Forget Forgiveness

Chapter 1

Welcome home

I looked up at the house I had grown up in. I had been gone for four years now. I was eighteen and a senior in high school. I had broken my promise to myself after all. My father had remarried to a woman barely older than me, and my mom still owned the house here on the reservation, so she was coming back to get away from that. I knew it was time to come back. Something itched at my brain telling me now I needed to be here.

"Honey, are you sure you're ready?" My mom watched me with a nervous expression.

"I'm sure mom." I lied. Seth would have graduated last spring, so I knew at least school would be safe.

I took my stuff upstairs and threw all my old clothes, books, pictures and posters into a box. I changed the sheets and comforter.

The doorbell rang. "Sof! Can you get that?" Mom called.

"I guess." I sighed.

I ran down and got it. A young woman who looked eerily familiar was standing at the door. I tried to place who she could be and knew instantly when she looked at me with those striking eyes. "Leah?" Her smile widened.

"You did come back." She threw her arms around me. "You left so quickly, so much has happened. You look so different." I cringed in horror. The only person who had hugged me in years had been my mother.

I quickly pulled back in horror. "Oh my god, who are you and what have you done with Leah." I pushed her away.

"Please tell me you forgive Seth. He's been through so much the last four years. He could use a friend." She smiled so kindly I hardly recognized her. She had been heartbroken as well the last time I saw her.

"Forget forgiveness, last time I saw him he wouldn't even see me and he was throwing things! I'm not here to forgive him. I'm here to live with my mom and graduate high school before going to College in Seattle." Leah looked at me sadly. "Can you leave, I'm not really in the mood for friends who ignore me for four years." She sighed as she left, giving me one more sad look.

The next day for school, I curled my dyed brown hair with red extensions sowed in,

My nails were painted black, and my toes were a bright red against my strappy black heels. I drove my car that my dad had given me for my sixteenth birthday. It was an expensive Audi to go along with the expensive private school he sent me to.

I walked into school and many heads turned. A guy walked up and smiled at me. I knew him, but he clearly didn't know me.

"Hey." He said.

"Hello." I said.

"So, what brings you to La Push?" He asked, following me to the office.

"The wonderful sunshine." I said, sarcastically.

"Wow, you're witty." He grinned.

"No, I'm a pretty princess who would never be sarcastic." I said, rudely, slamming the office door in his face.

"Hm, he's been annoying since grade school. It's something we just ignore now." A girl, sitting in the seat next to the desk.

She had light brown hair and green eyes. She was gorgeous; her deep copper skin was smooth and perfect. She looked familiar, but I couldn't figure out who she was.

"Eli Carr. Nice to meet you." She held her hand out.

"Sofie." I just stared at her hand.

"Wait, Sofie? Sofie Bayles?" She asked.

I nodded. I knew Eli. She had been my best friend when I was a kid, before her mom died and she left. Maybe she would understand why I left.

"Wow, you look different." She said, smirking.

"Yeah, so do you."

"I guess that's what happens when you live apart for ten years."

"Yeah. Hold on." I got my schedule.

"So, since when are you such a bitch." She gestured to the door I had slammed in the boys face.

"Excuse me?" I turned to her.

"I used to be the bitchy one. What happened?"

I sneered, turning to her. "When I was thirteen, I moved to a place where you either were a bitch or someone's bitch. I choose the former."

"Oh no, you misunderstand me. It's not that I don't like it. I'm cool if you want me to be the friend you can bicker with."

"Oh." This was more what I had been expecting from Leah when she showed up yesterday. It was refreshing to have someone not expect me to be who I was at thirteen.

"No problem, now, can we go to class?"

I nodded and followed her.