Edward’s POV:

All too soon, it was time for us to get dressed so Bella could check up on
Charlie.

After she pulled her head through my shirt and flipped her hair back, I noticed
the red splash of color I left on her neck. I felt a variety of emotions at once,
but settled for the most appropriate one at the moment.

“I’m sorry Bella-- your neck.” She reached her fingers up and realization struck
her, but I could not read her expression. “I swear I was not trying to be
possessive or anything; I just wasn’t thinking..”

She nodded. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“I can’t lie though..I kind of like it.” I admitted softly as I lightly ran my
fingers over the mark. She shivered. “A lot,” I grinned sheepishly.
She smiled shyly and bit her lip. “I like it too.”
I raised my eyebrow. Most human girls seemed to complain about hickeys in high
school. In their minds at least.
“Of course, next time you might want to choose a less conspicuous place,” she said
casually as she located her shoes.

Next time? Holy crap.

I ran her perfect body through my mind, thinking of endless areas where I wanted
to mark her as mine. Where only I could see her, touch her, taste her..

My phone interrupted my uncontained lust and I reluctantly looked at the text

message. I shook my head in part amusement, part awe, and part embarrassment.
“What is it?” Bella asked me.
“Alice reminding me to get concealer from her bathroom, for Charlie’s sake. As
well as a girl shirt for you.” My lips twitched.
She blushed until her cheeks were stained with a beautiful rose color.
“It’s kind of creepy that she sees this stuff. But handy I suppose,” she shrugged
stiffly.
___________________

Bella’s POV:

The next morning, I realized that my “couple of days” were up and I could tell
Edward my mortality plans. But suddenly, it seemed that someone else should be the
first to know.

“I think I’m going to see Jake today, if you don’t mind. I think you’ve seen him
more than me these last few weeks,” I said to my angel as I sat up in bed.

He nodded and kissed my temple. “You’re probably right. That’s fine, my brothers
have been bugging me to hang out with ‘the guys’ for a while.”

Jake picked me up in his Rabbit a few hours later since he had stuff to do in
Forks earlier. I fumbled with the radio as he drove off. I found a song for us to
sing along to that was ridiculous enough in a way that reminded me of Jacob.

/ I've got a flaming road of karma and a mobile phone

Was raised by the radio in a broken home
I've got a broken smile, an arrogant line
I'm really no-one special but I'm in my prime
I've got a hard body girlfriend
I've got a wallet full of cash
You can bury my body
I'm just North London Trash, trash

I’ve got a hard body girlfriend

She helps me spend my cash
Then we roll on my floorboards
Like nouveau North London Trash /

He laughed hysterically every time I sang “hard body girlfriend” off-pitch. By the
time we got to his house, we were still laughing and in good spirits. He brought
out some warm sodas to the garage for nostalgia sake and we hung out for a while
before I told him my big news.

“I know I already thanked you for that note you gave me, the one with the song.
But it helped me make an important decision. You’re the first person I’m telling
because you’ve been fighting for my humanity all along, even more than Edward
sometimes.”

He looked at me with interest, waiting for me to continue. I took a deep breath.

“I decided that I’ll stay at the University of Washington until I graduate if I

like it. While being human. And if I don’t like college, I still won’t be changed
until I’m at least 21. I’m sure there are human things that I’d hate to miss, even
if I can’t think of them all right now.”

His face lit up. “Oh Bella, that’s great!” he exclaimed, crushing me in a big hug.

“It’s kind of ironic, huh? You gave me the note to assure me and it made me do the
opposite,” I laughed.
“Yeah, I’m just that good,” he bragged.
“Sure, sure.” I jabbed him when he released me.

“I was wondering though, about the note? Does your pack..share that sentiment?” I
asked timidly.

“Well they’re not really happy about it, but I got them to back off and accept it.
So long as you’re not changed around here, for safety reasons. They all love you,
Bells, but it’s hard for them to think of you like..that,” he sighed.

I knew even without his sad eyes that he was including himself in that group.
I grabbed his hand.

“Aww Jake. Don’t be sad. I still have at least a few years.”

He nodded and I leaned up to kiss him on his cheek, but he was still too damn
tall. He chuckled and lifted me up easily by the waist so I could reach.

We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing my truck’s renovations and he gave
some suggestions for the interior, mainly involving electronics. He insisted on a
GPS and I was mildly offended. My sense of direction was not that bad. But I
agreed that it would be good in a new, big city like Seattle.

Edward seemed just as happy when I told him my news, though he wasn’t thrilled
when he found out that I told Jacob first. He seemed to get over it fast enough.

“So you mean it, not before you’re 21 under any circumstances?” he prodded.
I furrowed my brow. “Uh..well I guess unless it’s too dangerous for me to be
human..”
He frowned. “I’m not going to change you because you’re scared, Bella. You’ll just
regret it later and I can’t take that.”
“I won’t regret it. I’ve already decided. It’s just the timing that’s up in the
air.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want you to be changed impulsively.”

I knew that we had talked about this detail the night Rosalie bitched me out. But
no real progress had been made and it didn’t seem like anyone would win now,
either. So I decided to let it go for the moment.

Luckily our discussion was cut short when Alice and Jasper walked in the front
door. We went downstairs to join the rest of his family and I squealed. Alice ran
up to me to give me a hug. Jasper stayed back as usual with a friendly smile but I
wasn’t having that. I ran up to him in Alice-fashion and jumped on him.

If vampires could have heart attacks, the room had a collective one.

But Jasper was fine as I knew he would be. He just chuckled nervously, obviously
feeling everyone’s distress. I pulled away to see the family looking at me in awe
and Edward looking at me with suspicion. The only exception was Alice who was
beaming. I shrugged. So maybe that wasn’t the smoothest idea if I wanted to act
like everything was normal and they were back from a lovers’ getaway. But there
was no way I was sharing this secret.