CH. 1 His Smile Gleamed

October, November, December, January

TIME PASSES, EVEN FOR ME.

It had been 7 months , 13 days, and 4 hours since he turned around and walked out of my life. I watched him and for the first time in my life, knew true pain. I could literally feel my heart fold in on top of its self. I felt like my soul had withered and disappeared. For the next 4 months it was if I were a zombie, just a shell of my real self. Then, I got to know Jacob Black and he made me smile again, even laugh. He became my best friend in the world and I spent most of my time with him. I realized, after a while, that I thought about Edward less and less even though my heart still ached every time Angela asked if I'd heard from the Cullens or Mike mentioned the "stupid frickin' Cullen kid." I felt my heart healing as well as it could and one day faded into the next , faded into the next. Life went on and I was actually surviving it. It was clear that Jacob thought of me as more than a friend, but I told him several times that I could never think of him as anything other than my best friend. Finally, he accepted it and one weekend, his cousin Rachel came to visit. We waited at First Beach for Rachel and Jacob informed me that she was bringing her friend Georgina to the beach with her.

After first meeting Rachel and Georgina, I expected to hang out with Gina (as Georgina liked to be called) and Jake and his cousin would do some catching up. Lets just say that Jake and Rachel didn't get in any "family boding time." Gina and Jake spent three whole hours splashing in the waves and hiking in the forest around the beach. Rachel and I just laughed and teased them from a distance, not wanting to disturb the "love birds." That night, Gina asked Jake to see a movie, but he said no because he felt guilty about not spending anytime with his cousin.

"Go ahead and take the girl to the movies, Jake. Rachel's gonna stay over at my house tonight.." I said, trying to hold back my giggles. Jake flushed three colors of red, but finally agreed and they headed off in Jake's Rabbit. Rachel came home with me in the truck and we spent the night watching movies and talking girl talk. It was strangely comforting, doing all of these things I hadn't done in months. I felt genuinely happy. The next day, we drove into Port Angeles. We window shopped and got some lunch at the McDonalds. Right as it was starting to get dark, we stopped at a small shoe store because Rachel wanted a new pair of sandals. She tried on several pairs and right as I thought I was going to go into a comatose state from boredom, I heard the bell on the front door jingle. I glanced up and saw a beautiful girl with long strawberry blonde hair, walk in. She had her long thin fingers wrapped tightly around somebody else's wrist and her high soprano voice whined.

"Come on! We'll only be her a minute. I just need a new pair of shoes for school, tomorrow. Pleeeeeease!!! Come. On. Now." She gave a final tug and the person she had been whining to was jerked into the store. Oh my. He was gorgeous. He wasn't as enchanting as Ed- No! Stop comparing him to…that person. He was tall, maybe 6 feet and he had dark, sandy hair and hazel eyes. His rich, deep voice rang in my ears.

"Ten minutes, Hannah. Just ten. Then we have to get going. it's a half hour drive back to the house and we have to get some kinda sleep for our first day of school, tomorrow."

"Yes, Dad." The blonde girl that he had called Hannah said, giggling and standing tall, saluting the gorgeous guy.

"Hannah…" he said, getting angry.

"Okay, okay, Garrett. Ten minutes." She turned on her heel and headed off to the sandals. Garrett looked around, scanning the store for a place to sit. His beautiful eyes narrowed in on my bench and he walked over.

"Hey." I looked up into his perfect face and felt my cheeks burn. "Do you think I could share this bench? My sister's gonna take forever and I'd rather not stand the whole time."

"Your sister?" I mumbled. "She's not your girlfriend?" I couldn't believe I was actually asking this strange (yet devilishly handsome) guy about his love life.

"No. Hannah's my little sister. And she takes forever when shops for shoes."

"Kind of like my friend Rachel." I said, pointing at Rachel who was sitting in the floor, a circle of empty shoeboxes and mix-matched high heels surrounding her. Garrett chuckled and nodded knowingly. Rachel finally stood up and picked up two boxes.

"Okay, Bella. I think I've found the perfect ones. Come on, let's go." I stood up and Garrett handed me my jacket and purse.

"See you around, Bella." He smiled warmly and his perfect white teeth gleamed.

"O-Okay." I stuttered, blushing yet again. I smiled back and headed off to find Rachel. She paid and we headed home. I dropped Rachel off at Jake's and found him and Gina making out on the couch. I laughed hysterically all the way home, thinking about Jake's wide-eyed face, closely resembling a tomato.

That night, as I laid in bed, my first thoughts were of the handsome, funny blonde boy I had met this afternoon. My eyes jerked open in surprise. I haven't thought about him in hours…oh my goodness. I hadn't thought about anybody other than Garrett since I first laid eyes on him in the shoe store. What has happened to me? I pushed my face into the pillow and squealed. Charlie's loud snore brought me back to the present. Oops. After a few minutes of silence I wrapped myself tightly in my covers and grinned. I giggled myself to sleep.