Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Twilight novels or the characters and events contained therein so don't sue me for copyright infringement.
Author's Note: Hey everyone. It's been a long time since I've written anything (was in a major slump for a few months and just couldn't churn out a thing) but after a long hiatus I'm finally back. Anyways, after reading the Twilight novels over the last few months, I had a question form in my head: what would it have been like if the three main characters of the story became the opposite sex than what they are originally. I began to dwell on that thought for a pretty long while, eventually leading me to write down a few plot lines that just seemed to stick with me. So, after a long bit of brainstorming, I finally give you the first chapter of Dusk.
As always, if you like it or hate it, just drop me a review and tell me what you think.
- Noah
I got a feeling
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are beginning our final approach on Seattle and ask at this time that you return all seats and tray tables to their upright position as we prepare to land. Have a wonderful stay here in Washington and thanks for flying American. Good night." The stewardess at the front of the cabin looked haggard as she spoke her routine announcement, sharing the same weak and worn eyes as the rest of the few passengers who were still awake at this early hour. All around me the cabin was filled with the noise of the travelers who had already awoken and were now rousing the others; a dull murmur as the fifty or so of us slowly came back to life.
The sky outside was still black, obscuring everything but a few glimpses of the flickering lights of the city we were fast approaching. It was maybe a little after midnight now and there was supposed to be the same cloud cover over the bay all night, giving me a good six hours to make my journey west and into the impenetrable fog before the day finally broke.
'West out to the Olympic Peninsula and then… home.' I thought; breathing in noiselessly and tasting the stale oxygen that had been pumping through the plane for the last three hours since the flight began. It was scented with the taste of my fellow passengers, a murky and musky aroma filled with each individual odor that hung from their skins like a shroud. Had I not been used to such an… overwhelming bouquet it might have piqued my interests but nowadays it was just normality for me. So instead of dwelling on it I just let my mind drift back to my final destination.
The Olympic Peninsula was a damp mess of overgrown trees and mosses that covered the northwestern corner of Washington like a wet green blanket that will probably never lift. It was a small area... but underneath the shade of a nearly constant mist-heavy fog and shrouding forests were many small towns just like the one I was heading to tonight.
"You've been silent tonight, Ben." A soft squeeze of my right hand and a whisper of a distinctly feminine voice in my ear brought me out of the inwardly reflective state I had been locked in for the last few hours. With a weary smile I turned to face the young woman sitting on my right, a mess of pixie cut hair framing the golden irises that rested in the middle of her face. There was a seductive depth to those eyes, a betrayal of the lie of just how old she really was. The eyes gave her face an unshakable sensation of suspicious intrigue even now, after all this time I had known her.
"Just thinking…" I responded minutely, absentmindedly gazing down at the radiant ring on her finger and then letting my eyes drift back up to hers.
With a smile she laid her head down on my shoulder, her fingers lacing themselves in with mine as I breathed in once more to taste her unique aroma. "I can't wait to be back. It's been a long time since we've been home, hasn't it?"
"Yeah… It really has." I replied, knowing her thoughts mirrored mine as I softly kissed her head. There was something right about that moment for me, something that reminded me of all the other thousands of nights just like this that had brought me to this very minute in time. It was something that reminded me of days running through the endless evergreen forests with her like the whole world was ours alone, of nights spent holding her in my arms while we thought of our intertwined future, of years passing by as the two of us were left outside of its heavy flow. It was something that reminded me of home.
With a smile, I once again just kissed her head and thought back to my first day in Forks.
~*~
Dusk
~*~
February 7th, 2007
"Are you sure that you want to do this, Benjamin? I promise I won't say a thing if you wanna change your mind now." My mom said, cupping my face in her hands as she looked up at me, a worried look framing her usually vibrant face. Her hands felt cold and clammy, a weirdly out of place feeling considering the harsh desert sun that had been beating down over me, her and all the rest of Arizona now for the last three hours since sunrise. By comparison the radiant orange glow that was shimmering down upon us was a perfectly warm sensation as it washed over me.
"Trust me; this isn't going to be the worst thing that's ever happened to me. I still maintain that little honor will forever belong to the day that I was born but I'm waiting to reserve final judgment until I go bald." I replied sarcastically as I smiled brightly, the grip on my suitcase tightening as I once again thought about what I could easily classify as probably one of the most moronic decisions I have ever made. Today was the day that I was moving in with my dad. Today was the day that I was moving to Washington.
"I just wish you'd take a little while longer to think about it though." Renee, my mom, responded as she finally let go of my face, freeing me once more to keep loading the little bit of luggage I had into the back of her car for the drive to Phoenix International. Even while trying to keep up this charade of happiness and assurance on my decision for Mom's sake, I couldn't help but want to let out at least a tiny little sigh of discontent as I thought back to why exactly I had come to this decision. It had all started when she had married the man who was my new step-dad: Phil Dwyer. Now, it wasn't that I actually had anything against the guy; he seemed decent enough and it did look like he was really in love with Mom… no, I guess the problem was really me.
Phil was a minor league baseball player, meaning that his life consisted of traveling around the country so, thanks to me being in high school still and effectively rooting my mom to Phoenix, they had not seen much of each other since getting married. And so, instead of keeping her from Phil, I had decided a few months ago to just take one for team Mom and ask my dad to let me move in with him a thousand miles away from my true hometown. Thus, here I was in my current little predicament.
"Believe me, I've thought about this as long as I needed to." I answered, forcing another broad smile as I closed the trunk door and tossed her keys back to her.
"I know. It's just that Washington is so far away and I feel like I'll never get to see you again."
"Well now that you mentioned it, I was going to change my number when I got there…" I quipped with another smile.
"Benjamin Swan, I'm serious." She responded, her tone dropping even further from its already worriedly depressed tenor.
"I know, Mom. Look, I get it that you're worried I'll grow roots into Washington soil but – and trust me when I say this because I don't want to have to repeat myself again – I'll still talk to you all the time." I responded, planting a quick kiss on her forehead as I shoved her to her side of the car. "Now come on, I don't want to miss the flight." While I could honestly say that every part of me did want to miss the flight and stay here in Phoenix, I wasn't doing this for me today. Instead, I was getting ready to leave my home for Washington.
(I)
Forks; the rain-soaked hideaway nestled within the Olympic Peninsula that I was banishing myself to. Compared to Phoenix, life in Forks was like stepping out foreign world instead of moving in with my dad. Whereas Arizona was bright, vibrant and – most of all – warm, my new home was subdued, moist and had always left me with a chill in my bones over the few times I had spent time with my dad over summer. That part of Washington was always covered in a thick veil of smoky grey fog and mist that seemed to soak into my skin each time I breathed in the air. It was a feeling I hated, a slimy sensation that just… irked me. But, it was a feeling I was going to have to get used to for a while.
"How was your flight, kid?" Driving me to my place of self-exile was my dad Charlie, also known as Chief Swan to the rest of my new hometown. Like me he had what Mom had always called the 'Swan Men Genes', meaning the same chocolate brown eyes and shaggy dark hair with a perpetually serious look that seemed to be set in to our faces even when we smiled. The only major difference between the two of us was the Tom Selleck moustache he had had apparently since I was born. Standing side by side with my parents, it didn't take a super genius to figure out which one I had taken after. We had never really been close… I guess it kind of came with me living with Mom pretty much all of my life so far. He had always seemed like a good person though; although maybe I thought this just because he was willing to put up with me for at least the next few years without really knowing me.
"It was alright." I replied simply, not wanting to incite a conversation any more than he did. "The one to Seattle was kind of cool, watching the scenery change and all..."
"Yeah." This is why I wished I could have just flown to the Forks Airport from Seattle. I had dreaded this stupid hour-long ride back to his house ever since I had convinced myself that moving in with him was a good thing. I was never any good when it came to making small talk with people I didn't know; it just seemed too awkward to me trying to force out words when they really shouldn't be spoken. "So… how's–"
"Mom's doing good. So is Phil." I answered a little more tersely than I meant to. I knew what he was going to ask so I just saved him the trouble. Thanks to the way it had ended between Renee and Charlie, any time one mentioned the other there was always just one gigantic freaking elephant sitting in the room… namely me. Otherwise, I don't think they would have ever had another reason to think about each other after she ran away from him. "… She's planning on following him around for tryouts over this season, I think."
"Good. That's good to hear." He murmured, keeping his eyes fully locked on the road like he was watching for the return of Jesus in the middle of the street. "Oh yeah, you remember Billy right?"
I had no idea who 'Billy' was nor did I really care right then. I just wanted the damn car to pull into his driveway so I could excuse myself until the air cleared itself. "The name sounds familiar." I lied half-heartedly.
"Figured you'd probably remember him. You've always had a good memory." Except for now, when I couldn't remember why I had talked myself into something as moving away from my nice warm city to the middle of mist-soaked nowhere and in with my dad who I had maybe spent 3 months with out of my whole life so far. Yeah, I had a stellar memory. "Yeah, Billy Black; my fishing buddy. You used to play with his youngest daughter Jessie back when you were little. I remember you two looked so cute climbing on logs out behind the house."
"Oh yeah, Jessie, right." Now I was still lying but doing it with awkward embarrassment.
"Well… I figured you'd need a good vehicle to get around so I kinda talked him into selling me his old truck."
"Seriously?" I nearly spat at him, choking on the soda I had been sipping on since I got off the second plane in Port Angeles. "Th-thanks, that's awesome!" I didn't even have my own car when I was living with my mom and Phil.
"I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty old but it'll run and get you to where you need to go." He said so matter-of-factly.
"Thank you." I replied calmly. With that, I just leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes, a small smile stretching across my face as the thought that it might not be as bad here as I had constantly thought it to be suddenly dawned on me.
(I)
"Well this is it." Charlie said as he pushed open the door to what would be my room until after I graduated.
Even though I had spent each summer until I was twelve that I had spent in Forks sleeping in this bedroom, it seemed different from what I remembered from the sparse days of my childhood here. The walls were painted a light green, like they had once been the same deep shade of the trees outside my window but had faded over the years since Mom had run away. It was a very bare room right now with nothing adorning it save the bed in the center of the room and the small wooden desk pushed up along the corner of the room next to the window. On the bed was a dark brown quilt with a plaid scheme of various greens, browns, and reds criss-crossing all over it and the sheets underneath were a deep red color, keeping with the woodland feel of the room. The headboard of the bed, however, was surprisingly ornate considering the rest of the room as the top of it curved upward until it formed a crescent moon sitting on top of it. The whole board was made of a darkly stained wood and gave a very… appropriately ominous feel to the room, I felt.
"I know it doesn't really look like much but we'll go get you some stuff so you can decorate it how you like." It was clear he was trying to help me get accustomed to a situation neither of us knew how to really deal with yet.
"It's great. I like it." I responded with a smile as I walked over and set my few bags on the bed. Truth be told, I actually did like the room. It was subdued; every color in the place gave it an unexcited and kind of natural feel to it which seemed to fit me right then. Even the placement of the bed and the desk even seemed right. Pretty much the only thing in the room that seemed out of place was me.
Charlie seemed a little taken back by my surprising acceptance of the room, a little flustered. However, instead of pressing the issue any further he just nodded and grabbed the door. "Well then I'll be downstairs if you need anything." Closing the door behind him, he left me alone to my own devices.
The squeal of brakes outside my window an hour later brought me out of my unpacking, piquing my interest just enough to get me to head downstairs for the first time since I got here. Charlie was getting up from the couch, the sound having broken him from the spell of the Mariners game I could hear up in my room all afternoon. With a toothy grin from under his thick moustache he opened the front door right as I reached the bottom step, gesturing me to come outside with him as he did so.
"You're just in time, Billy. Top of the fourth, Mariners up by 2." Charlie said ecstatically as we stepped outside. Parked in the front drive was an old Chevy truck, one from the mid-fifties by the looks of it. It had a solid red paint job running from the painted white front bumper all the way past its round headlights and down the sides of the bed, which was a longer than usual model to provide a great bit of functionality to it. The thing was a real piece of beauty, a testament of American engineering from a bygone era, a solid piece of red metal that could probably have been sideswiped and drove away without a scratch on her.
"Two more hours of good play then. Let's hurry up then." Around the back of the truck came two people: one of them a Quileute man in a wheelchair and the other a girl that was maybe a year or two younger than me.
I could guess that these two were Billy and Jessie, the two people that Charlie had mentioned earlier today. The man was an older man, maybe in his mid-fifties now as his face showed the long fatigue that came with a weary life. He had long black hair that fell straight down past his shoulders and framed his seemingly hard face, especially around his dark brown eyes. He wore a pair of blue jeans and a red undershirt under a woven black jacket with a black cowboy hat on, conjuring images of a old ranch-hand that had long since hung up his saddle.
"Billy, Jessie; you remember Ben, right?" Charlie said, introducing the three of us with a simple gesture of his free hand.
I smiled and waved wearily but a little more goofily, my attention more drawn to the girl pushing her father's wheelchair than anything else right then. Jessie, like her father, had skin that was a deep russet brown and the same striking brown eyes that Billy had but there was a natural… softness to her features that I couldn't imagine on her father. She had dark hazel lips that were just a little bit darker than the rest of her face, like a just barely deceptive shadow was cast over them and made them seem just a hair fuller than they really were. Her hair, though the same solid ebon shade as her father's, hung down only to her chin where she had cut it off a bit short and layered it to give her face an almost heart-shaped appearance, accentuating her features just a little bit more. She was wearing a pair of slightly baggy black jeans with a purple baby tee underneath an unzipped gray hoodie, all of which seemed to hang in just the right way from her.
"Well you've certainly grown since the last time I saw you, kiddo." Billy said as I reached out and shook his hand, feeling the worn calluses on his fingers as I did so. "I remember when you and Jessie used to go climbing stuff in the forest together. You were so small back then I wondered if you'd ever get as tall as your old man but here you are."
I silently wondered if everyone in Forks had the same memory of me and Jessie playing together. It wasn't a happy thought to entertain. My eyes connected with Jessie's for a second only for her to give me the same nod of embarrassment as our parents seemed fixated on these old memories.
"Well here she is, Charlie. Everything's been fixed and the truck's running like a charm. It's not exactly the fastest wagon on the road but it'll get him where he needs to go." Billy said, turning his attention back to my dad as he threw him the keys to the truck.
"Perfect," Charlie looked back at me, holding the keys out in his hand. "Take care of her, Ben; and she's yours for as long as you want." A smile started to rise on my cheeks as I took the keys from his hand and I thanked both him and Billy profusely for the gift. The truck was exactly the kind of style that fit me, a little bit different. "Now, let's get inside. I don't wanna miss any more of the game than I have to. Billy, you want a beer?"
Charlie took the handles of Billy's wheelchair and pushed him through the front door, leaving me alone in the front drive with Jessie and my new truck. I didn't really know what to say; I had never been the most popular guy back in Phoenix. I had a little better natural disposition for sports compared to some of the other kids back in school – unlike my mom I actually had a little bit of balance meaning I wasn't nearly as klutzy as she could be sometimes – so I was accepted in at least a few circles but I had always felt a little more like an outsider back in my hometown. I didn't know how to relate to the teenagers I had shared classes with, didn't know how to really talk to them which meant I had always been at a distance from everyone else in my former high school. Sure, I had had a few friends but they were never anything to write home about.
"So…" I started out, a little uncomfortable.
"You really don't remember me at all, do you?" Jessie said with a smile, her pearly white teeth seeming even more vibrant when compared to the dark shade on her lips. Her voice had the same soft quality that her features possessed, a kind of hidden subtleness to them I didn't understand. "Doesn't surprise me; I think the last time we played together you were five at the time. Dad's right, you really have grown since then, though. Okay then; I'm Jessie. It's a pleasure to re-meet you, Ben." She finished with a sarcastic but playful tone, doing a little curtsey.
"Pleasure to meet you, too." I replied, leaning back against the truck, smiling a little easier. "Oh yeah, what did your dad fix on the truck?" I asked, remembering what Billy had said to Charlie in case anything went wrong. I didn't know cars at all but at least I would know what to tell the mechanic if I had to take it in at all. However, given the fact that this thing was older than my dad and still apparently ran without any problems, I highly doubted it would come to it.
"Actually, I fixed it." She responded, beaming with pride. "I did everything to it right down to the oil change. Dad taught me how to fix cars back when I was little so I replaced most of the older parts and rebuilt the engine as it needed it. The air filter's new too so you should have a good flow going through there."
"Th-thanks, that's great to hear." I flustered. "You really did all that?"
"Well… it was actually supposed to become my car when I turn seventeen later this year but Billy decided to sell it."
I knew I was frowning with anxious embarrassment as soon as she said those words. "Oh… I'm sorry. I didn't know–"
"I can stop you right there; I'm glad he sold it. All it means is that I get to get something even better whenever my birthday rolls around so I'm happy to give it up." She chipped in with a broad smile, folding her arms over her chest as she leaned back against the truck beside me. From inside the house a roar of cheers erupted from Billy and Charlie as I could only assume the Mariners scored another run. Jessie meanwhile just looked annoyed more than anything. "Sounds like they're going to be in there for a while since Dad won't want to leave while the game is on. Too bad, I've never been big on baseball."
"Yeah…"
"Hey, why don't we just take this old girl for a test drive? We can talk a little and I'll show you around Forks while they're glued to the game."
"That actually sounds great." I finished, a bit of a dorky smirk rising once again on my cheeks as I gave her the keys and opened the driver's side door for her. Taking one more look at my house I just nodded and climbed in the other side of the truck.
From Noah: Well there you go, that's the prologue/chapter 1 for you. Quick heads-up in case anyone's thinking it, yes I do know that Jacob was originally two to three years younger than Bella but I felt it would flow a little easier in the story if Jessie was only a year younger than Ben. Anyways, I hope you liked it. Just drop me a review and tell me what you think. Peace.