Hello lovely people! So just real quick I wanted to say that I hope you guys like it and enjoy!

I don't own anything

Chapter 1

Bella POV

"I hate you." I growled at the stupid little stone plaque that held my father's name. Charles Joseph Swan 1971-2012. I kicked some dirt over it for good measure. Satisfied with myself I turned and walked away from the fresh grave. I'm not going to say that I didn't love my father because I did, but years ago I had buried that love and traded it in for the hate that I now feel. I was done with all of his bullshit and now I would never have to deal with him ever again.

After mom ran out on us when I was ten Charlie got in deep with drugs as a way to "cope" with the pain and never looked back. When I was fourteen he lost his job at the Chicago police department and it fell upon me to take care of him. So I got a part time job, and when that didn't cut it I got another one. But as you can guess a kid working two part time jobs was not enough to pay the mortgage so we were kick out of our home and we moved into an apartment close to the South side. We barely got by. With Charlie feeding his habit and me working and going to school things were extremely tight. There were months where I couldn't pay the rent and day when I couldn't afford to eat. So when I turned sixteen I got my GED and dropped out of school. I began working full time after that.

I didn't get the "normal" teenage experience, life just sucks like that sometimes. I've been taking care of Charlie's drugged up ass for years now and I was glad to be done with it. I'm not even exactly sure how he died. I do know that it had something to do with him ODing and a shooting but that's about all the police would tell me, they couldn't tell me more because there was an open case or something.

When I went to identify the body he resembled nothing of the man I had looked up to as a young girl. The drugs had taken a real toll on him physically and mentally. His face was splotchy, covered in scabs and sunken in. His were still open and sunken far into his head. His body was thin and covered in scabs and track marks. I took one look at the man I no longer knew, nodded my head yes then walked.

There wasn't a funeral, but I had to spend what little money I had managed to save up over the years on his burial. Even in his death he still found ways to screw me over. But there was nothing that I could do about it now and I would never have to worry about him ever again so in a way it was almost worth it. Nah, I'd still rather have the money actually. I spent hours of hard earned money on a man that I hated.

I felt tinny drops of water fall on my face, looking up I noticed that it was starting to rain. I quickened my pace hoping to make it home before it got too bad. But three blocks latter I was walking in a heavy downpour and I was still ten blocks from my apartment. I cursed to myself as I ran into a nearby bar. The place was poorly light and smelled like stale alcohol but it would have to do until the rain let up. There weren't many too people hanging around seeing as it was only about two on a Wednesday afternoon but there was a grungy looking man sitting at the bar slowly sipping his drink and a couple of well dressed men in the back playing pool.

I made my way towards the bar and took a seat. The bartender had his back to me so I slammed my hand down on the counter to get his attention. He turned around to glare at me but I just smile back at him. He was a big bulky man with a shaved head but I don't scare easily.

"Two shots por favor." I said. He just shook his head at me before turning around to get my drinks. Luckily he didn't card me seeing as I'm only nineteen.

"Hard day?" He asked me in a gruff voice.

"Hard life." I sighed. He let out a small laugh.

"Isn't it for all of us?" He placed the drinks down in front of me. I just smirked as I downed the first shot. I put down the glass and quickly grabbed for the next one finishing it just as quickly. I closed my eyes for a moment letting the alcohol do its work. I heard someone sit down next to me and when I opened my eyes I noticed that it was one of the men from the back. He was dressed nice in a blue dress shirt and black dress pants which was unusual for this part of town. His blond hair was slicked back in a way that made it look greasy but his face was attractive. Not in an 'I'm going to jump your bones right here' kind of way but he was good looking.

"Hey baby, can I buy you a drink?" He smirked at me. I looked down at the two empty shot glasses in front of me.

"You just did." I smiled back at him. He laughed and scooted closer to me.

"How about another one then?" He placed his hand on my thigh.

"I'm good, but thanks." I pushed his hand off of my leg looking away from him. I was not in mood to be hit on by creepers at the moment. He stood up and walked so that he was standing behind me.

"Come on, don't be like that." He grabbed my shoulders and leaned his head in so that his lips were almost touching my right ear. I cringed at his close he was to me. "You know you want it." He whispered in my ear.

"Get off of me." I said slowly. He just chuckled.

"You and me could have a lot of fun." One of his hands began to wander towards my chest. I stood up abruptly pushing him off of me.

"I said get off!" I shouted at him. He fell into a small table behind him effectively knocking it and himself over. My chest was heaving. I did not need this shit right now.

"You little bitch." He spat. He quickly stood up and made his way back towards me. "You're going to pay for this." I stood my ground, not moving an inch. I was not going to give into this asshole.

"Hey," The bartender shouted getting everyone's attention. "That's enough. Just leave the girl alone." The guy glared at the bartender.

"This doesn't concern you." He sneered.

"James, why don't you just leave her alone?" The guy still standing by the pool table called out to him.

"Why don't you shut the fuck up Ben?" James bit back. I made a move to head towards the door but I didn't get two steps before this James guy grabbed my arm. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"Away from you." I said. I tried to pull out of his grasp but it was no use, he was just stronger than me. He put him face right up next to mine again.

"You're not going anywhere." I was trapped, so I did the only reasonable thing that I could think of in the moment, I kneed him in the balls. James grunted and doubled over in pain. While he was hunched over I took the opportunity to kick him to the ground. He hit the floor with a satisfying thud.

"Next time keep your hands to yourself." The Ben guy ran up to James to check on him. While they were preoccupied I slipped out the door and back into the pouring rain.

"This suck." I said to myself. I was lying on my bed in my shitty apartment all alone trying to figure out what to do next. It wasn't even a real bed, it was really just a mattress sitting on the floor with pillows and blankets covering it. It sounds bad but it's really not. It isn't much but its mine. Sitting up I decided that I was going to throw away all of Charlie's stuff. I stood up and walked into the living room. The living room and kitchen is all one space. Against the far wall sat a small old stove, fridge and sink with limited counter space. The counter space didn't even matter to me anyway, I can't really cook. My diet consisted of off brand ramen, canned soup and spaghettios. Yeah, I didn't even buy the real stuff, too pricey. I don't even think the fridge works.

I made my way to the side of the room that was covered by old sheets, this was Charlie's space. This apartment only has one bedroom and since I pay the rent I got the room. I have never actually been in Charlie's space before, there was no need for me to before this. I'm actually a little afraid of what I might find. I took a deep breath and pulled the sheets back, what I saw didn't surprise me even a little bit. A dirty old mattress sat on the ground with nothing covering it but needles. Next to it sat a box from our original move flipped over so that it could be used as a table. Dirty clothes sat piled up in the corner next to a lamp and that was it.

I quickly got to work pulling the sheets down and carefully throwing everything into the box. I made sure to put on an old pair of gloves before touching any of his shit. Who knows where any of it had been, plus I wasn't going to risk getting pricked by one of the needles. Luckily all of Charlie's stuff fit in the box, everything except for the mattress. I picked up the box and made my way out of my apartment and down two flights of stairs to the dumpster on the side of the apartment building. I threw the box into the dumpster and headed back up the stairs for the mattress. It was going to be such a pain in my ass getting it out to the dumpster. The building doesn't have an elevator so you have to use the stairs for everything. I let out a sigh as I grabbed onto one side of the mattress and began to pull it out of my apartment.

When I got to the stairs I got a great idea and just shoved the mattress down the stairs. So getting it down the stairs just became easier than I thought it would be. I ran down the stairs after it then pushed it down the next flight. When I got it to the main level I grabbed the mattress and pulled it out of the building and to the dumpster. I leaned the mattress up against the dumpster and turned to head back into my building. When I was about to walk through the door I heard someone call my name from behind.

"Bella!" I turned around and saw that it was Candy. A huge smile crossed my face.

"Hey!" I screamed. Candy ran up to me in her usual uniform, torn up fishnets, a black mini dress, five in heals and a faux fur coat.

"Hey girl." She stopped short in front of me. I tackled her with a tight hug, she hugged me back just as tight. I haven't seen Candy in almost five months now seeing as she had moved to New York.

"What are you doing here?" I asked smiling, I pulled out of the hug so that I could look at her.

"What, didn't you miss me?" She pouted playfully. I slapped her arm.

"Of course I did, but what about New York? You were so excited to get out of here." I frowned.

"I know, I know" She sighed "But honestly nothing compares to good ol' Chi town." I just looked at her.

"No really, why are you back?" She sighed again and looked up.

"Look, how bout we go up to your apartment then I'll tell you cause I'm freezing my tits off out here."

"Sure." I nodded my head and opened the door for her.

We have both just been sitting on my bed for the last half hour not really saying anything. Candy was nervously playing with her tights while I just stared at her. It was really weird that she was back in town. Don't get me wrong, I love Candy and she's my best friend but I honestly thought that I would never see her again. You see Candy's a hooker, don't judge, to each their own, you know? Anyway she wanted to get away from the life so she left Chicago for New York hopefully leaving hooking behind. New city new life, that was the plan. I was actually suppose to go with her but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't leave Charlie alone and homeless. So I stayed behind while Candy went off to New York to start her new life. But with her back in town my guess is that things didn't go as planned.

"So… New York?" I asked.

"I tried." Candy said quietly. "I really did. When I got there everything was great at first, I got a job waitressing and found a cheap studio apartment, and it was good, I was happy for once. It stayed like that for the first few months but then…" She drifted off look out the window. I scooted closer to her.

"Then?"

"Then… I meet a guy. Ricky, he seemed so nice at first. He more or less pretended to be my Prince Charming and came in sweeping me off my feet." She let out a sour laugh "After a while I stupidly trusted him telling him what I use to do for a living and before I knew it, he was turning me out." I looked at her with wide eyes. "Turns out, dude was a pimp! Can you believe my luck?" She leaned her had against the wall. I didn't know what to say, the only reason that Candy was even a hooker to begin with was because her step father pushed her into when she was thirteen. He needed money and used Candy. She hated it do much.

"What happened after that?" I asked her softly. She turned to look at me.

"What do you think? I took that first opportunity I got and got the hell out of there." I leaned over and hugged her tightly. She laid her had on my shoulder and began to cry. "I'm so fucking stupid." She sobbed.

"No you're not." I was stoking her blond hair. "Remember, you're the one that helped me get my GED." I smiled at the memory of her following me around asking me all sorts of different questions while I waited tables during my night shift at a local diner. "You're the smarted person I know." I said seriously.

"Shut up." She pushed me away jokingly while laughing and wiping the tears out of her eyes. "We both deserve so much better than this." I smiled sadly at her know that she was right. We just sat there in a sad silence for a couple of minutes. "You know what," Candy said out of nowhere. "I'm done with all of this bullshit!" She stood up putting her hands on her hips.

"What are you talking about now?" I asked seriously confused.

"THIS!" She gestured all around herself. "Feeling sorry for myself, living in shithole places like this."

"Thanks." I said sarcastically.

"Oh shut up, you know what I mean." And I really did. "For years we've been talking about what it would be like if our lives had turned out differently. If your mom never left, if mine had never died, blah blah blah, life sucks. Well I'm so sick of the what if's, it's time for some of them to become a reality!" She had a very serious look on her face.

"And how do you plan on doing that" She just smirked at me.

"I'm going back to school." She said determinedly. My jaw fell open.

"Oh my god, are you serious?"

"I'm as serious as butter on toast. And why the hell should I not go back to school? I mean I got my GED too, I could find a good community college and do something with my life." I was starting to get excited for her. "I'm going to get a real job, no guys this time, save up some money then start classes next fall." She was pacing my room while trying to plan out her future. "Maybe I could be a nurse, or a teacher, I always wanted to be a teacher." I jumped up and sopped her pacing.

"I'm so proud of you." She smiled widely at me.

"You should go too!" She grabbed my hands excitedly.

"Oh no, college is not for me. But I'll be here the whole way for you."

"I'm really going to do this."

"Yes you are. By the way, where are you living now?" I don't think that she would have moved back in with her stepfather but you never know.

"You see," She let out a nervous laugh "That's the funny part. I don't have a place to stay yet. I had literally just gotten back into town when I came to find you so… yeah."

"You're staying with me."

"Oh no, Bella I'm fine. I'm sure that I can find a place to crash."

"Don't be stupid, you're staying here."

"I thought you said I was smart." She joked.

"Shut up. But seriously dude, you're staying with me whether you like it or not."

"Fine." She said in defeated. "But I'm warning you now, I'm a terrible roommate."

"I'll bet that you're better than Charlie." She walked over to the mirror that I had hanging on my wall.

"How is he anyways?" She asked while fixing her hair.

"Dead." I replied simply laying back on my bed.

"What?" She turned to look at me.

"I said that he's dead."

"Oh my god, are you okay?" She asked worriedly. I just shrugged my shoulders.

"I'm fine, I was throwing all of his shit away when you showed up. Honestly it's a relief to be rid of him."

"I know what it was like between you two but still, he was your dad." She sat down next to me.

"He hasn't been my dad for years." Which was very true, the real Charlie had left with my mom nine years ago.

"Well if you're sure you're okay…" I sat up to look at her.

"I'm fine." She smiled.

"Okay, but we gotta go shopping tomorrow cause I got nothing. I left all of my clothes back in New York. All I brought was my money." I just shook my head at her. "What? I was trying to make a quick getaway, if I had taken all of my shit with me Ricky would have noticed that I was gone." It was good to have Candy back.

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