I drifted in and out of sleep as the plane slowly made its way to Seattle, where my eccentric mother was waiting to take me to her home in the freezing cold town of Forks where I was doomed to stay for the entire summer. I hadn't seen her in quite a long time, I was six years old when I last saw her, before she walked out of my life which was 11 years ago. It still hurt, the feeling of rejection that cut through me is just as intense as it was all those years ago. It was left to my dad Charlie and his now-husband Matthew to raise me. They did a good job, two males raising a young girl must have been pretty challenging at times but they did well.
That was the main reason why she left, my dad told me, because when she found out that my dad was gay she felt betrayed, embarrassed and humiliated. So, next thing we all know, she's gone, took all her stuff and just walked out of my life. She never text or called, no birthday or Christmas presents, not even a dad told me she still emailed them sometimes, asking how I was but she never got in contact with me personally which hurt more that I could say.
I wouldn't even be going to Forks if my dad's hadn't booked a summer-long cruise to celebrate their 10-year wedding anniversary and since I couldn't stay at home by myself and there were no other relatives to take me in, I had to go to hers. I'd had a big argument with Charlie over it but as he wouldn't budge from the decision so I'd had no choice but to accept it. Man, I was going to miss not seeing them for a whole summer, it sucked.
I was jolted out of my thoughts by the pilots announcement over the intercom telling us to put our seatbelts on as we'd be landing in Seattle very soon. The feelings of nervousness and apprehension nearly made me throw up. I mean, I hadn't seen her in so long. I had no idea what she'd be like, would she still look the same? Act the same? Or be a total stranger to me? I had absolutely no idea. Plus, there was the one thing I hadn't told her about, my little secret. My dad's had been really supportive when I'd told them, which was no surprise really as they had personal experience with it. I had no idea how my mum would react when I told her. Would she throw me out? Leave me a second time? I had so many questions but no answers. Well, soon that would all change.
As I got of the plane and headed towards the baggage area, I noticed people stood there with signs of different names on. As I grabbed my bright red suitcase, I looked around and saw a sign with my name on it. As I walked in that direction I wasn't really looking where I was going and bumped into what felt like a statue. The first thing I noticed as I grabbed onto them to keep from falling over is their body temperature. They were cold, no... freezing. It made me shiver, but then as I glanced up to apologize, all thought flew out of my head as I took in the beautiful goddess before me. Her eyes caught and held me captive. They were dark swirling pools of pure gold, like the colour of honey. They were beautiful. They were framed by spiky short ink-black hair. She had the cutest button-nose ever, and her full red kissable lips were curved into a smirk as she took in my reaction.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't look where I was going I'm so clumsy sometimes" I babbled with a nervous giggle. I blushed bright red as she grinned wider, obviously finding my embarrassment amusing.
"It's fine, it was my own fault for walking into you. I didn't catch your name?"
Her voice, gosh it was beautiful. Like wind chimes on a windy day. So perfect.
"Bella. Well, Isabella but I prefer Bella. Yourself?" I mumbled out, still embarrassed.
"Alice, Alice Cullen. Isabella? Isn't that Italian for beautiful? My my. what a very fitting name." Her comment made me blush more, and she took a step back, her face suddenly becoming a mask of stone, emotionless.
"Well, beautiful Bella I must be going, but I am sure we will see each other again very soon." She gave me a small grin and danced off, disappearing into the crowd, gone in an instant. I shook my head over the strange abrupt ending of the conversation, then carried on walking over to where a very impatient man stood waiting. He was huge, 6ft at least, and looked to weigh at least 300 pounds, with bulging muscles. But that all went away by the irritatable look on his face, he had small beady black eyes and shaggy brown hair. He glowered at me.
"Who are you? Where is my mother?"
He just scowled deeper, then motioned for mne to follow him. With a glare at his back, I reluctantly did. He led me to a large black Range Rover that was parked out front. As I got into the backseat he sat in the drivers seat after storing my suitcase into the boot. Just before he started driving, he said:
"Your mother is at work. I am your step-father. You will see her later, now be quiet whilst I'm driving." His voice was deep, full of irritation. He really didn't sound happy.
As I sat back and got comfy for the long silent car ride home, my thoughts kept drifting to the girl with the honey coloured eyes...
After I'd dosed for a while, my dreams filled with those golden eyes and melodic laugh, we'd finally pulled up outside my new home. I was almost shaking as I grabbed my suitcase and walked towards the front door, followed by a glowering silent Mark. Geez, did he ever smile?
Mark shoved past me to unlock the door, and as he stomped upstairs and slammed a door, I stepped inside and glanced around. The place at first glance looked like your typical suburban home. The living room was spacious, with dark green curtains that kept the already dim room in shadow, and it was filled up with a large green sofa and dark brown chair, which presumably must be Marks chair as it was centre to the large TV in the corner, and piled high beside the chair were empty cans of larger and snubbed out cigarettes. The room stunk of smoke, and some other unidentified source. Whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant at all. As I moved into the hallway to go look around the rest of the house, the front door banged open, and a woman tumbled in, almost falling into me in the process but at the last minute grabbing onto me to steady herself.
'Oh, I'm sorry love, I didn't notice you there" Her voice sounded harsh to my ears, off-key, like she was nervous, as she kept glancing around as she spoke.
'Don't you recognize me?' I snapped, slightly irritated that she hadn't shown any recognition or action to show that she knew who I was.
'Of course I know who you are, I think I'd know my own daughter thank you very much! Mark love, I'm home!' she sounded offended and angry, which wasn't how I'd wanted our first meeting to go, but I was so confused as I watched her walk into the kitchen with a shopping bag in her arm that I'd failed to notice. She'd acted like she couldn't care less that I was here, the only warm tone that she'd used in the entire time we'd conversed is when she'd informed Mark that she was home. Just as I was about to go and confront her on her behaviour, I heard Mark coming down the stairs. He glared at me the whole way down and when I glared back, he merely smirked and inclined his head upstairs.
'Room at the back is yours, go on up and put your stuff away. By the time you're done, tea will be ready, then its an early night as you have school on Monday' I barely had time to think 'Who the hell does he think he is' before I was shoved roughly up the first few steps and he'd already disappeared. I stomped upstairs and went into the back bedroom, what I saw there took me by surprise.
My room was bare, apart from a single bed with a ratty old looking duvet covering it and a small set of draws next to it. I mean, I knew we didn't exactly have a relationship or anything, but she could of at least decorated the room. I sat down on the bed, soon getting lost in my own thoughts. I was distracted some time later by the sound of raised voices coming from the living room. I walked to the landing and sat on the top step to see what Mark and Renee were arguing about. Turns out I was the topic of conversation.
"Why is she here? Its not like you even want her here, you don't even care about her, you only want her here because you think that if she's here my discipline on you will stop. Well it won't and if that slut upstairs tries to get involved, she will get the exact same treatment!" I heard Mark yell at Renee.
"You great big oaf!" She slurred back, already drunk despite the fact that it was barely 4 in the afternoon.
Suddenly I heard a thud then a yell of pain. I ran down the stairs to see Mark stood over Renee who was led on the floor holding her now red cheek. I glared in fury at Mark. I know that me and Renee weren't close but I would not stand by and watch this fool beat on my own mother.
He sneered back at me and I could see the challenge in his eyes as he looked me up and down. Before he could do anything more than blink, my hand found its mark against his cheek.
His black eyes glistened with rage as he grabbed me by my hair and dragged me towards the kitchen. I looked helplessly over towards Renee silently pleading with her to help me but she was unconscious with a bottle of whiskey by her side, snoring softly.
I clawed at his hands, trying to get him to release my hair but even though he grunted in pain his hands tightened more making me wince uncomfortably. We reached the kitchen, with him dragging me over to the sink. He ripped the back of my top open so my bare back was visible and my heart sunk as I noticed him pick up the kettle with steam rising up from the recently boiled water. As he brought it closer to my back I tried in vain to get free, but the hold he had on me was too strong. As the boiling water was poured onto my skin, I screamed in agony, nearly blacking out from the pain.
He let go of me suddenly and shoved me to the floor, feeling my face smack painfully on the hard kitchen floor. As I heard him chuckle quietly to himself as he left the kitchen, I slowly pushed myself up off the floor and slowly make my way to the sanctuary of my room. Every single step was agony, the stairs more so but eventually I made it and collapsed into a pain filled darkness, the pain coming second to the demons of my mind.
A/N: So that's the first chapter up, opinions?