Leah arrived at the house shortly after Charlie went to bed that morning. They returned to the same stylist for touch-ups, and Bella let Leah lead the way during their shopping expedition.

To Bella's surprise, she found the items she liked most at second-hand or clearance-style stores. Leah revealed she altered most of her clothes by hand and, with a few visual aids, convinced Bella to buy things she would never have considered purchasing alone.

Despite Leah's arguing against it, Bella convinced her to compromise and bought her a few things. Leah's birthday was a month away, and she agreed the items could be early presents. Busy browsing, Leah didn't see Bella sneak a few extra things to the register. Leah would only get part of her gift today. She just didn't know it yet.

New undergarments and makeup were last. Leah physically cheered as Bella bought several new tubes of waterproof eyeliner and mascara. She talked Bella into a deep, blood-red lipstick, much darker than she'd ever worn. Leah's subtle and slightly flirtatious reactions left Bella blushing while searching through racks and piles of bras and underwear. She would be a damn liar if she tried to claim those reactions didn't influence her purchases a little.

Bella ended the splurge by choosing several new perfumes, unwilling to explain why she wanted to change her scent. Leah assumed it was because of Jacob. Bella didn't have the heart to tell her it was because of Sam. His ability to recognize her scent unnerved her, and she intended to change that.

As they left the final boutique (where Bella spent more money on underwear and perfume than she'd spent on either in her life), she nearly walked face-first into Angela Webber. Bella carefully set her bags down to hug her school chum, who looked thrilled to see her.

Beaming, Angela said, "I was planning to call you later today!"

Without thinking, Bella blurted, "Yeah? For what?" She blushed as Leah chuckled and quickly reintroduced them.

"My parents are going on vacation," Angela said, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "And since I've never thrown a house party, I'm going to take advantage and throw one while they're gone."

"I see," Bella said, grinning. A party would be a fun distraction, at least. "When?"

"Next weekend is the plan," Angela said, readjusting her glasses. She grinned at Leah and said, "You should come, too. Bring a few friends?"

"I get my new work schedule tomorrow, so I'll let Bella know if I can."

"Great! It might be everyone's last chance to get together," Angela said. "Tyler's mom threw a huge fit over his last one. I guess a lot of stuff got broken. I hope that doesn't happen at my house. My mom will flip."

Leah asked, "Do your parents know you're having this party?"

Angela laughed as her cheeks flushed bright pink. "Definitely not. My dad's a preacher. I had to sneak out my bedroom window for Tyler's last one."

That information surprised Bella. She'd never known Angela was rebellious since their fledgling friendship had faded after Bella began dating Edward.

Leah chuckled over the disgusted look on Bella's face and asked, "What are you thinking about, Swan?"

"My ex," Bella grumbled. "Just thinking about how happy I am to not have any Cullens around." Turning back to Angela, she complained, "Could you imagine me trying to enjoy someone's party with Edward's ass hovering over every sip I took with his condescending bullshit?"

Leah laughed and said, "Spoken like a woman who finally moved on from a royal shithead."

Angela hopped in place as she laughed. "Amen to that."

Refusing to examine how over Edward she truly felt, Bella could only shake her head. She'd never seen Angela so giddy. "So, are you really excited about this party, or is there something else going on?"

Angela shrugged. "Well… I sort of started dating Mike."

Again, Bella gaped at her in surprise before turning to Leah. "You called that one."

"Of course I did," Leah teased.

Bella honestly couldn't picture them working together as a couple, but simultaneously, the pair made sense. They'd been friends forever. If anyone knew Mike Newton well enough to deal with his fickleness and ego, it was Angela Webber.

Bella asked, "Is this a long-haul thing or just an 'until we leave for college' thing?"

Angela shook her head. "I don't know, and you know? I don't really care. I'm just… enjoying now."

"Good for you," Leah said. "Maybe you and I can teach Swan here how to do the same thing instead of always worrying about everyone else."

Bella side-eyed her friend and grumbled, "Bitch." Leah laughed.

Angela hesitated before saying, "Yeah. Uh, I heard you and Jake aren't friends anymore, Bella. Are you okay?"

Retrieving her bags, Bella scoffed. "Bad news travels fast, I guess." She wondered who Angela had heard it from but quickly decided she didn't want to know. It didn't matter, anyway. "I'm… dealing." Nudging Leah with her elbow, she said, "Lee helps. She gets me."

Angela grinned. "I can see that. She must if you're actually shopping and enjoying it."

Staring at Leah, Bella said, "I still hate shopping, but I have good company."

"Oh, shut up," Leah said, despite the affection for Bella clearly written on her face. "She's a good bestie. Jake's an idiot."

Angela pushed her way under Bella's bag-laden arms to hug her again before heading into the boutique. She turned back to Bella from the open doorway, promising to call Bella once she'd solidified her party plans.

After safely locking the last few bags in the trunk of Leah's car, the girls had a late lunch at a nearly empty Mexican restaurant. It left Bella feeling nostalgic, missing her mother and her childhood home in Arizona as she told Leah all about Jorge and his odd friendship with her eccentric mother.

For the first time since moving to Forks, she began to truly consider paying a visit to Florida. It had been over a year since she'd seen Renee in person, and what else did she have to do? She'd heard nothing from local job applications and needed to make serious decisions about her future. She said as much to Leah, who didn't look happy about Bella leaving.

Leah asked, "So, what would you do? How long would you be gone?"

"I don't know," Bella said. "That would be up to Renee, I guess. I wouldn't want to put her and Phil out by overstaying, but if I'm going through the trouble of a vacation, I'd like to take my time with it. It might do me some good."

Leah huffed. "Where is this coming from? Is it because Jake told you to go? Because, fuck him, you know?"

Bella frowned as she realized it was a factor in her sudden change of heart. She had stayed for him, and now he'd told her to go. Bella was at peace with Quil. With Embry, too, she supposed. And even though losing Jacob hurt, he'd tried to make peace with her. Aside from Leah and Charlie, there wasn't much to keep her here.

"I guess I'd like to check things out. Just to see if it would even interest me to move there someday. Plus, I haven't seen my mom in forever. She skipped my graduation because my stepdad broke his leg."

Leah asked, "What are you doing about college, Bella? You're going to go, right?"

Bella asked, "Are you?" Leah was older than her and worked full-time. She never discussed the possibility of going to college, let alone any plans, often bypassing more serious conversations whenever possible.

Leah said, "I'd like to, but I need to save money for a better car first. The Cavalier won't make the daily drive. It barely handles the miles I put on it now. That's why I keep working at this shithole job."

"You never talk about that stuff," Bella said. "What do you want to do? What kind of degree?"

Leah smirked as she side-eyed her friend. "Don't judge me?"

"Of course not," Bella said as she shifted to see her friend better.

"I want to go to cosmetology school. You know, like hair and makeup shit? I'd like to have a salon in La Push. We need one."

Bella grinned as she visualized Leah ruling over a salon somewhere. "That's kind of perfect. I can totally picture it."

Leah snorted. "What do you want to do, Bella?"

Bella frowned again as she thought about it. Before Edward left, he'd wanted her to go to Dartmouth, and Bella had more-or-less resigned herself to it. Later, she and Jacob discussed possibly attending a local college together, but neither finalized their plans. It hadn't helped that she'd gotten fired from Newton's. She was unsure if the lack of response to her many applications was because most of the town knew she hadn't been mentally well for nearly a year. When your father is the Chief Of Police, everyone knows who you are.

Had Alice seen that coming? Was that why they kept sending her money?

"I don't know anymore," Bella admitted. "I made so many plans, mentally. But, eventually, I just stopped caring. I was so depressed for such a long time that every day just seemed to blur into the next for a while. I think I was waiting to see what Jake planned to do. We'd talked about going to school somewhere together but made no concrete plans. I was much more worried about not being shipped to Renee's so that I would have this summer with the guys. Now, I'm not sure what to do."

Leah asked, "Well…What did you want to be?"

"A novelist. Or an editor. Something along those lines. Now, though… maybe culinary or business? Have a coffee shop and cafe, maybe. People have to eat, and lord knows Forks has few options. "

"After seeing all the books we hauled yesterday, I'm not surprised you wanted to write," Leah teased. "But the culinary option doesn't surprise me, either. Your dad would get a kick out of the free coffee. He'd probably be up your ass on every lunch break."

"Yeah, or a coronary."

Noted, she thought. No donuts. It reminded her of Charlie flicking cereal off the back of his newspaper that morning and the still jumbled bag of stuff on the kitchen floor. Bella snorted as she thought about the mess Jacob had delivered to her house the night before.

Without preamble, she complained, "That fucker dog-eared a bunch of my books. Jake knows I hate that. I could almost swear it was on purpose. Half the ones he sent last night are so bent up, I might as well toss them."

Confused, Leah asked, "Wait. What? Last night? You saw Jacob again last night, and you're just now telling me?"

Bella shook her head and told Leah about the bag left on her porch by some mysterious naked man. She explained how she'd mentally deduced that it must have been Paul and how Bella could have sworn she'd heard him laugh.

Leah cackled in disbelief. "That had to be Paul. He's the only one crazy enough to do something that stupid."

"That's what I thought, too," Bella said.

Staring into her nearly empty plate, Leah asked, "What would you have done if he'd knocked, Bella? Paul Lahote standing there naked at your back door in all that too-cute-for-his-own-good glory?"

Bella's cheeks flushed as she thought about it, unsure what she would have done. Wait a second. "You think Paul's cute?"

Leah laughed. "Everyone thinks Paul's cute. That's his problem, Bells. I never said he wasn't attractive. The problem is, he knows it."

Bella laughed as she nodded. "I've thought that same thing."

To Bella's surprise, Leah said, "I guess he wouldn't be that terrible if he got his head out of Sam's ass. Then again…as much as I hate to admit it, he's nicer than he used to be. Is he a good kisser?"

Immediately embarrassed again, Bella sputtered, "Uh, y-yeah."

Leah's eyes sparkled with mischief as she asked, "Would you do it again?"

"Um…" Bella snorted as she tried not to laugh. "Maybe? I haven't really considered it. What's weird is that everyone telling me not to…kind of makes me want to, though." As Leah giggled, Bella asked, "Is that bad? Is he really that terrible? I know he was awful as a kid, but…"

"He's a douche, but you could do far worse," Leah teased. "You could do much better, too. I wouldn't say he's boyfriend material or anything. But, he is good-looking, Bells. I'll give him that much credit."

Bella could only blush as she shook her head, unsure if the comment was as much of a compliment as an insult. "I did something that was probably really stupid the other day," she admitted, recalling her words to Paul on the beach.

Leah said, "Oh. You mean when you offered to fuck him just to piss Jacob off?"

Bella gaped at her as Leah cackled. "Quil told me," she said. "When he called me afterward. He said everyone started screaming at Paul after that. Paul just laughed and told them all to kiss his ass. He knew you didn't mean it. He said Embry got pretty protective over you. That really pissed Jacob off, for whatever reason."

"Oh," was all Bella could say. She had intentionally ignored them as she walked away that day, leaving them all yelling at each other. She supposed that was her fault for not sticking around for their responses. "Why didn't you say any of that the night before last?"

"Wasn't the right time."

"Jacob thought I was fooling around with Embry behind his back, I think," Bella said. "Sam planted the idea in Jacob's head and…Well, you see where we are now."

Leah's cheeks pinked as she scowled. She crossed her arms under her chest and slumped back in her seat. She asked, "Why are you just telling me this? How did I not hear anything about this before now?"

"Promises I made," Bella said. "Embry was supposed to fix it while I was trying to help bring him and Quil back together. I guess that kind of backfired on me, huh?"

Leah relaxed somewhat as she asked, "You still feel a lot of loyalty to those guys, huh? Even now, after all that bullshit."

Bella asked, "You don't?"

"Yeah," Leah said with a sigh. "A little, I guess. I mean, Jacob and Quil are family. I'm still mad at Jacob, though. Madder now for his being so fucking stupid. You and Embry? Really?"

Bella couldn't help but laugh as she nodded. "I know. Absurd."

"Damn Sam and his meddling ass." Leah sat up, grinning as she teased, "I bet finding out you kissed Paul really rubbed Jacob the wrong way if he already thought you had something with Embry."

Bella wasn't sure what to say to that. It really wasn't funny when she and others she loved had all gotten hurt because Sam meddled in her social life.

"Well, at least you won't have to feel guilty next time if it happens again. Maybe Paul will be at Angela's party, and you can find out." Leah nudged Bella's shin with the toe of her shoe and laughed before releasing another long, dramatic sigh. "I think I'm full, Bells."

"Me, too," Bella said, blushing again while looking over her plate. She had eaten far more than she realized and was beginning to feel it.

Bella stood and headed toward the register to pay for their meal, knowing she'd probably overthink everything Leah said about Paul the entire way home.

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