A/N All Twilight characters belong to Stephenie Meyer
I changed somethings..I know Edward didn't give Bella the CD until her birthday in New Moon, but in my world, he gave it to her before that...the same thing with the pictures...in my version, she had pictures of her hunkalicious boyfriend, because seriously, what 17 year old girl wouldn't have tons of pics of her very scrumptious boyfriend? And you guys are hell bent on making it difficult..if Carly's a wolf girl wouldn't Edward smell totally gross her out (Honey I love you, but you STINK!) lol...oh well..we'll see what happens :)
CPOV
As much as I wished reality would vanish; just get sucked down into the ground and away from me; it didn't and reality, in the form of a very concerned Emily was waiting for me when I tried to sneak back in after my rendezvous in the woods.
"Carly Renee Black, what the hell were you thinking?" she demanded as her small hands snagged the collar of my damp and muddy hoodie. I stared sheepishly at the floor feeling bad for making her worry.
"Well?" she asked releasing my hood and planting her hands firmly on her thin waist.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled.
"You bet your ass you are. Now get upstairs and put some dry clothes on," Emily's brown eyes flashed with anger and an underlying sadness. I skulked up the stairs and sank down onto my bed.
Is it over yet? I thought; can I open my eyes? I sat up and pulled the muddy hoodie over my head and tossed it into the hamper. My jeans were smeared with mud as well; I tripped over a tree root and fell right into the dirt. I curled up in a ball and lay there letting the rain wash the pain away.
I pulled a pair of jeans out of the open drawer and slid them on, then pulled a light blue sweater off a hanger and put it on. On my way out of the room I glanced in the mirror. The clothes might be acceptable, but I doubted the bits of crushed leaves and twigs were. I shrugged, if anyone asked I'd tell them I was celebrating my heritage.
I slipped back downstairs; Emily was standing in the foyer saying goodbye to some distant cousin. I motioned to my clean clothes; she held a thumb up and smiled forlornly. I saw Masen standing in the corner of the living room talking to our Aunt Rachael; I turned on my heel and walked right into my grandpa, Charlie.
"Hi PopPop," I said, wrapping my arms around his rotund middle.
"Hiya Butternut," he said sadly, patting my back. "How ya doing?"
"This sucks PopPop, I miss them." I sighed into his stomach.
"Me to, Butternut, me too."
* * *
Slowly, the guests left. As the door closed behind each one, the house became quieter and quieter. Finally the last distant relative left and Emily and I were left alone in the kitchen.
"I remember when your folks moved in here," she said wistfully glancing around. "I helped your mom pick out the paint color and hang the curtains. It seems like another life. I can't believe they're gone."
I laid my head on the table, "I always hated the color. It was so bright and happy. Not that there's anything wrong with bright and happy, it just doesn't fit in with Forks. It's so dreary and rainy here."
Emily nodded and wiped an errant tear from her face, "That's why Bella liked it so much, because it was so different than normal Forks. She said it reminded her of your father. He was like her personal sun, always chasing the clouds away. I remember one time she referred to him as her Phoenix in Forks, she said he was warm and brown amidst all the wet and green
"What about the Edward kid? You said 40 years ago he hurt my mom. What was that all about?" I stared at her, finger tracing the wood grain of the table.
"Carly, not today okay; it's just not the right day to go digging around in the past," Emily said, viciously scrubbing a casserole dish with a Brillo pad.
I pushed myself off the table, "When are you guys gonna stop treating me like a baby? I can handle more than you think. God."
I stormed up the stairs and slammed my bedroom door. One way or another, someone was going to tell me who this Cullen guy was. I walked to the window and looked out over the yard. But who? Obviously none of Dad's friends were going to talk about it, I knew Emily and Sam knew more than they were saying.
Then it hit me, PopPop would know; Mom had lived with him when she was a teenager and if anyone would be privy to who Edward Cullen had been PopPop would be that person. I grabbed my car keys out of the desk drawer and flew down the stairs.
Wrenching open the front door, I almost tripped and fell down the stairs, but grabbed the railing at the last second. I dashed across the lawn and thought about pulling a Bo Duke hood slide, then thought better of it and dashed around the front of the car.
Emily rushed onto the porch as I backed out of the drive way, wringing her hands on a dish towel. I rolled the window down to hear her yelling, "Where are you going?" The edges of the blue dishtowel flapping in the breeze.
"I'm going to PopPop's; I'll be back in a little bit," I hollered and drove away. He lived about a block away; it took only a few minutes to get to his house.
He seemed surprised when I knocked on the door. He pulled the door open slowly, "Carly? What are you doing here? Is something wrong?" he asked heavily.
I shook my head, "No, Pop. Nothing's wrong. I had a question for you."
He opened the door, "Come on in here. I'll make you some hot chocolate and you can ask me your question."
I followed him into the kitchen and sat down in one of the mismatched kitchen chairs. Pop grabbed two green mugs out of the cabinet and held them under the faucet. "What did you want to ask me Butternut?"
"Um, well. Its about someone Mom knew when she was my age." I said nervously. I looked down at my fingernails and started gnawing on a hang nail on my index finger.
Pop exhaled, "I'll try to remember, but that was a long time ago, so I can't make any promises." He opened a dull yellow cabinet, it squeaked loudly and he pulled out two packets of hot chocolate mix.
"It was a boy; his name was Edward. Edward Cullen," I said.
Pop set the packets of hot chocolate down, unopened on the counter. "How do you know about him?" he asked, his brown eyes, so much like my Moms, flashed with old anger.
"I-uh, um, he came to the house the day Mom died. Then I saw him in the woods a few days ago. He said his family knew Mom a long time ago."
Pop braced himself on the counter, "She did know his family. The Cullen's moved here shortly before your mom did. She dated the youngest son of Dr. and Mrs. Cullen. They seemed nice enough, but after what he, Edward did to your mom, if I ever saw him again I'd probably kill him."
"What did he do to Mom?" I asked, this was a story I'd never heard before, and quite frankly, I was intrigued.
Pop sighed and dumped the hot chocolate packets into our mugs. He set them in the microwave and pushed the numbers; the microwave groaned to life and Pop sat down across from me. "It was so long ago, I don't see what the point is in your knowing."
"C'mon Pop, I'm curious. Its not gonna hurt anything, I just want to know more about Mom's life before Dad."
"Fine," Pop sighed. "Right after your mom moved to Forks she met a boy at school; Edward Cullen. They dated for five months, I think. Then one night, he takes her to play baseball with his family and when she comes back she's in tears, crying that he broke up with her. I thought it was strange, but no one said seventeen year old boys were normal. I figured she'd get it over and be okay."
The microwave beeped, interrupting his story. I jumped out of my chair, "I got it Pop, finish telling me the story." I crossed the kitchen and opened the microwave.
"Well, like I was saying, she said he broke up with her and that she was going back to Phoenix."
I set the two mugs of hot chocolate on the table; Pop slid his in front of him and wrapped his hands around the steaming mug. I sat down and pulled my knees against my chest, Pop gazed at me, "You ready to hear more?"
I nodded and set my chin on my knees. He nodded, his eyes taking on a faraway look and continued, "Well, I tried to talk her out of it, telling her to at least wait until the morning. But your mom was as stubborn as a mule, and she left. Well the next thing I know, your grandma Renee is calling me and saying that Bella tripped on the curb and fell into traffic and she's in the hospital in Phoenix. Edward was there when I got there; he didn't say anything about the breakup, not a word. As soon as your mom was conscious he took off. Never saw him again after that. You mom had the worst time getting over him. Every night for I don't know how long, she'd wake up screaming bloody murder, always with these terrible nightmares. Your grandpa Billy was the one who urged me to let your mom come back to Forks, he'd bring your dad over every weekend and eventually the screaming stopped, and your mom started to smile again. She needed your dad like the air she breathed and the way he looked at her, it was the type of love I'd never seen, only ever read about. His devotion and love was so far beyond that of a seventeen year old kid. Its like they were meant to be together."
Pop sipped his hot chocolate then handed me a napkin, I took it and looked at him questioningly. A tear hit the table with an audible plop. I didn't even realize I was crying. I wiped my eyes and blew my nose. "Thanks Pop."
"Your welcome. Well like I said, we never heard from the Cullen's again. Oh, wait, Alice came back once, she stayed in touch with your mom for a little while, but I don't know what ever became of that."
I drained my hot chocolate, "Are there any old pictures lying around, like in Mom's room, of the Cullen's?" I got up and rinsed my mug out, then set it in the dish drainer.
Pop looked stumped, "Well I'm not sure. I guess you could go look in your mom's room or the attic."
I kissed him on the forehead. "Thank you," I said and bolted up the stairs.
The door to Mom's childhood room was closed. I grasped the brass doorknob and turned it slowly. The old wooden door creaked open slowly as I pushed it open and went inside. There was a fine layer of dust covering every surface. I clicked the light on and walked further into the room. There were pictures of her and my dad as teenagers everywhere. I smiled at some of their goofy expressions and pulled open the desk drawer. It was full of bits of paper and pencils, but no old photographs. The rest of the desk drawers were the same, a whole lot of nonsense, but nothing important.
I opened the closet door and bent down, thinking maybe there was an old shoebox full of memories. My hand rested on a loose floorboard. It popped up and almost sent me tumbling into the floor.
"What the hell?" I muttered, reaching for the end of the floorboard. I tugged it; beneath the board was a hollow space. I backed out of the closet and grabbed the lamp off the desk and shone it into the hole.
It wasn't a very large space, but there was something in there alright. I set the lamp down and reached my hand into the hole, praying that there were no mice down there, and pulled a black bag out of the darkness. It was like a nylon makeup bag. I sat down on the floor, unzipped the bag and dumped its contents onto the floor.
A packet of rubber band bound pictures fell out, as well as a CD in clear purple case. Bella's lullaby was scrawled across it. I picked up the pictures and slid the rubber band off and flipped through them.
They were pictures of my mom with some people I didn't recognize, and some I did. Like her friends Jessica and Angela were in a few, but the rest of the faces were like those of supermodels, super beautiful and super pale. And they all had the same freaky topaz colored eyes. The last picture made my heart stop. I gasped and dropped the pictures, the fluttered to the floor, the last one fell, face up on the floor and stared at me.
It was a picture of my mom and the boy from the woods, and he looked exactly the same in the picture as he did in the woods. What the hell? I thought asI frantically searched my mind for a logical explanation when it was painfully obvious there was no logical explanation; none what so ever.
Reviews are better than hot chocolate with Charlie!
