"Happy birthday, Bella!" I grinned, handing her a small gift as soon as she and Edward entered the Cullen house. School had been tiring, so a birthday party would be a great way to get my mind off of things.
"Thanks." Bella sighed. Before her birthday had arrived, she had told me that she hated her birthday. She didn't want to age. Edward was frozen at the age of seventeen, so Bella didn't want to be 'older' than him.
Bella opened the tiny box to reveal a small piece of paper. She picked up the piece of paper and after reading it, grinned at me.
"Thank you. This is perfect." She smiled at me. I knew I had made a right move by giving her an 'escape from Alice and Edward coupon'. Basically, one time if she wants to escape Alice and her fashionable ways or Edward trying to take her to a school dance, I will help her escape for the day.
"Yes, good idea, Summer!" Alice clapped her hands together, excitedly. "Present time!" She picked up a present from the table to the side and handed it to Bella. Bella began to free the small box from its blue wrapping paper, but her finger slipped to the side and slid against the ribbon. A droplet of red fell to the floor.
"Sorry, paper…cut." Bella's voice morphed into realization. My lips parted in shock. I watched as Jasper's face twisted into discomfort. Being the newest Cullen, excluding myself, Jasper was still struggling with blood. Jasper's lips curled up into a snarl and he prepared to charge at Bella.
"Bella!" I shouted at her. Letting out a battlecry, Jasper launched towards Bella. My hand shot to my lips in terror. Edward sprung in front of Bella, throwing her backwards with his arm. Bella crashed into the glass table and crumpled to the floor. Holding my breath, I ran to Bella's side. Carlisle joined me immediately. Emmett and Alice pushed Jasper back, trying to calm him down.
"Jasper, shh. It's just blood." As soon as Alice said the word blood, she turned to see Bella's blood-soaked arm. The glass from the table had torn up Bella's forearm. Once Jasper had left the house, Edward crouched by Bella's side.
"Edward, could you go talk to Jasper?" Carlisle asked Edward. Edward silently looked at the scene with guilt and fear.
"Edward." I said, trying to gain his attention. Edward's pain-filled eyes met mine.
"You're probably the only one Jasper will talk to right now." Carlisle told him.
"Edward, we'll take care of Bella." I told him.
"I'll be okay." Bella whispered, clutching her bloody arm. "Edward, go." Edward's wide eyes met mine once again. I nodded at him, telling him it was okay for him to go. Still holding my breath, I helped Carlisle get Bella upstairs to his office. While Carlisle sat her down, I grabbed a few cloths and Carlisle's medical kit.
"Thank you, Summer." Carlisle thanked me, producing a syringe from a drawer after he had cleaned the blood. Bella crinkled her nose.
"Don't worry, Bella. It will numb your arm." I comforted her.
"It's not that. I just really hate blood." Bella responded.
"Well that makes two of us." I replied. Carlisle began removing the shards of glass from Bella's wound.
"Do you need blood?" Bella asked me while Carlisle injected her.
"I can survive on either blood or food, but I don't drink blood. I eat food." I told her, trying to push aside the thought of my mother.
"Does blood still affect you?" She asked.
"Yeah, but I'm working on control, just like the Cullens all do." I answered.
"How do you do it?" Bella asked Carlisle, referring to control.
"Years and years of practice." Carlisle replied as he sutured Bella's wound. "You'll learn soon enough." He directed at me.
"I hope so." I responded, sitting on Carlisle's desk.
"Does it bother you right now?" Bella asked me.
"Not really. Although, the blood in the dish kind of stings." I admitted, pointing at the dish where the bloodied cloth sat along with the shards of glass. "I guess I had a lot of practice dealing with blood because of James and Peter.
"Do you think the rest of the year is going to be different?" Bella asked.
"What? Monster-free?" I questioned.
"Yeah." Bella confirmed.
"No. I don't really think things will ever be the same. I'm just waiting for something else to come and disturb Beacon Hills." I frowned.
"Like what?" She wondered.
"I don't even want to know. Hopefully it is something easy to deal with. Like, a regular werewolf or something." I sighed. "I'd rather have a peaceful time, though."
After Bella finished getting stitches and everyone had settled down, I went upstairs to my room to relax. Apparently, relaxing was the last thing my mind wanted me to do because I kept thinking about the note. I sat on my bed, thinking about the damn note. You look so much like your mother. Sighing, I got up and made my way over to my desk where I had left it. I took it out of the drawer and stared at it. Curiously, I lifted the note up to my nose to sniff it. To my surprise, there was no scent on the note. There wasn't a single scent. If someone left the note, I would've been able to smell them. For some reason, I couldn't. I wanted to find out who left the note, so I took the note downstairs to the Cullens, deciding to tell them about it.
"Someone or something left this note in my car, but I can't seem to get a scent." I announced as I entered the lounge.
"Maybe your nose just doesn't work properly." Emmett teased.
"Maybe, but I just want to find out if there is a scent on this damn thing so that I could track whoever left it in my car." I sighed.
"Are you sure you want to go down this road?" Esme asked.
"I don't know. It could just be a prank, but I want to find out for sure." I replied, passing her the note. She read it, her face changing into a sympathetic one.
"I can't smell anyone but you." Esme told me, passing it to Carlisle. He frowned, shaking his head. None of the Cullens could pick up a scent.
"I only smell your scent." Carlisle told me. "When did you find it?"
"Yesterday." I answered.
"There should be a scent." Esme commented.
"I'll call Eleazar in Denali. He may know if there are any vampires with defensive talents that could allow a vampire to completely mask their scent." Carlisle announced. "Summer, you should probably talk to Alan Deaton."
"The vet?" I asked. "Why?"
"He knows a lot about werewolves. He may know something about werewolves that could be useful to this situation." Carlisle explained.
"Thanks, everyone." I thanked them as I slipped the post-it note into a ziploc bag to prevent other scents from contaminating the note.
"Summer." Esme called out.
"Yes?" I looked up at her.
"When Edward gets home, we're all going to talk about what happened today." She told me. I nodded, knowing it was a good idea. A human had gotten hurt in our home. We couldn't just ignore that and continue with our lives as if it never happened. Had we not gotten Jasper out in time, Bella would probably be dead.
"I'm going to make a quick stop by the animal clinic before Edward gets home." I told them, grabbing my keys. "I'll be home soon." I climbed into my Audi and drove towards the vet clinic, where both Scott and Deaton worked. Luckily when I arrived, Deaton was just closing up.
"I'm sorry, but we're closed." Deaton called out as soon as I stepped inside the building. He poked his head into the waiting room.
"I know. I'm sorry to come in so late, but I have to ask you something." I held up the bag with the note inside.
"Ah, Summer. Come in." Deaton opened the gate to allow me into his medical room. "What did you want to ask me?"
"It's about werewolves." I mentioned. "Is there any way that a werewolf could disguise their scent?"
"You mean masking their scent completely?" Deaton asked. I nodded.
"Yes, it is possible. There are some werewolves that have the ability to hide their scent from other werewolves. It would probably work the same with vampires." He explained. "Why do you ask?"
"Someone left a note in my car. It hit me hard because of the topic. I don't know who left it and I don't if it is a prank or not. I couldn't find a scent on it and when I passed it to the Cullens, they could couldn't smell anything but my scent." I informed him. "I only found it yesterday. It should still have a scent."
"Interesting." Deaton commented. "I'm not sure a werewolf would want to go anywhere near your car. Your scent and especially if any of the Cullens have been inside your vehicle, would scare a werewolf away. Werewolves alone can't take down a vampire. Even alphas struggle with vampires."
"So you think a vampire left the note?" I asked, beginning to worry.
"If there is a vampire who can mask their scent, then yes." Deaton answered. Swallowing a lump in my throat, I nodded.
"Thank you." I nodded my head stiffly, leaving the clinic. You look so much like your mother. Vampire, note, mother. I took deep breaths, fighting tears. There was no way my father left this note. He could be dead for all I knew. This is a prank, I tried to remind myself. Prank. Prank. Prank. Prank.
I pulled into the garage and went inside the house. As I entered the living room, I saw that all of the Cullens were standing around, even Edward.
"Sorry I'm late!" I apologized, joining them. Though I sometimes preferred sitting, I didn't want to be the only one sitting so I stood beside them.
"Edward just got home. You're not late." Jasper reassured me. I sighed with relief.
"We need to talk about what happened tonight." Carlisle started off.
"What happened can never happen again." Edward spoke up.
"I'm very sorry, Edward." Jasper said quietly.
"We all know you didn't intentionally do it. You're still learning. No one blames you for this." Esme told him.
"What are we going to do?" I asked.
"We have a few options." Carlisle replied. "We could stay and pretend this never happened."
"Or we could leave." Emmett finished. My eyes widened at Emmett's words. I had been hoping that wasn't an option, though I knew deep down it would come up.
"We can't let this happen again." Edward reworded his previous statement. Carlisle nodded in agreement.
"What happened wouldn't stop Bella from coming over again, would it?" I asked Edward.
"No. She tried to blame herself for it." Edward replied.
"If Bella keeps coming here, she's probably going to get hurt again and it's not just her. Allison and Stiles could get hurt, too." Emmett spoke up. I shuddered, thinking about any of my new friends getting hurt like Bella did.
"I think we should leave Beacon Hills." Rosalie announced her opinion.
"I think that's best. If I can't control myself, then people will get hurt." Jasper agreed with Rosalie. I took in a deep breath, thinking about the decision I had to make.
"We had to leave Beacon Hills anyways. Now is probably the best time." Emmett decided.
"Bella's safer if we go." Alice told us.
"Carlisle, whatever you choose works for me." Esme murmured.
"Edward and Summer haven't decided yet. When they've decided, I'll make my decision." Carlisle responded.
"Though it's selfish, I don't want to leave Bella, but I'd rather leave her than have her dead." Edward replied, his voice full of pain. Seven pairs of eyes turned to face me.
"Summer, you don't have to come with us. You're family and more than welcome, but we won't force you to make a decision you don't feel comfortable with." Esme told me with soft eyes.
"I'll stay behind to tell Bella while the rest of you leave." Edward announced. "You can stay behind with me to give you more time to decide."
"Okay." I nodded, trembling slightly. This feeling that I had was the reason I never let myself make friends. The thought of leaving Stiles and Scott was painful, but I didn't want to leave the Cullens again. I was done being a nomad. Carlisle put his hand on my shoulder.
"We'll leave tomorrow." Carlisle decided. The Cullens dispersed, signalling the end of our meeting. Carlisle and Esme headed to Carlisle's office. I slumped down on the sofa, thinking about the reasons to stay or leave. Stay. Stiles, Scott, friends, happy, help Scott with supernatural. Leave. Note, Derek, no Cullens, dangerous, endangering others, I have to leave eventually anyways. I noticed that reasons to leave outnumbered the reasons to stay. I went up to my bedroom, deciding that I would think about this later.
The following week was slow. I hadn't said anything to Scott or Stiles or even Allison. Lydia was still in the hospital recovering, so I hadn't told her either. Edward had been trying to figure out how to tell Bella and I had been trying to figure out how to tell Stiles. We had spent the whole week selling furniture and the house as well as letting the school know that we wouldn't be attending anymore. I had made my decision. In order to protect Scott, Stiles and even myself, I was going to leave Beacon Hills. Today was the day, though. Edward and I were going to tell Bella and Stiles. It was Sunday, exactly a week after Bella's accident.
"I'm going to tell Bella now. She will be coming home from school in a few minutes." Edward announced.
"I suppose I should tell Stiles then." I sighed, getting up. I ran to the school, remaining covered by the trees so I didn't get caught running at supernatural speeds. I heard the school bell ring once I arrived and I flinched. No matter how much I prepared to tell him that I was leaving, I still wasn't ready.
"Hey! How come you didn't come to school today? Or reply to my texts?" Stiles asked when he saw me standing by his Jeep. My heart pounded in my chest, threatening to burst.
"I was helping Edward clean the house so I wasn't really near my phone." I replied, not completely lying. Stiles shrugged and got into his Jeep. I sat in the passenger seat with him. My hands were shaking as Stiles drove. He switched on the radio, flicking through stations until he found a song he liked. The Clash's Should I Stay Or Should I Go filled the Jeep. A chill ran down my spine as the song played. Of all the songs that could have played, this one came on? Fitting... No longer having the strength to control my emotions, a tear ran down my cheek.
"Hey, good song, huh?" Stiles grinned, turning it up. He turned to look at me, frowning when he saw me crying. "Sorry, I didn't know the Clash was that bad." He turned the volume off and stared at me. After pulling over, he spoke.
"Why are you crying? What's wrong?" He asked.
"I'm leaving, Stiles." I blurted out.
"What?" He asked.
"All of us. The Cullens. We're leaving Beacon Hills." I cried.
"Why?" Stiles whispered, pain filling his eyes.
"Bella got hurt. The Cullens thought it was better for everyone if we leave." I explained as my hands trembled.
"All of you have to go?" He asked.
"Not necessarily, but we have to stick together." I replied.
"You could stay, couldn't you?" Stiles panicked.
"Stiles, I need to go. They already left. Edward and I stayed behind to tell you and Bella." I took a deep breath as tears rushed down my pale cheeks.
"Where are you going?" Stiles asked.
"I can't tell you." I sobbed.
"Will you at least call?" Stiles' face looked agonized.
"No." I choked. "It's not good for either of us if I do. It's better if we just stop talking. It'll eventually be less painful." I frowned after saying the hardest words I had ever said.
"So, I'll never see you again?" Stiles had tears in his eyes, though he fought them bravely.
"I'm so sorry." I leaned over and hugged him, squeezing my eyes shut. "Tell Scott, Allison and Lydia goodbye for me." I exited the Jeep before he could respond. I took the SD card out of my phone and tossed the pieces into the grass. I ran home, leaving Stiles sitting in his Jeep. I cried during the entire journey home.