CHAPTER TWELVE

Living with Renée and Phil was very different from living with Charlie. True, Charlie would come to check on me, now and then, but he was not quite so... bothersome. Renée's eyes seemed to follow me everywhere I go, I couldn't leave the door without her asking me, 'Going somewhere?'

I did not say anything; however, I knew that Renée was only concerned. After a week, though, I could not stand it anymore. Her stare was becoming more of a glare, following my every move, assessing everything I did. I had become used to Charlie, who left me alone to do whatever I pleased. Thinking of Charlie brought a lump to my throat. Thinking of Charlie nowadays was equivalent to thinking of death. I couldn't stand Renée's stupid glower anymore, I had to leave.

"Mom?" I asked her one day, about one and a half weeks after my arrival at her cheerful, sunshine-filled, not to mention, extremely humid little house in Jacksonville.

"Yes, Bella?" She asked cautiously.

"Well... I was thinking of... moving out."

"You're going to leave me?!" she cried. At times like these, I wonder what went wrong with my mother—she was so babyish!

"Yes," I replied.

"But... but why?" her face crumpled up, a few tears falling down her cheeks.

"Because I need my space, Mom!" I shouted angrily, "Personal space. The bubble. Just... I can't stand you watching me all the time, Mom, it feels like there's someone stalking me or something!"

"B-but I was... just looking out for you!" she cried, "I wanted to make sure you were... safe... I don't want you to get hurt again!"

"Please, Mom."

"Fine... if you really think..."

"Yes, I do."

"When will you be leaving?" she asked as if I already had everything prepared.

"Well, I don't have a place yet, I just wanted to give you a heads-up. I'm sorry, Mom."

"Don't apologize, Bella. It's my fault. I... shouldn't try to keep you so close to me when... you obviously want to go..."

"Please don't give me the 'my little girl's growing up' talk, Mom," I groaned.

"But... I..."

"Look, Mom, it's no one's fault. Especially not yours. I'm probably just going to find an apartment or something near here, you can visit whenever you want."

"All... alright."

"Please stop crying, Mom," I sighed, exasperated.

"No... You're right, Bella."

That conversation had not actually ended with yelling or screaming, but it did not go well either. In fact, by the end of that week, my mother had all but kicked me out her door. I loved Renée, but, sometimes...

I had found myself a small apartment, about four miles from Renée's place. There was only one bedroom, and I could afford the rent for the first couple of months. It was small, but better than the commotion I would have to handle every day at my mom's. Of course, being without my truck, that was still a bit to walk, especially if it was everyday, what with my klutziness.

Not two days after my arrival at my new home, Jay showed up at my door.

"What are you doing here?!" I hissed, or as close as a human can get to hissing.

He looked down at me, his expression appearing to be amused. "What, am I not welcome?"

"Obviously," I managed.

"Well, I was under the impression that you would like to speak to a friend," he said, looking like he was holding back laughter for some reason that I couldn't fathom.

"A friend, maybe, you couldn't be farther from that."

"And why would that be?"

"I haven't forgotten how you... were, last time I saw you."

"Technically, the last time I saw you, you were asleep in the hospital."

"That doesn't count," I muttered, "It doesn't, because I wasn't awake, and I wasn't talking to you."

"Well, you're not about to shoo me out of your... uh... house, now, would you be?" he looked around with a genuine look of what appeared to be disgust.

"You did not come to insult my apartment, that I can tell," I told him.

"No, you're right, I didn't."

"Then why did you come?" I asked, playing along to whatever game he was playing.

"I came to see... how you were doing."

"Why should you care?" I asked, surprised.

"I realize that you must hate me, now, but..."

"Oh, come on, I had enough admirers back in Forks, I don't need another one!"

"Can I help it?" he grinned, "For a human, you sure are something."

"Ugh!" I shouted, taking him by surprise.

"'Ugh,' " he quoted, "Amazing. What a brilliant response, Isabella." His voice was dripping with sarcasm, and this pissed me off to the extreme.

"My name is Bella," I told him, angrily.

"Yes, I am aware of that." He seemed to like annoying me, a fact that I was not at all fine with.

"And you know that I don't like you, at all, right?" I told him.

He looked slightly hurt, which did not bother me a bit. This was better than having a nagging vampire knocking on your door every two seconds to ask you out to a movie—unless that certain vampire was Edward, of course. He recovered in less than three seconds.

"So..." I said, trying to make it clear how awkward this was for me.

"So," he imitated, "What do you want to do?"

"Anything that does not involve you," I said to him.

"And that would be...?"

"Right now, I would like to get myself my supper."

"You humans need to eat a lot, don't you?"

"As if you don't know!" I retorted.

"What, you expect us all to be like your little boyfriend? We're not all mind readers!"

"He is not my 'little boyfriend!'" I snapped, "He is the—"

"You humans know nothing about what real love is like," he seemed to instantly sober up.

"Well, I know I love Edward with all of my heart, and next to him, you are... a... no word describes how annoying you are!" I finished brilliantly... not.

"Come on, give me a chance," he said, "You could learn to love me."

"And you could learn the fact that when a girl says that she's not interested, she's not interested! Oh, and you're making this particular girl extremely irritated."

"Well, it wouldn't be fun, if you were actually going along with it, if you know what I mean."

"No, I don't know, or care what you mean. You are just so... gah!"

"Gah?" he asked in a bemused voice.

"Yes, gah. In girl talk, it means 'I want to slap you, so get out of my slapping range, before I snap.'"

"Well, we wouldn't want you to hurt yourself, would we?"

"Oh my god, just give it a rest. I am starting to not just 'not like' you... I exceptionally hate you!" wait, did that make sense?

"Somebody needs to learn themselves how to construct a sentence... Can you say interrogative?"

"Just... be quiet!" I was close to snapping.

"Whatever it is you want, malady."

"'Malady' my butt! Just... shut up!"

"And learn their manners too, tsk, tsk, tsk."

"Quit making small talk, just leave, please!"

"Whatever," he grinned.

"Well, you've seen me, I'm perfectly fine, as you can tell, now, can you please leave?"

"Why should I leave?" he asked.

He did not seem to be the type to be discouraged very easily, so I said, very rudely, I might add, "I don't want you to be here."

"Well, obviously."

"So, if you'd just... get out..." I said, pointing to the door.

"No, I don't think I'll do that, actually."

I sighed; he was beginning to be as irritating as Mike Newton! "Then please ignore me ignoring you, if you do actually plan on staying," I told him, tactlessly.

"Sure, whatever," he said, actually smiling. I could not believe this guy!

I went to my tiny kitchen, and began to heat up dinner—leftover lasagna from last night. It was spinning around in the microwave, so I had nothing to do, for about thirty seconds, besides stare at a ceiling. That is, unless I wanted to meet Jay's eyes, which was something that I definitely did not want to do.

When the awkward thirty seconds of horror were finally over, I carefully removed the container of lasagna from the microwave, trying to be very careful not to burn myself. I did not need another trip to the emergency room.

I was spearing my lasagna with a fork and twirling it around, when suddenly I thought of Edward. How he used to love to watch me eat, how he would fix up the most delicious dinners, and how... stop it, Bella! I told myself. I felt my eyes tearing up, and lay down my fork. I was not hungry anymore.

"What's wrong, Isabella?" Jay asked me, appearing oblivious to my earlier warning about my name.

"My name is Bella!" I shouted at him. Great, stupid mood swings. I was going to feel bad about this later. "I'm sorry," I said, "That was impolite."

"Just like everything you've done this afternoon," he said, "Ignoring isn't very kind either, you know."

I couldn't stop thinking about Edward. I was faintly aware of Jay carrying me to my room, and laying me down on the bed. I think I heard him leaving, but I wasn't sure. I was too caught up in my hallucinations, of my memories. My last thought was I love you, Edward. I'll be with you one day. I closed my eyes.

Author's Note: Bella does NOT like Jay, does not, has not, and will never like him, I just wanted something to make this chapter somewhat interesting, and worth reading. Sorry if that wasn't clear. If you don't like this chapter, sincere apologies from me, but my imagination is not like, working today. And Jay will probably act as a vampire version of Mike Newton, so, no need to worry. I am totally against Bella and Edward not being, you know, together, so I will not be sticking Jay in there just to give my story a plot (that was just for this chapter, so sorry if you hated it, I really didn't like this chapter, so...)