Chapter 1

"Sing us a song, you're the Piano man! Sing us a song tonight!"

Bella grumbled as she opened one eye to glare at the clock. It was two in the freaking morning. Her phone had no business ringing at two in the freaking morning.

"Well we're all in the mood for a melody, and you've got us feeling all right."

"Ugh." She reached across her bedside table and yanked her phone off its charger. "You better be dying, Edward Anthony Cullen. Do you have any idea what time it is?"

She could hear the grin on his face despite the fact that she was still half asleep. "Oh, were you sleeping? Sorry, I must have screwed up the time difference."

Bella glanced at the clock once again. "It's one o'clock over there. You should be asleep too."

"Bells, I am a young, strong seventeen-year-old boy. I have grown beyond bedtimes."

The young girl rolled her eyes. "I'm assuming you decided to call me at this insane hour for some sort of purpose."

"What are you talking about?" he asked too innocently. "Is it too much for me to want to hear my best friend's voice? You've been in stupid Phoenix all summer and I missed you."

Bella yawned. "I miss you too, Edward. Can I call you back when I'm actually awake enough to appreciate this conversation?"

"Okay, okay, I did have a purpose. I wanted to inform you of my decision, my life-changing decision. Seriously, you will never be the same."

That got her attention. "Really?" she asked as she sat up a little straighter against her pillows. "What? What is it?"

He took a deep breath. "I have decided…that in fifteen years, I'm going to run for President of the United States and you're going to be my Vice President. Jasper's going to be Secretary of State, Alice is going to be Secretary of Treasury, Emmet's going to be Secretary of Defense and Rosalie's going to be…well, she's just going to be a secretary."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Good night, Edward."

"Wait, wait!" he shouted. Then his voice softened. "I really miss you, Bells. When are you coming home?"

The young girl reached up unconsciously and played with the buffalo quarter hanging on the tiny silver chain around her neck. It was the same one Edward had given her nearly thirteen years ago. When she was ten, her dad drilled a hole in it and put it on a chain so she wouldn't lose it so easily. Now she never took it off.

"I'm coming home tomorrow, Edward," she promised. She knew that he was perfectly aware of when she was coming home, but she decided to humor him. "I'm taking the first flight out of here."

"Good," he said. "Now you should get to bed, young lady! It's two o'clock in the morning!"

Bella rolled her eyes again, but smiled in spite of herself. "Okay, Dad. Good night."

"Good night, Bells. Love you."

"Love you, too."

With those parting words, she stuck her phone back on her charger and turned over on her side, still stroking her quarter necklace.

Just a little under twelve hours until she got to see her best friend again. With that happy thought, Bella drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.

Edward, in the meantime, sat in his bed in the tiny town of Forks, Washington as he stared at his phone, hoping against all hope that she would call him back, saying she couldn't go to sleep and demand that he entertain her until she did. It wouldn't have been the first time. She needed him as badly as he needed her, even though she wasn't willing to admit it.

No, that wasn't quite right. Bella had considered him her best friend, ever since they were four years old and they exchanged their most prized possessions as the ultimate sign of trust. He wore that arrowhead now, tied around his neck. Everyone at school thought it was some sort of fashion statement, but only Bella knew that it was a symbol of his commitment to her.

But while Bella claimed they were just friends, Edward felt a little differently. It started when girls started throwing themselves at him and Alice and Emmett had to keep pointing it out. But try as they might, these girls (girls that the rest of the school considered the cream of the crop) just couldn't compare to the standard of beauty and personality that Edward had set in his mind. In fact, there was only girl who did. And that girl happened to be his best friend.

And honestly, he should have had this one in the bag. Not that he liked to brag (okay, maybe a little), but he was kind of the big man on campus. He was the star of the basketball and track and field teams, student body president and future valedictorian. He was the king of Forks High. If he really wanted, he could have had his pick of any of the millions of girls that threw themselves at his feet everyday.

But he didn't want any of them. His traitorous heart only wanted one girl, and it was the one girl that he could never get to accept him as anything more than a friend.

He sighed when he finally realized that Bella wasn't calling him back until the morning. It frustrated him to no end, this insane dependency on his best friend. He needed her like he needed air and food. He needed to hear her voice just to know that she was all right. He needed to feel her in his arms to know that she would never leave him. It made every summer since her parents' divorce pure torture, but he put up with it because he knew the deep sacrifice she had made, just for him. The least he could do was grin and bear it when she spent the summer months in Phoenix with her mother.

At least he never had to worry about the chance of her falling in love with someone else. Ever since her mother escaped to Phoenix after the bitter divorce—leaving ten-year-old Bella with a neglectful ex-husband—the girl had long since given up on the idea of forever.

Not that there hadn't been queues and queues of boys at school hoping to change her mind. Edward watched with jealousy every year as the hordes of the male population asked her to Homecoming or to the Winter Formal. And every year, he watched with great satisfaction as she turned each and every one of them down.

Oh, there was nothing for it now. He wasn't going to be able to get to sleep tonight, at least not for a long time. Slipping his phone into his pajama pocket (you know, just in case), he slid off his bed and went into his soundproof, walk-in closet that housed not only his clothes but his portable keyboard as well. He kept it there for nights like these when the only thing that could soothe his restless soul was his music.

After playing a few warm-up exercises, he got to work on his latest project. The melody came to him a few nights ago, so he wrote it down. He worked now to find the background chords and the proper mood for what he was trying to convey.

It was nearly four in the morning when he put it all together. Now all it needed was lyrics.

He yawned widely and stretched his arms above his head. He decided he'd worry about the lyrics when Jasper was around. Jazz was better with words anyway.

Finally exhausted enough to fall asleep, he emerged from his closet and fell to the bed with a soft thump. The last thought that crossed his mind before he drifted away was the wonderful, healing fact that Bella would be home in less than eight hours.