RESTART! NEW STORY LINE, IF ANY OF YOU ARE FOLLOWING ME AS AN AUTHOR, DARLIN' HAS BEEN TRAAASSSHED.

Shes basically around the outskirts of Texas. Think of something like Nacogdoches County for the housing and all, but imaginary because I don't know enough about the community to pull it into this!

Also just in case, for any southerners reading this story I'm actually from Savannah but the character is from NY. If there's any slurs that offend people, I am so sorry. (I don't think there's going to be anything past the usual stereotypes of south vs north)

I have been moving boxes from the truck to my new home for several hours now, it was going to take a little longer than I thought since I was by myself. My bad… I didn't mind it so much, I was away from her. She'd been controlling, manipulative, deceptive for ages. I never really had it dawn on me until a few months ago, right after Christmas.

We'd sat down to dinner after the day's events and I realized she had been drinking a ridiculous amount. I'd told her earlier to slow down on it, my grandparents were still here after all and she'd promptly gone out and explained to everyone how we wouldn't be having dinner now because I'd hurt her feelings. Of course this automatically turned into another "why would you do that to your mother?" fest and I snapped.

I just couldn't do it anymore. She'd played with everything in my life. I was recently engaged to a guy only because she liked him. Then when she stopped liking him so much I was the bad guy, she'd start fights with him, pick at me after an argument, give me those casual comments about how I'd be doing so much better like my sister if I'd just followed her advice.

I was done. Told my father goodbye, he patted me on the back and helped me pack off to Texas. I'd be going to university here at some point but currently I was taking a gap year after I'd graduated from high school. I needed to find Bran again. Not this thing she put in place.

"Do you want some help with those?" I cringed at the sound of a female voice sounded from next to me. I dropped the box I'd been carrying onto my foot and cringed as the pain set in. Whatever was in this box, it was heavy as hell. I looked over at the girl and appraised her. She was the same height as me, blond-haired, pale and red eyed. Wait a god damn second, I peered closer at her. Nope those are definitely red...well that's unnerving. Maybe she has some sort of genetic mutation.

"Oh! Bless your heart hun, I am so sorry!" she had some kind of southern accent and sounded apologetic as she held a hand over her mouth. The 'sorry' seemed to have an extra letter coming out as a, 'sorrey', I guessed it was from whatever southern accent she had. It was odd to hear as I came from up north, however I'd never picked up the accent.

I waved her off as I leaned down to pick the box back up. My hands got dusty and dirty as I touched the bottom of the box. It had been relatively cloudy and cool out here. So far it was nice.

"Um..do you live next door?" I asked as I looked between her and the other two men standing on the back porch. They were watching us, the one with a grin waved while the other seemed to have a permanent frown on his face. I'd heard of southern hospitality from the people and so far it seemed that only two out of the three had it.

"Oh no, Hun. My ma-husband and I are just visitin' your next door neighbor, over yonder." she replied pleasantly after stopping herself from whatever she was going to say and motioned to the men behind her. Ma...what was 'ma'? I frowned as I tried to balance the box on one hip to dust off my hand and shake hers as a hello. It was also at this time that Riley came bounding out from the house. He was an Ainu and he was going to be one soon. This meant he was getting pretty big.

My father insisted I take a 'guard dog' to protect me as I'd be living alone and 'there could be dangerous wild animals in the back forties'. We'd wound up going through training, obedience and several other dog schools. He was a little bit over protective and a lot attached to me as a father. The dog wound up sharing the same quality of attachment with me as well. I didn't mind bringing him and in all honesty I was just terrified the Texas heat would hurt him.

"Bran." I said calmly, ignoring the dog as he pranced around me and held out my hand.

"Oh, aren't you precious. You're from up north, aren't cha?" she asked with a grin. She was staring at my extended hand as it hung loosely from my wrist. I almost blushed at the fact I'd forgotten everything was a little different down here and tried to remember what he said they did.

"Yeaah. New York." I said with an awkward laugh as I switched the box to both hands now, done trying to shake hers. Wow that was a fuck-up.

"Oh that's nice! Hang on one second, sweetheart." Charlotte was speaking quickly as she eyed the box I was balancing in my hands. She turned back around and I looked up at the two guys. The friendly one was nodding his head while the other was frowning even harder, if that's possible. I nickered at Riley, it meant go back inside as I then pointed to the door. He looked a little bothered but he trotted inside anyways, white tail still wagging.

"PETE! GET YOUR BUTTS ON OVER HERE." Charlotte yelled out and I wasn't sure how they heard her to be honest. They seemed like they were miles away and she didn't even yell that loud. Pete waved her off, still talking to the other one as they started to walk down the stairs. He looked like he was trying to calm the other one down or talk him out of something.

"They'll help you with the boxes, sweetheart." she explained with a smile when I furrowed my brow. What the hell? Maybe I didn't want these people in my house? Had I even invited her or her company in?

Irritation built up and I took in a deep breath and released it. It smelled muggy and a little dusty. OK. I can do this. Just get them in and then get them out, it'd take less time for me to unpack. Right? Right. I plastered a smile on my face as they got closer, frowny was still frowning but Pete was waving at me. I nodded my head at him, still wearing the smile I'd practiced over the years.

"Aren't you just cute as a button? I'm Peter. This here is Jasper Whitlock, we'll be handling your boxes from now on." He winked at me as he spouted all of this in what seemed like a single breath. He was chatty too. Fuckin' a.

He motioned to Jasper, who was forever going to be known as frowny in my head. All three had bright red eyes. I forced myself to not look away as I stared into Jasper's eyes. I was expecting a smile or a head nod or anything and he wasn't giving me a damn thing. Just staring blankly at me. Fuck this guy and his stupid scary ass eyes.

As I handed the box to Peter I watched Jasper out of the corner of my eye. He was still doing the staring thing as he grabbed two boxes and still hadn't said a word. I'd have to live next to this asshole. Yum.

I was cutting up cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes. Riley was staring up at me while Jasper, Peter, and Charlotte were all sitting around the table chatting. If they asked me a question I'd answer but outside of this I was enjoying being quiet. I was in my own thoughts mostly.

"Ah!" I gasped as I sliced through my middle finger tip. It had been holding a tomato along with my thumb, whoops. I heard a sudden squeaking of chairs and then total silence. I wasn't sure why they stopped talking but I ignored it. I turned to go to the sink when I looked up to see Jasper, I jumped a little. How'd he get over here so fast and why were all of them so quiet? What the hell? Was I going deaf? Questions kept coming and coming to me, they wouldn't stop but I was trying to focus on my bleeding finger. Hopefully it wasn't too deep.

"Uhm..I need to the sink." I said awkwardly as I looked at him. He looked concerned and he didn't move so I looked back at the other two for help. They were none. Their eyes were wide open and they looked terrified. I looked back at Mr frowny, he was still watching me. What the fuck was this guy's problem? And what was theirs? WHY ARE THEY IN MY HOUSE? Slowly I felt the confusion, panic, general feeling of awkward ebb away to calm. It was nice for a change. I was okay, I could do this.

"You cut your finger." He said softly and I looked down at it then back at him. I nodded my head as a yes, very slowly. Maybe he wasn't entirely sound mentally. This would account for a lot of the frowns and the general robotic behavior and movement. His brow was furrowed and he looked concerned still as he stared down at my thumb. Like its the first thing he said to me ever, and it's 'Oh look your fingers cut.'

"Yeah. I did." I responded after a few seconds of him staring at me and me staring back. What a frickin' weirdo. When we dealt with these types in NY you'd hit them and run like hell. Though you usually found them in an alley, not your kitchen. He nodded to me after a while and moved out of my way. I washed the finger and bandaged it with a napkin. As I turned back around I caught Peter and Charlotte grinning at each other while Jasper just looked annoyed. There was totally something I was missing here, like hugely.

"So salads...on I guess." I shrugged as I sat down the salad bowl, minus any bloody tomatoes. I couldn't think of a better way to say the food was on the table and I mean it's salad. It was the simplest food ever, was it even really a food? Not really but I was going to roll with it. We'd started eating well I had, they just kinda picked at it for a little while. Good job, Bran. You fucked up a salad. How do you even do that? Was that possible? Obviously yes. It was very much possible.

"So Bran..." Peter started out slowly, dragging my attention away from the inner monologue I had going on.

"Yes?" I asked as I put down the fork and looked at him fully. I was going to have to do the salad over again after they left, it was a slight OCD habit of mine. I'd have to let go of it some day but today was so not that day.

"Any special beliefs in the supernatural?" he asked sounding slow again and I tilted my head out of confusion. I mean I had some silly stuff like ghosts and tossing salt over my shoulder but those weren't really things I lived my life by...so I just stared at him for a second.

"Any category in specific?" I asked as I raised a brow at him. I was getting a little bit annoyed again. I looked away from Peter to look around the table, sir frowns-a-lot was frowning still while Charlotte just looked delighted. Did she ever not smile? It was kinda creepy when you think about it, smiling all the time...

"Like vampires as an example." he said casually and I stared at him for a second. Did he just ask if I believed in vampires? That was almost the stupidest question I think I've ever heard. Dracula would never survive in the 21st century. I mean come on, men walking around in cloaks talking about blood and hypnotizing people would get shot today. Or at the very least, institutionalized.

"Do I believe in vampires?" I asked for clarification with a raised brow and looked at everyone. They were watching me expectantly. Oh my god these people were serious. Of course I just had to be living next door to nutcases. Why me? Why did I have to pick the one house next to a guy who believed in vampires? He nodded, still staring at me. I looked around feeling the awkward atmosphere set back in. They all were staring at me. It's like they were going to ask me to join some kind of secret cult for vampire lovers if I said yes.

"Uhm..." I said awkwardly and cleared my throat as I thought of an answer that wouldn't be rude to these people.

"Peter." Jasper finally spoke and it didn't sound dazed or anything, it was a commanding voice. He was literally silencing Peter and glaring at him. It raised all the hackles I had gained from running away from a mother who did exactly that. So I glared at him and his stupid commanding voice.

"I'm sorry, Peter, but I don't." I turned to Peter and answered him sweetly, even giving him a smile. His look of acceptance had turned into a smirk and I ignored it despite the hairs it raised on the back of my neck. There was either something really off with all of them or I was having a weird day.

"Interesting." he replied and smirked down at his bowl. I was so having a weird day and there was definitely something weird with these people.

This is going to turn to a darker, more possessive Jasper. He'll be both soft and hard at certain parts but keep in mind shes not Alice and she never will be. Shes going to be constantly pushing him back when he pushes her, hey she has issues alright? I'll try to keep him in line with the books but this is a different sort of mates idea than the original twilight. Its more blood based. (Its also going to be explained more and why hes here and not with the Cullens, they're all alive and well.)