This chapter is dedicated to EmeraldGhost11. I hope you are reading this story and enjoying it as you did the first one :) I definitely remember you. Thank you for still (hopefully) being there :)

-o-

The week before Bella's wedding passed by uneventfully. To her surprise, Seth offered to go shopping with her to get outfits for the ceremony. She accepted his offer, which is why on Saturday afternoon he was driving her to Seattle in his truck.

They started off with easy chatter, he asked how she was settling back into La Push, she asked what he had been up to, how Rebbeca was, how Leah and Sue were, easy things to talk about. It was comforting, and very familiar to Rayna. There was a time where she and Seth were absolute best friends. They knew the ins and out of each other. That sort of thing rarely went away.

"So, how do you know Bella well enough to be invited to her wedding?" Rayna asked, chewing on the licorice Seth kept in his car. Or, so he claimed, but it was her favorite kind and the package wasn't even opened before she saw it.

"I'm kinda friends with her and Edward," Seth explained, keeping his eyes on the road. "Plus, Charlie was good friends with my dad, so I probably would have been invited no matter what."

"You're friends with her and Edward?" Rayna completely turned her body to face him, shocked at that. "Do you know what happened with her and Jake?"

Maybe it was the accusing way she asked him, but Seth glanced over at her with his mouth twisted down in a frown. "I know perfectly well what happened with them. But it's not all black and white."

"She literally ghosted him for Edward, right after he ghosted her," Rayna protested, her eyes flashing with anger. "Jake built her back up and in return she tore him right down."

"You weren't here, Rayna," Seth said the words gently, but he may as well have shouted them at her. "You know secondhand through Billy and Charlie what happened."

"I'm well aware I wasn't here, Seth," Rayna faced the road ahead once again, crossing her arms and attempting to keep her anger at bay. "Everyone doesn't need to keep reminding me."

"I'm just saying, Rey, you don't really know how things went down." Seth paused, as though he was waiting for her response. When he got nothing, he turned the music up and accelerated their speed ever so slightly.

Rayna pressed her nails into her palms, willing her anger to go away. Seth of all people, knew most of the reason she left. It irritated her, the way everyone seemed to be throwing it in her face that she was gone for two years and just now came back. It made her wish she hadn't come back.

Seth took them to a department store, claiming it was where his mother had found her dress, and Billy's tux. He seemed to pick up on her mood, and instantly went into a story about Embry and his other friend Jared, telling her about when they tried to prank his friend Sam by removing all the lightbulbs from his house.

"So as Embry has the last light bulb unscrewed, Jared holding the box, Paul bursts into the kitchen-" Seth was laughing, but as soon as he said that name Rayna cut him off.

"Paul who?" Rayna snapped, slamming open the door to the store.

Seth froze for a moment, and then followed her inside. "Lahote."

"So now you're friends with him?" Rayna demanded, yanking on his arm to stop him from walking. "After everything, suddenly you and him are fine now?"

"Not everything is black and white," Seth repeated his earlier words, standing off to the side so he wasn't blocking the entrance. "Paul's like my brother now, whether I like it or not."

"You can just not be friends with him, it's not like you're forced to be his bestie." Rayna scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest in a huff.

"Things are different." Seth said gently, placing an arm on her shoulder.

Rayna shrugged his hand off. "They sure are. Let's get the clothes and go."

She spun on her heel, heading for the women's section. She was pissed, most definitely. But what could she do? At the end of the day, she was the one who ran away from her problems. But the double standard Seth had, hating her and Paul, rightfully so, she had to admit, but now he's best friends with the guy.

How was that fair?

After locating the formal dresses section, Rayna angrily slid hangers of glittery sequin messes across the metal racks, slamming the articles of clothing into each other like they had personally pissed her off. She grabbed a few different choices, not really caring what they looked like but just making sure they were the right size.

She stalked off to the dressing room, shutting the door behind her harder than she probably should have. She quickly stripped down to her bra and underwear, and slid the first dress over her legs and pulled the straps over her shoulder. It was a light lavender color, an awful clingy material that clung to her body in all the wrong way. It made her boobs look like they were wrestling with the material to break free, like her stomach was ready to showcase every slight jiggle, and like her hips were indented boxes. She hated it.

The next one was slightly better, but it gave her no shape and was an awful green color. She didn't even bother trying the white one on, ridiculing herself for even grabbing it in the first place. By the time she was done with all the dresses, she hated them all and wished she didn't have to go to the wedding tomorrow.

Seth was waiting for her outside the dressing room. "How did it go?"

"I'm fucking ugly and nothing looks good on me." Rayna said in a rush, pushing past him to try looking for another dress.

"You're not ugly," Seth protested, hurrying after her. "You're beautiful."

Rayna glared at him, noticing the blush that appeared on his face. "Don't start."

"It's just the truth." Seth averted his eyes, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. "Look, I've been thinking a lot and-"

"We're not doing this in the middle of a department store." Rayna cut him off, spinning around to the rack of dresses. This time, she took care in the dresses she selected, making sure the colors and cut weren't offensive.

She could feel Seth's eyes on her the entire time, but he didn't say anything. Once again in the dressing room, she focused very carefully on trying each dress on, weighing out the pros and cons of them, doing anything to not think about what an idiot Seth was being.

After much debate, and stalling if she was honest, she ended up choosing an a-line light blue dress that shimmered in the light and fell to her knees. Slowly she put her leggings and sweatshirt back on, and gathered all the dresses. She left the discarded ones on the rack, and took her choice out to where Seth was waiting.

"What took you so long?" Seth asked, not annoyed, just worried.

"I had a lot of dresses." Rayna shrugged, walking past him. He followed.

"Do you need anything else?" Seth asked, his long legs easily catching up with her quick stride.

"Nope," Rayna shook her head, heading towards the checkout. "I have everything else. Do you have everything?"

Seth nodded. "Yup, got the tux and my mom already picked up my shoes."

Rayna snorted. "Of course she did."

He bumped her shoulder, and she nudged his back. Things were still awkward, but they were both ignoring the tension. They checked out, and headed for the car. Seth put their bags in the back seat, and they both got in the truck. Before they left Port Angeles, they picked up fast food, the smell of fries and greasy burgers.

Seth told Rayna a little about the Cullen's, the family Bella was marrying into. She recognized the name, Billy had refused them to go to the doctors when the doctor started working at Forks General. Instead, Sue Clearwater was who they went to.

As Rayna fished around the bottom of the bag for the last bonus fry, Seth cleared his throat and took a long sip of his coke.

"Look, I just want to say I'm sorry," Seth said, glancing over at Rayna who was chewing on her fry. "I know when we dated things ended really badly, and I reacted immaturely."

"I wasn't exactly the best person either," Rayna was quick to say, swallowing harshly. "But you know I never did anything with Paul while we were dating, right?"

Seth nodded. "I know that now. Plus, it probably isn't best that we dated. It's a good thing we ended things, even if it hurt for a while."

"We were always better as friends, Seth." Rayna said softly, her chest tightening as she said the words she always had wanted to say.

"In the long run, it's a good thing we had ended things and you moved away." Seth agreed, saying the last part quietly, as if only to himself.

"You're glad I moved away?" She questioned, stilling her movements as she mulled that over in her head.

"Not like that!" He exclaimed quickly, shaking his head. "There's just a lot that happened and it's a good thing you weren't here for it."

Rayna rolled her eyes. "I get it. I left everyone for two years, I moved, and I only came back because my brother got into an accident and it scared me and reminded me that people can just die without any warning and then you never get to see them again-"

"Hey, calm down," Seth reached his hand out to grasp her hand. "I didn't mean anything bad by it. It's just what happened."

"Well I'm here now, doesn't that mean anything?" She sniffled, roughly wiping away the angry tears that had made their way down her face.

"It means the world." Seth stated quietly, his hand still gripping hers.

Rayna squeezed his hand, and moved over so she could rest her head on his shoulder. It was starting to drizzle outside, and Seth was always so warm nowadays. They didn't speak again, and sat in a comfortable silence the rest of the drive.

It had felt good to finally say what she was thinking. Plus, there wasn't much tension between her and Seth anymore. They both had said what they wanted to say, and gotten everything out of the way and knew where each other stood.

For the most part. There was still the issue of Paul, but Rayna had a feeling that was more between her and Paul instead of her and Seth.

It was around seven at night when Seth dropped her off at her house. Billy was in the living room, snoring quietly on the easy chair. Rayna brought her bag into her bedroom, and then went back out to the living room to rouse Billy from his sleep, and get him to his bed.

For a while, she sat out on the porch in the dark, knees to her chest, thinking of Jacob. She wondered where he was, and if he was ever coming home. That dream she had had, where there was a wolf Jacob, she thought of it all the time. It haunted her, and she really didn't know why. It was just a dream, but it had felt so real.

Listening to the sounds of La Push at night was peaceful. There was a certain smell nature had here, once that soothed her soul. She couldn't describe it, and when she had asked Rebecca if she had ever felt that here, she had said no. Every time I'm there, I just think of mom, she had said while she gazed out at the ocean, her toes in the sand, it's too hard, and I just remember her.

Being back in La Push was hard for Rayna too. Especially since Jake was gone. But she had to admit it was easier now than it was two weeks ago. Plus, the talk she had with Seth made her feel a little less on edge around him. She no longer had to feel like she had to have romantic feelings for him. Whatever had happened within the two years she was gone had to have been pretty serious.

Maybe one day she would know what exactly had happened in the small reservation of La Push.

thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed this story so far, and to everyone who has fav/followed as well. The reviews definitely inspire me to update a hell of a lot faster, and i have this story planned out so i think that helps too.

feel free to share your thoughts on this chapter. Im not too sure how i feel about it, but hopefully it was good. The next one should be interesting, i hope ;)

until next update,

-TheFlyingGraysons