Falling To The Sun | B. Swan + E. Cullen

six

Pressing her fingers against her eyelids, Roman sighed deeply, chasing away the pounding headache that stabbed sharply behind her forehead spreading along to her temples and down the length of her spine.

The maps messy and crumbled around her filled with the details of the forest. Each section showed each clearing and trail, each threateningly old tree -- each memory of each path she had walked. It didn't help in finding Bella's special meadow.

There was little her love could remember about the place that was actual fact and not just deep emotions. A lot of the flowers were purple, highly undisturbed and wide, relatively round with trees so thick that you could almost miss it.

Roman could remember seeing only a handful of places that fit the description and it stabbed at her brain with the urge to remember. It peeved her how she couldn't remember the place when she could remember almost every trail, old and new, that she had hiked in her life -- every trail except for the ones that led to this mystery place.

Groaning, she pushed the papers away, dropping her head back to rest against the side of her bed looking to the spin of the ceiling fan and the click of chain with each movement.

The doorbell has her staggering to her feet, stretching with each step. She buzzes whoever it is in, unlocking the inner door and sticking her head out to look down the stairwell.

"Bella?"

"Roman! I-- I don't know what else to do," she breathes, steps stuttering as she shakes off her shoes. Roman takes her jacket from her, hanging it up by the door as Bella twitches nervously.

"About what?"

"Jake. He... he hasn't been answering his phone and he doesn't call me back anymore. I feel like I've done something wrong and I can't--" she chokes on her words, voice hoarse, and she can't stop herself from reaching out and grasping her around the middle, holding her tight to her chest in a tight hold. "It's been a week and he won't talk to me. It's been radio silence since the movies."

Breathing deeply, her chest swell with a sigh and she leans her cheek against Bella's shoulder. Roman had never been very good at comforting people, her mouth usually running faster than her thoughts could handle, pouring from her like a waterfall after a heavy storm, rushing in a way that made her eyes ring with the sheer volume of her own stupidity.

"Do you want to get out of here?" she offers hesitantly. "Get ice cream or something?"

"Ice cream at the end of February?"

Roman wrinkles her nose. "Well, yeah, uh, yeah, ice cream is always good, but we could get hot chocolate or coffee or something."

Bella smiles shyly. "Ice cream does sound good, actually."

"Great. Great! Put your boots back on and give me a minute."

Darting back to her room, she shuffles through her things, pulling on a pair of thick socks and her hiking boots -- sadly the only pair of boots that she actually owned -- and jerked a brush through her hair, thankful she had thought to get dressed today instead of bumming around her house.

Tripping over her feet as she tries to avoid the papers scattered around the floor, Roman stills as she dips to the ground, squinting at the maps and trails that she had highlighted.

"Oh. Oh, I see it now," she whispers to herself, grabbing a pen from where it lay atop her comforter and circled an out of the way clearing. It was rather far off from the other trails that were normally used but wasn't entirely difficult to navigate as one might assume it would be.

She hoped it was the right one.

Folding the map so that it would fit well in her jacket pocket, Roman jumped to her feet and made for the kitchen. Bella was sat precariously at the edge of a wooden chair, her coat already on, and Roman moved around the table to where the walkie-talkies rested in their base to charged, cradled snug and ready for use.