Since the party incident I was on my absolute best behaviour and everything had run pretty smoothly. I hadn't left the house to avoid getting questioned by Carlisle and he was seriously falling for the whole 'I've changed' act that I was putting on. I just needed to bide my time and wait for the right moment. I had decided that I was going to escape!
Now that I had gained Carlisle's trust I had to put my plan into action. I was sitting at the breakfast table, eating cereal and reading a newspaper when Carlisle came downstairs and saw me.
'Good morning Bella' he chirped, patting my shoulder as he walked past, I tried not to pull away from the patronising gesture.
'Morning' I mumbled back staring at my paper.
'So, what will you be doing today?' he asked, pulling out a chair and sitting opposite me.
'Um nothing much, just studying and I might go for a walk' I replied, avoiding eye contact.
He had a slight look of worry on his face.
'Okay but please don't go through the woods, it's dangerous for someone as young as you. You could slip over or get attacked' he explained.
I fought back anger at the lack of belief he had in me to be able to go for a walk without 'slipping over'.
'Okay, I won't go through the woods' I said bluntly.
His expression softened and he relaxed.
'Good, well I have a lot of appointments scheduled for today so I'll be fairly busy. I may be home a bit later, probably about 7ish. Is that alright?' he asked.
'Yeah sure' I answered
'Excellent, oh and I forgot to tell you, Edward called last night when you were asleep and informed me that the Denali Coven have invite them to stay a little longer, for a birthday celebration or something. So they'll be staying for the month, he didn't think you would mind.'
I gawped up at Carlisle, thank God I had my plan, I wouldn't be able to stay with Carlisle for a whole month!
'If you need any extra things from your house to stay here for longer, then I can pick them up on my way back from work.' He suggested smiling at me.
'That won't be necessary' I said through gritted teeth.
'Okay then, well I had best be off' he got up, walked over to me at human pace and placed a kiss on the top of my head, 'Goodbye Bella, call me at lunchtime to let me know you're okay' he said cheerfully before heading out to his Mercedes.
'I will' I responded without emotion.
I stayed seated until I heard his car pull out of the driveway and speed off down the road, waiting a good ten minutes just for good measure, before sliding out of my chair to rush around getting ready, I needed all the time I could find.
I had a shower and quickly washed my hair before getting dressed and packing the rest of my clothes and possessions in my blue duffle bag. I took all of the money Charlie left me and unplugged my fully charged phone and slid that in with my other things. I then collected my essentials, my toothbrush etc, and packed them too. When I was packed and ready to leave I wrote a sign on some paper saying, 'Got my headphones in and am studying, please do not disturb' and stuck it to my bedroom door. I knew that this attempt to get me more time when Carlisle arrived home probably wouldn't work, after all he was a vampire and would probably notice that I was gone as soon as he arrived, however it was worth a try. I then left the light on, locked the door behind me, opened the window and shimmied down the drainpipe to the ground.
I ran all the way to Charlie's house where my truck was parked up, I careful not to brush any trees or bushes, so that my scent wasn't very strong. I lifted up the cactus pot on the doorstep and nervously fumbled around for my car keys. Grasping them, I made a dash to my truck, unlocked it and threw my bags in the passenger side. I raced around to the other side, it was windy and a huge leaf was blown onto my chest from the nearby tree, I was so uptight that I didn't expect it and screamed and tried to bat it off, thinking it was some kind of animal who knew what I was up to. After a few seconds, I realised what is was and slid into my truck feeling very silly. It made me realise that I needed to calm down, Carlisle didn't suspect anything, what could possibly go wrong? I started the engine and backed out of the drive, once I was on the road I felt free like nothing and nobody could stop me, or so I thought...