"Leah was beautiful in an exotic way–perfect copper skin, glistening black hair, eyelashes like feather dusters–and preoccupied. She was on Billy's phone when we got in and she never let it go." (New Moon)

Click.

"Bella, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" Leah raged at me, her ebony eyes full of passion and fury.

I wouldn't stand down, no matter how intimidatingly beautiful she was. "You're being rude." I said. Something was drawing me to this girl and there was no way I would make any headway with her if she was fighting with some dumb boy on the phone all night.

"I'm being rude?! You just hung up the phone! I was talking to someone!" She was yelling at me. At least I could invoke emotion. This was a good start.

"You're a guest here, a guest of Billy Black." I said calmly, trying to show some respect to Billy's home. "He prepared a nice spaghetti supper for you and you're ignoring everyone to bicker on the phone. You're not even having fun."

"Stop holding the cradle button." She demanded through clenched teeth. "I need to call him back."

"Why isn't he calling you back?" I asked, knowing exactly why. The phone in her hand would be ringing right now if he actually wanted to talk to her. The guy she was talking to was a grade A douchebag. He didn't give a shit about Leah and we both knew it.

"That's not how we do things." She said, looking away. Then she pleaded with me. "Just let go of the receiver."

"No."

"No?" She had fire in her eyes and I liked it, even if it was directed at me.

"No. Give it a break, Leah. You two weren't making any progress anyway. You were just talking in circles. Let's go for a walk. You could use an objective opinion."

"What the fuck do you care?" She asked furiously.

"I don't!" I lied. "That's why it's called an objective opinion!"

She smiled briefly at that. It was so alluring; her smile made me want to kiss her lips. It seemed like she saw me for the first time just then when she looked down into my face. Her eyes caught mine and I could see a glimmer of excitement in them. I thought I saw a bit of blush creep up on her cheek but it was hard to tell with her complexion. "Fine. We weren't making progress anyway." She put the phone back on the receiver.

We both put our coats on and slipped outside. Jake jogged out of the house after us. He caught up with us as we approached the tree line. "Where are you going?" he asked, way too eager.

"Just for a walk. Girls only," I said, giving him a look that told him there was no room for debate. "We won't be long… probably." I smiled up at Leah. She was looking down at me curiously. I slid my arm around her elbow. "So I don't lose you in the dark and spooky forest," I said to her, but I really just wanted to have that contact with her, to touch her a little, even if it was through our coats. She didn't resist or pull away.

After walking for a few minutes I said, "That guy sounded like an ass hole."

She sighed. "He didn't used to be, but yeah, he kind of is an ass hole now."

"Want to tell me what happened?"

"Can we sit?" She sounded a little exasperated. I knew she wasn't frustrated with me, just the whole situation.

"Of course." I watched her lean against a tree, her long legs in front of her, spread out and bent at the knee. I boldly sat between her feet, crossing my legs so that they rested comfortably under her knees. It was an oddly intimate position, but it was where I wanted to be with her. I would move if she asked me to.

"Why are you sitting like this?" She asked me. She didn't sound annoyed that I was in her personal space, but she clearly wasn't expecting it. She was interested; I could feel it. "There are other trees you can lean against. You might be more comfortable leaning against a tree."

"I'm comfortable right here. It's nice to be close when talking." I rested my head on one of her knees. "Now, what happened?"

She took a deep breath and said, "he disappeared for a few weeks two months ago. He won't tell me where he went or what he was doing and he's been a total ass hole ever since. Like, sometimes he's trying to be sweet for a little bit, but then the ass hole rears its head and takes over and it's awful." She sounded exhausted.

"Do you think he cheated during that time?" I asked.

"No, I don't think so. The missing time isn't really the problem. The problem is he's angry all the time and kind of nasty about it. He's not putting much effort into getting his anger under control. It feels like he's given up."

"Why do you even want to be with him?" Everything she said about him made him sound even worse. I already thought he was an ass hole from the phone call.

"We've been together for years and I loved him and I was planning on being with him forever. I didn't want to throw all that away."

"But he doesn't call you back?" I asked.

"No."

"Huh." I said, but added nothing more.

"What?"

"Well… nevermind."

"What? Just tell me. Give me your objective opinion." She was curious.

"Sometimes," I paused and bit my lip. "Sometimes it's easier to love who someone used to be. It's hard to admit that they're different now. It's hard to admit that we don't love them anymore... and it's hard to admit that it's over for them too."

"Are we still talking about me and my boyfriend? Or are you speaking from experience?"

"We're talking about you and your boyfriend. But it's also like me and my ex. For a long time, I thought I was still in love with him. I realized that I was still in love with how he made me feel at the beginning, not who he is now."

"He changed too?" Leah asked. It sounded like she genuinely cared.

"He changed how he felt about me. In turn, he changed how he treated me. He was also controlling and it took me a long time to realize that."

"Why didn't he just break up with you when he changed how he felt about you?"

I gulped. "He did, in the end. Why do you think your guy isn't breaking up with you?"

"I think for the same reason I haven't broken up with him yet. He's clinging to the memory too. How did you get over him? Your ex, I mean." This was my opening.

I reached up and brushed her cheek with my palm. The touch felt electric and warm and my tummy felt all fuzzy. I wondered if it affected her the same way. She was looking into my eyes like she was affected. Then I ran my hands down her silky hair. "You get over him by moving on." I scooted my butt a little closer to see if she would try to move away. She didn't. She didn't have anywhere to go, leaning against a tree, but if she was uncomfortable, she would at least squirm a little. She didn't even squirm.

"How do you know when you're ready to move on?" She asked, clearly hesitant but I sensed a little excitement from her as well.

"At some point, you'll be face to face with someone that you want more than him." She was face to face with me! She just had to see it!

She chuckled. "I'm not sure I want him at all." She put her hand on my knee and gently caressed my thigh. It was hard to concentrate with her hand touching me like that.

"Is there anyone else you might want more?" I asked hopefully, scooting myself closer again so that my knees were touching her thighs.

"Are you trying to sit on my lap?" She asked with a grin, changing the subject slightly.

"Is that an invitation?" I smiled back at her.

She giggled a little. "Yes." She lifted my butt and I scrunched up my legs to my chest. She flattened her legs on the ground and placed me down. I was now sitting on her glorious thighs. I stretched my feet out so that they were on either side of her butt.

I could still see her face in the dusk, but it was getting darker by the minute. Even though she was much taller than me, most of her height was in her gorgeous long legs. When I sat on her thighs, our faces were near the same height. She was looking at my lips. I bit my bottom lip, suddenly a little nervous. I had one hand on her shoulder and the other on my thigh. She had both hands on my butt from lifting me. It felt nice. I felt so safe like this but I needed to know how she felt, too.

"So is there anyone you might want more than that boy on the phone?" I asked again.

"Yeah, but how can I know if they want me too?" she asked, her face only inches from mine now.

"You could ask."

"That's scary," she said, letting her bottom lip drag against mine for just a fraction of a second.

"Or you could make a move, see if they reciprocate."

"That's scary too. What if this person makes me nervous?" Her forehead was on mine now and it was making me giddy with excitement.

"How did it go with your guy? Did you wait for him to make all the moves?"

She nodded and my head moved with hers since we were connected by our foreheads. "Yeah."

"Well, you could wait for the other person to make the moves now too."

"I don't want to." Then she brought her lips to mine.

Our lips brushed against each other so softly. I felt a warm tingling sensation run through me as I moved my lips against hers. I put my hand on her cheek, lacing my fingers in her hair. I didn't want her to pull away. She opened her mouth and our tongues were joined, dancing beautifully together.

After several minutes of kissing like that, she did pull away. "Jake's coming," she whispered.

"I don't care." I said and went right back to her lips.

"I can't, Bella, I'm sorry. I can't." She jostled me off of her and stood up. She reached down to help me stand up beside her.

Then I saw Jake coming. He had a flashlight but he couldn't see us yet.

"We could hide." I suggested.

"No, but Bella," she looked down at me with a longing, "we're going to continue this later." I felt that in my cunt.

"When is later?" I asked cheekily.

She giggled. "I've got to dump Sam first."

"Good plan."

Jake finally saw us and was shining the flash light in our eyes. "Bella, your dad is ready to go."

"Ok." I blocked the light with my hand and I looked up at Leah. "We'll talk again soon?"

"Soon," she promised.

We followed Jake out of the woods. My dad was standing by his cruiser. I had brought my truck.

I wanted to stay. "Dad, why do we have to go so soon? I was having fun talking to Leah."

Charlie looked at me like I was being ridiculous. "Bells, it's raining and it's late and you're soaking wet."

I looked down at my body. I was pretty wet. Leah was too. We grinned at each other. We had been comfortable in the woods, oblivious to the cold and the wet.

"I'll call you, Bella." Leah promised. "We'll finish our chat."

Two days later, there was a message on my answering machine. It was from Leah!

I called her back immediately. Her dad said she was at work. I asked him to tell her that I called.

She called me back a few hours later.

"Bella, I've been thinking about you." Leah said, her voice all husky and sexy.

"I've been thinking about you too. When can we get together again?"

"I have Thursday off of work. Can I come visit you?"

"Please do. Have you talked to Sam?"

"Yeah, it's over, Bella. There's someone else I want more."

"Good." I whispered as a chill ran down my spine.

"Good night, sweet Bella." She whispered.

I gulped. "Goodnight."

The next day Jake came over to do homework with me. I was just waiting for my bedtime so that I could wake up tomorrow and it would be the day I saw Leah again.

The next morning I was so excited. Was this a date? It felt like a date. I dressed in jeans and a long sleeved tee for school. For after school, I picked out a very short, black skirt that Alice had bought me along with a form fitting, royal blue sweater.

When Leah arrived, she was in black dress pants and an olive green sweater that hugged all her curves just right.

"Leah," I breathed as I opened the door and took in her form.

"Bella," She said as she looked down at me hungrily.

I grabbed her hand and led her to the couch. As soon as she sat, I straddled her lap again. "Where were we?" I asked as I brought my lips to hers. She replaced both her hands on my butt. I wrapped one arm around her neck and held her face with the other hand.

Slowly, she started inching her hands up my shirt as we made out. The suspense was killing me. I wanted her hands all over my body but she was taking her time, moving them up my stomach so slowly. Finally her thumb stroked the underside of my boob.

While maintaining my lip lock with hers, I reached behind my back and unclasped my bra quickly.

She gasped as my boob fell into her hand. She pulled away from my mouth briefly. "Was I being obvious? Am I being too forward?" She asked, sincerely thinking I might have a problem with what she was doing.

"Yes, you were obvious, no, not too forward. Can I unclasp your bra, too?"

She nodded, then leaned forward a little as I reached up her shirt. My hands met behind her back at the bra clasp. It was the kind where you lift one side and lower the other.

"What're we doing, Bella?" She asked me as I reached under her bra. The softness of her breast was unreal. It had some sort of magnetic attraction that pulled my hand into it.

"Having fun," I said, looking into her eyes.

"I can't stop thinking about you."

"Good," I said, bringing my lips back to hers.

I had one hand on her boob and she had one hand on mine and it was the greatest thing I had ever felt in my life. When she fondled my nipple it sent shockwaves right to my cunt. I wanted this woman more than I had ever wanted anything in my life. And she wanted me too!

She pulled away and said, "I need to know how you feel, too. Like is this just fun for you? Or something more?"

"It's fun but not just fun." I sighed. "When you were on the phone at Billy's, it pissed me off. There you were, so fucking gorgeous and being disrespected and it made me really mad. I wanted to show you," I kissed her slowly. "I wanted to show you what it is to be desired."

"Oh… so, this is just a sex thing for you?" She looked really sad!

"No! I mean, yes, but not just that. I want you. I want to get to know you. But I also needed you to know it was more than just as friends. Have I been too forward?"

"No, I think this is just what I needed," she said, bouncing her eyes back and forth between mine. "Tell me something about yourself. Do you work?"

"Yeah, at the sporting goods store."

"Huh. I didn't take you as the athletic type."

"I'm not. I'm very much not." I clenched my hand into a fist involuntarily.

"So how'd you get that job?"

"Uh, I'm friends with the owner's son." I said, looking at the ceiling. I did not want to talk to her about Mike Newton. There was no bigger mood killer than Mike Newton.

"He's got a crush on you?" She said, pushing some hair off my cheek and trucking it behind my ear.

"He does." I said, looking at her again. "It's pretty annoying, but I need the money. How'd you get the waitressing job?"

"I applied." She said, smiling. "They gave me a trial run and I did a good enough job."

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah, I like the customers and I like moving around, feeling like I'm doing something. Do you like working at the sporting goods store?"

I shook my head. "It's pretty boring and Mike, the owner's son, he's there a lot and there aren't a lot of customers and when there are customers, I don't really know what I'm talking about."

Leah laughed. "I can picture that. What did you do before you moved here? Or is this your first job?"

"I was a bagger at a grocery store in Arizona. I really liked that job, always busy, always moving. I was hoping to get that kind of work here but the turnover at the grocery store is surprisingly low. Also, the grocery stores here are pretty dead compared to the one I worked at in Arizona. So I'm grateful for the job I have."

"Sounds like it," she teased. She brought her lips back to mine. She parted my lips with her own and was stroking my tongue with hers.

After a few minutes of kissing, she pulled away again. "Why'd you move here from Arizona? Not that I'm complaining." She smiled, "I'm glad you're here."

"Uh… my mom remarried and I wanted to give them space."

"Space?"

"Space. My step dad plays baseball and travels and my mom wanted to travel with him but I was holding her back. So I moved in with Charlie."

"Oh, um, did you get along with your mom? And step dad?"

"Yeah, my mom and I were really close and my step dad is a great guy."

"Huh," she said, playing with her bottom lips with her fingers.

"What? You have a thought. Spit it out."

"Well," she hesitated, "on the one hand, what you did was really nice. Bella, that was a selfless choice and I think it's really cool of you to do that. On the other hand, if I were your mom, I wouldn't have let you go, to move away. You're almost out of high school and then she won't see you much anymore. This time is kind of precious and she's trading it to travel with her baseball player husband…"

I was looking at her and I felt like she could see all of me. It was fucking terrifying. "Yeah," was all I could think to say.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, kissing my cheek.

I shook my head again. "Don't be. I wouldn't be here with you if it weren't for all that."

"Mmmm," she said, then she brought her lips back to mine. We kissed like that for a good while, my hand on her boob and hers on mine. We were enjoying each other, having fun.

I was in heaven, until she whispered into our kiss, "Charlie's home."

Then I heard it: the crunch of the patrol car up the gravel driveway.

"Shit. I don't want to stop." I said, trying not to whine.

"Me neither, sweet Bella. How's he going to react to this scene, though?"

"I don't know."

"Do you want to find out? Or do you want to get off my lap?" She was leaving it up to me this time. She was fine with being found out, but not if I wasn't ready.

I sighed and climbed off her lap sadly. "When's your next day off?" I asked her.

"Monday. Can I see you on Monday?"

"It's the only thing I'm looking forward to." I said honestly. She gave me one last quick kiss before we heard the door opening.

"Hi Bells," Dad greeted me cheerily. "Do you have a friend over?"

Leah turned around on the couch so he could see her face.

"Oh, hi Leah! I wondered when we'd see you again. Are you staying for supper?"

"It's up to you," I whispered.

"I should get back home. I have a lot of homework to do."

"You can always do it here." I suggested.

"There's no way I'll be able to concentrate if I do it here." She said, gazing at my face. "I'll be too distracted."

"Well, you're welcome any time, Leah, any time." Charlie insisted.

"Thank you, Charlie. I should get going, though." Leah stood and started walking around the couch.

"I'll walk you out." I volunteered, standing up from my spot on the couch.

She smiled at me. "I hoped you would." I walked her out the door and to her car. I didn't want her to leave and I didn't know how to end this. "Bella, what are your plans for next year?"

"I'm not sure. I'm not really thinking of it yet."

"Will you apply to the University of Washington with me? We can go together, quit sneaking around."

I panicked. Is that what I want? I hadn't been thinking about my future much at all. "We could just quit sneaking around here." I suggested, running my fingers up her forearm..

"Can we?" She asked. I knew she had a point. Homophobia was rampant on the rez. I knew that from the way Jake and his friends talked sometimes. It didn't seem much better in Forks.

I was desperate for her. "I'll apply with you."

She leaned down and kissed me, quick but full of feeling. "Good. I'll bring the applications Monday and we can get started."

"I was hoping to lick your tits on Monday." Shit. I probably shouldn't have said that out loud.

She laughed and jiggled her boobs a little. They were free from her bra and mesmerizing to watch. "I was thinking we could work on the applications after supper."

I nodded. "Then we can have the afternoon to…"

She leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Lick whatever we want."

My eyes went wide. "Oh fuck."

"Wear that skirt again, Bella. I like it." I watched her eyes look me up and down, head to toe. It made me feel so desired and hot for her but she was leaving. She was leaving right now!

"Is there no way we can reschedule that date for right now instead?"

She smiled at me. "Monday," she said firmly.

She kissed my forehead, got in her car and backed out of the driveway.