The following morning I woke with a shiver. My father, a surgeon in Forks' only hospital, had already left for work. My mother was either somewhere in the house or out. I was never sure. With 8 ensuite bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a gym and a swimming pool in the basement, a library, a sunroof upstairs, 4 living rooms and 2 kitchens, I never really bothered to look for her and nor did she me.
My feet and hands were exceptionally cold, and my nose seemed very stuffy.
Emmett and Edward had been right about the rain causing sickness. I probably had a cold.
I padded across to my bathroom to take some medicine and then I got dressed for school. A cold wasn't enough to bring me down. If anything, I had to prove Edward and Emmett wrong. I couldn't let them know I was sick.
Once I was ready for school, I took my belongings down to the third floor to grab some water from the kitchen. Although I had first started throwing up everything I ate, it had now gotten to the point where I went almost a week without food. I was on day three of starving and I was starting to get a little dizzy. The water would hopefully help.
With no sign or noise from my mother, I slowly made my way to the front door and left for my journey to school. My legs were sore after walking for only five minutes from the vigorous exercises I'd done the night before. I was tired, aching, and ill but still determined to prove to everyone I was completely fine and perfect.
I made it to school just five minutes late and had managed to walk the entire way. I entered free period with a sweat drenched face, a possibly pale complexion, and a tremor of shakes.
"Rosalie?" Bella asked from the desk behind me. I hadn't even realized that she'd been in my free period. She was leaning on her perfectly manicured hands, her darker topaz eyes looking at me with minimum concern. "Are you well?"
"Yes, thank you." I replied, bringing my blond locks around the sides of my face to cover my bruised cheekbones. "I just got tired on the walk to school."
"Do you not drive?" She asked, my movements causing her to bring her hand up over her nose in what looked like to be disgust. The skin around her eyes tightened a fraction and she tilted her body slightly away from me. Did I smell?
"I do but my mother is getting my car fixed for me." Tears threatened to pool out of my eyes, but I pushed them back and told myself to be strong.
I felt a little better when Edward and Emmett walked into the room. Edward wrapped his arm around Bella and her stiff posture seemed to decrease slightly. Perhaps I did smell.
"Hello Rose!" Emmett said excitedly, his loud voice once again making me jump. "You okay?" He said down beside me, dragging his desk across the floor so that it was almost touching mine. His large, warm eyes slowly made their way up and down my face and I became noticeably uncomfortable. I didn't want him to know I was sick.
"I'm good, thanks. I told you I wouldn't get sick from the rain yesterday." I weakly tried to smile but it turned into more of a grimace.
He shared a knowing look with Edward and lightly adjusted his position. "You do seem sick, Rose." He whispered gently.
I sighed, not even bothering to put up an argument, and sunk deep into my chair to ignore them.
Just before we left free period, Emmett invited me over to the Cullen house for the evening. His siblings seemed shocked and all tried to decline it – except for Alice – but eventually allowed Emmett to invite me over.
I agreed reluctantly because perhaps being somewhere else would be better than sitting alone with my mother.
At the end of school, I was finding it hard to stand up and needed to take a few steadying breaths to shake my blurred vision. I went straight to the cafeteria to get a drink of coffee to wake me up a little before I met with the Cullen's. I had an emergency supply of fruit and veggie sticks in my backpack if I absolutely needed to eat something, but I was sure I would be fine.
I met Emmett at his Jeep Wrangler – which I was a tad bit scared to get in – with Alice and Jasper. Emmett helped me into the high seat and helped me with the confusing seatbelts, before pulling out of the school and onto the road. I didn't have a clue where the Cullen's lived, but I knew it wouldn't be the main part of Forks.
We eventually pulled into a long lane filled on either side with fully blossomed trees and bushes. It was a forest lane which I later realized led up to the Cullen Mansion.
The amount of ground they had was huge, a little bit bigger than the ground our mansion sat on. The house had large, glass windows which allowed you to see the majority of the interior and there was another building to the side and back that looked older fashioned with grey pebbled walls and large, glass windows. Both buildings were huge, slightly traditional and slightly modern.
Emmett noticed where I was looking and pointed at the building further back. "That isn't the house. Our family owns a treatment programme and facility for people dealing with personal problems such as drugs, alcohol dependency, self-harm and eating disorders. Esme – my mom - normally travels around hospitals to give counselling and group therapy and Carlisle – my dad - works at Forks hospital but if they have patients that need special attention and high levels of care, they bring them to the facility to give that care. Edward wants to be a doctor and helps Carlisle out. Jasper and I help the patients settle in and make sure they're getting everything they need and are happy. We're kind of like security as well just in case anyone gets hurt. Alice helps with the counselling and activities and Bella passes through the facility every now and again if we need some help. She's not really a people person and is trying to adjust." He smiled, as though his words were nothing.
My heart was frozen in my throat, my entire body shaking from the words he'd just told me.
This couldn't be happening.
Why had I befriended a family that owned a treatment facility for those with eating disorders? Surely this wouldn't end well.
I needed to escape.