[TRIGGER WARNING - PARENTAL ABUSE AND EATING DISORDER DISCUSSED - READ AT YOUR OWN RISK]

Camden hung upside down on Isabella Swan's double bed with her frizzy curls touching the hardwood floor. Her doe eyes seek out the brunette's slouched figure as she sighs in irritation, waiting for the other girl's attention.

Her eyes glance over the upside down room in boredom, taking in the lime coloured walls and overcrowded shelves. A relatively new stereo covered with scratch marks and broken wires lay under a torn shirt in the brunette's trash bin.

Camden raises her eyebrow in curiosity before focussing on the desk where a mountain of books - both for entertainment and educational purposes - and countless sheets of paper lie in a messy pile.

"Have you ever watched five minute organisation hack videos on youtube? I think it could really help you out," Camden's voice is rough and amused as she watches Bella's back tense and her right hand twitch over the computer mouse before Camden was ignored once more.

A month ago, Camden never would have thought she'd be in lying on Isabella Swan's purple sheets for hours on end. She never would've known that beneath the love struck and depressed shell of a girl, lived a humorous and kind hearted soul who had quickly become Camden's best friend.

Their friendship consisted of the two girls either sitting in silence doing their own projects or completing chores around the Swan residence. Their friendship wasn't the most thrilling to the outside eye but it brought light to both girls' hearts and it wouldn't have been possible without the meddling of Sheriff Swan.

It began with Camden's aunt referring Dr Cheng as a helpful and relatively affordable therapist for Bella when Charlie had begun to express his concern to her at the station. Despite her aunt being Charlie's deputy, Camden only associated the man as her saviour from her mother's abuse.

Perhaps this was why when Charlie approached her a month prior with the request that she befriend his daughter, she agreed. Camden wasn't sure if it was because she felt like she owed the Sheriff for his act of kindness or whether it was because she felt a genuine interest in the heartbroken girl.

Despite agreeing with Charlie to befriend his daughter, Camden had been hesitant because she knew how reluctant she would be to have a friend assigned to her by her parent. She had been when her aunt had assigned Jessica Stanley as her personal buddy during her hospital stay and has despised the bubbly girl ever since.

Camden was thinking of how she could politely inform the Sheriff how she couldn't go through with his request when she saw the scared Swan girl shaking in the therapy building's waiting room. Without hesitating, the older girl made her way over the spare seat beside her and just offered a box of tissues.

Bella had been embarrassed and turned away as she cleaned up the remains of her anxiety attack with a handful of tissues. While she was cleaning herself up to her own liking, Camden had taken the time settle in beside her and think of what to say.

Camden had never given much thought to Bella's arrival to Forks and aside from the friendly smiles exchanged in the classes, the two girls never crossed paths. She had rattled her brains for a topic that could interest the both of them or even a simple greeting but instead, Camden had confessed Charlie's proposition to her.

Bella had froze on the armchair before she seemed to pull herself together in a blink and faced Camden with a forced smile and red eyes.

"I don't need Charlie assigning me a babysitter, I'm fine. I'm already attending therapy, what more could he want?" Had been her outburst and Camden felt compassion for the girl.

She remembered what it was like to first begin therapy and wondering why her aunt still pried in her life, why she had wanted Camden to explain every detail of her day's events. It took her an embarrassingly long time to realise that it was because she cared and she was worried about her.

"I'm not here to babysit you, Isabella. I'm here if you need a friend, I'm well aware that you are capable of choosing one yourself but your dad thought you might benefit talking with someone your own age instead of him. I'm not here to pry in your life but I wouldn't mind a friend - I'm in short supply of those these days," Camden had responded calmly before smiling at the girl's suspicious expression.

The Swan girl hadn't contacted her for a week after their first encounter before they ran into each other in the waiting room once more. This time, Camden was the one with red eyes and puffy cheeks, her steps shaky as she left Dr Cheng's office. Bella had been flicking through the worn pages of Wuthering Heights when she saw the other girl's appearance and offered a tissue.

Their friendship began that day with Bella offering Camden company as she sobbed into the sleeves of her sweater and it flourished as she invited Camden over to her house the following day. Some days, Bella would sit silently at her computer, typing furiously on the chunky keyboard while Camden would complete her homework on the bed.

While on other days, Camden would lend Bella a hand with the chores or cooking dinner for the father and daughter. It started off awkward and was filled with uncomfortable silences but as the two girls grew comfortable with each other's presence, their hang outs became more frequent.

Camden felt confident in her own skin during her visits to the Swan house and she liked that feeling. She wanted Bella to feel confident too and she was determined to help Bella feel comfortable with the idea of leaving the house for nonessential outings.

Camden squints at the upside down computer screen in confusion, unable to see what the younger girl was doing. Perhaps if she wore glasses, then her vision wouldn't be so blurry all the time but Camden didn't know if she was ready to see herself clearly just yet. The thought pulls her chapped lips into a frown, eyes shutting momentarily in her vulnerable state.

"Cam?" Bella's soft voice echoes in Camden's ears pulling her out of her dark thoughts like a siren in a sea of fog. "Are you okay?"

"I wouldn't suit glasses, Bells."

Camden opens her eyes as the typing of the keyboard comes to a stop. Bella is staring over her shoulder at her with bewildered eyes from the desk chair. Camden's face is pinched into a tight expression and she grips the quilt cover in her hands tightly. "I like the way you are."

Camden feels her cheeks warm and she isn't sure if its because of Bella's words or because she's spent too much time with the blood rushing to her head.

She sits up with her back to the other girl and swings her legs around with a hearty huff. Camden stills, her vision spinning as the blood rushes back down her veins, leaving her skull.

"What are you doing, anyway?" Camden questions, her eyes peering over Bella's shoulder at the computer screen to see the email icon. "Emailing your mum?"

"Uh, Alice actually... I thought I'd let her know about how Jake is sick," Bella drawled while hurriedly typing on the computer.

"Okay, first of all, Jacob Black may have said he had mono but come on, who would kiss him? He's ghosting you Bells," Camden murmurs gently, rising from the bed and crossing the room to stand behind her seated form. "Secondly, how many have you sent her? They don't even look like they've been delivered. Are you sure you have the right address?"

Camden stretches her back and straightens her shirt from where it had tucked itself under the wire of her bra. She blows a curly strand of brown hair out from her eye sight and leans against the back of Bella's chair, finger tips brushing the girl's shoulders.

"I have the right address! The connection is just...bad or something. But maybe Jake is ignoring me, I have been clingy lately," Bella responds thoughtfully, leaning back against Camden's hands. "Wanna help take my mind off it all?"

"What did you have in mind?" Camden asks, her voice a sly whisper in Bella's ear.

Bella giggles and stands up from the chair, grabbing Camden's hand and tugging her out of the room with her. "An early lunch? I think Charlie's at the station so it'll just be us two. You won't have to be under his detective eye while you eat for once."

Camden hums an affirmative as she flicks the light switch off and happily follows the younger girl down the wooden stair case. She walks with purposefully light footsteps in an attempt to not destroy the peaceful atmosphere with her elephant-like stomps.

They enter the kitchen and Camden smiles wistfully at the chipped, yellow cabinet doors that conflict with the rest of the kitchen scheme and only seem to bring on a misty eyed look from the Sheriff himself.

"Why is that?" Bella's casual question lingers in the air for a moment before both girls are studying the other.

Camden assumes Bella is analysing her reaction to the question - watching Camden's tense shoulders and tightened jaw with a thoughtful expression. Bella is much like her father in her silent observations - much more than the Swan girl would care to admit.

Camden wonders if she should tell Bella the reason. Part of her wanted to keep her friend in the dark as to avoid the pity and concern that soon would follow whenever clothes or food is involved. She had enough friendships that went south once she shared her secret and with a small town like Forks, Camden was shocked Bella hadn't heard about her eating disorder.

While the other part of Camden believed Bella was a worthy confident and she knew the younger girl was already too mature for her age and would handle the secret with the utmost respect and grace. This part of Camden won and she sat herself at the kitchen table.

"When I was younger, I developed an eating disorder," Camden began, her voice straining with grief and eyes furrowed as Bella follows her to the table curiously. "Anita - my bio mum - was the one who encouraged it."

Bella sits across from Camden and takes both her hands in hers. The older girl smiles, shaking her head softly in spite and enjoys the feeling of her messy curls brushing against the bare skin of her back.

"It isn't as easy to overcome as it looks in the movies. It took control of my life and I found myself obsessing over food and my image. I couldn't understand why I didn't look like the girls in Anita's magazines or pageant days. Whereas Anita couldn't understand why I didn't look the other pageant girls and so she became more insistent on focussing my attention elsewhere when meal times came."

Camden rolls her shoulders and focuses her eyes on the picture frame above Bella's head. It was of Bella as a newborn in the arms of Charlie and he was smiling a watery smile. Camden smiles in reassurance at her blurred reflection.

"It started quite suddenly. I remember coming down for dinner and instead of a meal at the table, Anita had left a folder of magazine cut outs for me to look at. She had refused to let me leave the table until I realised what was wrong with me. I remember feeling hurt and confused and... hungry. But I couldn't tell her that because in her eyes, to be hungry for someone of my size was a trick of the mind," Camden chuckles bitterly and squeezes Bella's hands in her own, glancing down at them. Ivory hands gripped in the clutch of copper ones.

"I would sit at that damn table for hours, just looking at the circled body parts and wondering why mine were different. I didn't understand why I couldn't look like them but all I knew was that to make Anita happy, I needed to drink those god awful juices. God, Bells, they tasted like utter horse shit!" Camden complains, her eyes watery and voice burning from memory.

Bella's laugh is watery and Camden decides to cut back a few details for her friend's sake. "Long story short, Jessica Stanley found me on the brink of starvation in the girl's bathroom. She snitched on me that day and I've hated her ever since. But, despite not having binge eaten or purged since then, my aunt still watches over my eating habits. I think she must've asked Charlie to report back to her or perhaps your dad is just looking out for me like he did back then. He's the one that saved me in my eyes. He got me out of Anita's care and into my aunt's."

"He did?" Bella questions, her voice small and Camden blinks in response wondering how her friend could not know all the good her father has done for the town.

"Your dad has helped many people in his time as a Sheriff and I will forever be grateful for his persistence to help me. You have a really great dad Bella."

"I know. It just - it just surprises me sometimes. He never tells me about all the good he's done and I have to find out from every one else," Bella admits with a pout.

Camden ponders for a moment. "He's not a man to brag."

"I started seeing Dr Cheng during my stay at the hospital and I became aware that what Anita was making me do wasn't okay. I managed to get help and overcome my disorder for the majority of it. I still struggle with it to this day and my voice will never stop sounding like this due to the repeated strain on my vocal chords. But I'm better now so there's no need to worry."

The girls sit in silence for a bit, their hands still intertwined and both processing the secret shared in the small confines of the Swan kitchen.

"Edward and I started dating pretty soon after I moved back to Forks from Arizona," Bella begins, her voice shaky and Camden snaps her gaze from the window to the brunette.

"Bella," Camden interrupts, voice filled with worry. "I shared that with you because I trust you, not because I was trying to pry one out of you."

"I know you weren't Cam, but...I want to share this with you. I trust you too," Bella reassures her and Camden nods, standing up from the table.

"In that case, we need some thing to drink because my throat is killing me," Camden jokes, her chest lightening as Bella laughs in response.

She opens the fridge door and pulls out the two cans of coke she had brought over earlier. Placing them on the two police badge coasters on the kitchen table, she opens the can and takes a swig from it.

Bella waits until Camden is seated before continuing on with her story. "A lot of people like my dad and Jessica Stanley thought we were moving too fast but we just fell for each other. It was like an invisible string pulling us in the same direction of one another and we couldn't bear to be apart."

"I suppose it was just the excitement of first love because we did everything together. I would sneak him into my room just to listen to music, read together or even nap and it was nice. Hell, he even found a meadow for just the two of us to go to. Spending time with him was refreshing, it was exciting and it felt dangerous. Charlie didn't really like him to begin with but after I ran away to Arizona when we had our first first, he became against us even more."

"Bells, did he hurt you in Arizona? I heard you were in the hospital..." Camden questions, keeping her voice low and doesn't speak Edward's name. She had once before and noticed the way Bella flinched like she had been physically hit, it built up concern and anger within Camden at the thought.

"No, he didn't. I promise, when he and Carlisle found me, I was already hurt," Bella reassures her, taking a few sips of her coke. "He blamed himself for the accident but I begged him not to leave me because I loved him. I thought he loved me too but I guess not since he left again."

Camden watches silently as Bella's fingers trace the top of the coke can. "At the party Alice threw for my birthday, there was an incident with his brother Jasper. Do you remember him? He was the blonde-"

"I remember who Jasper is," Camden interrupts, her cheeks aflame as she remembers her crush on the adonis and avoids her friend's eyes as she drinks more of her coke.

How could she ever forget his golden locks, sharp cheekbones and dimples carved by the gods. Or the way his southern drawl made even history dates sound attractive, or the way his body language would demand respect and attention from all those surrounding him. He was an adonis who exuded pain and authority.

"Okay..." Bella trails off and winks at Camden cheekily, letting it be known that she understood what Camden's distraction meant.

"Well, we had a disagreement and then Carlisle got a job offer somewhere else and then up and moved. Alice didn't even say goodbye, none of them did except for him. Now that he's gone, I just feel this ache in my heart and it hurts. It hurts all the god damn time, Cam and the nightmares get so bad, I can't breathe!" Bella cries, her voice a wail and eyes distraught.

"Okay, Bells, I understand. Just take deep breaths okay?" Camden grips Bella's hands in her own and inhales deeply herself to demonstrate the calming motion to the brunette. "Remember what Cheng said, yeah? Breathe in for five seconds, hold for four and release for three."

Camden watches as Bella's chest rises and falls in time with her and nods in encouragement as Bella squeezes her hands briefly. "I'm okay, thanks."

"I'm here for you Bells, always."

Camden's voice is croaky and her eyes misty as she looks across the table to her friend in what she hopes is a supportive grin.

"It wasn't just that though Cam. Dr Cheng says I get attached too easily. That...he showed me a sense of stability that Renee and Phil never offered me and a sense of danger that Charlie could never provide. I depended on him like the air that I breathe. It wasn't - isn't healthy." Bella sighs, untangling her left hand from Camden's to run it through her hair.

"I depended on Alice for a friend, Emmett for a sibling, Esme for a maternal figure and confident and Carlisle for the father I never got close to. Hell, I even depended on Rosalie and Jasper for unrequited companionship. When they left - I felt like I had no one. I felt alone. I still do some days and then Jake came alone and I just repeated the same cycle."

Bella takes a deep breath and connects her brown eyes with Camden's brown ones with a sharp intensity that Camden only saw when Bella was irritated with a remark Lauren Mallory made about Camden.

"I am so glad Charlie brought you into my life. I will forever be grateful for you Camden. I need you to know that okay?" Bella pleads, her voice firm.

"I'm grateful for you too Bella. Is there something that brought this on because you're kind of scaring me with the way you're talking." Camden confesses honestly.

"Sorry," Bella chuckles. "Dr Cheng was talking to me about thanking people in my life who mean a lot to me and who I want to stick around and well, I thought of you."

Camden feels another blush rise to her cheeks and hides her face bashfully behind her hands.

"She also mentioned finding something of his to let go but I don't know what. When he left, he took the pictures I had of him and the baseball hat he let me borrow that I hid in my wardrobe. I have nothing left to prove that he was in my mind aside from hallucinations when I'm in danger of him telling me to be safe," Bella confesses, her hand raising to point at Camden as her mouth opens to interject. "I know, I know. I should get help if I'm hallucinating about my ex-boyfriend. Don't even get me started."

Camden raises an eyebrow and thinks for a minute with pursed lips. "Didn't you mention a meadow that you would both go to?"

"Hmm?" Bella's expression is confused and Camden straightens her back excitedly as she thinks over her idea.

"You could go to the meadow and just seek closure? It might not work but it could! It's the only physical evidence you have left of him and it might help you come to terms with the break up?" Camden suggests, treading lightly as she understands the sensitivity of the topic at hand.

Bella pales and gulps at her words. "Could you come with me?"

Camden freezes, unsure. "Do you think me being there would help? I don't want to rush you into anything Bells, it was just a suggestion. We could keep spitballing if you'd like?"

Bella wipes away a tear that fell from her eye and Camden berates herself for even suggesting the meadow in the first place. "No, I want to do it. But I want you with me if you're okay with that. We could go tomorrow!"

"Okay, yeah. It's a date," Camden sends a saucy wink in Bella's direction. "Now, enough of this emotional talk, let's get to cooking. I'm positively starving!"

Bella sends Camden a horrified look which sends her into a full body shake laughter. She squeezes her eyes shut and slaps her knees as she bends over mid laughter. "What Bells? Too soon?"

Bella walks over and shoves past her in a huff. "You're just awful Sawyer."

Camden stands up with a grin, slightly breathless and ignores the way her stomach and thighs continue to jiggle as she stands still. "You love it Swan."

( N O T E )

Please let me know if you liked it or not. Feedback is appreciated.

Disclaimer: Jasper won't be introduced until later on as Camden's story begins in New Moon. The beginning of the book will be about Camden's journey and her life before him, however, he will be mentioned and heavily discussed :) Thank you.

Love you.

(01/05/20)