Then...

Birthdays had to be frivolous for an immortal. What was another year when you could live forever? While humans made a big deal about aging as they became more aware of their mortal as time went on but a vampire wouldn't have the same concerns. What did one get somebody for their a hundred and sixth birthday?

Edward could buy anything he wanted or he already owned whatever he needed. His most prized possessions were boxes of old vinyl records or music sheets. There were first edition novels and books that were no longer in print. And then there was the movie collection, shelves of DVDs and tapes, and rare autographed posters.

Jessica struggled to come up with a gift idea for weeks. Her ideas were either too expensive or much to her annoyance was already owned by Edward. She considered giving him a gift card and calling it a day but her Stanley pride wouldn't let her give up. She ended up asking her friends for advice.

"Get him a guitar or something," Lauren suggested. "Or a ukulele. I don't see the difference."

Angela looked vaguely appalled. "There is a difference. But it's not a bad idea, Jess."

"He's loyal to pianos. Even the thought of switching to a string instrument gives him hives," Jessica replied then reconsidered. "Hypothetical vampire hives."

Angela nodded. "You can get him a kalimba."

At the blank stares Jessica and Lauren gave her, she explained, "It's like a mini piano. It's originally from Africa."

Jessica questioned, "And where can we get this African mini piano?"

"A brand new one would be expensive but we could try thrift shops in Anacortes or Seattle."

"I remember there is that music store near my old. I don't know if they're still open," Lauren remarked. "My Uncle Stephen bought a guitar from them once."

Jessica wasn't sure if the trip would be worth it. What if they went there and they couldn't find this so-called kalimba? "Seattle is three hours away…"

"It's not that far," Lauren countered. "And I'll drive. We can go get coffee. I really miss Seattle coffee."

"You were thirteen when you moved here."

"And I miss the coffee from there."

Jessica snorted. "What about it, Ang? We could go this weekend."

Angela smiled. "Sure sure."

Lauren put an arm around both of them. "It'll be great. We'll have a day without your boyfriends and all their supernatural weirdness. I can show off the wonders of my hometown."

"Rain and coffee," Jessica replied. "And a hatred of umbrellas."

Lauren wasn't fazed by her jibe. "If you can't take the rain, don't go to Seattle."

There were downsides to dating a mind-reader, one of which was to mind her thoughts when she wanted to keep something from him, like her reason for going to Seattle. She ended up telling him over text where she was going that Saturday and gave him strict instructions not to stalk her. She wouldn't put it past him to drive to Seattle and skulk around, tracking her movements. Edward would say he was trying to be protective and she didn't have time to unpack how creepy he could be.

He replied, I just want to keep you safe.

From what? Lauren is with me. She's terrifying. And she's a freaking WEREWOLF.

She's human most of the time. What if you were to go into a dark alley and there are scoundrels?

Scoundrels? Is this Victorian England? And I'm not going into dark alleys by myself. That's what the buddy system is for.

Do you even know what the crime rate is in Seattle?

No. Please tell me you're not looking up crime statistics.

I am not.

Edward.

I am.

I'm going and you can't stop me. It will be fine. Don't follow me to Seattle. I will be very upset if you do.

:(

I love you.

I love you too. :(

The trip to Seattle went well. Lauren was excited to be in her hometown again. It was the summer so the weather was almost pleasant. They found the music store near Lauren's old school. Lauren intimidated the guy at the store to give them a good deal for the kalimba then they went to a coffee shop where they drank great coffee and Lauren told them stories of her childhood in the city.

It was easy to forget that Lauren hadn't been with them till middle school. Jessica had known Angela, Mike, and Tyler in kindergarten and Eric had moved in grade school. Lauren had another life before they knew her. She had friends she left behind and memories of a city she no longer lived in. Jessica wondered if this is how she would feel about Forks once she was in California, a place that she had once thought home, but would feel like a stranger place the longer she was absent from it.

"I can't believe they closed that pizza place," Lauren said. "It was so greasy but I loved it. They would smother the pizza with so much cheese."

Angela remarked, "Maybe it got shut down for health concerns."

"Or they got bought out by a chain restaurant," Jessica added. "The evils of capitalism."


Lauren bought a to-go cup to sip for the drive home. Jessica sat in the passenger seat and tried to play the kalimba. It was a square piece of wood with metal keys on top that made tinkling sounds when she pressed on them. She managed do-re-mi at the least.

She really hoped Edward liked it. She wrapped the gift and tried to clear her mind. She looked up methods for clearing one's mind at the public library and there had been a lot of meditating. She spent two days sitting at the backyard on a matt and trying to concentrate on her breathing except Sunny kept distracting her. She opened her eyes and Sunny's wet nose was a few inches from her face and she yelped when Sunny gave her a kiss.

Another trick Alice had taught her was to listen to music as it was a good way of distracting Edward from her thoughts. She found that Avril Lavigne worked best. She drove to the Cullens' house on Clearwater Road and put in her earphones, making sure to play Avril Lavigne on her iPod shuffle as she got out of her car. Before she could ring the doorbell, Emmett opened the door.

"Stanley," he greeted her with a grin, moving out of the way to let her in. "What brings you to Casa de Vampire?"

"Edward's birth-"

Emmett covered her mouth with his hand which was terrifyingly large and icy cold. "Sssh. We don't say that word here."

She pushed his hand away, grimacing. "Why?"

"It's a weird thing to celebrate when you're a vampire," he clarified. "We technically have two. We got your human one and the vampire one which is more like death-day but everyone says it's too morbid to call it that."

"How about calling it turning-day?" she supplied. "Or siring-day?"

"Siring-day could work," Emmett nodded. "I will bring it up with the others in the next family meeting."

"You have family meetings?"

"At least once a month we have one to air out any grievances. Carlisle insists on it. There's a trust circle and Esme gets very upset when we try to kill each other."

Jessica didn't think she would ever get used to the Cullens' family dynamics. Wanting to go back to her original purpose, she asked, "Is Edward home?"

"He's getting lunch with Jasper and Alice. They should be back in an hour."

Shoot. Now she had a full hour to waste. She had never really been in the Cullens' home when she wasn't spending time with Edward or that time Alice made her a prom dress. Maybe she should leave and come back later.

Emmett shrugged and offered, "You wanna play Portal?"

Jessica had only ever tried playing one game on Mike's Playstation and that had been Call of Duty which she'd hated. Emmett led her to the living room and set up the Playstation and instructed her on which buttons to press on the controller. He showed her a game where they were two robots jumping through portals and having to solve logic puzzles which she was enjoying a lot more. She was interested in the game's backstory and Emmett gave her a brief explanation of an evil AI that liked to make tests.

Jessica questioned, "And she just wants to make tests? Not take over the world?"

"Don't make fun of GLADOS. She is a scary broad, worse than a Terminator," Emmett quipped. "At least a Terminator just wants to kill you. GLADOS makes you literally jump through hoops and then tries to kill you. She's like an evil professor."

Jessica laughed then went back to concentrating on the game. They were in the middle of trying to figure out how to move a cube and bouncing off a wall when Emmett called out without looking away from the TV screen, "Hi, Rose! Don't be shy. It's just Jessica."

"I'm not shy," Rosalie returned as she moved away from the doorway. She sighed as she looked at what they were playing. "You promised Jasper you wouldn't play that until he got home."

"Well, I wasn't expecting a guest. It's Edward's fault for not informing us," Emmett swore as his robot jumped off the wall and fell. "And I'm impatient and Jessica is better at this than Jasper."

Jessica bit back a pleased smile. None of her friends had wanted to play video games with her and it felt nice that somebody wanted to. Rosalie looked exasperated and she took a seat on the couch beside Emmett, putting him in the middle. Jessica tried to focus on the game but Rosalie's presence made her uncomfortable.

They never really interacted. They ignored each other like they had a silent pact between them. She didn't want to get close to the blonde after the incident at the graduation party and Rosalie hadn't offered any olive branches. And that was what made this so awkward because Emmett had been so warm and welcoming and his wife was…not. It made her wonder how they even ended up together.

"Okay, Jess, I'm gonna make a portal here and here," Emmett instructed. "You make a portal there and jump with the cube. Got it?"

Jessica followed and they both exclaimed in excitement when it worked. Emmett gave her a high five and they created a cheesy song for the loading screen. Rosalie must've been annoyed with their behavior because she gave Emmett a kiss on the cheek and left for the garage. Emmett explained Rosalie was their resident mechanic and maintained all of their cars. She was actually the one that bought Mo the Volvo.

"She doesn't look the type of girl to like cars," Jessica said. "I thought she'd be into fashion like Alice."

"Appearances can be deceiving, little one," he replied and looked more somber. "And most of the time, people create walls to protect themselves cause they've been hurt."

She kept quiet as they continued the next level of the game. She hadn't seen Emmett look so serious before. They were using the blue and orange goop. Her robot bounced off the blue goop as Emmett fired a portal for her to go through.

He continued, "People aren't born with defenses. The world forces them so they learn to protect themselves."

"Is this your way of telling me that Rosalie's not so bad?"

"She's tough but there's a reason I'm mad about her," he said. "You're mad about Edward and he's moody and uses too much hair gel."

She had to concede to that. "I've been telling him to stop with the gel but he doesn't listen."

If she was being honest, Rosalie reminded her of Lauren. Angry and defensive but there was a reason for the way they were. She had to earn Rosalie's story and in the mean time she would try to be more understanding. After all, there had to be a reason a big goofball like Emmett fell in love with her besides the fact she was a living Barbie doll.


Edward, Jasper and Alice were finally back. Edward had blood all over his shirt and looked like he escaped a horror movie so he took a shower as she finished another level with Emmett. Jasper was upset with Emmett for playing the game without him. Alice read through a copy of Vogue and ignored them all.

"You promised me you would wait," Jasper said. "You specifically said you would not play this game without me."

Emmett shrugged. "And I broke that promise. Sorry, cowboy, I have poor impulsive control."

"Unbelievable," Jasper shook his head, walking away. "I am not forgiving you for this."

"Come on, Jazz," Emmett followed him. "I didn't finish the game! We can still play together…"

Alice stopped looking through her magazine. "Don't worry. Edward's going to love it."

She was never gonna get used to all the superpowers either. "Thanks."

"And he's done with the shower," Alice got up from the stuffed chair with her magazine in hand and gestured for Jessica to follow. "You can go up now."

They made their way upstairs and Alice left her to go to her and Jasper's room. Emmett was at the door, trying to get Jasper to talk to him. "Come on, Jazz, it was a one-time thing. Jessica meant nothing to me."

Jessica pretended to be hurt. "Ouch."

"Hi, Jess, we should totally play together again before you leave for California," Emmett told her before going back to beseeching Jasper. "What do I gotta do to make you forgive me, Jazz? You want a diamond ring? A beach house in the Mediterranean?"

Jasper closed the door on his face. Emmett did not let up and continued to talk through the door. Jessica left him and went straight to Edward's bedroom. It was the last one at the end of the hall. His room had the best view of the forests behind the house with large windows. Edward told her once that Esme made the house with so many windows because it was the one place they didn't need to hide what they were.

Edward was drying his hair with a towel and was dressed only in sweat pants and a shirt. He was usually so well-dressed, she enjoyed when he dressed down. Without gel in his hair, it was almost too long on him, copper bangs nearly covering his golden eyes. He looked like he belonged in a punk band.

He smiled softly at the sight of her. "Hello, darling. I missed you."

"I missed you too," She pulled lightly on his t-shirt to get him to bend down and kiss her. Even on her tiptoes, she wouldn't be able to reach him otherwise. "I know you said you don't care about celebrating today but I couldn't resist."

He cupped her face in hands and gave her a faux look of disappointment. "For a valedictorian, you're terrible at following directions."

"Shut up," She pulled away from him to reach into her bag and pull out his gift. "I went to Seattle to get this so you can manage to be more grateful."

She handed him the wrapped gift and he stared at it, his expression blank. He tore through the wrapping paper agonizingly slow, the colorful shreds falling to the carpeted floor. Her heart felt like it was thrumming fast like a hummingbird as he finally opened the cardboard box and saw the kalimba. He looked curious as he pressed on the keys, a tinkling sound echoing throughout the room.

"It's a kalimba," she explained. "It's like a mini piano for when you don't have an actual piano nearby. I thought you might enjoy it."

He didn't reply. His fingers played do-re-mi on the keys. He wouldn't look at her. Her heart was beginning to sink into herself, trying to hide. Did he hate it? Why wasn't he saying anything? He hated it.

He shook his head, chuckling. He finally met her eye and declared, "I love it, Jessica."

She let out a deep exhale of relief. "Oh, thank God. Cause I had such a tough time looking for a present for you! I couldn't even bake you a cake cause you don't eat that. I thought about getting you a rabbit to munch on but that would've probably made me cry and-"

He interrupted her by dipping down and kissing her deeply. Whatever she was about to say melted away. She kept her eyes closed as he pulled away. His hand tucked her hair behind her ear and she breathed in. She was genuinely so happy that he liked her gift. She was a good girlfriend.

"Yes, you are," he agreed. "You're the best girlfriend I could've ever asked for."

She tried not to feel like she was melting from the inside out at the adoration she saw in his golden eyes. She swallowed, trying to hide the swell of emotion in her throat. "Can you play me something on your new kalimba?"

"Of course."


Now...

Jessica practically sprinted down the hallway of FloMo, trying to escape back to her room. One of the other students had been playing Elvis songs all day and she could hear "Can't Help Falling In Love" even as she made her way into her room. It brought back too many memories. It had been the first song Edward played for her on the birthday gift she'd given him.

He coaxed her into singing the lyrics she sung quietly, not wanting to bother the rest of his family who could hear them. They spent the rest of the night with him playing on the kalimba and she sang. Ever since then that stupid Elvis song reminded her of him and she hated that a song made her want to run away. It was a freaking song.

"Like a river flows, surely to the sea," the loud speakers across the hall crooned. "Darling so it goes, some things are meant to be…"

She lied down on her bed and covered her face with a pillow, trying to block the song out. She tried to push away the memories. They stayed in her mind, mocking her, inescapable. She was not going to cry. She refused to cry.

"Take my hand, take my whole life too," the speakers continued. "For I can't help falling in love with you…"

She remembered smiling as she sang the last line to Edward, meaning each word. She loved him. He told her he loved her but why wasn't he here? Why did love feel so painful and complicated and like her world was falling apart around her?

She looked up from the bed, putting aside her ineffective pillow as Bonnie entered the room. She hadn't told her roommate or any of their friends about what happened over New Year's. Lauren and Angela had tried to cheer her up but they were in Seattle and they couldn't talk as much as they wanted between classes. She tried to keep herself busy with studying but she couldn't study all the time and it was when she wasn't focused on something that the melancholia set in, like she'd lost a vital organ and she didn't know how to function anymore.

"Hey," Bonnie smiled at her, looking a bit harried from a long day of classes. "You okay?"

"I don't know," Jessica sat up and she hugged the pillow to her, needing something for comfort. "I just…I just miss Edward."

"You said he was in Alaska. When's he coming back?"

"I don't know."

Jessica closed her eyes as she gave in. She couldn't stop it anymore. She burst into tears. Bonnie looked stricken before she came over and pulled her into a hug. Bonnie asked her what was wrong but she couldn't put it into words. She could only cry.


1. Song title is a lyric from Elvis 'Can't Help Falling In Love'.

2. The game Emmett and Jessica play is Portal 2 Co-Op which I know did not come out until 2011, four years after this story is set but PS3 didn't have other multi-player games I liked in 2007 so just ignore that timeline error.