After a long flight, Bella landed in Richmond, where Caroline was waiting to pick her up. She walked into the airport and immediately went to baggage claim to get her bags. Then, she looked around for her cousin.

After a few minutes, she saw a blonde-haired girl whom she recognized as her cousin, with a sign that had her name on it, and she walked over to her. "Hey, Care."

The blonde squealed happily, "Isa!" then pulled the brunette into a hug.

Bella hugged her back, albeit a little awkwardly, and then the two headed out to Caroline's car. The blonde looks at Bella as soon as they are in the car. "All right, Isa, spill what happened? Uncle Charlie explained a little, but I want all the details from you."

Bella sighed, "Okay, so as you know, I went to live with my dad about eight months ago now, and I met a boy on my first day of school, and I was immediately drawn to him, which now that I'm thinking about it was a little strange, but I was all about Edward from the moment we met, which again now I'm seeing was a little weird." and she proceeded to tell her everything excluding the supernatural parts of the story though.

"damn, that sounds toxic as hell Isa," Caroline said after she had finished her story.

"I'm starting to see that, but at the time, I was just so enamored by him that I missed all the signs."

Caroline squeezed her arm. "he probably wanted you to be blind to all of it so that it was easier for him to manipulate you to be exactly the way he wanted."

Bella sighed, "Yeah, probably, but I still don't understand how he drew me in so quickly like I was still not completely over my ex, who was my first love, so how did this complete stranger at the time, make me just forget about that and be all about him?"

"that is very weird." Caroline furrowed her brow.

Bella nodded, "Yeah, and the longer that I'm away from him, the more red flags I'm noticing, and I don't like the person that he was turning me into." 

Caroline smiled at her cousin, "Well then, Isa, we'll get you back to being you in no time." 

Bella smiled back at her, and that was when she knew that her coming to Mystic Falls really was a good idea; she thought that maybe if she'd had someone like Caroline in Forks, then she might not have gotten sucked into Edwards's bullshit. 

***

Back in Mystic Falls, a dark-haired, brown-eyed boy sat next to his sister. "I don't see why you drag me to school every day, Bex."

The blonde beside him rolled her eyes, "Because you're the only one not too old to experience this with me, Rai, and I don't want to do it alone."

They are cut off by Elena and Bonnie walking in, and the twins notice that the bubbly blonde who usually is with them is missing. "Do you know where Caroline is?"

Bonnie gave her a look, "she literally told us this morning that she had to pick her cousin up from the airport and wouldn't be here today."

Elena, who hadn't been paying attention to what Caroline had said while they were on the phone that morning, waved it off, "Oh."

Bonnie gave the girl a weird look but said nothing about it for now. 

Rai drowned the conversation as his mind drifted back to almost two years ago now, he hadn't wanted to leave her but it was to protect her and he knew that he did the right thing no matter how much it hurt him.

Rebekah noticed the sad far away look in his eyes, and knew exactly what he was thinking he was her twin after all, she nudged him, "you did what you thought was the right thing."

"I know, but everything just feels empty being away from her. She was just this pure, innocent soul; she made me want to be better without even knowing it, and I couldn't drag her down and have her get hurt because of my past."

Rebekah nodded. Although she had never experienced that feeling herself, she could sometimes sense her twin's emotions, so she understood a little bit about it. "I know, Rai. Maybe you could at least check on her or something without her seeing you."

He shook his head, immediately denying that."No, because I wouldn't be able to walk away from her again, even if she didn't know I was there. I don't know how I did it the first time, but I couldn't do it again. I know I couldn't."

"Maybe it's time to stop torturing yourself and let yourself be happy because you can protect her if you need to." 

He shook his head, "but what if I can't? What if something happens and I'm not there and can't protect her?"  

Rebekah sighed, "Rai, you can't let these what-ifs ruin your chance at being happy." 

Rai just shook his head, "I'd rather be miserable than let anything happen to her." He couldn't risk it; he'd rather have her hate him for breaking her heart than have someone hurt to get to him. 

Rebekah just shook her head at her twin. He was too stubborn for his own good sometimes, and she thought that right now was one of those times. But she knew that getting him to change his mind was a waste of breath because he wouldn't listen to her about it. 

***

Caroline had stopped at a mall on their way back to Mystic Falls, and they went shopping for just a few things because, truthfully, Bella liked going shopping when she got to pick out her own clothes. Unlike when Alice would force her to go and then pick out a bunch of clothes that Bella hated, but Edward would talk her into wearing them. 

But with Caroline, she knew that the blonde would let her choose her own outfits and give her opinion on how they looked but wouldn't judge if it was a style that she didn't like. 

They spent at least an hour there before Caroline decided that they had enough stuff for now and that once Bella got settled more, they'd go shopping again for more, and they were on the road again. Two hours later, they arrived in Mystic Falls. 

Caroline brought Bella to her house, where she'd be staying while she was in Mystic Falls. "Mom has already registered you at school. You start tomorrow, and I'll be driving you there and showing you around. " 

Bella smiled, "Thanks, Care." 

"Of course, I volunteered to be your tour guide after all." After that, Caroline showed Bella to her room and helped her get unpacked. It took the two of them about an hour to get everything unpacked and put away. 

Caroline dropped down on the bed. "God, I'm starving.... we should go to the grill and get some food." 

Bella laughed, like genuinely laughed, for the first time in a while. "The Grill?" 

Caroline nodded, "Yeah, it's a restaurant/bar in town, and basically where we all hang out when we have nothing better to do... but they have really good food, too, so that's a plus." 

"Okay then, let me just get changed and freshen up a bit from the long flight and trip back here." 

"Deal, meet me downstairs in 15 minutes." 

Bella nodded and headed into the bathroom that was attached to her new room. She didn't take a shower, but she freshened up and did everything like that, and then she changed into one of the outfits that she had at the mall earlier.  It was much more her style than anything that she had left in her closet back in Forks, thanks to Alice, who replaced her entire closet one day. She also brushed out her hair and restyled it to more to go with what she was wearing.

She walked down the stairs 15 minutes later as promised, and Caroline smiled at her, "Oooh, look at you looking all cute and shit." 

Bella laughed at her cousin, "Thanks, Care. So are we going? Because I could definitely go for some food right about now." 

Caroline laughed, and they headed out to her car, "All right then, let's go." 

note: 

Hey guys, so we are slowly getting our groove back, but I am loving writing this book so much :D  but in the next chapter, we get Rai and Bella seeing each other for the first time since they broke up. Oop that's going to be fun to write XD. 

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Are there any things you want to see happen? Maybe a certain paring you want to see because I am open to hearing some ideas :) So let me know what you guys want to see, and I might just include it ;)