Bella

The ride to the Cullen house was a quiet one. Alice was next to me in the passenger seat, her small carry-on bag at her feet. Caius was sitting in the back. He was leaned up against the cabin of the truck. I could see his hair squished up against the back window. Luckily vampires didn't get cold, otherwise it would have been a rather uncomfortable ride. I had asked Alice to keep an eye out for police. I knew she would be able to see if one would be coming our way in the future, but who knew if she was actually doing it. Perhaps she thought one would delay us long enough for her to change my mind. Her lecture back at the house had really annoyed me.

What, did she think I was stupid?

Probably.

I pulled into the driveway. The truck bumped along the dirt road. There were new craters in the soil, probably from the winter cold, that really tested the truck's suspension. Maybe I'd ask Jake to take a look at that too. It had been a while since I'd seen him. I should invite him to Port Angeles this weekend with us. I didn't know if he would want to go, but there wasn't really any harm in inviting him along.

The house came into view and with it, a very pale, lanky looking teenager.

Alec.

I parked the truck. I could feel the vehicle moving as Caius jumped out of the bed. He sauntered towards Alec, and said something in Italian, probably instructions on what was to follow, before gesturing for us to come out.

Alice was slightly in front of me, her carry-on wheeling behind her, as she walked toward her former home.

"I'm sure you know of my guard," Caius said, facing Alice.

""Yes, Alec is it? though I don't believe we've ever met face-to-face."

"Yes ma'am," Alec said, "I will be escorting you back to Dr. Cullen."

He and Alice shared a look that I couldn't quite place, before Alec turned towards me.

"And you must be Miss Swan. My apologies in startling you. I do hope that the next time we meet it will be upon more pleasant business."

I turned to Alice

"Travel safe," I said.

"I will. I'll say hi to everyone for you."

"Sure."

She took out a receipt and a pen out of her pocket and scrawled something on it before passing it to me.

"This is my email," she said, " The real one," she pressed it into my hand, "Just in case. If you need me."

She grasped me in a hug, and I squeezed her back.

"Goodbye," I said.

I could finally say goodbye to her. To them.

My eyes strained over my books. I had been at it for hours now, and it was past 2:00AM. My sleep was one of the hardest things for me to try and get back on track with, but I was getting better. I normally got about 6 hours a night now; a lot better than the average two hours, or some nights, none at all, that I had been functioning on in the first few months after Edward had left.

I shook my head in an effort to try and re-focus. My pen scratched against the paper review booklet. I had just finished question 34 when I heard something hit my window. I jumped at the tap of the stone hitting the glass. I took my books off of my lap and placed them on the bed beside me, making sure to stick my pen in the textbook so that I wouldn't loose my page, before going to look out the window.

Caius was perched on the thick tree branch outside my bedroom.

"What are you doing out there?" I asked.

"I promised you take-out," he said holding up a white take-out bag, "Picked it up while you were driving back. Hopefully it's still good."

"I'm sure my microwave will fix it. Thanks," I said and opened my window, as he tightrope-walked across the branch and climbed inside.

"I figured you'd need a break by now." He said, putting the take-out bag on my desk, and passing me a cold latte, "And if your going to start coffee, you may as well have the good stuff."

"The good stuff? Says the vampire who doesn't eat or drink anything."

"I can still tell good coffee from bad coffee. I am Greek after all."

"And when was the last time you had it?"

"I'll admit, it has been a few thousand years. I think I've only ever had it once or twice actually. I remember that there was a festival in my town when I was a child. There were traders who came from all over Greece that were selling things, so I managed to find a coin that someone had dropped and bought some coffee."

"And how was it?"

"Very bitter, but not bad."

"What else was there? At the festival?"

"It would have been mostly local farms, and probably some musicians. We were by the port, and I remember that there were a lot of boats coming up from the sea. There were so many that they were finding a hard time finding places to dock. It's hard to remember a lot before I was changed. Human memories tend to become fuzzy over time, while vampire memories do not. I tried to write them down, all of my human memories. Once I realized they were starting to fade, I filled journal after journal with as much as I could remember. I tried to even draw the people I knew back then, but unfortunately I do not draw very well."

"Do you have any of your drawings here?"

"I should have one back at the house. I can show it to you another time."

"Sure, I'd like that."

He pushed off of the side of the desk where he had been leaning and bed. He draped his arms around my waist and kissed along the bottom edge of my jaw. His hair, which had come loose over the course of the day, tickled against my skin as it brushed against my cheek and nose.

"I should probably get back of studying," I said, though there wasn't much conviction in my voice.

"Are you sure?" He asked, "Because I can think of something much more interesting that you could be doing than studying right now."

I moaned as his kisses trailed down to my collar bone.

"Believe me, that would definitely be more interesting than math, but I really need to get a good mark on this test."

He let out a grumble and puled back to look at me.

"This weekend, I'm going to rent us a hotel room, right on the pier. We can get take-out from the Italian place, take a walk on the docks, and then..."

I blushed.

He laughed and leaned in to gently nibble at my ear be fore whispering:

"Then we can do something that'll really make you blush," He pulled back to look at me, "If you'll allow it that is?"

"That sounds nice," I said, "I'll figure out something to tell Charlie, and then we'll get the whole weekend to ourselves."