Disclaimer: I own everything but their names.
June 16, 2001 – Santa Cruz, California
I'm not sure where in our trip I passed out, but Charlie's hand on my shoulder brought me back to reality. I groaned and cracked one eye open, fully prepared to glare at him for waking me up.
"What?" I mumbled sleepily.
"Bella, wake up kid, we're here."
I reached up to rub the last remnants of sleep from my eyes and squinted into the bright sunshine.
"We're here. Look." He nodded toward the windshield and his mustache twitched above a smile.
The warmth of the sky washed over me, a bright blue hue I wasn't used to. Days like this one were few and far between where we'd come from. And it was crowded. Houses stacked on top of restaurants on top of hotels. People everywhere.
The smell of air without the permanent hint of oncoming rain was a shock to my senses. It seemed unreal that we'd gone from tiny little Forks, with all its trees and gloom, to sun and sand in just a matter of days.
We'd been driving for so long. By hour six, I'd convinced myself we'd never make it. By hour ten, Charlie had finally told me that if I didn't go to sleep, he was going to put me to sleep. Apparently I got crabby when I was frustrated and antsy.
In my defense, though, I couldn't wait to put Forks behind us and get started with our new life.
Over the past two months, everything we owned had been sold, packed or trashed after Charlie's company went through a 'restructuring' and they offered him a promotion he couldn't refuse.
The only catch? It wasn't in Forks. Hell, it wasn't even in Washington for that matter.
No, they'd insisted his security expertise would be better suited somewhere south. Like California.
He'd been so nervous the afternoon they made the offer. He was usually a pretty calm and easygoing guy, but the way his leg shook at dinner that night made even me nervous. When he finally came out and told me what was bothering him, all I could do was grin and tell him yes; of course, abso-freaking-lutely I was okay with moving.
What Charlie didn't understand at that moment was that my goal had always been to get out of Washington. Friends, acquaintances and family be damned; I wanted to see the world.
I'd been compiling a list of places since as far back as I could remember: beaches from movies, mountains from magazines – anywhere, really. I'd worked my butt off in high school, foregoing the chance to live it up and be a kid in favor of focusing on classes. I wanted to get into as many colleges as possible so I had options. And you can bet every school I applied to corresponded with a place on my list.
My hard work had paid off, too. I'd been accepted at nine of the twelve schools I'd applied to.
Days after Charlie and I had agreed, together, that the move would happen, Northern California got scratched off my list. And I was officially enrolled at UC Santa Cruz.
You guys freakin' blow me away with your kindness and support every single time I do this. I seriously can't say thank you enough. I want to squish all of you into this big ball of warm fuzzy I'm living in right now.
Short update this morning, so I'll probably give you another one tonight. I think you're gonna like the next one. Also, a few people were curious about Bella's age and to answer the question, she's twenty seven in present time.
Reviews are love, and I kinda love love, js.
Until next time!
xx