Wow! The response for the prologue was so amazing! Thank you all so much!

Thank you SunflowerFran3759 for your awesome beta skills. If there are any mistakes, they're mine for adding things after her review.

Chapter 1

"If you jump, you're the toughest of them all!" Jacob shouted as he looked down to the water, so many feet below.

"Yeah, my brother jumped from the highest spot. He's a tough dude," Paul, the oldest of the boys, assured the group.

Edward, a boy of only ten, stared on as the others shared stories and legends of "men" they knew who had jumped off the La Push cliff and into the rough waters below. His green eyes turned away from them and instead concentrated on the angry waves that slapped the rocky wall of the cliff.

Would he jump? Would it hurt? Would his parents be angry if he did?

He gulped and jammed his sweaty hands into the pockets of his jeans.

"You up for it, Cullen?" Jacob asked with a smirk on his face and an elbow to Edward's side.

Edward nervously chuckled and avoided looking at his new friend's brown eyes and dark skin. He was too embarrassed to admit that he was afraid. He was new in town and desperately trying to make friends. They would probably call him a girl and laugh in his face. He hoped that Jake would just forget about the horrible idea and change the subject. Then the cool breeze with hints of water reminded him that it wouldn't be easy for them to forget.

He should have listened to his mother. He should have stayed home. But he was tired and bored of the tall walls of his house. He had nothing in common with his sister and his parents had been acting strange lately. Ever since they had moved to the small town of Forks from Chicago and ever since his mother started going to the doctor things had changed. He didn't quite know what it was, but it was difficult to get used to.

It was difficult to get used to the sad looks his father gave him and his sister, the time he spent locked in his office and away from them and their mother, and the way his mother, Elizabeth, stared off as if the walls she looked upon held more interest to her than anything else.

It reminded him of how Alice, his sister, would look when watching cartoons on the television. Her mouth would be slightly opened, her eyes glued to the screen without a blink.

He wondered if his mother saw interesting things in her head. He wondered if her thoughts were full of color and movements like those cartoons.

Somehow, by the looks of her dark eyes and the way his father would worry when finding her in that state, Edward knew that wasn't the case.

Lines of concern would take over Carlisle's forehead. He would pinch the bridge of his nose and gently pull his wife into their room, closing the door behind them as if trying to keep whatever was wrong away from his children.

But Edward noticed it. Though he didn't understand them, his perceptions kept him wondering.

Wondering if things would ever be normal again…

"Hey! Look what I found!" A higher, squeaky voice shouted from the woods.

"Not now, Tommy!" Jared muttered angrily annoyed.

"But it's cool!"

"Nobody cares, Tommy!" Paul assured the much younger boy.

Edward turned to focus on this kid named Tommy where he was hiding in the woods, until he stumbled out, covered in mud.

He wore blue shorts, dirty sneakers, an oversized t-shirt and a backward, baseball cap. He raised a hand and covered his eyes from the bright sun. He looked up at Edward as he made it over to stand by his side, and gave him a shy smile.

Edward tried to ignore him, not wanting to lose his new friendships over a boy they obviously didn't like, but apparently Tommy didn't know about personal space. Even though the young kid only reached his shoulder, he sure did know how to hover. Edward sighed, and tried to step away from the Tommy invasion, but the little guy was persistent.

He could now see why none of the other guys liked this kid.

"Do you wanna go see?" Tommy asked.

"No," Edward mumbled while picking at a scab on his arm. The rest of the boys were still talking about jumping off the cliff, while he nervously hoped they would stop.

"But it's…"

"But it's cool. I get it, kid. I don't care."

"Don't call me kid. We're the same age," Tommy huffed.

"How would you know that?"

"Because I do."

Edward rolled his eyes and continued picking at his scab.

"Just come see. I promise you'll like it, and we'll be right back."

Edward looked on as Jacob made plans with Jared and Paul on how they were going to jump from the lower side. He gulped and looked down at Tommy.

"Okay," Edward suddenly said. "Take me to see whatever this thing is, and it better be cool, or I'm gonna beat you up!"

Tommy didn't take his threat seriously nor did he wait for him to change his mind. He pulled Edward by the arm, across the road and into the woods.

"Ed, where are you going?" Jake shouted.

"I'm gonna see what Tommy is annoying me about," Edward said back.

He couldn't see the other boys' responses, because Tommy was strong and fast, regardless of his short and small stature.

After a few feet, Tommy let go of him, allowing him follow. Edward chuckled to himself at how clumsy Tommy was. He slipped and tumbled quite a bit over rocks and tree branches and even on thin air it seemed. He kept pulling his oversized shorts up and looking back to check if Edward was following.

They finally stopped, and while Edward rolled his eyes, Tommy inspected the area to find whatever it was he wanted to show him.

"See!"

Edward looked down at what the other boy was pointing at and grimaced. "Sick! What's that?"

Tommy giggled, and Edward held back a joke about how he sounded like a girl.

"It's a dead frog!"

"Gross."

"I know, right?"

"How did it die?"

"I dunno."

"Don't touch it!"

Tommy rolled his eyes and pulled the dead frog by one of its legs and threw it at Edward's feet.

Edward screamed. "Why'd you do that for?!"

"Don't be a wuss. You scream like a girl."

"You're the one that laughs like one!"

"Because I am a girl!"

Edward froze. He let his eyes wander over Tommy's face for the first time. He was right… well, she was right. Her face, though dirty and plain, was soft and round. Her brown eyes, cheekbones and nose were delicate and not rough like that of a boy.

He had been warned about Tommy by Jake and the boys. According to them Tommy loved to tag along, but was unwanted and annoying. But nobody ever mentioned that he was a she.

"Then why are you dressed like that?" Edward asked. Confused, he rubbed at the back of his neck. "Where's your hair? Girls have long hair. And what kind of name is Tommy for a girl? That's a boy's name."

"It's just a name," she said defensively, taking the frog by the legs again and placing it over a large rock. "You wanna see its guts?"

Edward just nodded, still in disbelief over her revelation.

He stood next to her as she used a sharp twig to poke at the dead frog. She struggled as she tried to dig into the frog's flesh. Her small dirty hands weren't very strong or steady. She bit into her bottom lip in concentration while Edward studied her face.

She had tiny freckles over her cheeks and nose, and some strands of brown hair that had fallen out of her dirty cap were now stuck to her sweaty neck.

Yes, she was not like any of the girls he knew. Definitely not like his sister, Alice or his cousin, Rosalie…

They would never be out in the woods. They always smelled nice and wore nice dresses, while Tommy looked like she'd been wearing the same clothes for days.

"There!" She said, as she opened the frog.

"Sick!" Edward murmured. "Is that its heart?"

"I guess so."

"Girls don't like doing things like this. My sister would have cried and ran away. You're kinda cool; I guess," he said while elbowing her side, making her laugh.

"Girls are stupid," she muttered, as she poked at the frog's veins, and neared her head a little closer for a better look.

"You're not grossed out or creeped out that it's dead?"

"No," she simply said. "Things… people and animals… even plants… everything dies." It was such an odd thing for a ten year old to say, and even Edward realized this.

"How old are you?"

"Ten, like you."

"Where are you from? How come I've never seen you?"

"We go to the same school," she huffed. "You just moved here."

"I know, but I feel like I've met everyone. Well, all the kids. I've made friends and stuff."

"Yeah, dumb friends."

"Hey! What's it to you who my friends are? Besides, you're not my friend anyway. I don't like you."

"Yeah, I know. Let's keep it that way, okay?" She shoved him back, making him stumble. He quickly straightened up, embarrassed that she had pushed him. "I don't like you. You're just a stupid rich kid. We're not friend."

He rolled his eyes. "Agreed. We're not friends and never will be."

"Deal. Now, here. Take this," she said, handing him the twig they had just used to inspect the dead frog. "And if Jacob asks what you're doing, just tell him I got grossed out and ran away while you were poking at the frog."

Edward raised an eyebrow in confusion as Tommy started leaving.

"Wait! Where are you going, and why am I gonna tell Jake that?"

"I'm just going. You're telling Jake that story because he's coming this way now, and you don't wanna tell him you were too scared to jump off the cliff. Besides, this story will make you sound cool."

Tommy continued walking while Edward still drowned in confusion.

"Hey! You knew? You knew about me and the cliff?"

Tommy stopped walking and turned her head towards him. "Yeah. You looked, scared, so I decided to help."

Edward nervously scratched his neck. "I'm just a bad swimmer, okay? It's not that I'm scared or anything. I'm a man. I just don't like water…deep water."

She gave him a soft and closed lip smile. "I promise I won't tell anybody. My grandpa once told me that everybody gets scared and that's okay. So, I won't tell a soul if you don't want me to."

"Um, thanks?"

"Sure," she said, lowly.

"We're still not friends?"

"Nope."

"Okay," he said, looking down at the dead frog over the large rock.

"See you around."

"Goodbye." And with that she disappeared into the woods where she came from.

When Jacob and rest of the boys found Edward, he shared the story Tommy had made up for him and sure enough they thought he was cool and that Tommy was a wuss.

After the frog was gutted and examined thoroughly by the boys, Jacob went on to tell Edward what a weird kid Tommy was. She was a girl, but dressed and acted like a boy.

Jared said his parents had warned him to stay away from her. People like that are never any good.

Paul said she just needed to grow up and be 'touched' just right by a 'man', and soon enough she would start acting like what she was, instead of a dyke.

Edward didn't know what the older boy meant by any of that, but decided not to ask. He felt guilty already. Tommy had been nice to him and even saved him. Yet, there he was listening to them talk trash about her and too cowardly to defend her.

"I hear she doesn't shower," Jacob added.

"I heard that too, and Lauren said she caught her smoking a cigarette once. Girls aren't supposed to do shit like that."

"I bet she does drugs," Jared said, laughing.

"Yeah, my mom says her dad is a loser who got fired from the police station, and that her mom is crazy."

Edward stopped listening. The guilt was too much. He made up an excuse and ran back to his house where he was greeted sweetly by his mother. Her hugs and words of affection made him feel like a bad person. He didn't deserve any of it after what just happened.

She asked him if he had made more friends and he just nodded and wondered if maybe he should get new ones. He had never felt this awful back in Chicago. He missed his former home.

His parents had taught him how to be a good person, but he didn't feel like one today.

The guilt and bad feeling didn't go away. Not even when he was in bed, staring at his ceiling, did he feel any better. He wondered if Tommy's mom was, in fact, crazy and if Tommy did drugs or if she really didn't shower.

He squeezed his eyes shut, forcing himself to fall asleep, but he wasn't able to escape the bad feeling in his chest.

It followed him into his dreams.

It would follow him again after her disappearance.

~Tommy~

Present Day

Sometimes that bad feeling returns. It'll be each time he isn't planning on thinking of her and busy with his life. He'll be shopping for clothes, and he'll see a young girl wearing a backwards, baseball cap and baggy jeans. He'll smile to himself thinking of Tommy, but then the guilt will take over.

He'll just sigh and hope to God she'll decide to show up so he can beg for the forgiveness he needs to live peacefully.

But she doesn't.

"This place hasn't changed much," he says, staring out his father's car. The small town of Forks has always seemed to be a tiny spot on earth, shadowed by the lively forest.

His father smiles as he drives his son home for the first time in five years.

"That's why I like it, I guess," the older man says and nothing else.

They haven't spoken much in five years, but then again they lived together for 18 years and hardly spoke then. Carlisle has always been a quiet man. Edward remembers his mother being talkative when he was younger while his father would just sit back and smile at everything his wife said. He would stare at her with his bright, blue eyes. His mother would tell Carlisle how there was a sparkle in them and place a kiss on his cheek, while his father blushed. The soft smile on Carlisle's lips and the kiss he placed on her forehead made Edward feel so much happiness for his parents.

But things changed when they moved to Forks.

Their house was very quiet. Too quiet at times. He remembers wondering if he had been left alone, only to find his father silently working away in his office and his mother in her bed asleep. His childlike mind wanted desperately for his father to come out of his work and kiss his mother's head to make her feel better.

He would ask Carlisle what was wrong with his mother, but the man would just caress his head and say "nothing," and walk away.

He's always been afraid to become like him. Quiet and difficult to understand. But as he's getting older with each day, he realizes he's his father's son.

His mother's side of the family likes to remind Edward how alike he is to his father. He just nods and saves his words…

Just like Carlisle.

"I'm moving into the city of Chicago in a few weeks; I think you should cook my favorite meal every night as a goodbye gift," he says to his father as they have dinner on their own for the first time in years.

Carlisle chuckles and shakes his head at his son. "Son, I'm old, but not delusional."

Edward smirks while digging into his potatoes. "Has Alice called?"

"No, but she texted me a few hours ago that she and Rosalie were almost in Washington. Esme left to go pick them up from Port Angeles."

"Texted? Carlisle Cullen using technology?"

Carlisle laughs quietly. "I'm getting there, Son. So how is Kate?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Did you break up with her?"

"Dad, first, it's weird that we're talking about this and second, we were never dating. We were friends throughout school and I just happened to bump into her at the airport when you picked me up. I'm not really looking for a relationship."'

"Oh, yes, forgive me, sir. I forget you're still oh, so young since you act like an old man sometimes. I hope you're enjoying Chicago as much as I did while I lived there. You're always so serious, Son. Don't be like your old man. You should be having fun."

"I am. It's a great city. Maybe you can move back? I mean nothing is holding you back here in Forks, Dad. Move back to the city."

The older man chuckles. "That big city doesn't have anything I need anymore, besides I love this town. I love the quietness. You'll come to love it as well."

"Yeah, yeah…" The men continue eating in silence for a few more minutes. Edward doesn't know how to ask the next question. He has been itching to ask his father this since the moment he saw him at the airport. He thought of this question while preparing for his trip from Chicago to Forks, and also as he stared out the window on the airplane ride.

He doesn't want to sound strange. Why would he be asking in the first place? To everybody, Edward had nothing to do with the subject.

The subject of Tommy.

They weren't even friends.

They never were.

Of this he had assured his father so many times before. That's what he told Carlisle when he was asked if he was okay after her disappearance and that's what he told him before he left Forks to go to college in Illinois.

He must have looked shaken up that day.

"So, Dad, have you… um, has anybody heard anything about Tommy?" He finally asks and is thankful his father doesn't question his curiosity.

Carlisle places his fork down and shakes his head. A sad look takes over his features. He had always been on Tommy's side. Even after she disappeared.

"No, and as you are aware, everyone stopped looking for her just a few months after she didn't come home. We thought maybe she had ran away and we'd eventually see her around again. But no, not in the last five years since she disappeared. We haven't heard anything. Well, I don't know about Renee and Charles, her parents. But they don't look like they've received any news. Why are you asking?"

Edward sits up straight and shrugs, trying to make it seem like it's nothing to him but curiosity.

But the irking feeling in his chest reminds him that's a lie.

"I was just wondering. I went to school with her, so… I just wonder sometimes whatever happened to her."

Carlisle nods, accepting his son's explanation and once again looks down at his plate. "I just wish …" he sighs. "I just wish she would give us a sign to let us know she's okay. I hate not knowing what her fate was. If it ended or if it's continuing somewhere else."

Edward just stares at his father wanting to explain that he feels the same way. Worse even.

He wants to tell his father what Tommy meant to him. He wants to tell him about all the moments he replays in his mind and how she saved him more than he knows. He wants to tell his father how thoughts of Tommy plague his mind.

But he can't.

It would be breaking the promise he made to Tommy so many years ago. He has done so many things wrong, but breaking this promise will never be one of them.

The promise makes him ache. Nobody will ever know who Tommy really was, and it makes him angry, but he will hold his tongue.

He won't betray her once again. He's sure she would appreciate it.

Wherever she is.

He washes the dishes while his father retires to his room. He promises his father he will wait up for his Aunt Esme and his sister and cousin. They are to spend the next two weeks in Forks for vacation. Edward is looking forward to spending time with his family. He knows he hasn't been much of a son or brother in the last five years, but maybe he can make it up to them.

He had been reluctant to return to Forks. He knew before he came that even the air he would breathe would remind him of her.

Maybe he'll find an answer or find a clue.

Maybe something will lead him to her.

After he dries his hands, he looks out the living room window. There are no lights and no signs of his sister and cousin.

He decides to wait in his room and heads upstairs.

He smiles at the fact that his father kept everything the way it was before he went off to college. He cringes at some embarrassing items of his youth and laughs at others.

He opens up his laptop, watches a few silly internet videos and then finds himself using a search engine. He types the same words he's typed so many times before while in Illinois, but hopes the search results will be different.

But they're not. The links are marked, reminding him that he has clicked them all before, but he clicks the top one again anyway.

18 Year Old Washington Girl Missing

Isabella "Tommy" Swan has been reported missing after not arriving home the night of her high school graduation and not being seen anywhere else in town...

They're wrong. They're all wrong.

He sighs and shuts his laptop in frustration.

One day she'll show up and he'll stop with this torment. He'll be able to sleep and live and feel normal again.

He sits on his bed, staring at his closet. With a deep breath he walks over to it, moves shoes, books, shirts, and boyish car toys out of the way.

There, deep in his closet's corner is the blue, Mariners' baseball cap he came to hate and then love.

He grabs it and slowly brings it up to his face for a better view.

~Tommy~

"Why do you always wear that stupid hat?" he asked as they walked down the woods.

"It's not stupid. It's my favorite hat. My dad bought it for me when he went on his trip to Seattle."

"Your dad? The guy you hate so much?" Edward asked. Tommy looked down at her hands and he instantly felt bad. "Dude, I'm sorry…"

"No, don't be. Yeah, my dad. The man who hardly talks to me and doesn't care about what happens to me. I like to think he was walking down a store somewhere in Seattle and I popped into his head and he bought me this hat. The hat means he once thought of me." She sighed and pulled said hat further down her face, almost hiding her eyes. "I know, it's lame, but I don't care," she said quickly with a frown, trying to erase that she let herself sound soft and vulnerable.

"It's not lame and it's okay, Swan. You don't have to be tough all the time."

"Whatever, Cullen. You don't know anything."

He didn't respond because he knew she was right.

He didn't know anything and for that he was sorry.

The beginning of each chapter will be the story of Edward and Tommy from their childhood to their late teen years in chronological order. The second part will be Edward in present time as an adult looking for her. And the final part of the chapter, which will be italicized, will be a memory he is very fond of. The "memories" won't be necessarily in any type of order.

Thank you all again for reading. Follow me on twitter at HelloElla90