A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has added this to their story alert or favorite lists, though I would really appreciate it if you would also tell me what you think :) Hope you like this chap, at least I enjoyed writing it! :)

5 – If you weren't real, I would make you up

"We are lost."

"Trust me, we are not lost."

"Yes we are. We should have been there by now!"

"Not necessarily."

"I am driving this car and if I say we're lost, then we are lost," I snapped.

"We're not."

Alice and I both turned to look at Edward at the same time. "Say something," Alice said.

"Relax, girls." Edward grinned.

"How can we relax when we're in the middle of nowhere, no idea where we are on the map and no idea where we're going?" I asked.

"I think the only way you can find yourself is first being lost," Edward said in an amused voice. "So? It's not necessarily a bad thing."

I shook my head. "That wasn't really helpful."

"Focus on driving, Bella, if you ever want to get to Portland," Alice noted, looking out of the window and then back at the map again.

"I'm telling you, we are not even going to Portland," I said, looking out for some kind of signposts. "We are on the wrong road."

"We're not. Do you think that I can't read the map?"

"I know you can't read the map."

"Hey, girls," Edward called out from the backseat. "Do you know what you need?"

"What?" we both asked at the same time in equally irritated voices.

"A break."

"Are you kidding me? We're in the middle of nowhere, and we don't even know where we are, and we better find out if we want to get to Portland someday soon."

"Look, just pull over the side of the road," Edward said. "I don't care if we get to Portland anytime soon or if we never get there. You're too stressed out, given that you're on a holiday."

"He's right. Let's take a break," Alice agreed.

"Fine," I said. "So, where do I stop?"

"Here," Edward said. "Just pull on the side of the road."

"But I can't stop here. There's nothing here," I pointed out. We were on a pretty small road that seemed to just go on forever. There were basically nothing else but forest at either side of the road.

"Yes there is, just stop," Edward insisted.

I did as he told me and pulled over on the side of the road and hopped out of the car, and the other two followed after me.

"What did I tell you? There's nothing here," I said to Edward, feeling annoyed and tired of driving. I would just like to get somewhere already.

"There's a lot to see," Edward said, and looked at me smiling. I didn't get what was so amusing. "There's the forest and the houses, and look, there's even a gas station there. And it's not even raining anymore. Much."

I looked at Edward and giggled a bit. I didn't know why, but I was beginning to see the funny side of this too.

"We still don't have any idea where we are." I sighed.

"Isn't it nice?" Edward asked. "Come on. Let's take a walk."

Alice and I followed as Edward walked toward the nearby forest. "Don't you have forests in Port Angeles?" I questioned.

"They're different forests than in Oregon," Edward told us.

"I wouldn't know," I said. "I've never been in a forest in Oregon."

We walked into the woods, and after a while even I had to admit it was a good idea. It was so quiet and peaceful – and so beautiful. Even though I had basically lived my whole life in the middle of a forest, I never got fed up with it; I loved forests. They had this mysterious atmosphere, as if they hid a lot of secrets that no one knew.

"See?" Edward said in a low voice. "It's not about where we are. It's not about being lost or reaching our destination. It's all about the journey."

"You're weird," I muttered, grinning. "Is that why you're always traveling?"

"I like seeing new places, new people. It's the only way you can fully live," Edward replied. "At least to me it is. And I don't want to belong to any one place. At least not yet."

I looked at him as he walked on in front of me. Trying to figure him out was harder than I had thought, but I liked the way he seemed to think; like he made his own rules in life, whereas I, had preferred to obey the ones everyone else set for me. Maybe because I was such a coward, maybe because it was easier that way, I didn't know. Well, maybe that was about to change now, I thought and went on.

After few minutes, Alice's phone started ringing. She took it out of her pocket and checked the caller ID. "It's my mom. I should probably answer before she gets too worried," she sighed.

"Yeah," I agreed.

"Do you mind if I go to the car to talk?" Alice asked me. "You'll be all right with Edward? Don't get lost."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not five."

Alice grinned apologetically. "Oh right. Sometimes I forget."

"Don't worry. I'll take care of her," Edward promised.

"See you at the car," Alice called out and turned around as she answered the phone.

"We'll be there soon. See you."

Edward and I kept walking for a while before he stopped suddenly. "This looks like a good climbing tree," Edward said, nodding toward an old, thick tree, with lots of branches.

I took one look at his excited expression and shook my head. "Don't even think about it. We're not climbing trees."

"Why not?" he asked. "Are you afraid?"

"You wish," I said.

"Then come on," Edward said. He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the tree. I sensed that it was useless to try to object.

So, we climbed up the tree. I thought I was pretty good at climbing trees, but I hadn't done it in a while so my skills were kind of rusty.

"Great view," Edward said, when we were probably almost ten feet from the ground. "Are you scared yet?"

"As if," I said and started climbing again. Edward laughed softly and followed me. I climbed a few branches higher, but just as I was about to sit down, my foot slipped and I almost fell. I probably would have, but Edward was quicker. He grabbed my waist and wrapped his arms tightly around me.

"Easy," He said. "I wouldn't want to explain your death to Alice. I think she would be pissed."

His hands were still around me, probably because he wasn't sure if I had regained my balance. Suddenly, I was oddly aware of how tightly his arms were wrapped around me, how close his body was to mine. It was weird how hot it made me feel all over. For a while, his arms lingered around me, and then, he let go. I was mad at myself for feeling a bit disappointed, like I would have wanted him to continue holding me. I turned around carefully and was a bit taken aback by how close his face was to mine. He was quiet now, his eyes looking at me with a more serious look.

For a while, I had this stupid thought. For a while, it looked as if he was going to kiss me. But then, I turned my face away feeling silly. Why would he do that?

"We should probably get down before Alice gets worried," I said quietly.

"Yeah, or before you manage to get yourself killed," Edward answered in his usual, playful tone. Then the moment was over as we both climbed down from the tree.

xxx

"What does that sign say?" I asked.

"Welcome to Gresham," Alice read, squinting her eyes to see the text on the sign.

"Where the fuck is that?" Edward asked from the backseat.

"No idea," I said. "Hah, I told you we were lost, remember?"

Alice spread out the map again and searched for Gresham. "Well, yeah," she said then. "Looks like we took the wrong turn after all."

"I told you," I repeated.

Alice rolled her eyes. "I know."

"Well, Gresham sounds more interesting than Portland anyway," Edward said positively.

We drove to the center of the city, which didn't seem to be really big.

"I'd say we go find some kind of motel, throw our stuff there and go walking around. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of driving anyway," Alice said.

Edward and I agreed, so we drove around a bit until we saw a motel sign and parked in the small parking lot.

"This looks good enough," Alice said.

Really, it didn't look that good, but at least it looked cheap. After fifteen minutes, we were in our room. It had a double-bed, a couch, table, two chairs and the usual few awful paintings. It was quite shabby and small, but it was good enough for us. And at least Alice and I were happy to finally have the chance to take a shower and change clothes.

I took a quick shower after Alice – washed my hair in a rush because the hot water was already running out, pulled on a pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt and went back to the bedroom where Alice and Edward waited.

"The shower's free," I said to Edward. "But the hot water's running out."

"Great," Edward muttered and stepped into the bathroom. I sat on the bed to dry my hair as he closed the door.

"So what do you think about him?" Alice asked, lying on the bed beside me. Her hair was so short that it was already almost dry.

"Sorry about inviting him with us without first asking you, by the way," I said.

"It's okay, it was my fault for picking him up in the first place," she pointed out.

"Yeah. I think he's nice," I answered her question.

"He's interesting to say the least," Alice said. "More you're type, though."

"Not like that, Alice!" I exclaimed, even though I couldn't help recalling the moment up in the tree when he'd had his arms around me. It was probably nothing, though, maybe it was just because we were so high up in the tree and I was still startled having just almost fallen. It was nothing.

"What are you thinking about?" Alice asked, and only then did I realized that I had fallen into my own thoughts.

"Nothing, really," I replied.

"Except Edward," she teased.

"Oh, come on!"

"What come on?" Edward asked from the bathroom doorway.

"Nothing," I said and jumped up from the bed. "You were fast."

Edward shrugged. "Let's go then, I'm starving."

We found a pretty nice looking diner downtown. After eating a really late lunch or early dinner, we just walked around the city, looking around as the sun started to set. Gresham seemed to be a beautiful town, not really big, but not that small either. After we got fed up with walking around, we found a small park and sat down on the damp grass.

"God, I'm tired," Alice complained and lay down on the grass. "And my feet hurt."

"The downside of being a full-time tourist," I said.

"Hey, I know just what we need," Edward said and reached into his pocket. He took out a joint and held it out.

"Nice," Alice said, cheering up immediately. "Where did you get that?"

"I take it that's something a bit stronger than a cigarette," I said, looking at the joint suspiciously as Edward lit it with a lighter he'd also pulled from his pocket.

"Oh come on, Bella," Alice said, taking the joint from Edward. "As if you hadn't ever..."

That was true, I'd had my own experiments with weed, but I never really got into that stuff. Alice liked it more, though. However, I took the joint Alice offered to me, inhaling deeply, before passing it on to Edward.

We smoked the joint slowly, and after it ended, there was another one. Due to my pretty long break in these things, it didn't take very long until I started feeling a little fuzzy. Apparently, so did Alice, because she started to giggle at absolutely anything much like she always did when she was drunk or high.

"Look at that bird." She laughed like crazy. "Do you see the way it flies?"

That was basically the way it went on and on. I tried to listen to her, but couldn't really concentrate.

"I feel like dancing," I muttered and jumped up. That was quite weird since I never usually felt like dancing. Well, now I did. I grabbed Alice's hand and dragged her up with me.

"Let's dance," I said. Alice found something awfully funny in that and broke into laughter. I pulled her hand and started spinning around.

"Do you call that dancing?" Edward called out.

"Yes!" I yelled and spun around faster and faster so that my vision got blurry. I felt like I could pass out at any moment. I didn't care; I felt alive, brave and strong. Alice spun next to me until we bumped into each other and fell on the ground.

I yelped as I hit my head on the ground and then started laughing. It was a bit funny; everything about this situation was funny.

"Ouch," Alice said next to me and stumbled up. I felt like I needed to stay on the ground for a while longer.

"Take it easy," Edward said and his voice seemed to come in a distance. He took hold of Alice, who was apparently going to fall on the ground again.

"Edward," I mumbled, still lying on the ground.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for the weed," I chuckled.

Edward laughed too and sat down on the grass beside me. I tried to focus my eyes on him. His expression was a bit unfocused and his pupils were big, but he didn't seem to act as idiotically as I.

"Bella, I need to pee," Alice said, still somehow standing.

I looked up at her. "Do you want me to come with you?"

She shook her head. "No, I'll be back in a second."

I realized that maybe I should have gone with her, but I felt like I couldn't get up just yet. "Don't get lost," I muttered.

"Nope." She rolled her eyes and walked away.

After a while, I sat up again with a deep sigh.

"Are you all right?" Edward asked. He sounded genuinely worried.

"Of course, I am. I'm more than all right – I'm great. I'm wonderful," I stated.

"Good," Edward said. He smiled his sweet, crooked smile at me, and it made me feel just a bit more dizzy.

"You're nice," I told him in a dreamlike voice, "but funny. You're funny and nice."

"Thanks." He smirked. "If that was a compliment."

"I think it was a compliment," I said. Even I was kind of confused about what I meant.

"Well, you're nice, too," he told me, "and funny."

"Cool," I said.

Then, we didn't say anything at all. All of a sudden, I realized how close Edward's face was to mine, how close his body was.

Edward grinned a little. Then, he leaned forward a bit, and just like that, he kissed me. Instinctively, I kissed him back. He tasted like weed and something else, something sweet. And his lips were soft and hot pressing against mine and I didn't want to stop and –

I pulled away from him, looking at his lips, his face and his blurry eyes.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"Because I wanted to," he answered simply.

"But you can't… you can't just –" I didn't seem to be able to finish the sentence.

"Yes I can," Edward said.