Bella put off looking through the yearbook as long as she could. First she called Sue, who confirmed that it would be no problem to get a few guys to come by the next day to help with the yard.

"I'll need them to take the stuff out of the attic, too," Bella added, remembering Renée's warning about the brown recluses.

"Sure thing," Sue said. "Jackson and Quil aren't working right now. I'm sure they could use it."

"Great," Bella said. She didn't have access to Charlie's money yet, but she still had some money in her account that she could pay the guys with. "I'll see them around ten."

She put on some music then, John Denver's Rhymes and Reasons. John was singing to his lover, telling her how much he hated to leave her behind, promising to return. This was one of the ones that Charlie knew on the guitar, and Bella sang along under her breath while she started cooking dinner. She'd learned since coming back to Forks that cooking in Charlie's kitchen tapped her memories of him in a powerful, and not unpleasant, way. So much of the time she'd spent with him during high school had been in this kitchen, cooking and eating. She made meatloaf tonight. It wasn't a dish she cared for much, but it had been one of Charlie's favorites. She'd picked up the ingredients at the grocery store the day before almost without thinking. Forks autopilot.

When the meal had been cooked and eaten, Bella took her time washing the dishes. She glanced from time to time at the yearbook, lying on the coffee table, waiting for her.

Too soon, the dishes were clean and dripping in the drying rack. The counters and tabletop were clean, and there wasn't anything left to stand between Bella and the yearbook. She picked it up and headed for the stairs, then stopped and went to the kitchen instead. She found the bottle of wine she'd bought for dinner at the Cullens' and forgotten. Charlie didn't own wineglasses, but an old glass tumbler with a scratched and faded daisy pattern etched on the side did just as well. There was a corkscrew, just starting to rust, in the silverware drawer. Bella grabbed it. Carrying the bottle, corkscrew, glass, and book, she headed upstairs to her old bedroom.

The room had gotten emptier in the last week. Goodwill had come and picked up the dressers, night stand, battered bookshelves, and bed frame. The mattress and box spring now rested directly on the hardwood floor in the corner of the room. Bella had kept back a table lamp as well, intending to bring it back to Seattle with her when she left Forks. It sat on the wooden floor now next to the mattresses. When she turned it on, it cast an eerie, golden glow in the room, throwing deep, angular shadows against the bare walls. Bella sat down cross-legged on the bed, her back leaning against the wall.

First she opened the wine and filled the drinking glass halfway. She took a sip, and even though she knew almost nothing about wine, it actually tasted pretty good to her. She took a long drink, draining half the amount she'd poured herself, before she opened the cover of the book.

The inside cover and starting pages were covered in scribbled messages. Bella read the words scrawled in fading ink.

"Bella – You're the best! No one rocks like the Forks High Beeotches! Your soul sistah, Jessica"

"Dear Bella, Have a great summer! Luv ya! –Angela"

"Forks girls rule the world! Bella and Shara, friends for life!"

Bella struggled to remember going to school with someone named Shara, and found she couldn't. Most of the other ones she could remember, sometimes with effort.

"Bella, you're the coolest and I'll always remember all the crazy times we had. Stay in touch, girl! –Mike"

"Bella, even when we're rich and famous, we'll still eat Cheetos and smoke down – haha. Class of '06! – Becka"

The nostalgia she'd expected to feel reading the messages and looking at the photos felt diluted. She took in the emotion shouted across the pages, but did it through the lens of a person who had experienced moments unimaginable to that eighteen-year-old Bella Swan. She remembered those days, how that intensity of feeling had seemed as though it could fill up the whole world, that the poignancy of those days would burst her chest.

It seemed so small now.

She turned past the signatures on the first pages to the class photos. Despite herself, she found herself smiling when she found photos of Angela, of Mike, of herself.

Children, she thought to herself. We were children. My god, I was drinking, fooling around with Jake. We were so young. No wonder Charlie went so crazy over it.

She turned over a page and found the drama club group photo. The smile on her face faltered and disappeared. There was Bella, fresh-faced and impossibly young, bearing only a passing resemblance to the twenty-six-year-old woman who turned the yearbook pages now. And there was Alice Cullen, smiling mischievously, waving her fingers in "hello" at the camera.

Bella felt a deep chill as her eyes met Alice's in the photo. She had the nearly irresistible urge to slam the book closed, put it aside, and forget about it. Instead, she forced herself to stop and look closer at Alice's image. Bella looked first at herself in the photo, then back at Alice. She shook her head, trying to deny what she saw.

Alice from high school, Alice who had been seventeen years old, looked exactly the same as the woman who had given Bella the yearbook an hour ago. Not just like she'd kept the same style, not just like she'd aged really well. She was exactly the same.

She isn't human.

The thought slammed into Bella's mind with too much weight for her to push it aside. It held on, insisted upon itself. And, once it had worked its way into Bella's mind, it brought along more, equally unwelcome and disturbing.

Bella flipped pages in the yearbook until she found Jasper's class photo, then Rosalie's and Emmett's. All the same. Exactly the same. The teenage Cullens in the photos were identical to the people she'd eaten dinner with two weeks ago. That just left Carlisle and Esme, and, of course, Edward.

Carlisle had been in his late thirties when she moved to Forks almost ten years ago. Bella could only assume Esme was about the same age. Bella thought back to dinner at their house and asked herself if Carlisle and Esme looked as though they could possibly be nearing fifty years old.

They're not fifty, Bella thought. Maybe thirty-five, but probably more like thirty. They look closer in age to me than they would to Charlie or Sue.

She didn't have a photograph of Edward from high school, but she didn't need one. Whatever the rest of them were, he was, too. Mentally, she tried to name all the things about them that didn't fit, the things she hadn't let herself see before now.

They're too perfect; they look wrong – you've always known that.

They never eat or drink.

They're never cold.

They move too fast.

She remembered how Edward had known what the homeless man had said to her outside the movies, when there was no way he could have heard it. She remembered Neil Young, and "Moon River."

They know things they shouldn't.

They don't age.

She did close the book then. She set it down beside the bed, but when she lay down and saw it there, it seemed too close. She gave it a shove, and it slid across the floor, making a scraping noise that echoed in the empty room.

She turned over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling.

"Damn it, Jake," she muttered. Would she have considered these things if didn't know the truth about him? She didn't think so.

Was this why Alice had taken her yearbook, and why she had given it back to her? To let Bella see that they hadn't changed?

She wants me to know what they are, Bella thought with certainty, remembering how Alice had dressed when she'd brought the book. But why?

Alice had talked about something else when she was over, too. She had talked about the night Bella had lost the yearbook, that party at Jessica Stanley's. What was she trying to tell Bella about that?

Bella closed her eyes and remembered that night, seven years ago, when she had picked up her yearbook, climbed into that beautiful, ugly old truck and—

-Bella downshifted and slowed as she approached Jessica's house. Jessica's place wasn't fancy, just a large brick home with a huge yard, but it was one of the nicest homes of any of her classmates, at least the ones she'd seen herself. It was the perfect place for a big post-graduation farewell bash, and, even though it was still early, the lawn was already full of cars.

Bella knew, of course, that the Cullens' place was much nicer, a mansion, really, but no one in the school that she knew had ever actually been there. The Cullens never had parties, or even invited friends over, as far as Bella and her friends could tell. They didn't participate much in school activities, either. They didn't join clubs, or go to sports games or pep rallies. They didn't run for student government or prom court. For that matter, they didn't go to prom.

Weirdos.

Alice Cullen had broken that unwritten family rule for the first time this year when she'd joined the drama club and played the lead – the male lead – in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Some kids thought that meant she was actually trying to break out of the Cullen mold and get an actual life, but nothing further had come of it. Alice didn't make friends in the club or attend any of the drama club get-togethers after the season was over. She came, she Pucked, she went.

Bella didn't worry about Alice Cullen today, though. A lot of Bella's friends were getting ready to leave for summer programs or start summer jobs before heading to college, and she really needed this one, last crazy night with everyone. In a couple of weeks, some of them would be gone, for who knows how long.

She promised herself she wouldn't cry, but she was worried she might.

After unsuccessfully looking for a parking place on the lawn, Bella found a spot on the street and parked. She grabbed her yearbook, still stiff and new-smelling, from off the empty passenger's seat of the truck as she climbed out.

Inside the house, music was playing. Nickelback. Bella liked their music but pretended she didn't, so she resisted the temptation to sing along.

She found Jessica and her boyfriend, Byron, in the kitchen dumping chips into bowls.

"Heeeeeeeey!" Jessica squealed when Bella came in. She hurried up to Bella and hugged her. "I'm glad you're here. Can you take these out back? Everyone's back by the fire pit."

"Sure," Bella said. "Sign my yearbook first?" She handed Jessica the book and the pen she'd brought along.

"Of. Course." Jessica exaggerated each word as she said it. She wrote in the book and passed it to Byron, who sighed heavily, but signed obediently.

"Thanks," Bella said. She tucked the book under her arm, put the pen into her pocket, and grabbed a bowl of chips with each hand.

In the back yard, there were thirty or forty Forks High seniors standing around in little groups holding red Solo cups and talking. A few guys were adding wood to the beginning of a fire in the pit in the center of the yard. Some of the kids greeted Bella when they saw her come out of the house. She carried the chips over to a picnic table, where soda bottles and other snack bowls had already been put out.

"Hey, Bella," Angela said. "Where's Jacob?"

"Fuck if I know," Bella said, making a face. She handed Angela the yearbook. "Here. Sign. Write something good."

"You guys fighting again?" Angela asked as she wrote.

"Nope. We're done fighting. We're just done, you know, in general."

"Oh, Bella, I'm so sorry," Angela said, her eyes wide.

"Don't worry about it," Bella said. "It's the right thing for both of us. Jacob just isn't the same place as me. I'm getting ready to leave, to move to Seattle, and he has, like, no idea what he's going to do. He has the financial aid to go to UW with me, but he's saying he wants to spend a year working on the reservation first. And, I mean, so many kids say that, that they're going to take a year off, and they never get started. And I tried to tell him this, and he just got so pissed. Some of his other friends are staying back, and it's clear that he would rather run around with them like an idiot instead of moving to the city with me. So, I said enough. If that's what he wants, he can have it. I'm not going to give up my whole life for him."

"Wow, Bella," Angela said. "That's, like, so smart. You're going to meet so many guys at UW. If it's not working out with Jacob, it's good you guys figured that out now."

"Well, you know, he isn't thrilled about it," Bella said. "But he'll get over it. Lots of girls in Forks and La Push will be glad to help him with that, I'm sure."

Bella's stomach felt sour at the thought. She tried to ignore it.

Angela handed the book back to Bella, who handed it off to a group of kids standing close to them.

"Pass it on, pass it on! I want everyone to write something to cheer me up when I'm at UW and don't know anyone," she said.

"Aw, you'll make, like, ten friends on the first day," Eric said, handing Bella a plastic cup. She took a sip; it was punch, none-too-subtly spiked with some strong liquor, probably bottom shelf vodka. She made a face, swallowed hard, and took another drink.

"What the hell?" she said. "I'm a goddamned adult, right?"

"Oh my god," Angela said in a low voice, looking past Bella.

Bella followed Angela's gaze and saw Jessica and Byron coming out of the house and into the yard, followed by Alice Cullen and another boy that Bella didn't recognize. Alice and the strange boy walked up to Bella's group as confidently as if they'd hung out every day for the last four years.

"Hi, guys!" Alice said. Bella had always found Alice's voice uncanny, more like a bird's chirp than a human's speech. It wasn't annoying, though. It was bizarre, but also resonant, and a little beautiful.

"Hi, Alice," Bella said. Just then, a boy who had been signing Bella's yearbook brought it back to her. Bella took it from him and handed it to Alice. "Will you sign my yearbook? I'm leaving for UW Seattle in a couple of months, and with any luck, I'll never set foot in Forks again. I'm trying to get everyone to write something so I can remember that not everything about this place sucked."

Alice's laughter was music.

"Of course I'll sign it," she said, taking the book and flipping to the blank pages at the back. "But I will bet you that you won't always hate Forks so much. I've lived a lot of places; this one isn't so bad."

"It isn't so good, either," Bella said. "Anyway, I'm gonna get my degree in journalism, and since nothing worth writing about ever happens here, there won't be any reason for me to come back."

"What about your father?" Alice asked as she wrote.

Bella shrugged.

"I intend to be noticeably wealthy," she said. "I'll pay for him to come visit me."

"It sounds like you've got it all planned out," Alice said, closing the yearbook. She glanced around, looking for the boy who'd come with her. She frowned when she spotted him taking a seat in the fire circle, well away from any of the other kids. He was tall and lean with pale skin and reddish-brown hair. He sat hunched forward with his arms crossed, glancing up occasionally at the other kids in the yard.

"Who's your friend?" Bella asked, staring at him. Not only didn't she recognize him, she didn't think she'd ever even seen anyone remotely like him. Something about his face, his eyes…

"That's my brother, Edward," Alice said.

"I didn't know you had another brother," Bella said.

"Sure you did," Alice said. "You guys had a class together when you first came to Forks."

"We did?" Bella's brow furrowed. "Wait, biology? Oh, wow, I do remember that now. I didn't know he was your brother. Is he, like, your real brother?"

"You mean my biological brother?" Alice corrected smoothly, raising an eyebrow. "No, he's a foster kid like me."

"Where's he been?" Bella asked. "I mean, why didn't he go to school with you at Forks High?"

Alice smiled enigmatically at Bella and drew in a deep breath.

"The time just wasn't right," she said. Bella waited, but Alice didn't explain any further. "But, hey," Alice said. "You should come meet him. For real, I mean."

"Okay," Bella said. She took another sip of her drink; she'd finished about half the cup now. Maybe it was the alcohol, but she felt more curious than nervous as she walked with Alice to meet Edward Cullen.

He was sitting on one of the large logs that served as seating around the fire pit. He'd been staring into the fire, which the boys had built up into an impressive blaze. When Bella started toward him, his eyes moved from the fire to her and stayed there.

Bella's step faltered. His gaze rested on her like a physical weight.

Alice sat down on the log beside Edward. Bella took a seat on a different log on the other side of him.

"Edward, you remember Bella Swan, right?" Alice said.

"Yes," he said, his voice rough. He extended his hand to her, and she gave her his to shake. Instead of shaking it, though, he just held it for a moment, his eyes locked on hers, then let go.

She looked down at his hand as it fell back to rest on his knees, and saw that it was shaking.

"Did you come into town for Alice's graduation?" Bella asked, unsure of what else to say.

"No," he said. "I only just arrived this morning. I would have liked to come earlier, but it didn't work out."

"Oh, okay," Bella said.

There was a long moment of awkward silence. Bella took another drink, draining her cup.

"Need a refill, Phoenix?" Mike Newton appeared, swapping Bella's empty cup out for a full one, a roguish glint in his eye.

Edward sat up suddenly, stiffly, and glared at Mike.

"You do know how much alcohol is in that, don't you, Bella?" Edward said.

She took a drink. It tasted about the same as the last drink. She shrugged.

"It's a party, Edward," she said. "Gather ye roses and all that. We're only young once."

"Rosebuds," Edward muttered.

"What?" Bella said.

"Edward," Alice hissed at him.

He sighed, looked away, and seemed to gather himself before speaking again.

"What are your plans now that you've graduated, Bella?" he said.

"I'm going into UW Seattle's journalism program," she said.

"You want to be a writer?"

"No," she said. "I mean, I like to write, so I'm okay with that part of it. But I really want to be a reporter who travels all over the world, covers major events. Can you imagine seeing all those amazing things?"

He smiled at her for the first time, and Bella felt her entire body go weak in reaction.

"I think you would make a wonderful reporter, Bella," he said.

She cleared her throat, trying to steady herself. A minute ago, she had been trying to figure out who to ask about what was wrong with this boy, as in mentally wrong. Now she felt an attraction to him that staggered her.

"I'm so excited," she said, managing with some effort to remember what they had been talking about. "Charlie – that's my dad – he's a little skeptical of my major. He's worried about me finding a job with just a journalism degree. He wants me to do something safer, like teaching, or nursing."

"But you're not worried," Edward said. He watched her face with something like fascination, a hint of that dizzying smile still on his lips.

"Of course I am," Bella said. "I've seen the employment statistics for journalism majors. I know I could end up working in a coffee shop or something when I'm forty. But that just doesn't matter."

"Why doesn't it?"

"Because… Destiny demands faith," Bella said, starting slowly and picking up speed as she went. Her words slurred just a touch. "I believe, believe, that I am destined to do something amazing. But if I'm not willing to take a running start, make that leap, risk failure… Well, then I just don't deserve it, Edward. Do you know what I mean? You only get to have a big amazing destiny if you're willing to prove you really want it."

Edward's breath drew in sharply.

"Bella…" he said. "You are a remarkable girl."

She laughed.

"What about you, Edward? What are you doing?" She leaned in toward him, smiling playfully. "What's your destiny?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but seemed to be having trouble forming the words.

Jessica's voice came from behind them suddenly.

"Hi, Jake! Hey, Bella, Jake's here!" she said loudly, clearly trying to warn Bella before Jacob saw how closely Bella had leaned in toward Edward as they were speaking. It was too late, though.

"Hey, Bella," Jacob said. "Who's your friend?" His voice was friendly on the surface and pissed underneath.

"Hey, Jake," Bella said coolly. "This is Edward Cullen, Alice's brother."

Edward looked at Jacob without speaking, his head cocked slightly, as though he were listening to something. His expression was like stone.

Jacob came closer to where Bella was sitting with Edward and Alice. She made no move to stand. When Jacob was within ten feet of them, he stopped suddenly, simultaneously sniffing the air and flinching.

"Are you okay?" Bella said.

"Yeah, fine," he said, confusion plain on his face. He shot an expression of distaste at Edward, then turned to Bella. "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Later, Jacob," Bella said.

"Come on, Bells," he said. "It's really important."

Bella sighed and set her drink down on the grass.

"You don't have to, Bella," Edward said quietly.

"You really don't," Alice said, sounding distressed.

Bella glanced at each of them. Jacob glared at them both.

"It's alright," she said. "I'll be right back."

Alice sighed heavily.

Just then, a girl came up and handed Bella her yearbook.

"All done!" the girl said. "The guys wrote in it, too. I, uh, wouldn't let your dad read it if I were you."

"Heh, I won't," Bella said. She paused before handing it to Edward. "Here, write me something while I'm gone. Back in a minute."

Bella followed Jacob back into Jessica's house and down the stairs to the basement. The basement was finished, albeit in a décor that hadn't been current for thirty or forty years. Shaggy yellow-gold carpeting covered the floor, and the couches and chairs were upholstered in shades ranging from rusty brown to avocado green. There was a faint musty smell in the air.

Jacob sat down on a pea-green couch that creaked rustily under his weight. After a pause, Bella sat down beside him.

"Why are you here, Jacob?" she said. She had no desire to drag this out any longer than was necessary.

"You invited me," he said.

"That was weeks ago, before we broke up," Bella said.

"Yeah, about that—"

"I don't want to fight about this here, Jake," Bella broke in. "I'm not going to change my mind."

"Maybe not, but just listen first, okay?"

Bella glanced back at the stairs. She could faintly hear the music from the back yard.

"Okay, but make it quick. Then you really have to go."

"If you want me to after you've heard me, I will," Jacob said. He reached into the pocket of his faded jeans and took out a tightly-folded sheet of paper. He handed it to Bella. Her brow furrowed as she unfolded it.

"Is this… a schedule? Is it for…?" She looked at him in surprise.

"It's for UW Seattle, Bella," Jacob said. "I called them, and I was able to accept my spot in the business program. I'm going with you."

"You're…" She looked back down at the paper, then back at him, stunned. "Oh my god, Jacob."

"Um, this isn't the happiness I was hoping for," Jacob said with a nervous laugh.

Bella stared at the paper in silence. Was she happy? This was what she'd wanted, for them to experience the city together, grow into cool, cultured people that no one would guess had come from a little nowhere town. But in the days since she'd told Jacob they were done, she'd done a lot of imagining about what life would be like for her in Seattle without him. And she'd been surprised, and guilty, to find the idea more than a little attractive.

Jacob reached across the little space between him and her and took her hand. She let him do it and found that she'd missed the warmth of his skin more than she'd realized.

"Bella," He said, stroking circles on the back of her hand with his thumb. "The things you said the other day… You were right. It's hard for me to think about not living in Forks. I don't know why. I'm just not like you, so ready to leave this place behind and see the world. But… that's part of why you're so good for me. If you hadn't said what you did, I might have never gotten started with school, and I know that would be a mistake." He leaned closer and touched her cheek, turning her face to look into his eyes. "Bella, I love you. I've always loved you. And, well, that's always been a little scary. Leaving is scary, too, but not as scary as not being with you. I just… Please, Bella. I'm not as adventurous as you, but I'll go along with you on whatever adventures you want. I'm not the guy that's going to hold you back, I swear."

He cupped her cheek in his hand and leaned closer.

This is the moment, she thought. If I stop him, if I pull back, then he leaves, and I go to Seattle alone. But if I kiss him…

"Do you believe in destiny?" Bella whispered. His lips were so close that they brushed against hers as she spoke.

He pulled back a little.

"What?"

"Destiny," Bella repeated. "Do you think you have one?"

He looked at her in confusion.

"Bella," he said. "Why else would I be here today?"

And then he kissed her, and his hands were stronger than she'd remembered them, and the smell of him was lovely. It was home.

This is the moment, she thought, pulling him closer.

When Bella and Jacob finally returned to the back yard, the sky had grown dark. The other teenagers had continued drinking in their absence, and the party had gotten louder. Angela spotted them as they came into the yard. Bella's arms were wrapped around Jacob's waist.

"Awwww," Angela squealed. "That is so great, guys! Bella plus Jacob forever!" she crowed in a singsong voice.

"Um, maybe don't let Angela drink anymore, guys," Bella said, turning red.

"Speaking of," Jacob said. "You want something?"

"Sure, thanks," Bella said. The buzz from her previous drinks had started to fade.

The rest of the party was a blur of laughter, stories and faces. Bella and her friends sat together with their arms around each other's shoulders swearing they would never fall out of touch. They congratulated Jacob on his decision to join Bella at UW Seattle, and brought her more drinks, all spiked haphazardly with the cheap booze the kids had sneaked in. A joint was passed around at one point, until Angela saw and made them get rid of it. Alcohol was one thing, but Angela's parents would have freaked out if they'd checked in and seen their daughter and her friends using drugs in their back yard.

"Shit," Bella mumbled several hours later. "What time is it?"

"It's like, twelve thirty," Jacob said. "Still early."

"Charlie said midnight," she said, swaying as she got to her feet.

"You're not driving," Jacob said.

"Shit," she said again. "Charlie is going to kill me."

"It's okay. I'll drive your truck and drop you off. I'll get one of the guys to meet me at your place and give me a lift back."

"You've been drinking, too, Jacob," she pointed out.

"Not like you," he said. "Plus I can handle my shit, unlike some girlfriends I know."

"Fuck you," she said, but let him pull her in for a kiss. When he released her, she looked closely at his eyes, which were still a little red from the marijuana. "Are you sure you're up to driving?"

"I'm perfect," he said. "Come on. Is Charlie working tonight?"

"Yeah, all night. One of his deputies is sick."

"Then you'll be home and in bed before he gets back."

"Okay," she said. She was suddenly very tired. "I need to go to bed."

He kept a steadying arm around her as they walked back to her truck. As the crossed the front yard, she saw a dark shape standing in the empty field across the street. It seemed to be watching her.

"Jake, who's that?" she asked, pointing.

"Hmm? I don't see anyone."

And he was right. Whatever had been there wasn't there anymore.

Jacob opened the door for her and helped her into the truck. He got behind the wheel and turned the key in the ignition. The engine started to turn over, then made a series of loud bangs and died. Jacob cursed.

"Wait here," he said, getting out of the cab and opening the hood. He slammed it back down a moment later. He came around to Bella's side of the truck and opened the door. "We're not going anywhere in this thing tonight," he said. "The engine is, like, seriously fucked up. There's oil everywhere."

"What? Oh no," she moaned. Her stomach felt sick. She desperately wanted to lie down. "What about your car?"

"Embry's using it," he said. "He dropped me off." He sighed. "I think we're just gonna have to crash tonight."

"But Charlie…"

"Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know," he said. "He's only gonna ground you. He might actually kill me." Jacob had pointed out more than once that there was no way Charlie's guns needed to be cleaned as often as Charlie did when Jake was over there.

When they got to the porch, Jessica was waiting.

"I didn't see you guys leaving," she said, looking worried. "You really shouldn't drive. You want to crash? My parents don't mind. Better safe and all that good stuff."

"That would be great," Jacob said. Bella was too tired to argue. She didn't care anymore what happened as long she got to lie down soon.

Jessica led them downstairs. Jacob helped her open the pullout bed inside the green couch. Jessica found an old set of sheets and a blanket in a closet. As soon as the bed was ready, Bella stumbled over to it and slumped down onto it. She watched Jacob through half-closed eyes. He smiled to himself as he untied her sneakers and pulled them off. He covered her with the blanket, tucking it carefully under her chin.

"I'm never going to drink again," Bella said. Her head was spinning.

"Uh huh," Jacob said, pushing a strand of hair back off her damp forehead.

"No, I really mean it," Bella said. Her eyes began to close. "I'm never touching it again. You're my witness; this is my oath. I, Bella Marie Swan, do swear on this day that I will never again allow alcohol to pass my lips so help me—"

-Bella poured the last of the red wine into her glass. Her eyes darted around her empty bedroom as she lifted the glass and drank deeply. She couldn't stop shaking. She was more than a little drunk now, but the wine didn't calm her growing panic.

What do they want from me? she asked herself, over and over. Looking back now, she couldn't see Edward's appearance at that party all those years ago as anything but deliberate. And what was Alice's part in all of this?

Suddenly, she remembered the yearbook, and the signatures she'd never gotten a chance to read that night. She swallowed the last of the wine from her glass and climbed out of bed. She crawled across the room to the corner of the floor where the book had come to rest. She flipped through the pages clumsily, coming to a stop when she found the page she was looking for.

There was Alice's message and signature. The words, written in a surprisingly elegant running script, said, "Always remember, your family is never far. Faith, hope and love, Mary Alice."

Edward had written his message on the same page. Even though she hadn't seen his handwriting before, he knew it was his (careful, almost fussy cursive) even before she read the signature.

She read the message and felt it settle in her chest – asking, wanting.

Insisting upon itself.

While Bella had been talking with Jacob, taking him back into her life, kissing him, Edward Cullen had written these words to her:

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. Eternally yours, Edward."