Dusk Till Dawn

Accidents

When I opened my eyes in the morning, something was different.

It was the light. It was still the gray-green light of a cloudy day in the forest, but it was clearer somehow. I realized there was no fog weiling my window.

I jumped up to look outside, and then groaned in horror.

A fine layer of snow covered the yard, dusted the top of my truck, and whitened the road. But that wasn't the worst part. All the rain from yesterday had frozen solid— coating the needles on the trees in fantastic, gorgeous patterns, and making the driveway a deadly ice slick. Rain I could tolerate but I had to draw the line at snow. I had enough trouble walking on solid ground as is.

It might be safer for me to go back to bed.
Charlie had left for work before I got downstairs. In some ways, living with Charlie was like having my own place but it wasn't so bad. I liked the quietness.

I threw down a quick bowl of cereal and some orange juice from the carton. I felt excited to go to school, and that scared me. Only a small part of me knew it was because of seeing my new set of friends. But if I was being honest with myself, I knew it was because of the chance Rosalie would talk to me.

I was crushing on the girl hard. But if there was even a chance that the blonde would like me back, I would be stupid if I didn't take the chance.

It took every ounce of my concentration to make it down the icy brick driveway alive. I almost lost my balance when I finally got to the truck, but I managed to cling to the side mirror and save myself.

Driving to school, I distracted myself from my fear of falling and my unwanted speculations about Rosalie Hale by thinking of Jessica and the obvious difference in how girls responded to me here. They acted differently than back in Phoenix. Maybe it was just that the others back in Phoenix had watched me pass slowly through all the awkward phases of adolescence and still thought of me that way. Jessica's puppy dog personality was something I wasn't used to.

My truck seemed to have no problem with the black ice that covered the roads. I drove very slowly, though not wanting to carve a path of destruction through Main Street.

When I got out of my truck at school, I saw why I'd had so little trouble. Something silver caught my eye, and I walked to the back of the truck— carefully holding the side for support — to examine my tires. There were thin chains crisscrossed in diamond shapes around them. Charlie had gotten up who knows how early to put snow chains on my truck. From the moment I moved back to Forks, Charlie had been looking out for me, something I wasn't used to so his unspoken concern caught me by surprise.

I was standing by the back corner of the truck, struggling to fight back the sudden wave of emotion the snow chains had brought on, when I heard an odd sound.

It was a high-pitched screech, and it was fast becoming painfully loud. I looked up, startled.
I saw several things simultaneously. Nothing was moving in slow motion, the way it does in the movies. Instead, the adrenaline rush seemed to make my brain work much faster, and I was able to absorb in clear detail several things at once.

Rosalie Hale was standing four cars down from me, staring at me in horror. Her face stood out from a sea of faces, all frozen in the same mask of shock. But more immediate importance was the blue van that was skidding, tires locked and squealing against the brakes, spinning widely across the ice of the parking lot. It was going to hit the back corner of my truck, and I was standing between them. I didn't even have time to close my eyes.

Just before I heard the shattering crunch of the van folding around the truck bed, something hit me, hard, but not from the direction I was expecting.

"Shit!" The high pitched yell made me realize that I wasn't the only one here, and the voice was hard to not recognize. Two long pale hands  shot out protectively in front of me, and the van shuddered to a stop a foot from my face. There was a deep dent on the side of the van from the placement of her hands.

Then her hands moved so fast they blurred. One was gripping under the body of the van, and something was dragging me, weighing my legs around like a ragdoll, till they hit the tire of the tan car. A groaning metallic thud hurt my ears, and the van settled, glass popping, onto the asphalt; exactly where, a second ago, my legs had been.

  It was absolutely silent for one long second before the screaming began. While more than one person was yelling my name, the sound of Rosalie's frantic voice drowned them out.

"Bella? Bella, are you okay? Does anything hurt?"

"I...I'm fine." My voice sounded strange. I tried to sit up, but quickly realized how close she was holding me, almost straddling me.

"Be careful," she warned. Her fingers skimmed over the side of my head, probably where some bruising was happening, and muttered something to herself. "You hit your head really hard.

"How did..." I trailed off, trying to clear my head, get my bearings. "How did you get over here so fast?"

Rosalie was quiet at first, glancing over her shoulder before speaking much quieter. "I can't tell you, especially right now— I'm sorry. But just let everyone know that I was standing right next to you, okay?"

I turned to sit up, and this time she let me, but still stayed close to me. I looked at her pleading expression and was slightly disoriented by her lightly gold colored eyes. And very carefully, I nodded my head at her.

____________________

I'm going to rate all the names I've went by this last year because I have nothing else to put:

Fire up we got Pluto: I thought it was cute at first, and I love space and shit but I didn't like it directed toward me, 1/10

Then we got Venus: Another space name, slightly better but it still didn't give what it was supposed to give, 3.2/10

Now we got Myles: It's cute, hot even, named after my favorite Spider-Man but spelled with a bit of spice 10/10

Bye!