"Okay, that's it. I'm going to send you to live with your mom."

I shut the truck door, barely registering that Charlie had just spoken to me. The familiarity of his words washed over me with de ja vu. We had stood in this exact spot many years ago and he had said the same thing to me as before...but that was when I was in high school.

"What? Dad..."

"Look, Bella, you've been moping about Edward and Jacob for years now. I know it's a touchy subject, but you need to accept they've moved on, and you need to, too."

I leveled a glare at him and started to carry the heavy groceries inside. "Not this again, dad..."

"Okay, okay, I knew it would be touchy, and I'm sorry to remind you," he followed me, running a hand through his white hair, "I just wonder if Renee would be able to deal with...this...better than me."

"You just motioned to all of me," I muttered bitterly, lowering the grocery bags to the table.

"Look, Bells, it's been a long time, and you're forty five. Don't you think it's time you got back into the dating pool?"

"-With who?!" I exploded, whirling to face him, my back aching suddenly, "Dad, Mike married Alice Cullen, Jasper Hale married Angela, Edward..." my heart leapt into my throat, and I had to choke out his name, "E-edward married J-jessica..." I felt the lump stick in my throat, tears welling in my eyes, "And they live on the edge of town in the cutest little cottage. They don't look like they've aged a day since the... wedding. I knew I shouldn't have told Angela my dream name for a baby, too, because she stole it from me. She named her daughter Renesmee; she even stole mom's name, and Edward didn't find that weird at all."

Charlie looked weary, running a hand across his eyes, "Well, what about Billy's kid? I know he held a candle for you."

My voice shook again as I said, "He, um...married Renesmee. Which I thought was kind of fast. How old is she, sixteen? She looks sixteen..." I muttered, running my hand through my hair, shaking my head irritably, "I'm sure they're old enough, but it doesn't matter! There is nobody for me to even date in this-!" I stopped myself. I'd almost called Forks a backwards town. I'd almost said the same words that mom had said, so long ago when she left him. Charlie's eyes were wet when I snuck a peek up at him. "That's why I'm saying, maybe you should try Florida. You know, start fresh. Try out a new dating pool. Quit your job at the hardware store. Heaven knows I've enjoyed having a free chef and housekeeper," He joked, "But I can take care of myself, and maybe you just need a new change of scenery."

I paused. Maybe I did. But this place held too many memories, memories of Edward... memories of Jake, and bad ones of Victoria coming after me. Leading her army of newborns, and then, after the battle, Edward had started to ghost me. He'd stopped coming by, he'd stopped seeing me at school. I'd thought he was going to follow through on his threat to marry me, but it was as if he suddenly forgot, forgot that I existed. *It'll be as if I never existed*. Suddenly, all the feelings rushed back and I nearly buckled under the pressure of it all. That had been when Jessica and the gang swooped down upon the Cullens. It didn't make any sense...but then again, love rarely did. I didn't have to understand it, I just had to accept it. They didn't even invite me to their joint wedding, and they invited everyone in town, even Charlie. He hadn't gone, though, to support me.

"Maybe you're right," I murmured to Charlie, "Maybe I should go stay with mom."

Charlie smiled at me, his white mustache arching, but his eyes were sad. He patted me on the back, then turned and hobbled upstairs.

I stayed standing in the kitchen for a while, then I went to my room and sat on the bed, looking around. I hadn't changed anything about it.

My eyes fell upon my side table, and that's when I noticed something strange sitting there. There was something sticking out from under a pile of bills and old drawings, and i fished it out. It looked almost like Jake's dreamcatcher, but it was in the shape of a person. Sticks, it looked like, were tied together with a crow's feather and a robin's feather, a few crystals, a bone and a few strands of...hair? My own hair...or, my old hair, back before I'd started dyeing it to retain the color. What was this doing in my room? I didn't remember buying it or making it, but I had seen Jessica making stuff like this our senior year. I'd have to ask her about it, but then again, we weren't close friends anymore.

I shook my head and set the thing down. Strange, I thought, lying down, catching my reflection in the body length mirror nearby. I felt like I looked relatively the same, I just had a few more crow's feet and smile lines than before. I'd filled out a tiny bit more, and I still looked like myself, but I think I'd grown to look more like mom than anything. I had come to terms with the fact that I was getting older, but there was a small part of me that wished I didn't have to age, or have body aches, or bad migraines all the time. I sometimes felt like there was a sort of blockage in my head causing the migraines, like too much blood or maybe some kind of shield... but that sounded crazy. No matter. An image of Edward's face flashed through my head, worried and sad, but I dismissed it and felt myself drift into a deep sleep.