Sleeping Dogs

Chapter 2: Eggshells

Chapter Two:
Walking on Eggshells

Caroline watched herself breath in the floor length mirror in her room. She started her shower as Aunt Sue and Charlie were leaving for dinner with the promise that she wouldn't be too late. They were heading over early to watch the March Madness game that would presumably play through dinner and thankfully pull some attention off of her. Caroline and her father had made brackets but she didn't watch any of the games so far this March. She just wasn't into it.

She stood naked in the mirror, the water slowly drying off of her tanned skin as it dripped down her black hair. She was skinnier than before. Aunt Sue commented on it but she hadn't really looked at herself in a while. Her once strong, thick legs were thin from overexertion and lack of plentiful diet. Her ribs stuck out almost painfully, the bones looked sharp under her skin. Her dad would be disappointed. Healthy eating and exercise were things he instilled in her at a young age and she had let herself go the second he wasn't around to keep her in check.

Her eyes found her face and she smiled despite the tired look in her eyes. Her cheeks no longer sore, she prepared them for a long night of small talk.

She needed to get it together. She had to do it for herself. Above everything she was feeling she was tired. Tired of being sad, tired of the sympathetic smiles sent her way, tired of the eggshells that seemed to surround her. She wasn't breaking anymore. She was healing. She needed to start to act like it.

With new resolve she turned on some music from a happier playlist and picked out an outfit. A pair of tight jeans and a cream colored flowing blouse. She put some mascara on her lashes and smiled at herself in the mirror. A real smile. Cute and casual, she thought to herself, even as her face looked hollow. She would have to find the rest of her makeup in one of her boxes on the floor to try to fill out her face. She gave herself one last once over in the entryway mirror before putting on a pair of sandals and heading out the door.

First impressions were always important, and if she didn't want to be treated like the sad girl with a dead dad, she had to look and play the part. Her dad would have approved of that attitude she thought.

Caroline stopped short when she noticed her borrowed set of wheels in the driveway. The car in front of her cost more money than the house she lived in. Caroline Talltree-Young wasn't a car person by any means, but she knew a nice car when she saw one, and this Mercedes-Benz was a nice car. The slick black looked like it at been recently washed, and it was almost as clean as the interior. The inside was pristine, almost new. She took a deep breath. It smelled new. She knew the Cullens were loaded, so who was to say this was Bella's only car.

Her and her father weren't impoverished by any means, but this was a luxury she didn't think she could afford again. And she surely wasn't about to waste it.

The twenty minute drive to La Push took Caroline almost forty-five as she deviated from the main road and took any dirt side road the car allowed her. She would need to wash it before she returned it to Bella. A playlist consisting of rock music blasted through the speakers and by the time she finally pulled up to her half-sister's house it had already gone through the entire list once. She parked on the street behind Charlie's car. Aunt Sue said it was going to be a big dinner but the only cars were Bella's, Charlie's and one in the driveway.

As she shut the door, two huge shirtless Quileute men came out of the house. The first she didn't recognize but his attention wasn't on her. He glared at her car - Bella's car, she corrected herself - and practically bristled. She couldn't give too much thought to it because Seth Clearwater barreled over to her and wrapped her into a tight bear up.