Part 16: A chance meeting: Bella

"We didn't sleep together!" Angela and I were stood in my kitchen as I washed the dishes. I sighed again; guess Seth sleeping in my bed was a mistake. Dad wouldn't let him inside the house even after I did my best to convince him that nothing happened and Seth was in mega trouble with Sue. I hope they only needed to cool down and then it would be OK by my birthday.

Angela had that smile on

that told me I was not going to like what she was about to say. "You say."

I felt my face blush slightly and yelled. "I think I would know!"

She grinned at me in a way that was slightly worrying. "Ever hear the original version of sleeping beauty?"

My face creased up as I wondered what she meant. Then after a moment I twigged and my eyes went wide. She was talking about Sun, Moon, and Talia. "You don't think..."

"Little Seth? Yeah right, not likely Talia" She burst out in side splitting laughter; half at me believing Seth was capable of that and half at me cringing at the idea.

I waited a few moments for her to stop but she wouldn't so I reached out and covered her mouth with my hand. "Stop it! I asked you here for a reason and this isn't it."

"Yeah yeah, you wanted help planning your birthday party." After that we started chatting about all sorts of things and did a little planning.

All the while I was thinking about Seth; we had miles to go till we were ready to take that step together but I knew that I was ready for him. He had shown me that I could have someone like him even if he was too good for me. Thinking back Wesley was the same but I don't think I loved him. Not like I do Seth anyway.

The nightmares that I had had for the last year were gone and now when I thought about Wesley it was a happy memory of when he was alive and not horror at remembering his face as he fell. I gave a small involuntary shudder and if Angela noticed she didn't say anything.

After about an hour working on plans Angela looked up at me. "So you really didn't sleep with him?"

"No, could you stop asking please." I wish people would drop it. Well I guess it could be worse I could have been Seth and had to put up with Leah's mocking. And speaking of Leah I still couldn't believe Sam had done that to her! Lucky Jake got back when he did.

"But why were you in the same bed then?" Angela said cutting off my train of thought.

I got up and stretched, ignoring the sounds of my joints popping but giggling when Angela winced. "Two people can sleep together without actually sleeping together Angela. Just, you know, enjoying each other's closeness." I smiled, I loved being near Seth, doesn't matter what we were doing as long as we were doing it together.

"I guess so." Angela said getting up as well "Hey if we want to get to the hospital to visit Leah we better go now. We could get there quicker if we drove ya know."

"Yeah but it's such a nice day."

As we walked I glanced at Angela; she had the look of deep thought on her face and seemed to by mulling something over. "So enjoying each other's closeness eh? Wish I had that."

I reached out and patted her shoulder. "Oh don't worry I'm sure you will sometime." I had seen the way she and Ben looked at each other; they would be together by my party I just bet.

"Hey you dropped this." We turned to see a girl with her long brown hair pulled back in a trio of pony tails. She was holding out a pencil that I had in my pocket or I thought I did anyway. I wouldn't have missed it if I had lost it but took it anyway.

"Thanks. Hey I recognise you. Don't know where from."

"Yeah me too, must have been down in Seattle. Doubt you would have missed it but manners cost nothing. My name is Freya how about you two?"

"Angela and she's Bella."

"Oh cool. Hey did you ever notice that only humans bare their teeth when they are happy. Anything else and the teeth mean it's a threat, weird huh? Just another way humans set themselves up as better than animals. Its arrogance that's what it is, can we swim like a fish or run as fast as a cheetah? I don't think so, humans should just learn that all these ways we act different is unnatural and shouldn't be seen as a good thing."

Angela was pulling me past trying to get away from the odd girl. "OK then, well we have to be going now." After that the walk was uneventful and we were soon at the hospital.

Leah was OK just a black eye. It had looked so much worse than it was; the only risk was her leg might have been broken. "You OK?"

Leah looked like she was ready to kill someone and Jacob was in as bad a mood. "Yeah they just won't let me go till my x-rays are back."

Rant: yeah finally got a new chapter done should be some more coming soon but only four chapters till the end.

Freya has appeared before BTW and as a clue for you Yggdrasil and Freya both appear in Norse mythology so there may be a connection there (vague foreshadowing FTW)

A note on her hair: It's in the same style as the main character of x-blades if I didn't describe it very well

More on what actually happened to Leah at the end of last chapter in the next update.