Same day ( Bella's point of view)

When we finally left that tree, I felt better. I hadn't cried since I left Forks the first time, now I got it out of my system. Nali helped me to the nurse's office, where we were currently waiting.

" What on earth were you doing playing football?" the elderly nurse asked with concern.

" I didn't think they'd tackle me with such enthusiasm," I replied. The nurse gave me a stern look, but I could hear Nali laughing quietly behind me.

The nurse turned her stern look to Nali, I loved how she didn't act afraid of us. " Now," she said, " you make sure this one doesn't get into anymore hard contact sports."

I turned slowly, thankfully the pain in my side had lessened. Nali smiled at the old woman warmly. " Don't worry yourself," she said teasingly, " we've nursed Bella from her injuries plenty of times before."

I narrowed my eyes and glared playfully. Nali just winked and turned back to talk to the nurse again. I looked down and thought about what had happened the first time I had gotten my ribs broken. Since then I had developed slight asthma, because one of the ribs that had broken punctured my lungs. I stared at the wall in front of me, and went through the memory of my fourteenth birthday.

Flashback

Everyone was at my house for my birthday party, everyone except Nali. Renee had forgotten cake mix, so she sent her to the market that was a couple of blocks away, she was the fastest runner. But after she had been gone a while I went to go look for her. I was passing by the old playground where I had met my family, and it was there that I had witnessed true violence.

There was a group of kids, seven or eight, and they were beating on Nali. For a few minutes I could only stare. Nali was fighting as hard as she could, but eight to one aren't very good odds.

One of the girls kicked Nali in the stomach, and one of the boys pushed her to the ground. And then another girl, one the same as Nali, kicked her in the head. And Nali suddenly just stopped moving.

"Nali!" I screamed. From where I stood I could see the blood dripping from her head. All of the kids had turned their attention on me. My body told me to run, but my legs wouldn't move, my heart said not to leave Nali on her own. I didn't notice at first when the kids ran to me, I didn't feel the punches or kicks, all I could see or think about was Nali.

One of the kids kicked me in the ribs, and I felt my ribs snap. I blinked in pain, but when my eyes opened again Nali was gone. My eyes searched frantically, and then I saw her. She had a huge bat in my hands, I had no idea where she got it from but I would never bad mouth baseball again. I finally relaxed. She shouted something, I remembered that whatever she said, it was in Spanish.

The kids didn't believe she would actually hit them with the bat, honestly I didn't believe it either, that is until she hit one of the older boys. You could hear a loud smack even from where I was, the boy fell to the ground with blood oozing from his nose.

The other kids started running when they realized how serious Nali was. A few minutes after all of them had left, Nali finally looked at me, and I had never seen so much pain before. She looked at the bat and dropped it as if it had burned her. By that time, the rest of my brothers and sister had showed up. But what I remember the most, is that everyone ran to me, no one even asked if Nali was ok or not. Is that because they knew she could take care of herself? Or was it because, even though Nali had practically found our family, she was still an outsider?

That was the day I had witnessed just how horrible my sister's life was. I glanced at her, she was smiling and chatting away with the elderly nurse. If you didn't know her, you would never suspect the things she had been through. If I hadn't seen that look, the look that held infinite amounts of pain, even I would never have realized it.

When Nali first refused to tell anyone her story, I felt like she didn't trust us. But all she said was, " the past was the past". But the past was a part of her, and her knowing everything about us when we still knew so little of her, didn't seem fair. Everyone else felt the same way, we didn't like the fact that she didn't share with us, and for a while, none of us trusted her. We never talked about personal matters when she was around, and for a while none of us spoke to her. She had brought all of us together, and then we completely froze her out. Eventually she told us that she knew why we had stopped talking to her. We didn't try to hard to hide it, but we still didn't go shouting it to her face. She said she was sorry, but we would never hear her story if she could help it. And I think that's when we realized, that maybe Nali couldn't talk about it, because if she did she would never be able to forget it.

" You ready Bells?" My head snapped up to see Nali standing over me, she stopped short when she saw my face. The face that held accusing eyes. " What are you hiding?" is what it said.

For the briefest moment Nali looked stung, and I instantly felt guilty. But I didn't get the chance to apologize, as soon as I opened my mouth the final bell rang.

" You better go take care of that detention," Nali told me, I could her the firm command behind the soft tone. Out of all of us, Nali was the best at hiding how she felt. But I saw the hurt, anger, and frustration in her eyes. And if I could see it, then that meant she wasn't trying to hide it.

I opened my mouth to try and apologize again, but Nali didn't bother to wait, she just turned around and left. But I saw her hands slightly shaking, but I knew it wasn't from anger, but if they didn't shake from anger, then what?

Edward's point of view ( for the first time)

I watched Bella and her sister retreat from the field, Bella with a slight limp. I wanted to run after her, to beg for forgiveness, which I knew I had no right to have. But my legs wouldn't move, I was frozen by the memory of Bella's glare, the venom that dripped in her voice and eyes.

When I heard her say that she was jumped when she was fourteen, I wanted nothing more than to hunt those bastards down and rip them to shreds. But when Bella looked at me and said that I wasn't there, she said it in a tone that made me realize that she hated me because I wasn't there to protect her, I wasn't there like I promised I always would be. I felt sick to my core, I agreed with Bella, I was sick, I was disgusting.

My thoughts of self pity were interrupted by Emmett's booming voice. " I should kick all of your asses!" he yelled. His hands were clutched into tight fists.

" Emmett come on," Tyler said, " she's the one that wanted to play. She knows that things can get rough."

Tyler made it sound like she deserved it, which only fueled my earlier anger. " I'm sure she could have handled it, if the it wasn't the WHOLE fucking team that tackled her!" I shouted in his face.

He was about to argue when someone yelled 'hey' from behind us. We turned to see Bella's five, very pissed off, brothers standing there. I could tell by the rigidness of their bodies, that it took absolutely every ounce of willpower not to beat us into bloody pulps. The one in front, Tristan I think his name was, was the one that called us. It seems like he was the only one calm enough to talk without hitting someone.

" Which one of you fucking bitches hurt our sister?" he growled. I took a small step back, and I will never admit it out loud, but I had never been more scared in my entire life.

No one said a word, mostly because we were all to scared to speak. " He asked you a fucking question!" the big one yelled. He reminded me of Emmett, but I think he was way more intimidating, and I doubt he was as soft as Emmett on the inside.

" Why don't we all just stay calm," Emmett suggested. He went and placed a hand on Tristan's chest. But he just slapped it away.

I don't think I had ever seen a glare that held as much hatred as the one that Tristan was shooting Emmett. " Get the fuck off me," he spat.

" What's your problem, I'm just trying to help," Emmett said angrily.

" Where the fuck were you when they attacked her earlier?" he questioned with a venomous glare.

" Hey," Emmett spat back, " I care about Bella just about as much as you do."

All Bella's brother laughed dryly. " Yeah right," the one that Emmett looked like mumbled.

" Do you wanna say something?" Emmett asked him. Tristan smirked before he stepped out of the way to let the other guy through.

" Yeah," he said slowly, " I wanna fucking say something. You say that you care about Bella, well where were you when your so called family tore her to pieces? Where were you, when she woke up every night screaming? Where were you on her birthdays, or on holidays? Where were you when she got jumped on her fourteenth birthday? Where were you when she single handedly carried her basketball team to state finals, but wasn't allowed to play because she was a girl? Where were you when she won her first Golden Gloves? You say you care about her?" he snorted contemptuously, " if you care about her so much, then where the fuck have you been?"

He never raised his voice above the clam tone that he started in, but his words might of hurt less if he had shouted them. I wasn't the only one who realized how severe the words were. All of the boys realized how close this family was, and how horrible we were for doing what we did to them. I felt someone staring at me, and when I looked up it was Tristan. He didn't say anything to me, he didn't even glare at me, he was just looking at me. But in his eyes I saw the message. The words that the guy said, were not only for Emmett, but they were meant for me too.

Suddenly every memory I ever had of Bella rushed through my mind. Her smile, her laugh, and they way her eyes would sparkle when she was happy. Then I remembered the way she looked after we had stopped talking to her, her eyes were almost dead. I had caused that. I remembered every detail, every moment. From the last moment I saw her leave to Phoenix, to the moment I left for summer camp, the summer that changed absolutely everything.

" Brent!" I heard a girl yell. I turned and looked over the shoulders of the boys, to see one of Bella's sisters running towards us. She looked at me with a glare, before she looked at Brent with gentle eyes, it was obvious that these two were together.

" What's wrong, Mila?" he asked with a frown.

Mila shook her head, slightly out of breath from her run. " Nali says Bella is going to stay for detention, and for us to go home." Brent still hadn't lost the frown on his face, in fact it seemed to deepen. When I looked at the other boys they also had deep frowns.

" Mila, why didn't Nali come tell us herself?" asked the one with the heavy Spanish accent.

She looked back at her sisters, who looked equally as worried, but when she turned back to the boy, her face was filled with a slight fear. " She told us to tell you, and then she hopped on her motorcycle and left."

Bella's family had the same reaction, groans and gasps. I couldn't understand their reactions, so what?

" Sergio," Tristan asked the one with the accent, " do you have any possible idea where she went?"

Sergio had a look of overwhelmed defeat. He shook his said in sorrow. Tristan turned around to talk to the rest of the family, completely forgetting about us. Some of the guys, the ones with no balls, decided to take advantage of this and run. The only ones who stayed were me and Emmett. Me, because I wanted to see if they said anything about Bella, Emmett, probably because he was just curious.

" Does Bella know that she's left?" Brent asked.

Another girl, one who was unusually quiet when talking, whispered, " I think Bella was the one who caused it."

All eyes snapped to her. " What do you mean Danni?" another of her brother's asked. He looked down at the girl with a soft tone of love, he squeezed her shoulder gently.

" The other night I heard Bella sleep talking," I smiled softly when I heard that she still did that, "she was mumbling how she was going to get to the bottom of Nali's past. I think she might have said something to Nali, or Nali heard her say something."

Tristan groaned in frustration, and Sergio looked irritated. " Why doesn't she just let it go?" he nearly growled.

" She wants to know the truth," Danni's boyfriend said, his hands still resting on his girlfriend's shoulders.

" It's none of her business, Danju," he argued. " Bella has never had to live through a traumatic experience, I know you hate talking 'bout just as much as Nali does."

" But we still shared, this family has no secrets. All of us feel the same way as Bella, and she has a right to know just as much as we do."

" None of us have that right," he almost shouted, " have any of you stopped to consider that she is trying to protect you? I've asked her to share with me, and she said no to me too. You wanna know her reason, she says that if she told you, you would never look at her the same way again."

" Her story would not change our opinion on her," another one of the boys says.

" Kai's right," Tristan agreed, " and so is Bella."

" Will you, for once, take Nali's side. All you ever say is how Bella's right, look at it through Nali's eyes." he turned around and stomped off. Tristan asked where he was going. " To find Nali, because I don't see any of you moving."

The rest of the family looked after him as he stormed away. I looked at Emmett and he nodded his head, signaling that it was time to leave. I honestly couldn't agree more, it was then that I remembered that I had detention.

I groaned internally before I sprinted to the classroom. Thankfully, the teacher wasn't even there when I ran inside panting heavily. I stopped short when I saw Bella by the window. I couldn't help but stare, out of all the years I had known her, she had never looked so beautiful.

She was sitting by the window, resting her head on the palm of her hand. The way the light hit her eyes almost made them seem honey colored, instead of their usual chocolate brown. The sun made her dark, brown, hair seem almost red. And the brightness only seemed to make her complexion even more milky white. She still hadn't noticed my presence, and I could tell she was deep in thought, she was biting her bottom lip. This girl took my breath away, and come to think of it, I think she always has.

I must have made some kind of noise to alert her of my presence, because as soon as I said that her head snapped in my direction. She must have forgotten about her current injury, because she winced when she was fully facing me. I almost missed it, it seemed more like a twitch. She looked at me calmly, but I could see the faintest bit of sadness and distrust. And even though I knew I deserved it, it still stung.

After a few minutes of intense silence, I said the only thing that came to mind. " Hey."

I wanted to roll my eyes at how lame I was. Her eyebrows rose the slightest bit, she looked amused. But she didn't say anything back. " So…" I said.

She was still looking at me with that calm, amused look. " You were the one that said you had something to say," she began quietly, " I, on the other hand, have nothing to say to you."

Well, I thought, that was unexpected. I was ready for her yelling and screaming fit, now I'm unprepared.

I took a deep breath, here goes nothing. " First off, I want to say how sorry I am for how we treated you, it wasn't right and you in no way deserved it. Secondly, I want you to know that none of us are going to hurt you again." I waited for some kind of reaction, but she just stared at me. " Honestly Bella, I have no idea why I did the things I did, if I could go back and change them I would. And I grew up Bella, I'm not the same person I was."

That seem to bring her out of her silence. " Shut up Cullen," she snapped. I instantly closed my mouth, my eyes grew wide. " Did you even know that Emmett has been texting me all these years I was gone?"

My answer showed on my face, fuck no I didn't know that! She laughed without humor. " You obviously don't know that I have been very well informed of your " change". the same " change" that has turned you into a complete ass not only to your friends but your family as well."

" I don't know-"

" You know very well what I'm talking about. Emmett's told me everything. How you suddenly started acting out. Stealing Carlisle's car, taking money from Esme, yelling at Alice, always in the principal's office at school. I don't care, I'm just curious as to why?" she said.

To be honest I was stunned. How was I supposed to tell her that I did all of those things because I was upset that she left. She would never believe me, and I wasn't ready to tell her.

" I don't know," was all I could say. She snorted, as if she suspected as much.

" Well when you find out, then maybe we'll talk."

She turned around and headed for the door. But was stopped when one of her sisters blocked her path. She was short, with big eyes and curly hair. " What's up, Lyssa?" Bella asked suspiciously.

" Nali's gone." she whispered it so quietly I barely heard it. Bella's face went through many emotions: guilt, dread, fear, sadness, worry.

" Any idea how long?" Bella asked wearily.

Lyssa shook her head, " You know Nali, she won't show up for a while."

Bella looked down and bit her lip. " But it's different this time," she said.

" How?" Lyssa asked.

" Now she has Sergio, they can't be away from each other too long," she said with a wry smile.

" Bella, what did you do?" Lyssa asked harshly.

" I'm tired of her secrets. We all are." Bella's voice was just as harsh, if not more so.

Lyssa looked down, as if she suddenly realized something. " He was right," she mumbled miserably.

" Who?" Bella asked.

Lyssa sighed, " Sergio was right. We've never taken Nali's side." Bella seemed confused but they left the room anyway.

I leaned against the desk, things were getting interesting around Forks, Washington, that was for damn sure.

I know, I know. I took forever but there ya go. Thank you for the reviews, keep 'em coming J. I would like to ask that if you take something from my profile make sure you say it's mine, I don't like people taking things from me without asking. I know that's bitchy, but that's me. Sorry.

Lot's of Love,

Nisa