1: Skinny Love (Ed. Cullen)

52

"You're watching me sleep" Bambi whispers, Edward shrugs as she opens her eyes.

"You look so peaceful when you sleep it's hard not to watch you" he offers, she sits up and brushes her hair back from her face. "I ordered you breakfast" he offers, she looks to him. "You should eat something" he tells her, scolding her slightly. She climbs out of the bed and moves to the food cart, takes a strawberry from the dish, she looks to him and raises an eyebrow.

"Happy?" she asks before eating the strawberry.

"For now" he answers sitting on the edge of the bed. "Whilst you're here anyway" she looks to him and shrugs.

"Not much we can do about that" she tells him. "You were the one that left" Edward looks down. "Sorry" Bambi whispers. "I didn't mean it like that...."

"I know" he holds out his hand to her, she takes it and lets him pull her closer to him. "It's okay" he assures her. "It's hard and it's not going to get easier" he sets his head against her stomach and she smiles stroking his hair. "But we can do this" he looks up at her. "It's just till graduation..." she nods a little. "Have you thought about London?" he asks.

"Eddie" she whispers. "It's a big decision. Huge. I would be leaving my family behind, my friends, my life....Bella....to travel half way around the world....I can't just decide....I have to make sure this is the right thing to do" he nods and closes his eyes as she threads her fingers through his hair. He hums a little and she smiles. "We'll figure it out" she promises him leaning down to kiss him.

"And we still have today before you have to go home" he tells her, she nods.

"Can we just stay in bed?" she asks. "I'll let you feed me" she teases lightly, weakly, he smiles and kisses her.

"Did you bring your violin?" he asks pulling back, she frowns at him.

"I had to, my Dad thinks I'm at a music thing, so yeah, it's in the car...."

"Then play for me" Edward states. "I've missed listening to you play" she nods and smiles.

"That I can do"

"And eat" he gives her a look, she backs away from him and rolls her eyes grabbing another strawberry.

.............

Edward sets Bambi's bag into her car and turns to her. She takes a breath and plasters on a smile, he clasps her cheeks and smiles back.

"I love you" he tells her. "That's all that matters" she smiles more genuinely now. "2 weeks?" he asks, she nods.

"2 weeks" she agrees, he kisses her, another long, deep, meaningful kiss, making sure she'll remember it for the next 2 weeks, that she'll remember him. There's no way she won't. She pulls back and nods a little, he reaches up and brushes away a tear from her cheek. He knows she won't cry, proper cry, but he knows that doesn't mean she doesn't care, she just doesn't cry. "I love you too" she tells him before climbing into her car and driving away. Edward watches her go, instantly missing her.

...............

Bambi leans in the doorway watching Bella still sat in her chair, the guilt hitting her pretty hard. All she wants to do is tell her twin sister everything, like they've always done, but then Bella might hate her and that might be worse then this. She takes a breath and turns away reaching up to rub her head.

"Bambino?" Charlie asks. "Everything okay?" she looks to him and nods forcing a smile.

"Yeah" she whispers. "Has she said anything?" she asks, Charlie shakes his head.

"Not yet" he answers. "How was the music thing?"

"It was okay" she tells him. "Just worried about her"

"I know" Charlie offers a small smile.

"I'm going to get some sleep" Bambi tells him.

"Did you eat?" he asks as she walks away, she nods.

"I ate" she answers heading up the stairs to her room. She dumps her bag at the top of the stairs and then shuffles to her bed, which she falls face first onto. She's not really tired. She sits up again and looks out her window.

..................

Bambi slows to a stop on the edge of the overlook looking over the hot springs. Even with the rain it's beautiful, she's just not in the mood to enjoy it, she has no idea how much longer she can go on lying and sneaking around, that's not her, she's not that person, she once stole her mother's make up to practice with and she'd apologised and sulked and cried for three days and repeated over and over how sorry she was even though her mother wasn't mad at her, or upset. She was amused actually but that's Renee. But this. This time it's so much worse. She's lying to her sister, her best friend and it aches in her very core. She takes a deep breath and leans against the tree at her side before she slides down it to the ground and tries so hard not to cry, she's the brave one, she's the strong one, she can't.....she sobs and reaches up to cover her face.

................

Bambi knocks on Jacob's bedroom door, Billy having let her in, Jacob rubs his eyes as he opens the door before he smiles a little.

"Hey" he greets. "What are you doing here?"

"Jacob" she whispers, he reaches out and pulls her to him, wrapping his arms around her.

"It's okay" he tells her. "Come on" he pulls back and pulls her into the room. She stands in the centre of the room as he opens a draw and pulls out one of his shirts, he holds it out to her as he turns to her, she takes it. "Hey" he coos gently brushing the tears from her cheeks. "I know, it sucks...." she nods. "He's an idiot" Jacob points out. "He left you. You." Jacob shakes his head. "He's a moron and you're.....perfect" she sniffles. "You have me and you have Caleb....and we're not going anywhere.....I promise" he kisses her forehead and she hugs her arms around his chest. He strokes her hair.