This story will contain triggers for suicide/depression and abuse (non physical). If you or someone you know is in crisis you can call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline or 1-800-799-7233 for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Holding things in is not being strong, or brave but getting help and facing those problems and fears straight on is
Bella and Jake hung out everyday for the next week and the weekend. Bella had started hanging with him to simply avoid her sister, but she was finding that Jake was actually a good friend. He listened attentively to even her most trivial problems (no way after a week was he finding out the real ones) and could make a girl laugh with the skill of a comic. Bella had even met his friends Quil and Embry, who hung around the garage quite often, offering no help but Quil giving many a pick up line. It was even kind of cute until it got insanely annoying.
You would think that they were brothers rather than friends by just looking at them; Jacob clearly wasn't the only one to destroy puberty. Whatever they were feeding these boys, they should package and sell it. The reservation would be set for eternity. Bella made a mental note to suggest this business proposition to Jake when she got to La Push. This particular day, she was more than excited to go sit in the messy garage with the boys; even Quil. Because on this fine Monday morning it had been her sister's first day of school and Lia did not fail to make a standout first impression; much to Bella's humiliation. Oh sure, for her sister it was what Bella could only imagine was her dream situation. It had taken Lia t-minus two minutes into their elective photography class to charm people with her smile and humor, pushing Bella down to the status of second best Swan once again. Not that she had ever been particularly fond of the strange attention everyone gave her since first arriving in Forks but it was the principle of the thing. By the time lunch came around Lia had not only introduced/made friends with Bella's small circle but had managed to have class with the varsity cheer captain and basically guaranteed herself a spot in that group as well. It would not surprise Bella if Lia took over the top spot at the school once the captain graduated It had happened once before at their school in Phoenix. Thank god she would not have to be around for round two this time.
It was all too easy for her sister to dance through life because, well, she was everything Bella was supposed to be upon arrival but hadn't been. The girl from Arizona with a sun-kissed personality and equally sun-kissed skin. Even the sun had shown for her on her first day of school. As Bella began walking towards the garage she was getting more and more pissed off. Could someone please explain why her sister could always manage to be better? Better at style, better at makeup, better at hair. Better at friends, and school, and just life. Hell, she was more adept at keeping Bella's life together than Bella herself was. She was fine with remaining in the background, in fact having as much publicity as her little sis gave Bella a minor panic attack, but why couldn't Lia be herself without being perfect? As her temper rose to the place of tears forming, Bella was stopped dead in her tracks by loud shouting her brain had tuned out until, apparently, just that second. She could only recognize Jake's voice, which was strong but slightly panicked. The other was simply angry.
As she got closer Bella could also just make out a third voice. The voice was much calmer than the other two and had an air of authority to it. Almost as if the person had lived a long life and knew what was what. Slowly, she finally reached close enough to the door, to allow the animated conversation to became more clear. The angry one was going on about someone knowing nothing and just getting over it. Bella did not however, get much of a chance to decipher the details because at that point Jake yelled at the people to get the hell out, and a tall, older man came from the garage dragging a younger one by his arm, with a pull that would rip any normal person's arm out of its socket. They both looked exactly like Jake and his friend, if not larger. The younger man was fuming, smoke practically blowing out of his ears like Steamboat Willey. But the older mans face was neutral; as calm as Bella had perceived his voice from before. They both looked up just in time to avoid Bella, and while the younger of the two couldn't give less of a shit that he almost broke the girl the older man whispered an apology before speed walking with his companion straight into the woods. All anger Bella had been feeling completely evaporated from her body and was replaced with a downpour of straight confusion. "Seriously, what is happening on this reservation?" Bella pondered as she crept into the garage, being careful to make sure Jake knew it was her and not those men coming back. What she saw was incensed Jacob, shaking from head to toe. In the back of the garage Embry and Quil sat on some overturned buckets in the corner, looks of deep concern in their eyes but clearly too fearful to get up and do anything about whatever this situation was. Jacob turned around and upon seeing Bella, immediately calmed down, although his eyes still held red, hot boiling rage. As the silence continued for a now awkward period of time, with everyone just staring at everyone else, Bella decided it was time she was the good friend. Talking about people's problems was not her strong suit. Clearly, as she couldn't even discuss her own with family and also apparently eye contact was an important part of deep conversations. But, what she was good at, was remembering pieces that made other people happy and using that to help in these types of situations. So, she couldn't ask Jake what was wrong, and even if she did whatever she said afterwards would just make it worse. But she could offer a decent consolation prize; courtesies of Jessica Stanley's incessant need to be her sister's friend.
"So um sorry if this is a completely terrible time, buuuuut I come bearing a present!"
"Oh please, do share" Quil cooed in his usual I'm trying to be sexy but I really end up incredibly dorky way, except is had a slight edge to it this time. Bella could feel the relief come off of him that someone else was attempting to bring the atmosphere back to normal.
"Uh yea so Idk if you know Jessica Stanley, she's a friend of mine from school. But she's having a party Friday night, and well I was invited along with Lia and Lia convinced Jess to let her bring some guy friends because she was thinking maybe you guys would want to come with me so that then she doesn't have to like babysit me the whole night and then she can actually have fun at her first party in Forks. And I totally get if you guys aren't interested or already have other plans but it seems kind of interesting so uh yea just thought I'd ask."
"Fuck yea!" Embry was the first to respond and it took him no time at all. "Hell yea! No yea I'm totally in!" Quil was next quickly following his friend's lead. Both boys were now sufficiently excited and the concern from before was wiped off their faces, replaced with excitement and mischief behind their eyes. Clearly the choices for parties and Friday night plans on the res were getting dull for them. The only person to hesitate was Jacob. Which if Bella were being honest, made her panic completely. Truthfully, she had never planned on telling any of them about the party. Her actual plan was to come today, complain about her "perfect little sister" enough that at least maybe one group of people wouldn't automatically love her upon introduction, and then go home without another word; especially not one that included this party. When Friday rolled around she'd play sick, say she couldn't go out, and make a big deal about the guys having other plans when her sister immediately accused her of faking said illness. But that plan had gone to shit the second she saw Jake about to lose his mind. However, this particular distraction was tailored made to Jake and if he didn't answer yes in the next two seconds Bella was unsure of what she would do. She could NOT go to this party with just Quil and Embry.
Luckily it was Quil's turn to save her. "Come on man you have to come with us. Who knows what'll happen if I'm left alone with Bella" Ok that is insanely creepy; mental note to mention it if he says that again
"Yea Jake you have to come. I can't be left alone to protect all the girls on this coastline from Quil's abhorrent personality" Never mind, Embry clearly gets it.
Unfortunately, Jake was looking less convinced and more off in space somewhere. That argument had clearly rattled more than his body. But Bella was determined to get him moving on and looking forward to something. "Come on Jake, please! We never hang out outside this garage and I'd really like to. We'll have fun I swear"
Yea ok that was a complete lie but what are you supposed to say? The truth? The truth was that it would be fun; for everyone else.
"Ugh fine I'll go but I'm not drinking the punch" "That's fine bro, that's pussy ass shit anyway. We'll just shotgun beers then". "I think I might actually hate you Quil."
"So Bella what time?" "Oh um pre-game starts at 8:00, party starts at 10:30. I figure we get there no later than 10 just so we can grab some drinks before randoms show up and take it all" "Excellent plan". What was she doing; she sounded like her sister now. She hadn't ever even really drank, let alone partied, but now she was talking about pre-games and getting wasted before everyone else took the booze?! Oh if Renee could see her now she'd be damn proud. But Bella owed it to Jacob to do something, and she was having a good week. The party would probably drain her and throw her right back into the hole, but at least for now Jake had been an amazing friend to her in the very short time they had been working on the bikes, and Bella owed it to him to be a good friend back.
"So you two jackasses gonna help us with the bikes or are you gonna stand there and give shit commentary the rest of the night?" Bella smiled and chuckled at Jake's clear annoyance yet love for his friends. Yep, definitely brothers in another life for sure. "Shit commentary but this time is comes with free pizza". "Ooo I'll take that!" exclaimed Bella. Normally, she wasn't hungry(in fact she avoided most meal times) but this day she was feeling actually peckish and pizza sounded like just the perfect treat. "Alright, I'll accept your offer. Resume your roasting of each other". And at that Jake and Bella went over to the bikes, falling into their normal style of conversation, while Embry and Quil stayed seated on their buckets, ribbing each other about who could actually get a girl at the party.
It was odd that the one cute coffee shop in town was on the reservation; one would assume it would be in a more populated area. However, this did not dissuade Lia Swan from going there to study. AP English homework was pretentious, narcissistic, and yet slightly appealing and it deserved an environment equal to itself to study in. Lia had always done her AP homework in coffee shops. For some reason she had always found there were these silent agreements(especially in local places) to either remain quiet or find the area where others were talking and sit with them for your coffee date.
Coffee shops equated to calm for Lia, and at that exact moment she needed calm. School had been a whirlwind for her first day, and her depressed, yet jealous sister was no help at all. She had flown through Lia's introduction to her friends, barely saying each persons name before dragging Lia from the parking lot to the front office; school wasn't supposed to start for another half hour at that point, there had been no need to rush. And of course, when Lia was simply introducing herself to their photography class, Bella had been sitting there with a look of embarrassment. Because how DARE she be the sister of the mysterious Bella Swan and be an even slightly extroverted right? In her next class Lia had been lucky enough to be placed right next to the cheer captain and this gave Lia the perfect opportunity to get herself a beginning of season tryout, instead of having to wait until right before she moved again to tryout for the team. The girl had been nice enough but she seemed slightly putt off by Lia, even going so far as to make a comment about her outfit being so fancy and put together. This was slightly understandable, as in a school full of jeans and t-shirts even on a beautiful summers day, Lia somewhat stood out in a flowery dress and Jack Rogers. Even her white jean jacket and brunette/blonde balayage hair added more color to the student body than it had seen in decades. Nonetheless it had thrown Lia for a loop and she had been hoping her own sister would have allowed her to feel normal at lunch. But lo -and-behold all she was met with were more stares, a girl named Jessica Stanley forcing her to come to her party on Friday, and a sister who was glaring at her so hard Lia felt it safer to eat with the cheerleaders.
And now she was here, finally working in peace, no stares or whispers behind her back. As she opened up Spark Notes on Shakespeare for the thousandth time she heard a deep voice order and turned to face the counter it had graced with its presence. What she was met with was single-handedly one of the most attractive men she'd seen in town; probably ever. This man had to be over six foot easily, and from the side she could see the short, black hair was perfectly quaffed. He was muscular but not too much, just the perfect amount to tell her he clearly worked out or played football or something. As the mystery man walked towards the pick-up end of the counter Lia noticed his walk had that comfortable stride; the stride of a man who was perfectly confident in himself, and could simply coast through day-to-day life. Oh no Lia thought, my taste in men is still trash; of course I am attracted to a player.
She clearly had been staring too long, as the man felt the hole she was burning into his back and turned to look at her. They locked eyes immediately and Lia quickly turned away, hoping maybe he really noticed. But when she peeped up to check she saw him openly staring at her this time, mouth agape, and a glassy look to his eyes. The man looked like he had found water in the Sahara, the Magic Lamp in the Cave of Wonders. Even after she waved at him, he just kept staring. Maybe he was just so shocked to see a blonde, tan, curvy human being in the Pacific Northwest. It was only when Lia moved to go check on the man that he seemed to snap out of it and ran out the door, leaving his coffee behind. Normally, someone would be completely freaked out by this but she was used to, say, unusual reactions to herself in Forks. So Lia simple shook her head, messaged the groupme about how weird her life continued to be, and proceeded to return to her English work, wondering how she managed to attract crazy without even being crazy herself.
PSA: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters created by Stephanie Meyer