AN: Sorry I kept everyone waiting for so long on this story. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and to everyone who has stayed with this story. Here's chapter three for everyone. I have found a way around the error block for updating chapters. PM me if you need help.


Chapter Three

Strong Is The Only Option

Bella's Pov

"Well it starts like this-," I began. I felt Alice give my hand a gentle squeeze.

"In the beginning, we were all a happy family. We were living with my real dad down in Anaheim, but then things took a turn for the worst. My Mom was tired of our Dad's away schedule, and it caused them to get into arguments with each other. When I was eight and Cameron was six, they got a divorce. At first we moved out of our Dad's house, and into an apartment right next to the Angels stadium. We were good on money, and life was good. Then Mom met Phil, and everything changed after that. He was a really nice guy at first, but that went out the window when he came home drunk one night. He told me to go and get him a beer, and when I said no, that's when the beatings started. He slapped me across the face and then sent me up to my room. He apologized to me the next morning, but I knew better. After that night, I soon became his outlet for anger, and then he moved onto Mom and tried to on Cam, but I wouldn't let him. So every time I tried to protect them, he made my punishment ten times worse." I finished.

I heard sniffling coming from Alice, and immediately pulled her into a hug. She wrapped her arms around me tightly, causing a string of electric shocks to surge through my body. I wrapped my arms around her tiny form, and rubbed her back as she cried softly into my shoulder. I could feel her spiky hair tickle my neck whenever he head moved. All I could do was hold her and comfort her. I started to laugh when I realized that our positions should be flip flopped. Alice tore her head away from my shoulder, and looked up at me with confusion in her eyes.

"Why are you laughin'?" she asked me, her little, Southern, twinge coming through clearly. I wiped a stray tear away from her cheek before answering.

"Because I should be the one crying on you, not the other way around." I replied with a slight smile on my face. I watched as Alice's face turned a light pink hue, and looked at me with a shy smile on her face. My heartbeat quickened just like it did the first time that Alice and I ran into each other, but I didn't know why. I'm too embarrassed to tell Mom about it, because I don't know how she'll react.

"Bella, I wanna help you if it ain't too much trouble. You and your sister can sleep at my house if ya need somewhere to sleep at night." she said.

"Thanks, Alice, I really appreciate it." I replied. She smiled up at me and squeezed my hand. Those familiar shocks made their way up my arm and settled in my stomach. My cheeks were probably flaming pink right now, like Alice's are.

"Bella, I think we should tell my Mom about the situation, so that she doesn't get suspicious." she said. I was going to protest, but Mom commented before I could say anything.

"I think that's a good idea, Alice. Is there anyway that I could talk to your mother about this?" Mom asked from the kitchen.

"Yes ma'am, you can come over ta the house anytime you need to. I could bring her by here too if ya want." she replied.

"How about we go over there now since the diner doesn't open until six tonight." Mom suggested. We all nodded in agreement and walked over to Alice's house. Since didn't let any of us use or ride in his car, we're forced to walk everywhere.

Seeing the front of Alice's house for the first time was awesome. Her house was styled like a southern plantation home, and is completely white with black trimmings. They had a very large front porch that had a couple of rocking chairs on it. The porch itself was surrounded by a white fence railing. Alice took out her house key and opened the door. When we walked into her house, we were instantly greeted by a warm and cozy inside to the house. The walls of the house are painted sky blue and tan, with paintings littering them. Most of them are family pictures, but many of them were just of Alice. Some of them were posed while others were randomly taken.

My favorite being the one of her in a red bikini on the beach. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't just like the picture because I got to see her in a swimsuit. The reason I liked, was because she looked so happy and carefree. She was sitting cross-legged in shallow water and smiled at the camera as a small wave crashed into her. Her face was lit up in a beautiful smile that showcased her dimples perfectly. Her usually spiky hair was plastered to her head from the water, which looked really good in my opinion. All in all, she looked absolutely breathtaking.

Where the hell are all these thoughts coming from? Usually I just comment on a girl's beauty, and never go into depth about it. With Alice, it's like I'm analyzing every little detail about her. I've never felt like this with anybody else.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by a woman with middle length, black, wavy hair. She wasn't very tall, standing at around 5'4 and looked to be in her mid to late thirties like my Mom. I could see where Alice got her looks from. She was practically a spitting image of her mom right down to the pixie like facial features that they have. The only difference is Alice's hair and her mom's hair.

"I thought you were home, Alice. You want to introduce to your friends?" she asked kindly.

"Mom, this is Bella, her sister, Cameron, and her mom. Everyone this is my Mom, Audrey." Alice replied. After we all got acquainted with each other, it was time to get down to business.

"Audrey, can I ask for a huge favor from you?" Mom asked.

"Sure Renee, what do you need?"

"I was wondering if Bella and Cameron could sleep over at your house during the week."

"Yeah, that's fine with me. Is there something going on?" Audrey asked. Mom sighed and nodded her head.

"Yes, there is. My current boyfriend, Phil, is abusive towards me and my girls. Before you start yelling at me for not taking him to court already, is because I cant. I have no money for a good lawyer, and if I try to do anything in the first place, he'll find out. Not only that, but he'll kick all of us out, and we don't have any other place to go." Mom replied. I saw her trying to keep her tears at bay, and went over to comfort her. I wrapped my arms around her and let her cry into my shoulder.

"Bella, Cameron, I'm so sorry that I ever got together will Phil in the first place." she cried into my shoulder.

Tears were stinging at my own eyes, but I knew that I had to be strong for my Mother. I pressed a kiss to her forehead and rubbed her back. I'm lucky that we moved our conversation to Alice's living room so that we could sit down, otherwise I would've fell to the floor. My knees were quaking from how hard I was trying to keep my emotions at bay while watching my Mother breakdown in my arms. She pulled away soon and wiped her face furiously, trying to get rid of her tears.

"Renee, of course your kids can stay at my house. You can too if things get really bad. I'll talk to my husband and see if we can get an awesome lawyer to help you out too. That way you can get rid of Phil." Audrey replied. She then pulled Mom into a hug.

"Bella, go to the house and go pack up your stuff so that you and your sister are prepared to spend the night for the week." Mom said after she let go of Alice's mom.

We got up and left, Alice, Cameron, and I going towards Phil's house, while Mom went back to the diner. The walk was a little long, but all of us made small talk along the way. I learned a ton of things about Alice. Her favorite color is blue, and softball and baseball are her favorite sports. My Dad is her favorite baseball player. She loves listening to Indie Rock music, and anything she can dance to. She also likes long walks on the beach and star gazing.

Wow! Alice is so amazing! We have so much in common with each other.

When I opened the door and ushered everyone inside, I immediately wished that I didn't do it. Sitting on the couch in the living room, was Phil drinking from a twenty four pack of beer and watching TV. It looked like he was already half way through the twenty four pack, and I knew that something bad was going to happen. All of froze like deer caught in headlights, while Phil smirked at us from the couch. He place his can on the coffee table that he liked to slam me down on. I don't know how many times the legs broke off of it, but he would fix the table and use it over again.

"Well hey girls, what have you guys been up to?" he asked. It came out more as a slur, and I could tell from where I was standing that his eyes were completely glassed over.

"Nothing," I replied to him. I watched as his eyes peered around me and settled on Alice. I didn't know whether to punch him in the face, or puke from the way his eyes were roaming her body. My stomach dropped when I saw him lick his lips.

"Who's your little friend, Bella?" he asked as he got up from the couch. He staggered his way over to us, and I really had to fight the urge not to puke from the smell of alcohol. Alice moved behind me to hide from Phil.

"She's nobody, Phil. I have something that she lost at school, and is here to get it back." I replied. After I said this, we tried to make our way upstairs, but Phil grabbed a hold of my arm.

"Now wait a minute, I think that we should get to know her." he said and pulled me back into the living room.

"No, I don't think we should." I responded. I saw that familiar glint appear in his eyes, and I was terrified for Cam and Alice's wellbeing. Luckily they were really close to the stairs already.

"Alice, Cameron, run upstairs!" I yelled as Phil lunged at me. I ducked underneath him and followed the girls upstairs. The girls were already upstairs waiting for me, and I was almost to the top, when I felt Phil grab my ankle and pull me down. I hit my forehead on the corner of the stairs, and I felt my skin rip above my right eyebrow. Phil then proceeded to grab me by the back of my shirt and throw me into the wall.

"Bella!" I heard Alice cry out. I tried to get out of Phil's grasp, but he just pinned me harder against the wall. He slapped me across my face, causing the corner of my bottom lip to rip and start bleeding. He then pressed his hand against my still sore side, causing me to cry out in pain. He was just too strong while he was drunk for me to fight back against him.

As I was pinned against the wall by Phil, I saw Alice come up behind him. She had my bat from my room in her hands. She got into a hitter's stance and swung the bat at Phil's back. The caused him to let go of me and drop to his knees at the same time. I then punched Phil's temple as hard as I could with a right hook, and he went out like a light. He collapsed on the floor, giving me my chance to escape. Alice and I ran back upstairs into me and Cameron's room. I quickly shut the door and locked it. I was soon tackled by my little sister.

"Cam, I'm okay. Let's hurry up and get all of our stuff packed up and leave before Phil wakes back up." I told her.

Everything seemed to move in hyper drive after I said this. Alice helped Cameron pack up all of her stuff for the week, while I did the same. I didn't want Alice to see my underwear, since I wore boxers to bed because of my "extra" part. I also didn't want her to know about it, cause I was afraid that she would call me a freak and stay away from me.

After we got finished, we escaped out of the house using the fire ladder, that was connected to my window. We hurried up down the ladder and took off towards Alice's house with our bags. About halfway there, I started to feel slightly dizzy, but I pushed it aside. It wasn't until we actually got to Alice's house did the feeling come back stronger. Alice opened up the door and ushered us inside, before slamming the door shut. Mrs. Audrey came running into the living room, and gasped in shock.

"Bella, what happened?" she asked while taking in my wounds.

"Phil was there when we got there. He tried to do stuff to Alice, but I wouldn't let him, and this is the result." I told her. She nodded and sat me down on the couch, and then ran to go find something. She came back into the room with a first aid kit and some rubbing alcohol. I winced when she took some cotton balls, that were soaked in the alcohol, and started to clean up my wounds. My lip wasn't bad at all, but she had to put butterfly band aids on my cut above my eyebrow.

"Does anything else hurt?" she asked me. I nodded and lifted up my shirt so that she could see my side. She gasped when she saw it, and I looked to see why. My left side was covered in a big, ugly, black, bruise. She took out some healing salve and gently rubbed it into it.

"That she take away the pain and the color out of it." she told me. I nodded and pulled my shirt back down.

"Alice, why don't you help Cameron take their bags upstairs. I need to talk to Bella for a moment." Audrey said. Alice and Cam grabbed the bags and headed upstairs. I was slightly nervous about what Mrs. Audrey was going to talk to me about.

"Bella, what do you mean that Phil tried to do stuff to Alice?" she asked.

"He looked at her the way he does when he wants to have sex with my Mom. He also said that he wanted to get to know her better. I told him no, and that's when he started to hit me. He had me pinned up against a wall, but Alice hit Phil with a baseball bat and helped me escape." I replied.

"Has he ever tried to do anything to you or Cameron?"

"I don't even let him near Cameron, and he can't do anything to me." I replied, saying the last part quietly. Mrs. Audrey looked at with questioning eyes.

"What do you mean that he cant do anything to you." she asked quietly. I shook my head and looked down at my lap.

Why did I have to be born this way? My life would be a hundred times easier if I wasn't born like a freak of nature.

"Bella, you can tell me anything. You're practically family already. I'll be like your second mom so to speak." she said and clasped my hand in hers. I instantly felt that comforting feeling that you get when you feel your Mom turn into Momma Bear mode.

"You wont tell anybody will you?" I asked. She shook her head and gave me a small smile.

"Well I wasn't born as just a girl. I was born with male parts too." I told her quietly.

"Bella, it's okay. Alice's sister, Jessie, was born the exact same way. I have absolutely no problem with it, Alice's father has no problem with it, and I'm certain that Alice wont have a problem with it." she replied. My eyes widened in surprise when I found out that not only does Alice have a sister, but that she's just like me too.

Mrs. Audrey got up and grabbed a photo album and brought it over to me. She showed me baby pictures of Jessie, all the way to recent pictures. Her black hair was cut just like Alice's, and was just as spiky. She was my height, and has a toned body. Her eyes are violet though, instead of Alice's ocean blue. The picture was of both her and Alice wearing replicas of my Dad's Angels jersey with Angels hats on, and Jessie was giving Alice a piggy back ride. They both had smiles on their faces in the picture.

"Jessie is in college right now, but she and her girlfriend from UCLA are coming home tomorrow for their summer break. If you have any questions to ask, she'll be here to answer them." Mrs. Audrey said and patted my knee. As she was putting the photo album back, she quickly turned to me.

"Don't tell Alice that she's coming home though, it's a surprise." she told me. I nodded and motioned that I zipped my lips shut.

"I'm going to go make dinner. I hope you guys like alfredo." she said.

"Mrs. Audrey, Cameron and I are lucky if we get anything to eat because of Phil spending all of our money on alcohol. We really don't care what we eat, as long as we get to." I replied. Tears were in her eyes, but she never let them fall. I was glad that she didn't allow them to, because I didn't want her to. She smiled at me one more time before going into the kitchen.

As I walked upstairs, I heard a bunch of giggling coming from Alice's room. Her door was open, giving me a perfect view of she and Cam playing those hand slapping games that had songs sung with them. Cam looked like she was having so much fun playing with Alice, and it made my heart swell with joy. Cam can now have fun and enjoy herself, instead of dealing with Phil while we're living here. I gently knocked on Alice's door frame, letting her know that I was here. She smiled and motioned for me to come in.

Her room was just like her. The room was entirely blue, and had pictures and trophies everywhere. She had a queen sized bed that has blue and purple tie dye sheets on it. It was a canopy bed too. Her window was open, letting all of the warm summer breeze into her room. She had a flat screen mounted to wall above her dresser, and had a bookshelf full of movies. She also had a wooden box, that had a glass screen on the top of it, that was filled with Angels stuff.

"Hey Bella," Alice said as I made my way over to her bed. Alice and Cameron were both sitting cross legged on it while facing each other. Alice patted the spot next to her on the bed.

"You girls having fun?" I asked. They both nodded their heads, smiling brightly at me as I sat down next to Alice.

"Hey, I have this awesome idea." I told them. They immediately focused on me and what I had to say.

"Why don't we camp out in the living room tonight. We can build a tent and everything." I suggested. Alice squealed in delight, and grabbed a sketchbook and a pencil.

For the next hour, we designed how our tent would like in the living room. Alice really showed off how great of an artist that she is, by sketching out everything that we thought of. Right after we finished with the sketches of our tent, Mrs. Brandon called us down to dinner. Cameron and I were then introduced to Mr. Brandon. He was really nice and welcomed us with open arms. He also told us that he was going to help out our Mother and help us get out of our situation.

After dinner, we went ballistic on the living room. Apparently one of the couches had a pull out bed in it too, and Alice told me that I had to sleep there because of my side. So we took about fifteen blankets and turned the living room into one giant tent. It was tall enough too, so that I could sleep on the pull out bed and still be sleeping inside of the tent. Alice and Cameron made little beds on the floor next to me. We stayed up a little while longer, before going to bed.

At one point late at night, I heard Alice start whimpering in her sleep. I looked down and saw her tossing and turning on the floor. Then she stopped all of a sudden, so I went back to sleep only to be woken up about ten minutes later. I felt my shoulder get nudged, and I rolled over onto my right side to see who it was. I wasn't surprised when I saw Alice standing there, but what I didn't expect was to see tears falling down her face.

"B-Bella, c-can I s-sleep with you?" she asked, sniffling between words. I nodded and quickly pulled back the covers and scooted over so that she could fit. She instantly got under the covers and snuggled up to me, still crying.

"What's wrong, Alice?" I asked.

"I h-had a n-nightmare that Phil k-killed you and then c-came after me." she replied. My eyes went wide in shock, and I quickly gathered her into my arms. She sobbed quietly into my chest, while I tried to get her to calm down.

"Alice, he didn't get me I'm right here. I promise that I wont let anything happen to you." I whispered into her ear. She nodded into my chest and looked up at me through her tears. I brushed them away with my hand.

"Let's try and get some sleep. Remember that I'm right here next to you." I told her softly. She nodded and buried her head into the crook of my shoulder, her soft, spiky, hair tickling my neck. I planted a small kiss on the top of her head, like I do to Cameron before she goes to bed, and fell asleep.

That had to be one hell of a nightmare. I hope that with her sister coming home from college will keep her mind off of Phil for a while.


AN: So Alice has a sister that's exactly like Bella. I wonder how that's going to turn out later in the story. Let me know whatcha think!