I don't own Twilight. I do own airline tickets for a 6 am international flight. I'll miss you all but there will be rum so I won't remember.

Chapter 19

After Bella and Tyler finished watching The Order of the Phoenix they needed a little mental break. Edward was asleep in Charlie's chair not snoring but making little put-put noises. The noise was slightly distracting and took away from the seriousness of the film's ending.

Tyler was learning how to cook with Bella. She was teaching him how to make a turkey potpie, Charlie's favourite after thanksgiving meal. Bella liked making it because it made short work of a lot of leftovers. Tyler liked it because there was bacon involved. They chatted about their favourite parts of all the films they had seen and which parts they were looking forward to in the last three.

Tyler had been teasing Bella about her preference for character development over action scenes. He accused her of being too girly and liking the romance elements of the last movie they had watched. They joked about the difficulties dating led to. Tyler, after a few minutes of silence, admitted that there was a girl at school he was interested in but was unable to approach her. He worried that because of his brain injury, the girl he liked wouldn't take him seriously. He asked for a female perspective.

"First of all, your brain injury is what you have, not who you are and if a girl doesn't take you seriously because of that, then she's not worth it. But if she is worth it, sometimes you just have to lay it on the line and open yourself up even if it means getting hurt. You have to find a way to let her know you are interested and serious. Even if she breaks your heart. Each time you let yourself go, you learn more about yourself. You never know what can be, or what another person thinks of you unless you take the chance. Very few of us are mind-readers, you know"

"Have you ever done that? Told someone how you felt about them like that?" Tyler didn't think shy, quiet little Bella would be capable of doing that. He expected a more girly answer, for him to be more subtle.

"Yeah, once. Scared the shit out of me but I did it. I was fourteen and thought I was in love. It took me six months but I let him know how I felt. I wrote him a letter but I don't think he really read it. It's funny, I wasn't looking for romance and I didn't expect a boyfriend or an instant proposal, I just wanted him to know how I felt. I wasn't asking him to love me back or anything, in fact I would have been shocked if he did feel that way about me. It was more about admiration than adoration. I felt better after having done it. More free, you know? Like a weight had been lifted from me."

"So, what happened? Did you get together?"

"No. He stopped talking to me and avoided me at all costs. I mean, I knew I was too young and not his type or anything but I just had to let him know. And I did. I learned from it, too. Not the nicest life lesson but you never know unless you try."

Edward stood in the hallway, listening and wanting to bang his head against the wall over and over again. He had been such an idiot. He never thought about what it took for Bella to write him that letter. He never really thought about her feelings at all. Just about how uncomfortable the letter made him. He really should have read it all, not just skimmed it.

"So I should just man up and do something?" Tyler was asking Bella as she continued chopping vegetables.

"If you want to know if she feels the same or if she would be interested, yeah, you've got to do something. Unrequited love hurts. But it easier to deal with if you know it's unrequited. I think not knowing would be worse than getting shot down." Bella put the knife down and focused all her attention on Tyler.

"It took a long time for me not to hurt about it. And don't get me wrong, it did hurt, a lot. But I think I'm stronger in the long run. Especially after what happened at school. That's one of the reasons why what the kids at school didn't bother me that much. I've been abandoned by people I care about before, so when the ones I don't care for as much ignore me it's not that big a deal." Tyler just looked at her confused.

"My mom walked out on me when I was nine. I haven't heard from her since."

"Oh." That was all that Tyler could think to say. Edward hadn't heard that before, he just knew she wasn't around.

"So if your guy changed his mind and wanted to start something up, what would you do?" Tyler asked, trying to lead her to a different conversation, maybe one less painful than abandonment.

"I doubt he'd ever see me that way." Bella looked down at her hands on the counter.

"But if he did, could you forgive him?" Damn good question, Edward thought to himself in the hall.

"Forgive, yes. I mean, I can even forgive Mike Newton for his stupidity. But to start up a romance, that would take a lot of convincing. And anyway, we were talking about you. You got me off topic. So, how are you going to win your lady fair?" Bella and Tyler both started to laugh.

"You're one of my best friends, you know that, right?" Tyler reached over and hugged Bella. Bella giggled.

"You are not going to catch a girl with that line, buddy. Especially about another girl." Bella pushed him playfully.

Edward decided to join them in the kitchen. Later he would think about how to apologize to Bella for being such a shit.

AN: Thank you for reading. I'll post again in just over a week. Can you tell I'm just a little bit excited?