Chapter 2: How it all began

Claire's POV

Even when I was five years old I knew exactly how my life would play out. It was all planned since day one. I would go to school maintain a 4.0 and then go on to achieve my doctorates degree in organic chemistry. I would get married by the age of twenty six, on the beach of course and then we would have two kids together so that neither would ever be lonely, like I was.

I was and still am the only child, which though sounds like blissful paradise but it is not all that it's cracked up to be. So when it came time for me to start school, my parents smothered me in preparation for the big leagues. I was donned in a brand new back pack and an entirely new outfit that was sure to knock the other kids' socks off.

My head was raised high and I wasn't leaving school until I had a friend. Unfortunately, or fortunately whichever way you look at it, I was that outgoing kids with a thousand best friends. And the curly headed boy with rosy cheeks that was trying to steal my yellow crayon was the other kid with all the friends.

I held his gaze as he reached his thick fingers over toward my desk. "May I borrow your yellow? Mine's broken. My name's Emmett by the way." He sounded so formal and genuine that I consented and we kind of just gravitated toward each other for the rest of the day. When it came time to leave he asked where I lived and if I might be able to play outside with him. I told that we would see and well, he showed up at my door thirty minutes after my mom and I got there. "Did you have a good first day?" It was the first thing to pass her lips even before she exchanged salutations. "Yeah" was all I said in return, it wasn't like it was too exciting. "Yeah?" she asked, "just yeah, no details. You can't leave me hanging like that… She was cut off by the door bell, and guess who was standing there? Emmett and Mrs. Cullen, my mom's new found best friend.

"Tanya? What are you doing here; I thought we weren't meeting until seven?" My mother had this mom's of Washington thing that she liked to host so that she could get to know her fellow motherhooders. "I know Janette, but apparently my son wanted to come see Claire immediately, it was an emergency. We can come back I'm sorry if I disturbed you."

In hindsight I should have seen this all coming; even at the age of five I could feel the connection with this boy. And after that day there was no stopping us, he was the butter to my toast, the milk to my cookie. Some said that you couldn't pry us apart with a crowbar. However, there was nothing for us romantically; even when others vehemently tried to push us together we were happy in our platonic bliss.

In the eighth grade Emmett made a rope ladder in shop class that was pretty damn sturdy and easily collapsible. He climbed into my room once in a while to talk and then went home. I think that was the year that things started to change. After that year I went to spend the summer with my aunt in California where I got bit by the acting bug. I guess it was over that summer that I grew up; I had this freak growth spurt and went from being five foot six inches in the eighth grade to being five foot ten inches by the final weeks of summer. My aunt also said I looked more like a young lady, I lost the baby fat.

My parents hadn't seen me for more than nine weeks and though we talk every day my parents still didn't know what I looked like. Neither did Emmett. To be honest I didn't know what he looked like either. My mom told me that he looked good and that he started to hit the gym with his dad and step brother, I was more than thrilled to see him.

In the airport I was reading over this script for a commercial spot in Washington, Auntie Leena told me that I would do amazing and that I was gorgeous I laughed. "Really now? I'm Betty Spaghetti." She pushed the hair from my face, "No Baby girl, you are beautiful, gorgeous even. You just have to realize what an amazing girl you are."

I laughed and hid my face. "Whatever you say lee, I need to study the script." The plane finally showed up and while on the plane I kept thinking about whether or not Emmett was going to be there, he said he would the night before I guess I was just excited to finally get to see him.

There were a thousand metal butterflies in my stomach by the time we landed, and it wasn't from the turbulence. On the plane this guy sitting behind me kept making small talk, his friend next to him was too. "Hey, my name is Kenneth, and this is tucker. We were just talking and my buddy here wants to know your name and see if it was as pretty as you look."

Wow, how cheesy was that… and why were they even talking to me, they had to be like twenty five. "I'm Claire. It's very nice to meet you both." We continued to talk until the plane landed and then they offered to help me and Auntie Lee with our carry on.

When we got off the lift and finally got to the waiting room Kenneth gave me his phone number and told me that if I was free tomorrow he and his friends were going to head to Dusk, the new night club in Seattle. I thanked him for his help and squealed like a school girl when he walked away. There was no way I was going but it was exciting to be invited.

Lee and I went to terminal B where my parents said they were going to be waiting. After walking through the archway I say a huge banner stretched across the entrance with a gazillion balloons. Standing under them were my parents look anxiously for me, my cousin Jacob, Uncle Billy, and this really tall buff hot guy.

His green eyes looked familiar but it was hard for my mind to grasp that that was Emmett. When my mom laid her hand on his shoulder I knew that is was him. He just looked so…different and so damn fine.

Emmett's POV

It had been a long summer, there was no Claire to hang out with and even though there were several others I could have spent time with but it didn't feel right without her here. So two days after she left I started to it the gym with my dad and his step son. Edward wasn't so bad, kind of moody but very cool. My dad said I was getting addicted to lifting weights but it was something I could do to get my mind off of Claire. I don't know why I missed her so much.

During the summer I went through this freak growth spurt that my mother assured me was normal but after going from five foot eight inches in the eighth grade to six foot two inches during the last days of summer I didn't think it was so normal.

I was garnering a lot of attention of the ladies though which wasn't too bad. However when my mom told me that Claire was coming home soon I forgot all about having fun for the last days of summer and planned a huge welcome home party for her. Edward helped me make the huge banner for the airport but he said her didn't want to be there when she got back, he said it was my time to shine…Whatever that meant.

When the say finally arrived I was up early and at the airport to set up. But it didn't take long enough because I had time left over to think. What if she hated it and didn't want to see me? What if she changed over summer and didn't want to be friends anymore? I didn't dwell that much longer on the topic because I saw her aunt lee wave over to us from across the terminal. Next to her was a very sexy leggy brunette coming toward us. She grabbed lee's hand and ran toward us. The brown eyes looked just like my Claire's, she wasn't just some girl she was my Claire.

I ran to meet her and apparently we created a scene because several people looked toward us, but I paid them no mind my Claire was running for me. When she was about two strides from me she jumped and wrapped her legs around me and hooked her hands behind my neck.

Her forehead rested on mine. "Hello there." Her voice was breathy from running. I was vaguely aware of our picture being taken from somewhere in the distance. "Hello to you too", I replied. I don't know how long we stayed like that just looking at each other but soon her mom came to give her a hug and I set her down on her feet. I don't think I took my eyes off of her all that day. There was a piece of me that came back with her something that I realized that I could never live without again.

The party was a hit, Claire loved it and tons of people came to welcome her back. We were all excited for the beginning of high school. I was just happy to have my Claire-bear back. Edward didn't show up for the party opting instead to spend time by himself at the house. He probably was sulking.

After the party ended Claire went home. I spent some time cleaning up and when I was done I told my mom that I was going to head off to bed early. I showered and changed into flannel pants and a white t-shirt to make it believable. Then I headed downstairs to tell them all goodnight. "You must be very tired Hun. You had a big day today, goodnight." She kissed my forehead and watched as I rubbed my eyes walking sluggishly up the stairs.

She wouldn't be checking on me tonight, especially since the way she was looking at my stepdad. Gross. Anyway I closed and locked my door and hopped out the window and shimmied down the vine fence that lay directly under my window. I probably looked very odd walking down the sidewalk in my PJ's and a leather jacket. I was just hoping I wasn't doing this in vain because what if the ladder wasn't hanging there? When I approached her window it was in fact hanging from the ledge. I climbed up and raised the window. I flipped through and almost landed on her lamp but just barely missed it. Claire wasn't there but I knew she was going to be there soon. I walked to her closet and hid there waiting for her to walk in.

I was probably waiting for twenty minutes before I heard the door open. Her soft footsteps were the only thing I could hear. For a while there was nothing but that and then even it stopped. I was afraid that she had left the room but as I reached for the inside handle to open the closet I heard the tell-tell signs of the bed squeaking as Claire sat on it. She sighed and then there was nothing. I slipped out hoping that she wouldn't see me.

Claire had her back facing me as she lay in the bed, over the comforter as always. I strode over as silently as possible and slid in to bed with her, my arm splaying across her hip as I pulled her closer to me.

"Thank goodness Devlin; I thought you forgot about me." She didn't turn around and the affirmation in her voice told me that she was so certain of the identity of the person behind her. I felt my blood begin to boil. "Who the hell is Devlin?" She stayed silent, her body shaking with silent laughter. I didn't find this funny, not in the slightest. "You never answered my question Claire; who the hell is Devlin?"

"Fine, Fine," she consented. "Devlin is a name I made up to make you jealous. Gosh Em, there is no one else that has slept in this bed with me. Calm down." I let out the breath that I was holding in a loud huff against her ear, she giggled and I snuggled deeper into the bed. "Alright Chick pea, do you want to talk now sleep later or sleep now talk later up to you." I punctuated the sentence with a yawn. "Yeah right big boy, you'd be out before I told you what I did on the plane ride over there the first day I'd left. Nope, I'm going to sleep."

I grinned and reached behind us to throw off my jacket and turn off the lamp. She turned to face me in the dark and I threw my arm across her again, making sure my grip was tight but I made sure not to hurt her. "Hmmm, you smell good." I took a deep swallow of the air around her. It was so good to have her home, it felt so right. "Thank you, but aren't you going to get in trouble, you've never slept over before." She looked anxiously up at my eyes and I leaned in to kiss her reassuringly on the forehead. "Everything's going to be fine; we aren't going to get in trouble." She smiled sleepily up at me. "Ok, Em. Goodnight. I love you."

"I love you so much Claire." Claire looked up at me, her eyes still beaming bright even though the room was almost completely dark. "Will you kiss me Emmett? I mean just to see what it feels like. I mean you don't have to do it if you don't want to…God I'm so stu—."

She had begun to pull away embarrassed. How could she even fathom that I wouldn't consent to anything she asked of me? My lips pressed against hers, so very soft and so very odd feeling. Her eyes were wide with shock; I opened my lips farther and pulled her bottom lip between mine. Sighing she closed her eyes and I followed suit, shutting them as our lips locked. Her tongue reached out to push my lips from hers before pushing harder and slipping her tongue further into my mouth. My tongue reached out to caress hers but the odd feeling was still there. She began to chuckle. "Oh dear," She stopped me and pushed us apart a little so that she could look up at my eyes. "I'm sorry that was really amazing but it felt incestuous like I was kissing my cousin. I didn't mean to lead you on it's just, you know, it felt odd, you kissing me." I laughed along with her, "I didn't want to stop you and have you feel rejected but that's the exact feeling I had."

We laughed together, harder this time at the irony that my smoking hot best friend and I were lying in bed together and couldn't stand to even kiss. As our laughter died out I grabbed Claire harder and pulled her body flush against mine. I sighed this time so content in our little bubble. She snuggled deeper, closing what very little space there was between us and let her eyes close.

I looked upon her face for a little while longer, watching as the creases in her face smoothed out and her breathing became even. And I fell asleep with Claire being the last image and thought in my mind.