A/N:

So, here's my new story let me know what you think by leaving a review.

Chapter 1— Sometimes I feel Like A Motherless Child

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child

Long way from my home

Sometimes I wish I could fly

Like a bird up in the sky

Closer to my home

Motherless children have a hard time

Motherless children have such a really hard time

Sometimes I feel like freedom is near

But we're so far from home

Van Morrison—Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

Realtor extraordinaire, Ms. Renee Dwyer Swan's bedroom escapades awakened Bella again for the third time this week. Ms. Swan, who Bella more often than not referred to as 'mother', was one of the cities prime realtors for new divorcés.

She provided an exceptional service of finding some of the more desired apartments for the newly single men, so that they reclaim their independence and start anew from a marriage that should have never taken place. Once the deal was closed a free added perk was offered: an re-initiation into the world of Bachelorhood—the offer was always taken.

That was the case tonight, when Bella was woken to loud banging noises and moaning coming down the hall. Like she did for the multitude of previous nights, she stuck in her ear buds and turned up her iPod until the noises coming from her mom's room were drowned out.

She never liked it when her mother brought her work home with her. She knew it was wrong to bring strange men into a family home where an seventeen year-old resided. But it had been like this for the past seven years of her life and she only had one more night to endure. Tomorrow, Bella would be off to visit her father back in her old town. There she would spend her last summer before her future took over and returned back to the city to start her freshman as an art major at Columbia.

She screamed into her pillow out of frustration and then punched it a few times before lying back down and stared into the darkness of her room. Eventually, she fell back into a fitful sleep.

The next morning, Bella sat at the breakfast bar when she heard the evidence of her mother's romp tiptoe down the hall. He hadn't noticed her and normally Bella avoid any contact with her mother's conquers, but as it was her last day she decided to have a little bit of fun.

"Good morning," she chirped from the kitchen.

Mr. Bachelor was startled as he was attempting to put his socks and shoes back on his feet while standing. It was well after eight so she knew he was late for work. His head spun around until he made eye contact with Bella and gaped.

Bella new that look all to well, she was a spiting image of her mother, same petit figure with slight curves. Her coloring may have been off as Bella had dark long hair, a pale complexion and chocolate colored eyes, but her features were her mother's.

Fortunately, it was that the only thing she acquired from her mom. Everything else, her allergies, demeanor, and likes, came from her father's side of the family.

"I- I'm late for work," he stuttered to the younger version of woman he has sex with last night.

"Have a good day at work then," she called out, but he didn't hear her as he quickly made his escape out the front door of the apartment.

She finished up her bowl of cereal and placed it into the dishwasher when her mother came in.

"Good morning, honey."

Bella couldn't hide the resentment in her tone, "Morning."

"I guess you bumped into…" she trailed off for a split second trying to remember a name, hoping that Bella wouldn't notice, but she had, "Marcus."

"No mom, you bumped into him numerous times, he ran past me out the door."

"Bella, I do not appreciate your tone."

"Well, I don't not appreciate my mom bringing in men in the middle of the night and being woken up to hear you have sex with them."

"Are we starting this argument again," she sighed.

"Nope."

"Good. She took a breath straightened her self out and spoke like the previous conversation never existed, "Now, I was hoping to spend some quality time with you before you left."

"How about we cab over to the train station, I'm leaving in about an hour."

"You mean your going today?" Already?"

"You got me the train ticket mom?"

"I thought it was next week."

"No, I told you I would be leaving so I could be there before the Bread and Honey Festival on the forth of July."

"No, you said you were leaving after commencement."

"Yeah, I did. Commencement was last week." It was always difficult for her mother to keep tack of days or what she said. Most of the time she never really remembered what she said seconds ago. Her head was always somewhere else.

"Why wasn't I there?" she asked accusingly.

"You said you had a very important closing that day and after you found out that dad was coming, 'There was no way in…'"

"'…Hell I would be in the same room as him,'" her mom finished for her. "Right I forgot."

"Yeah, you did," Bella replied sadly. She always forgets.

She never really understood why her mother felt jilted by her father. She was the one that left him and moved to the city to find herself, because the small town life was suffocating her desire to be somebody.

"I'm sorry, B."

"Don't worry about it." Bella, like always, brushed it off.

"You sure you don't want to come back a week before school starts and spend some time together?"

Hell, No! Was what she wanted to say. "I want to spend it in Maine. I don't know if I'll have time next summer, with school and all. Besides I'm going to school here. We can meet up anytime for lunch or I could visit on the weekend." Bella's words were empty promises.

"I guess you're right," her mother replied and went about her morning routine preparing coffee.

Why should she return, when she would be finally free of her mother's behavior? Bella thought to herself. Hadn't it been long enough that she had to endure this? Sure, she had breaks during spring breaks, Christmas', and extended breaks during the summers, when she spent time with her dad and her younger siblings from his second marriage, but seven years had been long enough. So long that the ear buds and iPod had become like a second skin to her. She rarely removed them. Even now she had them in place in her ears with her music playing softly in the background.

You'll be deaf by the time you're thirty, her mother always warned her.

Those were the consequences that Bella was willing to endure if it meant she didn't have to hear things that she shouldn't.

As innocent as Bella was, she was not naïve. She had plenty of indirect education when it came to fornication and the other sex. There were times when she came home late from a friend's house on the weekend, she had caught her mom on numerous occasions entertaining naked men in the nude. Her mother's only excuse was that she forgot that Bella wasn't staying the night at her friend's house.

Also, the hungry glances that Bella got the odd morning from one of her mother's clients when they were leaving, made her stomach churn. What made it worse was that her mother was responsible for bringing them over in the first place.

Her mother was promiscuous and only walked the fine line of becoming a prostitute. Yes, she had a great career as a realtor and her commissions were more than enough to sustain both of them. But it was the closing deal that gave her the referrals from previous clients, without them she would barely make enough to make ends meet and for that she hated her mother and vowed never to be like her.

Bella believed in love and relationships, not the selfish one-night stands she was accustomed to seeing her mother have. She was desperate and ready for love. She wanted to prove to herself that love and sex could be selfless, that it could be something substantial and she hoped that this summer she would be able to experience that. This summer she wanted to loss her virginity to someone she cared about and his feeling towards her would be mutual. It was her right of passage as an adult. At least, that's what she believed.

Bella decided to go back to her room to pack up the last few things she need for the summer and to get dressed. Her mother still hadn't responded to her offer to take her Penn Station and when her mom's cell phone rang she knew it wouldn't happen.

"Oh, I'm going to have to take this B. It's Jared and he promised me a few leads on some condos."

"That's fine," she muttered.

"And I won't be able to take you to that station."

"I figured as much," Bella replied, trying to keep her frustration at bay.

Her mom took the call as Bella left for her bedroom, annoyed again at her mother and her dismissive attitude towards her daughter's last day at home.

At least she knew her friends would miss her for the summer before she rejoined them at college this fall.

In her room she gathered up her remaining art supplies and stuffed them into her case and plugged her iPod back into her laptop to charge it a bit more for her twelve hour trip.

She looked about her room at her belongings and was glad that she had over the course of her senior year in high school detached herself from a majority of her things. Everything that was important to her was packed away in her two suitcases, rucksack, and her large portfolio case. She hadn't the slightest inkling in knowing if all her things summed up to be a lot for her seventeen years of existence or too little.

The only thing that she would eventually come back for would be her winter clothes. She hoped the few warms clothes that she had packed in her bags would be enough to sustain her until Thanksgiving, when her and her mom celebrated by ordering take-out from the middle-eastern restaurant down the street. Instead of turkey with sweet potato, they had shwarma's and tabouli.

When Bella was packed and ready to go, she found her mother on the phone in the living room flirting with a potential client. She cringed at the sight of her mother sitting in an armchair acting as if the new divorcé was sitting right in front of her. Her mom looked up and saw Bella crossed armed standing at the doorway waiting for her to finish up so she could say goodbye.

Bella had lost all patience with her and was going to give her only another minute before she left with out saying anything.

"That's sweet of Bradley in recommending me," her mom cooed into the phone. "How about I give you a call this afternoon to set up a meeting and discuss what you're looking for." Renee raised a finger towards Bella and smiled sheepishly to indicate she was almost done. "Of Course," she continued, "but right now I have some business to attend to."

Bella shook her head out of frustration and stormed out of the room to wait by the front door, and mimicked her mother's voice snidely. Of course, that's all Bella was to her, business. Another job that Renee fought for heavily in family court when her parents got divorced. And the only reason she did that was to get child support from Bella's father. She knew that if her dad wasn't well off in his inheritance or had a good steady career as Police Chief of the Midland police department, her mother wouldn't have bothered in up heaving her from her childhood home in Midland, Maine.

"You're already to go?"

"Yes, mom," Bella replied, stating the obvious.

Her mother studied her at the door, while Bella's foot started to tap, she was impatient to get out. Renee noticed her daughter's poise and chuckled.

"Always in a rush aren't you."

Her statement met no reply.

"Do you have enough money for a cab?"

"Yeah, I took some out from the take out jar."

The take-out jar was financially capable of adorning itself with diamonds. It only existed because her mother's 'work' prevented her from cooking.

She smiled at Bella and went up to hug her. Bella almost gagged at the sickly cologne that still lingered on her mother's body and pulled away quickly. Her mother failed to notice the quick retrieval.

"I'm going to miss you so much, honey."

No you're not, Bella said to herself. She knew that her mother would prefer free reign of her house. That way she could conduct business during all hours of the day including Sundays.

"Me too, Mom."

Bella pulled open her door and struggled pulling her suitcases into the corridor. Her mother wasn't even dressed to take her down stairs and help her with her luggage.

"Remember that I love you, she called out to her pretending she was already far away, when she really was on the other side of the door frame. "And make sure to where lots of sunscreen."

"I will."

Bella got to the elevator and pressed the call button. She was pleased to hear it chime close from the floor above her.

"Call me once you get there."

"Will do."

Finally the elevator door slid open and she rushed inside to get away from her mother's well wishes. To her they were just words. Nothing she said meant anything, because she never followed through. Whenever her mom told her that she loved her, Bella did believe to some degree. After all she gave birth to her. But she knew whatever love her mom had in her heart was very little. If Renee did in fact love Bella, she wouldn't have taken her away from her father and life in Midland. She would have become a better role model for her. She would have ceased bringing strange men over and perhaps remember her birthday the odd time.

So with little reluctance, Bella had given up the notion to build any further relationship with her mother and decided to remove herself from the situation her mother had created for her. It was the only thing she could do to avoid becoming like her mom. For the time being she would focus on her summer, and her goal, a possible summer romance. And when school would start she would focus primarily on her future with her mother in the peripheral.

She released a huge sigh of relief when the elevators opened to the lobby of her building, knowing that in a dozen long strides she would be outside the building as a person who didn't reside there anymore.

A/N:

I like to write what I know, and I know the East Coast. I apologize for not making it Forks, Washington. Also, the fictional town of Midland is sunnier than Forks. Besides, it wouldn't make sense if Edward would be shirtless half the time in rainy Washington! :P

I will post the next chapter when I can.

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