S.M.O.T.A.I.C- Stephenie Meyer Owns Twilight And Its Characters
"Are you sure you want to keep only two bottles of Jack behind the bar?" I asked Rob, the burly owner of the club.
It'd been three months since I had arrived in Forks from my trip to Italy. Two months since I'd seen Edward or any of the Cullens. When I'd gotten in my room that day I sank to the floor and cried myself out. Charlie had come home, ready to ground me for eternity, but one look at my obvious pain had kept him out of my room for the rest of the night. That's when my eyes had landed on a warped floorboard unnaturally crushed into its place. A sudden curiosity willed me to pry it open revealing the pictures of Edward I had taken months before as well and the cd and other gifts I had gotten from him and his family on my birthday. That's when I knew that they would always be real to me. I had proof. I would always know that they had existed and that for those brief months, I'd been sublimely happy. Not that that thought was enough to keep me satisfied, not by a long shot. Having proof merely provided the comforting fact that somewhere out there the missing part of me existed. That he existed. It made my depressingly empty life somewhat bearable.
The next morning I told Charlie that I was leaving. I would go to Jacksonville to stay with Renee. I had to get away. And I had to let Edward live happily without worrying about me. He couldn't very well do that with my pitiful looking self hanging around school all the time. So I left. I knew Alice would see where I was going and try to talk to me but seeing her would only remind me of what I'd lost. So I kept my plans to go to Jacksonville until minutes before the plan left, switching my ticket to whichever plane left next. I didn't care where I went, as long as I could run away and leave them in peace, as long as he could be happy and not worrying about me.
It turned out that that next available flight was to Philadelphia. I boarded the plane and set off, trying not to think about anything, forcing myself to plan to see Renee soon, knowing Alice would see me with her.
So my life in Philadelphia began. I'd just gotten off the plane and was wandering around center city when I saw a "Help Needed" sign at a grungy looking club right off of South street, an artsy looking street filled with random shops and lots of people. Sooner than I could have expected I became a bartender. I'd had absolutely zip experience and was seriously underage when I started but Rob, the caring guy that he is at heart, couldn't turn me away seeing as how I looked like hell and desperately needed help. He gave me a job as bar back/custodian, letting me pick up extra shifts when I needed. I quickly became friends with the good-natured bartenders and they showed me the ropes. So when one of them had to leave suddenly about a month after I began, Rob promoted me. And he paid me under the table!
About 2 weeks after I'd started at Rob's, he began to ask me about my past, where I was from, what I was running away from, why I looked like hell all the time, why I randomly grabbed my sides and tried to hold myself together. I just muttered something about a bad break up and he never brought it up again. I had a feeling he made sure none of the other guys brought it up either. Rob was kind of intimidating at first sight; he could scare anyone into doing anything. So when he gave an order, people listened.
"What do you take these people for, Bells, alcoholics?" Rob scruffed sarcastically. But he heeded my warning and brought out another bottle. Tonight was going to be a big night and I'd gotten here early to set up. There was a local battle of the bands competition here tonight and the crowd was sure to be hectic. Jack Daniels usually went pretty quickly.
"We're also going to need…" I paused as my eyes scanned the shelves for missing bottles of liquor, "some kettle one, some Irish cream and we're running low on the coconut rum."
"I'll tell Wes to grab some from the back." He said as he went back stage to check on the guys working on setting up the sound system.
I busied myself with filling in the fridge with beers while I waited for the other bottles to arrive. I didn't have to wait long.
"Hey Bells, I've got your supplies," Wes carried in a box full of bottles. He was pretty much exactly like his uncle Rob, just much younger. He was Rob's right hand man and helped him run the club.
"Thanks," I muttered as I sorted through the box.
"So Bells," Wes said to me. Whenever Wes approached be he used to have this strange tone in his voice. I'd recognized it from when I lived in Forks and Mike Newton would approach me with it.
Poor Wes. He's a really nice guy and I'd even venture out enough to say he was good looking. He had dark reddish hair that fell a couple of inches below his prominent jaw and he had a decently built upper body. But little did he know that love had dealt me a bad hand and I still hadn't gotten over it. I never would.
But as time progressed, and he saw that I really hadn't been interested, he became less awkward and more friendly. Now he was kind of like a big brother to me. "Some of the bands playing tonight are really good; I've heard them play a bunch of times. I could arrange for you to have a break when they're up if you want. We should go backstage and watch them for a bit." He smiled a friendly smile at me.
"Thanks Wes, but I'm pretty sure its going to be way too packed for me to take any kind of break. Besides, the more people I serve, the more tips I get, right?" I joked, trying to lighten the obvious rejection.
He smiled at my comment and shrugged light-heartedly, "no problem but let me know if you change your mind." He turned to leave but then turned back. "Oh yea, I almost forgot, someone called for an Isabella Swan a while ago."
I froze.
It took me a second for me to realize Wes was still talking.
"-worked here. I told them I didn't know any Isabellas with the last name Swan. That's not you right?" He studied my reaction carefully. I quickly tried to compose it.
"No, that's not me." Then I smiled convincingly, I hoped, as I continued to arrange the bottles on the shelves. "Three months of working together and you still can't get my name right? It's Bella Simon!! Jeez!"
He laughed at that before leaving for the back office.
When I was alone I stopped what I was doing and went into panic mode. How could anyone know I was here? It couldn't be Charlie or Renee, I'd called them as soon as I landed and told them not to worry, that I was invited by a friend from Phoenix who moved up here and I'd decided last minute to go. They were angry at first but they were soon glad that I was doing something other than pining. Or, at least, they thought I was doing something other than letting my misery rule my life. Then I forged an early acceptance letter from Penn State University and told them I had to work towards my goal here. They were fine with it. But they had no idea I was a bartender or that I worked at Rob's. So who would be calling me here?
It could be Alice, I thought to myself. But surely after all this time, they would have all forgotten about me and went about their business, right?
I decided that worrying about it wouldn't do any good. Wes had probably convinced them that they had the wrong number. They probably wouldn't think twice about calling here again.
I finished setting up the bar for tonight and told Rob I was going home to shower and change. I walked the 5 blocks to my apartment. When I first got to Philadelphia, I had no idea where I was going to live. But Rob came through again big time and found me an apartment close enough to work and cheap enough for me to afford. It wasn't bad looking at all. It was on the first floor of an old townhouse turned into and three separate apartments. Mine was a pretty large studio apartment. I'd put my college fund to good use but it still took a while for me to get everything I needed. After paying my down payment, I got a bed, a few side tables and a lazy-boy chair. After about a month, Wes supplied the TV sitting in my makeshift living room, but it was only a couple of weeks ago that I got everything together. Tips from the bar got really good so I treated myself to a computer, a desk, a large cozy rug and a few other things to make it livable. It wasn't much but it had become home, my safe-haven where I can cry myself to sleep at night or drown my sorrows while I listened to my one and only cd.
I unlocked the three locks I had installed for safety and walked in my front door, the perplexity of my mystery caller still on my mind. It was then that I realized I had some free time on my hands, something I tried desperately to avoid. But it happens every so often, at which time, I go running.
Now, don't get me wrong, I hate physical exercise, more than anything, and I'm not terribly great at running without falling every five or ten steps. But running fast starts to hurt after a while. Your body physically and agonizingly screams at you for pushing it beyond its limits and that's the only thing that distracts from… the other pain… the constant pain of losing him. The pain of knowing that I had never been enough to hold the one thing I wanted more than life itself.
So I went for a run. When it started to get easier, I pushed harder, making it hurt. When my body got used to that speed, I went faster and faster until my muscles ached. I kept that up for as long as I could. When my body screamed in agony that I could no longer sustain, I stopped and slowly made my way back to my apartment, ignoring my dizziness and trying to regulate my breathing again. I immediately hopped in the shower when I got back and let the warm water massage my back for a while. It was one of the very few pleasures in my life. When I got out and changed into my normal uniform of jeans and a short, fitted t-shirt and straightened my hair. By the time I made my way back to Rob's it was almost seven at night.
"Hey Bella!" called Wes from the stage, "Come meet the bands!"
I walked over the meet some of the bands performing tonight. I had never heard of them, but then again, I didn't really take the time to listen to music anymore, just the one cd. I noticed one of the guitarists raise his eyebrows at Wes when he introduced us. I left them and made my way back behind the bar, storing my light hoodie and double checking our supplies.
Rob soon came over to give me his usual packed-night speech. "Bells, we've got two bouncers outside and two guys situated in here in case people get too rowdy. It'll be you, Frank and Tom back here tonight so it should be ok, but you know how these drunk guys get when there's a pretty girl behind the bar. If you have any trouble-"
"Rob, seriously! How many times are you going to tell me the same thing?" I rolled my eyes, "I know the drill, if anyone gets too wild or tootouchy I'll immediately make sure they're escorted out. Ok?"
Rob rolled his eyes right back at me, "Just making sure you remember, kid. Wes'll be watching out for you too, so no worries." He was usually a bit protective when we were certain to have a big crowd, mostly, I think, because I'm the only girl working here and I'm younger than everyone. But this was overkill.
"What aren't you telling me?" I demanded. Something was definitely up.
Rob sighed, a worried look on his face. He looked around to make sure no one was listening. "I heard Wes saying something about a phone call." I felt the blood drain from my face. "They were calling for Isabella Swan. Someone knows you're here." He waited, hoping that maybe I'd explain. But how could I?
"Listen Bells, I'm not going to pry into your life. You needed to get away and I can understand that. Life screws us over once in a while and sometimes we need a fresh start. But I just want to make sure that you're not in any danger, all right?"
He gave me a stern look. "You told me you weren't in any trouble before, right? You just needed to disappear for a while?"
"Yes" I said after I'd found my voice. "That's right."
"And whoever is looking for you isn't trying to hurt you?"
"No, not at all." I could tell he was really worried about me. It made me sick to make him worry after everything he'd done for me. "The only people who would have called here looking for me are people that I don't know if I could deal with seeing right now." I winced as I thought of them. My almost family.
"Just making sure, kid." He patted my shoulder as he left me to my work.