p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"A/n:/span/strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" I am writing this story well past midnight to cope with the anxiety I am experiencing due to this entire pandemic that we are unfortunately living through right now. Hopefully, this story doesn't become too confusing to anyone that may stumble across it. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" align="center"strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Chapter One: Something's Off /span/strong/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" For the fourth time this week, I watch as my best friend Isabella Swan glances across the room to meet the eyes of the boy three tables away that always seems to be watching us during our lunch hour. Believe me, I have tried not to but at the sight of it, I can't help but to roll my brown eyes as I smile at the girl. "I don't understand why he can't just come over and sit with us. He's your boyfriend after all." I say as I lift my fork to feed myself some of the pasta I had packed into a container for my lunch meal. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""We don't bite." Jasper, my other close friend said with a playful grin and a southern drawl from beside me. At the comment, I found myself snorting because of course we didn't bite. If anything, I'd say that we each prided ourselves on being a fairly friendly group of friends. We kept out of trouble and we kept to ourselves, apart from Bella who had recently started dating a guy that everyone seemingly had their sights set on, earning us lots more attention that we were used to. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Actually, I take that back. Jasper earned himself plenty of attention from the ladies despite that fact that he acted on none of it. He liked to play the mysterious card, speaking to hardly anyone while charming everyone with only his looks. Admittedly, even I caught myself fantasizing about him from time to time but at the very least, I wasn't as nervous around him as I once was. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"He had moved here about two weeks after Edward, Bella's boyfriend and his siblings, and a year after that, my best friend entered my life. I had only started speaking to Jasper a couple a months before Bella entered my life and despite his attractive features, I eventually started to feel comfortable around him. Would I have enjoyed going to prom with him back in April? Of course, but we were just friends and things were good like this. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""You know it's actually kind of strange actually," Bella started as she smirked across the table at me. "He has this weird idea that you don't like him, Rowen. I wonder where he could have gotten an idea like that from." /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Of course, when she said this, her voice lifted as though she was asking questions. "I like him. I mean, I don't know him well enough to emnot/em like him if that's what you are insinuating." I explained as I ducked my head momentarily to lead my gaze away from hers. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Edward was interesting to say the least. He kept his distance, but he was always watching everyone in the room, especially Bella and after they had started becoming serious, the two of them became secretive which worried me. I hardly knew about the guy, just about the same information as everyone else did honestly. He was handsome, although he was extremely pale in the same way that Jasper was pale. He moved here with his three siblings, Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett who were all adopted./span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"The only thing that I found strange about them was that they were incredibly close. They never mingled with other students and at times, they seemed… off. As if every movement that they were making was carefully planned. I must have made that up though, I had to have. It's a ridiculous thought. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"I often times find myself comparing them to Jasper in a weird way but that's just because Jasper has been through a lot. I try not to comment on the way that he looks but even though he is beautiful, he looks sickly at times. His skin is just about the palest shade that I have ever seen and at times, his stare was lost into the distance while a pained expression rested on his face. He told me when he first moved here that he had lost his parents and had to move to Forks with his Aunt and Uncle and I always just assumed the sudden loss of a parent would have anyone looking the same way as he did. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""So, if I were to invite him to sit with us at lunch tomorrow, you wouldn't question him like he's some sort of criminal?" Bella asked as she raised a skeptical brow at me./span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""I'm your best friend! If anything, you should feel honored that I care enough about you to question your boyfriend. I'm just looking out for you. I'm only being honest when I say that there is just something off about him." I said turning to glance at the golden haired, boy beside me who was already shaking his head likely wanting zero involvement in this conversation. "Tell her Jasper!" /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""I think he's fine. He keeps out of trouble and he treats Bella as a gentleman should. I've had a conversation or two with him and he seems nice." Jasper said with a shrug, making me wish that I had never brought in his opinion in on this in the first place. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Well since he's such a gentleman, he should sit with us tomorrow. If your serious about him then I think it's only fair that we involve him with us." I said as I began packing my empty container back into my backpack that I had retrieved it from when lunch started. "I promise that I won't interrogate him" /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"After lunch, the day moved on as usual. I made it through the remainder of my classes by taking notes, doodling in the corners of my notebooks or playing with the dark curls that my mother had passed down to me. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"When the school day did finally end, I waited for Jasper as I normally did before we made our way out toward the student parking lot where we would find Bella waiting for me by her truck like most days. Today she was standing with her boyfriend but there were the occasional days where she would wait for me in her car with her copy of Weathering Heights. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Only today, something strange happened and it happened so quickly. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"In one moment, as I crossed the parking lot with Jasper, I was waving at my friend before we began to approach her direction and in the next, the smile that I was giving her was quickly fading as a car that was turning in the direction of the student parking lots exit began to swerve toward Bella and Edward. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"I stopped in my tracks as I watched it happen with horror in my expression, just as everyone else around us was. I was certain that my best friend was supposed to die then. I should have watched her get crushed between the moving car and her own parked vehicle but in seconds Edward had crouched in front of her and the moving car stopped abruptly before it could severely injure my friend and apparently, her boyfriend. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Had I seen that right? There was no way, but I had no time to question it./span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"In seconds, I was racing toward Bella my heart racing in my chest as I quickly grabbed onto her shoulders just to make sure that we were really here with me and that what had just happened wasn't a dream. "Bella! Are you hurt? Are you okay?" I asked frantically, my dark brown eyes staring widely at her as I searched for any sign of an injury. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""I'm okay, Rowan. I'm okay." She insisted, looking between my eyes before turning her head to look at the damage on the car that had almost hit her. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"It was only now that I realized that both Edward and Jasper were nowhere to be found. /span/p
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p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"strongA/n:/strong If you have found this, thank you so much for reading! Leave a comment if you are interested in seeing the story progress and I will be sure to update as soon as possible!/span/p