A/N: Sorry about the wait. I had a passing in my family and had to deal with that. I'm halfway through the next chapter.

Stephanie Meyer is not the boss of me, but she is the boss of Twilight.

Lesser of Two Evils

BPOV

Monday morning sucked.

That was a fact for every Monday morning ever, but this one sucked even more, only because I had a horrible hang-over from being either drunk or high or both all weekend. Charlie had worked and pretty much left me alone at home. I'd be passed out by the time he came home. So, I only really saw him in passing when we both pulled out of the drive this morning.

I wanted to skip school and hang out with Jacob, but he hadn't answered his phone all weekend either. This didn't help. I was out of herb, and relied on the last of my Jack and coke to get me through the weekend. Even my pills were dangerously low.

Yeah, so maybe I went overboard. I wish I gave a fuck.

When my truck pulled into the lot, I found a new spot to park, not next to the shiny Volvo. My eyes had already scanned the lot and found that pretentious little prick leaning against the side of his car chatting with his brother Emmett.

Emmett was good looking. Really good looking. Like, romp under the bleachers, good looking. Tall and built, and a little scary. Different from Edward.

I watched them interact, talking in hushed whispers but not looking directly at each other, then Emmett caught me ogling him. His lips twitched up in a smile and Edward snapped his head in my direction. I had to fight back the sick bile in my stomach when his eyes met mine. Fuck, it was too early in the morning for this, shitty a morning it was. It was grey and wet and gross. I missed Phoenix. I thought about the dry heat and the color of the desert as I trudged past everyone into my first class. I was so wired over the weekend I had actually caught up on all my school work and a retarded report on Pride and Prejudice. I'd read that book so many times I could write reports about it with my eyes closed.

That was one thing I actually had patience for. Reading. Depending on what substance was in my system, I could peel through a book in a day; Austen was always a favorite of mine.

I was walking to my lunchtime bench when Eric popped up to ask me about my weekend. He was flanked by Mike and Bird Girl. They were all actually shocked when I had decent responses.

"Come on, Swan. Pizza's on me!" Mike nudged when I declined their lunch offer. I guess the Welcome Wagon was persistent, even with freaks like me, I declined again.

"I'll have lunch with you, when it's sunny." I fished out my pack of smokes and headed to my familiar bench.

"I'll keep you to that Swan!" He actually winked and gave me thumbs up, that cheese ball. "We get sunny days…sometimes."

I watched them walk away, all cheery and as pretty as they make it look in the movies, lighting my smoke I was queasy again. I just wanted to smoke and read the ratty copy of Romeo and Juliet I had swiped from the library earlier.

Only problem was, when I got to my bench, Edward was there. I wanted to throw up on his shoes. The strength of my already weak stomach was dwindling down and he was about to be the catalyst to sickness building in my throat.

"Oh shit, what do you want?"

"Are you going to sit?"

He was kidding. He really expected me to be civil towards him?

"No, I'm not going to sit." I flicked my newly lit cigarette at his stupid khakis. "You're going to leave."

"I think things got off on the-"

"Dude, shut up." He stared at me; I wasn't sure what the look that appeared on his face, he was doing the brooding and eye brow contorting again. "Just leave. This is my fucking lunch spot."

His eyes bore into me, like he wanted to burn a hole through my head, then I noticed that his eyes were almost gold. They shimmered and actually made the dark circles under his eyes more evident. His skin was almost translucent, but there was a slight pink in the skin under his cheeks, his lips were the most flush. I don't know how long we were staring at each other. It made me really uncomfortable, and my body wasn't letting up on the option of hurling on his shoes.

I just didn't want to be hypnotized by him anymore, so I just left, blindly heading into the lunchroom. When I got to the door, there was a wall of noise and kids sitting at tables. Nobody really noticed me, so I scanned the room for an empty table, there were none, but there was Mike; waving his arms at me. Guess I was wrong about nobody noticing me.

"I knew you couldn't pass up my offer, Bella."

"Fuck off Mike, I'm running from Edward."

"Cullen?" Mike blinked his tiny blue eyes at me.

"Edward Cullen?" Bird girl giggled when I finally slumped down in the seat between her and Eric.

"Yeah, he's fucking stalking me." My eyes darted around the lunch room. Suddenly the entire room was looking over at the table I was at, mainly because of me. I'd never really come into the lunch room since I'd been here. Much less shown interest in making friends.

"Edward doesn't talk to anybody." That stupid broad Jessica chimed in, smiling with all her teeth; I remembered how sloppy and drunk she was at the party. "Like, ever. Him and his weird tribe family don't speak at all actually."

"Jess!"

"It's true Angela!" She flipped her hair and gave me the once over glance before taking a really snotty tone. "I don't know why you defend them all the time. They don't care that they're freaks. Which is really sad, cause Edward is hot. Every girl in school was on his jock. But he blows everybody off. I'm pretty sure he's not into chicks."

Mike and Eric erupted into a fit of laughter.

"Jessica is just mad because she just got rejected by him last week. Second time this semester actually." Bird girl leaned close and nudged a lemonade in front of me, whispering low so only I heard, "She also heard you showed up at Eric's with him."

"You're a hot commodity Bella! I know a couple guys that are trying to get at you. Eric, for example, has it bad for you!" Mike snorted, receiving a punch to the shoulder from Eric. "If only you weren't a huge bitch."

"Were you dropped on your head as a child?" Out of the corner of my eye I caught Edward sitting down at a table with his family. "So, seriously, what's their deal? I hear a lot of bullshit, but nobody seems to have a solid story on them."

"It's complicated."

"You're telling me." I made a note to start calling Bird girl by her name. Angela was a really decent chick. "Thanks for the lemonade." I got up and gathered my stuff.

"You don't want to stay?"

"Nah…" My eyes caught Edward averting his eyes from me, whispering to Emmett again, all of them were looking at me. "I'm pretty sure my bench is free now, I just want to read."

"Okay, see you in class!" If I wasn't so messed up, I might be able to be friends with Angela. Too bad.

Halfway through the fifth act of the first scene, where Romeo gets to the party and first sees Juliet, the bell rang. I thought about the first time I saw Edward, and how ever since he'd been on my mind, and even now when he was the bane of my existence. He was on my mind. Something about him was making me crazy, because ever since Friday, all my crazy thoughts seemed to be about him. Of all the crazy thoughts I'd ever had, they usually involved drugs or fast driving or both, they never really revolved around a boys. Ever since my revelation in the shower Friday night, that's all they revolved around, except they were only around one boy.

"Hello." Edwards' smooth velvet voice startled me out of my daydream. I had taken a seat at my empty lab table, blocking his way to pass.

"I want the window seat." I said it loud enough for the other kids in class to hear and stare. Mike was at a table across the room laughing. I still wanted that window seat.

"Sure." Not taking another moment to hesitate, I slid into the empty seat by the window and smiled smugly up at him. He slid into my now empty seat, fists clenched, eyes focused in on me.

"How was your weekend?" My voice was still loud enough for the kids in the tables by us to hear. "What did you do after you left Eric's party? Anything fun?"

"Bella." Edward growled cautiously under his breath.

The two girls in the table behind ours began to giggle and whisper.

"I forgot to tell you thanks for the ride home after." I was making a full-on scene on purpose. Back in Phoenix I would pull this on my mom and Phil in public places to put them on the spot. I remembered how much he was bitching about my smell out in the meadow, so I decided to pull that card too. "Oh, and I wore that perfume of mine you said you loved…smell!"

Edward's whole body tensed up when I put the inside of my wrist up to his nose. "Bella."

"Oh, okay!" I laughed, fully satisfied at getting a little revenge, I pulled my arm back and got back to reading. When the second bell rang, Mr. Banner came in with a rickety cart with an even worse looking TV; it was boring-ass movie day. Joy. I wasn't more grateful for the newly acquired window seat than today.

During the entire movie, Edward maintained his stiff position, fists still at his side. I could see the tendons under his hands and his knuckles were even whiter than his already pale skin. Of course, I was only seeing this from the corner of my eye, giving him quick glance every few minutes. My brain was hyper aware of the fact that he was next to me. I probably should have been scared at how he was reacting to my little performance. He looked, as Mike had said at the party, about ready to whip out an AK.

"Jesus fuck, lighten up!"

My penmanship was always horrible. I added another exclamation point before shoving the paper in front of him.

He stared at the paper, and then back at me, this time I really was scared. His eyes were on fire. If they were gold before, now they reminded me of molten lava, about to burn. My stomach flipped and churned and I was pretty sure that now I was going to keep my word on vomiting on his shoes. Edward's eyes were still on me, concerned, a little frightened of me this time. When the room spun, I shot up from my seat and ran for the door, slamming it open and running straight to the bathroom.

I couldn't remember the last time I ate, but somehow I had enough in me to be sick, really sick. My entire body broke out in a cold sweat and I was shaking so hard I could barely get the faucet to turn once I finished unloading my intestinal fury on that poor toilet bowl. When my hands finally cooperated, I splashed so much cold water on my face that I even got my hair wet. The mirror gave me a pretty shitty reflection of myself while I pulled my hair back into a ponytail. Fishing my cell from my pocket, I quickly dialed Jacob, it rang only once.

"Hey Bells."

"Jake, where the fuck have you been?" Leaning on the wall, the cold tiles felt good against my cheek. "I'm sick."

"Shit, do you need me to come get you or sumthin'?"

"No, no. I need you to score me some shit. You got a pen?" After rattling off my order, Jacob promised he'd try to get his hands on whatever he could; I flipped my phone shut and headed back into the hall. There I was met with Edward, holding my bag in one hand, and Romeo and Juliet in the other.

"Are you feeling okay?"

"No…" My hands were still shaking, I needed a smoke. He followed me out and watched me light my cigarette. "You can go back now, I'm just gonna leave."

"I can take you home if you're not well enough to drive yourself-"

"Fuck that." I snatched my bag from his hand. "You already fooled me with that line. I'll be fine…" The soft buzzing of my phone in my pocket broke my concentration on the slew of insults I was about to throw at Edward regarding our little incident on Friday night.

"Hey Bells, I called my guy, you want to go get it from him?"

"By myself? Where?"

"Port Angeles, I'll tell him you're coming."

"Shit, okay." I wrote the address down on my palm and hung up. I could make it to Port Angeles and back before Charlie came home.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I gotta go."

As sick as I felt, I had enough energy to high-tail it back to my truck, not even caring if I got shit for ditching the rest of my classes. There was a stop at home to get some more money, and then I got on the highway to Port Angeles. My stomach was still sick, but the sweating had subsided, so I chain smoked the entire drive there. I hated being sick, even more than I hated going to strange places alone, I didn't have a great track record with luck. The drive was a little bit under an hour, but the clouds had gradually gotten darker and threatened rain as I finally got into the sleepy looking town.

After getting lost for a few blocks, and going in cirlces, I found the street I was supposed to turn on. It was a long empty dirt street with a couple dilapidated homes that were empty. What could I do? Drug lairs were never on the right side of town. My truck pulled up to house Jacob had directed me to, and this shack made his house look like Barbie's Dream House. The window were boarded up, and the mesh door at the entrance was hanging on only one hinge. Hopefully this would be quick and could get back home. If I could even call Forks home.

With my hoodie zipper pulled all the way to my chin, I grabbed some cash and shoved my bag under the seat. A fine mist of rain turned into a downpour with every step I took towards the house.

"You Bella?" A tall, shaggy face appeared in the small slot the door provided with the chain lock still in place. I hadn't even knocked but he'd have to be deaf to not hear me pull up.

"Yeah, um, Jake sent me." Biting my lip, I immediately regretted coming out, Jacob should have come with me. Shit. Quick in and out Bella, I reminded myself, finally stepping into the smelly room once the door was opened.

"Who you buying for?"

"Me." I watched as the guy slumped down on his soggy looking couch. His blonde hair was long and dirty, his nails were grimy, there was another guy asleep on the couch across the room that I couldn't really see. "How much?"

"Don't you wanna sit?"

"No, I gotta go." My hands were shoved in my hoodie pockets, holding my keychain with the mace on it. "How much?"

His teeth were yellowed, or whatever teeth he had left, because one of his front teeth was gone. "I'm James…you sure you don't want to hang out. It's raining pretty hard out there. You can chill until it lets up a little."

James stood up and approached me, and inside my hoodie pocket I gripped my mace. "No, I gotta get going, I can drive fine in the rain."

"Relax!" His stupid broken smile wasn't helping. I had my own share of shady run-ins in Phoenix and didn't make a habit of making runs alone. I was a tough chick, but even I knew when I couldn't handle things alone, after all I was still a 17 year old girl.

"Look, do you have my shit or not?"

"Fine." James left the room in a huff, down a hallway, leaving me alone with the sleeping man on the couch. The ugly floral wallpaper was peeling in spots, the room smelled like pee, and there was a huge leak on the ceiling shaped like Texas. I wanted to get out of there fast. When James reappeared he sat down and placed some baggies and vials on a wobbly coffee table. "The weed is 20, James special for you, the dust is 20. The oxies and vicodins are 20, each."

"Okay." He was overcharging me for the pills, fuck it, I shoved the four 20 dollar bills on the table and grabbed my purchases. "Thanks."

"Hey, hey, hey." I was three steps from the door when James grabbed my wrist. "Not so fast."

"Don't touch me." He twisted my arm back and pulled me up to his chest. "Stop, let me go."

"There's a service charge for rush orders honey."

"Fuck off, let me go!" He had wrapped his arms around my waist tight, and the more I squirmed, the tighter his grip became on me. "Get the fuck off me!"

"Oh come on, you don't wanna have a little fun baby?"

My legs were thrashing when he kissed hard on my lips. I wanted to kick him in his balls, but he had a height advantage that had my feet actually dangling. Instinctively, I reacted, wrapping my legs around his waist and heaving my weight on him. His entire body swayed back and he crashed onto to the table with me on top of him. The landing was hard, and I heard a whoosh from his breath leaving his lungs, this was when his hands flew wide open. That was my cue to run. I let out a blood curdling scream, hoping somebody could hear me, and I scrambled for the door.

Luckily my legs cooperated, but right as I hit the door, something grabbed at my ankles and knocked me to the ground. I landed hard on my knees and was being dragged back inside by somebody else. When I finally managed to flip myself over, there was another man dragging me inside, the sleeping man from the couch.

Fear surged through me, my adrenaline rush cut short by the pain throbbing from my knees and my scraped palms.

By the time the darker, stockier man from the couch dragged me into the middle of the room, James had regained his breath. And his anger.

"Hold her down!" James growled.

I screamed and thrashed my arms and legs in a futile attempt to pry myself loose. The other man struggled for a moment, slamming me body down awkwardly, and bashing the side of my head against a foot of the table. My vision blurred and another sharp pain shot through my temple. I couldn't hear anything anymore because of the loud ringing in my ear. My eyes blinked as James spoke, but I heard nothing still, and he laughed at something the other guy said as he held my shoulders down forcefully.

My hoodie was being tugged off when my vision blurred even harder. I thanked whatever luck I had left that I would be passed out for whatever was about to happen to me.

There was a loud crash and I felt the hands holding me down let go. I could hear glass shattering and footsteps all around me when my vision finally became a little clearer. The man from the couch was slumped down in the fetal position in a pool of glass. I wasn't sure if he was dead, but there was blood pouring from a gash in his arm where a huge chunk of glass stuck out, stained in more blood. The table by my head shook again, and I saw him.

Edward had James pinned up against the wall by his neck, both his hands squeezing tightly.

"Bella, run!" he roared so loud that I leapt up from the floor and ran for my truck. Somehow I got my hands to turn the key and rev the engine. I put the gear in drive, but realized that Edward was inside the house. I shoved the gear back into park and scrambled back to the house.

"Edward!" I shouted into the room, not wanting to step in, but I could hear more fighting and crashing in the kitchen. James was cursing and I heard Edward's grunts. "Edward!"

"Get out of here Bella!"

"No!" Whatever courage was left in me surged and I launched myself towards the kitchen. James was on the floor with utter terror on his face, looking up at Edward, who was holding up the refrigerator over his head. "Fuck, Edward, stop!"

"Get out of here Bella!"

"Stop!" I was completely unable to take my eyes off the look on James' face. Horror, fear, there wasn't a word to describe it. "Edward!"

"Bella…" Edwards' voice came like velvet again, but he still held the huge refrigerator over his head.

"Edward, please."

The fridge creaked and the door split off of the unit when it was flung against the wall. In less than an instant we were back in my truck. Edward had me on his lap while he roared my truck into drive. Finally the house became smaller and smaller behind us I wrapped my arms around his neck. Not caring that his skin was so hard and cold it made me shiver. Not caring that I was crying and my poor truck was sputtering at its sad top speed.

I don't know how long it was before truck pulled over, when Edward peeled my arms from his neck and placed me in the seat next to him.

"Are you hurt?" his ice cold hands were all over my body. "Are you hurt?!"

"No." My crying had slowed to those embarrassing hiccup cries. Edward asked me again, shouting if I was hurt, sending me into another fit of tears.

"Bella I'm so sorry." He was holding me to his hard chest, stroking my hair as I got the crying out of my system. "I'm sorry I wasn't there sooner, I'm so sorry."

"What were you doing there?" I sounded like I had swallowed gravel when I finally spoke. Glued to his chest, inhaling his scent, I felt safe.

"Your head got pretty bumped up. Are you bleeding?"

"No." A loud sigh escaped me and my brain reeled at what had just occurred. Somehow, Edward knew where I was, and that I was in danger. He almost smashed James with a refrigerator, and probably killed the other man, and saved my life. "You saved my life."

"You're still hurt."

"How did you know where I was? How did you get there? Why?"

"You need to get home, the Chief will be there soon."

"Okay." I was too tired to argue, my head was pounding and my entire body hurt. Moving away from his chest I laid over on the seat.

"No sleeping." Edward pulled me back upright and pulled the hair off my face. "Stay away for a little, in case you have a concussion."

"I'm fine." But I wasn't. Positive that I didn't have a concussion but, I was in a lot of pain. I peeled off my hoodie and inspected the rug burn that went from my palms and down the side of my forearms. A hiss escaped when I pulled my jeans up over my bloody knees. They were scraped and bleeding and already purple bruises were forming. I'd have to hide this from Charlie. It would be kind of hard to explain why I looked like I'd gotten into a bar brawl on a Monday afternoon.

"How are you feeling?" Edward was watching me inspect my knees instead of the road. "Are you dizzy? Disoriented?"

"I'll survive." My knees burned like hell, and my palms were still throbbing and hot from the slight rug burn they got when I was dragged across the carpet. The reminder of the event got my heart beating faster. I don't know how he knew it, but Edward pulled me close to him and held me tight to his side. "You're pretty fucking strong."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, I've heard of people having super-human abilities during adrenaline rushes…" Holding a double-door refrigerator over one's head was a little more than super-human. "But that was something else."

Edward said nothing and released his arm from around me. He clenched his jaw and held my poor steering wheel so tight I was afraid he would break it right off.

"Thanks again. You're like my hero. A real Prince Charming."

"No I'm not." His buttery voice was comforting even with the negativity his words carried. "I'm far from that."

"Hey, listen." I jabbed my finger into his side for him to look at me. "You saved me back there. Who knows what would have happened if you didn't show up. You did a good thing. Why are you acting like you did something wrong?"

"I'm not good Bella." The sporadic passing of homes signaled our approach into Forks. "I almost killed him. If you hadn't come back…"

"But you didn't."

"I totally lost control. I don't know what I would have done. I'm sorry you had to see that."

'Ugh, I'm so confused!" I really was confused. With everything that had just happened, I was more concerned over what the hell Edward was talking about, rather than my throbbing head and seared knees. Frustrated, I punched him as hard as I could on his arm, only sending more shooting pain through my knuckles. "Ouch, fuck, shit!" His arm was rock solid, I'd have another bruise with that.

"Bella, I'm not what you think." Edward's glare was intoxicating and menacing. I felt my throat tighten out of the fearful instinct I was still running on. "I saved you from one evil, but you're still not safe."

"I'm not scared of you."

"You should be."

A/N: Next chapter will be EPOV. Enjoy, reviews inspire me, and spread the word! Love…

Currently Listening To:

Half a Person – The Smiths

Just – Radiohead

Even So – Rachel Yamagata