Emmett takes a bite of his macaroni and cheese as he sits side-by-side with Rosalie in her car.

After storming off to find food, she said she didn't feel like being in the restaurant, so they ended up getting take-out to eat in her BMW instead.

They have a not-so-great view of people walking by in their jackets and umbrellas, huddled against the rain. There's no use driving anywhere scenic since it's dark out, so they just moved her car to one of the outside parking spots facing the shops.

On the sidewalk in front of the car, a gawky guy around their age missteps on a metal grate, and his foot slides forward. His arms fly out and knock over a middle-aged man who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They both land in a puddle. Rough luck.

Emmett chuckles. He looks over to see if Rosalie saw it happen, too. Surely enough, she's fighting a smile.

Her hands are occupied with eating, so he places his hand on her elbow. "I'm glad you're back in the city."

"Are your friends still being dumb?"

"That's why they're my friends! I wouldn't have it any other way."

She leans her head on his shoulder. "I'll go out with you this weekend. I want to be drunk."

"Sweet! Okay. Isn't Valentine's day this weekend?"

"Oh, god, you're right."

"And we're gonna go on a daaaate!"

She picks up one of the chicken tenders in her to-go box and dunks it in honey mustard. "Where are we going?"

"Chuck-E-Cheese."

She takes a bite of her food and chews it for a long while as she stares out the windshield. When she finally answers, her voice comes out bland and unimpressed. "Are you serious?"

"Nah, I got us reservations to a steakhouse downtown. A barcade was in the running, though. I couldn't decide if you'd be into that."

"Maybe. I've never been to one."

"We'll go sometime."

"Mhm." She rubs under her eyes roughly with the heel of her hand. "I'm sorry for being such a bitch."

He laughs so hard he accidentally inhales a macaroni noodle. "It was a joke!" He coughs. "Obviously, you wouldn't want to go to a kid's pizza place. Unless..."

"No, I meant earlier. About that girl."

Much like his previous hookup's name, he already swept the prior conversation from his head. "Oh, it's fine. No biggie. I get hangry too sometimes."

"Yeah..." She sighs and picks up a french fry. She still seems like she's in a funky mood.

Emmett leans his head on her shoulder, mirroring her previous action dramatically with an even louder sigh, expecting her to give him shit or say something to clue him into why she's so bummed. She doesn't.

He picks up a forkful of macaroni and holds it in front of her mouth. "Vroom...vroom..."

Rosalie shoves him off. "You're being annoying."

"My bad."

They eat in silence for a while before she speaks again. "Can you ask me about last weekend?"

"Oh, yeah. How were the meetings?" He assumed that no news was good news.

She picks up her phone and holds out the screen. It looks like there are over a dozen messages and voicemails from different people. They're asking a plethora of questions, the contents varying from concerned to accusatory to just plain nosey.

"That's...wow."

"I need to call my parents and Vera," she says. "You don't have to, but I'd appreciate it if you stuck around for moral support. It's asking a lot, and it's not really what you signed up for, but I'm...scared of what they'll say."

"Okay. Um, are you calling them now or do you mean later?"

"It's already past eight over there. My parents go to sleep pretty early, so I'll have to call now. I'm back on morning shifts again tomorrow, and I can't call them while I'm at work."

"Got it, yeah, okay. I'll hang out while you talk to them then." He hopes her mom and dad in particular aren't as bad as Rosalie's made them out to be.

She makes the call to her parents first, and Emmett listens along to her talking. He can't hear the other speaker on the line well, so he has to guess what they're saying based on her answers.

"Hi, Mommy...Yes, I'm alright. I'm in Seattle...I was staying with Jasper and his friends for a while, but I got my own apartment...He's fine. He's going to school here...Yes, I'm still working." She's speaking in an unusually low, meek voice. "I know, I'm sorry...It's true, though. Yes...I'm not sure. I won't know until I hear back from their lawyers. It's...No, I'm not trying to...No. Is he there? Can I talk to him?"

It sounds like her mom just handed the phone to her dad. She relays some details to him about another meeting she has in two weeks. It sounds like they want her to come over for dinner. She says she'll think about it.

The conversation doesn't seem like it's going horribly, but her eyes are starting to look watery.

Emmett reaches over for her hand and squeezes it. She glances over at him and takes a deep breath, letting her shoulders drop from their tensed state.

...

"Bella, where's that double shot espresso order?"

She's in the middle of frothing a cup of milk for a latte, but Bella looks up at her manager Mark, bewildered as to what he's talking about.

"The double shot. I put the cup for it right here," he elaborates, pointing to the end of the bar. "Where is it? The girl who ordered it says she's been waiting over ten minutes."

Bella sees a student standing in front of the register looking irritated. She searches around her workstation and finds nothing.

"Um. I think someone else took it. I'll remake it, sorry," she says. She finishes the drink she's making, sets it on the bar, and grabs a new cup. "Latte for Kristie..."

Mark comes over to her and lowers his voice. "Why don't you take off for the night after you finish that drink? We're not exactly busy."

She looks at the time up on the wall clock. 5:35 pm. "I'm supposed to be here until close."

He shrugs and goes back to reading his book over by the register. He's right, though. The library cafe is unusually empty tonight.

She's been enjoying it. Fewer people, less need to talk. She could stand around spacing out and ignoring everything and everyone around her.

Since her night out with Jessica, she hasn't heard Edward's voice again. She's having trouble even imagining it. She knows she enjoys the sound, but it feels so far away.

Without him she's numb. Empty. Cold. Lifeless.

She's been brainstorming. There has to be something she can do to hear him again. There's no shortage of adrenaline-inducing dangers in the city that he would be vehemently opposed to. Her athleticism isn't adequate for most extreme sports, and she still can't seem to muster enough energy to try getting into the party scene, though.

Setting the newly made espresso in the pick-up area, she calls out the order tiredly. "Double shot."

"Seriously, you can go home. Get some rest or something. If you need the hours, you can pick up some this weekend when there are more customers," Mark nags. "I have to help my parents with a yard sale and hauling off some junk on Saturday, so you can cover me."

"I guess..."

"Do you need any furniture still? They're getting rid of a dresser and desk that's in decent shape. Their garage is a total time capsule. I don't know why they've been holding onto all of it for so long when they never use it. There's a bunch of old VHS tapes and Beanie Babies shoved away, and I found a couple motorcycles that they haven't touched since the 80s."

Motorcycles. Those could give her a rush of danger strong enough to hear him again, and she wouldn't have to do anything that might alert Jessica or Angela. She's good at driving and she's decent at bike riding, despite her clumsiness. A promising idea begins forming in her head.

"What do the motorcycles look like?" she asks

"Uh, they're Honda XL250s I think. One's black, one's red. Are you into bikes or something?"

"Yeah, how much?"

"Oh, they don't even run. I was going to take them to the junkyard, honestly. They're all scraped up and dusty, so they wouldn't even really make good decor."

"That's fine. How much?"

"If you really want them, you can just swing by and pick them up later this week. Their house is up in Edmonds."

"Okay, I just need one."

"Take both. You might be able to sell it for parts if nothing else. I'm staying at their place tonight, so I can send you photos later."

"Sure. Thanks."

"I'll see you tomorrow then. Get out of here! Go home!" Mark says, shooing her off with a smile.

"Right. Have a good night." Bella sighs. She takes off her apron and grabs her backpack and raincoat.

If she goes back home now, she'll have Jessica and Angela to deal with. She's not quite ready for that, so she wanders through the library for a while to kill some time.

It's difficult to fill the hours she spends outside of work and class.

Normally she would find a corner to read or listen to music in. The problem with those activities, though, is that every one of her favorite romance novels seems stupid, and every song she used to like reminds her of a time she spent listening to music with Edward. He made so many playlists for her in the short time they dated, and she talked at length with him about so many of the books she liked to read over and over.

Sharing things she loved with someone she loved brought her so much joy at the time.

Everything feels so pointless without him.

...

"Here. Sorry."

Alice takes the glass of water and bottle of ibuprofen Jasper's handing her She shakes out a tablet and swallows it. "Why are you apologizing?"

"I didn't mean to hurt you," he says, sitting down next to her with a tired slouch, his brows furrowed. He's disproportionately affected by her relatively minor inconvenience.

She reaches up, cups his face in her hands, and kisses him. "You didn't hurt me. I'm just not used to it," she reassures. "I'm okay. I didn't even notice until after we were done."

"I know, but—"

"Shhh."

He nods and lays back down next to her.

Despite his best efforts and seemingly being quite gentle, the elation, euphoria, and oneness that came from being joined with Jasper took only minutes to dissolve into a localized soreness.

It's annoying, but she can handle a little cramping. It's not the worst thing in the world. Now that she knows what to expect, it'll be a smoother experience next time.

The most surprising thing by far is how the intimacy left her so emotionally charged. She feels weird. Vulnerable. It's something she wants to push away, but she doesn't know how or if that's even the right thing to do.

She wonders if the odd, squirmy mood is because she doesn't normally sit around her room in the middle of the day naked with someone else. Alice grabs the tee-shirt he was wearing earlier off of the back of her vanity chair and pulls it on over her head.

No, that's not it. It is comfy, though.

"C'mere," he says, reaching out for her in a lethargic sort of way.

She lays back down again, and he kisses the top of her head. His arms hug her against his chest snugly.

"You're my favorite person. I love you," he hums. The words bathe her in pure bliss. She can hear his heart beating steadily in time with her own.

"I love you, too."

That's better. This is how it's meant to be. She feels grounded, present, undeniably loved.

He smells good—like a summer night near the ocean. It reminds her of citrus and bonfires.

She sees the beach. Water. Palm trees. Sailboats. A vision begins to appear in her mind and she closes her eyes, concentrating.

Jasper's driving. She watches out the window as tree-lined houses pass by them. It doesn't look like Seattle. The scenery is all wrong. It looks like Mississippi.

The images become less clear and more disjointed.

She sees a hotel resort. A nail sticking up from an old, wooden floorboard. Jasper. Stained glass windows. A plane ticket covered in blurry, illegible letters. Tall, green hedges. Jasper again.

She opens her eyes when she's certain there's nothing left she can see. Her room looks just as it had. Clean, bright, and light.

"I've been thinking about going to Biloxi," she says.

Jasper looks confused and slightly alarmed. "When?"

"A road trip—not permanently. After midterms are over, maybe."

"I'll go with you."

"I'd love the company."

Another vision flickers by in a blur. "I won't let anyone hurt you," he says. The sound of his voice in her head disorients her momentarily.

He's smiling at her, laughing with her, standing beside her. They're together, always together.

She concentrates on the even fall and rise of his chest from his breathing. She waited a long time to meet him and get to this point, and there's still so much more to come.

"I haven't felt how I do now about anyone else before," Jasper professes blearily.

Alice smiles to herself for a moment before tilting her face up to smile at him, too. "Neither have I. It's nice."

"What time is it?"

She looks around for her phone to no avail. "I don't know. Are you getting hungry?"

"Yeah. I need a minute, though." He yawns.

"Are you falling asleep?" she sings in a teasing tone, patting his shoulder. "Did you not sleep last night?"

"I did, but I like sleeping here more."

"Then sleep here more."

"Oh, I might never leave."

...

Bella gets home late to a dark apartment.

Both of her roommates went to bed already, much to her contentment. She spent enough time on campus and driving around North Seattle to avoid any awkward conversations with them tonight.

She heads straight for her room, making sure to be quiet so she doesn't wake them.

Before the routine nightmares started happening, she slept constantly. Any moment that she wasn't in class or at work, she was in bed. She isn't sure what changed, but a few days in, she had a dream.

They're never overtly frightening. There are no demons or killers chasing her with knives.

The nightmares are of endless forest and mossy, lush trees. Dew-kissed grass. Misty skies. She searches for the meadow where she and Edward first kissed, but she can never find it. She can never find him. Even in slumber, she can't be with him.

The nightmares steadily grew more panicked and frantic, and she started waking up screaming after about a month. It terrified Jessica and Angela the first time it happened. And the second. By the third, they'd started to get used to it and stopped coming to check on her.

For their sake more than hers, she started staying up, trapped in an abyss of loneliness, listening to the daily shower of rain outside.

On the bright side, her test grades this quarter have been outstanding. All the hours of extra review and studying that she would have spent instead with Edward are helping out her GPA. Her writing, on the other hand, is making little to no improvement.

She changes into an old shirt and sweats and lies down on her bed to wait until morning.

The motorcycles. A little spark of excitement hits her when she remembers them. She hopes Mark hasn't forgotten to send photos. She quickly picks up her phone to check.

There they are. Two bikes. Black and red. Old, dusty, but hers.

Tonight she has a project. She has a purpose. She needs to find a good mechanic to fix up her bike.

She scrolls through some specialty shops and auto repair places online, but it's hard to say how much they'll cost when she has nothing to base her evaluation on. She's not much of an expert when it comes to vehicles.

Jacob is, though.

Bella pulls up his phone number and calls without hesitation. He fixed up her truck several times before, along with his own car. If anyone she knows has any insight into 80s motorcycles, it's him.

She hasn't spoken to him since summer. She wonders what he's been up to.

"Hello?" he answers.

She feels a surprising surge of enthusiasm at the sound of his voice. "Hey, Jake! How are you?"

"Good, I haven't heard from you in a while! Seattle treating you well?"

"Um. It's alright. What have you been up to? Charlie said you were looking at schools here."

"Yeah, I don't know. I was gonna go check them out. I don't even know if I want to go to college, though. Seems overrated and expensive."

"Oh, right."

"And my car's been acting up. I've been helping out around town to get some cash to fix it."

"You still have the 1980-something...Volkswagen?"

"Yep, the 1986 Rabbit."

"How much do you know about motorcycles?"

"Uhh, Embry has a dirt bike. I've worked on it a few times. Why?"

"I may have a couple bikes that don't run, but I need to get them fixed. How much do you think it'll cost? Hang on, I'll send you a picture." She pulls up her camera roll and forwards Jacob the photo from Mark.

"Oh, those are sick! Wait, no, don't take them into a shop. I'll fix them up for you!"

"What? No, you're all the way out there, and I'm here. It's a long drive."

"I was going to visit soon anyway. There's only, like, four months until graduation, and, even if I don't wanna enroll, Embry, Quil, and Seth want to tour campuses. I said I'd go with."

"Are you getting like an Air BNB or something?"

"Leah told Seth he can stay with her, and we're just gonna crash the party."

"Leah? Oh, how's she doing?" Bella asks. She remembers how big of a deal it was when she suddenly left town after her father passed away and Sam, her long-term boyfriend, broke up with her.

"Dunno. Seth says she has a job, though. Some fancy tourist place where they tip big. She goes to yoga now."

Bella laughs. "Yoga's super popular here."

"Yeah, but Leah? I can't picture it. Anyway, the answer's yes. I'll help you with the bikes."

And just like that, she has a plan.