The Swan Sisters
It was raining, but then again when wasn't it raining in Forks Washington? Part of me thought it was just a sign that my sister coming home was bad news. But then again I already knew that. I didn't need rain to tell me that her coming back here was going to be a train and I hadn't lived under the same roof in almost eight years and in those eight years we had barely even talked. We just weren't close like most siblings were.
"You've gotta try at least honey, she is your sister." Jake scolded me from underneath his car.
We mostly understood each other about everything, and I mean everything. But he didn't get this. "You lived with your sisters your entire life, and for the most part got along like normal siblings Jake. This is different."
He chuckled rolling out to look at me. "But I actually tried with Rachel and Rebecca, it's not like you ever really call her up or make an effort to visit her and your mom." At least I could always count on Jacob to tell me how it is.
"But either has she, I mean the last time I saw her, let alone spoke with her was Christmas. And I barely spent any time with her, she just sat in her room reading books the entire time." I almost never visited my mom in Arizona, and Bella rarely came to Forks. It'd been three years since she was here, dad vacationed with us in California in the summer instead.
Wiping the grease off his hands he wrapped an arm around my waist. "Mads, she's gonna be living with you and there's nothing you can do to change it. I say you just try to get along with Bella."
Huffing I put my head in the crook of his shoulder. "Why are you always right?"
"Because that's just the way the world works sweetheart." Slinging his arm around my shoulder we walked out of the garage. "Guess you and Charlie gotta get going, huh?"
Me and my dad had always been close, even when I lived 1,584 miles away. Whenever he left after visiting or we were sent back to moms I'd want to go back. Don't get me wrong I loved my mom, so much. But me and dad just got along perfectly despite our different personalities. It was funny how that worked. It applied to same for my mom and Bella. While my personality matched my mothers, we didn't get along nearly as well as her and my sister did.
Dad was so excited to have Bella living with us, he'd even gotten her a truck. Granted it was from Billy and Jake, he still made sure she had one. I had to admit I was a little jealous, I'd been saving since I turned fourteen for a car. Because my father was a cop (and extra nervous to let his little girl drive) I got my permit a little late meaning I still had a few months left until I could get my license even after I'd turn sixteen. Having a ride to and from school every day was my only favorite part of having Bella home.
The drive to Port Angeles wasn't that bad, it was mostly spent in silence while I listened to the iPod mom bought me for Christmas. All that needed to be said had already been said, well screamed. Dad knew exactly how I felt about Bella coming to live with us. I'd calmed down about it a lot believe it or not.
I thought back to the day she called us wondering if there was room for her.
"Hey Madelyn, is dad there?" Bella called, sounding more nervous than she normally did.
It was unusual to have her call if it wasn't some sort of holiday, or unless one of us were planning on visiting the other parent. I checked the calendar on our fridge, New Years had passed and I doubted she was calling to wish dad a happy Martin Luther King day. "Why?"
She huffed, irritated. "..Just..just put him on the phone if he's there."
"Fine..Daaad! Bella's on the phone, it sounds serious!" If I hadn't known my sister so well I could've guessed maybe she got knocked up, or was getting married. But this was Bella and my sister was going to be my kids rich single aunt with no kids who rarely visits but buys great presents. "Okay, not dying serious but she wants you."
I handed the phone off, listening as closely as I could to the conversation. Dad's faced went from surprised to pretty happy in the five minutes they were on the phone, he didn't even talk much. "Of course Bells. Two weeks? Mhmm, yeah of course kiddo. I'll take care of that. Alright, have your mother call me. Love you sweetheart."
When he got off the phone I scrunched up my face, curious as to what they talked about. "So?"
"So, Bell's moving back here. Your mother and Phil are gonna be moving around while he's figuring out his baseball stuff."
What came next? While me slamming my door and a lot of yelling.
The airport in Port Angeles wasn't anything big, it was merely a way to get to and from the bigger airports. I'd flown with them plenty of times and everyone was super friendly. That was the thing about small towns like Forks, most of the people were nice. This of course didn't apply to the teenage passengers. One thing other than our looks that Bella and I had in common was our "old souls" as mom referred to us. Whenever it was the three of us it was us making the sound decisions. But now that she had Phil I wasn't as worried.
I didn't remember much about living with mom, I left when I was eight. Things stood out to me, things that she still did and were part of her personality. She always wanted us to try something new and be spontaneous. Although I was never like that I loved that about her. Moving away from her I adopted her qualities. Renee was a "young soul" without a doubt. Her hobbies only lasted two weeks top and her cooking capabilities went as far as making a can of ravioli. Thankfully somehow my sister and I figured out the kitchen pretty well or we might've grown to be morbidly obese from ramen noodles and cereal. Dad was lost in the food department too.
Bella walked out towards us as we waited patiently, dad made us stop and grab a balloon that said "Welcome home" on it. I felt like the lamest person on earth holding that and plastering a fake smile across my face.
She looked just the same as she did the last time I'd seen her in June. Her hair was just a few inches shorter, and her already slim face was just a tad bit slimmer. My sister and I looked a lot a like, same color hair, same eye color and a few similar facial features. Since mom loved to dress us the same people would often ask if we were twins as children since I was always a little tall for my age. That and we would cling to each other's sides, always holding hands. As little girls we were at our closest.
"Bells!" Dad called her attention over even though there was almost nobody in the airport.
She walked over carrying a parka in hand. I laughed seeing her in a thin white eyelet lace top. It was not short sleeve weather. At least we were the same size. "Hey sis." I handed her the balloon, earning a small smile and a nod.
Dad wrapped her in an awkward one armed hug as we began walking to luggage claim. "Might wanna put on that jacket kiddo, you're not in Arizona anymore."
Things were already changing. I was forced to sit in the backseat of the cruiser, but hey, dad even left the bulletproof glass open so I could talk to them. Yay. There was't much talking though, almost none. There of course was the occasional dad question about how she was doing, about how she was already registered for school on Monday, usual homecoming stuff.
"Right Mads?"
I found myself distracted and lost in my thoughts when my father questioned me. I didn't even catch the beginning. "Sure dad, whatever you say." I prayed I wasn't agreeing to anything I wouldn't want.
Like expected Bella was excited by her truck dad got for her. Even if she didn't I knew her well enough that she wouldn't be rude in any way. But again, the two of us had similar taste and I knew she truly did love the thing.
Thankfully Jacob and Billy were awaiting with the truck as we pulled into the muddy driveway. It snowed off and on here in Forks, and when the snow would melt away in its place would be disgusting, wet, mud. I listened to the familiar sound of it on the tires along with the smiles upon their faces and a paper bag in hand. Henry Clearwater's famous fish fry.
"Bells, you remember Billy and Jacob Black? Right?" Charlie asked Bella as we got out of the cruiser.
She bit her lip, her sign of nervousness. "We use to play with him and sisters Bella, surely you remember. We'd go only every time these two went fishing."
My joke lightened the awkward tension, saving my sister. "Come on, let's get dinner started."
Jake and I helped bring Bella's things up to her room while the men gossiped like old woman in the kitchen.
We left her to her privacy, us two going off to my room. Jake and I had always been best friends, even when I'd only visit for a few days at time. Every time I came back we'd pick up right where we left off. Moving to Forks we hung out almost every day for the past eight years. After school I'd find a ride to La Push or he'd illegally drive one of the cars over. It'd never been anything more than a friendship between us, we'd even talked about it. People of course always suggested something more to us. Even my sister had given us the "look" as we brought her luggage to her room. I never thought of the way we interacted as flirting, the shoving and laughing was just part of us.
"Jake, I'm gonna ask you something and it's gonna be a little weird but don't laugh at me okay?" I began to play with my hair as we sat on my bed.
Smiling he furrowed his eyebrows. We were often never awkward nor abrupt with one another. There wasn't anything we hadn't done around each other let alone talked about. "Come on Mads, I'm always gonna laugh at you. You should know that by now."
Looking down at my hands sitting on my lap I chuckled a humorless laugh. "I know you've kissed other girls, and you know I've never kissed any other guys. And I don't know, I was just wondering..what it's like?" For a fifteen year old girl I found it personally pathetic I'd never been kissed. But then again all my free time was spent with Jacob. He however while spending a majority of his time with me also had a healthy social life. All the reservation kids were pretty close.
Inching closer to me I felt myself stop breathing. "Well, your heart starts beating at a thousand miles per hour. You can almost feel it beating outside your chest." Oh I could feel mine beating fast. "And you begin to inch closer and closer to each other, everything feels like it's moving in slow motion when most the time it's going so fast." With each word coming from his mouth our faces slowly moved closer to each others. "Then your lips just meet, and..and I can't describe-" I couldn't stand the anticipation as our lips were suddenly less than an inch away. I felt his breath on my face, warm like he always was. In a way it was comforting knowing my first kiss was going to be with someone I knew all my life, someone I felt safe being around. Most first were awkward as explained by my friends at school. Finally before either of us could chicken out we pushed our faces together. And suddenly, I knew exactly what he described.
Moving my hands from my lap I entertained them with his hair, burying them as our kiss deepened. I couldn't describe the feeling as anything other than getting lost in each other. There was no sense of time as he laid me on my back, he on top of me. Needing a break to breathe I realized what just happened. My head was still what felt like floating on air. I didn't know if it was due to lack of oxygen or heat of the moment. Neither of us said anything as we caught our breath, locking eye contact.
"Well, that…that was.." I started off breaking our silence.
Jake chuckled "Great might be the word you're searching for." I nodded, opening my mouth to ask him how he felt but was interrupted by my father yelling from the kitchen about dinner. "Guess we better get down there before they get suspicious." Hopping off my bed, he pecked a simple kiss on my lips walking in front of me. Leaving me to my thoughts.
Dinner passed in a blur of mindless conversation. I was all too busy thinking about the kiss and everything that came with it. It would change things, I knew it would. There was no denying even if it meant nothing to both of us, something would change. And at this point I didn't know how I felt about it.
By the time we were done it was almost nine o'clock and the days events had taken their toll on me. I stood on the porch waving goodbye, watching them drive off. "Busy day we've had, huh girls?" Charlie said closing the door behind us. Giving the both of us a hug goodnight he made his way to his room while Bella and I found ourselves in hers.
I sat on her bed just watching her put her things away. She didn't bring much, just enough clothes and a few books along with other personal belongings. On her nightstand was a picture of us with mom when we were about four and six, sitting on her lap at the beach. With our wet hair in ringlets we truly did look like we could be twins. I picked the frame to study it, never had seen it before. "This is such a nice picture, where were we?"
"Myrtle beach, remember mom's boyfriend Greg took us there during April vacation. Mom found it just a few weeks ago when we were packing. I just love how carefree and happy mom looks." She smiled folding a blue shirt into her dresser, I made a mental note to borrow it one day. "Speaking of carefree and happy, you seem to be that way with Jacob."
I put the picture back falling back onto her bed. Part of me wanted to let go and tell her everything, but I just couldn't. We weren't the children on the beach with salt water in our hair, a tad bit of sunburn on our noses and sand covering our bodies anymore. We didn't laugh with each other the way we use to. She wasn't my best friend the way a sister was supposed to be. So instead of spilling out my confusion I just sighed. "Yeah, he's my best friend."
Hey! So I started this one night and fell in love with the idea of Bella having a sister. This of course changes things, don't worry I have ideas for the rest of the books. But please leave me a review and let me know how you feel about Madelyn Swan!
