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𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃 LATER THAT SAME NIGHT, Sophie was washing the dishes after dinner, her mind clear of drama or any other worries for once in her life, the only sound present was the water spilling onto the bottom of the stainless steel sink like the sound of rain.

It was soothing for her as she kept scrubbing the ceramic plates and flower detailed glasses, her eyes locked onto the night sky through the window right in front of her. The moon was sat just above the tip of the trees, looking more stunning than ever with hundreds of stars surrounding it like glitter. It was a gorgeous sight.

She was always fascinated by the stars, always wondering if they each had their own names or if they ever spoke to each other which would be ridiculous to anybody else, but she actually had dreams of being one of those tiny sparkles in the darkness.

The window was open a tad, so when Bella Swan rode into her driveway in her rusty Chevy Pickup, the loud, horrific sound going for miles, Sophie's eyes were pulled away from the stars and to the girl, who was suddenly stood beside the vehicle with Edward Cullen stood in front of her.

Their voices were muffled from the distance, but she could just barely hear the words "Kiss me." before Edward leaned in, kissing her hesitantly as if it physically pained him to do the romantic gesture. Sophie scrunched her brows, snapping her eyes back down to the now empty sink.

She turned off the faucet and dried off her hands before closing the window, heading out of the kitchen. Sophie knew that Bella was awkward, and so was Edward if she was being honest, so she expected that their relationship as a whole would be as awkward as can be... but not that awkward.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the thoughts including Bella Swan, she headed into the hallway and up the stairs, towards her bedroom where a faint ringing of a cell phone was heard. She headed inside of the room, a smile on her lips as she sat criss—cross on her bed, picking up her cell.

INCOMING CALL...
LAYLA :)

Without hesitation, Sophie pressed accept and placed the device to her ear, loud noises instantly entering her  ears, "Hey! Sorry, my little brother won't stop bugging me. You little shit, stop it!" Layla yelled, but the St. James could tell through the phone that she was just joking, it was impossible for Layla to be angered towards her little brother, everybody adored Kevin.

Sophie couldn't help but laugh until she heard a door close, the muffling on the other line coming to a halt, "Did he chase you into your room?" Her eyebrows pinched, her giggle still faintly heard as she waited for a response.

"Of course he did! Go away, Kev, or I'll tell Mom about that girl at school!" Layla threatened and when a sigh of relief left the blonde's lips, Sophie knew that Kevin had ran off in fear that she would actually go along with the threat, "Okay, I'm finally safe from that gremlin. How's my favourite cousin?"

Sophie laughed again before responding, leaning back against the wall at the end of her bed, "I'm slightly traumatised, just watched Edward painfully kiss Bella like some sort of horror movie." She explained, the memory popping back up in her head causing her to grimace in disgust. If any boy ever kissed her like that, she'd drop him immediately out of kindness towards him. He acted as if he was forced to do it.

"That should be classed as abuse, like, seriously, why are they even dating each other if he hates kissing her?" Layla questioned, shaking her head in disbelief on the other line and Sophie shrugged, picking at the frilling of her light purple duvet.

"How am I to know exactly? Moving on, did you see the face on Angela this morning?" Sophie changed the topic off of the girl she was jealous of, moving onto Layla's crush and once she mentioned Angela, Layla's ears perked up, suddenly acquiring more energy than before.

"What? What are you talking about?" The Newton girl practically screamed through the speakers of her cell, causing a ringing sound to erupt over the line but none of them cared, Layla was too focused on what face Angela was using earlier that day and Sophie was too amused by the excitement coming from Layla.

"She was so flustered when you snuggled her into your side! You don't remember?" Sophie tilted her head, furrowing her brows in confusion. Everybody saw how nervous Angela looked, probably even Edward from three thousand feet away, she was so annoyed that Layla could be so oblivious to it.

"No, how could I? I was nervous too, ya know?" Layla expressed, rolling her eyes in her own annoyance and Sophie let out a light—hearted chuckle, unable to take her best—friend serious.

"Sure. Anyway, why'd you call me?" Sophie changed the topic again only to be shushed through the line, causing a grin to make its way onto her lips.

"Hush! We're on the topic of Angela here!" Layla shouted in irritation, huffing heavily through the phone and Sophie sat up, falling onto her stomach, her fluffy—sock clad feet raised in the air.

"Oh, come on. We always talk about Angie." The brunette joked, hearing another shush down the line, maybe her laugh again.

"No— Soph! Tell me more!" Layla demanded and Sophie sighed, opening her mouth before she snapped it closed, standing up from her bed. She noticed something on her windowsill from the outside and she opened her window, grabbing the piece of paper that was glued down to the brick.

"One second, Layls. I just found a note outside my window." Sophie quickly held the cell phone between her ear and shoulder before closing the window, and she sat back down on her bed, looking down at the note.

Her eyebrows scrunched in mostly confusion, but also complete fear, she was terrified by the words written on the small piece of paper which looked like it was ripped from a notebook.

"What the fuck? What does it say?" Layla rushed out, concern evident in her voice and Sophie went quiet for a moment, staring down at the note between her fingers.

"'I know what you are'..." The brunette quoted, her words trailing off near the end and she quickly stood up, her eyes searching the forest for those wolf—like figures she saw just a few days prior, only to see nothing. It was strange and most definitely terrifying, so she aggressively closed her curtains, the note left stranded on top of her duvet.

"What the actual fu—" Before Layla could finish her sentence, Sophie cut her off with a rushed voice.

"I've gotta go." And with that, Sophie ended the call and picked up the note, rushing out of her room and into her parents' bedroom, showing them what she'd discovered.

The only thing they could think of was that someone was stalking their daughter and it needed to be investigated immediately.

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AN HOUR LATER, Sophie was stood under her father's arm in their living room, cops all around in their surroundings. Chief Swan approached, sheets of paper in his hands and a tight—lipped smile which resembled Bella's on his lips.

"I checked the camera on my cruiser, there was nothing. I'm sorry, Henry." Charlie patted the older man's shoulder out of sympathy and Sophie snuggled into her father's side, disappointed that nobody found any clues as to who it was, "Have you got anything that could help with the case? Have you seen anything, or..." The chief looked towards the younger St. James this time, sending her a reassuring smile and Sophie furrowed her brows in thought.

"Well..." The first thing that came to mind was the shadows watching her at the edge of the woods, but then again, they could be watching Bella instead, she couldn't exactly see their eyes, not that she wanted to. Either way, it's still creepy and needs to be reported, "I've been seeing shadows at the edge of the woods, like wolves, I don't know..."

"Right, well I'm not sure why a wolf would want to send you a threat. Are you sure it wasn't a man?" He watched her face intently, searching for any clues of anything because that was his job, to search for clues but he found nothing. She looked up from her black socks, nodding her head towards Charlie.

He nodded too and slapped the sheets of paper onto his other hand awkwardly before walking away from the two, heading over to the front door to talk to a detective, who was stood outside. Henry turned and wrapped both of his arms around his daughter, embracing her tightly.

"You've been seeing wolves?" Her father muttered quietly, his voice gentler than she'd ever heard it and she shrugged against him, unsure of if it was actually wolves or just her imagination.

"I think so." She replied in a hushed voice and Corrine entered the room, instantly wrapping her arms around her daughter and husband, joining in on the family hug.

"They couldn't find anything at all, there's nothing." Corrine spoke angrily, irritated that the policemen couldn't do their job and find the culprit who had been stalking her daughter.

"It's okay, Mom, I'll be fine. It's not like it was a death threat." Sophie placed her hand on her mother's forearm comfortingly and Corrine huffed, shaking her head with a small smile on her face towards her clearly frightened daughter.

"It might as well have been... Don't worry, baby, we'll find who it is. I promise." Corrine pulled Sophie in for a hug on her own without Henry, who walked off to speak with Charlie again in order to give them some privacy and her mother kissed her head lovingly, embracing her as tightly as possible.

Promise was a strong word and she knew her mother would keep that promise, she was someone Sophie trusted. She trusted Jacob too, so much as to believe him when he promised her he would take her to prom, only to be stood up.

But the thing was... She spotted him hugging Bella outside the venue that night in a suit and that was the moment where she lost all trust in Jacob, deciding to move on.

It was also the moment she broke down into tears in Layla's arms. She would forever hate him for that.

A tear fell down her cheek as she stared at the kitchen wall, still bundled up in her mother's loving arms, in her happy place.

@amxliewrites — 2024