Disclaimer: The plotline may be mine but the characters are all Stephenie Meyer's!
My True Home
Chapter 1: Mess of a Dreamer
Bella's POV
It was cold.
No surprise there- I was always cold nowadays, I couldn't remember exactly what warmth felt like anymore, and yet it had only been two years.
Two long cold years.
I felt a sob stick in my throat; this was ridiculous- I had to stop crying over this now! But unfortunately, two years would eventually turn to three and then four until my whole life passed me by and I would never accomplish exactly what I wanted out of life.
All because of my selfish father.
I sighed and slumped further into the cardboard shelter, out of sight of the people walking past my alley. I snorted at the thought, once again, slightly amused- I lived in an alley. While everyone had a nice warm home and family- food, showers… I stopped the thought process there; dwelling on it would only succeed in making me feel worse. It wasn't as if I hadn't tried to get myself out of this mess when I'd lost the house, I'd been determined, but no one wanted to hire a homeless, nineteen year old girl that hadn't completed high school- not even as a freaking waitress!
The only thing I had left was my tattered classic book collection, it was the one thing I had refused to sell, it was the only thing I had left of my mother. She'd given them to me for Christmas the year before I'd lost her to Cancer. Other than the books, I'd been forced to give up everything else up, a future, warmth, friendships, maybe even a chance at love…I sighed, not wanting my thoughts to go down that path again. I'd never see him again, even if my best friend from so many years ago remembered me and came back, I'd never want him to see me like this- not that he'd want my friendship again. No one looked twice at me anymore. No one wanted to recognise the old chief's daughter in the alley as they walked on by, going about their daily lives. People who I once considered my friends now shunned me as if I was suddenly different now that I just didn't have a roof over my head and I failed to see the logic. I was just another homeless girl on the street. I'd come to finally accept my reality.
Edward's POV
"Guess what Eddie boy? Mom's done! We're going home!"
My older sister's loud voice, waking me up at five o clock in the morning, the first day after finally graduating college, would have usually made me want to throw something at darling Alice- preferably something hard and painful- but when I managed to process her words, I sat ramrod straight up in bed with excitement. Home could only mean one thing.
Forks, Washington.
And a mystery of stopped phone calls to figure out.
x-x-x-x-x
Now two weeks after that morning, we were enduring the long car ride back to the life we'd left behind six years before. We'd decided not to sell the Chicago house- it had too many memories.
In the first place, the move to Chicago had been initiated by a huge company that had wanted to recruit my mother, Esme, one of the most sought after architects in America, to design a new resort in Chicago. The project was huge, there's no way any of our family would let her turn the opportunity down.
So with Alice and I still fresh in high school, we packed up and left for what was supposed to be three years, but soon turned into longer when my mom finally got more work opportunities there. Alice and I had ended up finishing high school and college there: Me with a degree in journalism and media studies, Alice in fashion design- a career move that had surprised everyone. I'd been toying with the idea of heading back to Forks for awhile after graduation, sure I'd miss being around my close knit family, but there was some unfinished business for me in the tiny town, business that wasn't just me missing the place I'd grown up in. I needed to see a girl, not just any girl, this was Bella Swan, the best friend that I'd lost contact with years before.
We'd been inseparable friends growing up and as we'd entered our early teens, I'd sworn there'd been something more than friendship growing between us. We'd shared a mind blowing first kiss but before I'd had a chance to pursue that, we'd had to move.
Bella and I had stayed friends while I was away, calling every week. But soon the phone calls grew scarce on her side before stopping altogether about two years ago- I assumed with a broken heart that she hadn't wanted to be with me after all, maybe met some one else and forgotten about me. But I'd never forgotten about her, sure when the phone calls and contact had stopped, I'd tried to, but her beautiful brown eyes, so full of depth haunted my dreams every night. There hadn't been a day that I hadn't wondered what had happened to the brown haired beauty.
It didn't matter if the feelings that had been there when we were gangly teenagers were no longer there, I missed my best friend.
And I was going to find her and figure out what had happened.
