"Hello?" I asked, confused as I tried to wake myself up from my sleep enough to understand what was going on.
"Hey. Its me, Emily. Can you do me a favor?" she asked, her voice a little shaky.
"Sure Em, what do you need?" I asked, though I wasn't sure what I would be able to do since she was on the other side of the country.
-
That was how I ended up on the six o'clock flight to Washington. Since I had been woken up two in the morning by the call I hadn't bothered to go back to sleep.
I had grabbed a duffle bag and thrown my summer clothes in it and the other things I might need since I didn't know how long I was going to be staying up there.
Em had been my best friend since she moved her to the suburbs of New York at the beginning of our seventh grade year. We had gone through middle school and high school together, and neither of us had decided to go to college for at least a year so we could take some time off so we could have some time to just do whatever. She had beautiful long dark black hair, which her dark brown eyes matched, and her Indian heritage showed through beautifully in her skin tone.
She had gone to visit her cousins, well second cousins, up in La Push, Washington, which was a reservation in the middle of nowhere Washington, according to her at least. But she also had a ton fun every time she went.
Emily hadn't told me why she sounded so unnerved on the phone so on the nine-hour flight out to Washington my head was filled with various situations that might have happened.
Once I made it to Washington, I had to get a connecting flight that I would get me only forty minutes from La Push instead of over an hour.
The short flight allowed me to get directions from the airport to the house that Emily was staying at. So as soon as we landed I got my luggage and headed to the small car rental place that was across the street.
The cheapest car that I knew would be reliable ended up being a maroon colored Jeep. I threw my bags in the back before I started up my gps and headed to Emily's.
About an hour later I was pulling into the dirt driveway of a small house that was in the middle of the forest. It was cute and looked like something Emily would love.
I left my bags in the car for the moment as I headed to the porch.
I heard voices from inside, but I couldn't recognize any of them. I knocked on the door and a few moments later a very sullen looking man answered it. He was about six and a half feet tall, and he had black hear and deep brown eyes.
"You must be Cheyenne," the man said as he opened the door wider for me to come in.
"And I am assuming you are Sam," I said as I stepped into a nice sized living room.
"Yes, I am. It is nice to meet you. Emily has said a lot about you; all good things of course," he said as he lead me back to the back bedroom.
I gasped as I saw Emily. The whole right half of her face was covered with stitches and bandages.
"Oh my God, Emily, what happened?" I asked urgently as I grabbed her hand and stood next to her.
"Oh, I'm so happy you are here. Don't worry, I'm ok, I'll just have scars."
"But what- what did you do? That caused this?" I asked.
"I was out in the woods and a bear came out of no where. I was lucky that I got out with only this," she said before she went into few detail of her terrible encounter.
"That's terrible, I'm so happy that you only got skin damage. I know that is still terrible, but it could have been a lot worse." I said as I sat down on the bed with her.
"Yea, it was, but I wanted you to come up anyway, and I just was in need of some me and you time since I haven't have much since I came up here."
"I agree. I haven't done much since graduation, but I have been thinking about different majors." I told her.
"Oh, what have you been thinking about?" she asked as she sat up slowly leaning her head against the backboard.
"Well I was thinking the whole interior design or the fashion marketing thing for a while, but I looked at some of the school that were back home and we have some really good photography courses. Then that way I would have a ton of different ways I could go with my life. I could get into marketing, fashion, and who knows what else." I told her.
"That's a really good idea. I can definitely see you doing that. I actually think there is a small little art place in Forks that does different classes and they might have a photography one if you want to check it out while you're up here," Em told me.
"I definitely will. By the way, how long do you want me to stay up here?" I asked, curiously.
"Oh it doesn't matter. Its really up to you, and when you want to head back, you can stay for the whole summer if you want." Emily said with a smile, "More girl time would definitely be nice around here."
"I understand what you mean," I said as I laughed. Yea, I had other friends at home, but Emily was my best friend and no matter what no one can replace a best friend. "Staying the whole summer sounds like fun."
"Good," she said with a smile, "My doctor is supposed to be coming by later, and if I get these bandages taken off of my face maybe we can go into town and I can show you around a little bit."
"Oh, don't worry about it, if you don't feel up to it then I'll be fine," I told her, not wanting her to go out of her way if she was still in pain just to show me around.
"Oh don't worry about it. I haven't been out of the reservation for a while. It will be nice to go into town and I want to show you around just in case you want to go out and now get lost," she said with a smile.
"Ok, if you say so," I told her, "I'm going to go grab my bags out of the car, but I'll be back in."
As I made my way out to the car a truck pulled into the drive way. A tall man with long dark hair stepped out of the truck with a medical bag, which was a dead give away to me that he was the doctor.
I glanced around the forest that surrounded the house as I opened the door of the Jeep. Photography up here would definitely be fun.
"Need help," I heard a deep voice ask.
I turned around to see Sam walking back from the woods.
"Um, sure," I said as I let him grab the heavier duffle bag and I grabbed my messenger bag.
I followed Sam back in the house and he showed me to a small room in the back of the house.
"It isn't anything much, but I knew how much Emily wanted you to be able to come up here," he said as he placed my bag on the bed.
"Its perfect. I'm just happy that I got to come up and visit, since I've heard so much about this place," I said as I sat down on the bed with a smile, I definitely approved of Sam.
"Well, I'll let you get settled in. You must be pretty tired from a long day and your flight. The bathroom is down the hall on the left, and there should be towels in the closet next to it if you want to freshen up," he said before he headed back towards Emily's room.
I decided to take a quick shower to freshen up while the doctor checked on Emily, before we would head to Forks.
I grabbed a towel out of the linen closet before I started the warm water. Ten minutes later I felt much better was slipping into a pair of blue jean cut-off shorts and a tie dyed t-shirt.
Emily walked in, looking much better, thought now you could see the scars.
"Hey, feel better?" she asked, as she sat down on the bed while I was attempting to get some of the excess water out of my hair.
"Much better, you look like you feel a lot better," I said as I pulled out a dark blue hoodie and a pair of navy blue knit boots.
"Yea, I'm happy that all I have to have on my face now is stitches for a little while, unfortunately there is nothing they can really do to help the scaring, but I'll get over it." Em told me as I slipped my cell phone into the back pocket. "Well you want to got into town and let me show you around?"
"That sounds great," I said as we headed back to the kitchen.
"Hey, where are you two ladies headed off to?" Sam asked as we walked into the kitchen.
"I'm going to take Chey into Forks and show her some places and some places around the reservation. So if she wants to go out she won't get hopelessly lost." Em said as she gave Sam a kiss on the check.
"Ok, just be careful." He said with a smile as we headed to the door.
"So, you really like him?" I asked as I got into the passengers seat of her truck.
"Yea, he's amazing. He does everything I need or want and its like we were meant for each other," she said with a huge smile plastered to her face, "I just feel so bad for Leah."
"Why Leah?" I asked about her cousin.
"Well, before I came up here they had been going out, and they were really happy together, but when I moved her he left her and he wanted to be with me. It was strange, like he couldn't help it. So Leah is still pretty pissed, but she's getting better, I just feel really bad about it." Em said as we pulled out onto a simple two-lane road and headed back the way I had come earlier from the airport.
As we drove through La Push Em pointed out different little restaurants, drug stores, and the few clothing stores since the weather was pretty wet up here and I hadn't checked online before I packed.
When we made it into the town on Forks, about half an hour later she showed me around the little town and after showing me all the little different places we pulled into a small parking lot in front of what looked like a small home.
"This is the art place I was telling you about," she said as I noticed the potter's wheels sitting on the front porch. "I'm pretty positive they have a photography class, but if not you might want to see what other classes they have."
"Most definitely, when I go back home I'll have to send you a picture of the painting I did of the cityscape, its so pretty. I love it." I said, art had always been a small past time of mine.
Emily opened the door as we were greeted by the smell of clay, glaze, oil pastels, and paint.
"Hello, how may I help you ladies?" A man about my height in a paint splattered outfit asked as he walked out from a back room.
"He," Emily said with a smile, "We were just wondering what classes you had here. My friend wants to go to college for photography, but we are both taking time off, but she wanted to get a head start while she was up here visiting."
"That's fantastic, I haven't had many people come in because they are all taking trips over the summer, but the photography course I have get you thrown into photography and you learn about all the basics. I have a book that I let everyone who does that class use, and it is basically a go at your own pace class. You can jump to what ever section and when you think that you have a good enough portfolio for that section, you can come in and we talk about it and I basically criticize it for you. And when you get to film developing and negative you actually come in and we use the dark room, which is a lot of fun," he said as he handed me a packet on the class.
As he continued to explain what we would be doing I flipped through the packed. It was a forty-dollar class, but I decided it was going to be well worth it.
As he finished his little talk about the course I asked if he took credit as a payment, and as we headed out to Emily's truck I had anew photography book and a list of different assignments.
"Thank you so much for telling me about this," I said as I flipped through the list of different portfolios I would have to develop.
"No problem. It'll give you something to do while you're up here so you won't get to bored," she said with a little laugh.
"I don't think I would have gotten bored with out the class," I said as I read over the nature portfolio I would have to do, "I think I have just found my easiest assignment."
"Which one would that be?" Em asked as we made it back onto the two-lane road.
"The nature one," I said with a little bit of a laugh, "Good thing I'm not taking this class back home."
"True, though I bet you could have gotten some good pictures at Central Park and other places outside of the city," she said.
"Yea, but this way all I have to do is walk outside and I'll have a ton of different shots."
"Yea, and not to far from our house, if you ever feel like taking a little hike, you can make it to the beach, and it is gorgeous out there." She told me.
Our conversation about different places I could visit to get good pictures. Once we made it back to the house Sam had a pretty good smelling lunch started as we told him about the new class I would be taking, and all the places that Emily showed me.