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- Miss Shanice
- I'm a Daughter, a Sister, an Author, a Friend to many and a Student. And I love being each and every one of them.
Thursday 4 March 2010
Chapter 2: Copper Heads & Cold Hearts
02:21 | Posted by
Miss Shanice |
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Copper Heads & Cold Hearts
BPOV
I huffed, pushed my homework off my lap and held my head in my hands; I don’t know what is wrong with me lately. I always knew my life had been shit, but I just pushed forward. After all not everyone’s life is perfect. Right?
I just felt that it was going nowhere, a meaningless, empty, blank. I knew I would do well in life, I knew that I would get good grades, go to college, get a degree in whatever I was studying, find a well paying job and probably have a decent sized home. But would that mean I would be happy? Would I have someone who cared for me? Comforted me?
Loved me?
These thoughts hadn’t even been present in my mind till two nights ago.
That night, the night when I saw him.
That day had positively been the worst, but in a way, it had also been the best. School had sucked, my teachers had been grouchy assholes and home had been no better. When I trudged through the front door and into the living room, dropping my bag on the floor, Rosalie was sitting on the couch, her long toned legs curled underneath her.
She was filing her blood red nails, humming along to some cheesy pop tune that was in the charts. How she was so popular at school was beyond me. In my head she had always been Rosalie Hale, queen of Bitch land. I figured this out the first day her stuck up snobby ass invaded my life as my step sister along with her control freak, dick of a father, Phil.
She had flung my bedroom door open back in Phoenix and strutted over to my bed, flopping down on it before waving me off with her hands, claiming that the room was now hers. My mother of course shrugged and went with it, not wanting to upset the precious Rosalie which would in turn piss off Phil.
“Ugh, you stink. You know mom wouldn’t be too happy if she knew you were smoking” She said mockingly, wrinkling her nose in disgust before turning her concentration back to filing her plastic red nails.
“Shut up Rosie” I retorted, knowing that she hated that nickname. “And what’s with you calling Renee mom all of a sudden huh? You’re not her real daughter so back the fuck up already” I spat through my teeth.
Rosalie smirked at me, flipping her thick blonde hair over her shoulder. “Yeah well let’s face it Bella, she treats me more like a daughter than she does you. I mean come on, she’s always saying how you were just a mistake” She snickered, her face smug and her icy blue eyes alight with sadistic amusement.
I willed away the bitter tears that were threatening to spill down my cheeks. I wouldn’t let her see me cry, I wouldn’t let her think I was weak and I definitely wouldn’t let her think her words upset me, because in truth, they had.
I already knew this was true. Deep, deep down in my heart I used to wish that it would be a lie, wished my old mother would come back to me, before she got tainted by money, sex, drugs...Phil.
But after a few years of wishing, crying, pleading, and praying I realized that I meant nothing to her anymore. I knew there was some part of her that did love me, but that part of her was considerably small, and very rarely made an appearance.
Yet even though I knew it was true, and even though I had said it to myself hundreds and hundreds of times in my head, hearing it said aloud from a voice that dripped venom, the words began to hit me, with such a painful impact that I could barely breathe. I felt like my lungs had shut down, my heart had been crushed, and I was filled with pure resentment all over again. I never thought I could hate anyone as strongly as I hated Phil, Rosalie or Renee.
It was at that moment, two days ago, standing in the living room with my fists clenched at my sides that I went cold.
Even though the temperature in the room had been warm, my whole body became like icy stone. My heart transformed itself piece by tiny piece and wrapped itself in an unbreakable thick layer of ice, sharp and frozen. With every strained beat ice filled my blood, flowing through my veins and circulating through my limbs.
The tears that were close to spilling were no longer there. As my heart pumped the new frosty blood through my arteries, they changed from the warm, salty liquid and became solid. Frozen.
They created a barrier against my tear ducts, restricting any future betraying tears to bleed through and spill down my cheeks.
I had become frozen.
I eyed Rosalie’s smug smirk coolly and shrugged seemingly indifferent. I turned away from her without a word and backed out of the room slowly to the front door, turning the brass knob. As soon as I was out of the apartment I made my way to the elevator and punched the button for ground floor. I needed air, I needed the cold wind to swirl down my lungs and accommodate the now freezing temperature of my heart. It was too hot up here. I also needed a cigarette, but that was nothing new.
When the daylight had turned into darkness, I made my way back up to the apartment. From the voices coming from behind the door it was evident that Renee and Phil were home. I rapped on the door, waiting for one of them to answer hearing my mothers’ voice fill the hallway
“I don’t know what the hell you want me to say Phil! I can’t control her; I’ve never been able to”
I rolled my eyes at her words. They were talking about me again. My new distant uncaring mind found this amusing rather than annoying like I would have before and so I waited with a small smirk on my face for the door to open. When it did Renee was instantly yelling at me and pulling me through the door.
“Your teacher’s have been complaining again Bella! I can’t keep getting these damn phone calls at work; it’s distracting and stopping me from doing my job! Why can’t you just cooperate with them? goddammit!”
I stared at her, my face expressionless and bored. I knew that once she got her whining out of her system I could go back to my room and lose myself in a book. She continued snapping at me about something or other and I continued staring back at her, throwing in a lazy shrug here and there just to piss her off.
Usually I would be defending myself; arguing with her and Phil had become a nightly occurrence, but I wasn’t me anymore, it wasn’t worth it and I was sick of it. So rather than uttering a word on the matter, I opened my mouth to ask to go to my room but she cut me off, obviously expecting me to argue back with her and sighed.
“I don’t know why you bother with her mom, I wouldn’t.” Rosalie’s taunting voice echoed through the halls and I was about to open my mouth, telling her to go to hell when Renee lifted her hand to stop me from saying anything and sighed again.
“For Chris’ sakes Bella, could you at least try not give me shit tonight? Phil doesn’t like it when you whinge about absolutely nothing. And to be quite honest, neither do I”
I just snapped.
“Don’t blame me; blame that fucking blonde bitch who won’t get off my ass!” I retorted, loudly enough so that Rosalie could hear.
“That’s enough about Rosalie!” She yelled back. I threw my head back and glared at the ceiling out of exasperation. Of course, Renee doesn’t like any one picking on her poor sweet innocent Rosalie.
“I can’t deal with your petty shit right now, and stop the goddamn swearing. Act the way I raised you to”
A dark, humourless chuckle escaped my lips, and I lifted my head up slowly, a smirk on my face as I looked at her. For once I took a really good look at her, and no longer did I see the woman I used to look up to years ago. My vision of her had completely changed.
I lifted my eyebrow as ice cold blood had continued to pump and circulate through my body.
“Like a scatter-brained whore you mean?” I asked softly, cocking my head to the side relishing in the shocked look on her face. She stared at me wide eyed before raising her hand and slapping me sharply across the face, whipping my face to the side from the impact of the blow. The pain stung my cheek and continued biting at the skin as I turned back and glared at her before flinging the door open and bursting out only to be stopped by...well...him.
He stood with his arm midair, one hand around the key that was in his front door, the other grasping a pair of sunglasses and a hat. His build was lean, toned, not too muscled and yet his posture was radiating such strength and precision like every step and move he made was calculated and deliberate. He was dressed in black pants, a black button down shirt that clung to his torso snugly and a long black coat with the collar up and pointed, revealing a sliver of his pale silvery neck.
The world literally stopped when my eyes reached his face.
His jaw was perfectly chiselled; his nose straight and his strong chin in perfect proportion. Every line of his face was immaculate and precise just like his body. His red lips looked soft and were begging to be kissed. His hair was a dishevelled disarray of silky bronze coppery locks and my fingers twitched to feel the smoothness of it under my fingertips.
His gaze raked over my body, slowly rising upwards towards my face. I realized I probably had a huge red mark across my cheek and quickly covered it with both hands, staring wide-eyed at him waiting for our eyes to meet, and when they did they pierced right through me.
They were the deepest green ever known to man, with flecks of amber around the pupils fringed by a thick curtain of black lashes. They swirled with secrets and emotions that I tried to discover as his eyes burned into me with such intensity.
Too much intensity.
As much as I wanted to discover the secrets that were lying behind his stare I didn’t want him to discover mine and I mumbled some incoherent gibberish of an apology before walking briskly down the hallway, past the elevator and down the stairs, desperate to escape those green eyes that prodded and probed at me so deeply.
That was two nights ago. I hadn’t seen the sexy copper-headed man since. Although I had convinced myself over and over that this was a good thing yet I couldn’t erase the twinge of regret that I had run away.
Away from the deep green, the flashing secrets, the swirling emotions, the intense stare.
All because of my damn insecurities.
I was brought out of my thoughts by Phil slamming the front door and a trio of voices carrying through the hallways. I exited my bedroom and walked into the living room, Rosalie, having left her own room, following close behind.
Phil came into the room and upon seeing us made vague introductions, waving his hand at us and then to behind him
“Uh, yeah, gentleman this is Bella and Rose, girls these are Aro and Felix of the DEA department”
The man Phil pointed out to be Aro was staring at me and Rosalie with a glint of amusement in his dark eyes, his skin looked pasty and onion translucent. He had long black hair that was tied back at the nape of his neck and was wearing a charcoal grey suit and a black tie. He simply nodded at me and Rosalie before returning his gaze back to me causing me to shift nervously from his stare.
“So this must be Renee’s daughter yes? Bella is a glorious name if must say so myself” Aro’s ghostly voice made a shudder run down my spine whilst he continued staring at me, an eerie smile on his lips. Rosalie made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat before storming back off to her room, obviously unhappy with how the attention wasn’t on her for once.
That left me awkwardly standing there, biting my lip nervously and looking anywhere but at the men in front of me, still feeling their stare burning on my skin.
“Well we’ll be in the other room, if your mother calls tell her to speak to Rose instead of me” I cringed at the dismissing tone in his voice, but nodded meekly anyway and turned for the front door, not particularly wanting to even be in the same house as Phil or the two other creeps for that matter.
Once out of the apartment I made my way down the hallway and down the stairs, sitting on the last step before my floor, and pulled the small box out of my pocket.
At last
I lit the cigarette and inhaled, giving a contented sigh as I felt the smoke whirl down my lungs and calm through my system. I hadn’t had a cigarette since the day I saw sexy copper-head man, as I now called him, and it made me feel slightly lightheaded, but I continued taking drags nonetheless.
A flash of bronze caught my attention and I looked down through the railings of the stairs.
It was him. Sexy copper-head man was making his way up the flights of stairs, step by frustratingly slow step, with his head ducked down and locks of his silky bronze hair falling limply over his furrowed brow.
I took a deep breath and steeled myself as he reached the top of the last floor, and turned towards me, his head still hanging low.
“Hi” I breathed my voice raspy and I cleared my throat nervously.
His head snapped up in surprise, and my breathing hitched, shocked once again by the beauty of his face and the deep colour of his green eyes. His lips twitched up into a tiny smile for a split second before disappearing. His eyes locked on my own and they became even more intense than the last time I saw him, the deep green swirling around the flecks of dark amber and penetrating right through me.
I cringed away from his eyes and averted my gaze, ducking my head so my hair fell over my shoulder and hiding half my face.
“Don’t hide from me” His low velvety voice sang like angels in my ear, shimmering and ringing with every word and there was a slight hint of desperation in his tone, as if trying to coax a scared creature out of hiding.
I sheepishly lifted my head, looking up at him through my lashes when his body stiffened, and his eyes snapped up and over my head. I followed his gaze, turning my head, my ears straining to hear the heated argument beyond the slightly ajar door.
“Listen, I don’t have your shit! You give it to me for holding, I hold it. You come back to collect it I give it to you, that’s all I do” Phil’s voice carried down the hallway and to the bottom of the stairs where we were situated before that ghostly, spine tingling voice that could only belong to Aro interrupted him.
“You have to understand us Phil, that when we brought it to you, it was a hundred percent pure, now we’ve come to collect it from you, it’s only ninety percent pure. So somewhere, between last month, and this month ten percent has gone missing.”
I turned back and saw sexy copper-head man frown down at me and then lift an eyebrow questioningly. I just shrugged back at him slightly before twisting my neck, listening to more of the conversation.
“I’m telling you the truth! I don’t have it.” Phil’s firm voice answered.
I heard a low, breezy sigh and Aro’s voice tainted my ears once again.
“Of course you don’t” he crooned; his voice sickeningly sweet. “Just find out who does, By tomorrow. Noon.”
A deathly silence filled the halls before soft footsteps drew closer and I quickly stood and discarded of my cigarette butt which had long since burned out and brushed the ashes off my sweater.
Aro glided into sight with Felix close behind him and he ghosted down the stairs towards us, his eyes flicking to sexy copper-head man behind me, and then flicking back to me, that same eerie smile gracing his features.
“Bella” He nodded a goodbye and drifted past me, with Felix hot on his heels, carrying on their descent down the numerous flights of stairs.
I looked up and saw sexy-copper head man mouthing what looked like my name to himself, his face twisted in concentration when suddenly Phil came into view.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” He asked, his voice high and slightly nervous. His eyes darted between the both of us and narrowed. “And who the hell is he?”
I sucked in a breath and began to speak when a melodic, velvety voice from behind clouded my senses, interrupting me.
“I was just leaving. Bye Bella” My knees went weak when I heard my name slide smoothly off his tongue and I choked out a barely audible goodbye as he brushed past me and up the stairs before disappearing out of sight altogether.
I heaved a deep sigh and dragged myself up the stairs slowly, stepping around Phil without even a glance in his direction and back to the apartment, my eyes fixed on sexy copper-head man’s door the entire time.
Tomorrow I promised myself I would find out his name.
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