A/N: I remembered to post on time again! I'm on a roll. I know this isn't my best story and kind of out there, but it's one of my favorite stories to write, so I just wanted to thank everyone who reads, reviews, and supports me on this. You guys are extra awesome.

Chapter 8

It had been little over two weeks since the cliff diving experience. Noq, Riley found herself in Bella's house, rolling around on her bed like a confused caterpillar early friday afternoon.

"I still can't believe those jackasses forced me to have a day off," Riley complained as she rolled over onto her back. The pack had actually gotten together and declared that Riley wasn't allowed to work for the weekend, even going so far as to tell all of the places Riley had part time work on occasion not to let her do anything for them until monday.

"You were overworking yourself," Bella reminded her from her desk. The girl had been working hard to finish her homework for the last hour, but Riley was proving a pretty interesting distraction. The only reason she kept trying was because Riley had insisted she wanted Bella to finish her homework, something about finding it interesting to watch.

"I was not." Riley totally was. Ever since Leah had snapped at Riley when Riley was trying to help make her feel better, Riley had been diving ass first into whatever work she could find, and avoiding the hell out of the Clearwaters as a whole. Leah's father had died, and it had been a huge blow to everyone, especially since it had been Victoria who had killed him. It made all of the shifters feel like a failure, but Riley felt personally responsible in a way. Riley knew it would be Harry Clearwater's death that would be one of the catalysts that would cement Edward's belief that Bella had died, but she knew the cause was supposed to be Leah and Seth shifting. Since they had already shifted, Riley had let down her guard, believing that Harry would be fine. Now he was dead, a person Riley considered a best friend was hurting, and Riley had managed to fuck things up even more than she already had. After all, she knew how hard it was to lose someone you loved, but she had no idea how to healthily cope with it. In trying to help Leah feel better, she had hurt Leah when she was already fragile and made everything worse. Riley would understand if Leah never wanted to see her again, but that didn't mean she wanted to hear Leah actually tell Riley that.

"Were too." Bella set down her homework and turned to face Riley on her swirly chair. Riley wanted that chair, just so she could see how fast she could turn until she puked. "I get that you're an almighty god," Bella started sarcastically, rolling her eyes when Riley sat up in the bed to give her a flex, showing off the lean muscles in her arm. "But even almighty gods need a break and a day to relax. You're not a shifter, you're a human just like me. As a representative of the human race, I declare that humans can't go hard all day every day like you do. Everyone needs a day to just breathe once in a while."

"But I don't even know how to do that," Riley said. She crossed her arms over her chest, pouting in a way that made Bella hide a smile behind her hand.

"Which is why you're here," Bella replied. "So I can teach you the ways of relaxing."

"And to hang out with you," Riley added. She didn't want Bella to think she was just being used for even a second. Bella had a fight with Jacob right before going to the funeral, and Riley knew Bella was feeling fragile too. She might have already fucked up with Leah, but that only meant she was going to do her damndest to make sure she didn't fuck up with Bella too."I'm not here just because you're a master relaxer, Bella. I'm here because I actually like spending time with you."

Bella snorted. "You make it sound like you're surprised."

Riley stuck her tongue out at the brunette. "What can I say? I don't like many people." She definitely expected not to like Bella after reading the books, but she couldn't exactly say that, could she? Thinking about the books made Riley start to go down a path she didn't want to think about right now. Her face must have shown something as she tried to pull her mind off of things, because Bella took one glance at her and cocked her head to the side.

"What is it?" Bella asked.

"I'm just happy you're feeling better," Riley answered, the half lie easily slipping from her tongue. "I didn't know you before the shit that happened to you, but you've really come out of your shell. I have to say I like what I see." She ran her eyes up and down Bella's body, trying to make light of her heavy words with some extra flirting, and it seemed to work. Bella had been tense for a second before relaxing with a laugh.

"You always have a way with words," Bella said, shaking her head in disbelief. "One day you're going to charm the pants off some poor girl, and she's going to take your flirting seriously."

Riley let out a laugh. "You make me sound like such a good catch."

"You are," Bella replied, and Riley was surprised to see Bella's eyes soften. "Any girl would be lucky to have you. I can only hope that someday, I hope you find the girl you deserve. A girl you can actually open up to, and who can make you happy. You deserve it."

For a moment, Riley just stared, trying not to show how flustered she was by Bella's words. She settled for a snort as she flopped backwards onto Bella's bed. "Never going to happen." To get rid of the somber mood that came over her for a moment, Riley lifted her uninjured hand into the air, making a fist. "I'm untamable!"

Bella saw right through her. "Never say never."

"Never." Riley felt Bella swat her foot at her reply and grinned.

"Brat," Bella muttered.

"You know you like it," Riley teased.

"Sadly, yes."

Riley sat up, wiggling her eyebrows at Bella. "Why don't you come over here and show me how much?"

"I'll pass. You're not my type." Bella's words were dry, eyes dancing with mischief, but sadly, Riley could tell she truly wasn't interested, not like Leah was. The flirting between Bella and Riley was purely in fun, and that was all it would ever be.

Riley clutched her chest, feigning hurt. "Not your type? But I'm everyone's type!" Riley exclaimed.

"You're modest, too." Bella started to spin in her chair, managing to knock her homework right off the desk. Before she could start flailing trying to catch it, Riley stood up and snatched the notebook right out of the air.

"You know, I've never seen a clumsier person in my life," Riley commented as she held the notebook in front of Bella's face, waving it in front of her teasingly. "It's always fun to see what you manage to do next."

"How kind of you to find the bane of my existence so entertaining," Bella said primly, snatching back her notebook and turning away. Then, because she can't help but be polite even when she was pretending to be offended, she added, "Thank you."

"Thank you for the free entertainment." Right after saying it, Riley dodged Bella's notebook with a laugh as the brunette tried to slap her with it. Bella tried to hit her again, but again Riley had dodged, and it had started to turn into a game of "book slap the Riley" when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Riley said when Bella tripped, falling face first onto her bed in her effort to regain her balance. "I'm sure our beloved guest would hate for you to die trying to answer the door."

"You're a jerk," Bella said, making Riley laugh, but she didn't get up to try and get the door. "Make sure you don't scare them off."

"No promises." Riley rushed downstairs before Bella could change her mind, sliding down the banister and landing with way more grace than Bella would feel was legal had she seen it. In less than a minute, she was opening the door, revealing a short pale girl with black hair in a pixie cut. They were pretty much the same height, which meant both girls were able to stare directly into the other's eyes without any effort, dark gold eyes staring into blue.

Despite all of the obvious flags telling Riley exactly who this person was, Riley felt her mind blank now that she was finally faced with the advancement of those goddamn books. "Who the fuck are you?"

In return, the girl frowned, looking at her for a second in confusion, like she hadn't expected Riley to be there. "Alice Cullen. And you are?"

Even knowing that she should hurry things up to help the advancement in the storyline, the urge to slam the door in Alice's face was strong. This was one of the people who hurt her friend, and Riley was nothing if not protective. Since she couldn't be mean, however, she could at least add a little bit of chaos in her own way.

"Babe, there's a shorty here to see you!" Riley called out, and Alice didn't miss the rude slight Riley had given her by not saying her name.

"I'm pretty sure we're the same height," Alice said, but then stiffened as she caught sight of the person coming down the stairs.

"Like hell we are, I'm totally taller." Riley just had to be taller than someone, damn it.

"Why are you calling me-" Bella froze once her feet landed on the floor, eyes going wide as she saw the visitor. "Alice," Bella breathed, and there was so much pain and anguish and hope in her voice it made Riley grimace.

"Bella," Alice sounded equally shocked, her eyes going blacker as she caught the brunette's scent. Despite that, it was clear all Alice cared about was seeing that Bella was there, in front of her and alive.

"What are you…? Why are you…? What's going…?" Bella struggled to figure out what to say, where to begin. But when Alice shifted uncomfortably, the vampire's eyes moving purposely to Riley with a sense of urgency, Bella gave up. Alice would have to be the one to start the conversation, and Bella would do her best to listen.

"We need to talk," Alice said, and it was clear this wasn't a conversation Riley should be a part of. Of course she knew what the conversation was about, but that didn't make it any harder for Riley to leave her.

"I get it, I'm going," Riley said with a roll of her eyes. She walked over to Bella, wrapping an arm around Bella's waist and kissing Bella's cheek. Riley could feel Alice's eyes all but burning into the side of her head, and Riley wanted to grin. She hoped Edward would get to see that in Alice's head when this was all over. "Text me when you're done, Bells."

"Yeah," Bella mumbled, not even registering what Riley had done. Even better, let Alice think what Riley did was a regular thing between them. Riley wanted Edward to suffer once he got back, if only for a second.

As Riley left the house, she considered hanging around to eavesdrop just in case. Then she remembered Alice was a stupid vampire. While Riley had been able to somehow surprise Alice with her appearance at the front door, the vampire should be able to hear her if she tried to hang around the house, even if she kept her distance. Better to just leave Bella and…

Fuck, and go where? She couldn't call Leah for obvious reasons, couldn't call Paul because he was on patrol. She couldn't really call any of the pack as they would definitely want to know why Riley was leaving Bella's house, and they would totally flip if they found out one of the Cullens was back. And if they found out that Alice was going to be dragging Bella the danger magnet straight into the city of some of the scariest vampires alive or undead...yeah, it wouldn't end well.

Screw it, Riley would just go to the Cullen mansion and hang around there for a bit. If the Cullens came back and found her there, then who cared? They could try to kill her, sure, but Riley doubted they would be the type. If they did try, Riley would do everything she could not to die, because even with Leah upset with her, even if the entire pack was upset with her, Riley still wanted to live. She would live, not just for them, but for herself; because she wanted to.

It was weird, knowing that somehow what Sasha had told her would happen actually ended up happening. Even up to the first week of hanging out with the pack, Riley still had felt like she could never truly enjoy life without Sasha in it, yet she had.

Remembering the pack, Riley grimaced, realizing Paul would still be coming to spend his nights at the Cullen mansion. Putting herself in danger was one thing, but she wasn't about to put Paul in danger with her stupidity too.

Riley took out her phone and sent a quick text to Paul. Me & B having human weeknd sleepover thingy her place. No pups allowed. Srry bro.

Learn to English was Paul's reply, followed by a quick, Have fun. He was trying to be understanding, and it showed. Ugh, he was such a big softie when it came to Riley, it was hard to remember how much of an angry dickhead he tended to be to everyone else. It actually hurt Riley a bit to have to lie to him, not that she would ever admit it.

Ur mom Riley texted back.

Is a lot of fun, I know. She wants to see you again soon.

Riley smiled. She loved Paul's mom, she was a super kind woman who treated her in a way Riley thought a mother would. Like Riley was her own instead of just a random homeless brat picked up by her son.

After promising to come over and visit soon, and subtly getting a confirmation that Paul would be spending the nights in his own home, Riley let out a sigh of relief. Absently, she reached up to the little bag tied securely around her neck that Bella had made for her after learning how much the locket, not just the picture inside, had meant to Riley. Riley didn't dare to open it, just in case something could happen to it while she was walking, but just holding the bag lightly, feeling the shape of the locket encased in leather, was enough to give Riley some comfort.

"What would you think if you saw me now, Sasha?" Riley whispered. "Am I living how you wanted?"

In the distance, thunder rumbled.