Unconditional

Prologue - If the Moon Fell Down Tonight

Everytime I see your smile
It makes my heart beat fast
And though it's much too soon to tell
I'm hoping this will last

'Cause I just always wanna have you right here by my side
The future's near but never certain
At least stay here for just tonight

I musta done something right
To deserve you in my life
I musta done something right
Along the way

I just can't get you off my mind
And why would I even try?
Cuz even when I close my eyes
I dream about you all the time

If the Moon Fell Down Tonight ~ Chase Coy

***

Bella Swan, age 15

Not allowing the tears to flow down my cheeks, I ran out of the house and down the road towards the only place I wanted to be - towards the only people that could help me when I was like this. There was nothing left for me in the house I was running from; I ceased calling it home when I was about ten.

My life was not what everybody else thought it was. People shot me odd looks as I ran through the small town of Forks where everybody knew everybody else's business, but I ignored them. Though my mother hid it well, my father, Charlie Swan, was an alcoholic, and he spent his life taking out his anger on me. Verbally. I wasn't going to pretend for one second that he ever harmed me physically, but the things he'd said to me earlier that evening hurt more than I could possibly express. Did my mother come to my defence? No. Renee was more worried about her own near-divorce issues with my father.

I splashed through the muddy puddles on the sidewalks, the dirty water wetting the stiff material of my jeans as I ran. I needed to get as far away from my parents as possible, and I needed to pretend, for just a few hours, that anger and shouting wasn't awaiting me the moment I walked back through the door.

As I reached the turning to the Cullens' house, I let out a sigh of relief. The only people in the entire world that knew of what went on behind closed doors in my house were Alice and Esme Cullen - my best friend and my best friend's mother, who had been more of a mother to me than my own ever had. Alice's twin brother, Edward, and her father, Carlisle, remained ignorant to what my life was truly like, but I was happy with it that way. Regardless, they both treated me with enough respect and kindness.

More than my parents did, at any rate.

Chest heaving, I slowed down, raced up the steps of the porch and knocked loudly on the brass door-knocker, waiting for somebody to let me in. I was around here enough that I had my own set of keys to the house, but I had left them in Alice's bedroom the last time I was there.

After no more than two minutes, the front door to the large Cullen house was opened, and the face of Edward Cullen was revealed. We weren't friends by any means, but we got on well enough and knew each other relatively well merely because I spent half of my life at the Cullens' house.

"Bella." Edward dropped me a smile, which had me blushing slightly. My crush on Edward Cullen had been slow in developing, but had hit me full-force a month or two ago. Not that I wanted anything between us. I wasn't comfortable for that.

"Are Esme and Alice home?" I asked, my voice wavering dangerously as I tried to swallow the knot at the back of my throat.

"No - sorry. It's just me. Anything in particular you wanted?"

Yes! But I can't tell you. I don't want to tell you. You're not the person I need, Edward. While you're exceedingly kind-hearted, it's not you that I need now.

Instead, I said: "Yes, but it doesn't matter." I gulped slightly, trying to control myself. "Can I get my keys? I left them in Alice's room."

"Of course."

Edward held the door open for me, and I walked through the house, wandering upstairs towards Alice's bedroom. I pushed open the door to her room and found my keys lying on her desk, next to a scattering of papers and pencils. Unbidden, I felt a single tear spill over my eyes and roll down my cheek. I wiped it away with impatience, but couldn't seem to stop the tears falling. God, what was wrong with me? It wasn't like my father didn't say hurtful, cruel things all the time, but the names he'd called me that night...

I shuddered and pushed the thoughts out of my mind - or tried to. I clutched my keys in one hand, and then realised that, with Alice and Esme out, I had no excuse to stay here. I had to go back home. Were it the summer, I'd have wandered around outside for a few hours, but it was the middle of winter and I hadn't taken a coat out with me.

Not paying attention to where I was going as I moved downstairs, I ended up bashing into Edward. I mumbled out an apology as he smiled slightly, and told him that I was going. As I moved away, towards the front door, I felt Edward's fingers wrap around my wrist, holding me still.

"Is everything ok?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Fine. Thanks."

Edward gave me a look that told me he didn't buy my 'I'm fine' act at all, but he said nothing more regarding the subject. "You can stay here and wait for my sister, you know. It's not like you're a stranger in this house."

I bit my lip, which was somewhat sore from where it had split two days previously. My father hadn't slapped me often by any means - only three times I could remember in my life - but that one had hurt. He and my mother had been shouting and screaming at each other as usual, and my eavesdropping hadn't been appreciated.

"When are they coming back?" I asked at last.

"No idea. Before dinner, I think. I won't bother you."

"Right. I think- I'll be in Alice's bedroom. Thanks."

Edward gave me a long look. "Ok."

I lowered my eyes to the floor and took the steps back upstairs two at a time, incredibly conscious of Edward's eyes on my back as I moved. Edward was probably a foot taller than me, although we were the same age, and - especially since I realised that I was nursing a crush on him - that made me even more easily-embarrassed around him.

I sat down on the fluffy cream rug in the middle of Alice's room, and let out a quiet groan. I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my head on them, thinking over all that my father had called me that afternoon. I wondered if things would ever change.