Some things in life stunk. And for many reasons, of course. And, well, having a mother like Renée was a reason in itself to never let her go out into public places such as the grocery store. This meant that I had to do the shopping myself. Just imagine how many (gossip-loving) women in the neighbourhood stop me just to ask why they haven't seen Renée lately. The only answer I can think up of is that if they saw her face after her hangovers then they'd willingly not want to see her around anymore. They also wouldn't like to see Renée's face every time I got home from doing the grocery shopping. The look was fuelled by the hate towards me for not getting all the things that she wanted such as vodka and other liquors.

She must have burned out all those brain cells with her vodka and beer by now, otherwise she might still hear me when I tell her that people under twenty one can't buy alcohol. I might have to just buy her a brain functioning memory stick someday. But she'd probably use that stick as something else...

Walking down the vegetable aisle I contemplated whether I should risk talking to someone about my problem with Edward. Though, now it seemed almost an infatuation with the way I was going at it. Hell would break loose if I told the wrong person and they told others. You could try to steal your own mother's boyfriend but you just had to keep it on an all low so no one found out. It was the way a lot of things went.

Though I had a pretty good idea of the ideal person to talk to about Edward it seemed as though I might have to hold back a little further. She was my secret keeper, taking all of them to the death, and also my best friend since kindergarten. She wasn't an ideal person within the way that she lived but she was one of the closest people to me and she was so damn close to always knowing what I should do about my problems, yet she couldn't sometimes solve her own ones.

Continuing down the aisle I took out my phone and dialled the familiar number. The voice that answered was sarcastic and belonged to a seemingly tired person.

"HB, if you're drunk dialling again, though it's a bit early for that, I will seriously kick your ass into next week." It was definitely Leah Clearwater. No doubt about it, though if the sarcasm and harshness wasn't present then the nickname would have given her away. It was the oldest nickname of all of mine and it was the one that I least liked.

Of course, if Leah thought it was best for me it just had to stick for all those years. She had given it to me when we were both nine years old. It had been a nice day and we had been invited to a birthday party that neither of us had wanted to go to. In the end Leah's mom, who acts much better a mother than Renee, had tricked us into going.

Since we were bored we had decided to play a game of truth or dare. I had played the game lightly before, getting dared to eat a whole bag of marshmallows or something similar, but Leah had always being the extremist and wanted to play the game 'teenage' style.

I hadn't given Leah what could really be called a dare nowadays and had regretted it when it was my turn. I had used my truth and was now on a dare trial. Leah took a while to decide but when she did a glimmer of anticipation set into her innocent looking eyes.

"I dare you to get to the birthday cake." I had looked at her with a raised eyebrow as if to ask what kind of a dare that was but knew that she hadn't finished when a grin was smacked into her face. She shook her head and laughed. "My bad, I didn't tell you the rest. Do it one-man stampead style."

I knew Leah very well by that time of our lives and knew to not back out unless I wanted to find my favourite Barbie doll hairless and tit-less. (Yes, Leah had somehow gotten to blackmailing me like that.)

"But I'll get into serious trouble." I whined and drooped my shoulders.

Leah gave me a questioning look and then drew her eyebrows together. "Dear, cousin, you mistake me for someone who gives a shit." At the age of nine Leah had swallowed the dictionary of colourful words and barely ever thought of not using them. And she was rarely caught using them so never got into much trouble. She was seen as the good, little girl who was just so innocent.

Once she saw my face and the scared-shitless expression she lightened up and sighed. "Alright, just say that you didn't mean it, that you weren't watching where you were running and just for special effect you can pretend to cry." She gave me a quick pat on the back and then pushed me towards the buffet table where the cake was.

I had ended up crashing to the ground along with the table and the other dishes from the force that I had used. A crowd had gathered around me immediately and I was pulled up roughly by the arm. There were kids crying everywhere around the place and then one person laughing in the background like a maniac. I had ended up with my face right in the cake and had to walk home that way, occasionally dipping my finger into the icing and licking it off. I gave props for the cake.

As the two of us, Leah and I, walked slowly home after getting kicked out Leah smiled and said I did the best job ever. She then had called me "Hellz-Bellz" and from there it had turned into HB. It also had to do with a love for the HB ice-cream but it was mainly because of my one-man stampede for the cake.

"I wanted to talk to you." I said after realizing that Leah was waiting for a response. Leah's attention was drawn quickly as I hadn't replied in sarcasm like I usually did.

"What did Renee do this time?" Her voice was now serious but still a bit harsh. It was typical for Leah to get this reaction when Renee was concerned.

"It's not exactly about her." I hesitated before going on. I mean, with Leah I shared everything. "It's about her new boyfriend."

"Well, there's a hoot! You're having wild and vivid sex dreams about this ugly-ass guy? I feel for you. Yup, it's pity. "The sarcasm was back like a bitch was rearing its head into business that need do without it.

"I'm honestly serious about this!" I huffed and gritted my teeth. "And he's not ugly."

"You're serious about your wet dreams?" It was said in such a casual way that I nearly burst out laughing. But I didn't want to give in so easily.

"Leah! I mean about Edward!"

"So that's his name, huh?" It was said casually again, and sounded the way an overprotective father would say it; as if he wasn't prying into his daughters business when he obviously was.

"Yes. Now... would you be able to meet up with me at the park?"

I hung up when I received a set time for when we were to meet up and pushed the trolley onwards. I didn't bother getting the rest of the items on the grocery list and just bought what was already in the trolley.

I threw the grocery bag into the passenger seat of my truck and gunned it for the park. Leah really knew what times to pick best for meeting up. Though if I was late then I could easily say that my truck rarely went over sixty. Why did she think I never got speeding tickets or complaints? It was because of my baby, the best present that I had ever gotten from my father, Charlie. He had given it to me when I had come to visit him in Forks last summer as a show of care and love. I hadn't been that surprised when I found out about the speed limit on the truck since Charlie was a cop and everything so I just assumed he was worried about my safety to such an extent. But trying to work the baby when I needed to go over sixty had proved to be a bit difficult. So 'gunning it' meant that the truck spluttered and sounded like it was seeing it's last days while only going at seventy kilometers per hour.

Nearly half an hour later and twenty five minutes late of the time that I was supposed to have gotten to the park at the truck rumbled into the small parking lot situated near the town park. I swiftly got out of the truck and let the door slam behind me as I legged it at the same time as holding my arm back so that I could lock the truck with the key sensor. I raced through the gates and slowed down considerably when I saw Leah near a bench.

She was munching on something and had a slightly pissed-off look plastered on her face. I reached her at a slow pace and beat her to sitting down on the bench.

"Bitch," was the simple greeting that I got from Leah and I smiled at that. I had missed hearing her say so every time we happened to be away from each other and then meet up. It had been like that since we were ten years old. No matter what name we came up with for each other we were still gonna have each other's back.

"Now about those wet dreams about Edward dude..."

Bitch.

Author's note:

Well, hi again. I finally found the motivation to finish writing this chapter. At first I thought of leaving it till the weekend but then I have a few abominable plans to plan, being the vindictive person that I am. But believe me, you'll love what happens next -it'll be the new beginning of Bella. A new era! Yes, imagine all that with my usual sarcasm and then maybe my Star Wars voice.

Now I know that this chapter wasn't the best but it also wasn't the worst. Anyway, I had to get it out there to show the relationship that Bella has with Leah. I thought that if there was anyone who deserved to have that 'You suck- I rock, sadistic, mind-blowing, implacable' attitude then it was Leah. And well, I just had to somehow relate that person to Bella since there just had to be someone who taught her her ways. That's all I'm going to say for now.

Thanks if you review. Boo you if you don't.