Chapter One

Take Me Away To Better Days

"The pilot has now turned on the seatbelt sign. We are beginning to descend, for a landing. We would like to thank for flying with us, and we hope you enjoyed your flight."

I stretched my dark skinned arms over my head and sighed. I felt like I had been on that plane for days. I was on a plane that was flying from Los Angeles, California, to Port Angeles.

Unfortunately for me, Port Angeles wasn't my final destination. I was headed to La Push, which was a small Indian reservation outside of Forks, Washington. Don't worry if you don't know where Forks is, I'd lived in La Push for the first thirteen years of my life, and I still wasn't quite sure where Forks was exactly.

I noticed everyone around me begin to load up their things and exit the plane, so I followed their suit, and stood up. As I walked through the never-ending terminal, I wondered how different things would be in La Push. I mean, in all fairness, I hadn't stepped foot there in five years, ever since my parents died.

I stood at the exit of the terminal and quickly scanned the tiny airport, looking for my older brother. But, I probably wouldn't have realized it was him even if he had been standing right in front of me, wearing a huge sign.

"Taylor!"

I turned and saw a man who I could only assume was my brother, waving at me.

I smiled and made way over to him.

"Tay! It's good to see you again," he replied, as he gathered me in an awkward one armed hug.

"Hey Sam," I smiled.

He took a step back and surveyed, "god, you're short."

I playfully punched him, "Geez, Sam, way to hit me where it hurts." Okay, I will admit, I am a little bit on the short side, standing at about 4'9", but really, there's no need for everyone to constantly be pointing it out to me. I realize I'm short people, thank you.

"Come on," Sam chuckled, "let's go get your luggage and get out of here."

I re-adjusted my duffle bag on my shoulder, and followed my older brother to the luggage belt.

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An hour later, I was in Sam's car and he and I were making our way through La Push. I had forgotten how small and isolated it was here. But it was also peaceful and serene. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a trail that I knew lead to Billy Black's house. He had been a good friend of my dad's and as far as I knew, was the Quileute tribe "leader". I knew that Sam had a deep respect for Billy. My brother was totally into all the tribe beliefs and traditions, something that I am proud to say, I'm not totally convinced of, but I knew to keep my mouth shut around Sam. He could be totally anal about these things.

We pulled up in front of a small cottage, and Sam turned of the ignition.

"Try not to make too much noise," Sam added as we pulled my luggage from the trunk of his car, "Emily is probably asleep."

I was assuming that Emily was his girlfriend that I had heard so much about.

"You're room is up the stairs and at the end of the hall," Sam whispered as we entered the tiny cottage.

I made my way carefully up the stairs and down the hall to an open door. Sam laid my suitcases at the foot of the double bed and rubbed his hands together.

"Okay, well, I'll let you get some sleep. I'm sure you're dead tired," Sam said as he turned to leave.

"Hey Sam?"

He stopped and turned back to me.

"Yeah, Tay?"

I smiled, "thanks. For letting me stay here. And letting me come back."

He gave me a warm smiled, "It's no problem. I'm glad you're back, Tay. I really missed you."

He left the room, closing the door behind him.

"I missed you too," I whispered to the silence.

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I awoke the next day to the morning sun beaming down on my face, and I was pleasantly surprised. Isn't it always supposed to rain here? I thought.

I decided to take advantage of the nice weather, and made the decision to go for a run. I pulled myself out of bed, grabbed some clothes from my suit case, and made my way to the bathroom.

I quickly changed into a pair of grey and pink yoga pants, and a pink sports bra. I gathered my black hair into a low ponytail, then made my way downstairs. I looked in and saw Sam sitting on the couch, watching the highlights from last nights ball game.

"Hey," I said, poking my head in, "I'm gunna go for a run, okay?"

"Yeah sure," Sam nodded, "just be careful."

Although it had been years since I had been in La Push, all the roads and trails were familiar to me. I picked up the pace a little bit as I turned down a trail that I knew led to First Beach. On the way, I passed a group of boys that were getting ready to go cliff diving. I kept my eyes low as I passed, but I could've sworn I heard one of the boys say, "Hey Jake, isn't that Taylor Uley?"

I shook my head as another boy replied, "Sam's Taylor? No way, man, I haven't seen her around here in about five years."

I ran for about two more miles before I doubled back to Sam's.

I walked through the front door, panting and sweating. I poured myself a glass of water and heard a tender voice say, "Taylor, is that you?"

"Um, yeah," I answered.

My eyes went to the kitchen door and I saw a young woman, who I knew to be Emily, standing there.

"I'm sorry I missed you last night," she apologized.

"It's fine," I answered, "my flight got in really late."

We both kind of stood there awkwardly until I said, "I would hug you but I'm kind of all sweaty and gross from my run."

She smiled warmly, "don't worry about that dear," and she embraced me in a warm hug.

"Well, I should probably go and take a shower," I said.

I left the kitchen and headed upstairs into my room. I hadn't really had a chance to get a good look at it the night before. It was fairly big. The walls were painted brown and teal, and the floor was hardwood. In the farthest corner was my double bed, which I dubbed the most comfortable bed in the world. Across from that was a desk and next to that was a dresser. It was pretty basic furnishings but it gave the room a simple look, and I had fallen in love with it.

Before getting in the shower, I took all my clothes and belongings out of my suitcases and put them away in the dresser and closet. I had everything put away neat and tidy and I reached for the last thing in my suitcase. It was a picture of me, my parents, and Sam, during our last summer in La Push all together. That summer, my parents had died in an awful car accident and being unable to deal with it, I left, to attend a private school in California. I picked up the photo, gingerly, and place it with care onto my desk. I glanced at the alarm clock next to the photo. 11.46. I sighed and went into my bathroom to take a shower.

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I wiped the steam off of the bathroom mirror and let my long black hair down from the towel it was in. I shook out my hair and sighed. Out of habit, I took a step back from the mirror and sized myself up, scrutinizing every inch of body, in a way that I knew wasn't healthy. Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't fat by any means. In fact, my best friend back in California, Gavin, had always referred to me as being nothing more then skin over bones, but that didn't stop me from having insecurities, like any teenage girl I guess. It wasn't exactly something that I liked to talk about but during my two year relationship with this guy Nick, I had been dealing with a serious case of anorexia. I would be lying if I said that I was completely cured, I still had my moments where it took every ounce of my will power to put something in my mouth or to cut back on the exercising, but I was doing much better. All things considered.

No.

I wasn't going to think about that.

It was the whole reason that I had moved from LA in the first place. The whole reason that I was stuck in this miserable town of La Push.

But no one here needed to know.

Unlike my so called friends back in California, the people of La Push didn't need to know every aspect of my pathetic, feeble excuse for a life.

My best friend, Lily, always used to say that every girl was entitled to at least one secret. And I knew that in my case, if I had any say in the matter, my secrets were going to stay secrets.