The Outlier

FIVE

That night I hadn't slept too well. It wasn't because of the rain, at least I don't think it was. I was rather accustomed to the sound of water droplets pitter-pattering against my window because of the rainy nature of London. But the cold is what I hated most. Even after wrapping myself in layers of sheets, duvets and pullovers- I was still freezing cold. Why couldn't I wake up in Bella's house in the middle of the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona? Maybe then I wouldn't have to deal with the teeth-chattering cold.

It's kind of comical, though; I wake up after a car crash and instead of being upset that I'm in a teen romance novel delving a tad too deeply into the relationship of a 108-year-old virgin and a girl with as much personality as a stale potato crisp, I'm upset about the weather. I suppose I do see why the Cullen's chose this city to live in. Considering how rainy and cold it is, I wouldn't be too shocked if the people of this town looked pale enough to pass off as vampires as well.

What if in this version of events, the Cullens aren't vampires? What if Twilight is just an intersection between a diary and Bella writing a story based on the most excluded bunch in her school?

Or what if the Cullens, or anyone in the Twilight I know, didn't live here? For some odd reason, I felt like the universe used up its wild cards by throwing me into 2004. That, in and of itself, is already bizarre but the existence of cold-skinned and blood-sucking vampires is seemingly stretching it a bit.

To take my mind off of the theories swirling around my head, I chose to lay out a plan for what I'd do. I reckoned that I ought to get some house cleaning done— firstly because the house smelt like horse piss, secondly because it'd allow me to explore the house further seeing as I'd decided to keep the rummaging to a minimum the night before since I didn't know the house was mine for a year.

I decided to put off my cleaning mission to start exploring my room first. I looked to my right and instantly decided to go through the nightstand drawer that I had found my copy Twilight sitting on yesterday. The first thing I found was a Polaroid of me and Ash. I put it away almost instantly, not wanting to break down in sobs again. I shoved it in the very back of the drawer having no will to ever come across it again. I almost shut and locked the cursed storage space that had reminded me of what I desperately didn't want to yearn for, but I carried on looking through it. 

The next thing of interest that I had found was a device with wired headphones sticking out of it. It was an iPod that I suspect had been released a couple of years before 2004. I played around with its rotary dial-esque shuffle feature and almost let out a gasp when it lit up.

I struggled a bit with navigating the prehistoric white brick but eventually got the hang of it. I checked the playlists on the odd device and saw all my songs from Spotify on it. Knowing I'd be in school tomorrow, I made a playlist of all the songs I knew for a fact were released before 2004 to avoid weird looks. If the kids weren't as friendly as Bella described them to be, I could just pop my headphones in and pretend like I was in a world of my own, too preoccupied to notice that I was sitting alone during lunch or the curious stares I was receiving.

I was interrupted during my life-or-death task of comprising a playlist by the noise of what I guessed to be an odd-sounding doorbell. I suppose the playlist that'll make me seem cool and mysterious in a new school would have to wait.

I hurriedly put on clothing suitable to be meeting people for the first time. I looked in the mirror hastily to make sure my hair looked presentable and to my luck, it did. I rushed downstairs and gave myself a moment to wait outside the door to make it look like I hadn't sprinted down the stairs in two minutes. I opened my door only to be met with the image of a middle-aged man in a police uniform.