5235af1f83
3 am is an unholy hour to be awake. I'm not exactly sure if it's really early or really late, I guess that depends on your circumstances. Considering I've been conscious for…going on 30 hours now, according to my sleep deprived brain, it was really friggin late. I was still driving I had about two hours to go before I would get to my fathers house. Not that I had been driving for 30 hours straight it's not that long of a drive (thank God), I'm just not too good at sleeping when I'm anxious.
Truth was I was bored out of my wits; no one to talk to and I had gone through all of my cd's to which I had sung loudly and off key to. I decided I needed a coffee and pee break. Not exactly in that order.
I took the next exit and immediately found a quaint looking diner that was actually open, any place that is open at 3 am and still in business probably has decent coffee. Before I sat down I went to the ladies room to freshen up, I peed, splashed some water on my face and threw my hair into a ponytail. I decided I looked presentable as any could at this hour.
I slid into a booth that faced the rest of the restaurant and was backed by a wall; I liked having my back to the wall, meant no one could sneak up on me. I'm paranoid like that, so what?
An old-ish lady as round and just as sweet looking as an over ripe peach bustled over to my table.
"What can I get ya hon?" she said pen poised over her note pad.
"Coffee and …." What sounds good? "Bacon please."
She nodded and went to put in my order.
I leaned back against the seat enough to crack my back then stretched my arms out and laid them against the back of the seat. If I was a guy and I was sitting like this I'd say I looked like a creeper, but when you're a hundred and twenty five pound 18 year old girl its hard to look threatening. Which at times can be used to one's advantage.
The waitress came with my coffee and I shivered and sighed in contentment when I had my first sip. Happiness in a cup…
I ate my bacon and sipped the rest of my coffee in peace. Feeling re-energized I hopped into my newly refurbished 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle. It was my baby and I had been working on it ever since I bought the rusty shell of a once beautiful machine off my best friends older brother for 300 dollars when I was 13. Mom hadn't freaked out she just rolled her eyes when they towed it over to the house and put it in the extra carport. I got it finished last year, its matte black and waxed to a fine sheen.
I rolled the windows down and let the wind whip my hair back as I sped down the highway. The air smelled fresh, like there was a storm coming just over the horizon, that was probably the case, from what I've seen so far it's almost always raining here.
About 30 minutes into the last leg of my journey I zoned out a little bit, thinking about the fateful turn of event that led my mom to insist on me moving away to go live with my father.
I stabbed someone. It was purely self-defense. I was walking to my car after my shift at Hank's Place, bar and grill, (I was hostess) when a mountain of a man with buzzed non-descript brown hair grabbed me around the waist covered my mouth with one of his greasy mitts and carried me off to the small alley-way that's in between Hank's and the florist next door.
He had me shoved up against the cold brick wall while he was fumbling with something. Something that I didn't want anything to do with. I panicked for a split second terror and dread clouding my mind. I finally got my mind on track with great effort. I didn't even think to use my unique ability, not that I could have my mouth and most of my face were being crushed under his sinewy forearm. He smelled of sweat and cigarette smoke. I took in my surroundings nothing around that could help me, no empty bear bottles or anything else that could be used to bludgeon one's attacker. Then I felt it, digging into my stomach was the butt of what I assumed to be a large knife. I flicked the snap open. He didn't notice. I eased it out of the sheath. Still nothing. In one fluid motion so fast that it surprised even me I sank that five-inch long blade into the side of his neck with a slight twist of my wrist, just to do that much more damage.
He looked into my eyes in disbelief as I watched his hand tremble while he tried in vain to reach up and remove the knife. Blood dripped from the end of the handle and landed on my white button down dress shirt, it looked black in the near darkness. I watched the light leave his eyes and go flat and felt nothing but a surge of relief.
The whole thing was really a pain in the ass, all I wanted to do was forget about it and go on living the life that I had fought for. No such luck. I must've repeated that story a dozen times to seven different kinds of law enforcement personnel, first the regular county sheriff then plain-clothes detectives, then a ton of feds.
My attacker was identified as Gunter Smith. He had a warrant out for his arrest for things ranging from aggravated assault to suspected murder. Also a known gang member, when they told me that I remembered seeing the double lightning bolts on tattooed to the side of his neck where I had stabbed him. Jeez every time I think things like "stabbed a giant gang member" I feel like a crazy person but I also feel like a bad ass. Yup, that's me putting down bad guys in the dead of night making the world a safer place.
They said that I should get some kind of therapy to deal with the trauma, but I didn't want to get shrunken by some dude and bring up the incident again. I was just fine with suppressing the hell out of it. The side effect of that repression was that it left me drained emotionally. Mom thought that I needed a change of scenery and as she put it "What trouble could I [you] possibly get into while living with my [your] cop dad in a small town like Forks?"
I pulled into the tight two-car driveway in front of my childhood home. The sun was just starting to rise illuminating the modest yellow two-story house in watery light. I heaved a sigh, well here I am, no turning back now I was committed to making a new life here. Also I was far too tired to even consider driving somewhere else.
I walked into the kitchen where I heard movement. There was Charlie in his fishing garb turned towards the pantry finishing up packing his snack into a paper bag.
"Hi, Cha-…Dad." He doesn't like the first name thing.
He jumped slightly then whirled, giant smile in place. "Bells!" he took two long strides and hugged me.
"I've missed you! How was your drive? Where are all of your bags?" he was asking way too many questions, that is if two can ever really be considered too many of anything. Maybe like hungry tigers in a room with you or something, but then one are too many of those. I realized that I had taken way too long to answer…damn I'm sleepy.
"My drive was fine I was a little worried to take the Chevelle on such a long trip but she did fine. And the rest of my bags are in the backseat, I'll get them later." I leaned against the kitchen table for support I was beginning to sway a little.
"Well you look exhausted kiddo, I'm gonna go fishing, why don't you get some sleep?" he said gathering up all his tackle. He couldn't have said anything better than that.
"Yeah I haven't really been sleeping." I said.
He nodded, hugged me and kissed my forehead. "Bye hon, get some rest."
Will do…
I dragged my tired butt up the stairs and to my small bathroom. I washed my face and got a new toothbrush from under the sink to brush my teeth. I climbed into bead and I swear I was passed out before my head hit the pillow.
When I woke up it was dark and I didn't know where I was right away. My brain caught up and the last few days came back to me in a rush. I sighed and realized that I hadn't quite accepted my new lot in life yet. It would come, sooner or later.
I looked over to my alarm clock. 6:22 pm. Damn I slept the whole day.
I followed the smell of fish fry that wafted up the stairs from the back porch, my stomach groaned loudly like it had smelled the greasy goodness. The only thing that Charlie cooked, well at least, was bear battered fish.
We sat down to a somewhat awkward silence. "So, excited for your first day of school?" Charlie though successful in getting the conversational ball rolling got it rolling in the wrong direction. I wanted to put off thinking about the 'first day' thing for as long as possible, even if that meant avoiding it until I pulled into the schools parking lot tomorrow morning.
I put a fork full of fish in my mouth and decided that not all was bad in the world. If there wasn't anything too great left at least there was fried food.
"Oh, yeah it should be fun," No it wont. I plastered a smile on my face in the hopes that he would drop the subject.
"That's the spirit, I'm glad your adjusting so well" He bought the act, sweet.
"How was your fishing trip?" that was one thing Charlie could talk about for a while. Hopefully till dinner was over. I felt like bitch, trying to get him to talk about something harmless because I knew he wouldn't just let there be silence, he would feel obligated to ask me how I was dealing with the move.
I was finished with my food when Charlie's fork scraped his plate; he looked down at his plate with a mildly shocked expression. He had talked almost non-stop about the trip he had taken with Billy Clearwater, and how he had packed the freezer out back waist deep with fish. I bustled around the kitchen cleaning everything up but I could almost hear the cogs turning in Charlie's head while he worked up to whatever he wanted to say.
I turned around from the sink with my hands on my hips; dishtowel slung over my shoulder and gave him a pointed look that said, "C'mon out with it."
He took a breath to speak, paused shook his head and let it out slowly. He nodded to himself and without any more prep said "Bell, no matter what the circumstances are for you coming here, well… I'm really glad you are." I'm a horrible person. All this time he was working up to saying something sweet, welcoming me in the nicest way possible and here I was avoiding talking to him the way a dog avoids spicy food.
"Oh, dad I'm glad I'm here too." I went over to hug him. We had a nice father daughter moment worthy of an award, if they gave that sort of thing out.
A/N so? It'll get more action-y in the next one for sure.