I cautiously walk downstairs, almost tripping as I went. I'm still not used to my height, but obviously this isn't a new thing for Bella.
"Don't land in a hospital before we even leave the house," A man who must be Phil chuckles, and takes my suitcase. "Off we go."
Bella's shoes are no better, and in my head I'm already budgeting for a knock off pair of converse or something that doesn't make me want to hide away in a room forever.
On the way to the airport, the teenage boy is treated like a son and treats me like a sister, so obviously, he's Bella's brother. But Bella is an only child, so what the hell?
Renee chatters the entire way, and I hum a few times to show I was listening. Really, I was lost in a sea of what the fuck do I do. I try to calm myself by looking at Phoenix, hoping the familiar scenery will calm me. California, I think is where I grew up, but I can't remember.
Shouldn't that worry me?
I don't know what to say, since I don't want to alert these people that I'm not Bella. I keep my mouth shut, and stare at the ugly blouse with plans formulating to buy new clothes as soon as possible. If I think about fashion, that can take my mind off the situation I'm in. After a bit, the boy nudges me, and I look at him. His eyebrows are raised, and I notice a few spots of acne on his chin.
"We're here, Thing Two."
I retort back with "Whatever, Thing One." and roll my eyes. It was mechanical, natural to do that, and that should worry me, but I'm too thankful to have done something Bella-like that I don't care.
I climb out of the car and let the boy and Phil get the luggage. Renee hugs me tight, and I automatically hug her back. She hints that we can stay, but I shrug her off. Better to get to Forks, familiar territory.
"Mom," It feels alien to call her that. "Forks will be fine. Both of us will be fine. And you'll be fine too, once you know we safely made our flight. On time."
Renee rolls her eyes, but we go faster and make it to our departing point. Phil gives me an awkward hug, and Renee hugs both of us again.
"You both have your tickets?" Phil asks. The boy holds up two plane tickets. "Phones? Chargers? Wallets? Luggage?" I hold out my purse, and the boy taps his jeans pocket. "Alright. Have fun with your dad."
I'm relieved to get out of there, even just to an airport. Those are safe ground, I've been to those many times. I trail behind the boy as we go through pre-check, making our ways to gate D4 that would take us to Forks.
I stay quiet, since I don't even know the boys name. Besides, Bella's quiet, right? I definitely am not, but hey, I'm Bella right now, right? Or is she me? Gah, there comes a migraine.
"Relax, Bells," The boy squeezes my arm as we sit in the terminal. "It won't be too bad."
'How do you know?" I mutter, thinking of the situation I'm in. Shit, wait he's talking about Forks.
"I just do."
"Mhm."
"I swear!"
"Dude, you hate Forks."
"I'm not the one who pitched the fit that kept us from going there."
"Best not mention that incident to Charlie."
He laughs, and sits back in his chair. Our banter came so easy, and felt comfortable. However, his boy legs stretch out and take up all the space I could possibly have had, and I nudge them out of the way. I stifle a sigh. Had my real purse been here, I would have had at least two different books to choose from, probably a House of Night book or a well read Harry Potter book coming apart at the seams. But no, I'm stuck on a plane ride with no service and absolutely nothing to do.
We sit in a comfortable silence that stretches through our entire plane ride. I prefer sleeping in cars than planes, so I stare out the window during the three hour torture of a plane ride.
I've never had a brother before, so I'm kind of at a loss. Yet, he's exactly what I imagine a brother would be.
Soon, we land in Port Angeles- eighth grade me is excited- and we wait for Charlie.
"Bet he's going to bring the cruiser." The boy says. I give him a look.
"No shit, he's a cop. He probably doesn't own another vehicle." I snort. The boy looks at me oddly, shit, guess Bella doesn't swear, but then he laughs. I laugh too, if only to not look out of place.
Predictably enough, a police cruiser with the words FORKS painted on the side rolls up, and out steps Charlie. Unlike Bella, he looks exactly how I imagined he would. Same color hair as me and my brother- Bella's brother- eyes a deep chocolate brown, like Bella's. His hair is curly, graying, and complete with a receding hairline. He has a belly, and I'm sure it's from a mix of eating out every day and beer.
His face breaks into a grin when he sees us. "Beau! Bella! You guys are really here." He seems surprised and embarrassed by the latter part of his sentence, like he truly expected us to change our minds without telling him. Are we assholes or does he have severely low self esteem?
On the bright side, I now know my brother's name. Beau. How predictable.
Charlie tries to make small talk on the drive home, but neither Beau or I give anything to go off of. The most I end up saying is 'Can we stop here?' when we pass a CVS. Both of the boys give me funny looks, but Charlie stops anyways.
When I get out of the car, Charlie hands me ten bucks. If it weren't for the fact that I have no idea if Bella even has any money, I would have refused. I'm not going to complain. Beau looks at me funny before I leave, but neither of the two ask what I needed to get.
Inside the bright store, I head straight for the cosmetics. Obviously, there isn't any chance of Bella having makeup. I know that from the books. So I pick out some Covergirl mascara, and some two dollar liquid eyeliner.
I know there's no hope of finding an Ulta or Sephora anywhere near Forks, so drugstore will have to do.
Back in the car, Beau looks in my bag. He gives me a bewildered look, snorts, and doesn't say anything. I try to hand Charlie back his change, which sadly is a mere dollar and odd change, but he tells me to keep it. Guess a dollar won't hurt.
On the drive to Forks, Charlie informs us he bought us a truck from Billy Black. I try to act surprised, but I of course already knew he had. Same song and dance. Aside from the truck, we don't talk much on the ride there.
The blouse is almost unbearably itchy, and aside from getting out of this fresh twilight hell, the thing at the top of my wishlist is for Bella to have some sort of not grandma style clothing.
acouvion: I'm so glad you loved the first chaper! thank you for your review, I hope you liked this one as well!