Hi Everyone! It feels so good to be back!

So, here we go again. I have to first off tell you that as of right now this story has an open end.

This chapter is a song interwoven with the present. The song is in italics and is Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event.

I love this song! I was driving yesterday whilst listening to it and the idea for this story just popped into my head. I mentally wrote the first chapter while driving and replaying the song. When I got home I typed the first chapter under half an hour and when my kids went to sleep I hand wrote another 24 pages.

Even though the first chapter is EPOV, I think most of the rest will be Bella, although you never know, he might let us know how he's feeling now and again.

So, without delaying you too much, hope you enjoy the first chapter.

As always, the only thing that belongs to me is the way I play with SM's characters.

EPOV

Emmett and Jasper insisted we come here tonight. The local pub. I don't want to be here. Too many memories. Too many memories of her. Of us. Stolen kisses in dark corners so Emmett can't see. He might be my best friend, but he's her brother too. We respected the fact that he really didn't want to see me grope his little sister every chance I got.

And it starts
Sometime around midnight
Or at least that's when you lose yourself
For a minute or two

I'm halfway to being drunk. I see her everywhere but she's nowhere to be found. I haven't seen her since she left for university six months ago but I do know she's due back any day for vacation. Maybe that's why I'm on edge more than usual, knowing I might be seeing her any day now.

As you stand
Under the bar lights
And the band plays some song about forgetting yourself for a while
And the piano's this melancholy soundtrack to her smile
And that white dress she's wearing, you haven't seen her
For a while

I hear a laugh off to the entrance and my body goes cold and hot all at once. I spin around so fast I almost lose my balance.

She's here. I see her, I hear her…and if I take a few steps forward I will feel her.

But I don't. I just watch.

She's attached to some macho russet skinned black haired big smile guy. His arm is around her waist at exactly the same spot mine used to be, her clingy white dress almost see through, but not quite.

They walk up to the bar and he leans over placing their orders. I see his lips moving but I don't have to look at them to know what she's drinking.

Gin and tonic.

She's scanning the bar, probably looking for Emmett. My heart beats faster every second her eyes move closer to where I'm standing.

And then she sees me. I don't move. Hell, I can't even breathe.

For a split second I see it…confusion…hurt…unmasked pain…and then it's gone.

Her smile is back and she takes the drink Mr. Macho offers her as her hand finds purchase on his hip. She takes a sip and stands on her tiptoes as he bends down, his mouth taking hers hard and fast, her hand coming up and gripping his short dark hair between her fingers, her body arching towards him.

But you know
That she's watching
She's laughing, she's turning
She's holding her tonic like a cross
The room suddenly spinning, she walks up and asks how you are
So you can smell her perfume
You can see her lying naked in your arms

They break free but don't keep eye contact. Not like we used to. Kissing was like breathing to us, a necessity…a need.

He puts his drink down and whispers in her ear before taking his phone out of his pocket and heading out the door.

She doesn't hesitate. She walks over to me with purpose, that happy smile still there, although her eyes tell a different story.

"Edward," she greets as she leans over and kisses me lightly on my cheek.

I can smell her. I'd be surrounded by a million people with a blindfold and I'd still be able to find her.

Strawberries and…just Bella.

"You're early," I say, because I'm at a loss for words. I don't know what else to say. What do I say to the girl whose heart I broke and who I've been thinking about every fucking day since then?

"Yeah," she says, her eyes scanning the room again. "Jake managed to get off two days early."

Jake. Mr. Macho man has a name.

"Bella!"

We look behind her and see him back at the bar. She doesn't say goodbye, she just leaves me hanging, like she wasn't even talking to me, like I don't exist. She reaches him and his hands wrap around her waist, pulling her closer, his mouth finding hers again. She's into it, her body tells me so. I know her body like I know my own, maybe even better.

Does he know what it does to her when he kisses her just below her ear? When he breathes whispered words against her skin right there? Does he savor her kisses, does he memorize the taste of her tongue every time it strokes against his?

And so there's a change
In your emotions
And all of these memories come rushing like feral waves to your mind
Of the curl of your bodies, like two perfect circles entwined
And you feel hopeless, and homeless, and lost in the haze of the wine

She shoves him away slightly and picks up her drink, downing it while she watches him like prey, like she's thinking about all the ways she's going to fuck him when they get home.

He downs his drink too and she takes hold of his hand, pulling him towards the exit. He's all for it, I can see by the bulge in his jeans. I'd like nothing more than to wipe that smirk off his face.

As she opens the door, just before she walks through, she throws a look my way. It's not a "sorry" look. Anything but. It's a "fuck you" look. It's a look I've never seen on her angelic face. The look of a woman who has been hurt by a stupid ass. By a guy like me.

I know what this is.

This is payback.

And man, does it fucking hurt.

Then she leaves
With someone you don't know
But she makes sure you saw her, she looks right at you and bolts
As she walks out the door
Your blood boiling, your stomach in ropes
And then your friends say "What is it? You look like you've seen a ghost."

My head is swimming with unwanted images as the door closes behind them and I feel faint.

Is she going to take him in the car? Too hot for him to wait? Quick and hard? Or is she going to take him home, take her time, make him believe that he's the only one?

"Edward," Emmett says on my side but I can't look away from the door. Looking to see if she'll change her mind…to see if she'll come back in. But somewhere deep inside I know she won't.

"Fuck, you look like you've seen a ghost," Jasper laughs drunkenly but I can't pay him any attention.

Then you walk
Under the streetlights
And you're too drunk to notice that everyone is staring at you
You just don't care what you look like
The world is falling around you

I ignore their calls behind me as I make my way through the exit, the fresh night air knocking some sobriety into me. I look around in panic, in all consuming fear that she's already left, that I'm too late to stop her.

I rush past every parked car, peering through the windows, finding more than one couple in compromising positions.

When I'm out of breath and lost in the ache in my heart, I stumble back towards to my van, kicking a dent in the door before I can stop myself.

By now she's fucking someone's brains out.

Someone by the name of Jake.

Someone that isn't me.

The image of her wrapped around him is so painful it literally knocks me on my ass. I lean back against my truck, my head fitting perfectly in the new dent.

As perfectly as I used to fit in her.

You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her

You know that she'll break you in two

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