Twilight

told myself severely. The breeze was still light, but it blew tendrils of my hair around my face, and that tickled a bit. I pulled all my hair over my head, letting it fan out on the quilt above me, and focused again on the heat that touched my eyelids, my cheekbones, my nose, my lips, my forearms, my neck, soaked through my light shirt…

The next thing I was conscious of was the sound of Charlie's cruiser turning onto the bricks of the driveway. I sat up in surprise, realizing the light was gone, behind the trees, and I had fallen asleep. I looked around, muddled, with the sudden feeling that I wasn't alone.

'Charlie?' I asked. But I could hear his door slamming in front of the house.

I jumped up, foolishly edgy, gathering the now-damp quilt and my book. I ran inside to get some oil heating on the stove, realizing that dinner would be late. Charlie was hanging up his gun belt and stepping out of his boots when I came in.

'Sorry, Dad, dinner's not ready yet — I fell asleep outside.' I stifled a yawn.

'Don't worry about it,' he said. 'I wanted to catch the score on the game, anyway.'

I watched TV with Charlie after dinner, for something to do. There wasn't anything on I wanted to watch, but he knew I didn't like baseball, so he turned it to some mindless sitcom that neither of us enjoyed. He seemed happy, though, to be doing something together. And it felt good, despite my depression, to make him happy.

'Dad,' I said during a commercial, 'Jessica and Angela are going to look at dresses for the dance tomorrow night in Port Angeles, and they wanted me to help them choose… do you mind if I go with them?'

'Jessica Stanley?' he asked.

'And Angela Weber.' I sighed as I gave him the details.

He was confused. 'But you're not going to the dance, right?'

'No, Dad, but I'm helping them find dresses — you know, giving them constructive criticism.' I wouldn't have to explain this to a woman.

'Well, okay.' He seemed to realize that he was out of his depth with the girlie stuff. 'It's a school night, though.'

'We'll leave right after school, so we can get back early. You'll be okay for dinner, right?'

'Bells, I fed myself for seventeen years before you got here,' he reminded me.

'I don't know how you survived,' I muttered, then added more clearly, 'I'll leave some things for cold-cut sandwiches in the fridge, okay? Right on top.'

It was sunny again in the morning. I awakened with renewed hope that I grimly tried to suppress. I dressed for the warmer weather in a deep blue V-neck blouse — something I'd worn in the dead of winter in Phoenix.

I had planned my arrival at school so that I barely had time to make it to class. With a sinking heart, I circled the full lot looking for a space, while also searching for the silver Volvo that was clearly not there. I parked in the last row and hurried to English, arriving breathless, but subdued, before the final bell.

It was the same as yesterday — I just couldn't keep little sprouts of hope from budding in my mind, only to have them squashed painfully as I searched the lunchroom in vain and sat at my empty Biology table.

The Port Angeles scheme was back on again for tonight and made all the more attractive by the fact that Lauren had other obligations. I was anxious to get out of town so I could stop glancing over my shoulder, hoping to see him appearing out of the blue the way he always did. I vowed to myself that I would be in a good mood tonight and not ruin Angela's or Jessica's enjoyment in the dress hunting. Maybe I could do a little clothes shopping as well. I refused to think that I might be shopping alone in Seattle this weekend, no longer interested in the earlier arrangement. Surely he wouldn't cancel without at least telling me.

After school, Jessica followed me home in her old white Mercury so that I could ditch my books and truck. I brushed through my hair quickly when I was inside, feeling a slight lift of excitement as I contemplated getting out of Forks. I left a note for Charlie on the table, explaining again where to find dinner, switched my scruffy wallet from my school bag to a purse I rarely used, and ran out to join Jessica. We went to Angela's house next, and she was waiting for us. My excitement increased exponentially as we actually drove out of the town limits.

8 PORT ANGELES

Jess drove faster than the Chief, so we made it to Port Angeles by four. It had been a while since I'd had a girls' night out, and the estrogen rush was invigorating. We listened to whiny rock songs while Jessica jabbered on about the boys we hung out with. Jessica's dinner with Mike had gone very well, and she was hoping that by Saturday night they would have progressed to the first-kiss stage. I smiled to myself, pleased. Angela was passively happy to be going to the dance, but not really interested in Eric. Jess tried to get her to confess who her type was, but I interrupted with a question about dresses after a bit, to spare her. Angela threw a grateful glance my way.

Port Angeles was a beautiful little tourist trap, much more polished and quaint than Forks. But Jessica and Angela knew it well, so they didn't plan to waste time on the picturesque boardwalk by the bay. Jess drove straight to the one big department store in town, which was a few streets in from the bay area's visitor-friendly face.

The dance was billed as semiformal, and we weren't exactly sure what that meant. Both Jessica and Angela seemed surprised and almost disbelieving when I told them I'd never been to a dance in Phoenix.

'Didn't you ever go with a boyfriend or something?' Jess asked dubiously as we walked through the front doors of the store.

'Really,' I tried to convince her, not wanting to confess my dancing problems. 'I've never had a boyfriend or anything close. I didn't go out much.'

'Why not?' Jessica demanded.

'No one asked me,' I answered honestly.

She looked skeptical. 'People ask you out here,' she reminded me, 'and you tell them no.' We were in the juniors' section now, scanning the racks for dress-up clothes.

'Well, except for Tyler,' Angela amended quietly.

'Excuse me?' I gasped. 'What did you say?'

'Tyler told everyone he's taking you to prom,' Jessica informed me with suspicious eyes.

'He said what?' I sounded like I was choking.

'I told you it wasn't true,' Angela murmured to Jessica.

I was silent, still lost in shock that was quickly turning to irritation. But we had found the dress racks, and now we had work to do.

'That's why Lauren doesn't like you,' Jessica giggled while we pawed through the clothes.

I ground my teeth. 'Do you think that if I ran him over with my truck he would stop feeling guilty about the accident? That he might give up on making amends and call it even?'

'Maybe,' Jess snickered. ''If that's why he's doing this.'

The dress selection wasn't large, but both of them found a few things to try on. I sat on a low chair just inside the dressing room, by the three-way mirror, trying to control my fuming.

Jess was torn between two — one a long, strapless, basic black number, the other a knee-length electric blue with spaghetti straps. I encouraged her to go with the blue; why not play up the eyes? Angela chose a pale pink dress that draped around her tall frame nicely and brought out honey tints in her light brown hair. I complimented them both generously and helped by returning the rejects to their racks. The whole process was much shorter and easier than similar trips I'd taken with Renée at home. I guess there was something to be said for limited choices.

We headed over to shoes and accessories. While they tried things on I merely watched and critiqued, not in the mood to shop for myself, though I did need new shoes. The girls'-night high was wearing off in the wake of my annoyance at Tyler, leaving room for the gloom to move back in.

'Angela?' I began, hesitant, while she was trying on a pair of pink strappy heels — she was overjoyed to have a date tall enough that she could wear high heels at all.

Jessica had drifted to the jewelry counter and we were alone.

'Yes?' She held her leg out, twisting her ankle to get a better view of the shoe.

I chickened out. 'I like those.'

'I think I'll get them — though they'll never match anything but the one dress,' she mused.