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Where Things Stand

Monday

Time really flies by, doesn't it? It seemed like yesterday that I was just celebrating the arrival of the weekend and now it's Monday morning and time to get ready for school. Sometimes I hated the person who implemented the five-day schooling two-day off timetable. He had to make it a five-day working week.

I had no problem with the work. It was the people I dreaded seeing.

I sighed, walking out of the bathroom, toweling my hair. I slipped on the slippery floor from the moisture dripping from my feet. I had taken a cold shower this morning to hopefully jerk me awake; I was far too dazed these days. I was precariously close to that edge in my mind. The only thing clutching me back were my friends.

And also the fact that I knew some part of Edward had forgiven me.

After all, he hadn't really moved on that quick, had he? When he wasn't with Lauren, he was standing by himself, looking depressed, until Emmett or someone dragged him off. I hated to admit this, but a part of me felt really glad for it.

I sighed deeply, closing my eyes and letting the darkness envelop for a while. Then I opened my eyes again. The brightly colored lights that danced in front of my eyelids would give me sore eyes.

Charlie had left before me. I was running a little late, but not too late. I grabbed a granola bar and drank milk straight from the carton, a bad habit I resolved never to do again, before running out of the house.

xXx

I arrived at school a few minutes early due to having pushed the engine a little too far. By the time I had slid my truck into a parking lot the engine was literally whining and groaning. Little puffs of steam were coming out from the weirdest places. I sighed again. I doubted my truck would make it on my way home after school.

"Wow, that looks bad," said a voice behind me, echoing my thoughts.

I whirled around to see Mike grinning at me, arms across his chest. I grinned back. "Yeah, I figured," I answered. "I wonder if I can even make it home."

Mike frowned. "You shouldn't try it," he advised. "Not that I'm a professional or anything, but I think your truck might collapse halfway."

I nodded. I had guessed as much. "I'll see if the engine is okay after school," I said. "After it has time to cool down," I added then with a quick glance at the still-smoking engine. Mike laughed and we fell into step to class together.

I was painfully aware of how close Mike walked to me. A little too close, perhaps. His shirt sleeve was brushing my arm. If I moved my right hand a few millimeters I would collide into his thigh…uh oh. Surely Mike couldn't think something was going on between us.

Great. That was it. He had given me a week of space and now he was moving in. Zeroing in on the target. Ugh. This felt like first day of school all over again! Now all I needed was for Tyler to appear and…

Crap. I would now believe in karma. Tyler appeared from nowhere and materialised at my other side. Mike scowled at him. "Tyler," he began, very sweetly. "Don't you have somewhere to be? Like making out with your girlfriend?" He put extra emphasis on girlfriend.

Tyler smiled back just as sweetly. "I don't know where you get your information, Mike, but I don't have a girlfriend," he replied. Mike narrowed his eyes. I rolled mine.

Mike began speaking very dangerously. Both of them were so caught up bickering they didn't notice when I slipped into a random classroom. I leaned against the wall and sighed deeply.

Things weren't going to change. How many times had I told myself this, over and over again? Edward was out of my life now. I had to deal with it. That was life. Be and let be.

I heard the bell screech. Footsteps pounded. I slipped out of the classeroom before the teacher could come in.

Everything happened very quickly then.

Four teachers came running around the corner. They were all clutching a bright orange collapsible stretcher. I caught a glimpse of Rosalie's all-too-familiar blonde hair and toned, tanned legs, recognizable even sheathed in jeans. Edward was running alongside the stretcher, his face pale and drawn. Alice, next to Edward, screaming uncontrollably and crying her heart out. Lauren was behind them, her face pinched and shocked. Jasper and Emmett brought up the rear, their faces hard and yet pale.

The siren of ambulances wailed, faintly at first, but getting louder to the point it was deafeaning. It screamed continously, a violent background to the chaos I saw.

I only caught a few words. "Fainted…in cardiac arrest…shock…bank folded…chances not good…cancer…"

And then a whole sentence: "It must be double bad luck for the Cullens."

My mind only thought two thing, over and over again. First, someone close to the Cullens had had an heart attack. Second, someone that had cancer was in trouble. And the only person I knew with any form of cancer, and would be the reason Lauren looked so shocked, was David.

No. David. Poor, sweet David. David, who had not just been a friend to the Cullens but to me as well. He had been a friend and mentor to me. And who was the unknown person? The one who had had a heart attack?

As the ominously neon stretcher careened past me, I swayed dizzily and collaspsed onto the floor in a tangle of folded limbs.

Everything went black.

Cliffie! Sorry, but I couldn't resist. R&R!