Bella sat alone on the bed for the long hours of the morning. She watched the light play through the window and listened to the waves crashing on the beach just outside. She memorized every aspect of her surroundings without leaving the haven of the bed.
The burning ache in her throat was constant, though she fought to ignore it. She was desperately thirsty, and she knew just what it would take to quench that thirst. She refused to leave the bed.
At one point, the sunlight through the window left hazy bars across the bed, and Bella stretched out in the filmy light. Rainbows and reflections filled her vision, and she curled up in a ball, watching the light shimmer faintly across her skin.
For those hours she spent alone, she was very still.
She heard Jacob returning from a long way off. He approached quickly, and she listened to the quick, soft thumps of his running footsteps in the damp earth. He slowed, and she smelled him then, as his steps reverberated solidly on the hard wood of the cabin floor. She traced his steps in her mind as he came to the door of the room and stopped.
Jake studied the smooth curve of her back. She looked as though she might be sleeping, facing the window now. She laid the wrong way on the bed, with her hair sprayed out along the foot board, and her knees pulled up against her chest. The faint light from the window lit her corner of the bed, and the ceiling and walls around her were painted with the light from her skin. He moved to her side and sat behind her, trying not to wake her. He watched the rainbows flicker across his dark skin.