A/N All Twilight characters belong to Stephenie Meyer
I'm am soooooooooooooooo sorry that it took sooooooooooo long to update...I had no idea what was going on with this story...it was just kinda stuck at a stand still..that and the other story I'm writing hit a very crucial part that needed tons of attention (almost like a small child lol) but I promise I will do my best to update this one on a more regular basis...I love y'all for reading it :)
EPOV
Carly Black was a dangerous creature; and the worst part was she had no idea the power she had over me. Being around Bella during our short time together was nothing compared to the urges I felt when Carly was near. I don't know if it was because of her Quileute heritage or the simple fact that she was Bella's daughter; or maybe it was both of those things. Nonetheless, the desire I felt to taste her was enough to drive me mad. And I had no desire to be driven mad again. Once was enough, thank you very much.
I ran back to the white house by the river, totally pre-occupied with thoughts of Carly. She wasn't Bella, I knew that; but she was the next best thing. Maybe Carly was my second chance; a sort of 'do over,' if you will. She was my chance to get it right.
I vaulted up the steps of the large white house and up the stairs into my room. The house was quiet, the rest of the family was in Alaska; I was alone in the big white house.
CPOV
I opened the backdoor slowly and slipped inside. The kitchen was empty so I slipped into the hallway and crept up the stairs. Emily, Sam and Masen were in the living room. I could hear the low murmur of their voices as I climbed the stairs. I slipped into my room and shut the door quietly behind me. I glanced out the window and shook my head. My heart was racing, it was all just to much to take, my godfather turning into a giant snarling wolf right before my eyes; finding out that Dracula might not be a myth after all.
My mind balked at the idea. No, it sputtered, no, no, no. There is no such thing as vampires. They are purely fictional; the stuff of horror movies and sci-fi novels.
Explain the photo then, Logic whispered.
I-I can't, my mind whimpered, because there is no logical explanation.
So perhaps he is a vampire, after all. Logic whipped across my brain, but Reason refused to believe it. There was a soft knock on the door.
"Carly, are you in there?" Emily asked softly. I crossed the room and yanked the door open.
"It's time for-," she began, her voiced faltered as she took in my stunned appearance.
"He can't be real," I whispered.
Her features softened. "He is Carly. I know it's hard to accept, that there is this whole world that has been around you all your life, carefully hidden behind the painted veil. And now, here it all is, laid out in front of you now. You have options that your mother never had. She stumbled blindly into her relationship with Edward. She knew what he was, but I don't think she fully understood it. It was almost the same with your father. They were friends before he changed, she already knew what he was, but nevertheless, this is all a bit hard to swallow."
"A bit hard to swallow?" I scoffed. "Emily, this can not be real. People would have found out. There's no ways it could have been kept a secret from the world."
Emily clucked her tongue. "It can be kept a secret very easily when only those who need to know are told," she said sternly. "That is how the Quileute tribe has managed to survive all these years. Only those who can be trusted and have the need to know are brought into the circle."
She emphasized the trusted part. I stared at her in disbelief. "You can't possibly think I'd willingly tell people my godfather, and my father, are werewolves and that my mother dated a vampire.
They'd lock me up in a loony bin quicker than you can say she sells sea shells down at the seashore. No, trust me, that's one thing I will never tell anyone." I shuddered, imagining the reactions that bit of information would bring from people. Emily wiped her hands on her jeans. "Well I came to let you know its time for dinner."
"Okay," I said, "I'll be down in a minute."
Emily nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her. I sat down on the edge of my bed and tried to collect my thoughts. My mind replayed Edward's smell. The corners of my lips pulled into a grin. Whatever it was, it was delicious. Desire, a small butterfly in my stomach, unfurled her golden wings and the need to see Edward again washed over me. His golden eyes flashed in my mind followed by flashes of that brilliantly copper hair, the hard line of his jaw, the smooth planes of his cheeks and forehead; that glorious mouth.
Wait, what? What am I doing? Thinking about cheating on Jeremy with a vampire, my conscious whispered. My reverie died as fast as lust doused by a cold shower. The guy was either nuts and truly believed himself a vampire, or truly a monster right out of Stoker's worst nightmare.
"Carly!" Sam called from the foot of the stairs. "Come on, dinner time." I shook my head and headed down for dinner.
* * *
"So Carly," my Aunt Rachael said from across the table. I had no idea she was even here.
"So, Rachael," I said sarcastically, staring at her. Emily shot me a warning glance. I took and bite of lasagna and shrugged my shoulders.
"How do you feel about staying here instead of going to live with Sam and Emily?"
"Why have you adults finally come to your senses and decided to let me stay in my house?" I asked after swallowing my lasagna. Rachael sipped her wine. Floozy, I thought, suppressing a smirk.
"Well sort of," she admitted.
"Sort of how?" I retorted.
"Well, Derek and I are getting divorced and I was thinking about moving back home and well, you want to stay here," she motioned to the house around us, "seems like a good idea for me to move into either Masen or Tony's room and that way you can keep living as normally as possible."
I took a sip of soda, contemplating my options as well as my two possible futures. I looked to Sam, then Emily. "How do you guys feel about that?"
Emily looked to Sam. He wiped his mouth, the set his napkin on the table. "If that's what you want, Carly, we are fine with it. But the offer to stay with us is still and will always, be, an option. We want you to be happy either with us or here at home with your Aunt."
I looked at Masen, "And you, how do you feel?"
"If that's what you want Carly. Aunt Rachael will make a fine guardian until you turn 18. And she'll be here anyway, so it just seems fitting that she stay here with you."
I nodded and speared a giant piece of zucchini that had escaped its sauce and pasta coffin. "Okay, I'll stay here," I said popping the zucchini into my mouth. A collective sigh of relief went up around the table.
"Well thank God for that," Mason mumbled.
"Screw you," I muttered and smiled sweetly at him.
* * *
The following Monday, Emily forced me to go back to school. I hunched down in the passenger seat, grumbling the whole way there.
"Go," she ordered as she pulled up to the curb, "I'll see you after school." She smiled at me as I opened the door.
"I could have driven myself," I grumbled as I got out.
"You could have, but this way I know you actually went to school." She drove off with wave.
I followed behind a group of students and hurried into the warm building out of the cold rain. My friends were sitting, clustered in a small, circular group on the floor in front of the theater.
"Carly!" my best friend, Paige Newton, exclaimed. Her brother and my boyfriend, Jeremy, wrapped an arm around my shoulders as I sank to the floor between them.
"Hey Bean," he said softly, "We've missed you." Jeremy planted a kiss on the top of my head. We'd been dating since homecoming sophomore year after he'd finally gotten up the courage to ask me. I'd had a crush on him for years and said yes with out having to think twice. I think I walked around with a smile plastered to my face for a year. It all seemed like such a long time ago now.
"Oh Carls," Paige sighed, "I can't believe your back. Is Masen letting you stay here in Forks?"
I nodded, "Yea, my aunt is moving in. her and my uncle are getting divorced, so she's gonna be my parental unit till I turn 18."
Paige smiled sadly, "That's cool, I guess. Wait, which aunt?"
"Rachael."
Her face relaxed. She knew about Rebecca and Rachael. Rebecca was the bible bumping hard ass; Rachael was the drunken "Real Housewives of New Jack City" bimbo.
Paige was my best friend, we met in kindergarten and bonded instantly over a dried out tub of paste. The only sucky part was that my mom and hers hated each other. The hate came more from Paige's mom, than my own.
Rumor has it that back in high school, Paige's dad, Mike, was totally in love with my mom and super jealous when she kept choosing other boys over him; first Edward then my dad. He tried to get together with my mom after Edward broke up with her, but she chose my dad. So in a vain attempt to win her affections by making her jealous, he married Jessica Stanley, Paige and Jeremy's mom. Jessica found out somehow, and had planned on divorcing Mike, but she found out she was pregnant with Adam, Paige and Jeremy's older brother. So Mike and Jessica stayed married for the sake of the baby; but Jessica and my mom's friendship was ruined.
Lucky for Paige and me, the dislike stopped with Mom. Jessica seemed to like me just fine, which is good because not having Paige as a friend all these years would have seriously sucked. It seems funny now that I think about it. Before I never knew who the unnamed guy was that broke up with my mom, he was, in the rumor, just a guy. No one ever spoke his name. I guess they knew the pain his leaving caused her and the fact that Pop was the chief of Police, left Edward the nameless "boy."
The bell rang and the three of us stood and shuffled back out into the rain toward our first class in building five. Inside the classroom, I sat down and set my book on my desk. Mr. Kolinsky came and in and started writing on the board. I took out a pen and opened my notebook and started drawing rather than taking notes.
Kolinsky started droning on about the importance of the justice system in America while I stared out the window; watching the rain slide its way down the dirty window. From his seat behind me, Jeremy poked my shoulder. I glanced at him from over my shoulder.
"Pay attention," he whispered.
I shrugged and turned around to stare back out the window. Kolinsky must have seen us. "Mr. Newton, Ms. Black, is there a problem?" he droned in his nasally voice.
I shook my head no, and Jeremy blurted out, "no sir."
"Good, then pay attention." Kolinsky turned back to the board and continued writing. The bell chimed just then. I breathed a sigh of relief and gathered up my books and rushed out of the classroom.
"Bean!" Jeremy called, "Bean what's wrong?" he rushed after me and quickly fell into step beside me.
"I just had to get out of there. I really wish I could just ditch the rest of the day. Go home and climb back into bed. Pretend that this isn't really happening." I felt the tears coming and I furiously blinked them away.
"Well go home then," Jeremy said. God he could be so simple sometimes.
"I can't," I told him. "Emily wouldn't let me drive, and she's still camped out on my couch. At least until Rachael moves in."
"Well c'mon, we'll take my car; we can go where ever you want to go." Jeremy grabbed for my hand, I yanked it away before he could grab it. Over his shoulder I saw a flash of brilliant copper colored hair.
"No, I-I gotta go," I mumbled and took off in the direction of the hair. I rushed around the corner and ran right into Edward Cullen.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him.
He stared blankly at me. "What do you mean, what am I doing here? This is a school, correct? I am a student, isn't that where students are supposed to go? To school?"
"Shut up, you know what I mean. You're a-," I lowered my voice and leaned in closer, "a vampire. You don't need to go to school."
From back around the corner, I could hear Jeremy calling my name. I groaned. Edward smirked at me, "You better go; your boyfriend is calling you."
I opened myself to say something, anything but nothing came to mind. Edward smiled a smug grin of satisfaction. "That's what I thought," he snickered.
So I hurt him the only way I knew how to. I thought about the seventeen year old version of my mother walking these very same halls forty years ago, I pictured her how I thought she would look in my mind. I watched Edward's face take on an almost dreamy quality. Then I remember what Pop told me about what she went through when he, this monster, left her. I pictured her waking up in tears, screaming bloody murder.
Take that, I thought triumphantly as his face quickly went from the dreamy quality to a grotesque mask of pain.
"Please stop," he gasped.
I thought about the rain and Edward visibly relaxed. His face smoothed into a marble mask of calm. "You're right," he whispered, "I am a monster."
Then he turned and hurried off in the opposite direction. I watched him go. His blue sweater disappeared into the crowd; only the tips of the unruly bronze hair could be seen. And for some strange reason, my very human heart was aching.
Reviews are better than being able to stay in your house...even if you have to live with your drunk aunt!
