Inspired By Taylor Swift Series

It's Nice To Have A Friend (Twilight)

Pairing: Bella Swan x Edward Cullen

AH AU

I was that kid. The kid who wore that one shirt too often. The one who's clothes were worn and either dirty or stained. The one whose hair wasn't brushed because they didn't have a parent to help.

In the small inconsequential town of Forks, that kid was me. And everyone knew it.

My mother was a flighty person, who spent too much time nursing a bottle than taking care of her kid. And that was when she was even home, which was rare.

And my dad, he was a cop constantly working trying to keep a roof over our head which was pretty hard considering he was paying for my mother's drinking habit too.

He was the guy that took my mother back no matter what, no infraction big or small kept him from locking her out, he loved her too much. His fatal flaw was how much he loved my mother, he loved her so much that he couldn't tell her no. That he believed her when she told him that she would stop drinking, that she wouldn't cheat again, that she wouldn't take off again, or when she would tell him that she would sober up and we could be a family.

So for the most part, it was just me. And because I was that kid. Other parents steered their own kids away from me. Kind teachers made sure I ate that day, but no one made sure I was okay.

Charlie, my dad, did his best. When he wasn't working, he washed my clothes, tried to feed me. He tried to be a real dad, but there was rarely a time he was home. When Renee would take off, he would go after her to make sure she didn't end up face first in a ditch somewhere leaving me home alone a lot of the time. He worked around the clock to make up the hours from all the times he would take off to find her and bring her back home.

I was seven when he showed up.

At this point, I was pretty good at taking care of myself. I could run a brush through my hair, I could wash my clothes myself, and when there was food in the house, which was rare, I could feed myself. I learned to patch clothes since anyone rarely made sure I had clothes that fit properly, my shoes constantly had holes worn into them. I thought of how nice it would be to have a friend.

His copper hair and bright green eyes made me jealous, but not as jealous as when I saw his mom dropping him off. He was the splash of color in this otherwise gray, despondent town.

The first two months of school, I watched from afar, how he and his sister were dropped off each day. How they wore different clothes each day, how their mom hugged them tightly before sending them to school for the day. I thought about how nice their mom looked. How she looked sober and reliable. She reminded me of the living incarnate of Snow White.

That November was a cold one, that was when he spoke to me for the first time.

Everyone else was playing in the snow, while I sat on the stairs unable to read my book because of the cold. I didn't have any gloves and my hands got too cold to keep them out of my coat pockets. It's why I liked the summertime better, I didn't have to worry about getting sick from the cold.

At recess, I noticed him looking at me. I kept my eyes down. I knew the other kids watched me too, but they made fun of me. Even then I knew there was something different about him, there wasn't an ounce of mocking or apathy in his eyes, just a warmth that I hadn't ever encountered before.

I was walking home, when I felt someone tap my shoulder. His face was a bright red from the cold, and he wore a big smile and it didn't waver once as I stopped. He introduced himself to me for the first time that day.

I shyly told him my name, and he offered to walk me home. I didn't say much as we walked home, I kept my eyes on the sidewalk chalk covered in snow. It wasn't a far walk but the cold made it feel like miles rather than blocks. I had to ignore the wet slush that made its way inside my shoe.