know him? Since when do you bring guys back home?"

I resisted the urge to call him out on his immaturity and hypocrisy. But he was Bella's friend, and I couldn't interfere.

I was also curious what lies Bella would come up with. She was reduced to being untruthful to her friends once again because of me.

I saw her blazing chocolate brown eyes through his mind. "What's wrong with you? Now I'm not allowed to have fun? Not like it's any of your business, but I plan on having fun on my birthday."

The creep clearly slipped her drugs. I should call the police. This is not like Bella. "So, you abandoned us, your friends, for the first druggie who crossed your path?"

Bella narrowed her eyes. "I only humored you to go out tonight. We could have done something here. The truth is…I had plans."

"Who's he?" This Mitch demanded, his thoughts scrambled about how odd Bella was acting.

She was the worst liar in the universe.

"My dealer," she snapped, opening the door and shoving him out. "Stop acting like my father." She slammed the door shut.

"Maybe I should teach you the art of lying," I said, amused.

"Ha!" Bella huffed, breezing past me and throwing open the door of the last room at the end of the narrow hallway.

I followed her, and her scent permeated the air, entangled with the unmistakable scent of nicotine. Her room was much messier than her old room in Forks. Books and textbooks were piled on top of each other on the small desk. There was a mountain of clothes on the chair at the foot of the bed. Her laptop lay open, and more books and clothes were on the floor. On her nightstand was a picture frame of her and a boy I recognized as Jacob Black. The last time I'd seen him, he was a scrawny fifteen-year-old, but in that photo, he looked as buff and tall as Emmett, though not much older. They were leaning against a dirt bike, hugging.

Was Bella dating Jacob Black? I couldn't understand the irrational anger I felt toward the boy. I didn't even know him. I could remember how pure and innocent his mind was at prom when Billy Black had sent him to warn Bella about my family and me. I wondered if he was still in the dark about the Quileute secrets.

Bella plopped down on the bed, narrowly missing her laptop as she kicked off her sneakers.

I stood near her desk, watching as she dug through her small backpack, coming out with a box of cigarettes and a lighter. Her eyes held mine as she lit one up, daring me to comment on her atrocious bad habit.

"Are you going to talk, or do you want to play twenty-one questions?" She rolled her eyes, exhaling a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling.

I couldn't even find it amusing that she'd brought up our past so casually.

"Since when do you smoke?" I had no control over the words tumbling out of my mouth.

"That's one question wasted," she joked. "Back right at you. Since when did you change your diet?"

I felt my lips quirking upward as we fell into our ancient game of bouncing questions off each other. "Ladies first."

Bella licked her upper lip, taking a drag from her cigarette. "When I smoke is the only time I can breathe easily."

I knew Alice's vision had been once again correct with that statement. Bella had suffered after my departure, and she'd coped with our break-up in the worst ways.

"It's the safest option that makes me function when memories of you threaten to swallow me into this giant black hole."

I turned my eyes away from hers, like the coward I was. I stared at the picture on her nightstand. "Motorcycles?" I asked when all I wanted to say was, "werewolves," but she might not know about them, and I wasn't ready to open that can of worms.

She huffed, drawing my attention back to her beautiful face. I swallowed a mouthful of venom as her glorious scent clouded my rational thoughts. Being alone with her in this tiny room was too much for the once impeccable self-restraint I always had around her.

"I believe it's your turn," she muttered.

"Mind if I open the window?" And hang halfway out while we talk? I'd never felt so weak or ashamed of my nature.

Bella launched herself at the small window, throwing it open. With that gesture, I recognized some of my Bella in her. She'd changed so much, she'd created this protective shell around her, but I could see through it. She was the same fragile girl, trying to act tough and make it through the pain I'd caused her.

She turned to watch me warily as she sat back on the bed.

I walked to sit on the windowsill, keeping my eyes on her. "I don't particularly want to speak about my new diet."

"I think I have the right to know about this change of heart…considering I'm all alone with a vampire to whom I smell delicious…who now preys on humans."

I closed my eyes briefly, allowing myself to be proud of her for once being afraid of me. "It's a long story."

She flicked ash in her coffee cup, snorting. "We have time. Some of us have forever, some not. So sum it up for me."

I frowned, unsure why she was being so cold, so usually mean. Her brown eyes, which were once full of life, now were dull and ready for answers.

For a brief moment, I managed to lose track of what we were actually talking about. Having Bella so close again clouded my judgment, and more than ever, I needed a clear mind in her presence.

I watched the end of her cigarette burning bright as she inhaled nicotine. I reminded myself I had no right to be concerned about her health.

Not anymore.

"After I left," my voice broke – something that hadn't happened to me since my human days, "I stumbled upon one of your old acquaintances in Port Angeles." Bella frowned, blowing the smoke toward the ceiling, avoiding my eyes. "I heard his vile thoughts and couldn't allow him to hurt an innocent girl finding herself at the wrong time in the same alley with that excuse of a man."

Bella gasped. "Those guys…"

"One of them," I said, not ready to admit how the others were rotting in prison because Carlisle was too kind and didn't follow through with my plan to kill them all. "It was easier than I'd ever thought to fall back in my old habits."

"Wha…" Bella choked on her spit.

I met her eyes across the room, making sure to breathe as much fresh air from the window as possible. "Did I not tell you how I rebelled and left Carlisle and Esme back in the thirties?"

"Well yes…" she stuttered, her heart thudding loudly in her chest.

"What did you think I was doing to make me feel like a wrenched creature? I only went after the scums, but my conscience won the battle within me. What gave me the right to decide who deserved to live and who to die? What made me better than the bastard I was killing? No matter what sort of crime he was about to commit, I shouldn't play God. The simple fact that I was above him on the trophic level wasn't a good enough reason."

"Was it revenge for what he'd planned on doing to me that night?"

Why did I think she'd have a rational answer, for once? "Yes." That was the simple answer.

"So, you got your revenge. What did Carlisle and Esme have to say about it? I hope they didn't judge you," she said anxiously. She stubbed her cigarette into her cup of coffee.

I smiled warily. "Bella, I haven't seen my family in longer than I haven't seen you. That night, after your birthday, I told them to leave. We had to leave – all of us. We've put you in danger for too long. I lingered to say my goodbye."

Pure hatred filled her eyes. She hurled the cup at me, ash and the last drops of coffee flying everywhere. I caught it before it could shatter against my head.

"I don't even understand why you bothered getting close to me…suffering in the proximity of my blood…when I was just a toy for you…a distraction."

I placed the cup in front of me on the windowsill, staring at her in disbelief. How could she still believe my lie?

"Everything made sense…why you wouldn't change me. I was this new, shiny toy, and when you got bored, you discarded me."

"No!" No, no, no. I grabbed my hair, agony rippling through me.

"Well, newsflash, Edward! Your toy had feelings. You broke your toy that day."

"I…" I'm sorry. I lied. I never meant to cave to the temptation and lure you into my world. "I suffered, too."

Bella laughed a little hysterically. "Good," she snapped. "Okay, so back to that bad guy you ate in Port Angeles." She spoke of it so casually, as if we were discussing dinner at my favorite restaurant. "Why didn't you seek out your family after? I'm sure they could have forgiven your act."

"They all went separate ways." I winced at the memories of Alice's visions about Bella actively seeking all of them out. "I couldn't face any of them. I wandered around for over a year before I decided to make my way to Chicago. I arrived at the beginning of summer."

"Why didn't you go back to hunting animals?" She sounded intrigued by my new diet.

"It's not easy. Tasting that man…reminded me how good I'd felt the last time I fed on humans. I was strong, and I could go for longer periods of time between feedings." I studied her face, expecting disgust, but she seemed as fascinated as ever.

"You're thirsty now," she said softly, reaching for her smokes automatically.

"Not particularly," I admitted.

"You need to stay by the window for fresh air," she pointed out.

"That has to do with your presence. Your scent has gotten even more potent now, if possible. All my senses are sharper."

"Is it difficult for you to be here?"

"Extremely."

She pressed the cigarette between her lips, watching me. Slowly, she walked closer, and I was sure she had a death wish. Nothing new under the sky.

She stopped by my side, reaching for her cup, holding it in her left hand. Her eyes bore into mine, and I was curious what she saw. This was the face of a cold-blooded murderer. Bella dumped her half-burnt cigarette into the cup, placing it on the windowsill again. She stepped so close to me; I could feel her body heat.

I watched her warily as one of her hands cupped my shoulder. For a wild second, I feared she wanted to push me through the window. I deserved that. But there would be too many questions raised if someone spotted me falling from such a height and then walking away unscathed. Her other hand wrapped around my hair at the back of my head.

She bent close enough for her ambrosia to overwhelm me. Her eyes burned in an unfamiliar way.

Bella had been so young and innocent when I used to know her. This new Bella had been through Hell and back.

…Because of me.

She sucked in a breath and spat on my face. "I hate you, Edward. Get the fuck out of here."

I'd have never expected that gesture from her, not in a million years. Her words cut through me, leaving me bleeding as the pain gripped at my insides.

"Have you gone deaf? Leave! You weren't supposed to exist, remember? So get lost!" Her voice was so high, close to hysterics.

I wiped my cheek with my sleeve, standing from my spot. It brought us impossibly close.

What I wouldn't have given to hold her in my arms one more time, to taste her lips…

"I swear to God; I'll scream if you don't drop your hands."

I hadn't even realized I'd encircled her delicate waist. "What about our twenty-one questions?" I was desperate for any amount of time she'd give me if she considered me worthy of more.

Bella's fists clenched around the lapels of my hoodie. "Your Bella is no longer here … she died in the forest that night. You killed her. Now, leave." She turned to glare out the window.

I made my feet walk away from her, even though every molecule in my body wanted nothing more than to run back and fall at her feet, begging for mercy. I walked aimlessly through the dark streets, and when I reached my childhood house, I was consumed by self-loathing.

I was so upset that the sound of my newlywed neighbors consuming their love for one another turned my rage into bloodlust.

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