Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. I only own Elizabeth and her fate.

Author's Note: Well, here's the next chapter. I hope everybody enjoys it.. Sorry about the delay...

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

Chapter Six: … Stirred Up Feelings

Elizabeth Cullen

"Ian?" I asked, too shocked to say anything else.

Ian smiled. "The one and only."

My shock wore off as I saw his smile, and I was able to form one myself. "Of all the places to run into each other – literally," I said, chuckling softly. I handed the soup, bread, and cheese to him.

He took them and chuckled along with me.

We stood there in awkward silence for a moment, and then he said, "So, uh, do you want to get a coffee or something? It's been such a long time since we last saw each other."

I laughed. "We haven't seen each other in a long time."

Ian smiled again, and this time, I felt my legs go weak. "Well, then, how about a coffee? Or hot chocolate, in your case, if I remember correctly."

I sighed and bit my lip, hesitating. "Um, you know, Ian, I really don't think that it would a great idea. I need to get these home to my Mom, and I promised to help my brother with his math. Maybe another time?" I asked hopefully.

He smiled. "Alright. But why wouldn't it be a good thing if we went to get a hot chocolate?" I could tell that he was only asking out of curiosity.

Tears all of a sudden welled up in my eyes, for some wildly unknown reason, and a pain grew up in my chest. I bit my lip again and averted my eyes to the floor. I picked up my basket, straightened up, and said, "Because, Ian. I'm getting married."

With that, I turned on my heel and walked back down the aisle and towards the check-outs, leaving my ex-boyfriend behind.

~~0~~

As soon as I left the grocery store, I got into my truck, slamming the car door and throwing the plastic bag onto the seat next to me. I jammed the keys into the ignition and drove out of parking lot. Within minutes, I found myself in front of Leah's house. I turned off the engine and grabbed the keys, getting out of the truck and running up the walkway to the front door, ignoring the throbbing pain in my big toe.

I somewhat pounded on the door, calling, "Leah!"

The door opened and there stood Leah. She had a slightly alarmed look on her face. "Elizabeth? What are you doing? What's wrong?"

I didn't answer her with anything else except, "I have a big problem." I took hold her arm and towed her up the stairs and to her bedroom.

"Okay, you have got to tell me what it is that is making you freak out," Leah said as soon as her bedroom door was closed and she was sitting on the edge of her bed.

For a few seconds I paced her room, trying to calm my brain down. And then I said, "He's back."

"Who's back?" Leah pondered, looking confused.

"Out of the blue! He just shows up without even a little bit of a warning! I just now ran into him – literally – in the grocery store when I was buying noodles and bouillon cubes for my Mom!" I paced around a little more.

"Liz, tell me! You're not making any sense," Leah said.

"Ian Dalton is back in town," I said weakly, flopping down on my back next to Leah.

Leah gasped, covering her mouth and her eyes going wide. "Ian Dalton! Are you sure?"

I sat up and nodded. "Yes, Leah, I am totally sure."

"Well, what happened?" Leah inquired, prodding me gently on.

I regaled my idiotic-ness and how clumsy I was by running into him. "I can't believe it! There I was, not paying any attention to what was around the corner, and – BAM! I run into him. My basket drops out of my hand, and I pretty sure that I am going to have a large bruise on my foot and toe because one of his cans of tomato soup dropped on my foot."

Leah winced. "Ouch."

"Yeah, tell me about it. And then there I was, with my ex-boyfriend standing in front me, making my knees go weak from his smile. And of course, he's still as hot and cute and charming and beautiful as he was when we were seventeen," I said.

Leah smiled.

I flopped onto my back again, this time pulling one of Leah's pillows onto my face. "God, Leah, what am I going to do? I mean, I'm getting married in three and a half months!"

"You guys finally set a date?" Leah asked, smiling.

I nodded. "Yeah. January 1. Kinda cheesy, but you know, we want to start the new year together married."

Leah laughed. "So what did you two talk about when you ran into each other in the grocery store?"

"Well, he asked me if I wanted to go get hot chocolate and catch up since we hadn't seen each other in a long time. Of course, me being me, I said no. He asked why, and I told him that it was a very bad idea because I was getting married." I sat up. "And then I left him, standing there. Oh, god, I'm horrible Leah."

Leah patted my shoulder comfortingly. "You're not horrible. You were just surprised to see him."

"Yeah, I guess. I am over him," I said.

"That's good," Leah said.

Yeah, I was over him …

… right?

~~0~~

I arrived home twenty minutes later, pulling my truck into the driveway and walking slowly up the side stairwell to the kitchen side door.

Mom was in the kitchen, cutting up the vegetables for the soup and humming along to a song on the radio, and she looked up when I walked slowly through the door. "Hey, sweetie. Did you get the noodles?" she asked. Then she saw the expression – of which I didn't what it was – on my face and she dropped the smile. "What's wrong?"

Letting out a deep breath, I said, "Nothing. Here're the noodles and cubes." I placed the plastic bag on the counter, took off my coat, and began walking towards my bedroom.

"Hold on!"

I stopped and turned around to see Mom leaning against the counter, looking at me with that 'Mom' smile. She walked over to me and, gently taking hold of my hands, led me over to the table and sat me down in one of the chairs. She grabbed the package of Oreos from the cupboard and set them in front of me before taking a seat herself.

"So, tell me what's up," she said, giving me a warm, motherly smile.

I rolled my eyes as a soft smile graced my lips. I let out a short laugh and said, "Mom, I'm not ten. You can't bribe me with Oreos anymore."

She laughed. "I know, but I can always hope and try, can't I?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I said, taking an Oreo but not eating it.

"So, tell me," Mom said, "what's bothering you. You were your normal self when you left."

I sighed, shaking my head. "It's nothing, okay? I'm fine, really. I'm just tired."

"If you're sure," Mom said, but she looked unconvinced. She patted my hand with hers and stood up. "But let me know if you want to talk, okay?" she added as she walked back over to the counter and picked up the knife again.

"Okay," I said. I stood up, grabbing my jacket from the back of the chair and Heidi from the table. "Listen, I'm going out to the bridge for a while. I'll have my phone with me, so you can call me if you need anything."

I opened the door and was about to walk through it again when Mom said, "Aren't you supposed to meet Ethan soon?"

I stopped and turned back to her. "He canceled on our date tonight, so no. And besides, I'm not really hungry anymore. I just need to go down to the bridge for a bit, clear my head of everything that's in it. I'll be back later." And before my Mom could reply back to me, I made my escape through the door, closing it behind me and going down the steps to the driveway.

Dad was pulling his silver Volvo into the driveway next to my truck. The engine stopped and he got out just as I was on the last step. He smiled when he saw me. "Hey, lady bug," he said as I went up to him. He pulled me into a hug, kissing the top of my head.

"Hi, Dad," I said. "Mom's inside."

"Okay. Where are you going?" he asked. He nodded towards the Heidi book in my hands.

"The bridge, just for a bit. I'll see you later," I said. I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and got into my truck. I turned the key in the ignition, waving good-bye to him as I pulled out of the driveway.

Fifteen minutes later, I was on the other side of town, heading to my all-time favorite place – the bridge. I don't know why I loved it so much; I mean, it was only a wooden bridge that was arched over a small river. But it was peaceful, quiet, a perfect place to spend time with your thoughts … which was exactly why I went there often, to read or draw.

It was also the place that I had met … Ian, my former boyfriend.

God, he had such nerve showing up here without warning!

Maybe he wanted to see you again.

Maybe…

God, he looked just as cute as he did when we were in high school, I thought.

Stop it! You're getting married! To another person, I might add. You have to stop thinking about how great he looked!

I sat down in the middle of the bridge, and dangled my feet over the edge, opening up Heidi to where I had been earlier that day, and began reading. I had gotten only a couple of pages farther when I heard footsteps and a chuckle. Then a voice said, "Reading that book again?"

I started and twisted my body around to look up at whoever was standing behind me.

The man standing in front of me was Ian Dalton.

He smiled when I turned to look at him, and then sat down next to me. "Hi, Liz."

"Are you stalking me or something?" I asked, marking my place in the book and setting it down on the bridge next to me. My voice was light, teasing, much to my surprise.

"Nope. I just happened to be going for a walk, and I recognized your blue truck, so I thought I'd come say hello," he said.

I looked at him for a few seconds, and then smiled back at him, laughing a little. "Hi."

"So, why are you always reading that book?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I'm always reading it because I love it. It was my Mom's copy, but she gave it to me when she caught me stealing it from her bookshelf when I was ten, and then told me that she had been reading it when she went into labor with me."

Ian laughed. "Well, that's interesting – the book has historical memories attached to it."

I laughed. For some reason, like it had been before we had broken up, I found it very easy to laugh and be comfortable around him.

And that was a very bad thing.

And then, before I realized what my mouth was doing, I found myself saying, "You remember the offer that you gave me back at the grocery store?" He nodded. "Still want to go get a coffee or hot chocolate?" It was getting colder by the minute, I realized.

He smiled widely. "It would be my pleasure," he said, standing up and offering his hand to help me up.

As we walked back to my truck, I couldn't help but notice the feeling that was stirring up in my chest. It was a deep, gnawing feeling of guilt – like I was about to do something that I shouldn't be doing, especially since I was engaged to be married to another man!

It stirred up the simple (or so I thought) question I had asked myself earlier that day – was I over him completely?

Author's Note: Hey, everybody, sorry about the delay in posting - but I've got a good reason. I've had stomach problems for several years and they diagnosed it as gastroparesis (very slow digesting of food in the stomach) a couple of years ago. I still have problems, and the doctor that I'm currently seeing is trying to figure out what medicine is best (I've been on different ones, to see if it would help, but it only worked for a few days, a couple weeks at the most before it would stop working).

So, bottom line is, my stomach still doesn't feel good for a very large portion of the day. It really sucks too, especially with the hot temperatures that we've had lately. And of course, our computer has had a virus for the past two weeks, so I haven't really been able to update. But it's back in good health again, and now I'm able to update again.

And so, I really hope you guys are still reading this story, even though most people might think this as a pretty pathetic excuse...

ANYWAY... So, were a lot of you surprised as to who the mystery guy turned out to be? Let me know what you think. I'm not sure when you guys will find out the history between them (except for the already known fact that they used to date each other), but it will definitely be soon.

Please review on your way out, and I might just post another chapter this week... Until Next Time, eat enchiladas (I made them for supper tonight and they were absolute delic): Lemonade Ninja.