Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. I don't own Twilight, clearly.

Thank you, Wendy and Jen for being so great!

I promise the upcoming chapters will be longer.

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CHAPTER 2 – Familiar

June, 16th—Monday

"Hey, Bells," Charlie greeted me at the airport parking lot in Port Angeles. He was leaning against his cruiser in the same old uniform I remembered him wearing. It was raining terribly.

"Hi Dad." I gave him a hug which took him by surprise. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have done that.

"How was your flight?" he asked once we were in the car, heading to Forks.

"It was awful. I hate flying." Charlie looked at me like I had gone mad and I wanted to laugh, but I didn't.

"What's gotten into you, girl?" I laughed this time and he couldn't contain himself either. "Welcome home," he said nodding and I smiled. It certainly felt like that.

My room had always been the same: simple white walls, purple curtains and brown furniture. I didn't like that it looked so impersonal, which was why I was determined to make a change soon.

I put my little cactus on the bedside table and looked at the bags full of clothes and books I had brought. I'd told the owner of my apartment in Phoenix I wouldn't pay the rent past the 30 days of notice, because I was leaving. The guy didn't give a fuck and just told me to clean it so that he could rent it as soon as possible again. Asshole.

Charlie seemed ecstatic to have me back home and that felt good. I wondered how he could have stayed alone all this time, in this too big, empty house.

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"How long are you staying, Bells?" Charlie asked me at the kitchen table, where we were eating heated canned meatballs. He wasn't much of a cook.

"Um… probably a couple months," I responded.

"Something wrong at work? Did someone hurt you?" He asked concerned. I supposed showing up in the town he knew I didn't have much love for struck him as suspicious.

"I left work," I started, "and no, nobody hurt me. I would have beaten the crap out of them, you know." I'm a cop's daughter. He taught me well.

Charlie gave me a strange look before speaking. "I really don't know what's gotten into you, but I like having you here. I probably haven't told you this very often, but you can tell me anything… You can count on me, okay?"

"Yeah, okay Dad," I said, hesitating before I continued. "And I probably don't tell you this very often, but… I love you, and I like being here. Really."

Boom! I fixed my eyes to my empty plate. I had never been so direct before and I didn't need to look up to see Charlie's surprised look.

"Um… yeah, I… I love you… too, Bells." He took a deep breath and stood up, grabbing our plates. "I have to go to work. I'll see you later."

Charlie passed by me and kissed the top of my head as he headed out. I heard the cruiser take off the driveway outside, and when I couldn't hear anything but the rain, silent tears streamed down my face.

After a few minutes I started getting cold and my head was aching from crying. I went to the bathroom and took my pills as I looked myself in the mirror. Brown eyes, brown hair, average nose, average mouth… nothing special. I sighed and returned to the kitchen to clean up the dishes. Charlie would be home by dinner and I was sure he hadn't eaten anything home-made in a long time, so I decided to spend the afternoon cooking his favorite meals, baking some cookies and singing along to the radio.

But before that, I needed to go grocery shopping because the contents of the kitchen cabinets at my dad's house consisted only of cans and cans of pre-cooked food.

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"Isabella? Isabella Swan?" I heard a high feminine voice call me from the other corner of the aisle. I grimaced when I realized who it was. I turned around as she approached hand-in-hand with a second person I remember never wanting to see again.

"It's Bella," I said. "Jessica, Mike, I had no idea you were still living here." She was the one who wanted to leave this town the most in high school. And he was just a loser, his staying didn't surprise me.

"Oh, well, we're pretty happy here, Bella. We think Forks is a good place to raise our kids," Jessica said gently rubbing her stomach.

"Are you…?"

Mike shook his head.

"We married about six months ago. We're trying… you know. We came to buy a couple of pregnancy tests," he said.

"Okay, um… Good luck with that." I wanted to say they would do more good for the world if they bought condoms instead, but I didn't. No need to be rude. After all, I knew how much Mike sucked in bed. I had reasons to think they would be trying for a while. They didn't seem like they had changed so much.

"Oh my gosh, Bella, I can't believe you're actually here!" Jessica said too enthusiastically spreading her arms.

"Well, I was deciding between pads or tampons, but I think I'll take both," I said pointing behind me to the period supplies. Mike laughed quietly. Ugh, I had forgotten how ridiculous his laughter sounded. Jessica looked at him and faked a laugh too.

"You're so funny… Have you come to see your dad?" she asked.

"I'll be here for some time, yeah."

"We should like, get together and catch up, don't you think?"

"I don't know if I'll have time, but we'll probably see each other around," I responded.

We parted after our goodbyes and I continued with my shopping.

At the freezers, I tripped on someone. The guy was distracted reading his list or something and didn't even apologize.

"No problem, you can leap over me too, if you want…" I said sarcastically.

He walked away to grab the next thing he needed without acknowledging me. I decided to let it go and not pick a fight unnecessarily. He was too tall for me.

I finally made my way to the cashier where there were three people before me. I recognized the one just in front of me from high school and thought about saying something, but decided against it when I realized I didn't remember his name. His broad shoulders and muscled constitution were familiar, but I couldn't match that huge body to a name. Maybe if I saw his face…

When the woman before him was about to pay, the guy from the freezers stepped ahead of me and started putting his things on the belt. I was fuming.

"Excuse me." I tapped hard on his shoulder causing him to turn around. "Am I invisible?"

He looked at me perplexed through a pair of deep green eyes; then at the huge guy behind him—who was putting things in paper bags—and at me again. "Uh…"

"I was here before you, mister," I said loudly, so that he could hear me well, since he seemed a bit off. I heard a chuckle and in a second, the big guy was beside us, touching our shoulders.

"I'm sorry. He's with me. I should've said something," he said and I narrowed my eyes at them.

"Yes, you should have. But, doesn't your friend speak?" I asked and turned to the alluded. "You bumped into me before."

Finally the clouds parted in the sky and he spoke, with the most velvety voice I'd ever heard.

"Please excuse me, Miss. I apologize profusely," he said calmly. "Obviously, I didn't see you, or else I would have just leaped over you instead." He smiled, which only made me angrier.

"So you heard me and didn't apologize?" I yelled at the man. Luckily for him, the other was still keeping me in place.

"I just did, didn't I?"

Cocky bastard.

"Hey, kids, that's enough. Dude, stop teasing the woman. C'mon." The huge guy pulled the fucker away and turned again to me and winked. "I'm Emmett, by the way."

"Emmett Cullen?" I asked. Now I remembered him.

"Yeah! You've heard about me… Good things, I hope." Was he flirting now?

"We met in high school, actually," I said as I put my things on the belt. We were giving quite a show to the cashier. "I'm Bella."

"Bella? As in… Isabella Swan?" he asked, surprised, and I winced at the name. "Wow, you've changed from what I remember… for the better, of course." I heard the bastard snort behind Emmett, so I shot him a look. "Oh, this is my brother Edward."

Brothers? They didn't look alike at all. I remembered Emmett's brother was a freshman in college when the Cullens moved here and Emmett was a junior while I was a sophomore. So Edward must be about three years older than me.

After I paid for my items, he happily extended his hand for me to shake, but I ignored him. He faked a pout and lowered his hand back to his side.

"Well, I have to get going," I said as I grabbed my bags and walked to the exit.

"Nice to meet you, Isabella!" Edward shouted when I passed them with my truck while they were putting their bags in the back of an old Jeep.

"It's Bella!" I yelled back.

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