She's his heroin. He covets her heart. He takes whatever he can. She gives and gives and gives. But for whatever its worth, is he all worth it?
Summer of 2000
"Mommy?" the brown-eyed girl cried once more.
She's been in this same spot for the last five minutes. Last time she checked, she was with her mom grocery shopping. Just then she saw a box of her favourite chocolate and mindlessly took several strides towards the aisle where the boxes of Hershey's were. As she got to finally grab a box of chocolate, she looked around and found herself missing.
"Mom?!" she called out louder than before.
"Hey, are you okay?" a soft voice said.
The girl turned around and saw a boy, most likely her age, looking very concerned. He was as tall as her, has a messy bronze hair and a cute little dimple in his left cheek. His eyes, behind the pair of eyeglasses he was wearing, were in deep pools of green, bore into hers. Brown to green.
She shook my head in response and just drifted her face into the floor to hide the tears breaking from her eyes.
"Hey, don't cry. Are you lost?" he asked again as he cupped her face with his hand and wiped the tears away.
Once again, she looked into his sparkling eyes and just nodded.
He gave me a wide smile and she noticed he has a missing upper tooth .That made her smile. "It's okay. You're gonna be fine. I will help you find your Mom. I'm Edward by the way."
"I'm Bella," she replied weakly.
"Edward!" a smooth voice called after him. "We've got to go. What are you..." she trailed off as she noticed Edward's company.
"Mom, this is Bella. She's lost. She couldn't find her mom," he explained.
"Oh honey. Where was the last time you were with your mom?" she asked her sincerely then she dropped into her knees so they were eye levelled.
"Here. I was just about to get a box of chocolates and then she's gone." Tears went off from her eyes again.
"Mom! Let's go home already or else I'm gonna miss the game," an older boy voiced out running towards our direction. Edward just glared at him. The boy was big. He has a really curly black hair and has two dimpled cheeks that were still visible despite the frown on his face.
"Couldn't you wait Emmett? Who cares about football anyway. No doubt you're stupid." Edward hissed, still frowning at big boy.
Big boy scowled back.
"Edward, that's no way to talk to your brother." Esme said disapprovingly. "And Emmett, we have company here. Your brother found this poor girl and realized she's missing. We have to help her find her mother first before we went home."
"I'm sorry." Emmett muttered inaudibly. "I'm Emmett." He said with a grin and offered her his hand.
"I'm B..Be..Bella." She was about to reach for his hand when a another hand grabbed hers into his possessively.
"She obviously didn't want to talk to you Emmett." Edward said still in a harsh tone. Then he turned his attention to her, his face softened. "Let's go look for your mom Bella." He tightened his grip on their entwined hands.
"Couldn't we just give her a ride home Mom?" Emmett spoke.
Esme was about to reply but was interrupted by the intercom.
"Good day, shoppers of Fork's Grocer. A seven year old girl, named Isabella Swan, was reported missing just as this moment. The mother of the said girl described her wearing a matching red blouse and skirt, blue sandals and has her hair down. If found, please report to the Office Admin. Thank you and have a good day" a woman's voice was heard from the intercom.
"I think we just found your Mom, Bella," Edward exclaimed, showing her a wide beam.
A moment later, Bella was sent to the Admin Office by Edward's mom.
"Bella! Oh baby," her mom cried out. "You had me worried sick." She hugged her tightly as she returned her embrace.
"Esme?!" Mom gasped, with a surprised look. Bella followed her gaze and landed on Edward's mom.
"Renee?!" Edward's mom, or, Esme cried back.
"Oh my gosh! I haven't seen you since forever! Oh my god! How are you?! Are you living here in Forks now?" my Mom gushed. They were both jumping up and down like obsessed school girls.
"Yes I am! We just transferred here last week. Oh my gosh. What were the odds? I can't believe we're in the same town now. We have a lot of catching up to do. We should plan on a date soon." Esme said back with much enthusiasm.
It appeared that Esme and Renee were college roommates and became best friends since then. However, their time together were cut short during their sophomore year when Renee got knocked up by Charlie, Bella's dad, and that lead to her dropping out from school when he asked her to get married.
After the grocery incident, Esme and Renee were talking non stop. Either on the phone or they visited each other's' house. And that drove Bella and Edward to get closer as well since they always tugged along with their mothers whenever they visited each other.
Bella learnt that Esme was married to Carlisle Cullen who was also a Chief like her Dad. He was the Chief surgeon of Forks Medical Center while hers was the Chief of Police. She also met Edward's twin sister, Alice. She looks nothing like Edward though she's really pretty. She's so much shorter and has black hair compared to Edward's bronze. Emmett was two years older and loved to watch and play sports. Bella was not really close to Alice and Emmett even though she wanted to since her time was always absorbed with Edward.
One time, she overheard Renee and Esme talking.
"Renee, please don't get this the wrong way but I'm worried about Bella." Esme said in a hush voice.
"Why? Is something the matter?" Renee asked anxiously.
"It's just that, I noticed that Edward seemed to be very focused on her. Did you know that Emmett and Alice always begged me to bring them with me every time I visit you? They also wanted to see Bella, you know? Especially Alice."
"Oh, is that it? How does that concern my daughter?"
"It's Edward. He didn't want them to. He always begged me not to bring them. I would ask him why, in return he would just have this look on his face that I can't quite put my finger on. And whenever you visit me in my place, he would always make sure that Bella's every attention was on him and nothing else. It seemed like he had created this world for only him and Bella. What worried me was that maybe Edward was being too much of being domineering over her. "
"Oh Esme. I think you're just over thinking things. They're children, it's their nature to be that way."
"Ugh. Maybe you're right Renee. I hope you are."
"Edward?", Bella asked him as he keep on flipping the channels on TV in my room.
"Yeah?"
"I think I want to go outside. Angela , a girl just across the street, said I could play house with her and her brother."
"Aren't you happy just watching TV with me, Bella?"
"I am. It's just... I want to play with... with.." she stumbled on her words not making him get the wrong idea.
"You mean other people than me."
Bella just stayed silent.
"Okay." He finally said after a long silence.
She looked at his eyes and smiled but it slightly faded as he spoke again.
"But you're not going without me."