“I spend a lot of time with Alice too…”

“That’s true, but you have other friends besides the Cullen’s, Bella. Or, you used to. When was the last time you spoke with Angela Weber?” he accused.

"Cullen’s" had now taken on a new tone simply by its association with me. Of course, Alice was probably excluded from this, and perhaps my father Carlisle.

“Friday at lunch!” she answered, too quickly.

“Outside of school?” he probed.

“I haven’t seen anyone outside of school, Dad. I’ve been grounded, remember? Angela has a boyfriend, too. She’s always with Ben. If I am really free maybe we could double,” Bella added.

“Okay. But then you and Jake used to be joined at the hip, and now…” Charlie said.

Her heart stammered a bit at that. Was it in response to his name? I felt my frown forming.

“Can you get to the point, Dad? What’s your condition, exactly?”

“I don’t think you should dump all your other friends for your boyfriend, Bella. It’s not nice, and I think your life would be better balanced if you kept some other people in it. What happened last September…” he trailed off.

I flinched. I heard her feet shift again and a small sigh escaped from her probably carefully masked expression. Did it hurt her as much as it hurt me? No, perhaps even more. She was the victim. I was the perpetrator in that situation. In every situation.

“Well, if you’d had more of a life outside of Edward Cullen, it might not have been like that,” he defended.

Edward Cullen. The image of her stumbling from the woods floated from his thoughts again, branches in her hair, her eyes, and the smudge. I successfully blocked him this time and felt a wave of relief.

“It would have been exactly like that,” she mumbled.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Charlie admitted.

“The point?” she asked.

“Use your new freedom to see your other friends, too. Keep it balanced.”

“Balance is good. Do I have specific time quotas to fill, though?”

“Particularly Jacob…” Charlie added.

I listened. Her heart made one leap that was out of its routine, but nothing else. No quick breathing. No shifting. What did that mean?

“Jacob might be difficult…” she trailed off.