I don't own Twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and plot of the story.

Thanks to my Beta MadMooey18 for her continuous help, support, and love.

The cafe overlooks the waterfront, both of them holding coffee mugs. Edward stares at her as he raises the coffee to his lips. Bella on the other hand is looking everywhere but at him. At this point her eyes have scanned the entire place. She has found all of the exits, possible exits and the bathroom.

You might wonder how many exits and possible exits could a cafe have to begin with? You just haven't met Bella's commitment once something becomes a special interest of hers.

"Why did you leave?"

"Huh?" She turns to look at him, having had a good job of tuning him out for the last two minutes and pretending she is somewhere else.

Clearing his throat, he asks again, "Why did you leave?"

So she did hear him correctly. His voice sounded like she was underwater the first time, but she did hear him correctly. She bites her lips to stop herself from yelling at him every single horrible thought she has had of him over the last eleven years. She has had a whole decade to stew over his hurtful action. Ten years to replay what happened in her mind. Ten years to imagine herself reacting differently, speaking differently.

In some scenarios, she is detached as if she didn't care something she wishes she was. In other times, she is hysterical knowing that this is the last time she will ever see him, so she might as well burn that bridge to the ground. She yells, and screams as she calls him the most derogatory terms she can think of before she throws in a punch and finally knees him in the groin for good measure.

In the last scenario, she is stoically cruel as she tells him the most hurtful things he could hear. Bella knows him and uses that knowledge to drive knives into his back. That's her favorite scenario, but also the most unrealistic because she would never remember those well thought out insults on the spot. She can't remember her coffee order on the spot. She needs to rehearse in her head what she wants to order two minutes in advance.

She looks out of the window to collect her thoughts then turns to him and asks, "Do you think people come to New York to be independent or come here already independent?"

She settled for that reply instead of a direct answer because the truth was that he hurt her. He hurt her so deeply and made her realize how alone she was. He totally isolated her from everyone she thought cared for her then. When your friend expects you to do the one thing they know you hate, were you friends or mere acquaintances? If you give your friend an ultimatum, isn't that friendship over then? Aren't you just looking for an out? An excuse to play the victim and lay the blame on the one opposite you?

She didn't leave because she wanted to. She left because she was not wanted anymore.

He doesn't understand her question and tells her so. "I left because I needed to be independent."

"What does that have to do with my question?" Edward asks her in confusion.

She rolls her eyes at him because of course he doesn't understand. "You were my best friend, the only friend that counted. You meant the world to me, but I wasn't your only friend. So I held on to you tighter because in my head, if you hold on tightly to something, it can't leave, right?"

Edward opens his mouth to interrupt but she puts her hand up to stop him and continues, "You became an obsession of mine. Everyone around us read it as a crush, and made it clear that I wasn't good enough for you. I wasn't pretty enough,or normal enough to be with you."

She stops and motions for him to talk but he shakes his head and she continues, "I became like that childhood friend who tagged along 'cause you were sorry for her, and everyone thought so. All of your friends talked. Maybe not in front of you, but they did, and I was tired of being that "freak". In the face of everything that happened, instead of letting go and making my own friends, I held on tighter because since Charlie had died you and mum were the only constant in my life."

She raises the mug to her lips as she takes a sip. 'Who made you feel unwelcome?" he finally demands.

Bella replies, "This isn't important. This is about how I felt, not who made me feel that way. Then you started dating Lauren and things went from bad to worse. You confessed to me that you loved her and she had made it clear to me that I wasn't wanted and I knew," she pauses for a second, "I just knew that when she asks, you would do as she says and I wasn't going to stay around to see you do that."

She doesn't tell him what Lauren would have asked. It doesn't take a genius to understand.

This is new to him. All of what she just said is new to him. His friends used to tease him about her and call her his girlfriend but he never paid them much thought and wrote it off as good old-natured ribbing. Lauren was always skeptical about their friendship, but he never thought there was more to it than that. He just figured that she didn't understand their friendship because she never had one like that before. He never knew that she made Bella feel unwelcome. Had he known, he wouldn't have allowed it. Even then, despite his love for Lauren, Bella would have come first. He was just doing what his father told him; being a man and standing up for Lauren.

"You were like a safety blanket to me that I wasn't going to outgrow, but I wasn't your safety blanket. I was just another blanket you would donate to the children's shelter once I got frayed."

Hello lovely people of the internet,

I hope you enjoyed reading this. This is a new story that I have had on my mind for a while, and I can wait for you guys to read it. It's different from my two other storiesand I am so excited to see where this story will take us.

If you are new here, welcome. I hope you have fun reading my for me. I have three other stories for you guys to check out.

If you are a reader of my other stories, welcome back. I hope that you will love this one even more than the others.

The first chapter is already written and edited, and will be updated in a couple of days.

So until my next update,

Tell me your thoughts and Stay safe.