Disclaimer: Because it's completely obvious that I am Stephanie Meyer... yeah, I wish, too. Unfortunately, not happening.

A/N: Thank you very, very, VERY much to gorgus818 and your story "And Then I Saw Your Face" and letting me spring off of it!

So the gist of this story is that there is nothing between Edward and Bella (I know, blasphemy, deal with it :D ) but some things are still the same. She never ended up in Phoenix with James and got hurt, but her blood is still every vampire's heroin, and the Cullens can't go onto the reservation.

Prologue: The World As She Knows It

Bella's world revolved around three people. Edward and Alice were her best friends in Forks, Washington, where she'd moved to 2 months ago. They'd been godsends, even with all of their… odd habits. They were always there to help her out and had seen her through the roughest of times. They didn't even seem to mind that she was terminally clumsy.

There was just one thing about Edward and Alice Cullen that set them apart – well, apart from the obvious facts that they were unimaginably beautiful, they were paler than the snow that occasionally fell, and they had some sort of alien grace that made them seem to never stand still, always flowing from almost-stillness to motion without actual difference between the two. It was strange. But the real difference between her and the Cullens was simple; they were vampires, she was human. They had white skin that sparkled in the sun, eyes of liquid amber shot with rays of harvest sunlight, teeth that gleamed perfectly white and perfectly straight in their perfect faces. It made her sigh at times to be plain next to them. After all, how could a brown haired, brown eyed girl compare with their astonishing flawlessness? But that usually didn't come up in her mind. They were her friends, plain and simple.

The third person her world revolved around was Jacob Black. While he didn't live in Forks or go to her high school and she was two years older, she'd made mud pies with him when they were little, before she'd moved to Phoenix. It was when she'd returned and their dads had pushed them together that they'd become really close friends. Now, she couldn't imagine her life without him. Not in a romantic way, of course.

There was something strange about her friends. Whenever Edward and Alice learned she was going to the reservation, they acted... strange. Annoyed, almost, or angry. It was so odd, because it always came up when she mentioned Jacob or that she was going to see him. Well, she'd never said her friends weren't strange.

It was a Friday night, which meant movie night. This time her friends had opted for a movie at the theater, instead of at someone's house. Mike had invited her to go, but she'd turned it into a group thing to keep him from thinking it was a date. She shuddered the slightest bit at the thought. Mike-another one of her friends- had been not-so-subtly hinting that he liked her ever since she'd moved to Forks. It would be charming if it weren't so annoying.

When she'd suggested a group thing, he'd looked disappointed, but recovered quickly. They'd invited Ben, Angela, Edward and Alice-their siblings seemed a little... standoffish to most people, so it was just two of the Cullens- Jessica, Tyler, Eric and Jacob. Unfortunately plans didn't work out so well; Ben, Angela, Jessica, Tyler and Eric came down with the flu that'd been passing around school, and the Cullens heard Jacob's name and instantly said no. That left Bella with the her best friend and the boy who always tried to hit on her...