Annora |E. Cullen|

TWO

I was out running later at night because I had woken up too late to do so in the morning. I thought over the possible outcomes and scenarios that I would run into in a small town and came to the conclusion that the possibility of a dangerous situation was not big enough to not complete the task. I ran my typical three miles one way, ran a mile back, and then walked the other two.

Unfortunately, the town I now lived in did not accommodate my distance requirements, so I ended up running in the woods for the most part. As soon as I came out of the woods, I began walking towards my home. I lived in the gaudiest house in the entire town. The place had upwards of five bedrooms that had their own bathrooms, it was just ridiculous.

I had my headphones in again and my music was blaring loud from my run as I entered my home. I kicked my shoes off at the front door and then walked to the kitchen to retrieve a glass of water before heading to the basement to shower. I tried not to look in the general direction of my very pregnant stepmother as I didn't want to start a conversation with her, her voice irritated the hell out of me.

I poured a glass of water, drank the whole thing rather quickly, and then placed the glass in the sink. As I turned around to walk away, my headphones snagged on the handle of the drawer and were ripped out of my ears. I swore softly and rubbed my ears before I grabbed my headphones from the ground.

"And honestly, I just had a really terrible day. Morgan won't stop using me as a punching bag! It's driving me insane," my stepmother, Brittney, complained- she had been talking to me since I had walked into the kitchen.

"What?" I asked.

"Did you not hear me?" She questioned, sounding hurt.

"No, I had my music blaring, I didn't even know you were in the room," I answered honestly.

"Nevermind then," she huffed and went back to working on the fifteenth craft for the nursery.

I shrugged, left the kitchen, and jogged downstairs to take a shower. I had basically taken over the basement. I had my master bedroom which took up 50% of the space and I hardly ever left it. After I got out of the shower, I checked my phone as I dried my hair and I saw a text message from Bella asking if we could talk.

Sure, I responded, Just come to the back door, the basement one, it's down the stairs.

I got dressed in a pair of sleep shorts and a baggy sweatshirt and then waited to hear the knock on the back door. Once I did, I opened it and ushered Bella inside before shutting and locking the door.

"Wow, this place is huge," she gazed.

"It's stupid. It's only the four of us here," I scoffed and led her into my bedroom.

"Four?" She questioned.

"Yeah, Brit is pregnant, she's due any day," I replied while I set up the music on the speakers that surrounded my room.

"Do you like her? Your step mum?" Bella asked.

"Not at all," I laughed.

"Why?"

"She's a child."

"Why do you say that?"

"She's manipulative, she legitimately cries when she doesn't get her way, she thinks the entire universe revolves around her, she's materialistic, she's ten years younger than my dad so that's awkward considering she's only thirteen years older than me. She only ever thinks of herself, she's really not the brightest person," I shrugged and grabbed a cookie out of my snack bag.

"She sounds like a lot of work," Bella frowned and sat on my bed.

"What did you need to talk about?" I asked.

"The Cullens," she groaned.

"Who are they?"

"Remember the big group of models that walked into the cafeteria together last week?"

"I probably wasn't paying attention, but I think I sit next to two of them in classes."

"They're the Cullens. There's one, Edward, he couldn't get far enough away from me in Bio the other day and it's really bothering me."

"Oh yeah, I talk to him occasionally. Tell him to fuck off, if he's being a dick he should know," I shrugged and took a bite of my cookie. "Now that you mentioned it, though, Emmett does not talk to me at all. He looks fine from far away but when he's sitting next to me he looks super pained."

"That's what Edward does, except he scooted as far away from me as possible in Bio and I haven't seen him since that day," Bella groaned.

"Real quick, does your dad know you're here?" I asked.

"Yeah, he trusts your family," she nodded.

"Aight," I grabbed a spare pillow and gave it to her. "I'm tired, you don't have to stay, but you can, I don't care. If you stay we can talk while we fall asleep."

She looked at the pillow hesitantly, "Thanks."

"Never had that offer before?" I asked.

"No, I wasn't really the cool kid in Phoenix."

"Yo I didn't give a fuck about cliques in school, I still don't. Just do you and be as happy as you can be with your current situation," I lied down under the covers and turned on my music quietly.

"You're pretty confident, I wish I could be that confident."

"It's all a facade, let me tell you. I am so insecure, sometimes it gets really bad and I sit alone and overanalyze my entire life for hours."

"It's pretty good acting then."

"As for Edward, either tell him to fuck off or interrogate him. I don't actually care about anything, but I can see you care about this, so you should definitely act on it and get the results that you want."

"But what should I ask him?"

"'Dude, the fuck, why you being sketchy?' I dunno, something along those lines but a lot more sophisticated or you may sound like a joke," I laughed and relaxed once she settled in under her own set of blankets.

"Thanks, Annora," she whispered.

"No problem, Bella. But call me Nora," I requested.

"Mmm," she mumbled as she fell asleep.