Hi all. If you're reading this, thank you so much. I haven't written fiction in years, since I was in high school really. I've been getting into more Leah fiction as of late, and it inspired me to start a new story. I've always been a one shot type of gal when I was writing, and this is my first stab at a chaptered story. I've freelanced for the past couple of years, but fiction is a whole different ball park for me. Seeing as such, please leave constructive reviews! Let me know if you love it or hate it, or what you want to see. And without my editors here, I apologize if there are any typos and missed punctuation.

Here we go!

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. If I did, the things I would do with the Character of Leah Clearwater are endless.

No matter what I do, my life is a joke.

I thought the words quietly to myself as I took another swig of whiskey. I was scrolling through Facebook and looking through pictures of the happy, soon-to-be married couple. It had been a year since I had been home to La Push, and almost two years since the run in with the Volturi. At this point, Facebook was how I kept up everyone on the Rez. Except for Mom and Seth of course since they made sure to video chat or text me at least twice a day. Jake did too, when he wasn't glued to the hip of his darling Nessie.

I took another swig of whiskey before grimacing as I forced the liquid down. Ugh, this shit was awful. I had never been a big drinker, but today, I didn't want to feel anything. I had stolen the bottle from my roommate's stash under the pretense that I would replace it even though I'm sure she wouldn't miss it. I was thankful that I was able to get drunk again. I still phased, but a lot less since I had been living it Seattle, usually only once or twice every few weeks. It was way harder to morph into a giant animal in a highly populated area, believe it or not. And besides that, a part of me wanted to leave my wolf in the past. That had been the whole reason for this move in the first place. I wanted a new start where no one knew I was a wolf, no one felt sorry for me, and no one held me hostage to a life that I didn't pick for myself. It was hard, no doubt, but I was making progress.

The liquor was starting to really hit me and I smiled to myself. At this rate, I may at least be sloppy drunk for a good hour before it started wearing off, kind of like a normal human. It reminded me of the times me and Emily used to sneak liquor from my dad's closet while my parents were at work.

Ugh! Fuck Her! I shook the thought out of my head before gulping down more whiskey. I didn't want to think about Emily or any of the good times we had. That was the whole point of me getting drunk at 10 a.m.

I was over feeling sorry for myself the day I realized that it would do nothing for my current situation. That's why after the anticlimactic situation with Nessie and the Volturi, I started working my ass off. I got a job at a diner in Forks and slaved away, saving every penny with the goal of leaving La Push. I had never planned on staying there in the first place. My plan had always been to go to UDubb with Sam, get a law degree, and move across country. Even though looking back on it, I doubt that's how it actually would have went, supernatural involvement or not. Sam would never have left his mom alone in La Push, and quite frankly, I wouldn't have wanted to raise a family that far away from my parents. We would have moved back home after college, had an intimate wedding, and started a family. I would have worked at the small law firm in Forks, Sam would have started his own construction company, and we would have been happy with that. At least that's what I tell myself. Now with Sam out the picture and the circumstances under which he exited, my idea of family has changed. I wasn't going to have kids. My dad had passed. My mom had a new life.

I had no reason not to live out my plan, minus Sam of course.

Gulping down more whiskey, I laughed out loud. Life never goes as planned.

As I drunkingly scrolled through more pictures of the happy couple, I didn't hear the door open behind me.

"Leah, what the entire fuck?"

I jumped in shock before turning around and seeing my roommate staring at me with a mix of concern, confusion, and pity.

I let out a drunken, hearty laugh and a sigh of relief. "Bitch, you scared the fuck out of me!"

She walked over to where I was sitting and picked up the bottle of whiskey that I had been drinking from. It was three quarters of the way gone. I didn't even notice until now.

"Leah. What. The. Fuck." She dramatically paused shaking the mostly empty bottle in her hand. "It's barely noon!"

I smiled to myself because I had been drinking since 10 a.m. which meant I was still drunk at noon, and my tolerance for alcohol was becoming more…well, human. Granted, I never had a very high tolerance for alcohol even before the whole werewolf thing, but still. I was making progress towards being normal.

"Don't worry, I'll buy you a new bottle," I assured her with my eyes closed, waving my hand as to tell her to drop her concern.

I felt her weight on the couch as she came to sit by me. I opened my eyes, and all I could see was concern radiating from her eyes. "Fuck the whiskey, Leah. I don't give a fuck, I mean, I'm a bar tender for crying out loud. I've been wanting your non-drinking ass to get drunk with me for the past year." She took my hand in hers before looking me dead in the eye. "Are you okay?"

I looked into Bianca's eyes and saw the caring look of a true friend. I slouched into the couch a bit as her gazed intensified. Bianca had truly become my best friend over the past year.

When I was still living in La Push, looking for apartments in Seattle, I had become hopeless. Everything was way too expensive for me, but I was determined to get out of there. Finally, an add on Craig's List had popped for a roommate to an apartment in which I could afford. I'd almost thought it was too good to be true, especially coming from Craig's List. But I was desperate, and I had my wolf strength. I knew I could take on someone that may be trying to kill me. Much to my surprise, when I went to the apartment to take a look, no serial killer met me at the door. Rather, a young, beautiful, 5'3 brown skinned woman with a huge, curly afro. She looked like she had no problem breaking hearts, but killing people wasn't exactly her line of work. I counted my blessings, took the spot in the apartment, and the two of us have been as thick as thieves ever since. We lived on the top floor of a duplex. It was two bedrooms, and one bath. We had a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen that we shared. It was modest, but for someone like me who had come from humble beginnings and was begging to be free of the town that held me bound, it was a palace.

"You don't have to do this, you know," she added breaking the silence. "I doubt anyone would be mad at you if you didn't."

Bianca knew about Sam and Emily. Well, she knew as much as I could tell her without letting the wolf out of the bag. Her not knowing about the magical implications of imprinting made her hate the two of them even more, which I couldn't deny made me kind of happy. To her, my slimy cousin just stole my man, and for that reason, she believed both of them could go to hell.

I sighed. "I'm fine, B, I promise."

She looked at the bottle then at me to let me know that she wasn't buying it.

"I'm not doing this for Sam, or Emily, or my mom, or anyone else. I'm doing this for me." I stated matter-of-factly. I wasn't lying. No matter how much it sucked, I had made this decision for myself.

Emily and I had always agreed that we would be the Maid of Honor in each other's wedding. Of course, that was before I found out that she would be marrying my first love. The majority of my heart told me to say fuck it and forget the pact we had made when we were preadolescent and had no idea how unfair life could be. However, when she reached out to me asking me to still hold the position in her wedding, something in me made me say yes.

I needed to reassure myself that I was better than the shit hand that life had dealt me.

However, now, I was regretting it. Maybe I was wrong, maybe I wasn't very strong at all.

Bianca shook her head. "My brother stole $200 from me, and I didn't talk to him for almost a year. Your bitch ass cousin steals your life, and you agree to be in the wedding party? We are definitely cut from a different cloth," she laughed. I simply rolled my eyes. She didn't know the half.

I was thankful that she had agreed to be my plus one to the event. We were going down to La Push a couple of weeks early so that I could spend some time with my mom and brother before the wedding. After the ceremony, I was booking it back to Seattle as fast as the car would let me, and who knew when the fuck I would come back to that hellhole again.

"Didn't you say you wanted to be out of here by one o'clock?" Bianca asked.

I shrugged. "Yeah, that was the plan."

"Well, it's almost time to go. And I think it goes without saying that I'll be driving," she stated with accusation in her voice.

I simply stared at the picture of Sam and Emily's engagement photos that were pulled up on my laptop. I felt a mix of emotions. Anger, regret, fear, and sadness. I jumped as Bianca slammed my computer closed before kneeling in front of me and grabbing my hands.

"You're sure this is what you wanna do?" She asked again with an edge that let me know it was ok to say no.

I looked past her and grabbed the whiskey from the coffee table in front of us. Downing the rest of the contents of the bottle, I nodded my head. "I'll go grab my luggage," I said standing up and almost tripping over nothing.

"What the fuck. Alcohol makes me act like Bella's ass. Pre-change." I laughed, mostly to myself as I walked to my room to grab my bags.

"What?" Bianca called to me quizzically.

"Oh, nothing. You'll meet everyone when we get there," I said in a sing-song voice.

"Oh boy." I heard her say under her breath.

My tolerance for alcohol may have been affected, but my wolf hearing was still A1.

Let me know if you want more! Review please, thanks y'all.