We walked out of the diner, waving goodbye to Sue.

"So what are you going to do when you get home?" Paul asked while walking me to my car.

"Well, first I am going to call Seth." I said pointedly, still disagreeing about not telling me.

"And then maybe finish painting? Then if I have time, unpack a little." I stood at the car, waiting for him to hug me goodbye.

"Hmm…sounds good. I should be home around 4pm. Then we can do something if you would like."

I smiled, twirling the keys in my hand. "That would be awesome. But what about Emily? You know just because I'm here now doesn't mean you have to take time away from your girlfriend to be with me."

He blushed and shifted from foot to foot.

I looked away, feeling really awkward. "I don't mind being alone. I'm used to it by now Paul. So don't worry about leaving me and stuff."

The distance between us was deafening. Two of his fingers came up to my chin and pushed it up to meet his eyes.

"But see Bella, that's what bothers me. I don't want you to be alone. And I sure don't want you to be used to that fact. Emily doesn't mind me spending time with you. She understands and thinks you are a really great girl. So don't ever think you aren't worth my time."

My eyes started to tear up and I smiled at him. I gave him a small nod before he eloped me into a hug.

"See you at home?"

"Most definitely." I confirmed.

I opened the door and got into my car. Paul stood there waiting and watching till I pulled away and was out of sight.

When I got back to the house, I quickly parked the car in the driveway and went into the house to call Seth.

I was feeling so guilty about not calling him. He was probably thinking I was avoiding him or something. I should have known to call.

As I reached the phone I realized I didn't have him number. I scanned the room and found numbers on a piece of paper posted on the fridge.

I took it from the purple magnet and dialed the number.

There were a few rings before someone picked up.

"Hello?" the voice asked.

I knew the voice was Leah's.

"Hey Leah, its Bella. Is Seth there?"

"Hey Bella, yup. He is here. One second I will get him."

"Thanks." I murmured while waiting for him.

"Seth!" Leah called in the background. "Bella's on the phone!"

There was a sound of running and then fuzziness. Seth must have picked up the phone from Leah.

"Bella?" Seth asked with a breath.

"Hey Seth! Sorry I didn't call earlier. I was sleeping when you called the house and Paul didn't tell me you called till later when I saw him." I bit my lip, feeling bad.

Stupid Paul.

"It's alright Bella. Paul said you were tired from last night anyways."

I furrowed my brows and shook my head.

Damn Paul. Needs to mind his own business.

Then his words came back into my head.

I'm your brother Bells. Whether you can look after yourself or not, I'm here and you're stuck with me….Protectiveness included.

"So what are you doing today?" Seth's voice asked, cutting through my thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, well I'm going to finish painting and then who knows…"

"Mind if I come over? I'm sure I can help with something." I could hear the nervousness in his voice.

"Sure, I'll take all the help can get."

I felt him smile on the phone. "Great. When did you want me to come over?"

"Well…I'm about to start in a few minutes, so you are welcome to come whenever."

"Alright. Well give me like 10 minutes?"

"Sure. Sounds good. I will see you then."

"Sweet. See ya Bells." He chimed.

"Bye Seth!"

When we hung up, I couldn't stop smiling. What was with me?

I shook my head and laughed. I was being stupid. Taking two steps at a time, I headed for my room.

The paint brushes lay spread out in a neat pile on the desk in the middle of the room.

I searched for the can of dark purple paint and then opened up the lid.

Last nights paint was dry, so I was going to start the design.

I swirled the paint around with one of those long wooden sticks; watching the dark creamy looking paint flowed nicely as I stirred it.

I must have stood there, staring at the paint for a while because I was interrupted with a knock on the door.

"It's open!" I shouted from my room. The door creaked open and footsteps were heard.

"Bella?" Seth's voice called.

"Up here." I yelled for him.

I poured the paint in the tray and looked up as he walked in the room.

"Hey." He said, setting his keys down and looking at me with a small smile.

"Hi Seth. You drive?" My smile grew just looking at him. I took note he had car keys and couldn't help but ask him. I dipped the brush in the paint and started at the corner of the wall.

"Yeah. Well my birthday is in a few days, so my family just lets me take the car." He said, watching as I painted the walls with steady brush strokes.

"Your birthday is soon? Why didn't you tell me?" I said, turning away from the wall.

He shrugged his shoulders and put his hands in his pockets.

"I don't know. I didn't think it was a big deal."

I walked over to him, dipping the brush in the purple paint.

"Of course it's a big deal. One of my closest most bestest friend's birthday is coming up!" I smiled.

I could see his eyes light up.

"Really?" he asked.

I looked at him like he was crazy. "Of course. I think you are one of the most friendly and comfortable to be around." I turned back around and drew some more swirls on the wall.

He blushed a little, but continued to watch me. "Thanks Bella."

"It's the truth." I put simply.

I walked back over, dipping the brush in paint.

"So what are you going to do for your birthday?"

"I don't know. Maybe just chill with my family. You're welcome to come."

I smiled as I painted and nodded. "Well how about if you have time I take you out for a birthday lunch? Sound good?"

He looked at me wide eyed and nodded with a huge smile. "That sounds…amazing."

"Good. It's settled then."

I finished painting a few swirls and stepped back, cocking my head to the side.

"It looks amazing Bella."

"Thanks." I said, still analyzing my work.

The swirls all originated from the same spot, at the bottom of the wall, and then spread out. They were each different lengths and swirled a little differently.

"So what can I help with?" he asked, breaking me away from my analysis.

"Want to hang some things? And help me take some pictures?"

He shrugged his shoulders and waited for me to tell him what to do.

I pointed over to the plastic bags and had him start hanging some things on walls that weren't in the way of the swirls.

Moving fast, I made long and wide swirls.

As the design started growing higher, I was having a harder time reaching the wall.

"Here, let me help." Seth said, taking the brush from me.

He looked at the other swirls and tried mimicking them.

The turned out pretty good. "Is this ok?" he asked, standing behind me.

I swallowed and nodded. We were really close to each other.

He finished the left side of the wall, pressing up against me as he reached up close to the ceiling.

I swallowed, keeping my eyes up on what he was doing. I was starting to feel a little bit awkward.

After he was done, he handed me back the brush with a smile.

"Thanks."

He grinned and went back to work.

I stepped back again analyzing how it looked.

"You know, you did a pretty good job. How'd you do that?"

He looked back at me and then the wall. "I don't know. Just looked at your work I guess."

Nodding to him, I dragged all of my things and starting doing the right side.

When it got to high again, he stepped in and took over.

This time I ducked under his arm and watched him paint.

He was careful and precise, trying his hardest not to mess up.

"Seth, it doesn't have to be perfect." I laughed as his eyes followed a swirl, trying to accurately copy it.

When he felt like he got it, he stepped back at let out a triumphant grunt.

"Nicely done Picasso." I snickered, taking the brush out of his hands.

We continued like this for a while, talking to each other and learning new things about one another that I would never guess. We finished painting and now hanging things.

I was working on setting up my dark purple curtains while Seth was hammering nails.

"First love." I stated, waiting for him to answer the question. We've been asking each other a bunch of random things to help the time pass.

"Her name was Ruby. She was my best friend." He sighed and I looked at him from the stepstool.

"I really liked her. At one point I thought I might even have loved her."

I stopped what I was doing and looked at him. He glanced at me and kept on hammering the nails into the wall to hang my bulletin board.

"What happened?"

"Well we were in the middle of a relationship when she left last year. We email each other sometimes, but it's not the same. We never really established if we were even having a long distance relationship."

"Are you?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"I don't know. I mean I still really like her, but I don't know if the feeling is mutual." He murmured.

I nodded and went back to my curtains. "Plus, being close friends made dating so much harder. I mean, I know people say it was supposed to be easy, but it came hard for us. We knew everything about each other. Nothing was a surprise. And there was just that missing spark."

"But…?" I asked, knowing it was coming.

"But it didn't make me stop loving her. She was sweet, kind and really nice to everyone."

He let out a sigh and looked at me.

"Sometimes I think to myself that I only loved her so much because she was my closest and best friend. And when we tried becoming more, I didn't really have feelings for her; I just thought it was true love because we were so close for so long ya know?"

I nodded and thought about what he said.

"A part of you will always love her. And whether you guys get on the same page or not, you both will always be best friends."

He looked at me and nodded. "Thanks."

It was now Seth's turn and I waited for a question. "Were you…were you sad when your mom passed away?"

As much of a stupid and obvious question it was, I felt myself freeze.

I gulped and nodded for him to screw the rod onto the wall.

As he screwed the rod into the wall, I moved away and chose my words carefully.

"Yea, I mean who wouldn't be." Seth turned to me and his eyes became small.

"There's more to it. I can tell." He warned.

I sighed and bit my lip.

"When she died…I felt like I lost a part of myself. It was different than Charlie's death. It hit harder to home." We continued to paint, so I went on. "I remember Charlie's death. I remember being upset and hurt…but the pain…the pain disappeared in a few days." I swallowed hard and pushed myself to continue.

"With Renee…it was different. She wasn't just my mom, but my best friend. Even though she slipped off the wagon a few times and had those bad days, we still made it. She made sure I had a roof over my head and an education in my brain. At times I hated her. She always acted like a little kid, but then I realized it was only because she wanted me to live a fun and happy life."

He concluded his painting and walked over to me. I closed my eyes as his chest came face to face with me. I felt sick inside.

"She was going to get married you know. The day after the accident happened, she and Phil planned to tell me."

He wrapped his arms around me and I let tears slip down my face. "She didn't want to tell me when I was driving her home from the bar because she was drunk and didn't want to ruin it the element of surprise. I was supposed to be happy for her." Seth's arms held me tighter and I snuggled into him.

"But instead, I took my eyes off the road and yelled at her for being immature." I choked on my words and shut my eyes tightly.

The scenes played in my head. Right before the accident- When I was yelling at her while the rain poured…when I rushed into the bar, finding her laughing and flirting with Phil…

"Bella." Seth said.

I took in a breath and tried to calm myself down.

"This isn't your fault. Your mom…she loved you. Just the way you described her, I could hear how much she loved you. She wouldn't blame you for what happened Bella; it wasn't your fault. So stop blaming yourself."

I looked up to him with red blotchy eyes. He didn't even know the full story.

He wiped some of the excess tears and kissed my cheek.

"Come on. Let's go take some pictures of the beach."

I nodded, brushing away my tears and grabbing my camera.

He waited for me, taking my hand and leading me down the stairs.

We walked on the warm sandy beach hand in hand.

The sun was actually out and shimmering against the water.

"When I was 12, I lost my dad." Seth said quietly.

I looked at him and waited.

"I felt like my whole world was spinning out of control. He was always such a caring guy that led everybody out of harms way. And when he died, I thought I lost that. I felt like I lost the feeling of being safe and protected."

He looked up from our entwined hands and stared straight ahead. My eyes never broke off his face. I watched as pain came and went across the beautiful face.

"One day, I walked up to go to my room and saw my mom and sister sitting on the bed crying in my parent's room. My heart was breaking for them. I knew I had to be strong…and so I was. From that day on, I vowed to myself that I would protect them just like my dad did."

I smiled at him as he looked down at me with tears in his eyes.

"I'm proud of you Seth." I whispered and kissed his cheek.

He gave me a small smile and we continued to walk around.

When we gave up on the seriousness of conversations, we fooled around; taking pictures of the scenery and ourselves.

Seth posed in about every picture with a goofy grin or a weird look on his face that he found hilarious.

I begged him to take at least one serious picture, which he rolled his eyes and agreed to.

We started off smiling into the camera, but then right as I pressed the button, Seth kissed me on the cheek and the photo was taken.

I whined as he ran away laughing and continued to take a zillion more pictures.

Finally, there was about one picture that was my absolute favorite. I caught the moment perfectly.

Seth and I were smiling in the camera, arms wrapped around each other. Our eyes were light and full of fun.

I laughed as he climbed up on some rocks and striked this really weird pose.

He made me take a picture of him as he jumped down. When I looked at the screen I found he came down with a karate kick.

I laughed at him and ran away, not letting him see the picture.

"Come on Bella." He laughed, still chasing after me.

"No, your ego is inflated enough."

He stopped and looked at me. One of his eyebrows rose.

"So it's a good picture then?"

I laughed rolling my eyes. Just as I was running away again, he caught me by the waist and twirled me around. I kept the camera just out of arms reach.

He tickled me in his arms as I giggled and gasping for breath.

"Ok ok!" I panted for air.

I tossed him the camera and put my hands on my knees.

He looked at the picture and beamed with happiness.

"Smile Bella!" he chimed as he clicked a photo of me.

The sun was setting and Seth and I sat down to watch it.

It was the most amazing sight.

He took a few pictures of it, and then held out a hand to start heading back hands.

I didn't feel awkward or uncomfortable as our hands were entwined again.

It was like we both knew this was nothing more than a friendship.

It was getting dark and when I looked up the hill I could see the house. The lights were on and a grin appeared on my face.

I let go of Seth's hand and turned to him. "Race ya!" I shouted and ran.

I looked back and saw him stunned for a second; then smiling and racing after me.

Seth caught up to me pretty quickly. He tried swiping his arms out to catch me, but I dodged them.

I raced up to the porch and flung the door open, panting in victory. Seth was coming to halt as he got to the doorway.

"Bella!" I heard Paul say in relief.

Seth and I quickly looked and found Paul standing in the kitchen looking really relieved and worried.

"Where were you? Its almost 8!"

"What?" I said, feeling really clueless. I walked to the kitchen and found it a quarter to 8.

Ooops. I winced.

"Sorry Paul. I didn't realize what time it was. Seth came over to help me finish my room and then we went to the beach for a while."

Paul looked back at me raising an eyebrow as I said Seth's name.

He looked to the front door and at Seth. Seth looked kind of uncomfortable as Paul glared at him.

I cleared my throat and Paul's head snapped back at me.

He walked over and hugged me. "You had me worried. I thought something happened to you. I called all of the guys and Leah said Seth came over a while ago and hasn't heard from him since. Don't do that again. At least leave a note on the fridge or something."

I nodded and hugged him. "Sorry. I didn't mean to. I will leave a note next time though."

When he let go, I smiled. "So did you see my room yet?"

He shook his head. "No, I didn't bother going up there since there was no music playing and I yelled for you."

Guilt hit me, but I brushed it off. I had a fun time with Seth. It was time I finally felt free and like myself.

I grabbed his big warm hand and pulled him out of the kitchen.

"Then let's go see it."

I ran up the stairs with him and Seth behind me. When we got close to entering my room, I stood on my tip toes and covered his eyes.

He walked forward, into my room and I grinned.

"And now, I would like to present to you the most awesome room of the century. Created by yours truly and my best friend, Seth Clearwater."

My hands flew off his eyes and watched as he looked all around the room.

"Wow" he whispered. "Amazing design, where did you get it from?"

"My head." I answered.

He looked at me shocked. "You painted that?"

I gave a shrug and stood by Seth. "Well he did the high swirls, but yea. We did."

Seth gave me a smile as Paul turned back to the walls.

"You hung all the curtains and rods?" I rolled my eyes.

"Paul. It was all us. No one else came to help."

He walked over to us and gave me a hug. "Great job."

He ruffled Seth's hair and walked back downstairs. Paul and I stepped into the kitchen while Seth was behind us.

"Well I should go." he said sadly standing at the front door.

My mouth turned into a small frown and I nodded.

I walked over to him and hugged him. "Thanks for everything today."

He smiled a goofy smile and nodded. "Of course, it was fun. See you guys later."

He gave Paul a nod and was out the door. I walked over to the fridge to get a bottle of water when Paul began talking.

"You still going to stick to the story that you both are 'just friends'?"

I rolled my eyes, and jumped on the counter, sipping my water bottle. "I'm sure Paul. There is nothing going on between Seth and me except for a really great friendship."

"Great huh?" he grunted.

I rolled my eyes again. This was tiring. "Yes, great. He is becoming a really close friend. One of my best."

"What about Jake?" he wondered sounding a bit harsh.

I let out a breath. Ouch. Low blow.

"He's still my friend Paul. You know you can have more than one." I sneered, jumping off the counter and making my way up the stairs.

I was getting really tired of his assumptions and stupid comments; it was pissing me off.

"Bella, wait." He said, walking to the stairs.

I turned around, already half way up and looked at him.

"What Paul?"

He let out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry; you know your life better than I do. I just can't help it Bella, I feel so protective of you."

My eyes softened. "I get that. I do. And I'm glad you're all protective and big brother like, but could you just lay off a little. It's starting to piss me off."

He let out a chuckle and nodded. "I will try. Promise."

We smiled at each other, before Paul went off to order us a carry out and I went to my room.

Painting was finally done and everything was hung.

I cleaned up all of the tools and paint supplies. Tomorrow I was going to start decorating this house. Jake was right, it was kind of boring and lifeless.

"B! Foods here!" he called.

"Coming!" I yelled back.

I ran down the stairs and was hit with the smell of Chinese.

Yummy. I thought, and then joined Paul in the kitchen.