One… Two...Three…

I watched the pendulum of the old grandfather clock at the corner of the room. The comforting sound echoed all around me. I was lying on the couch; counting the seconds, because I had nowhere to go and no one to see. It was a Saturday. Charlie was at the station, Emmett was nowhere to be seen, and he hadn't picked up the phone when I had called him. The darkness of the cloudy sky drooped down onto the ground and settled on the trees, making them tinged with gray. The soft, faded gray light surrounded me, like a suffocating, transparent blanket.

It was choking me, this tiny town. The sun never lasted for more than a few days, and green took up every inch of available ground. When I was a child, I loved it here. I loved getting lost in the woods and I loved chasing butterflies. I loved staring at the rain, and I loved the noises it would bring.

But now, I wished desperately that I could escape to my mother's sunlit world. But I knew that was impossible. I couldn't do that to Charlie. He needed me, though he would never admit it. But I was afraid, that if I stayed here too long, the green web of Forks would grow around me, and hold me here forever, just like the ancient, moss -covered trees in my backyard.

And then, I heard a knock on the door. I blinked, jumped up from the couch, and ran to the door, expecting to see Emmett. As I opened the door, a dark haired girl waited for me.

She was short, and her face was determined. She was eyeing me with a slightly haughty look, and her dark brown eyes were narrowed. She had chin-length tousled black hair and she was dressed in a shocking variety of colorful clothes. She wore equally colorful beads around her neck and her wrists.

"Isabella Swan?" She asked in a flat voice.

"Yes."

"I'm Alice Evenson." She extended her arm.

"Hello." I said, and shook it. "Please come in."

She walked past me into the living room, and sat down on the couch. I sat down in Charlie's armchair.

"My mom, Esme Evenson, owns a ceramic shop next to Newtons'. Do you know her?"

"No, I don't." I admitted, wondering what this was about.

"Hm." She said, pausing, looking around at the room. I was growing slightly annoyed.

Her eyes flashed back to me, and she pursed her lips. After a few uncomfortable seconds, she spoke. "Actually, I'm here because I wanted to talk to you about something. It's about Edward Masen. I suppose you've met him?" Her tone was filled with sarcasm.

"I have." I crossed my ankles, not wanting to remember his last confrontation. "What about him?" I asked, a little arrogant myself.

"Well, I don't really know how to tell you this, but Isabella…"

"Bella." I corrected.

"Right. Bella. Well, see…chasing him out of that store wasn't very nice of you. He has every right to work there as you have." She leaned back against the couch, folding her arms, looking me straight in the eyes.

Embarrassment began to tinge my cheeks with pink. How did she know about that?

"What? You aren't going to say anything?" She asked. Her tone was starting to make me angry. I had half a mind to ask her to leave.

"He makes me uncomfortable." I muttered.

"Oh, now that's a really good reason." She said, with a bitter laugh.

"It sounds good enough to me." I replied angrily, glaring at the short, arrogant girl.

She surveyed me with her twinkling dark brown eyes, her lips pulled up in a smirk.

"Selfish, aren't you?" She asked in a low voice.

Selfish. Selfish. That was exactly what Masen had called me. I felt my carefully suppressed anger bubble up.

"I am not." I hissed. "I am not selfish. You would have done the same thing if you knew what he did. Obviously, you don't, or you wouldn't even be here, defending him." As I grew edgier by the minute, Alice Evenson only appeared to relax further.

"Oh, really?" She raised her eyebrows. "What did he do, then?"

"Thought you knew him so well, huh? Well, I have news for you. The guy's a murderer. He killed his mother, and he's lucky that the cops haven't got him yet. He's just a sly coward." I smirked.

Alice stood up from the couch, her expression losing its sarcasm. She stared down at me. "I've known him since I was five. He's like a brother to me. No, he is my brother. I think I can confidently say, that what you heard was total rubbish. You hear me? Rubbish." She was glaring at me now.

"He loved his mother. It wasn't him who did it. He would never do it. All his life, he's been trying to prove it. And then, you throw those words at him without even thinking about it, and do you have any idea how much that hurt him…?" I suddenly remembered the tears in his eyes, and felt guilty. But I wasn't sure if I could entirely believe what this girl said. "…No, you don't, because he makes you uncomfortable." She mimicked my voice.

She faced away from me for a minute, drawing deep breaths. "He wouldn't want me to be talking about this." She murmured. "Especially with you."

Then, she walked over to the door, and held it open. "You know, I would think you were a really bad person if you didn't apologize to him. Because that's what you should do. If you do, don't tell me I came to see you. He wouldn't have wanted me to." Alice Evenson looked at me with those intelligent brown eyes for a second, and her colorful form walked out the door, into the dull morning.

Tell me what you think. :)