Yet another disclaimer: sadly, i do not own any of the twilight characters

I sat on the coach waiting for Bella to show up. The place hadn't changed since I was up there last; it still had the same rustic charm with its woodsy look. I suppose I should have waited but to pick the lock was so much easier, plus it was raining as it did everyday in Forks. Sometimes it's hard to believe she's getting married, but it wasn't nearly a surprise. They are madly in love, even if some people can't accept it. They don't know how much she means to him or he means to her. Their relationship is complicated; there is certainly no doubt about that. The problem doesn't lie within them; it lies within the hearts of others. It's hard for them to expect that a girl can spend the rest of her life with someone straight out of high school, and on top of that a rushed wedding.

My part in this didn't come until much time after they met though. I had known Bella since she was little. We were born about a month apart, and were best friends. Cousins usually wind up as friends anyway, but we were best friends and knew everything about each other, that is until my situation brought me to live in Florida. She moved to Forks about a year later. We kept in touch, and she knew that I was just a call away. Mostly though, it was Charlie or Renee that kept me in touch with her life.

Both had told me about Bella's strange boyfriend the one who seemed crazy about her. Something about him scared her parents; something didn't sit quite right with them. They always complained about his strange habits and begged me to talk some sense into Bella. I told them time and time again that he only cared for her and that if there was something wrong she would tell them, and if she was keeping something from them that it was probably something better left secret. They said I could relate to him, and they where much more accurate then they could ever know. We both just happened to be vampires.

I had started my junior year in high school, the first at my new school in Florida. My day was crappy, no surprise there. I was walking to the store at night to buy some milk. All of a sudden I saw a dark shadow in the distance. I fingered my keys in my pocket as I wheeled around and walked the other way.

"Hey sweetheart, ready to die?" The voice came from behind me, but the man had been at the end of the alley a second ago, how was he behind me now.

"Get away from me." I spun around, but no one was there. Something brushed against my hand.

"Not a chance." He picked up my hand a reached it towards his mouth. He wasn't going to bite me, was he? This couldn't be happening. The pain started as soon as his teeth touched my skin. This pain was nothing that I had ever felt. It was almost like there was a fire burning inside my skin. The pain was excruciating, blackness suddenly enveloped me.

I woke up in the same ally as before. The man was gone, and my muscles ached for no reason at all. Thank goodness the pain was gone. It was still dark; the night hadn't gone by quite yet. No one was around, and it was deathly silent. I stood up and looked around just to make sure no on was around. I walked towards home, wanting to get out of this scary dream; it had to be a dream. That was just too bizarre. The pain was gone in the time I had been out, however long that was.

The walk back to my house was short, but I was being cautious because I didn't want to run into anymore strange people. The air was hot and humid, not the right atmosphere for a creepy night. The house was bright and looming against the dark sky. It was painted white to enhance the bright atmosphere of Florida. Unfortunately, all the rest of the houses in stupid Florida had the same idea. We shared the house with the landlord's family.

I walked in the door, and was not surprised by the scene of my dad on the couch, passed out from drinking too much beer probably. He had stopped drinking alcohol regularly, but still got drunk often.

My room would be quite, a good place for me to just think. My room was also white, and was blandly decorated. The bed was lumpy, and there will several cracks in the ceiling. It was also extremely cramped. But before I went up to my bedroom, I needed a glass of water. I reached into the cabinet to get a glass, but without applying any pressure to it, I broke it. The shattered glass covered the cabinet floor. I tried to pick up another one, but that also broke. I picked up the last good cup we had with very little pressure, and it didn't break. I put it very gently on the counter and went to the fridge to get the jug of water. I slammed the door like I usually did, and the fridge jumped. In fact, the whole room shook. The door itself got stuck to the fridge.

I finally got to my room carrying the glass of water very carefully. When I got there I looked for a place to put the glass but my bed side table was crowded. I found a place to put the glass down, but a pencil fell off the table. Without thinking I reached for the pencil, catching it before it fell two inches off the side. My day just kept getting weirder and weirder.

I jumped when I heard my dad get up, and slam back down on the floor. I jumped because the room was a good distance away, and there were two doors in between us, but yet I had heard my father stand up and take a few steps.

The whole situation was really starting to freak me out. I ran to the mirror to see if anything had changed on the outside. The first thing I saw was that my eyes, instead of their normal brown coloring where a frightening shade of butterscotch.

Over the next months, I found new characteristics that I had gotten from the weird man. My hearing had also greatly improved, and I could run faster than anything on two legs, and probably faster than anything with four legs too. I found out that I could lift anything, even the car.

I moved out because my secret was hard to keep with a father around. I went to a boarding school for only two months, and when I was eighteen dropped out and rented my own apartment.

During this time, I first heard about the mysterious Edward Cullen. At first, Charlie said he was fond of him, but then he seemed to hate him because he had hurt Bella, even though the story sounded like Bella hurt her self again. Edward seemed to have all the powers I had, and at that point I had no idea what I was. I figured if anyone knew anything about the new me, it would be him.

I told Charlie I was coming up for a visit, hoping that Edward could tell me something about my new self. I was on my way to airport when I met someone named Laurent. He saw my eyes and hunted me down, but was not surprised by my strength. He told me I was a vampire, but was shocked at how human I was. He had figured it was my special power, but didn't know how deep it went. He stayed for two days, but then left saying he was going up north. I told him I thought the Cullens were vampires, he said he knew and told me the story of James and Bella. I knew that Edward truly loved Bella at that point.

I moved to Brazil, because I didn't want to run into more vampires. I did not sparkle in the sunlight like all vampires did. Brazil was the last place a vampire would be, leaving me to me to interact with humans for a while. Months went by, and the school year started up again, leaving me alone most of the time. One day, Charlie called, begging me to talk to Bella. Edward had left her, and I immediately new why. I called her, but she was beyond tears. She was literally heart broken. Every week after that, Charlie called me telling how scared he was, telling me how it was almost like a part of her died.

Three months went by, and Bella only became more depressed. I was going to visit her, finally tell her that I was a vampire, that I knew what she felt like. I didn't even make it on the plane. I was waiting to board. The crowd around me started to grow, and I started to zone out. The next thing I knew, I felt I hard, cold hand on mine, and immediately recognized it as a vampire's. I whipped around, and was staring into the eyes of a golden haired vampire, with butterscotch eyes. I recognized him immediately from Charlie's description.

"You're Edward Cullen right?"

"And you are defiantly not Bella." He had the most agenizing look in his eyes as he said Bella's name. He was obviously in pain, and I knew in that second that I had to get him to go back to Bella, even if it put her in danger.

I didn't want to say anything to hurt him, so I treaded carefully as I said, "I'm actually Bella's cousin." There was a long pause when I watched the pain spread through his face. "Listen, I have an apartment, do you want to come over and have some tea…" I then said, in a voice too low for the surrounding people to hear. "There's also a park if you want to go there." He didn't quite stare at me wide eyed, but his eyes defiantly had some flecks of disbelief on the edges. "Do have a car, because I kind of took a taxi here. You have a Volvo right?" I tried to distract him from the obvious pain in his eyes. He took me to the parking lot and showed me his Volvo. He had no carry on as I did, I assumed he was going somewhere, but probably not to Forks, or maybe he was debating whether to go back or not. He moved to go into the driver's seat but I grabbed his keys from him. "I'll drive if you don't mind. Brazil's streets can be confusing." I tried to joke, but he seemed oblivious to me. This was obviously not the Edward that Renee and Charlie had described.

I drove in silence, his eyes were fixed on the road, and he became a statue. I let the silence go on, seeing that it was not one of those awkward silences but a needed thinking time. My house was near the airport, so the ride didn't last long. I led him through the door and wasn't sure what to do next. Even with my short encounter with Laurent, there had never been a vampire in my house.

"Do you want to sit down?" I tried to be hospitable.

"Sure," He looked confused, and was also concentrating.

Once we sat down, I laid the facts right on the table. "Look, you don't have to talk to me if you don't want to, but I will talk, in fact you probably won't be able to shut me up." I felt weird about my sudden outburst, but he still didn't say anything. "Ok then." He bore his eyes into me; I still couldn't get over those golden eyes, those perfect looks. His face was gorgeous, and mine was the same as always, it just wasn't fair. "I'm guessing you have a lot of questions, like why I'm average looking and why if your trying to use your power, it's not working. Well, this in a way is my power, you don't know this but I can live on people food and blood. My reasoning for this is that my power is stealth, I can fit in with humans, but yes I am all vampire. I have the strength and the speed, and the reflexes. But you're probably also wondering why I am still in touch with my family, and why I can resist people so easily. Well, I suppose I have a higher tolerance for humans, and my average looks make it possible for me to remain close to humans…" During my whole tirade he just stared at me as still as a statue.

"Bella said you were her age. How long have you been a vampire exactly?" Edward muttered, in a low voice.

"A year in September," he stared at me, wide eyed.

"And I take it that Bella has no idea you're a vampire." Is eyes filled with pain again when he said her name.

"No, no one in my family knows I'm a vampire." I continued to tell him the story of how I became a vampire. It got late, but neither of us flinched, at the time.

"I have one question to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"When you thought I was Bella, you came to me upon reflexes. You want to be with her too, don't you?"

"Yes, I wish I could be with her, but it's for her own safety. If me or another vampire hurt her, I couldn't live with my self. This is best for everybody."

"Who are you to say that?" My short temper flared up. "Do you know how much pain she is in? Can you not see the affects this arrangement has on you? My family and I have been doing everything to cheer her up, she won't go out, she won't talk to you out of her own free will, she's absolutely hysterical. And you think this is the better arrangement? You both so obviously miss each other, it's painful just to look at you. Do you want to know what I think? Go back to her, she misses you, you miss her. I know your willing to hurt yourself to protect her, but are you willing to hurt her?" his face had cracked, all the pain he had been trying to keep in simply rushed out.

The first signs of the morning creaked through the window. "I going to go for a walk, but can you think about that for me, for her?" I simply walked out of the house, without even locking the door.

I came back an hour later, and found him in the attic. His expression was even more pained, if possible. He said two words. "She's gone."

"That's not possible; Charlie would have called me if she had died."

"She killed herself, jumped off a cliff."

"Edward, listen to me, she's not dead, she's still alive."

"Alice saw her fall off a cliff, and she can see the future. I called her house, they said Charlie was at a funeral."

"And whose voice was it?"

"Some boy, probably looking after the house."

"That could have been Jacob Black, he's been spending time with Bella lately."

"Black?"

"Yeah, Black. He's from La Push. So what did Rosalie say exactly?"

"She said Bella's gone, that's good enough for me."

"Where do you plan to go?"

"Italy."

I was young and probably uneducated with the whole vampire world, but I knew what Italy meant for any vampire. I was wordless; nothing came out of my mouth. I did manage to say a few words. "She's alive, don't do anything rash." He didn't take my advice. He flew out the window; well I suppose flew for a human. This was very bad. The phone rang, just as his footsteps faded away.

"Hello," the word barely came out.

"Michelle, is that you? She's gone she left with Alice. She left for him after he broke her heart. How could she do this? She's never done anything like this before. It's not like her, plus he was dead as far as I was concerned for months," Charlie might have as well yelled in my ear.

"Slow down Charlie, so she's a live?"

"Why would she be dead? Unless you know something I don't. Did someone call you? Is she alright?"

"Listen, Edward just called me and he thought she was dead. Whose funeral were you at?"

"Harry Clearwater died a few days ago."

"I'm, uh, I have to go."

"Michelle, don't you hang up on…" I shut off the phone.

This was bad, this was very bad. I ran out on the street, and then ran at top speed to the air port, a plane had just left for Italy, and I assumed he was on it. What a terrible mess this all was. I was in for several anxious days of waiting.

I sat on the couch, reflecting on that. Charlie called every two minutes, and I assured him several times that I was just as frantic. The only difference was, I knew what was really happening, and I, knowing that, was twice as worse. Charlie called me when Bella was back and was asleep, exhausted from her trip, I didn't mention that she had gone all the way to Italy.

He stayed, Charlie tried to convince me to again come up and talk some sense into Bella, and I told him time and time again that it was, in a weird way, right for Bella to be with him. I didn't know about Victoria, didn't know the danger Bella was currently in.

Bella herself kept in touch, mostly by email. I would stare at the phone for hours, trying to decide if I should tell Bella about my new found abilities, I figured it would be best to tell her in person.

One day, I got another frantic phone call from Charlie, telling me that she was engaged.

"How could she do this to me? I thought it was bad when she disappeared."

Great Charlie was having another one of those rants; they all seemed to be rants these days.

"I'll hop on a plane now Charlie, I'm coming to Forks."

And so, I ended up on a plane from Brazil to Forks, and I ended up here on the couch waiting for someone, anyone to come home. I had picked the lock, but they really didn't need to know that. Finally, after waiting for forever, Bella pulled up with Edward in his Volvo. They both seemed so much happier then since I had last seen them.

I heard Edward telling Bella I was waiting for them on the couch. He recognized my smell, but thank goodness he didn't say he knew me.

"There's someone waiting for you on the couch," he didn't say he couldn't read my thoughts either. "She seems anxious." He could probably smell that, or he also could have been a really good guesser.

The door creaked open. I sat on the couch and waited for them to approach me.

"Michelle, is that you?" Bella's face didn't light up like a normal persons would have, but it softened and calmed down.

"You know it!" I ran over to her, and hugged her a little tighter then Edward would have liked, but I wasn't going to hurt her. Bella let go eventually, and I greeted Edward, hoping he would follow my lead. "And you must be Edward; it's nice to meet the person I've been hearing so much about."

"Likewise," he didn't shake my hand as a polite gentleman would have, with good reason, but at least he was going along with my charade.

"I still can't believe your here, all the way from Brazil. How'd you get here so fast? We only sent the invitations out Wednesday."

"Well, I had a little advance notice from Charlie, and the plane took care of the rest of the work."

"He's been ranting again hasn't he?"

"Do you expect anything else from Charlie?" There was an awkward pause. Edward quickly glared at me and then turned away, so fast that Bella couldn't see it. I can't imagine why, but I think he glared at me because I still wasn't telling Bella about my "special abilities". "I turned toward him, and said, "I have never met someone with the same colored eyes as me before."

"Well they are very unusual. My whole adopted family has them to."

"That's strange, hmm, well I'll meet them soon enough. I will right Bella?"

"Were going to a meeting with our 'wedding planner' at his house today, you could come if you want."

"That sounds great. I'm already settled in," I gestured to the pile of luggage, more prop then anything else.

Bella surprised me by giving me another hug. "I missed you Shelly," she used my pet name.

"I missed you too Bells." Over Bella's shoulder, I saw Edward mouth "That's what Jacob Black called her." Too bad he didn't know that Bella was called Bells before Jacob Black was even born.