10Summary:
There were three things that I became horribly aware of in that moment. First, the Cullens weren't human. Second, they were likely responsible for the string of disappearances and animal attacks that had plagued Forks for the past six months. And third, I was—most likely—currently dating an inhuman monster who was planning to add me to the victims' list.
...Clearly, this was gonna end well.
CHAPTER ONE
"Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.
Five. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty…
The crisp bills fell flat against the table. Each one a landing it a semi-crooked heap.
Forty-five. Fifty-five. Sixty-Five…
It wasn't gonna be enough. Even though, there was still a considerable wad of ones and loose change that had yet to be counted.
Eighty-eight. Eighty-nine…
Lilly sat across from me, her slim fingers tapping on the table. She was too young to be worrying about money. She was only eleven; but hunched over like she was, with her chin in her palm and her thin brows scrunched together, made her look more like a grad student worrying over student loan debt. She brushed a stubborn strand of frizzy hair behind her ear and sighed.
She knew it too. As I was counting all the money, she was mouthing the numbers going through my head. "How much are we short?" She asked.
"About fifteen-hundred and some change."
She hissed,"Shit!"
I frowned. She shouldn't be swearing. But given the circumstances, I couldn't find the heart to scold her. "Even with the money from Charlie..." I trailed off, fingering the stack of folded papers by my elbow. The words "Eviction Notice" was printed across the top.
"What are we gonna do? Do you think Larry could...?"
"No," I said shooting that idea down before it could even start, "We barely have enough to cover this month's rent. Let alone the past two." Larry, our landlord, had gotten tired of our excuses. And, I didn't see him working with us any further than he already had.
What a shitstorm, I sighed and buried my face in my palms, rubbing at the bags under my eyes. The fluorescent light overhead was starting to give me a headache. I felt so tired—I'm sure I looked it too with my unwashed hair pulled up into a tangled bun at the base of my neck and my eyes feeling as sore as they were bloodshot from staying up two nights in a row to finish an essay for school. "I guess I could borrow some money."
Lilly had stopped tapping on the table and instead began to chew idly at her thumbnail as she watched me. "From who?" She asked.
That was a good question. The number of people who'd be willing to lend money, let alone lend money when there was zero chance of getting it back, was pretty much non-existent. "I don't know...Mandy, maybe?" Mandy was someone I worked with at a little coffee shop in downtown Phoenix. She was probably my closest friend, although we didn't really see each other outside of work. Surely, she wouldn't mind lending me a hundred bucks or so.
Lilly looked surprised. "Would she lend us that much?"
We both knew that Mandy wasn't much better off than we were. She was a nursing student living with a roommate and her roommate's boyfriend in a 1400 square-foot apartment on North 99th Avenue, and yet compared to us living on West Van Buren Street in a run-down-roach-infested apartment she might as well have been a millionaire. "I doubt it. But it's better than nothing."
Suddenly, there was a thud at the front door. Both our heads snapped up and Lilly leaned back in her chair, twisting to look behind her. Then there was a woman's laugh followed by another thud on the door and deeper man's voice too low to understand. "Shit—Grab the money," I said already reaching for the bills and shoving them into a ziplock bag. Lilly was quick to follow, dumping all the coins in before I sealed it and wrapped it in a plastic grocery bag.
"It's only midnight. What is she doing home so early?" Lilly hissed.
I didn't answer, instead, I threw the money across the table. "Hide this." She didn't need to be told twice, already taking off down the hallway to our room. I sat down and picked up the eviction notice, pretending to read it, as the door busted open and in tumbled Renee.
Renee was our mother. Not that she did anything to earn that title. She was frankly, terrible. Honestly, I would say there weren't any good qualities; but that wouldn't be true. Renee was beautiful—or she used to be. Before the drinking started and the weed and the prescription drugs. Back when she used to be my mother, she was beautiful with her long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a button nose that Lilly and I both inherited.
Lilly took after her a lot in her face and her coloring. She had the same blue eyes, blonde hair —curly instead straight— and sun-kissed skin with a dozen freckles across the bridge of her nose. Contrariwise, I looked too much like my dad to be considered beautiful. Dark hair, small dark eyes, fair skin that was easily sunburnt and a figure with no speakable curves or muscle.
I wasn't surprised to see her wasted as she stumbled through the front door in ridiculously tall platform heels. She was wearing a purple sequined cocktail dress that clung to her like a second skin and her hair, normally pin-straight and soft, was teased into a high poof on top of her head. She tripped and almost fell flat on her face had Lip not reached out and grabbed her.
"E-e-easybaby..." He slurred his words suggesting that he was just as drunk if not drunker than Renee. Philip, or Lip as he preferred to be called, was Renee's boyfriend. Although, I only ever called him a sucker.
Renee would get them from time to time; some poor easily-manipulated boy-toy with little experience in the dating department and a lot of cash. If the guy was smart, the relationship would last a week or two; however, Lip had been dating Renee for about three months. And, in that time he paid for everything from manicures to hair appointments, to booze, weed, and clothes or any other odds and ends that she managed to wrangle out of him.
I wasn't sure exactly what he did to make all this money. Looking at him, you wouldn't think he was loaded. He was barely in his mid-twenties with cropped brown hair and tattoos running up his left arm. If I had to guess, he looked more like a wanna-be thug than let's say an accountant.
And clearly, he wasn't an accountant or he would've wised up to my mother's tricks by now.
Renee smiled up at him, swaying on her feet. Then she laughed again throwing her arms over Lip's shoulders and pulling him down for a sloppy kiss.
Gross, I coughed.
"Oh, Bella!" Renee jumped falling against Lip's chest as she smiled at me. Her lipstick was smudged and her eyes were clouded, pupils the size of dimes. She was high again...of course, she was.
I didn't say anything as they closed the front door and walked, or more stumbled, into the tiny kitchen. Lip went over to the sink, retrieving a cigarette from the opened pack Renee had left out and leaned against the fridge and Renee noisily fell into the chair that Lilly had been occupying. "I didn't know ya'd be home," she said.
"Where else would I be?" I asked. "It's not like it's a school night or anything…"
She snorted examining her hands. "Ooo-kay, Miss Sarcasm. It's noddat late I'll have ya know when I were yours age I'd stayed out much-much later."
I put down the paper and looked at her. "Well, I'm not you," I said; then when she gave me a look I added, "Where did you guys go?"
"Dalsa sancing!" She threw her hair over her shoulder and shimmied her shoulders in kinda weird dance. "You woulda loved it. The music...and the food— best fajitas eva!"
"I don't like Mexican food," I frowned.
"Whaat? Everyone likes Mexican."
Lip exhaled a thick cloud of smoke in our direction and I fought the urge to crinkle my nose. Couldn't he do that outside? Now I'm gonna have to air the place out again. "And how much did you drink?"
"Notthatmuch," she slurred sounding offended. "What's your deal? You're not my mom."
I didn't respond to that. I couldn't. If I did, there was no telling what would come out of my mouth.
"Hey, babe. Isder iny beer inda fridge?" Lip asked Renee.
Like he needs any more alcohol?
She jumped up, "No, no bear! We can't have bear. We need champagne!" Moving too quickly for her feet to catch up, she tettered over to Lip and pushed him aside to rifle around in the fridge. "Where 's it? Bella?"
"We don't have any," I said. In fact, we've never had any champagne. But she either didn't hear me or just ignored me as she kept right on doing what she was doing. "Why do you need champagne?"
"'Cause we're celebratin'!"
Lilly had chosen this moment to come out of our bedroom. She took one glance at Lip and Renee then gave me a nod. "What are we celebrating?" She wondered taking a seat beside me.
Renee stopped and beamed up at Lip. For a moment, she almost seemed to be glowing; but that was probably just the drugs. "Do you wanna tell 'em?"
"Tell us what?" I shifted in my chair turning so my body was more or less facing her. Beside me, Lilly tensed her hand coming up almost instinctively to bite at her nails.
Renee pulled two beers from the door before she let it swing closed. And handed one to Lip, she turned to us and said, "We're engaged!"
"W-what?" Lilly asked as if she didn't understand what Renee had just said.
"Lip and I are gettin' married!" She repeated.
"Why?" I could hear the disbelief in her tone. Renee could too and she frowned.
"What 's wrong?"
What's wrong? Is she serious? I couldn't believe it. The lack of situational awareness was astounding. Renee had never been that self-aware, but I never thought that she was this-this-this level of absurd.
Lilly was at a loss for words—I was at a loss for words. None of this was making any sense.
"This 's a good thing," she said. "Lip's gonna move us downta Jacksonville. You girls can finally have a father and we can be a family."
What is this feeling? I felt hot and cold at the same time like when you have a fever and get the chills. It was like I was hearing the words she was saying, but I just couldn't comprehend them—Jacksonville. A family. When have we ever been a family?
My hands were clenched so tight that my knuckles were turning white. I wasn't seeing, or more I didn't notice, Renee thrust her hand out and show us the platinum engagement ring on her finger. There was a sound in my ears like ocean waves crashing over me, hard and heavy, and pulling me down, down, down—I was drowning. I couldn't breathe—couldn't think.
"No!" I stood up suddenly knocking my chair back. "This isn't happening!"
Renee's eyes widened. "Bell—"
"No," I quickly cut her off, "you don't get to do this. You don't get to come here and drop a bomb on us like this!"
"—I know you're surprised—"
"Surprised? Surprised?" I yelled, "No, I'm not surprised, Mom! I'm pissed. Did you even think for one second how this would affect us?"
"Of course I did!" She snapped her face flushing red.
"No, you didn't! You never do. If you had you would've realized that moving us in the middle of a school year was a bad idea—"
"Izzy, stop," Lilly warned tugging at my arm. A part of me realized that she was trying to diffuse the situation. She saw better than I how Renee's hand clenched around the bottle in her hand, how her eyes narrowed into slits and her stained lips pulled back over her teeth. It screamed danger. But I didn't see it or more I just didn't care. I was done. Done with this—with her.
"—Did you even think about that? NO. You didn't because you don't think about anyone, but yourself!"
"I-I will not be spoken to like that in my house!"
"Your house?" I laughed grabbing the eviction papers from the table. "Do you see this? This is our eviction notice, Mother. An eviction notice we got because YOU took our rent money last month to buy your fucking drugs! It's not your house! You don't pay any bills— I do! I do all the work and you just sit on your ass—"
"Get out," she said, her voice slicing through the air like a serrated steel. I didn't move; my feet seemed to cement themselves to the floor. Renee's flushed face contorted with rage and she took a step towards me.
Lip put his hand on her shoulder, "Babe calm down Let's—err— sit down and talk 'bout dis..."
She shrugged him off. "Get the fuck out of my house—NOW!"
I almost didn't see it in time. Crouching down just as Renee threw her bottle of beer at my head. The glass shattered against the wall and Lilly screamed. "Izzy!" Then I felt long nails claw at my scalp and a harsh tug on the roots of my hair causing me to cry out. Renee yanked me forward and slapped me...
"HOW DARE YOU!"
...again…
"YOU UNGRATEFUL BIT—"
...and again…
"THIS IS HOW YOU TALK TO ME—"
...and again…
"MOM, MOM STOP—"
I felt Lilly trying to pry Renee's hands off me. But she was just a kid. She couldn't take on our mother. Hell, I couldn't take on our mother. My ears were ringing. Everything felt like I was watching it out of a fishbowl catching glimpses of distorted images of Lilly's fearful tear-stained face, so close yet so far away. Renee had shoved her off, pushing her roughly into the kitchen table.
My voice died in my throat when I saw her stumble back and fall to the floor; glass scattered around her like confetti. My fingers clenched around Renee's wrist and I tried to get her to let go. But her eagle talons were embedded into my skull. I screamed.
"LETGO!"
Lilly was crying again, echoing my pleas. She was hitting something—someone—Lip. Lip hadn't stood idly by it seemed. When Renee had pushed Lilly into the table, he had gotten down and grabbed Lilly before she could jump back into the fight. She was slapping his large forearms as she kicked her feet off the ground.
"STOP. STOP—YOU'RE HURTING HER!" Lilly screeched at Renee. But Renee didn't listen. If anything her grip on me tightened and she began to drag me towards the door. I kicked out my feet trying to find something to grab onto. But there was nothing—nothing but shards of broken glass that cut into my bare feet like razor blades.
"IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE A PART OF THIS FAMILY, THEN YOU CAN GET THE FUCK OUT!"
Renee jerked me up and the front door slammed open before I was shoved, thrown out, into the outside corridor like a piece of garbage. I fell hard, barely having the presence of mind to stop my head from smacking against the icy cold concrete, my hand bracing against the ground as a jolt of pain reverberated up my wrist. My mouth was bleeding. I could taste the coppery taste of iron on my tongue, a couple drops dripping off my chin and smearing against the pale white skin of my hands. I raised my head just in time to catch the look of pure hatred in Renee's eyes as the door slammed shut; sending a shudder up my spine as Lilly's voice, still yelling, was muffled inside the apartment.
I stood up on shaky legs, wincing at the sharp pain in my feet, and staggered forward. "Mom, mom. L-let me in!" My fists pounded against the door, leaving splotches of blood on the white paint. She couldn't kick me out like this. She couldn't. She wouldn't. "MOM!"
"SHUT UP!" Renee yelled through the door. "I don't want you in my house. You wanted to leave, Bella, so leave."
"You can't just throw me out like this," my voice cracked, sounding pitiful to my own ears. "MOM!" But there was no answer. I heard her shift away from the door and yell at Lilly to go to her room.
I stood there dumbly, not able to process what just happened. I was kicked out. She actually kicked me out? Me? I had no money, no phone, hell not even a pair of shoes and she threw me out just like that? I wrapped my arms tightly around myself as a cool breeze wafted through the corridor. I wasn't even wearing proper clothes. My thin t-shirt and worn out jeans were hardly warm enough to be outside in January; even in Phoenix, where the lowest the weather ever dropped was to the mid-sixties, I still needed a jacket. My jaw clenched and I tightened my hold on my arms. Fine if that's how she was going to be, then fuck her. I didn't need her.
The bitch can go to hell.
A/N: I had this idea to write a revamp of twilight. I personally have many, many problems with that book and the series in general. But I still think that twilight, despite all its flaws had some pretty good ideas. So this is my attempt at writing the story of a vampire/human romance in the way that Stephanie Meyer intended it (with it actually being romantic) but failed to properly portray as anything less than abusive.
This is an AU. So the characters will be a tad OOC and the plot won't exactly be the same as in the first book. However, I'll try to stick to the major events of the first book, whilst adding some of my own personal flare. (Note: I don't usually write in the first person, so this is a new muscle for me.) Constructive criticism is highly appreciated, so feel free to leave any suggestions/ thoughts in the reviews!
