Leah: Would you like to come to La Push today?
Me: Yeah, I think Bella is planning on heading over, too.
"Dad, Bella and I are taking the truck to La Push." I called, walking down the stairs in the morning.
"Hold on, Lizzy." Charlie said. He was watching a sports game on the TV and drinking a cup of coffee. I grabbed a pop tart from the pantry, and stuck my head out to look at him. "Are you going to that Leah kid? Is Bella going to see Jake?"
"Yes and yes." I said, pulling on a thin flannel.
"Good, you both need to get out of the house and Jake and Leah are good kids." Charlie said, with a nod. Then, Bella began to stumble down the stairs. "You're not ditching your friends, ummm… Tala, Maria, and, oh goodness, Siobhan!"
"Don't worry, Dad, we had like a three hour long texting marathon last night, we're staying in touch." I said, following Bella out the door.
"Well that explains why you didn't wake up until noon." I heard Charlie say before I shut the door.
"Jacob's going to take me around the reservation." Bella said, starting the truck and pulling into the street. "What about you, going to see Leah?"
"Yeah," I said, my mouth curling into a smile.
"You look… a little dead inside." I said, as Bella fumbled with the car keys. Bella didn't answer me. Her eyes had dark circles, and she didn't look at me. "Ok," I said weakly as the truck began to drive. We sat in dead silence until we made it to La Push. I tried to look at Bella, trying to signal I wanted to talk to her, but her eyes stayed glued to the road.
We passed by the Blacks' house, and the Clearwaters' house. Soon, the truck was pulling up to Emily's house, which I was perfectly happy with. The entire pack ran out the door to greet us as the truck grinded to a halt.
"I'll drop you and the truck off here." Bella said, the first words she said all day. We both jumped out of the truck. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jacob following Bella, for some reason, the girl was walking into the forest.
"Well, Bella and Jacob can go mope in the woods." Embry began.
"Lizzy, you came to the right place!" Jared said, chewing on a chicken drumstick. Seth, Paul, and Quil were clumped with Jared and Embry.
"Lizzy!" A sweet, melodic voice rang out. I looked past the crowd of boys to see Emily, rushing over with her arms open. Sam and Leah were right behind her. Sam lingered behind with the pack while Seth was with Emily. Emily wrapped her arms around me.
"Hey," I said, leaning forward to give Leah a hug. Emily giggled and stepped away from the two of us.
"It's great to see you again." Leah said. "I know I saw you yesterday, but we're making up for lost time."
"Also, Lizzy, I don't hate you by the way." I heard Quil shout at me. I looked past Leah's shoulder to see the entire pack was staring at the two of us.
"It's fine, Quil." I called back to him, smiling.
"Sam's still worried, you know, you being an outsider and your sister being the Cullens' pet." Leah said, looking at me, shrugging.
"He doesn't have to worry about me." I said.
"Good, Sam heard that through me." Leah said chipperly.
"Anyways, Lizzy, we're going to play some soccer, what to join?" Seth asked, throwing a soccer ball up in the air.
"I'm down." I said with a shrug.
Then it was getting late, and I didn't want to overstay my welcome. The sun wasn't setting, but it was definitely about to. I was contemplating leaving, however, Leah followed me as I began to walk towards my red truck.
"I want to take you cliff diving." Leah said, smirking slightly. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You jump off a high cliff into water."
"I don't know." I said, sucking through my teeth. We walked out of Emily's house, and towards my parked, red truck.
"Fine, you don't have to, but I'll show you how, and maybe you'll change your mind." Leah said, with a smile. We both climbed into my truck.
"Fine, I can agree to that." I said. "So what are we doing?"
"Just head down this road, you'll see the cliffs in a few minutes. There's one cliff we all use." Leah said, pointing down the road.
"Got it," I said. Shifting the truck into drive. I started to head down the road, and soon the forest road merged into a road that bordered a cliff looking over rough, gray waters. I looked to my left, and a few feet away from the road were steep drop offs.
"Is that Bella?" Leah asked, I looked to one of the cliffs further down the road. I could barely make out the figure of my sister. Bella was standing at the very edge. Then, she jumped. I watched as she fell from the top of the cliff, until she hit the murky water.
"Bella!" I screamed, swerving the truck into park. Seth braced herself as the truck came to a stop. "Bella, no, I knew she was upset, I should've said something," I tried to ramble on, but Leah interrupted me.
"Lizzy, shhhh, look!" Leah said, pointing to Jacob, standing on the cliff. He rushed down to the beach, but that was all I could see. "Don't worry, Jacob will go in and rescue her. Besides, she's just cliff diving, probably just craving adrenaline."
"So Bella is ok?" I asked, beginning to calm down.
"Bella's your sister, you're my imprint, she's under my protection because she's important to you." Leah said, looking in my eyes. She squeezed my hand, being an imprint is pretty nice when you have a person to instantly make you feel better.
"I should take her home." I said, starting the truck again.
"Jacob is already ahead of you." Leah said as she pointed to Jacob's truck heading down the road. "We can meet them at your house."
"Good idea," I said as the truck went down the same path as Jacob.
I drove down the road on the edge of the cliffs. I was focused on navigating back to Forks. I saw Jacob's truck in front of us, and the truck fell in and out of my view. Soon, I was able to catch up to him. By the time I was driving down my street, Bella and Jacob were already walking out of his truck.
"Jacob wants some privacy with Bella." Leah said, looking at Jacob and Bella walking up the stairs into the house.
"Oh," I said, smirking as I saw Jacob and Bella disappear into the house. "Let's sit here." I said, walking up to the stairs that led into my house. Leah sat leaning next to a railing, and I sat right next to her.
"Wait, there's a vampire in there." Leah said, standing up. "Jacob hasn't gotten to it yet, but I can smell it from here." A few moments of silence passed.
"Anything?" I asked.
"Yes, I'm hearing Jacob's thoughts, it's Alice, Edward's sister. She thinks Bella tried to kill herself." Then Leah paused, her face fell. She looked down at her feet. "Alice said, 'werewolves aren't good company to keep.' That's a direct quote."
"What?" I asked.
"She called Jacob 'dog,' she just referred to him as a dog." Leah said, her voice began to waver. Then, the door opened. I turned around to Alice, a cold expression on her face. She walked around me, walking down the stairs, before turning towards me.
"Oh, Lizzy, your sister mentioned you." Alice said, her chin lifted as she avoided eye contact with Leah. Poor Leah, I could tell that she was holding back tears. I began to pat her shoulder, and she smiled slightly.
"The wolves have a telepathic connection. Alice, how could you say things like that?" I asked, looking at her, I was heartbroken and stern. Alice refused to look at me or Leah. "Bella told me you were the nice one."
"It's just that the wolves can be violent, they have no control." Alice said, glancing at Leah from the corner of her eye. Leah was looking away from me.
"Oh, that's rich. You're such a hypocrite! What about James or Victoria, my sister was nearly killed by them. You say the wolves have no control, when Jasper is using every ounce of self restraint not to kill the entire town. You say the wolves are violent, but they are only trying to protect the town!" I said, tears pricked my eyes.
"Is it because we're Quileute?" Leah asked, picking her head up. "You call us mutt, you call us dog, all we want to protect the town from the bad ones like Laurent."
"Listen, Alice, I am so thankful that you and your family only drink animal blood, but the truth is, you're a rarity. I trust you, but the other vampires are sort of evil. I'm thankful that I am under the protection of the wolves, you should be grateful, but instead you look down upon them." I said, interlocking my fingers with Leah's hand. The corners of her mouth curled into a small smile.
"I guess, I was wrong." Alice said, looking at Leah. "You're right, vampires can be horrible creatures. Carlisle taught me to respect the humans, and if werewolves can protect them, I'm glad they're here. I'm sorry Seth."
"Thank you, Alice." Leah said, picking her head up. I saw Alice rush to the car, and Bella threw the door open, followed by Jacob.
"What's Jacob thinking?" I asked, seeing Bella and Alice in the car, Jacob talking to them through the window.
"Bella's leaving, Edward's going to kill himself, so Alice and Bella are going to Italy to stop him." Leah said, studying Jacob.
"What? She can't just leave!" I exclaimed, standing up from the staircase.
"Bella's eighteen, there's nothing we can do. I know she got a broken leg last time, but you have to let her go." Leah said, her eyes followed Jacob, who was running away from my house. "Poor Jacob, he's heartbroken, Bella and him almost kissed before they were interrupted by Alice, and Edward."
"Go with Jacob." I said as he went out of my view. "I think he needs someone to talk to. Charlie's probably working late, I'll need to break the news to him."
"You sure?" Leah asked, placing her hand on my bent knee. I nodded, Leah sighed, stood up and ran after Jacob.
"What just happened?" I asked, talking to myself. Bella and Alice were going to Italy to save Edward, and Bella almost kissed Jake, but didn't. Now I was sitting alone on my front door step. It was sort of getting late, Charlie would be home soon. The only thing I could do was go inside and wait.
"Lizzy, Bella, I'm home!" Charlie shouted when he walked through the door. He turned around to see me sitting on the couch, my face buried in my hands.
"She left to find Edward. There's a note in the kitchen." I said, looking up at Charlie. The second the words left my mouth, Charlie's eyes were glassy with tears.
"Oh dear God, not again." Charlie said, his voice breaking.
