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RORY PURPOSELY AVOIDED her cellphone and computer. Ever since moving to Hemlock Grove in her aunt and uncle's lavish three-story home, she had brutally cut off most ties with her past life. Aside from calling her mother every other day at 10am during Stella's lunch break, Rory didn't respond to anyone else's emails, texts, etc, not Angela, not Jessica, not Eric; Rory was a dead zone. It was now the middle of October, two weeks since Rory Reyes left Forks with little to no pomp and circumstance.
The only sin she could confess to was abandoning Bella Swan. Rory and Bella were in the exact same boat. It wasn't something she wanted to do, to leave her just as heartbroken and depressed best friend, but she had been given no choice. It was why at 4am on a Monday morning, Rory was video-calling Bella Swan.
The shaky laptop screen showed a greasy-haired, purple under eye-bagged shell of a girl. Rory couldn't believe what she was seeing. Then the Skype call was finally answered and the disaster of a girl miniaturized into a tiny rectangle into the lower right display as Bella appeared on screen.
"Hello?" Bella looked fragile and pale, almost as bad as Rory did. Back in Forks, it was seven in the morning, an hour before classes began.
"Hey, Bells," Rory whispered. "How are you?"
Bella frowned deeper than usual as she saw Rory's face. "You look..."
"Terrible? I know." Rory rubbed her hand over her tired face. "It is 4 in the morning, so," she shrugged, "give me an hour or two and I'll look the pretty part my family wants me to play in this clandestine town."
"I feel as terrible as you look right now," Bella offered with an understanding nod. "And I see this whole move isn't going as successful as Dr. Reyes hoped."
"It's been half a month, Bella," Rory said with a small grimace. "I haven't found my dissipation just yet. I'm back in school, taking art classes, filling my days stuck in this town."
"At least you're trying," Bella sniffed. "All I can do is eat, sleep, and watch outside my window like some sort of living zombie."
Rory cringed. "That's not exactly coping, Bella."
She nodded. "I know. My dad's going nuts trying to help me. I wake him up screaming from nightmares."
"I don't sleep at all," Rory whispered conspiringly, delving the truth as if it was a piece of hot high school gossip.
Bella chuckled at their pitiful state. "How fun our lives have become."
