WHERE I BELONG [P. LAHOTE]

[04]

October passed. Bella didn't speak to anyone.

November passed. Bella simply continued to stare out the window.

December passed. Bella continued to worse, if that even was possible anymore.

Skylar tried to help her sister, she honestly tried – but what were you supposed to do in a situation like this. How could you help someone who didn't want to be helped? She tried inviting Bella places, either just the two of them or with a group of their old friends. But Bella didn't even respond.

Skylar had tried talking to her, tried getting Bella to watch TV with her; she had tried everything. Bella would simply stare.

Her nightmares often woke Skylar up in the middle of the night. The loud screaming would startle her, and at first she ran to her sister's side, attempting to comfort her. But how could you stop the nightmares?

Skylar quickly realized that Bella wanted to be left alone, and while at first she didn't comply, as the months passed the twins began to drift. Skylar would go back to hanging out with her friends from school, along with Jake, Embry and Quil – who she had grown a lot closer to while helping Jake fix cars. She began to eat lunch with her other people instead of just sitting by Bella's side at the Cullens' old lunch table. Skylar began to let Charlie handle Bella's nightmares.

She still loved her sister, would still do anything for her sister – but right now, she had lost all hope that Bella would ever be the same. Skylar blamed all of her anger and Bella's despair on the Cullens.' It was no coincidence that Bella turned up missing the night the Cullens' had mysteriously disappeared from town.

Both sisters pulled up one day from school separately. Skylar noticed Charlie outside and walked towards him, giving her dad a hug before following him to Bella's side.

"All right," Charlie sighed as Bella shut her truck door. "That's it."

"What?" Bella croaked out.

"You're going to Jacksonville to live with your mother," he said, looking down at his other daughter for support.

Skylar noticed Bella's upset look at his suggestion. "I'm not leaving Forks," Bella said.

"Bell," Skylar began, placing a hand on her arm before Bella shrugged it off. "He's not coming back."

"I know."

"It's just not normal, this behavior," Charlie shook his head. "Quite frankly, it's scaring the hell out of me and your mother and sister." Taking a deep breath he continued. "Baby, I don't want you to leave. I don't, but just go. Go to Jacksonville. Make some new friends."

Bella looked down, "I like my old friends." Charlie whispered back, "Well, you never see them anymore."

"I do," Bella weakly argued. "I'm gonna go shopping tomorrow with Sky and Jessica."

Skylar looked at her twin, confused. "You hate when we go shopping."

"I need a girls' night out."

Charlie's eyes darted back between his two daughters. "All right. Girls' night. Shopping. I like it. Go buy some stuff."

The night after, the three girls walked out of the theatre. "I don't know why you want to sit through all those zombies eating people and no hot guys kissing anybody," Jessica stated. "It's gross. Like... And why are there that many zombie movies anyway? 'Cause if it's supposed to, like, draw a parallel about leprosy, my cousin had leprosy. It's not funny, you know?"

Skylar gave out a long sigh, mentally banging her head against the wall. Once Jessica was on a roll there was no stopping her.

"And, like, is it supposed to be a metaphor for consumerism? Because don't be so pleases with your own, like, self-referential cleverness, you know? Like, some girls like to shop. Not all girls, apparently," motioning towards Bella. Skylar narrowed her eyes at her comment. "Although I was surprised you even wanted to hang out with us. You know? Like, your whole depression thing, I get it. I'm totally, totally worried. But after a while its like, you're still bumming..."

"You want a ride, girls?" Skylar glanced down the street toward that group of bikers that were littered among the side. "What's up? Look what we found."

Skylar flipped them off, rolling her eyes when they starting cat calling again. Noticing that Bella stopped and was staring at them, Skylar gently placed her hand on her shoulder. "Bells?"

Bella jumped back, gasping. "Bella, what's wrong?" Sky asked, alarmed.

"Come here for a sec!" The same guy kept shouting. Bella glanced down the street then back up to the awaiting girls. "I think I know those guys."

Jessica looked down at them. "Well, they seem great. Can we go?"

"I'm just gonna see something," Bella said, quickly walking down the street towards them.

"Bella! Bella, what the hell are you doing?" Skylar exclaimed, following her twin down the street. "Bella!"

"Whatcha doing, girlie?" he asked. "All right, we gotta taker."

"Bella, get your ass back up here," Skylar said, eyes wide. She looked up towards Jessica, not knowing what to do. There was no way she could take the group of guys – there wasn't any way she could take one of them.

She watched as Bella got on the back of one of their bikes. Skylar threw her hands into the air, wondering if she needed to call the police. Racing back up towards Jessica and ignoring the other bikers, she asked, "What the hell do we do?"

Jessica's eyes glanced down the street, eyes widening when Bella came back. "Hey, what the hell's wrong with you? Just curious."

"I thought that I saw something," Bella said. Skylar twirled around, shocked. "You thought that you saw something?"

"You...Oh," Jessica trailed off. "You're insane, actually. Or suicidal. That homeboy could've been a psycho. We were about to end up in an FBI interview room like some lame TV show."

"Lay off, Jess," Skylar said, coming to her sisters defense. She wasn't fine with Bella leaving like that, but she didn't want Jessica all over her like that.

Bella sighed, ignoring both girls. "God that was such a rush."

Jessica blinked. "Awesome. So you're an adrenaline junkie now? That's cool. You can go bungee jumping. You don't get on the back of some random loser's motorcycle. Crazy."

Bella trailed behind, looking lost in thought. Skylar wrapped her hand around her twin's and softly drug her along, following Jessica quietly.