What is this? A new story. *cackles insanely* I'm so weak about posting new fics it's not even funny.

This will be an Edward/Bella/Rose story. There will be no jealousy or cat-fights over Edward, and no drama about their relationship. Think of their relationship as kind of like Ben, Chon, and O from Savages, but other than that this is completely different.

It will contain plenty of language and smut, along with bits of violence thrown in.

This story is going to be a little different for me, but it's been fun to write so far.

Disclaimer for entire story: I do not own Twilight!

Need to have a little trust in me
Just close your eyes and let me lead
Follow me home
To where the lonely ones roam

Roam with me
Come down to where all of the others fell
Get lost in the dark to find yourself

Where the Lonely Ones Roam - Digital Daggers

BPOV

Rosalie popped her bubblegum, making me cut my eyes at her from my spot on the counter.

"I swear, Brad can do way better than Angelina." She muttered, turning another page of her magazine.

"Oh? And I suppose you want to try to be that better?" I asked, smiling a little.

"No… maybe… I know it's not possible." She sighed. "But Angelina just seems like a bitch to me."

I laughed and refrained from making the comment that Rose could be a bitch too.

Rosalie Hale and I have been best friends our whole lives. We were both born and raised in Forks, Washington, a tiny town tucked away in the forests and barely a dot on a map. Our parents had lived here most their lives and were friends, so when Rose and I were only born four months apart, they thought our friendship was meant to be. And in a way it was.

We were in school together all the way from pre-school to high school - which we were almost finished with, both seniors. And while we did turn out to be the best of friends, I sometimes wondered how the hell we pulled it off.

We were nearly complete opposites of each other.

Where Rose had honey blonde waves, I had deep brown curls. Rose's eyes were the brightest blue I've ever seen, and mine were muddy brown. She was tall and curvy in all the right places, yet you could barely see my curves.

Our personalities were also polar opposites. She was perky, bitchy, popular, talkative, and down right charming. I was quiet, only mildly sarcastic, liked to stick my face in books, and clumsy.

Right now though, we were stuck in the same boat, so to speak.

Rose and I have been working at Black's Diner for a few months now, saving up money together. So far, we'd only made a few grand, so we still had a ways to go.

We made most of our money on tips, but today was slow, the lunch rush had consisted mostly of the older folks around here, and they tipped horribly. Now, the diner was practically empty, no one but the owners son and cook, Jacob Black, in the kitchen, and a woman with her two children in one of the booths in the corner.

It wasn't very busy on Sundays. Forks was a fishing and camping town, so on the weekends, three quarters of the town went down to the lake or camping back in the woods, not bothering to come back until late Sunday night.

"I'd like to ride him…" Rose mumbled.

I glanced over at the magazine and saw Ian Somerhalder on the page.

"Calm down, I don't want to mop up your drool." I teased.

She stuck her tongue out at me as I slid off my place on the back counter and picked up the coffee pot.

I slowly made my way over to the woman and her kids, politely asking if there was anything else I could get for them, trying to ignore her five year old son picking his nose.

"Just the check, honey." She replied.

Ugh. That's another thing I hated about living in such a small town; no matter what, I was always called 'honey' or 'sweetie' or 'darling'. It made me want to junk punch people. I'm nobody's sweetie.

So I went off to get her check, unfortunately having to come practically face to face with Jacob through the cooks window.

Jake and I had a rocky past; we'd been friends for a couple years before we dated for a few months back in sophomore year, but things quickly got awkward when Jake got drunk one night and tried to go a little too far with me in the backseat of his Jeep.

I wasn't opposed to sex, but I did not want my first time to be with a drunk guy, in the back of his car, with his hands fumbling all over the place.

After that, we called things off and it didn't take long before he started dating Leah Clearwater, a pretty girl that lived on the reservation with him. Nowadays we spoke to each other, but it felt a little like I was walking on thin ice.

"Hey Bella." He said, stopping cleaning off a plate.

"Hey." I said back, plucking the woman's ticket off the little wheel.

"You or Rose can go home for a few hours, you know we're not gonna be busy until after seven." He said, wiping his hands.

I thought about it.

Did I want to go home early to a bitter and drunk mother? No.

Did I want to be stuck here, bored without Rose to keep me company and alone with Jake? No.

Did Rose want to go home to her drunk father and asshole of a brother? I sure as hell knew the answer to that was a no.

"Ummm… Thanks Jake, but I'm sure both of us would rather stay here." I told him before walking away.

I gave the woman her check and she left, leaving me a three dollar tip.

Better than nothing.

As I began to make my way back over to Rose, I heard the rumble of an engine. Normally, that wouldn't be anything odd, most of the cars around here were old or the engines made noise just for the heck of it, but this was different. The rumble was deep and healthy, not sickly sounding or stumbling.

So I turned, looking for the source, and cocked my eyebrow at what I saw.

A shiny black 1971 Challenger had parked right in front of the diner. Yeah, I knew cars, and it's definitely not a car from around here.

It's probably someone passing through town to get to Port Angeles.

The car was only half of what had me staring, though. The other half was the man I saw climbing out of it.

He had to be no older than twenty-five, tall - maybe around 6'4" - and his hair was an auburn mess on his head, pieces pointing everywhere. He was wearing a simple pair of black jeans and a white v-neck shirt, showing off his biceps rather nicely.

"That's a hot piece of man beef." Rose said, and I noticed that she too was watching the man.

"Down girl, this one's mine." I staked my claim early, knowing that without it Rose would go after him and I'd have no chance.

We followed our own girl code, the number one rule being that if one of us called dibs on a guy, the other would back off.

She huffed, but went back to her magazine.

The man took long strides around the car, making his way into the diner.

I tried to make myself look like I wasn't staring at him, wiping down a table as I watched him out of the corner of my eye.

"Hello, welcome to Black's Diner." Rose greeted him cheerfully. "Just take a seat wherever and someone will be with you in a moment."

"Thanks." The man said curtly, his voice a little rough, but it still made my breath hitch a little.

I watched as he made his way to a booth in my section and I did a little dance inside. Throwing the cloth I'd been using on the counter, I pull out my pen and order pad, and walk over to him.

He's looking at a menu, but as soon as I sidle up to his table, his eyes glue themselves to my legs. I always wear shorts to work, because it gets me better tips with the guys, plus it gets hot in the back and I don't like to be sweating in a pair of pants all night.

"Are you ready to order or do you need a few more minutes?" I asked, clicking my pen.

His eyes move from my legs, moving up my body, over my tight black shirt that says Black's Diner in big white letters, and finally to my face. Green eyes lock with mine and I subconsciously lick my bottom lip, which then brings his attention down to my mouth.

"I know what I want." He said softly, making me blush a little. "Just a burger and fries, with a coke. No mustard on the burger if you can."

I nodded, taking down his order on my pad. "No problem. I'll be back with your coke in a minute."

Rose was staring at me as I went past her, probably wondering what he said, but I went straight to the window, putting the order ticket on the little wheel for Jake. He gave me a look out of the corner of his eye, but I ignored it, getting the guy's coke.

The man didn't say anything as I went back over and set his drink down in front of him, but he did stare awfully hard. I didn't know whether to be flattered or creeped out.

A couple minutes later, Jake dinged the little bell, telling me that the order was up.

"Bella, do you want to hang out this weekend?" Jake rushed out when I got there.

I quirked my eyebrow and resisted the urge to laugh in his face.

"No." I said simply, turning away from him with the plate in hand.

I'd always felt like I was kicking a puppy whenever I turned down Jake for anything, but right now I didn't care, now I had something else on my mind. And he was currently leaning with an arm across the back of the booth, watching as I approached.

"Here you go." I set the plate down in front of him. "Is there anything else?"

"Sit down?" He asked, gesturing to the seat opposite him.

I hesitated, looking between him and over at Rose, who was watching us carefully.

Why would he want me to sit down with him?

I slid into the booth anyway, curious as to what he would want.

"You want a fry, little bird?" He asked, holding up a fry to me.

I froze, my eyes going directly to his.

Little bird?

What was that about?

Then I saw that his eyes darted down to the tattoo on my inner wrist of two little black birds, each one no more than an inch in size.

I had gotten them last year, when I was seventeen, working up enough courage to finally have it done. To everyone, it would just seem like a couple birds on my arm, but to me and Rose, it symbolized so much more. I'd gotten them as a representation of me and Rose, flying away to someplace better, where we didn't have to put up with our broken families and being stuck here, eventually getting married to guys like Jake and Mike Newton, who in ten or fifteen years would probably have beer guts and like to smack us around.

"My name's Bella." I told him.

"I like little bird." He smiled devilishly, making a shiver run down my spine.

I took the proffered fry out of his fingers and popped it in my mouth, trying to act as confident as possible.

"Fine then, what's your name?" I asked after I swallowed.

"Edward." He said simply, eating a fry himself.

Edward. Huh, a bit old fashioned… I would have expected an Edward to be sixty, not twenty something.

"Are you going to Port Angeles?" I asked, knowing it was probably that or Seattle.

"I go wherever I want to go." Edward said, slightly cryptic.

"What do you want, Edward?" I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering what he was about. I'm done beating around the bush.

He chuckled. "I want a lot of things, little bird. But right now, I want to talk to the beautiful girl sitting across from me."

A charmer.

I couldn't resist snorting.

"You're all smooth words now, but I know what you're doing and I'm not falling for it. I know I live in one of the worlds smallest towns, but I'm not a fucking idiot." I said, standing up and leaving him to eat his damn burger.

"What was all that about?" Rose asked once I got back to her.

"I don't know." I mumbled, jumping back up on the counter beside her.

"He likes you." She sang under her breath.

"He wants to get into my pants." I huffed.

"So? A hot piece of meat like that wants you to take off your panties, you do it." She giggled.

"Maybe you do, but that's not me Rose, you know that." I nearly whined.

Rose wasn't a slut, per say, but she'd had her fair share of boyfriends, sleeping with at least half of them.

"Bells, you're eighteen years old and you're still a virgin. It's like I'm talking to a unicorn." She said quietly so no one else would hear. "I know that even you think the whole 'saving my virginity for someone special' thing is a big joke. Why don't you just get it out of the way and be done with it? And who better than the hottie who just strolled into town, and is about to stroll out. He won't get attached and follow you around like a puppy."

I sighed, tugging on a thick curl in my hair.

She did have a bit of a point. It's not like I was saving it for anyone in particular. And Edward was sexier than any of the guys around here.

"Just don't do it in the bathroom here, that sink is fuckin' uncomfortable." She grumbled.

I elbowed her in the arm and was about to say some witty remark, but she interrupted me.

"He wants you to come back." Rose said, waggling her eyebrows.

Sure enough, as I glanced over, Edward was looking directly at me, beckoning me over with his finger. I walked back over, wondering what he could want now.

"Yes, Edward?" I crossed my arms.

"Come with me?" He asked, smiling widely.

I tried not to think of the possible dirty meaning behind his three words, choosing instead to look at him like he'd suddenly grown a second head.

"Excuse me?" I exclaimed.

"Walk out of here with me, get in my car, and drive away to exotic destinations." He explained, the dazzling smile still there.

"Look, you seem nice and funny and you're cute," I started, watching as he quirked his eyebrow, "but I can't just leave with you! It may not be much, but my life is here. I have a best friend, and parents, and school."

"Your friend can come with us. Do you really give a shit about your parents? And school doesn't matter, you're smarter than all these fucks here anyway." He said.

I didn't know what to do.

Alarm bells were going off in my head - Don't go with the sexy drifter man! He could be an ax murder trying to lure you away!

Yet another part of me recognized this for what it could be - a way out. Something that Rose and I had been desperate for for years, but not having the means to do it.

"I'm stopping in Port Angeles anyway, if you don't want to go any further, you can leave and I'll give you money for a bus or a taxi, whatever you want." Edward said, looking at me sincerely.

"Why?" I wondered.

"Because, I was like you once." He said softly. "You hate it, don't you? You want to leave and never come back? You know that nothing this town can give you will ever be enough. I felt like that once, and I left and I haven't regretted it since."

I stood there, blushing as he pegged me right on the dot. It was like he could see every damn feeling I've ever had about the place.

"I… I don't know." I mumbled.

He reached out and carefully took hold of my hand, grabbing the pen sticking out of the apron tied around my waist.

"I'm staying at the hotel down the road. Here's my room number, if you change your mind, just come by. I'll be there until noon tomorrow." He said, writing on my hand.

When he was finished, I pulled it back to see the number fifteen written in black ink.

"Think about it, little bird." He said softly, getting up from the booth.

I was still staring at my hand, deep in thought, as he threw some money on the table and left.

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Rose drove me home in her beat up Jeep after our shift. Renee wouldn't let me have a car, so when Rose's dad bought her the old Jeep, she promised that it would belong to both of us.

After Edward had left, I'd taken most of the night to think over what he'd said, telling everything to Rose.

She was simply ecstatic about it, day dreaming about how Edward wanted to whisk me away.

She'd always been one for elaborate fantasies. I knew better, he was probably lonely and wanted someone along with him for a while, then when he got sick of me, he'd dump me in some random town and never look back.

"Are you sure you don't me to drive you down to the hotel?" Rose asked as we pulled onto my street.

"I'm sure." I reiterated to her for the tenth time tonight.

As we pulled into my driveway, I groaned when I saw Phil's car parked there.

Phil was Renee's newest boyfriend. After she and my father Charlie separated, she'd started drinking, then the string of boyfriends began. She'd gone through ten in the past year, but this one was lasting the longest. I didn't know why, because he was the worst of them.

I hated Phil. He was always drinking, just like Renee, and I'd catch him looking at me weird a lot. He made uncomfortable and I'm sure Renee either didn't believe me or didn't care.

"You can come stay with me tonight." Rose said, reaching over to brush some of my hair back.

"It's okay, I'll just stay in my room. That's what usually do anyway." I tried to smile.

"Call me if you need anything and I'll be here in three minutes." She said, hugging me goodbye.

I said bye to her and climbed out of the car, telling myself I could just run past them and up to my room.

I wasn't so lucky.

Renee spotted me before I was ten steps into the house.

"What are you doing home so late?" She slurred a little.

"You know I had to work mom, my shift didn't end until ten." I reminded her.

"Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot!" She yelled. I saw there was a bottle of Jack in her hand and sighed.

"I'm sorry mom. I'll just go up to my room and do some homework." I tried to placate her.

I needed to get upstairs before Phil came along, because he'll just egg her on.

"Ha! Do your homework… like that's going to help you get out of this dump." She slurred angrily. "You think you're better than me and everyone else around here. Well guess what, you and the blonde slut are shit just like the rest of us."

Mentioning Rose was the wrong thing for her to do…

"Don't talk about Rose like that!" I almost yelled back.

I realized too late my mistake.

I'd been so caught up in my anger at Renee, I'd failed to notice Phil standing behind me.

Before I could blink, his fingers were tangled in my hair at the back of my head, yanking it back so I was nearly doing a back bend.

"I don't think you should talk to your mother like that, you ungrateful little brat." Phil growled, looking down at me menacingly.

I'd never truly been afraid of Phil. Sure, he creeped me out and made me uncomfortable, but never afraid.

Now I was.

Renee was drunk enough that she didn't care what he did now, and she wouldn't remember it later, so even she wouldn't stop him from doing god knows what.

I did the only thing I could think of to get away; digging my heel into his foot, which loosened his grip on my hair enough for me to pull away. I'd have to go past him to get to the front door, so I ran up the stairs instead, seeking the safe haven of my room.

I only got up two stairs before he was pulling me back, spinning me around roughly to him. I spit in his face, which seemed to shock him for a moment, before he turned red.

I saw his hand coming, but I didn't have time to process it. So when he backhanded me I was stunned, falling to the floor as the entire right side of my face erupted in pain.

Phil grabbed a handful of my hair again and began dragging my across the floor.

"If you're insistent on being a little bitch, I don't think you've earned the right to stay here." He snarled.

"Let go of me you son of a bitch!" I yelled, trying to pry his hands off me, but he was too strong.

Phil threw me out onto the front porch and slammed the door in my face without another word.

I laid there, stunned and in pain, trying to figure out everything that just happened.

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

Tears welled up in my eyes, but I fought them back, refusing to cry because of anything that asshole did to me.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, momentarily bringing me back. I clumsily dug around trying to get it, and when I did, I nearly sobbed as I saw Rose's name flashing across the screen.

"Rose." I sniffed as I answered.

There was a moment of silence before she spoke.

"Why are you crying?" She asked sharply.

"Can you… c-come get me?" I stuttered.

"Where are you?" I could hear her running down her stairs as she spoke.

"At my house. I'm on the front porch." I said.

"I'll be there in two minutes."

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"I'm going to commit murder." Rose fumed, gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"They were drunk off their asses." I mumbled.

"It doesn't matter! What kind of mother - drunk or sober - stands by while her fucking boy toy beats her daughter?" She exclaimed.

I gingerly rested my head against the car window and closed my eyes. When Rose had come hauling ass down the street, I thought she'd gone insane. I'd had to keep her from going into the house to 'beat their asses' after I told her what happened.

She'd offered to take me to her house, but there was someplace else I wanted to go.

When I told her to drive me to the hotel, she did a double take, looking at me skeptically, but started driving anyway.

"Is my lip starting to swell up?" I asked, gently poking it.

My entire face throbbed, but my lip had been split open and was bleeding, and I was sure it was getting bigger.

"Yes." She winced looking at me.

Rose pulled the Jeep into the small and only hotel Forks held. It only had twenty rooms, two floors tall and was an ugly green color.

I was glad Edward had written the room number down on my hand, because right now I couldn't remember it for the life of me.

As we walked up to room fifteen, I was being to wonder if I was insane.

No, I'd take a sexy, possible ax murder over Renee and Phil.

Rose knocked for me, taking my hand and giving it a light squeeze. Ten seconds hadn't passed before the door swung open to reveal Edward.

He took in Rose and I standing before him, then suddenly his eyes zeroed in on my lip.

"What happened, little bird?" Edward pulled my toward him gently by my shoulders, cupping my chin in his hand to examine my lip.

"Her mother's asshole boyfriend backhanded her." Rose practically snarled.

Edward glanced up at her and frowned before coming back to me.

"I'm fine." I mumbled through my ever swelling lip, but neither one of them listened.

"Bella, wait inside for a moment." Edward said, using my name for the first time since I'd met him.

"No, I'm fine." I repeated, but he gently pushed me into the room.

"Make yourself comfortable." He mumbled before closing the door, leaving him and Rose outside.

I scowled, walking to the small bathroom so I could really check out the damage. My bottom lip was swollen to nearly twice it's size, busted open and bloody. The right side of my face was pink and the back of my head hurt where Phil had dragged me around by my hair.

Fucking awesome.

"Bella." Rose appeared in the doorway. "Are you sure you don't want to do anything about them?"

"I don't know." My voice warbled as I tried not to burst into tears.

"Oh, come here Bells." She said softly, wrapping her arms around me.

I buried my face in her blonde hair and finally cried.

What do you think of the gang so far? Next chapter will have much more Edward, so don't worry. This is only the beginning.

If you want, go to my profile and there is a link to my fanfiction tumblr, where I post pictures, teasers, and I can answer your questions - anon or not. A lot of you ask me questions in reviews, but are anonymous, so I can't respond.

Thank you for reading, and I'll love you forever if you would leave me a little love in the form of a review.