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— REESE LOGAN COULDN'T REMEMBER the last time she felt alive; truly alive she means, not whatever she was now — a shell of the person she was before. Maybe when she was freshly nine, when her parents had thrown her a surprise party and saved up their money to buy her a digital camera; maybe when she was fifteen and had passed her permit test; maybe when she was sixteen and her mom did her makeup before she went on her first date with Matt Craine. Reese had been living in a sort of purgatory since her parent's deaths, more ghost than girl most of the time, and that feeling had only grown tenfold since becoming a vampire. But sitting with Emmett on the porch swing, basking in the kind of silence that only came at daybreak (when the neighbors were still in their beds, dreaming happy things, and the birds were stirring but had yet to start chirping) the two of them watching the orange glow highlight the mountains, Reese Logan felt more alive than she had in a long while. She wanted to freeze time; stop the clock and let them remain in that moment forever — like a picture from her camera.
But Reese couldn't control time; so as her neighbors began dragging themselves out of bed and getting ready for the day ahead of them, they subsequently shattered the picture perfect moment Reese had been basking in. Reese heaved out a heavy sigh as the influx of noise hit her all at once, lifting her head from Emmett's shoulder and watched his expressions. His face was the picture of serenity, but Reese could read him — she knew the thoughts that were swirling around in his head despite not being able to hear them, and she knew that he was thinking the same thing she was: just one more minute of peace, just one more minute of the two of them in their own little world.
"It was nice while it lasted," Reese hummed softly, her soft words bringing him back to her. He sent her a soft smile, taking her hand in his and pressing a soft kiss to her temple. Reese wanted nothing more than to stay there forever, surrounded by a quiet world with the man that made all the pain and worry in her life obsolete. But the universe had never cared about what Reese Logan wanted.
The universe only proved Reese's point further as Flynn's snores faltered and Elizabeth's mumbling quieted, her family was waking up too. She listened to the sounds, closing her eyes to better concentrate, and picked up the sounds of her sibling's little feet padding on the upstairs carpet towards the staircase. They would certainly come looking for her, wanting to make sure that she hadn't abandoned them for a second time. Reese winced at her own inner thoughts, unintentionally hurting her own feelings. With urgent movements, Reese untangled herself from Emmett's embrace and peeled herself off the swing. Emmett didn't say anything, he didn't question her motives, he moved in sync with her — Emmett knew Reese too.
