"Who was it? Who changed you? Who took me?"

"Victoria."

One month later...

Chapter Twelve – Family.

I scowled at John all the way to Chemistry as he flirted unashamedly with me. He had been doing it all morning; for some reason he found it a great sport to fire innuendos at me until I snapped. I tried to ignore it of course.

"Hey Lexis" he laughed, "do you have a mirror in your pocket?" I breathed deeply and glowered at him

"No. Why?" I sighed.

"Because I could see myself in your pants!" he concluded grinning like he had won the lottery. I grinded my teeth and held back a retaliation. "Did you know that shirt is very becoming on you? If I were you I'd be coming to." He winked at me.

"Shut the fuck up" I finally hissed. He grinned victoriously

"John: ten, Alexis: nil" he smirked.

"Since when!"

"I've been keeping count from this morning," he laughed proudly. I smacked him over the head with my book.

"Dickhead" I laughed.

"C'mon then we will be late for Chemistry" he said seriously dragging my hand along the corridor, as if I had been the one holding us up.

We made it in just before the bell and I collapsed in my usual seat beside Josh. I groaned and put my head on the table.

"John again?" laughed Josh. I quickly silenced his laughter with a look. John was unbelievably annoying.

"Right class get out your books and copy down the passage on the board," called the teacher before going out to get himself a cup of coffee.

"How are you then?" I asked Josh friendly.

"I'm alright. Bella's not though - she's still moping around, you should come over" he suggested. I looked down at my work ashamedly. I knew that it was time to forgive and move on. It had been a month since I found out the truth and I knew that they were all waiting for me to forgive them and come to them. They respected that I didn't want to be hassled and didn't try to persuade me, but they waited in hope. Every time I passed any one of them in the hall they would smile brightly and their eyes would look pleadingly at me. Bella's were the most pleading of all.

I had grown closer to Josh; I found it easier to forgive him and be friends with him as he wasn't part of their family when I had been left. It had not been their fault, I knew that now and to be honest I did forgive them. I just was not ready to become a part of their family. I had one thing I needed to take care of first.

Victoria. She was the one who had inflicted all of this pain onto me. Once she was dead, once I had had my revenge on her then, and only then, I could become part of their family without the fear of being ripped away at any moment.

"Give me time" I whispered to Josh. He put a friendly arm around my shoulder pulling me in for a hug as my eyes pricked with tears.

"We have all the time in the world," he said, completely truthfully. I smiled at him. Josh was nice and I was finally beginning to trust him.

I glanced up aware that someone was watching me. It was only John, he was motioning me to come over with his index finger.

"I better go see what he wants" I said, getting up and going over to him.

"Hey darling" he said in his seductive voice, I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, "I made you come with just one finger Alexis. Imagine what I could do with my whole hand." I lifted an eyebrow,

"You've said that one before" I smirked, curling my hands into fists underneath my arms to restrain myself. His mouth dropped and he looked miserable that he was loosing his 'touch'.

"Have I?" he asked, severely disappointed.

"Nope I was lying," I laughed, "I believe that makes it John: 10 Alexis: 1"

"No" he frowned, "that's rubbish 'Lexis. Lying does not get you anywhere in life."

I made a mocking face at him and then went back over to Josh who was fighting back a laugh after overhearing the whole exchange.

"He's got a death wish that kid" laughed Josh, "I would not dare say that to you. I'm surprised you didn't knock him out."

I shrugged,

"I'm getting better at holding in my anger"

"Oh really" he said, smiling lopsidedly "does that mean that anyone can flirt with you now without being in serious danger? Because I must say Miss Masen that you have the sexiest legs I have ever seen." He put one hand on my leg and gave it a squeeze, my mouth dropped and I blushed furiously. Josh does not do this usually.

"You've got a pretty blush" he chuckled and I could not help but notice the hint of pride in his voice at being able to have this effect on me. I growled; this was all a game to him. I knew that I held none or little effect on him after my disastrous seducing attempt.

"Sorry" he apologised, sensing my mood, "I shouldn't have overstepped the line."

"It's ok, just don't do it again" I mumbled. I did not feel comfortable with him testing his skills on me. He looked a bit upset and I guessed he was annoyed that I did not fall at his feet.

"You can hardly talk; you tried to seduce me remember?" he scoffed.

"I think the key word in that sentence is 'tried'" I said bitterly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I failed, my attempt didn't work on you if you remember"

"What? Just because I didn't let you run off you think that you were unable to seduce me?" he frowned.

"That is exactly what I think" I said without making eye contact. I got back to my work, concentrating hard and not raising my eyes from the blur of words that I was writing. Josh eventually grabbed my wrist so I looked at him.

"Alexis," he said seriously, "trust me. You could seduce me any day." I blushed beetroot and he looked slightly embarrassed. "You know what I mean," he smiled sheepishly.

I returned to my work with a hint of a smile on my face. Maybe, I was wrong about him not liking me that way. Of course, I would have to be positive before I did anything about it, if I ever did. I was not sure that I could trust him enough not to hurt me yet.

It was time to move on. I had to. Victoria had to die.

"Josh, I need to kill her" I whispered. His eyes widened at the change in tone of the conversation,

"Kill who?" he gasped.

"Victoria! I can't live my life until she's dead. I'm going to leave tomorrow to find her and I will kill her. I need to so I can move on."

"I'm coming to. And my family no doubt will want to come."

"No," I protested, "you don't need to. I can look after mys-"

"We will" interrupted Josh, "she's caused us all pain too and if you remember my family are your family too - whether you're ready to admit it or not. We care for you."

"Thank you" I breathed, squeezing his hand.

***

Josh walked me to lunch and I sat down beside his – my family. Their faces lit up as I joined their table and I waved shyly at them.

"Right guys" said Josh, getting straight down to business, "Alexis here wants to go Vicki-hunting. Who's in?"

They all nodded determinedly and there was a chorus of

"I am."

"Carlisle and Esme will be in too" said Alice excitably, "this is going to be fun." She eyed me as she said fun. Apparently, I being part of the family for this mission was a cause for rejoice

Like Josh had said, whether I admitted it or not, I had a family. Even if I could not yet accept them fully yet they had accepted me and they were not giving up on me.

A/N urggh. That's was really bad I think. I got a bit 'ott' with sexual innuendoes too – I was going to keep it very clean. :S Ha , oh well. I hope you thought it was ok.

Thank you to everybody who has reviewed so far. I love you lots and lots like jelly tots and vodka shots. :)

Susie xx