"Depends on what you're looking for, Mr. Stevens," Mike told the man struggling to choose between two mostly identical pairs of hiking boots. "The ones on the left are definitely lightweight and breathable, but the full leather ones are going to be the most water resistant."

Mr. Stevens, an older, rumpled looking man with thick glasses and a plaid shirt, nodded sagely. "Eh, better stick with the leather. Harder on the wallet, but worth the dry socks."

"Good choice. I'll ring you up over here."

Bella smiled in thanks as Mike guided the customer to the register. Technically, it was her turn to ring, but she was glad to be spared the awkwardness of attempting small talk with a stranger. Mike had obviously known him for years.

She stayed crouched on the cold linoleum, restocking thermoses on a tower display as they caught up. Mr. Stevens asked after Mike's parents with easy familiarity, and Mike followed up with a few questions about someone named Chester and then a Chelsea, both of whom apparently graduated from Forks High the year before.

Mr. Stevens only noticed her on his way out the door, eyeing her with a curiosity she'd hoped had been extinguished in the months since she'd moved to town. "Oh, hi there, Isabella!"

"Bella." She was no longer surprised when people she'd never met before addressed her by name. "You have a nice day!"

The door jangled shut behind him.

Mike walked back over, withdrawing a knife from his pocket. He slashed open another box of merchandise off the cart Bella had pushed out from the back. "More thermoses."

"No more space over here." She tried to shuffle the multicolored rows a little closer together. "It's probably too cramped already."

"No, it looks good."

She shrugged and joined him by the cart, carrying her empty box by one flap and slinging it on top of the stack of other empties. She glanced at the clock on the wall. It had to be after 11 by now, right? She groaned internally. A whole six minutes had passed since she last checked. The clock hands hadn't even scratched the surface of 10:30. Time was moving at a crawl, and she knew the lack of customers wasn't the only reason it felt so miserably slow to her.

She turned her attention from the clock to the parking lot of the tiny diner across the street. Someone who worked there drove a Volvo. It was blue, didn't even look like the same model as Edward's car, and definitely wasn't as new or clean. Still, Bella took a little irrational solace in seeing it out there, so close to where she was. Especially when she knew her stupid, shiny Volvo owner was miles and miles away.

"Where are the Cullens camping this weekend?" Mike asked.

"Oh, they're, um…" Bella sputtered, spooked the question mirrored her train of thought so exactly. She started to tell him the name of the area but changed her mind at the last second. It was probably somewhere most people would consider bad for camping, somewhere overrun with mountain lions or grizzly bears. Better to play dumb and limit raised eyebrows. "I don't know. Edward didn't say."

Mike's brow shot up anyway. "He didn't even tell you where they were going? Don't you think that's kind of, I don't know, suspicious?"

"No, I don't," Bella snapped with a flare of annoyance. Mike sounded way too excited about the idea that Edward might be keeping something from her. "He did tell me where they went. I just can't remember what it's called."

"Oh." Mike looked down at his box of thermoses.

They worked in silence for awhile. The soft pop music funneling through the little shop's sound system kept the quiet from becoming too heavy or awkward.

Bella finished restocking and set about straightening a rack of jackets. As her temper cooled, she started to feel guilty for being so harsh. Mike might be a little overly friendly toward her, and a little quick to jump on Edward, but she liked working with him for the most part. Plus he was always willing to partner with her in Gym, and a sacrifice of that magnitude earned him some leeway. She should probably have presented him with a medal for bravery at the end of the year. She could still see a lingering shadow on his shin from her last fumble with a kickball.

"So, did you and Jess make it to the beach yesterday?" She added with genuine enthusiasm, "Angela said they had a huge driftwood fire."

"Sounds cool." He smiled but shook his head. "We didn't make it."

"Something come up?"

"Jess is mad at me. I think. I can't get her on the phone."

"Maybe… she's sick or something." The suggestion sounded weak even to her own ears. Bella wished she could offer something more concrete and reassuring, but she hadn't heard from Jess much lately either.

"Yeah, maybe." Mike's tone was doubtful. He bent to pick up a broken hanger. "Did... Cullen… say how his trip was going?"

"I didn't hear from Edward yesterday."

Mike's brow shot up again. "Guess that puts us in the same boat."

Bella struggled not to laugh. She quickly turned her face into the quilted sleeves of the jackets, unable to keep from imagining all the various ways she could explain that no, actually she and her vampire boyfriend were in a very different boat and that Edward didn't usually carry his phone on him when he went hunting for massive predators to drink.

She tried to cover the chuckle that did escape with a not-very-convincing cough. "He probably just couldn't get a signal. I think he said the cell service was bad out there."

"Oh. Yeah, probably." Mike came to stand next to her, though there really wasn't much straightening left to be done to the rack.

Bella glanced over.

Mike seemed unable to look her in the eye. He cleared his throat. "I don't think it's right that he never asks you to go camping with them."

She shifted uncomfortably, listening intently for the bell over the door of the shop to ring, hoping a customer might save her from having to answer. No such luck. "Who says he's never asked me?"

Edward hadn't, of course. The very idea of her being there while he hunted had been enough to make his face turn dark and tormented in the middle of the brightly lit school cafeteria when she'd asked. And for very good, life-threatening reasons which he'd later explained.

But Mike didn't know any of that, and she didn't appreciate the assumption.

Mike flushed, face going red in a rush of heat Bella could easily imagine. At least she wasn't the only one who turned into a tomato when embarrassed.

"Nobody, I guess. I just, you know, you're never gone when they are, so I guess I just figured he must not invite you…"

"Mike," she began, but he placed his hand hesitantly on her arm, catching her by surprise.

"I would invite you, if it was me. My family. You could always go with us."

Bella fidgeted, even more desperate for a distraction than before. His grip felt too warm, his fingers unpleasantly sticky on her skin.

His blue eyes were painfully earnest. His baby-faced appearance only served to emphasize his vulnerability.

She attempted to match his sincerity with her own.

"Thanks, Mike. That's nice of you to say. You're a good friend." She stepped back, breaking his hold as gently as possible. Then she went to fix the shoe display that had gotten a little out of order during Mr. Stevens' hiking boot debate. "You should invite Jessica to go with you."

Thankfully, he didn't follow her. It took a second before he answered.

"I don't think Jess likes the woods that much."

"The great outdoors never seemed so great to me either," she said quickly, keeping her movements swift and purposeful as she worked. She hoped the preoccupation would help her to be a better liar than usual. "That's what I told Edward every time he asked me. Eventually, I think he got the idea. I don't know why he's so into hiking."

"When the Cullens first moved here, and Alice or... Edward would tell the teachers about family trips they had coming up, I thought they'd be the store's new best customers, but I've never seen one of them in here." Mike's voice took on a bitter edge. "Our stuff must not be good enough for them."

Bella got the impression Mike wasn't just talking about the Newtons' merchandise not being good enough for the Cullens. He sounded so dejected, she couldn't help but feel bad, even though she knew it wasn't really anyone's fault that there were unequal feelings between them. It also upset her to hear him talk about the Cullens like they were a bunch of rich snobs when she'd come to understand them so much better. She owed her life to them—several times over. It seemed like an enormous injustice not to defend them.

"I'm sure that's not it. They probably already have places they get all of their supplies from. They… well, Alice, actually, likes to have things specially designed."

Mike sniffed. "Must be nice."

"My point is you shouldn't take it personally. I'm sure they don't have anything against the supplies here. They're really, really nice once you get to know them."

"Yeah, well, you're the only one who can speak to that. Whatever. I don't really care." Mike's words became particularly cutting. "If they think they're above it, that's their loss."

Bella frowned, although she didn't try to argue anymore. It was clear nothing she could say at the moment was going to change his mind.

A few cheery pop songs later, Mike had recovered enough to share some stories about growing up in California, and she nodded along and tried to act like she hadn't listened to them before.

But his remarks about the Cullens continued to bother her a lot more than she let on.