A/N: I don't own Twilight. So, anyway, here is the 46th chapter of Static. I'm starting to feel kind of static myself, but I think once we get into the 60s chapters, it'll feel better. We're still moving, y'all.

This chapter features: a time jump of about a month, an unexpected friendship (or was it really?), and, as per usual, some deception.

Thanks as always for sticking around, and enjoy.

XLVI.

i promise i'll be better
all of these things, they will change

As December arrived, Leah's peace of mind followed. It was the coldest December the badlands had seen in a while, but somehow, and for some reason, it didn't get Leah down. Despite her mother suffering but making slight improvements and her brother being a piece of shit to her and her ex still nowhere to be found, she was okay. A lot was changing, and for once in her life, she could keep up.

The evening before final exams, Leah caught a ride home from the Peninsula College with Bella, and they were on their way to the latter girl's house. They were both going into opposite things (Bella was going into teaching; Leah planned on entering law), but somehow, and for some reason, they studied well together. They had been doing a lot of things together recently, thanks to Charlie's undying devotion to the decidedly undying Sue. Going to the Swan's house was just about second nature for Leah.

The moment Leah got into Bella's truck, she rubbed her hands together and exhaled. She saw her own breath.

"Jeez, Bella," she said. "How do you live like this?"

"I don't," Bella said bleakly. "I'm dying."

Leah reached up to fumble with the heater. She twisted and messed with some buttons and knobs to no avail.

"Don't worry about it," Bella said. "Baby's been frozen since the Internet came out."

Don't worry about it. Leah hated when anyone told her that, but she kept quiet.

Bella drove in silence, and Leah decided to finally let it all go. She had been working on it, but when she realized that the girl driving the car wasn't really Satan, she could feel herself move forward.

Leah looked out the window, and she caught a glance of an ancient, familiar pimp mobile. She had to be dreaming, so she just looked away.

When Bella and Leah arrived at the former girl's house, they threw their stuff down onto the wooden floor.

"I'm over it," Leah sighed.

Bella quickly began to pick her things back up. Who was she kidding, just dropping everything like that? She needed to pass. "Over what?"

"School."

Bella began to make her way to the dining room table. "At least this is better than high school."

"True."

Leah sat down next to Bella at the table, and as they crammed for finals, it was actually normal. Leah didn't despise Bella anymore, and Bella wasn't scared of her. (In all honesty, Bella had never been truly afraid of Leah; she had only been afraid of the truth.)

"So how's your love life going?" Bella asked.

Leah scoffed and looked up from her notebook. "What love life?"

Bella just laughed. "C'mon, Leah. What's going on? How's Paul?"

Leah gave her a dirty look. "He hasn't been around since October."

"Shit, sorry," Bella said. "I didn't know."

"Yeah," Leah muttered. "So I have no love life."

An awkward silence ensued.

"So what about you?" Leah asked, shading in the corner of her notebook. "How's your love life doing?"

"Well, me and my vibrator are in a very committed relationship," Bella replied with a straight face. "We're getting pretty serious."

Leah played along. "Oh, that's cool. What happened to Jacob?"

"I broke up with him."

Leah pretended to be surprised. "Really? Why?"

Bella sighed and sat back in her chair. "Let's be honest," she said. "The only way I'll last with someone is if I die with them or something."

"Okay, true, but I thought you and Jake were gonna stay together."

Bella felt a small, small twinge of sadness. "Yeah, me too."

"So why'd you break up?"

Bella shrugged. "I don't know. I just—I guess I just got bored, which is such a shitty thing to say, but—"

"Yeah, that's pretty shitty," Leah interjected.

"I know, thanks," Bella continued, "but that's what happened. Since I got a life I've had a new perspective on things, you know? I thought I decided what I wanted, and I thought it was fun. I wanted to be super private and not have anyone know about me and Jake again because people around here… they just like to pick and pick and pick at relationships and other shit that isn't their business to pick at. But I've gotta grow up, I guess, and learn how to deal with it. I mean, people are always gonna watch. They're always gonna talk." She shrugged again.

"I just thought Jacob's dick game was weak or something," Leah said bluntly.

"No, it's strong," Bella said with assurance. "Like, when we would fuck it'd be pretty good since he has a lot to work with, but the issue was that he'd never want to fuck. I mean, Leah, I'm basically a rabbit. Everyone probably thinks I'm a slut or whatever, but I like sex. A lot. I mean, it's fun. Whatever. Jacob was treating me as if we were married forty years. He wasn't down for anything or he'd plan it accordingly, and the thing that killed me the most about it was that he reminded me of my ex. My motherfucking piece-of-shit ex who bailed us out back in Venice."

Leah raised her eyebrows. "Oh."

Bella nodded. "Yeah. Edward would just control everything that we did—even the little things. He'd plan what we'd do or where we'd go, but I don't like being a fucking business partner. I like being a fucking girlfriend. I take things as they come, you know? I don't like that planning shit unless it's serious, like a wedding, and Jacob rescheduling his session to eat me out in order to watch some guys throw a ball around with my dad is not serious. I don't need a fucking plan. Or a fucking plan. It's stupid."

Leah just nodded. "I get it," she said. "But it just seemed like Jacob was in love with you. Like, that boy really had a thing for you."

"I bet he did," Bella replied. "But he was treating me like his wife when I was nowhere near it. I have to grow up and settle down someday, but not now. Shit, I'm only twenty."

They were both silent. Bella was lost in her thoughts.

"And I'm a loner, anyway," she added, her voice cracking. "All I've known ever is space, so I guess I better get used to it."

The conversation dissipated after that.

The night before Christmas Eve, Sue had a lumpectomy, and the hospital group (meaning Leah, Seth, Charlie, and Bella since Jacob had dipped once Charlie figured out he and Bella weren't together and things eventually got awkward) was buzzing. After this, Sue was due for radiation therapy and then, hopefully, she would be free. The chance of her being okay after all this was better than Christmas itself.

They stayed at the hospital for Sue as long as humanly possibly. She was the support group that no fake-deep young adult novel could create. These people were real and they were really here for her.

Charlie and Seth had gone to get food in the evening, and Bella and Leah sat next to each other. Bella idly doodled in the corner of a breast cancer pamphlet, and Leah noticed the edge of a black line on the inside of Bella's left wrist.

"Is that a tattoo?" Leah asked.

Bella pushed up her sleeve. "Oh, this? Yeah."

"When did you get it?"

"Venice. Seaside, if Charlie asks. Kim has the same one."

Leah made a face. "Hmm."

"Do you still talk to her?"

"Kim? I don't know."

"What happened?"

At this point, Leah's memories of her anger with Kim were so distant that she didn't even know why they didn't talk anymore. Leah had originally been angry because Kim had ratted her out to Sue about all the new clothes she had acquired in California without revealing what had actually happened. But Leah had been forced to admit she was seeing Paul again. The entire situation was so alien now, though, because Paul wasn't around anymore (as far as Leah was concerned) and Sue had bigger things to worry about.

Leah felt really petty all of a sudden.

"Doesn't matter," she finally said to Bella. "We've just been busy. Do you talk to her?"

"Occasionally." Bella paused. "Sorry for almost killing you at the beach last summer, by the way."

"I was waiting for you to apologize."

"Was the spaghetti not good enough?" Bella asked teasingly.

"No," Leah said bluntly.

Bella laughed. "I know."

"Sorry for trying to fight you back in Venice," Leah said. "At that house."

"Oh, God, don't be," Bella replied. "I was so white girl wasted. I would have kicked my own ass." She almost added that Edward had kicked her ass for her, but she kept her mouth shut.

Leah was silent, but she let the question roll off her tongue. She and Bella were friends, she supposed. "What do you think of Paul?" she asked.

Bella gave her an amused look. "I don't think of Paul," she said.

Good answer, Leah thought.

Leah checked her watch. "It's kind of late," she said, starting to stand up, "and I can't take this hospital food anymore. You want anything from the store?"

"I'm good, thanks," Bella said.

Leah left, and Bella pulled out her phone from her pocket. She began a new text message.

When can I see you again? is what she typed in the box. Then she sent it to Paul.

Leah had to work at Floriano's the next night, Christmas Eve, but at least the restaurant closed down early. It was late, though, and she came home to an empty house. Sue was probably with Charlie, and Seth—Leah couldn't think of where her brother was.

She knew where he'd been, though.

When Leah turned on the light switch and entered her living room that night, she found tons and tons of smashed Christmas tree ornaments littered throughout the floor. Sharp, shiny pieces of red and green and cold decorated the carpet.

It was the Clearwaters' first Christmas without a tree.

Well, no. It was their second. The winter that Harry had died hadn't comprised of a Christmas at all.

But things were supposed to be different now. And Leah supposed they were different, but not in a good way.

Shit, Leah thought. At least Seth tried.

She never thought she would do it, but she suddenly backtracked and drove right to the Swans' house. They were practically her step-family, after all.

A/N: Up next is my favorite: a good old party scene.

Let me know what you think.

HS