Okay! Here it is! YAY! And I'll say one more time, the first two chapters are almost completly like the first two chapters of the book. So please don't say 'OMG!! This is exactly what the books says. You pledgeraiser!!' cuz that's very annoying.

Well, here ya go! Enjoy! --

Chapter One: Bryce Beach and a Bloody Blanket- Preface

Probably the worst night of my life was supposed to be my best date with Jessica Stanly.

Here's how it goes down:

Five o'clock. I'm already nervous by the time Jacob drops by to go over the checklist. Jacob's funny to watch when his around my family. He's always so skittish because of what my family does for a living. Especially tonight. Tonight my older brother Emmett is storming around our mansion, ranting about how Pimple Eric was supposed to pick him up for a "business meeting".

But once my doors are closed, Jacob is as cool as a cucumber. 
 "Car keys?" He barks.

"Check."

"Money?"

"Check."

"Blanket?"

"It's in the trunk. If everything goes great, hopefully we'll be using it at the beach. Everything is going to go fine."

"Don't get cocky!" Jacob snaps at me. "This is my love life we're talking about you know."

That's Jake's new thing. Since he has no love life he wants to score vicariously with me. Except I have no love life either... maybe tonight I will.

Jake's eyes rolled and he looked at my bed.

"You're not wearing that are you?" He says disapprovingly.

"Yeah. Why?"

He slaps his forehead and then proceeded to slap mine. I got to him first. Being a close relative to a lot of people that can knock guys out in two hits, I've learned to take care of myself.

Jake shakes it off. "Look. It's wool. Can you say Scratchy? You're going to watch a horror movie! She's going to be all over you! We need-
onehundred-percent cotton, or maybe a nice linen silk blend..."

I sometimes wonder if the reason Jake doesn't have a love life is because he's gay.

But by the time we picked out an appropriate outfit and go over the last few rules of engagement ("Don't order the chili! All of our hard work will fall apart if your stomach's gurgling with toxic gas!), it's almost six. Jacob takes off, carefully avoiding the many persons running about our house, while I run down to the basement for a quick workout. Don't get me wrong. I'm no muscle head. But I kind of enjoy getting stuff off my head this way. Plus, it wouldn't be such a crime if I grew a pair of shoulders. The Cullen's are built like trucks. How did I come out a beanpole, especially when my mom, Esme, cooks from the How to Feed an Army and Still Have Left Over cookbook? Once I tried to get her to admit that I was adopted. I am the only the only one not interested in the family business. But she said I was legit. Which is more than she could say about the family business.

I took a shower and dried off. I hit the road and as I was leaving I could here my bear of a brother tearing into Pimple for not picking him up on time.

What I didn't know was that while Emmett was waiting he couldn't take it anymore and took my car and went to attend to the family business on his own.

And with that I go to pick up Jessica.

She looks awesome. Her curly brown hair fits perfectly around her face and makes her frame appear longer and thinner.

We ate at this little coffee shop that was designed to look like an old time diner. It was going splendidly. I didn't even have to use the topics that Jacob had been prepping me for. He went searching on the Internet.

"This is my love life we're talking about here." Jacob reminds me. "I can't risk it if we get dumped because we don't have anything in
common!"


"Maybe if you didn't spend all your time on the Internet you'd have your own love life." I shot back.

I felt bad about that later while Jessica was strung on me like a boa constrictor in the movie theatre.

I won't admit it to Jacob but I didn't really notice she was there. The movie was so absurd that it was hard to not look. What kind of a sick, demented screenwriter could have ever dreamed up a story like Harvest of Death? There are seventeen main characters. At the end of only thirty minutes they are all dead... including the killer. He, as clear as I can tell, is a cross between a vampire and a hay-baling machine. Just when I'm thinking there's no one left to be in the rest of the movie, along comes a troop of girl scouts menaced by the vampire's evil twin yes, the first killer was the good guy, or the good hay baler. Take your pick.

Well, the movie must have worked. Because when I suggested we hit the beach, Jessica's back in the car before I can finish stammering. It must have been those evil girl scouts that did the trick. Or maybe my fabulous cotton blend shirt.

I'm a little worried by all the other traffic going our way. Bryce Beach is a popular spot for the high schools in our area. Will we be able to find any privacy?

"Park over there," Jessica says decisively, pointing to a spot shielded by two outcroppings of the dunes.

I can't help suspecting she's been here before.

We parked and the beach was there, the moonlight shining, the grass swaying... you get the picture. I'll never describe it right. I'm a Cullen. Anything more than a series of grunts is considered eloquence from us. The point is, is that everything is perfect. As if the Date Gods have actually favored me for once.

She kissed me. Wow. Amazing.

"Got a blanket?" She asked smiling.

"Everything is provided for your comfort." I say so suave. I was surprised my mouth even worked after that kiss.

I pop the trunk, reach in, and freeze. I almost choke on my lungs, which have leaped up the back of my throat. There's the blanket all right wrapped around the unconscious body curled up and bleeding.

"I'm waiting," Jessica teases in a playful singsong voice.

"Be right there," I rasp. I know this person. Jamie... Embry, he owns a sleazy nightclub on the lower east side. He borrowed money from my father to get it started up.

So here I am on Bryce Beach with a revved up and red hot Jessica Stanley in my arms and an out cold Embry in the trunk of my Mazda Protégé.

I need to stall. So I clamped on to Jessica like there was no tomorrow. I guess she misinterprets my desperation as grand passion. She starts kissing me really starts kissing me. Like going nuts about it. I bet that's a strategy Jacob didn't put down.

Here I am getting the best action of my life because six feet away the trunk is open and Embry is snoring softly while bleeding on my blanket.

At this point I try to lead Jessica further down the beach.

"Get the blanket."
"The beach is nice and soft"

"I don't want sand all over me."

She skips around me and before I can stop her, she's staring into the trunk
, the blanket and it's current occupant.

The screaming? I though Harvest of Death was bad, but this was a whole other league.

"He's dead. He's dead. Oh my... Edward he's dead!"

"He's not dead... he's resting."

Jessica spares me the questions and just climbs into the car, arms folded, face like stone. "Take me home Edward. This minute."

I slam down the trunk lid, climb behind the wheel, and put the car in gear.

We didn't say a word as I slowly merged on to the road to get outta here.

That's when I see the traffic jam. Oh. No. The cops have set up a roadblock. Looking for booze and drugs. I don't have any of that stuff. What I do have is an Embry in the trunk.

There is no other way to get out of here. The only other way is by submarine.

I have a giddy vision of Jacob. 
 "Snorkel mask?"

"Snorkel mask? What for?"

"For when you're caught with a body in your trunk and you have to swim for it. Don't get cocky Edward. This is my love life we're talking about."

The guy three cars ahead of me gets caught with a bottle of vodka. He passed the Breathalyzer though. So they confiscate the bottle but he doesn't get arrested.

No such hope for me. I doubt they'll confiscate Embry and leave me with a warning. Especially not after they see the name Cullen on my driver's license. My family has quite a reputation in law enforcement.

The roadblock is two cars away. Now one. Beside me, Jessica's lips are moving. I think she's praying.

The Nissan in front pulls away. It's our turn.

And then an act of God.

Horn honking wildly, an out of control Cadillac weaves down the causeway from the other direction, doing at least sixty. All at once, the driver slams on the brakes. The wheels lock, sending the big car into a spin. It side wipes the divider in a metal on metal shower of sparks, and lurches to a halt. There, hanging on for dear life sits Pimple. He's looking straight at me through the crack in his windshield. The cops leap the divider and run to the scene of the accident.

Hey, I'm not going to wait for an engraved invitation. I stomp on the accelerator and about fifteen other cars peel after me. I learned the full story later. Once dad found out that I went on a date with Embry in my trunk, he gave Emmett a good yell. Well, Emmett passed it on to Pimple, because, it was his fault that he didn't pick up Emmett in the first place. So it became Pimple's job to get me out of this no matter the cost. The cost turned out to be one Cadillac. In my family that counts as justice.

Our thrilling escape did nothing to thaw Jessica's cold attitude towards me. When I drop her off at her house she says, "If you promise not call me; talk to me; when you pass me in the halls to not even look in my direction; then maybe just maybe, I might forget what happened tonight."

I nodded sadly. "I don't even know who you are."

From the trunk of my Mazda, I hear pounding. Embry wants out. I know Emmett's going to crush me for this, but I pull over and let Embry 
out.

He looks disdainfully at my Mazda. "Damn foreign cars. No trunk space at all."

I bit my lip to keep from saying. "Blame it on Pimple. If he wasn't late you could have been beaten up and imprisoned in a Cadillac. The tazhmahal of trunks. Would that have suited you?"

That's the whole story. Embry isn't dead but my relationship with Jessica is.

Later, according to Jacob, this is my entire fault.

"Face it, Edward. You screwed up. You had a golden opportunity and you through it to pieces. This isn't doing my love life any good you know?"

Think what it's doing to mine.