My apologies y'all that it's taken me so long to update. I swear that I haven't forgotten about this fic or about my others, things are just a little iffy right now at home, but I'm still writing! Thank you as well to the reader who left me a review this morning, nudging me to continue, I appreciated the push and spent the morning popping this chapter out.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about the direction that I want this story to go in, so hopefully now I'll be able to update a little more frequently. Anyways, thank you for sticking around. Enjoy!

21:09 - Angela - "Hey! Hope you don't mind, I gave River your number"

It had been approximately twenty minutes since that single text from Angela made Bella's gut feel like it was about to jump up and out of her mouth. Angela had give her number to River. Why? Why had she done it? Bella had paced her room for what felt like an eternity. Seriously, her feet were sore!

She truly couldn't wrap her mind around it. Had River just asked for her number? Surely not? It made no real sense at all to Bella's mind that River would do something like that. Especially after what she'd said when dropping her off.

Bella's heard sank a little at that thought. Granted, River was right, she wasn't gay, but why had it hurt so much? Why had she felt like River had just cut her heart into pieces with a pair of kids' fun shaped cookie cutters? It made no damn sense. First the whole "you don't bring that shit home" and now possibly asking for her number? River was, to say the least, infuriating.

The more she thought about it though, the more Bella realised that she hadn't exactly made things super easy for her. After all, she had all but screamed at her during the whole Becca situation. Christ, no wonder she hadn't made another move.

Again though, her mind fell back to River saying "you don't bring that shit home", but why? After all, Bella had all but avoided looking at her as they had neared Forks. It wasn't exactly like she was giving off "bend me over your Jeep" vibes and she knew it. So, what now?

Sighing, she stopped pacing and all but threw herself onto her bed, checking her cell in spite of the fact that she had a feeling that she wouldn't have a text.

Her gut was right. No text.

Dammit, why did her heart sink a little deeper?

With a huff, she rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. Everything that she'd dealt with in high school, vampires, shape shifters, being hunted by James, seeing Laurent, the fear that Victoria was still out there, all stuff that she had survived. So, realistically, why the hell was she so nervous around this girl? Hell, Bella was, by definition alone, kind of a badass, right? She glanced across the room to her mirror though and saw anything but.

There she lay, looking like a pale, skinny, nothing excuse of a human. She didn't feel like a badass.

Sighing, she looked up at the ceiling and let out a deep breath. She wondered silently if she was ever going to see anyone other than a plain nobody when she looked into that mirror.

Then, just as she felt herself sinking into feelings or worthlessness, came a small noise.

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Wrapped in her fluffy hotel towel, River wiped at the mirror that had long since steamed up in the small, clean bathroom. She could hear the drain behind her she she leaned over the sink and looked at herself for a moment.

She hadn't really wanted to stay in another dingy motel, but Bella's home town of Forks wasn't actually as "on the way" as she'd made it out to be. It wasn't too much further, but it sure wasn't on her actual route home. No, now, it was going to take her another four or more hours of driving in the morning before she was home with her folks, but she hadn't minded. In fact, when she'd circled the college to see her still there, it had felt like some kind of fate intervening, and that kiss in the motel? Well, that was pretty sweet too.

On her way out of the bathroom, River dropped the towel. She hadn't remembered to close the curtains, but it didn't matter. She could see across the large bed and out of the window from the bathroom and everywhere else in the room and there was no one out there in the night. Well, no one that a human would have seen.

She was quick to fold up her towel and place it on the heated rack to dry. She was only staying the night, so she didn't plan on making a mess. That being said, part of her wanted to order a huge takeout and just gorge herself. Instead though, she closed her curtains, unknowingly cutting off the view of the predator outside, then slumped onto the bed, grabbing her cell and checking it quickly.

Oh shit!

She sat bolt upright. Angela had replied!

Quickly unlocking her phone, River realised what was before her. She checked the time stamp and cursed her long shower. She had been sent Bella's number over a half hour ago and hadn't realised it.

Mentally, she was fist bumping herself, but she was also telling herself to be careful. Something about Bella seemed a little off. River may have been a horny, sexually active young adult, but she wasn't blind. That aside though, as she looked down at her phone, she wondered what the hell to do next. She, of course, shot a quick text to Angela, just thanking her, but said nothing more. Part of her wanted to ask more about Bella, to really try to get a sense of who she really was, but she would have rather heard about Bella from... well, from Bella.

It felt like it took the longest time for her to calm down, but when she finally did, she found herself sitting on the edge of her bed, phone in one hand, her hair fisted in the other. She released her hair with a sigh, drafting a message with the other hand as she did so.

"Hey"

Was that enough? She deleted it quickly. Of course it wasn't enough. Bella wouldn't know it was her.

"It's River. Hey"

Nope. Deleted.

She wracked her brain, desperately wanted to text Bella but also not wanting to come off like some sleazy asshole.

"Let's fuck"

"sup"

"Yo"

"Hey, you up?"

"U up?"

Needless to say, none of the drafted messages made the cut and all were quickly deleted as she flopped back onto her bed.

Where the hell had her game gone? When Bella had been there in the room, she'd been as cool as a cucumber, but now? Well, the drafted messages spoke for themselves. She was much more confident in person to say the least. Thinking about it though, she'd been that way for a long time. She had always exuded confidence in person, so being without that often made her a little nervous, though she usually got over that quickly enough.

Eventually, with an annoyed huff, she rolled onto her front and grabbed her cell, deciding whether to text Bella or simply go to sleep.

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Startled by the noise, Bella looked quickly to her window just in time to see it fly open. She sure hadn't missed the lack of privacy that came with vampires. What shocked her though was that, when the blur that entered her room finally stopped, she saw none other than Alice standing at the foot of her bed.

"Bella!" She practically squealed, making Bella's eyes fly wide open.

She shot up from the bed and all but ran over, clasping a hand over Alice's mouth before she could stop herself. Placing a hand under a vampire's nose? Not smart. "You'll wake Charlie!" She tried hushing her, but it was no use. Alice moved excitedly to pull Bella in for a somewhat painful hug, reminding Bella of just how gentle Edward must have been with her.

The hand fell away in the movement, though Alice hadn't seemed to mind. When they eventually pulled apart, Bella noted mentally how bright Alice's eyes were. Ah, she'd hunted recently, hence the hand right by her mouth not being an issue. She briefly wondered if Alice had seen a version of events in which she hadn't hunted and had hurt her, but she ignored that thought.

The two women, one young and one not so, sat on Bella's bed. Alice wanted all of the details of college and Bella was happy for the distraction.

"So," Alice started, reaching out and grabbing Bella's hands. "how was it?" She asked, raising her brows suggestively with a her lips pulled ever so slightly into an almost-smirk.

Confused, Bella shook her head and blinked for a moment. "How was... what?" She asked, chuckling awkwardly at the end.

Then, grinning, Alice leaned in. "Your ride!" She practically sang, giggling musically when Bella blushed.

Nodding, Bella chuckled. "So that was your plan." She surmised, watching Alice's face show something akin to pride. It felt strange though, seeing her, talking to her about this. After all, Alice was, for all intents and purposes, Edward's sister. They were closer than close. Did she really want to know about Bella's crushes? Had this whole thing been set up by Edward to get information? Christ, for all Bella knew, he could had been right outside.

With that in mind, she looked down at her feet that were crossed in front of her. "How is he?" She asked, feeling guilt seep into her bones. They were, after all, still engaged. It wasn't that she didn't care about Edward, clearly she did, but his whole idea about giving her permission to experiment and live a few human years, it felt vaguely like a trap.

Stilling for a long moment, Alice's face fell to what even Bella could see was a fake smile. It was there merely to try to stop her from feeling guilty, but it did exactly the opposite. "He's away." She supplied after a moment. "He's okay." She then added, seemingly remembering herself. "He really does just want for you to be happy, Bella. I just- it's hard for him. I see it, then he sees it through me. It's one thing for him to give you this free reign, it's another to see it."

Now that, that Bella understood. In the same way that, if Edward was off doing the same thing that she was, she would be happy for him, but she knew in herself that she wasn't ready to see him with someone else yet. She wasn't ready to see him hugging or kissing another girl, but if that was what he needed then that was fine. She truly did understand.

Alice didn't stay for much longer, realising when Bella stifled a yawn that the frail human before her needed sleep, but she left with a promise that she would pick Bella up another day so that she could see the family again.

It was funny. Once Alice was gone, Bella realised that she really had missed her. She had missed the other Cullens, it was just Edward. It was the way that he had left her that left this level is distrust in her. The way he had uprooted all of the others and destroyed every trace of himself in her life. Something inside her knew in that moment that she could never forgive him for that, but once her head hit the pillow, nothing else mattered. As she drifted into dream, she didn't once think of Edward, but instead of River.

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to read this, it means the world to me!

Let me know if there's anything that you want to see/read and I'll see what I can do! Keep your eyes peeled for the next update, I'll try to be quick with it!