The Boss
Chapter One: The Story Begins
Bella Swan
When I woke up, my room was in darkness, and for a split second, I forgot about today and how it came to an end. I still smelled like the forest; it had settled into my skin and hair, and my clothes were damp from my fall. I returned my heavy head to the pillow and pleaded for sleep, but nothing happened. For all I knew, I had already been asleep for hours, perhaps even days, and yet somehow I was still exhausted. Everything felt heavy—my hair was heavy, my clothes were heavy, but my eyes were the heaviest. There was no escaping the emptiness; he was gone, he was just gone...
It wasn't easy finding the strength to pull myself out of bed; I didn't even turn on the light on my nightstand because my eyes already hurt enough without it. I wasn't prepared to face my surroundings, to see everything in the harsh light of day. I didn't even want to know what time it was; all I wanted right now was to get out of my wet clothes and into a bath.
I slid off my jacket first; there was no describing the weight of it falling from my shoulders. Everything was damp; every piece of clothing clung to different parts of my body. I had to peel most of it off in the end. I collected my bathrobe from the back of my bedroom door, wrapped it around me, and tied it in front. It felt good against my cold skin to have something warm and cotton-blend blended in. I made my way out of the room and crossed the hall towards Charlie's room. Pulling the door open ever so slightly, I found he wasn't there, and then I remembered that he was covering nights for the rest of the week and I was alone. I didn't waste any time after that, and now that I knew he wasn't home, having a bath in the middle of the night wouldn't be a problem. I headed into the bathroom and began to run myself a hot bath. I added everything I possibly could to the water, including Epsom salts, lavender bubble bath, and even some bath oils.
As the tub filled up, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen, where I immediately set to work raiding the medicine cabinet for something to help with my headache. I took two aspirin with some water, only to quickly refill the glass again and again, finding I was thirstier than I thought. I took a pizza bagel from Charlie's freezer and popped it into the microwave. I finished the pizza bagels standing up in the kitchen and tossed the plate into the sink before making my way upstairs to my bath.
I managed to choke back the tears until I was climbing into the hot water and finally let myself sob as I sank beneath the bubbles. I just couldn't hold it together another second. I was relieved Charlie wasn't home; if he saw me like this, he might have even called for a doctor. Everything hurt—my chest, my arms, my legs—it just hurt everywhere. I didn't know how I even managed to eat and run a bath for myself; the way my muscles felt right now, the very idea of getting myself out of the tub felt like a task I didn't want to take on.
Edward was gone, and he was never coming back.
Somehow I found the strength to wash and condition my hair, scrub the dirt from beneath my nails, and wash myself before pulling myself up and out of the tub. I sat on the bathroom floor for the next twenty minutes with my hairdryer pointed against my chest in an effort to keep myself warm. There had always been something so comforting about a hairdryer for me; maybe it was the memory of my mom drying it for me when I was little, making me all perfect after a bath, which she of course would have run for me.
I unplugged the hairdryer and brought it with me as I returned to my bedroom. I collected my most stretched-out pair of cotton-bottom pjs along with the first thick jumper I came across and put them on over my underwear. I didn't put on any body spray or skin products; there was no point. I wasn't planning on leaving this room again anytime soon; no matter how hard Charlie might try to get me out, this was going to be my world for a while.
I sat at my desk and plugged in my hairdryer, bringing it to a gentle setting and moving it very slowly over my body.
Edward had been in here, and I didn't have the strength to look up and confirm for sure that he had in fact taken the photographs of us together with him when he left. I could, however, see from the corner of my eye the space on the wall above my desk where they used to be.
I wasn't angry, I wasn't hurt, I wasn't anything but numb, and if it weren't for the hairdryer, I wouldn't have been aware of my own body right now. Nothing felt real; nothing felt like home.
I stared down at my laptop then and recalled the hours I had spent researching "the cold ones." I was so sure Edward was keeping a secret from me, and I was right. a secret they had kept for centuries that I had unlocked in the space of a few weeks. All the people I'd lied to, all the people who had no idea about my life in the shadows with Edward, all the pain we'd been through. It was as if none of it had happened; he had taken it all with him and left me this empty shell.
I opened my laptop and selected a new Word document. I sat the hairdryer down beside me on the desk and brought my fingers over the keyboard, where I began to type.
It all started with my decision to return to my home town and move into my childhood home.