A/N-So this is my first attempt at a fanfic. Lots of thanks to my beta, Magan Bagan! Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or Stephenie Meyer or anything Twilight related. I do, however, own the Monster Ballads CD!

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CHAPTER ONE

Beep, beep, beep…

Oh God. That is the single most annoying sound in the world- the sound of an alarm clock. The reasonable side of my subconscious kept me from smashing it with anything within arms reach.

I rolled over and stumbled out of bed, and ran into Charlie in the hall on the way to the bathroom.

"Mornin' Dad."

He laughed at all of my morning glory. "Good morning, Bells. Sleep well?"

"Sure," I mumbled.

"What time do you have to be at your friend's house?"

"I told her I would be there by noon, if not before."

I was staying with my dad in my hometown of Forks, WA. I drove over from Seattle Tuesday to spend some time with him since it had been so long since I had come home. I planned on driving over to Port Angeles that afternoon to meet my friend, Alice Cullen, and attend her family's annual Fourth of July cookout. The Cullen's were apparently quite an influential and wealthy family in the Port Angeles area. Carlisle Cullen was a very talented surgeon and could practice anywhere, but chose Port Angeles because of the feeling of a small town that his wife, Esme, so longed for. I was a bit anxious because I had only met her brother, Emmett, and his wife Rosalie since they also live in Seattle. I would be meeting her parents and her other brother, Edward, along with a slew of their friends. Apparently this was to be an all day event, so my plans were to stay with them tonight and drive back to Seattle tomorrow. There's no telling what kind of trouble the evil little pixie has planned during that time.

I met Alice about a year ago after I graduated college and had accepted a job teaching English at a very prestigious private school in Seattle. I seriously needed to add some clothes to my wardrobe and was out shopping one day when I came across a trendy, quirky boutique. I walked in to browse and was bombarded by Tinkerbell. She was about 4'11", with black spiky hair. Her eyes were a strange shade of grey, but she was easily one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. She also had more energy than a classroom full of 5 year olds. She also talked faster than I could comprehend the words. After about 5 minutes, my brain finally caught up with her and I told her my predicament. She explained that she owned the boutique and would personally help me since I had great "potential". She carried many high end lines in her store, along with what I considered to be appropriate work clothes. She also had what she liked to call "Alice Originals," which were pieces she had designed and created herself. I was a little overwhelmed but completely drawn to her. She provided me with a new full wardrobe and a new friendship that day. Over the next few weeks, I stopped by to chat with her and we went for coffee a few times. We have been the best of friends and pretty much inseparable ever since.

She had been my saving grace this last month, after my break-up with the vile Mike Newton. She comforted me while I cried my eyes out and cheered me on when I burned everything I could find that he had given me. Childish, I know, but it made me feel great. She brought ice-cream to my apartment and we wallowed, watched chick flicks and had a man-bashing contest. Hate is such a strong word, but it pretty much described how I felt about him at that particular time and I had good reason.

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Mike started dating me at the beginning of my senior year at the University of Washington. I was not the partying type, but my friend Lauren had talked me into going to a Frat party one boring Saturday night. She introduced me to Mike and we immediately hit it off. He was cute-the preppy, frat boy type, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and he was majoring in Marketing. We danced and talked a lot that night. He called me the next week, asked me out and we started dating. He was the perfect boyfriend. Always laying on the charm. He tended to be a bit possessive and jealous at times, but I always assured him that he was the only one for me. Otherwise, he was an easy going guy with a laid back attitude. I fell in love with him after a few months. We had a stable relationship. We weren't too clingy to each other and still had friends we hung out with, although he wasn't too fond of Alice or Jasper. I think he knew they saw through him, but I couldn't. I was too smitten. After graduation we both decided to stay in Seattle. I was searching and interviewing for teaching jobs while maintaining a comfortable full time job at the library. A few weeks after graduation, I landed the job at Volturi Academy. Mike had also been offered a position at a Marketing firm in Seattle. I was ecstatic that everything seemed to be working out so well.

We had been going strong for the past year. Everything seemed to be great. He was my first love and I was convinced we would be together forever. Silly me-I was even convinced we were heading for engagement, marriage, kids….the whole kit and caboodle. That is, until one particular night about a month ago. We had planned to spend an evening together because our lives just weren't allowing us to see that much of each other anymore. He was always working late and going out with his work companions trying to get on everyone's good graces. I understood that. There again, I thought he was building a future for us. He would come by my apartment when he could and we spoke on the phone frequently, but I felt like we needed some quality time together. So I made reservations at a nice restaurant. I dressed in my sexiest lingerie and slipped into a little black dress that was modest, yet sexy. I took extra time trying to tame my wild hair and even wore a little make-up. Seven o'clock rolled around and I waited for him. After calling him several times, which just to went straight to his voicemail, I was fuming. He showed up at my apartment 2 hours later drunk. Mike had had a beer here and there, but I had never seen him as drunk as he was then. I was livid about his tardiness.

"Do you know what time it is," I huffed.

He had a vicious look in his eyes. "Yes, I know what time it is," he mocked. "Sorry. I went for drinks with some guys from work and lost track of the time. You ready to go?"

I laughed at him. "I am not going anywhere with you like this. Besides, we have already missed our reservations. We'll just order in."

"Hell, no we won't! We're going out! Come on!" He grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the door. His grip was exceedingly tight and I felt like he was crushing my bones.

"Let go!" I pleaded. "You're hurting me!" I struggled to get away from him, but he just threw me up against the wall and pressed his body up against mine.

"You will do as I say," he said in a menacing tone. "If I say I want to go to dinner, you go. If I say I want sex, you give it up. If I say jump, you ask how high. You are MY girlfriend, you got that?!"

"That may be true right now, but if you don't let me go, I'll correct that situation. Better yet, let me take care of that right now. I belong to NO ONE! Get out," I spat at him. He was so close to me that every breath he took blew out in my face and the smell of tequila was making me sick. His faced turned red and I could see the burning inferno of anger in his eyes. Something had drastically changed in him that night. All of a sudden, I felt his closed fist connect with my left cheek. Hard. And before I could react, one connected with my right cheek. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I just stood there stunned. Finally, the tears started to pool in my eyes. I don't remember ever being that furious in my life. He stood there with a smug smile on his face.

"I told you that you are mine and I will do as I please. That means if I need to knock you around a bit to keep you in line, then so be it. I have been more than wonderful to you these past few years. You should be grateful. You need to learn to keep yourself in check before this relationship moves any further."

Ha! I thought to myself. Grateful? Be grateful for this! I placed my hands on his shoulders and brought my right knee up so swiftly and forcefully into his groin that he shrieked in pain. How dare he think he can "knock me around"? I don't think so. He was leaning over balancing his hands on his knees taking deep breaths.

"You son of a bitch," I tried to speak calmly, but lost that war and my composure. "You WILL NOT lay your hands on me again!" I screamed. I leaned over and opened the door of my apartment and shoved him in the hall. "Do not ever come here again. Do not call me. Do not text me. I never want to see your face ever again!" With that, I slammed the door in his face. I didn't want to see if my neighbors came out to investigate. I went over and sat on my couch and let the sobs envelope me. The longer I cried, the more my face hurt. After about 30 minutes, I checked through my peephole to make sure he had left and called Alice.

"Hello," she said cheerfully.

"Alice, I need you," I broke down and started sobbing uncontrollably.

"Bella?! What's wrong? What happened?!"

"Can you just please come over? I just need someone to talk to."

"Be there in ten." She hung up. Eight minutes later, I heard her distinct little banging on my door. I opened the door and she flew in.

"Bella, what's going on-What happened to your face?!" She touched my left cheek and I winced. I guess I had already started to bruise. I proceeded to tell her what happened and I was worried by the look on her face that she was about to storm out of the apartment to go find him and rip his head off.

"That stupid, chauvinistic pig! I'm going to kill him!" She started towards the door, but I just held her back.

"Alice, it's really not worth it. I am never going to see him again."

"Are you going to press charges?" She inquired. I stood there for a minute before I answered.

"I thought about it," I replied, "but I don't really want to go through all of that. He's gone now and I am not going to see him again, so just let him deal with that. I imagine it was because he was so drunk, but it doesn't matter. Drunk or not, no man is going to hit me." I still couldn't believe he did it. I never thought mild mannered Mike would hurt me like that. Sure I had seen him angry. We had been together for two years. Anger fueled by our little spats or by jealousy was one thing, but this was something else. I was heart-broken. One, because I did love him; two, because I had seen no signs that would lead me to believe he would ever hit me; and three, because I felt like a fool. I made Alice promise to tell no one. I tried to convince her to not even tell Jasper, but I should've known she would. And although she had never met my dad once, who was the Chief of Police in Forks, I wouldn't put it past her to look him up so she could share what happened. He would've hunted Mike down like an animal. Maybe I should've considered telling him…..

I called in sick to work the next day to wallow in self pity and spent the next few weeks diligently covering the bruises in the morning with makeup. Every time I looked in the mirror, I got angry all over again. I fell into a slight depression until I finally shook myself out of it. I wasn't going to sit around and wallow in my self pity. So I picked myself up, joined a local gym and started "working out" my anger and frustrations.

Mike tried to call me several times the day after our fight and even had the nerve to leave a threatening message. "Bella, if you don't pick up the phone and call me back, I WILL come over there and we WILL talk." I called him back and didn't even give him a chance to speak besides "Hello?", and calmly told him that I would press charges and have him arrested if he showed up at my door and that job he worked so hard for would be gone in seconds, and hung up. I haven't heard from since.

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After I had showered and shaved my legs, I went back into my childhood bedroom to get ready. I argued for a ridiculously long time with myself about what to wear, and decided on my denim shorts and a red fitted t-shirt with a small America flag on the front to show my patriotism. It was an Independence Day cookout, right? I gathered my long brown hair into a loose knotted bun at the nape of my neck and put on my sneakers. After applying a thin layer of mineral loose powder makeup to cover up the faint outlines of the bruises that still very slightly existed and some lip gloss, I gathered all my toiletries and put them in my overnight bag. I grabbed my purse and bag, and headed downstairs.

"Dad, do you want me to cook you something before I go?"

"I am perfectly capable of making something for myself, Bells." He gave me a pointed look and then slowly eased into a grin. "Besides, I am going out to La Push to eat with everyone there."

I just grinned back. "Well layoff the frozen dinners. They're bad for you. Tell everyone I said hello. Maybe I'll see them soon. I haven't seen Jake in so long. I'll have to make sure I go down there the next time I'm in town." I let my mind wander to thoughts of fun times at the beach with all of my friends in La Push. Jacob Black was my closest friend in Forks and I haven't seen him in probably close to 2 years.

"I'll be sure to let him know. I know Jake would love to see you. I'll let him know you're free again," Charlie winked. He had never hidden the fact that he did not like Mike. He was annoyingly ecstatic when he learned of our split. If he knew what prompted it, he would have a different attitude.

"You know I never thought of him that way, Dad. It just would've been too awkward. Quit match-making! Besides, I am not ready for another relationship right now."

"Ok, Bells. But seriously, you should go see them next time, ok?"

"Gotcha. I'm going to head out. I will call you tomorrow and let you know I made it home ok, alright?" I pecked his cheek and picked up my bag.

"Ok. Be careful." I waved and headed out the door to load my stuff into my baby. My most frivolous purchase ever was a Midnight Blue 2006 Audi TT V6 Quattro Coupe. Even though I had saved up for years, I ended up getting a full ride to college. I worked while going to school and lived a very frugal life. By the time I graduated, I had quite a nice nest egg. After securing a new job, I decided I needed to reward myself and that was exactly what I did. I traded in my old red Chevy truck and got this beauty at a steal. Even my dad, who had accompanied me to the dealership to "help out his baby girl", was impressed with my haggling.

I slid behind the wheel, popped in my "Monster Ballads" CD and headed down the highway, leaving Forks yet again.

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