Just wanted to warn you that their are some POV changes throughout the chapter. BPOV for Bella and EPOV for Edward

Stay Close, Don't Go

EPOV

It has been three months since the Jake/Tanya incidents. I am happy to say that nothing like that has happened again. Actually, it has been absolute bliss.

I've been working and Bella has been going to school and sometimes I get jealous of Bella's schoolwork. I know I know…it's weird. When we get home at night, most of my work is left out there, but Bella's work comes back home. Sometimes I just watch her work. And it's hard when she gets really stressed out about school and stuff. I want to help her but the only thing I can do is help her study. I can't actually be there to help her with answers or write her papers or give her speeches. And God knows if I could do all that I would in heartbeat, if it would make Bella not so stressed.

I have been thinking about popping the question lately. I just feel like it's the right time. And I just can't wait anymore. I cannot wait to make her mine in every way possible. And this is the last one that I can think of that we haven't done yet. Just picturing my ring on her finger makes me giddy.

God you are such a woman.

I glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It's 1:30 AM and I haven't slept a wink. I look down at Bella. She has been sleeping soundly ever since I got home.

I had to meet a few guys for some drinks to talk about a job offer. It's not something that I would absolutely love to do, but if I'm going to support Bella like I want to, I'm going to need to make some pretty cash. I don't want to live off the money my parents have given me forever.

When I came home she was already asleep, her body diagonal on the bed with her torso on her side of the bed, but her head in my pillow. I quietly undressed and climbed into bed as gently as I could. She woke up anyway of course; typical Bella. She squinted up at me.

"Edward?"

"Yes, love?"

"Stop trying to be so quiet. You're not very good at it." She mumbled, tossing her arm around my waist and turning her face into my chest.

I chuckled and put my arm around her, pulling her closer into my side. She was asleep in seconds, but I have been awake ever since then. Currently I am trying to practice proposing to her. I decided that I shouldn't practice out loud in case she heard me.

I really can't come up with anything that I feel is really worthy of the magnitude of the situation. I don't just want to say "Be my wife" but I don't want to go into some long cliché speech either. I want to say something that is meaningful to both of us and specific to our…unique situation. I didn't want to do the classic 'make me the happiest man on earth' kind of thing because it seems like everyone says that.

I had gone through four different speeches by the time I dozed off.

I woke up the next morning and felt an unusual emptiness. I looked down to see that Bella wasn't in the room.

Right. She has school. How inconvenient. Too damn early for school.

I stumble out of bed and walk into the kitchen. Bella is hurriedly making some sort of breakfast before she has to run off to class. I chuckle lightly and sit down at the island to watch her. After a few seconds she spins around from the sink and yelps a little bit when she sees me.

"Edward!" She gasps her hand on her chest.

"I'm sorry love. I didn't mean to startle you." I smile.

Bella scampers over to me and gives me a light kiss as she turns around to finish making her breakfast.

I can't stop staring at her. She looks unbelievably frazzled, but I still can't help but think that she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I look down my hands and lightly trace the lines on my palms with my thumb.

"Bella," I say

"Huh," She says

I look up at her, still trying to get the right mix of berries and yogurt.

"Marry me."

Bella stopped pouring berries and turned around slowly to look at me.

"What?" She asks quietly.

"Marry. Me."

Bella's face was blank. She just stared at me. I had a bad feeling that I may have just screwed this whole thing up.

Good job asshole. Way to ask her at 7 in the freaking morning. She's probably not even fully awake yet! O yea and the way that you asked it…'marry me'…smooth. Not.

"You're serious?" She asked me

Is she serious?

"No Bella, I'm kidding. I thought it would be fun to fake propose to you. Yes of course I'm serious!"

Bella smiled apologetically and walked over to me, forgetting about her breakfast. She placed her hands on my shoulders as mine automatically went to her hips to pull her closer to me.

"Are you sure now is the right time?" she asked

"I'm sorry I asked you like that…really I shouldn't have just blurted something like that out, especially this early in the morning…"

"No no no," she cut me off, "It's just that my parents still don't even know that we're together. And I mean, I'm only 18. And I'm not saying I want to wait to see if someone else comes along or anything I just… you know…"

I could tell she was babbling, not really knowing what to say next.

"Bella, it's okay. I understand." I said, putting my hand over her mouth so that she would stop talking.

"You do?" She asked, uncertain if I was telling her the truth.

"Yes. Completely."

No. Not at all.

"Okay…" She said. I could tell that she didn't believe me, as she shouldn't.

"Well I have to go now, okay?" She said.

I nodded, trying to put on a happy 'it wasn't that important anyways' face. She kissed me lightly and ran her hands slowly through my hair, her fingers barely grazing my scalp, as she pulled back to study my facial expression. If I wasn't so upset, I could have purred like a cat. She must have been satisfied with what she saw, because she glanced at the clock, realized she was late, and kissed my forehead quickly before waving goodbye and running out the door.

The second I heard the door click shut I dropped my head into my hands. I am so stupid. I can't believe I asked her like that! What the hell was I thinking! She had every right to say no after a stupid proposal like that.

I sat back and lightly beat my head on the countertop a few times. Not hard enough to do any real damage, but hard enough to let myself know how stupid I was.

I should just call her parents right now and tell them. No that's stupid too. But then Bella wouldn't have any reason not to marry me. But I don't want to force her into anything she doesn't want to do. But she also thinks she's too young. People get married at 18 all the time… right? Or at least they used to…And I'm 22, soon to be 23. I can get married. I want to get married… but only to Bella, obviously.

I dragged myself into the home office and slumped down in the chair. I pulled out the box that had Bella's ring in it and popped it open. I took the ring out and held it close to my face between my thumb and forefinger, moving it around to see it catch the light. I have had this ring for almost three years now. I know I used to say that I didn't care if we got married now or in twenty years, but damn it I changed my mind.

I put the ring back in my desk drawer and sulked back to the bedroom to get dressed for work.

BPOV

I can't believe Edward proposed to me. Quite frankly, I'm shocked. I mean I had always pictured myself marrying Edward, but I just wasn't expecting him to ask me so soon.

Why did I say no again? Oh right, I'm too young, my parents don't know about us, and marriage scares the hell out of me. I didn't tell Edward that last reason.

If I was ever going to marry anyone, of course it would be Edward. But I have seen many a marriage go sour very quickly and very ugly. My parents got married too young, that's why their marriage is such a mess now. And they were older than Edward and I.

I looked around the small coffee shop I was sitting in. It was almost empty, being that it was almost lunch time and no one goes to a coffee shop for lunch. But I needed the quiet. I had too much on my mind.

I couldn't even concentrate in my morning classes. All my notes turned into gibberish, with various wedding terms and Edward's name written in the middle of sentences. When I wrote my name on our quiz, I wrote my name as Bella Cullen.

What is wrong with me?

I groaned and picked up a People Magazine that someone had left on the table next to me. I had to get my mind off marriage. I flipped through pages of ads and pictures of celebrities. As I was flipping though, I spotted an ad with the classic Tiffany blue. I held the magazine back away from me and slowly raised my left hand up to hold it in front of the diamond ring on the page, trying to imagine what a ring would look like on my finger.

Aw geez what am I doing?!

I growled and pulled my hand away, tossing the magazine back onto the table next to me.

Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as I think it would be. Okay I'll do that thing that Alice says you should do when you can't make up your mind; I'll say the question out loud and then answer without thinking.

I looked around and didn't see anyone besides the girl behind the counter who was yakking on her cell phone. I decided that I should whisper anyways.

"Okay" I said quietly, shutting my eyes tightly. "Do I want to marry Edward…yes, I do." I opened my eyes and stared at the wall in front of me. Oh god. Now I really don't know what to do. Okay well let's make a pro-con list.

Pros: My finger would look good with a ring, I love Edward, Edward wants to marry me, I love Edward, taxes would be easier, and I love Edward.

Cons: I don't know how I feel about marriage.

Aw geez, that didn't help much. I need a weighted scale for these kinds of things. Like the more stars, the more important.

I have a lot to think about.

EPOV

It has been one week. One long, week. We haven't spoken of my dumbass proposal since then. Bella seems more distant since then too. Whenever I ask her what's going on in that little head of hers, she just says that she's had a busy week. And maybe that's true. But maybe it's not. Maybe she is pulling away from me.

The strange thing is that at night, she clings to me so tight that I'm afraid to move. And then we get up in the morning and she pulls away again. Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

I'm back late again and walk into the apartment, closing the door quietly on the off chance that it will wake Bella. And I don't care if she thinks that I can't be quiet when I get home late, I'm going to try anyways.

I shrug off my jacket and throw it onto the table in the hallway. I glance upward into the family room, and do a double take. Instead of Bella being asleep in the bedroom like usual, she was sprawled out asleep on the floor, surrounded by open textbooks and notes.

Why am I not surprised…

I walked over into the family room and carefully lifted Bella's sleeping form into my arms. I stood up with Bella in my arms and softly kicked a few books out of the way of my path on the floor as I carried her towards the bedroom.

I carefully set her down on the bed and went to the closet and pulled off my jeans and t-shirt, throwing them into a basket in the corner. I turned around to see that Bella had already twisted her legs in the comforter. I smiled lightly and walked over to her to take off her jeans and her blouse. I lifted her slowly again and tucked her under the covers before climbing into bed beside her.

The second I put my arms around her waist, Bella turned her entire body so that she could push her face into my chest. Maybe I am over thinking everything. I look down at her, still sleeping. I press a soft kiss to her forehead and push my face into her hair, trying my best to get some sleep.

BPOV

I woke up not where I expected. Instead of seeing the carpet in front of my face like I thought I would, I felt Edward's warm chest against my cheek.

God he smells good…

His face looked so calm, so secure. I could feel his breath fan across my face. I could definitely do this for a long time. I found myself thinking about marriage again. I mean it wouldn't really change anything would it? It's really just a signed piece of paper. We wouldn't even have to do a big ceremony or anything. We would share everything. I mean we kind of already do that now, it would just be official.

Why did I say no again?

EPOV

I woke up to a prodding feeling on my stomach. I opened my eyes slowly to see Bella, leaning on her hand with her bent elbow on my stomach. She looked at me, not even flinching when I opened my eyes to look at her. She kept the same look, as though she had been studying my face.

"How long have you been up?" I ask, rubbing my eyes with one hand, the other resting on the small of her back.

"An hour maybe."

"Mm," I nodded. I took my hand away from my eyes and twisted the ends of her hair though my fingers. I glanced at the clock to my right.

"Jesus it's early." I said, closing my eyes again. "Aren't you tired? You looked pretty wiped out last night." I added.

She just shrugged and kept looking at me, her expression never changing. I could tell that she was thinking about something, but I wasn't sure what. I looked out the window and could just barely see the sun rising through the curtains.

"Ask me again."

My head snapped back to Bella's face.

"What?" I asked

"Ask me again." She said, just as strongly as the first time.

It took me a second to put the pieces together, to realize what she asking of me.

"Bella…I don't understand…" I said, my eyebrows narrowing in confusion.

"You had better ask me again because I'm really not in the mood to wait another two years or however long for you to ask me again. Quite frankly, if you don't ask I will."

My head pulled back, a little shocked. I had never seen her so strong, so sure of herself before. I realized that she was more serious about this than she had probably ever been about anything else before in her life. I mean I've known her a long time and I had never heard her talk like that before.

"Okay…do you want to reenact it or just have me ask it the same way or a different way…"

"Oh for the love of God, Edward!"

"Alright, alright" I chuckled. I took a deep breath and put both my hands in her hair. "Will you marry me Bella?"

"Yes. Yes I will marry you." She said, taking my face in her hands.

I couldn't help the grin that covered my face right then. She leaned down to kiss me and I gave her a light peck before I shimmied out of her grasp.

I leapt out of bed and ran down the hall to the office. I yanked the entire desk drawer out and took out the ring box. Not even bothering to put the drawer back, I just threw it on top of the desk before running back down the hallway.

When I got back to the bedroom, Bella was sitting on the bed cross-legged with her arms crossed and a cute little pout on her face. She probably wasn't going for cute with the pout, but that's what it was to me.

"What the hell are doing?" She asked, clearly not happy with my sudden disappearance from the room.

"I'm sorry love. I just thought that now would be the appropriate moment for me to give you this." I said, holding the box in the flat of my palm.

Her face softened and her arms fell to her sides.

I opened the box to let her see the ring. I was a little nervous. Bella wasn't one for opulence and I wasn't sure how she would feel about the ring. It was platinum with a large stone in the middle surrounded by smaller stones and the top half of the band had stones on all four sides.

"Do you like it?" I asked. Bella just kept staring at the ring in the box.

"I love it," Bella said quietly. "You already had a ring?"

"Yes." I nodded. "I've had it for a while actually."

"How long is a while?" she asked, still studying the ring.

"Almost three years." I said. Her eyes widened a little bit and she nodded.

I smiled and took the ring from the box. I took a hold of her left hand and slowly slid the ring onto her finger.

"Is it too big? Too small? We can get it sized if we need to." I said. I don't know why I was asking so many questions. I guess I was still nervous, even though she had just threatened to propose to me.

"Oh just shut up." Bella said, grabbing my face in her hands so that she could kiss me. I could feel her smiling against my lips.

"May I ask what brought upon your change of heart in this matter?" I asked.

"It didn't change," She said. "I just listened to it for once."

Hey so I hoped you liked it! I'll let you guys know the results of the Red Moon Awards! Cross your fingers for me! Hopefully I'll win!

Reviews are my loves :)

Stay Close, Don't Go-Secondhand Serenade