Title: Promises to Keep

By: Cheddar the Cheese

Chapter Five: You'll Think Of Me

Summery: A single moment can mean nothing or everything. Bella finds a way to live after a part of her dies.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize from Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. I do own the plot and any original characters that may pop up.

Note: So things are starting to come together. This story goes out to everyone who lost their homes in Texas. A lot of the places I'm talking about here are gone now. I grew spending my summers in Galveston and it breaks my heart to see what has happened there. Please review.

I went out driving trying to clear my head
I tried to sweep out all the ruins that my emotions left
I guess I'm feeling just a little tired of this
And all the baggage that seems to still exist
It seems the only blessing I have left to my name
Is not knowing what we could have been
What we should have been
So

Take your records, take your freedom
Take your memories I don't need'em
Take your space and take your reasons
But you'll think of me
And take your cat and leave my sweater
'Cause we have nothing left to weather
In fact I'll feel a whole lot better
But you'll think of me

-You'll Think of Me by Keith Urban

The anger won out. My blood pounded in my ears. How dare she show her face to me! In some ways her leaving had hurt worse than Edward's. She was supposed to be my friend and friends don't leave. Not without stopping to make sure everything was going to be alright first. Without thought, I took one step closer to her and hit her right across the face.

"Ow!" I cried, somewhat shocked that I had even been able to hit her. Alice's face was a mask of remorse. I hated her more suddenly for just standing there and taking the hit. It wasn't like her.

A wave of clam suddenly came over me and stood there, breathing heavily trying to remember why I was so mad. It was Alice! She was back!

"Stop it, Jasper!" Alice called into the dark. Jasper stepped out of the shadows behind her. His face was passive but I was suddenly back in control of my own emotions.

Looking from one to the other I was getting angrier every second. "Go away!" I yelled at them. I knew I sounded childish but I knew also that it would hurt less this way. They would only leave again. "Do you have any idea what you all did to me? I'm not going through that again when you decide that you're bored or whatever. I'm not doing it!" I'm pretty sure I was hysterical by that point but I didn't care. I took off at a run.

I made it all the way back to the sand before I tripped and fell. Ian was there only a second behind me. He carefully pulling me to my feet but I was crying-sobbing- so hard that my knees wouldn't hold me. He put his arms around me and we both slid down into the cool sand.

He just held me as I cried myself out. I waves pounded the shore and I could feel the mist mixing with my tears as the slid down my face. Alice and Jasper didn't come back.

When my sobs had quieted, I began to talk. "I was so in love with him," I admitted. "I thought that… that maybe we'd get married or something. I don't know. But It was just a game for him. He never loved me. I was just a game for his to pass the time with. He never really loved me."

Ian smoothed my hair back. "I know. It was the same for me. I thought I could have everything with her. I'd have moved to Austin to be with her but she said it was too much. That I was crowding her."

I looked at him. His face was passive as he looked out at the water. I felt something inside of me cracking. Like all the walls I had built up around my heart were starting to come down.

"Alice is his sister. She was my best friend. When they left, she didn't even say good bye. Who does that? Who is such a monster that they won't even say good bye?" I was shouting into the dark, praying that she would hear me.

But Ian was there, holding me as I lost it. "Does it ever get easier?" I whispered into the night. "Does the missing them ever stop?" I wasn't just talking about Alice and Edward. Jacob's face floated in my mind.

"It gets easier. You have to remember why you loved them to begin with- why they made you laugh. Remembering the good times means that they never really leave you."

"I'm sorry about tonight. I was really having fun until-"

Ian laughed softly. "Me too. But we've got plenty of time. We'll get it right next time."

"Next time? You mean you don't mind that I'm… broken?"

"You aren't broken. You just got a little banged up in the move. Next time we'll have fun. Besides, it isn't like this can happen every time we go out is it?"

"Pretty improbable," I admitted. We smiled. "Next time, I pick the movie though. That one sucked." Ian laughed.

"Deal."

The next morning Ian met me on the beach. "I wasn't sure you'd be here today. You seemed dead on your feet last night."

I laughed. He had no idea. "I was up. I don't even use an alarm clock any more. I just get up."

He grinned. "I had fun last night. A lot of fun. Even with that awful movie and people showing up out of nowhere. I think next time we should go to dinner. We can go to the crab shack down on Pier Ave. You ever been there?" I shook my head. "It's great."

"So…" I said. I wasn't really sure what to say.

"So Thursday night?"

"Sounds fun," I told him. And it did.

I was working breakfast shift again with Emily. She made a beeline for me the minute I walked in. "Tell me everything. Did he kiss you?"

I flushed so hard I worried about my deodorant for a moment.

"I'll take that as a yes!" she squealed. "Oh My God! This is great!"

"He didn't kiss me," I managed to get out.

"You kissed him?" she asked. I didn't think that her smile could get any wider but I had been wrong.

"No! No kissing." Not yet. "We saw a horrible movie and ate dinner and walked down to the pier. That's it."

For a moment she looked slightly crestfallen. "Did he pay for everything? Did you hold hands?"

I laughed. "What are we? Six?" I laughed at her face. "Yes," I said. "To both." I flushed again and quickly picked up my pad of paper and left the kitchen.

We were always busy on Saturday mornings- especially so close to the holidays. People were up trying to get a jump on their shopping. My tables were all full of people ready to start their day- even if it did look ready to rain at any minute.

I was on a roll. I felt a million times better than I had the night before and I was so light-hearted that I didn't even stumble once as I made my way around to all my tables. Even my tips were looking good.

I knew it couldn't last.

"Good morning!" I chirped at the people at my table- both of whom were buried in their menus. 'My name is Bella and I'll be your server today. Do you need a few more minutes?"

Alice looked up at me. "Please don't be mad. I just want to talk to you. Please, Bella."

I forced my face to remain calm. "I have nothing to say to you, Alice. Now if you aren't going to order anything, kindly vacate the table for other customers."

"Bella!" But I ignored her. I went on to my next table. By the time I got around to looking back at the table they had been at, I saw that they had left. Walking over to the table, I began to clear it as usual and found, to my annoyance, a twenty dollar bill and a note.

"Bella,

Please talk to me. You don't understand. It isn't safe here. Call me,"

She left her phone number and that was it.

Blood pounded in my ears. I wasn't sure what I was more upset about: the money or the way that she thought she could just come in and ruin my life again.

My Shift was almost over so I did the best I could trying to keep my mind on my work but it kept fluttering over the events of the twelve hours. It didn't add up. Why now? Why were they here? Why was it Alice and Jasper- Jasper- the main reason for Edward leaving to begin with? Where were the rest of the Cullens? My mind kept going over everything in my head.

After work I went down to the YMCA where Ian worked in the winter. He'd already gone home. I needed to clear my head so I walked down to the street that ran along the water. The shops were mostly closed up for the season but a few were sticking out in hopes of a Christmas rush. The signs of the coming holidays were beginning to crop up. I found I couldn't remember last Christmas. It was lost in a haze for me.

I tried to focus on the problem at hand: what to do about Alice. Somehow, though, I found my mind kept wandering back. I thought about that first day at Forks High- watching them pretend to be normal… sitting next to Edward in Biology. I thought about the weeks and months that followed. I remembered every shining moment right up until my birthday last year. Every joke and every touch- I held them all locked in my mind.

It wasn't real, Bella, I told myself over and over again. It was game for him- for all of them.

So why was Alice here now?

I looked at her note. "It isn't safe here?" What was that supposed to mean? Was it her way of trying to get me to call her? Or was something really wrong?

I was so focused on what I was thinking about that I didn't see the woman until it was too late. I ran right into her and found myself sitting on the cold sidewalk looking up at her. The blood froze in my veins.

She wasn't tall or beautiful by modern standards, but a few centuries ago I bet they loved her. Her long blond curls were everything I had wanted as a little girl and her skin was pale as moonlight. But it was her eyes that stopped me from moving- or even breathing.

They were red.

The vampire standing over me stared down at me for a moment as if trying to figure out what she should do next. A part of my mind told me I should run or at least tr to run, but my body wasn't reacting the way I wanted it to.

"I thought you'd be taller," she said with a thin accent of some kind.

I blinked. What? What was she talking about? Why was I still alive?

She took a long, deep breath in. "Carlisle was right, you do smell nice."

My mind boggled. "Carlisle?" I managed.

"Well, not in so many words. He's far too much of a gentleman for that. He always was…" Her voice trailed off and I had the feeling she wasn't talking about me anymore.

"What do you want?" I asked.

Her focus snapped back to me. There was no way this woman could pass for human. No one would ever mistake her for anything less than supernatural. "I want you to get up," she said. "You won't do anyone any good if you get sick, now will you?"

I stared at her for a moment trying to figure out what it was that she wanted before I slowly got to my feet. She saw my hesitation and laughed.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she said. Somehow I didn't like the way she said that last word. "It would defeat the purpose."

"So… umm…"I stammered. Real articulate, Bella. Way to astound her with your wit.

"Go home," she said. "Keep doing whatever it was you were doing." She turned to go. "And if Cassandra or Andrea or whatever her name is, tells you to run, tell her that we made a deal." And with that, she was gone.

What was going on?

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