𝖧 𝖮 𝖬 𝖤 ─ 𝗉𝖺𝗎𝗅 𝗅𝖺𝗁𝗈𝗍𝖾

| 𝟢𝟥

     "MORNING," I say softly as I enter the kitchen. My long brown hair pulled into a half-up, half down ponytail, with my bangs casting a frame around my face. I wore a pair of black skinny jeans and a simple white blouse that went nicely with my mother's locket that her grandmother had passed down to her mother, down to her, and then down to me.

Josie grumbled out a soft hello as she munched on her leftovers from dinner last night, taking a moment to swallow her food down with a glass of water before smiling up at me. "You look really pretty, I can't believe it's just to go shopping with Bella."

I reached over the counter to smack her arm as Lizzie comes up behind us and scoffs as she opens the fridge and grabs a bottle of water. "She's been a literal corpse since the Cullen's left, I think it's about time she came out of her coffin."

I roll my eyes at the two of them for being so judgmental, knowing that neither of them had experienced that kind of loss before and just couldn't comprehend the healing process that came along with it.

"I swear to the almighty whatever upstairs that if she starts to rub off on you, I'm gonna lose it." Lizzie grimaces at the thought, and I roll my eyes again at the irony that she always forgets that I too am still grieving a loss.

I want to say something to the two of them, remind them of the tragedy in my life that struck barely 4 months ago, but seeing their smiling faces as they giggle back and forth over some cute boy in Josie's Geometry class... I bite my tongue, knowing that they just didn't understand it and praying to whatever gods that they never would.

Grabbing my black leather jacket from the coat rack, I open and close the front door behind me and head towards Bella's orange truck.

Bella had kept to herself for 3 whole months, having to deal with someone she was madly in love with up and disappearing and the nightmares that came with it.

I had overheard my uncle and Charlie Swan discussing it not long after Bella had been found in the woods. Apparently, she had a terrible fall last year, and Edward had been the only thing helping her get through it and now that he was gone she was struggling with the memory.

I would be too if I had that extreme of a fall that almost cost me my life.

I lean on the truck, pulling out the phone that uncle Alaric had gotten me for Christmas and smiling at the goofy photo Josie had sent me of "beware of the zombies!"

I can't help but laugh, looking up at the sound of Bella approaching.

"Hey, how ya feeling?" I smile as I push up off the truck and give her a small hug.

Bella awkwardly smiles, before silently jumping into the driver's seat. I raise my eyebrow at her silence, waving goodbye to Charlie as he watched us from the porch.

Hopping into the passenger seat, Bella immediately turns up the heat and heads towards Jessica's house to pick her up.

     THE THREE OF US had drove down to Port Angeles to go shopping, but it turned into Bella mostly dragging us to see a terrible zombie movie. I chuckle to myself as we exit the movie theater, the irony of Josie's zombie joke hitting like Déjà vu.

"I don't get why there are so many zombie movies." Bella states as she walks between Jessica and I, her hands shoved in her pockets.

Jessica and I shrugged, before Jessica tried to answer her. "It's like, a metaphor? For crass consumerism or something?"

I raise my eyebrow and give her an odd look before shaking my head and continuing to munch on the popcorn I still had left from the movie and sip on my milkshake. I offer Bella some of the buttery goodness, who takes a few pieces in her hands and pops them in her mouth as Jessica continues to talk.

"Not that you would know anything about consumerism. You didn't buy anything today."

Bella finishes the popcorn I had given her and glances at Jessica. "I bought something."

I laugh out loud, almost choking on a popcorn kernel as I did so. "Socks don't count, Bella!"

Bella scratched the back of her head while Jessica complained. "Of course, I was surprised you even called."

I fake gasp, "You called her and not me?"

They both roll their eyes at me, but I just continue to munch on my popcorn and decide to just listen to them instead.

"I've been... kind of out of it."

Bella states, and I can't help but sigh as I finish the popcorn and dispose of it in the closest trash bin. I felt that way for months now, so I could completely relate to her, but Jessica didn't and still continued talking.

"Kind of? I mean, at first I was worried." She began, and immediately I groaned as her words hit my ears. "Then I'm like, okay, she's still bumming? It's not like I wasn't going through things too."

I roll my eyes at her. "Mike deciding to just be friends with you isn't such a bad comparison compared to actually losing someone, Jessica."

Jessica glared over at me, about to open her mouth the say something before a man's voice shouts at us.

"How 'bout a ride, girls?"

I turn my head towards the alley where the voice came from to see a bunch of motorcycles lined up by one side of the wall and a random guy staring over at us.

Jessica and I shake our heads and continue walking, but soon realize Bella isn't following us.

"Dude, come on," Jessica says, both of us turning to see Bella still staring down the alleyway.

"Come here for a sec!" The guy shouts, and I wanted to rip my shoe off and shove it down his throat- but Bella stops me as she speaks up.

"I think I know those guys." Raising my eyebrow and looking over at Jessica, I had a feeling that Bella was lying.

"Well they seem great... can we go?" Jessica speaks over the voices of the guys trying to tempt us over to them.

Bella ignores Jessica's words and my concerned face as she turns and heads off in their direction. "I'm just gonna go see something."

She didn't wait for us to say anything as she disappeared down the alley and hopped on the back of a motorcycle with a random biker.

Jessica looked around in complete shock, before shaking her head in frustration and dragging me down the sidewalk. "Unbelievable!"

A few minutes passed of us standing outside by the truck before Bella appeared.

I didn't say anything as Jessica began yelling at Bella about being an adrenaline junkie and almost being kidnapped by some psycho.

We all hopped into the truck, and after Jessica finished scolding Bella, we headed back to Forks.