Chap 9

Bella POV;

I giggle as everyone sighs and takes a shot. Edward and Jasper both blush while Emmett smiles with absolutely no shame. Edward clears his throat.

"Never have I ever… Streaked in a public place." I sigh and pour a shot as Jasper and Emmett do the same. They all look at me and Rosalie looks surprised.

"Bella. Story please." She and Alice smile at each other before looking back to me.

"Fine… It was senior year and Newton threw that massive party. Remember? You guys ditched me so I went alone. I got a little tipsy and Seth managed to convince me that I should streak through Main. Needless to say, I did and well… Dad was pissed. So were the uncles. They laughed at the end of it, but they were scared id 'ruined' our name." They both burst out laughing at that.

"I can just picture their faces!" Alice was crying, she was laughing so hard. "In all their stiffness too!" Rose was shaking her head.

"We left for two years and you do that!" She seemed very disbelieving. "So much for being the good child."

At that, my smile fell and I knocked back my next to last Devil's Kiss. I set it down and picked up the other, taking a sip from it as Rosalie realized what she said.

"No, Bella, please. I dint mean it like that." My calm and stoic sister was falling over her words as I stood.

"I have to go. I need to get home so I can work at the shop tomorrow. I'm opening and have an early appointment." I felt my face slide into its mask of indifference once again. "It was nice to meet you three." Turning to the three, now somber, men. I walked toward the back door of the club and picked up my keys and bags, along with my guitar case before I knocked back the last of my drink. I wiped my mouth and pushed through, hearing my sisters call after me. I didn't stop and I walked to my car, placing my things in the trunk before I slid in.

Alice POV;

Rose looked pained at our little sister's abrupt departure. We sank down, no longer in the mood to play the game. The guys looked utterly confused and I sighed, readying myself to explain.

"The three of us were born in Texas. We lived there up until college. Bella, Rose and I were always together. We were joined at the hip and loved to spend time together. By the time we were in high school, we had our own groups of friends. Rose was a senior and I was a junior, as was Bella. Bella did a lot of accelerated and AP classes. Near the end of the year I got a letter from my college of choice and I qualified for a full ride. Rosalie was going to college anyway so I thought I would go to the university. They told me that if I started right away, I would get extra help to finish up my high school diploma as I went to classes on the campus. Rose and my schools were very close, but in New York. Rose is a NYU grad, and I graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology. So that summer Rose and I moved into an apartment and Bella was left at home to finish senior year. We only got a chance to come home on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we'd stay only for a weekend before going back to New York. Bella graduated alone and stayed home for another year before going to her university. She got a full ride scholarship because of all her advanced classes and then moved into her dorms at Julliard." I ran my hand through my hair and took a deep breath. "In short, we up and left her, leaving her with no one except Peter and Angela. In that time, she got into drinking and smoking and she just went downhill. But she never let it touch her grades or school so our parents let her be." Rose was looking ashamed and I knew my expression mirrored hers as we looked at the guys.

"I'm still confused. How did that connect to what happened now?" Jasper's question was quiet.

"Because we left her to fend for herself! She had no one else as friends, and we left her! She went from being the good child, the baby, to being the trouble maker and smoker. And it was all our fault!" Rose wailed and leaned against me.

"And now, she graduated from Julliard and she can't do anything with it because of her-" I trailed off and ran a hand across my face. "Now she owns the tattoo and piercing parlor next door. It's called Howl at the Moon. She loves it and she does really well, but she isn't playing her music or dancing. She had a chance to become a prima, or even a famous modern dancer. She could've been playing a world tour, with albums and t-shirts and instead she owns a tattoo parlor and plays in the family club." I felt immensely guilty still, even though she had graduated a year ago at twenty-one. Rose and I often forgot that she was still two years younger than me, having graduated high school at 16 while I'd been 18 already in junior year when I left.

"I see." Was Jasper's near silent acknowledgement. We all exchanged phone numbers before Rose and I began to get ready to head home. We knew Bella would already be there, probably with Charlotte and Peter. We bid quiet goodnights to the three men before we got in the car.

The ride home was silent. Silent and very heavy. Rose and I were still so sad that our baby sister had so much trouble when we left and that she still had the walls up even after a year.

I knew that Rose missed our baby Bella. And as a matter of fact, so did I.

Review please. It lets me know what you all think. ~Queen