CH.2

As I turned from closing the door, ten feet away from me stood a simple pretty girl who was petite in stature, rather pale, long brown hair and feeling rather awkward. Next to her stood a very good looking guy with bronze colored hair, extreme paleness and about 6 feet tall. Who should also be in some photo shoot for Calvin Kline instead of here in this little town where big success wasn't really seen. It only took me 2 seconds to process this image in my head and then I ran to her and hugged her as tight as I could. Of course I couldn't really do it as tight as I could, since I could probably kill her.

"Oh my God! Finally after all these years!" I let her go and looked at her. "Damn it Bella! Look at you! You're all grown up!"

"Well, look at you too! Hey you're not 6 feet tall! You're my height!"

"And yet you're still kind of slow. I see nothing has changed cousin."

"Oh shut up!" We both laughed.

"Oh shoot! Bad manners. Layla this is my boyfriend Edward." What kind of a name is Edward I thought. Sounds like something from back in the day in medieval times. Bella continued to introduce us,

"Edward this is Layla. She's more of a sister than a cousin though."

"Nice to meet you Layla," he said with a very polite tone and a very soft but firm and angelic voice. It was rather strange how I was thinking that his voice was rather, well, sexy.

"Nice to meet you too Edward." I shook his hand which was shockingly very cold. He seemed to have an uneasiness to himself. I shook it off and turned to Bella,

"So hold up let me get my stuff from my car and that way I can get my stuff 'situated' like your dad said."

"Charlie will be Charlie."

"Is that what you call your dad now? Charlie?"

"Well, its just that it seems easier that way. Wait is that your car?" She looked at me like I was crazy or something.

"Uh, yeah. Why?" I turned around to look at her.

"Well, nothing is just that Edward and his family are into fast cars and he's been bugging me to change my red truck over here-" she pointed to a red old, faded out '54 Chevy pick up truck parked in the drive way, "for some fast sports car."

"Oh, I see."

"Oh not you too! I thought you would be on my side since you are my family." She looked at me with hurtful eyes. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh come on Bella I won't pick sides, I am neutral! Besides, having a fast car isn't that bad. Once I got this Mustang here, I went against driving anything below 80 mph."

"See Bella even your cousin has good taste in cars. I can't see why you wont let me buy you a car," said Edward looking at her with appraising eyes. I could all of a sudden tell by the way he looked at her that something serious was going on and something fishy as well. I got both of my bags out of the car,

"Well that's that." I caught then whispering again to each other and heard her say, "same time, I'll see you upstairs." I acted as if I had not heard anything and walked towards them.

"Edward has to go right now but tomorrow we'll see him again and maybe you can come with us to his house and meet his family." she looked so excited for a minute.

"Yeah sounds good then and it was nice meeting you Edward."

"Same here Layla. Hopefully you will be able to accompany us tomorrow."

"I'm pretty sure I will since I don't have anything to do and I'm strictly on vacation." I laughed and headed towards the door. Bella gave him a quick kiss and as I turned around he was already in his car which surprisingly was a shiny silver Volvo. Not the type of car you usually see around Forks. As I was thinking that the car sped away and Bella came over to me. We entered the house laughing and Uncle Charlie was sitting in his comfy old armchair. "Well, look at that. The two of you laughing just like old times."

"Oh Uncle Charlie your making us sound like two old people playing chess." I grinned.

"Yeah dad, please stop. It's not like we fought in some war and its veterans day." Bella rolled her eyes at Uncle Charlie and then smiled.

"Bells, don't forget to feed your cousin."

"I know Charlie. I think I've been feeding you long enough to know how to feed someone else." She laughed as she headed for the kitchen.

"Hey Bella ill go upstairs to leave my stuff ok?"

"Sure, go ahead !" she yelled from the kitchen as I walked up the stairs with out a noise.

I opened the room to her door expecting a dramatic change but same old scene was there. Except for the desk with the computer.

I walked over and threw down my bags next to her bed and walked over to her window. I took out my cell phone and saw a missed call. It was from Dave. Dave was my ex-boyfriend, who kept on thinking things between us wasn't over. The only reason I kept on talking to him was to check to see if any crime in Seattle was going on. His father, the leader of the biggest mafia crew in Seattle had many connections and knew everything and almost everyone in Seattle. It served me right to stay connected with Dave. I called him back and he answered on the second ring.

"Hey, Layla. I thought you'd never call."

"Yeah well, I had to, so what's the scoop."

"Well, I don't know if you've seen anything in the LA papers but Seattle has been having really high murder rates in the past 3 to 4 months."

"Does your father know who's behind these murders?"

"Nope, wish I could tell you but nothing has shown up. The cops think its some psycho path or some serial killer."

"Well, thanks for the heads up Dave. I gotta go."

"Wait, Layla, where are you? I want to see you?"

"Dave, we have been through this so many times; it cant work out between us. Besides your father hates me and well, I just don't feel anything for you anymore. Ok? I don't want to hurt you."

"Well, call me when you need more scoop."

"Don't worry I will." I hanged up and sighed right when Bella walked in the door and told me dinner was ready. I went downstairs again with out a noise. I was getting better and better at the element of surprise.

"So what's for dinner?" I said in a very clear and loud voice. Charlie and Bella jumped when they heard me.

"Damn it Layla you almost gave me a heart attack." Charlie started to laugh.

"Ok since when do you not make noise coming down those noisy wood stairs?" She stared at me very curious.

"Since I've been taking Tea Kwon Do, Judo and Jujitsu." I winked at Uncle Charlie as his jaw dropped and then closed his mouth right back up again.

"Well let me know if you need a position down there with me at the station, no wait your not 21 yet." I started to laugh and turned to Bella who was looking at me funny.

"What's wrong Bella? Cat caught your tongue?" She then stuck her tongue out at me and continued to serve the food.

Later that night in Bella's room, Bella and I could hear Charlie snoring from the living room making us close the door to the room.

"So, you got good taste in men little cousin."

"You really think so? Well, what did you think about him?"

"Um well, first off, he seems very hung up on you and he's very pale." She turned her head away from me for a second and then looked at me again thinking I had not noticed.

"He also seems like a very nice, polite dude who seems really cool."

"There you go with 'dude' again."

"Well I am from California after all." I rolled my eyes at her and then grinned. She grinned back as she got up and walked over to her computer.

"Oh I almost forgot I have to write back to Renee, she gets worried when I don't constantly write back to her. And I have to tell her that your here. That should make her day."

"Say hi to her for me while you're at it."

"I will. And did I tell you already she got remarried with this guy Phil who is a baseball player and to top it all off, is younger than her?"

"No way, your mom got married?" I was in shock because from what I remembered, Renee wasn't the marrying type especially after Uncle Charlie.

"Yep. And that is why I am here in Forks."

"Well, little cousin I am going for a drive and will be back later tonight."

"Where are you going? Especially right now?" Bella turned her full attention to me and crossed her arms.

"I, Miss Bella, am going to go nowhere in particular just want to drive a bit to see the town at night and remind myself of something. It's been years you know."

"Well hurry on back. You just got here a few hours ago so I want us to keep on catching up with each other."

"Hey don't worry I think we'll have all night to catch up even though you should go to bed early since you still have school." I walked to door and opened it.

"Oh don't remind me! I got about a week left before I graduate and then I'm free."

"Well, until then, you should go to sleep on time." I made a face and walked out and as I closed the door I heard her say, "Sounds like something Edward would say."