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Chapter Ten- "Sludge Factory"

"You insult me in my home, you're forgiven this time

Things go well, your eyes dilate, you shake, and I'm high?

Look in my eyes deep and watch the clouds change with time

20 hours won't print my picture milk carton size

Call me up congratulations ain't the real why

There's no pressure besides brilliance let's say by day 9

Endless corporate ignorance lets me control time

By the way, by the way, by the way, by the way

Once again you see an in, discolored skin gives you away

So afraid you kindly gurgle, out a date for me"

-Alice in Chains-"Sludge Factory"

(A few months later- Fall)

(Bella's POV)

To say I was depressed would be an understatement. I missed my Leah. I was going to school in Seattle now and Leah was stuck in La Push. Sam would only allow her to visit on the weekends, unfortunately. Which meant I had two wonderful days with her and then five excruciatingly lonely days without her. I ended up going to The International Culinary Schools at the Art Institute of Seattle so that I could study culinary arts. When I told Leah this the pack almost tried me a party.

I sighed and threw my textbook aside. I wasn't really reading it anyway. The book made a loud thump as it crashed to the floor.

My roommate, Kelly gasped and put her hand over her heart. "Geez, Bella could you be any fucking louder?" She snapped.

"Sorry." I mumbled.

"Whatever." She said angrily. I'm pretty sure she hates me for no reason at all other than she has to live with me. She had met Leah before but she didn't know Leah was my girlfriend. I think I wanted to keep it that way. If she hated me now I could only imagine what she would do if she found out I was a lesbian.

Lesbian. That word still seemed weird to me. I had never imagined myself with a woman before. Of course now that I was with Leah, it didn't matter. I would never be with anyone like I am with her.

I laid back on the bed, just as there was a knock on the door. Kelly looked over and gave me a pointed look. I sighed and stood up wondering who it could be. It was probably someone for Kelly anyway. I opened the door.

"Bella!" Came a high-pitched musical voice before I was tackled by something hard and cold. I looked down and smiled. Alice.

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, "Hey Alice. What are you doing here?"

She pulled back. "Well, I didn't really have anything to do, so I came to see you! Let's go out, come on." She pulled me out the door before I could say a single word.

As we were leaving the building, Alice didn't stop talking. "I'm so excited to see you right now! How are you classes going? Do you like college? Are you sure you want to live in a dorm? We can get you an apartment close to campus if you want. That way you won't have a roommate. I have this feeling that she doesn't like you that much. Do you want to eat or should we just go shopping right off?"

She finally stopped talking as we got out to her car. I stared at her, "Do we have to go shopping?"

She glared at me. "Yes. Let's go." She pushed me into the car then ran to the driver's side and we were off. Alice told me everything that was going on with the family since I'd been home. Edward was still distraught over losing me to Leah, but I really had no pity for him. I didn't belong with him and it would have only hurt him, Leah and I if I had stayed with him.

We pulled into a parking lot of an expensive looking store. I shot Alice a glance. "Really Alice, what are we doing here?"

She smiled, "You'll see." She opened the car door and skipped inside, I dragged along behind her. This was not going to be fun.

After a few hours of looking around, Alice picked out a dress and shoved it in my face. "Go put this on."

I took it and walked off to the dressing room dragging my feet. I had just closed the door when Alice knocked on it.

"Bella, take these." She handed me a box when I opened the door.

"Okay." I said setting them down next to me. I slipped into the dress and looked in the mirror. It was a deep purple color and stopped just above my knees. (Picture on profile.) I thought it looked nice. Alice sure did know how to pick clothes.

I bent down and took the top of the box the shoes were in. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw them. (Trust me, they're gorge. Picture on profile.)

"Alice! Six inch heels! Are you insane!?"

She opened the door and came in. "Bella." She started. "You are five-foot-four. Leah is six feet. You need the extra height, trust me. Put them on."

I started to shake my head but the look in her eyes told me not to argue. I slipped the shoes on, wobbling almost instantly. Alice placed her hand on my elbow, catching me. "See, Bells, you look gorgeous."

I looked at her. "Alice, I can't stand in these things, let alone walk."

She shrugged. "Leah will catch you."

I huffed. Alice made me change back into my clothes and she bought the dress and shoes for me, despite my protests.

She took me to get something to eat after that. As I was eating I asked, "So what's this for Alice? You mentioned Leah, did she send you to do this?"

She shook her head. "No, I just wanted you to have something nice to wear." She smiled. I didn't believe her for a second, but I let it go. She dropped me off at my dorms after that and I went inside.

Unfortunately Kelly was still up. She glared at me as I came in but I ignored her. I put my things away and then got ready for bed.

Wednesday. Two more days and I would see Leah again. She was coming over Friday night and I couldn't wait to see her. Even though I'd just seen her Sunday. Time always seemed to drag when my Leah wasn't with me.

After my classes were over I ran back to my dorm to wait for Leah to call me. She had patrol this afternoon and should be off when I got in. I ran in the door to find Kelly sitting on her bed.

"Your phone rang while you were out. It was your girlfriend." She said.

Oh my god, did Leah tell her? "What do you mean?" I asked dumbly.

She glared at me. "She said she was your girlfriend. Leah she said her name was. Why didn't you tell me you're a lesbian?"

"We're not friends. Why would I tell you something personal about me when I barely even like you?" I snapped.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you could have told me that before I walked around in my underwear in front of you! I basically gave you a peepshow!"

I sighed. "I only have eyes for Leah. Nothing about you interests me in the slightest. So don't worry about that." I walked over to my bed and put my things down.

"I don't want a lesbian living with me." She stated coldly.

I spun around. "I have zero interest in you, Kelly. I barely like living with you, why would you think I would be interested you in a romantic way?" I couldn't believe se was saying this.

"What if I have friends over and you hit on them?" She asked.

I rolled my eyes, "Oh you are ridiculous. I'm in love with Leah, we're soul mates, okay. No one in heaven or earth will change the fact that I'm with her. Get over yourself already." I said and then climbed into bed, effectively ending the conversation. It was a little early for me to go to bed, but Kelly was exhausting me.

The next day Kelly and her friends decided to be cute and call me a dyke every chance they got. I ignored them as best I could. Nothing they said really hurt me anyway. That night in our dorm, Kelly made it a point to ignore me and talk on the phone really loud about her lesbian roommate. I rolled over and faced the wall. When she started to talk about Leah, I lost it.

She said, "Her girlfriend is this really tall Indian chick. She's got really short hair and is pretty in a lesbian firefighter kind of way." She laughed.

I shot up out of bed. "Listen, bitch. You can talk about me all you want to, but don't you dare talk about Leah like that ever again."

She smirked, "And what are you gonna do about it?"

I glared at her. "Try it again and we'll se what I do." I spat through my teeth.

She started to talk about something else so I went back to bed. I sighed. One more day and I'll see her again.

Friday was the same as Thursday. Kelly and her friends kept bothering me about Leah. I was almost in tears by the time I got back to the dorm. I'd talked to my RA about getting a new roommate. Apparently Kelly had talked to him also so we would be moved quicker than usual.

I was sitting in my dorm when my phone rang. "Hello?" I answered.

"Bella." Leah breathed on the other end.

I smiled into the phone. "Thank god it's you. When are you getting here?" I asked.

She was quiet. "Bells, I can't make it tonight. I promise I'll see you tomorrow night, though, okay? I was just calling to wish you a good night. I have to go patrol now."

My heart sank. "Okay. I guess I'll see you tomorrow." I said sadly.

"Sweet dreams sweetie. I love you."

"Love you too." We hung up. I tossed my phone into the floor and fell back on the bed. I sighed heavily. What a depressing week.

A/N: No Leah depresses me, too. Don't worry she'll be in the next chapter! And I'm not entirely happy with this chapter or the next, but no matter how many different ways I wrote it I didn't like it so I just stuck with this. Even after the approval of my favorite lady I'm still not really happy with this chapter. *sigh* Oh well. Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! Sorry if I don't reply to them all the time, I have lots of things to do. ~LCM~