Sorry for the delay! I was going to post this on my Birthday on Wednesday as a treat to myself, but then I went to the cinema to see Avatar, and I still hadn't quite finished it then, and then I had loads of homework to catch up on as I didn't really do much, so this is the earliest I could do it!

Enjoy!

Chapter 17 – Confrontation and Closure

Lucy's POV

"Matt," I breathed

He smiled at me, but it was all wrong and all right at the same time. I studied him. He was too pale, way too pale. The planes of his face were sharper, more defined. He looked older, more handsome, if that was possible. Except for his eyes, brilliantly red, yet dreadful at the same time. He seemed to have aged mentally as well. The smile he gave me was too cynical, too sad for a fourteen year old, even one who was going to live forever.

I drank in his appearance, every millimetre of his face causing me exquisite pain, almost more pain than that of transformation, for he would never mean the same to me again. I had found Seth, and that had altered me irrevocably. I still love Matt, with every ounce of my being. And always would but it was like that didn't matter anymore.

Seth growled, seeming to shiver slightly as he did so, and I suddenly realised that this little epiphany that I'd just had, had lasted mere milliseconds; in fact Matt's smile was only just fading from his face, as he spoke

"Miss me, babe?" it was cocky, the same old Matt I knew, but it had an edge of bitterness that I'd never heard before, and hated instantly.

"I thought you were d-dead," I whispered, stumbling on the final word.

"I nearly was," he half-smiled mockingly, cockiness gone, "but your venom is powerful stuff."

I looked away ashamedly, "I'm so sorry," I reiterated, "I never wanted this to happen to you."

"Yeah, well stuff happens, you know. No one plans for everything."

"Lucy, you didn't tell me your boyfriend was deep as well as funny! Now I feel inferior!" Emmett said reproachfully to me. I vaguely heard Rosalie cuff him and hiss

"Not now idiot!" but all my attention was still focused on Matt. His face tightened considerably, and he scowled at the fact that they knew about him.

"Maybe we should move to somewhere more... private," he said pointedly.

Immediately Carlisle motioned for everyone to leave, and they began to move to the monster Jeep that Emmett had insisted on bringing with him. The pack followed suit. Seth stayed, looking overly worried, but I motioned for him to go.

"I'll be fine. I've got an edge remember?" he looked uneasy but turned and loped off with the others, leaving Matt, me and the other two vampires. I narrowed my eyes at them.

"Does privacy mean nothing to you?" I snapped, for it was none other than the couple that had created me in the first place.

"But we want to talk to you as well," pleaded the woman, not moving

"Emmett!" I called, "I require your assistance. Please escort them back to the house. I will deal with them later."

He nodded once, and together with Jasper and Edward, manhandled them bodily to the Jeep. It roared off and we were alone.

"Wow that was so cool! You sounded like a princess or something. You were so snooty. Are you always like that?"

"Of course not!" I replied, horrified, "I just wanted to talk to you. Emmett's more like my big brother!"

Suddenly Matt stopped grinning, "And that over protective one that stinks like a wet dog? Is he a brother as well?"

"No," I murmured softly, "he's not."

"Gosh, you move quickly don't you? It's not even been a year and you're already shagging some other bloke? That's low." He sounded disgusted at me.

"It's not like that!" I protested, upset that he would think that of me, "You know I'm not like that!"

"Do I though? I wasn't aware I knew the first thing about you. Everything that you told me was one big lie!"

"No it wasn't" I said feebly, but Matt continued his rant without even pausing for breath.

"I put aside the fact that you lied to me about parents and the whole fact that you weren't human, because I realised that no one would believe the truth and anyway it would cause loads of complications, but if you loved me even a fraction of the amount I loved you, then you wouldn't have lost control! You lied to me about that, and that is one thing I can't forgive."

I was stunned, he had so much anger and bitterness, and that was clouding his judgement.

"I have never ever lied to you about my feelings Matthew Porter. I love you still, and you should have realised already that we don't change that easily, so I will probably still love you forever. I will be candid about something else as well. My love for you is changing right now. Into a different type of love, I think. But I'm not sure. Something more powerful than either of us can control has come into play. Fate. Destiny, if you like. I have found the man I was supposed to be with if I had stayed human. And I'm truly sorry for you. Strangely enough I know what it feels like to love when it doesn't seem to be returned. I wish I could undo the past ten years as much as I'm glad I became what I am, because I met you. I wouldn't wish that undone, because those few months with you were the happiest in my life. It actually seemed to make sense for once, instead of being the pile of shit I had come to accept!"

"Oh, puh-lease, try telling someone who'll believe you, instead of feeding me a loads of lies!" he said scornfully.

"If you had any sense in that thick head of yours, you'd realise that I'm telling the truth. I only hid what I couldn't explain, and even then couldn't lie to you forever, which is the whole reason I told you about myself in the first place and got you into this mess. Please think logically for once!" I was getting really irritated at him, and was ready to fly at him at any second.

"Oh what, now I'm thick eh? Nice to know what you think about me at last!"

"Of course I don't think you're thick! If you're only going to listen to every other word I say then I'm not going to say anything to you, until you decide to listen!"

"I don't want to listen to you coming up with feeble excuses for what you did! It's probably just more lies anyway!"

"Yeah, because everything I say is a lie!"

"You got that right. Ugh, I don't even know why I'm still here!" he turned away in disgust.

"Why did you even come? If you hate me that much then why did you even follow me in the first place?"

"Did you not listen to me? I still love you, and I still wanted to see you, and I had a vague hope that you might love me too. I can see that I was wrong. You obviously didn't love me at all or you wanted be with someone else right now! Slut!"

"That's a bit rich coming from you! Despite the fact that you had been 'mangled' by that other girl, you still got over her pretty quick. And I wasn't the one that strung Jen along for a week!"

"No, you strung me along for several months instead, pretending that you liked me!"

"I love you. I will forever, worse luck for me if all you would ever do is yell at me and accuse me falsely!"

"How do I know it's false? All the evidence shows me that what I think is true!"

"Well you don't have very good evidence then!" I retorted, contemptuously.

"Oh yeah? And you have better I suppose?"

"Actually yes! I haven't touched another human since you. And only a week ago, I came out of a three week grieving lag for you! Because thought you were dead and that it was all my fault. I haven't been myself for six months and it's only in this last week that I have started to put the pieces of my heart back together after I shattered it myself! If you don't believe me, then leave, but I am done talking!" this time I turned away, and made to leave the baseball clearing.

"I believe you." The quiet voice spoke from behind me.

"What?!" I cried, spinning back again.

"I believe you," he repeated, "But, I mean, three weeks? Really?"

"Really." I said, cautiously, searching his face for lies, that he didn't really believe me.

But the truth was radiating from every inch of it. "Blimey, that's a long time. I guess my thinking was screwed up. But, bloody hell, so are you!"

"If you're just going to insult me –"

"No, I didn't mean it like that," he amended hurriedly, "I meant that your life has been screwed up. By both of us. I'm sorry for what I said as well. I guess I never really believed that, any of it; I just needed an excuse for why you ran away. I still love you too. Truly. But what is it with that guy?"

"He's like, my soul mate." Matt's face spasmed in pain, and I continued, hurriedly, "I was supposed to move here when I was human, and Seth, that's his name, would've imprinted on me then, but vampirism kinda got in the way. So when I came here a month ago, fate worked itself out. Imprint is like knowing you're soul mate as soon as you set eyes on them. Only he and his pa- group of friends can do it."

"How? And you said that you still love me? How?" he looked confused.

"Well, yeah I do, but it's more like we should be best friends now. I mean, my lust for you hasn't gone yet but it is definitely less powerful than it should be and would have been a month ago, and was seven months ago."

"Do you feel that way about him? Oh and by the way, I know what you mean about 'best friends'."

"It's not like that. We have to be more friends. It's a restriction because of what I am. Wait, what do you mean, you know?" I asked, curiosity piqued.

"Well, when we were searching for you, we met this Irish coven, and there was a girl, Maggie and, well I thought I still loved you but I also couldn't deny that I was majorly attracted to her as well."

I grinned at him, "Best friends sounds pretty good to me!"

He grinned back, then hugged me, and I could feel that this was how we were supposed to fit into each other's lives.

"Just out of curiosity, what did you do when you thought you'd killed me?"

I started, surprised at his question. "Um, I ran away, as far as I could. I even braved the water and swam the Irish Sea to Ireland. I roamed there for about five months staying away from humans, because I couldn't face killing someone who might mean the same thing to another as you did to me. Then I met the Irish coven, and stayed with them for about a month but they couldn't understand my aversion to killing. I still hadn't drunk at that point since you, even though it was becoming very hard, and they told me that if I was this averse to drinking from humans, then I should come and talk to Carlisle here. So I jumped on the next plane and came here."

He gaped at me, "You got on a plane when you hadn't fed for six months? How did you not attack anyone? I can't even be around one human without killing them!"

"I wasn't really thinking about humans and I was holding my breath the whole way. I've always had good self-control because of when I was first created I couldn't control my power, and flickering in and out of sight is not a good idea if you want to stay inconspicuous." I smiled wryly, "I was locked in a room with no way out, and was vampire proof, so I just had to learn to wait and control my thirst."

"Sick!"

I rolled my eyes at him, "I wouldn't have thought you were one for using modern slang," I commented.

"At least I'm not stuck using slang from, I don't know, ten years ago!" he retorted with a grin.

"Funny. Just wait a few years, and you'll be the one that sounds out of date!" I giggled at the thought.

But Matt's face fell, and the bitterness came back, "That's the worst bit about this, isn't it? I mean the speed and strength and stuff are pretty cool, but I never expected that I wouldn't be able to grow up. That's always been a given, hasn't it?"

If I could have cried, my eyes would have been welling up. He was so like me, and I felt every ounce of his bitterness. People dream of immortality, not growing old and remaining young forever, but in truth it just separated you from the people you loved the most. In short it was crap, and every time I thought about it the more I resented it.

"I always wanted to grow up. I lived in a huge family and that's all I wanted for myself since I was about eight. Now I can never have that. It's been ten years and I should have married and had kids already. I still haven't really got over what could have been."

"Yeah." That one word summed how, all the bitterness we felt at the helplessness of the situation and we fell into a brooding silence.

"Wait, flickering? You mean you can actually become invisible? I thought they said that for a joke!"

"Yeah I can," I said, surprised at Matt's train of thought, yet he had always surprised me, so I was also used to it.

"Can I see?"

"Um sure." I said, then vanished, "Ta-da!"

"Again, sick! Could you make me invisible?"

I reappeared, "I don't know, I mean I can make none living things disappear with me, but they are normally quite small. The biggest thing I've done was my rucksack, because it would really conspicuous if I didn't. But I haven't tried with other people. Also it's actually quite disorientating; I always fell like I'm not quite part of reality anymore. It's kind of psychedelic, but not. I can't explain it very well. But you kind of feel detached."

With every word I said, Matt's eyes grew bigger. "That sounds like some serious thrills!" he exclaimed excitedly, "Please try!"

"If you insist," I rolled my eyes, "but you'll have to come here, and I'll have to touch your skin with mine. I may not be able to include your clothes. I don't know what will happen; as I said I've never tried this before. Um, I think we should have as much skin touching as possible; that makes it easier for me."

"Are you suggesting we get naked?" he said with a mischievous grin.

"No! I was thinking more just taking our tops off or something. Of course if that proves too distracting for you, we don't have to do it," I smiled angelically at him, after this, and his smirk was replaced with a brief scowl. He said nothing, just took his top off, mock glaring at me.

I quickly unbuttoned the shirt I was wearing and it fell to the ground.

Matt flashed to my side, "So how do we do this then?"

"Um, some sort of embrace? Remember as much skin as possible."

He wrapped his arms around me tenderly, as if embracing a girlfriend.

"Ok, this is awkward." I stated pointedly.

"Sorry!" he said, but didn't sound it.

"Are you sure you were attracted to Maggie?" I said sceptically, "Because at the moment you're not acting like it?"

"Well how else should I hug you?"

"Like you would another guy, duh!"

"Oh, right!"

He changed position, and I paused, clearing my mind and focusing on what I had to do.

It was quite tricky, what I was trying to do. It took me nearly three years practice to even cover my clothes with it. Now that was easy but I now knew how to push it away, but also focus on the areas of contact that the invisibility would spread from. Sort of. It was a bit more complicated than that but that was the basic idea.

I blinked, once then became invisible at the same time, willing with all my might that Matt would too, through the points of contact with our skin.

"Whoa, babe, stop already, I feel sick!"

I turned it off again, alarmed. Matt pulled away, staggering slightly.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just give me a minute."

I gazed at him anxiously; but shortly, he gave himself a little shake, and stood up from where he'd been crouching.

"Wow; that was intense. I won't be doing that again in a hurry!" he grinned at me.

"Sorry," I smiled back apologetically, but as I met his eyes, his expression changed to a frown.

"Why are your eyes, like golden? And I noticed the others were like that too. How come?"

"We have a special diet," I said enigmatically, then smiling slightly at his expression, I elaborated, "we only drink animal blood; that causes our eyes to be golden. It's a nicer colour than maroon isn't it?"

"You don't - humans?"

"Nope. I haven't touched a human since you. I couldn't feed off anyone else, knowing that they might mean to someone what you meant to me, and that I'd be the one to cause the same pain that I was feeling. That sounds really confusing, but do you understand?"

"Yeah, I hate killing. Maybe I could... but it's our nature isn't it?"

"Well, that's what I thought, but I was hoping to die until I met Siobhan, Maggie and Liam. Yes, I met them," I added, smiling at Matt's surprised expression, "I met them when in Ireland, that was the Irish oven I was talking about, didn't you realise? Yeah, so I spent about a month with them, except when they were feeding and although they didn't understand my aversion, they told me where to find Carlisle because they thought he might persuade me. Sort of. I guess they hoped I would just start drinking again, and not get too weak. If coming here would do that, then they were prepared to tell me. I think they got quite fond of me, though I've no idea. At that point I was as cranky as hell!"

Matt laughed, "I can imagine! After one week you got irritated even though you told me it was just weekend-itis and not wanting to be with your parents!"

"Yeah, well I've always been affected by my food!"

After that, we fell into an easy chatter, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. It was only when the sky started fading to black, that we realised that we'd been arguing/catching up for nearly twenty-four hours.

I grimaced at the dusk, "I suppose I have to get back. I've still got to talk to my 'parents' and tell them that there is no way in hell that I am going anywhere with them. That why they're here, isn't it?"

"Yeah, they told me about everything, 'cause someone wasn't there to let me in on all the rules." He looked at me pointedly.

Guilt washed through me again, "I'm sorry!" I cried.

"Don't worry babe; I'm only joking!" he laughed, "I got over it."

"That was quick!" I snorted.

"Ok, so maybe I'm not quite over it, but I am going to joke about it and there is nothing you can do about that. Don't beat yourself up about it Luce!"

"Fine." I sighed, "Anyways, I guess we should get back. Race you!" I yelled then shot off, disappearing as I heard him pelt after me.

"Hey that's not fair!" I heard him shout and I laughed, exhilarated.

But as I got close to the house I slowed, popping out of thin air. Matt stopped to and we walked together, only speeding up to vault the river. Well I did; Matt almost fell in, and took off rather shabbily, only just landing on the other side. He looked like he was going to topple off backwards but I grabbed his arm and prevented him getting wet.

"Thanks," he said, looking relieved.

"Let's get this over with," I muttered, then headed for the house, dreading what I might find there...

Once again sorry for the delay!

I want to give a shout out to my fantastic Betas vampireaddict21 and HopingForLove, who despite being sisters and reading the same material, always give me different advice, and improve my writing for you guys to read! XD I love you both (no I'm not picking a favourite beta! :P)

Review please, as a late birthday pressie?

Thanks

Layla xxx