clean slate | charlie swan

~ the one with all the surprises

"Alex?" A voice calls.

Alex looks up from the sanding she's doing, smiling wide as she sees a blonde girl stood in the doorway to the garage. "You must be Rosalie! Tell me you have good news!" She pleads, rushing over.

Rosalie smiles and holds her keys out. "All fixed. I serviced it, changed the oil and stuff. Runs like new." She promises.

"Oh my god you're a life saver!" Alex squeals. "How much do I owe you?" She grabs her wallet.

"Call it 250, I won't charge for the other parts." Rose shakes her head.

Alex grabs three 100s and hands them over. "Keep the rest, honestly, thank you some much."

Rosalie smiles. "No problem. Just call if there's anything else you need help with, I know a lot of the mechanics around here over charge on work. What's that you're working on?" She points.

Alex smiles. "This is a 1920s dresser I found at the scrap yard. I'm sanding it down and thinking of painting it white, putting some gold handles on it. You like?"

Rosalie walks over to it and kneels down, quiet for a moment. She had one just like this in her human life. "It's beautiful." She finally says. "Do you have a buyer lined up?"

Alex smiles. "No. Know anyone who'd want it?"

"I will. No matter the cost." Rose says instantly. "If that's okay."

Alex smiles wide. "Really? You want it? I mean, of course totally. I'll have it done as soon as possible!"

Rose smiles. "Perfect. If you have any business cards, I can hand them around to friends?" She suggests. One of the perks of knowing vampires even if you don't know you do? They always have vintage things they want to restore or keep.

"Absolutely, here." Alex grabs the small box from the counter and grabs a small pile, handing them over. "Tell them I don't over charge, I do whatever they want and I put my heart and soul into each piece."

"Of course." Rose smiles wide, a car honking. "That'll be Emmett, he followed me here. Bella has my number if you need it. Bye Alex."

Alex waves and smiles wide, proud she attracted some attention. She sighs and sits back on the floor, going back to sanding for a while before she hears the ruckus from the house. She wipes her hands off and goes in, rasing an eyebrow as the boys all argue over the TV control. She holds it above her. "Hey! Where's your mom?"

"Upstairs." Logan says, jumping as he tries to grab her arm to pull it to his height.

"Homework." She orders, shoving the control into her t-shirt as the boys groan and flop down for a moment. "You better be doing it by the time I come back down." She warns as she heads upstairs. She puts the control on the top shelf by the stairs and goes to find Cammy.  "Camilla?" She calls.

Cammy sniffs and wipes her eyes quickly as Alex comes into the laundry room, shoving the letter away quickly. "Hey!"

Alex frowns. "CamBam..." She says slowly, pulling her friend close. "What's the matter!? Who do I have to kill?"

Cammy cries, but manages a small laugh. "We-were broke, Lex." She cries into her friends chest.

Alex frowns and rubs Cams back. "Broke? How?"

Cam wipes her cheeks as she pulls away, folding laundry as she talks. "We paid off the medical bills left from Micks parents. When we asked his siblings to chip in, they refused. Ones too broke but the other has really good lawyers. We lost it all to them. They sued us for undue stress - apparently because we stepped up, they state they were led to believe we had it covered. The lying assholes." She snaps.