"Bella… I gave you everything…everything, there's not even anything left for me. I have to go, I have to do this. I…I have to get away from you. I'm sorry. You'll be fine, you've shown that you don't need me in your life."

"Jake please, that's not true, you know this. You're my best friend; what am I supposed to do without you! Just swing by, just talk to me, I don't want you to go, it's not safe, what if I lose you?"

"Losing me never seemed to be a big concern…"

CLICK


I held my eyes closed as I was mentally cursing my brain for having this dream again. My last phone call with Jake; never something I wanted to start my mornings out with. But then, I remembered that there was something different about this particular morning, and I whipped my eyes open.

I threw quick, darty glances around the room; pale cream eyelet curtains, beaten-up desk with laptop, photo of Renee on the nightstand. Thank god I was in my own room, but I couldn't recall how I had gotten there; maybe because my head was pounding.

I closed my eyes again to seek relief from the sunlight's harsh effect of my skull, and tried to piece it all together. Bar… friends… blind date… Eric… open mic… chug… violence… eyes. Violence; how did I forget the violence? I pulled the covers closer to my neck, flung the pillow next to me over my eyes and started to remember….


Eric slowly raised his head from the wooden bar while shouting at the man responsible for his newly bloody nose. "What the FUCK is your problem, man? I think you broke my fucking nose!"

Eric whipped his head around while kicking out his bar stool, turned to stand, and faced his attacker. He met eyes with the man, and took a slight step back; these were not eyes that anyone wanted to be yelling at.

"You are my problem, MAN. You think I don't see you? Every weekend... same time… same stupid ass grin on your face… different girl… but same little, white pill. I guess she made it easy on you this time, going to the bathroom made your slip a little more easy, huh?"

There was a millisecond after the stranger's question that no one moved, until I put his words together and snapped my eyes straight at Eric.

"You. Drugged. Me?" I said the words slow and with purpose; I knew it was because I was terrified, but I hoped Eric thought it was because his life was in serious danger. I first shocked myself when my fist propelled towards his already damaged nose, and I shocked myself for a second time when I enjoyed seeing him double over in pain.

But, I was embarrassed. I was a victim, and everyone in this bar was looking at me with pity; pity that I already received from enough people on a daily basis. Quickly, I grabbed my small clutch from the bar top, kicked my feet off the stool's rods and basically flung myself through the glass doors to begin the walk home.

I couldn't believe this. I wanted to have fun, I wanted to try, and that asshole had just ruined what had taken so much of my effort to do. I was enjoying myself, I was being normal, and somehow it turned into me being a victim. The walk to the corner was full of hatred; hate I could only remember feeling once over a person.

I stopped to calm myself, leaned my back against the stop sign, and slid down to the ground with my head in my hands. 'Just breath… it's not that bad… get home… go to bed…' And just as I was regaining my composure, I heard quick heavy footsteps and I flung my head up.

It was him…stranger. Well, beautiful stranger I mean. He was jogging towards me, and as terrified as I had been five seconds earlier, I couldn't take my eyes off of the man.

"What the hell are you doing?" As soon as he reached me, he looked at me with a look almost as frightening as he had directed at Eric and spoke with anger in his voice. "I tell you you've been drugged and you run out into a dark street at 1am alone? Are you fucking insane, you're not even going to be conscious in about ten minutes."

"I…. I just, I want to go home, I can make it home, I'm only a few blocks away." As fascinated as I was by the stranger, I was now standing, and slowly backing away from him. I was a cop's daughter after all; my senses weren't completely blind.

Scratch that, my balance was inherited from my mother, and that sense was as blind as a bat. While backing up, I forgot to account for the curb and tripped backwards over its lip, tumbling backwards on my tailbone.

Strange, beautiful man ran towards me, and I looked up at him pathetically. He was beautiful, perfect, magnificent, and whatever other word worked for god's greatest creations.

He held out his hand towards me, and all I could hear was disgust in his voice. "Jesus Christ, give me your phone."


The last thing I could recall as I laid in bed was the way the streetlight looked behind the man. My view from the ground upwards toward him created a gleaming sun behind him from the streetlight; almost like a halo.

And that was it. That was the end of my night's memory. I knew I was in my own bed, and despite that I was still fearful of what I would find outside of my bedroom door. Was Alice here? Was she mad about Eric? Would the man be here? Was that even a rational question or just wishful thinking?

With reluctance, I dragged my sluggish body out of my bed, walked towards the door, turned the handle and entered the living room.

"Well, well Jasper, look who's alive finally at Noon."

"Alice, give her a break, she had a pretty eventful night. How ya feeling Bella?"

Jasper and Alice were both seated on the couch reading books. Alice's tone had been playful, so she must not be mad, and Jasper's tone was soft and almost paternal. "That depends, will someone please tell me how I got home last night?"

Alice began to speak softly to herself, "Hmmmm, he said she probably wouldn't remember."

"Excuse me Alice, who said I wouldn't remember? And what exactly am I not remembering?" I was getting aggravated. From what I could remember, it seemed like some serious things went out last night, and my best friend was dodging my questions about my own well-being; not something I wanted to deal with while fighting off a pounding headache. I stuck to the same spot outside my door, half in the living room, giving Alice a look that clearly meant I wanted answers.

"Well, it's actually a bit exciting! Do you remember what Eric did to you?" I nodded. "Do you remember falling on the street?" I nodded again, getting impatient. "Do you remember the cab ride home?" Finally, I shook my head sideways to her question and Alice flew into an excited rendition of the night's events.

"Okay so you fell, and were clearly so totally out of it. I mean between the drinking and what Eric did, you were a total mess. So Dash got you to cough up your cell phone and he dialed the first number that was in your most recent call list, which was me thank goodness. And then…"

I quickly interjected, "Dash? Who is Dash?" Alice smiled and Jasper offered an explanation. "It's her nickname for your rescuer; she thinks he was a handsome gentlemen, called him dashing, and somehow her mind warped that into nicknaming him Dash. Dash is really Edward, but you know Alice and her mind."

"My creativity is so not important to the story. Continuing on. So Dash calls me up, tells me the whole awful story, which I am so, so sorry about Bella. I really had no idea that Eric was like that, I don't know where my judgment went wrong with him."

Alice was looking at me with a look begging forgiveness; it practically broke my heart. "Alice, come on, it's okay, it isn't your fault. You couldn't have known, and look, I'm just fine. Wait, I am fine right?"

Smiling Alice was back. "Thanks to Dash you are! So Dash offers to load you into a cab, and bring you back to the apartment if I gave him the address. I was totally worried at that point that he was just gonna make off with you, but Emmett and Jasper were still out at the bar, and I figured if he was going to do anything with you, he certainly wouldn't have called me in the first place, so I agreed. And honestly, that's really about the whole story. He helped me bring you upstairs since you were out of it, stayed while I got you to bed, left his number and left. He did tell me to tell you that he was sorry about your evening and that he hoped you were okay. Seriously, Bella, you're fine and lucky as hell. You so need to call Dash or Edward or whatever and tell him thanks."

Finally, I moved from my statuesque pose near my door and began moving to plop down on the couch next to Alice. I could breathe a sigh of relief that I was fine, and Alice was right; I was lucky, but I was most certainly not going to call Edward.

"Alice, I made a complete pathetic fool of myself in front of him, I'm grateful, but I think I'll put an end to the whole memory and just leave it be. He doesn't need to hear from me, I'm sure he knows anyone would be thankful."

Just then, Alice's phone started blasting the latest Yeah Yeah Yeahs song and she whipped the pink cell to her ear.

"Edward! Hi! …Yeah, she just woke up and we told her everything… Actually, she's sitting right next to me and really wanted to tell you thanks personally, here she is!"

My mouth was dropped and I was staring at Alice through squinted, betrayed eyes. She covered the speaker with her hand, thrust the phone towards me and just gave me a smile. Feeling completely trapped, I reluctantly grabbed the phone and put it to my ear.

"Edward, um, hi…."


Thanks for reading everyone! I can't believe it took me so long to get to Chapter 3, but gosh has my life been crazy lately.

I hope you guys like it, and if you do then I'll have some incentive to keep plugging away at it. Gotta say...writing is great stress relief!

Let me know what you think and Happy St Pattys Day on tomorrow : )