CH. 1

As I got out of the car, I looked at the house that for years I had not laid eyes on. I got my coat out and put it on as I closed the door to the car with my foot which I had to admit, was something I did even more recently than when I first started to drive. I walked up to the front of the house and knocked twice on the wood door that so many times in my childhood I had seen my self standing in front of with the man who calls himself my father. Of course, to me I never had a father or a mother. My mother had died giving birth to me, which I guess could be a good excuse to not having one.

The only real family I ever had was my uncle Charlie and my cousin Bella who I visited every summer here in Forks, Washington until the age of 7. The man who called himself my father would always come with me to visit his brother, my uncle, in his best army uniform and of course had me in the best dress possible. I hated dresses.

My cousin Bella would visit summers too since uncle Charlie was divorced with aunt Renee and well, lets just say Bella was like a yoyo going back and forth between Forks, Washington and Phoenix, Arizona. Those summers where always the best memories in my life. Bella was more than a cousin to me; she was like a sister. I would always tell her that and since I was a year and a half older than her, she was more of a little sister. She helped me be reminded that I was a child and that I too could have fun . Life on a military base with a father who never has time for a daughter, was a life full of misery and discontent.

As I remembered my last visit to Forks, the door opened and a man stood before me who I immediately recognized as my uncle Charlie.

"Hello Uncle Charlie. Long time no seeing." I grinned at him. Uncle Charlie looked at me with shocking eyes and all of a sudden he had me in his arms.

"Hey kiddo! It sure has been a long time! Look at you." He let me go to look at me in full view.

"Why you're not a little girl anymore! It's good to see you. So what brings you to Forks?" He finally looked at me with questioning eyes. I found it pretty funny how all of a sudden he was happy to see me and then from one minute to another he was looking at me with suspicious eyes.

So after I chuckled for a bit I answered, "Wow uncle Charlie, I didn't know I had to have a really good reason to come by and visit after all these years."

"Well its not that at all, its just that -" he paused, "I haven't seen you in so many years and last thing I heard from your father, you were off in some University in New York."

I looked at him for a second and smiled, "Oh uncle Charlie, I sure have missed you!" Again I hugged him, and as I did I felt a relief because I had just avoided answering the question that I was dying not to hear.

After a minute of hugging, I let him go since I could tell he was feeling a little bit weird about these so called "special moments" that he tries to avoid, especially with Bella. I looked at him and asked, " How's Bella by the way?"

"She's good, she's very good. Oh! I don't know if you know but Bella has been living here with me since last spring." He ran to the kitchen immediately and I followed.

"You mean Bella is here?!" I felt so happy all of a sudden, that I didn't even hear the first time when he said, "Layla, here's Bella."

"Huh?"

"Bella's on the phone."

" Oh! My bad." I grabbed the phone from him and he laughed shaking his head as he left the kitchen.

"Hello?"

"Layla is that you?"

"Duh Bella! Who else would it be?" I laughed.

"Oh my- Wait! When did you get here? Where are you staying? What's new?" I started to laugh and was so glad to know that she too was excited as much as I was to hear each other.

"Damn it Bella hold on, I only have one mouth!" I laughed again.

"Well I got here about, 10 minutes ago and I was thinking about asking uncle Charlie if I could stay here but-" I grinned as I continued, "since your staying here I don't want to intrude."

"Hello! Earth to Layla! Of course you can stay here!"

" Dude, I know. I just like to mess with you." We both laughed.

"Since when did you start using the word 'dude'?"

"Since I turned 17 and noticed I couldn't get it out of my daily vocabulary"

"It has been years since I've seen you! How tall are you now? How old are you now? Wait! I know!"

I waited as she tried to count out loud and I started the hum.

"Oh my crow Layla, it doesn't take me that long to figure out how old you are!" I laughed at her and said,

"Well it sure does seem like it! I mean I hope your not doing that badly in math class." I heard her scowl at me.

"Ok ,so I got it! Your 20! And your 6 foot tall!"

"Ummm yes I'm 20 but I think you're a little off on the height. Why don't you just hurry your ass on over so you can see for your self!"

"Don't worry I'm on my way and by the way your going to meet my boyfriend." As soon as I heard the word boyfriend I started to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh I'm sorry its just that , well, last time I saw you, you were so not girlfriend material. It's kind of weird picturing my little cousin with a boyfriend."

"Well, it has been years so I'm pretty sure you have a boyfriend of your own,"

"Yeah, I guess your right. Are you almost here?"

"Yes I am as a matter of fact. Wait, Hold on!"

I heard as she was whispering something to who ever was her boyfriend and managed to hear her say, " can you hear her?" and then I heard a deeper voice say, "Hmm how strange. I can only hear bits and pieces" I tried to hear what else she was going to say but then she came back on the phone with a hesitant tone to her voice and said, " Ok, come out because I want you to meet my boyfriend."

"Oh alright! I guess I can walk all the way out side and go and meet this boyfriend of yours." I laughed as I heard myself say boyfriend and hanged up the phone. I thought to myself, "What could they be talking about? What did it mean?"

I turned to see uncle Charlie leaning against the doorway of the kitchen.

"Does she want you to meet her boyfriend?" I smiled.

"How did you know? Were you eves dropping on my conversation Chief Swan?" We both laughed and as we walked to the door he held me back and said, "Hey don't be surprised when you see this boyfriend of hers, oh and, your staying with us so while your outside get your things so we can get you situated." He just walked away from me and went straight to the kitchen and as I was turning the knob on the door I yelled out, " Thanks uncle Charlie! Appreciate it!" I was smiling as I came out and turned to close the door.