The Twilight Twenty-Five
thetwilight25[dot]com

Prompt: Garage

Pen Name: Mcgt
Pairing/Main Character(s): Bella
Rating: M

This will be a multi-chaptered story.

Photo prompts can be viewed here: thetwilight25[dot]com/round-six/prompts

A/N

Thanks toLittleRedScientist for helping beta this for me and Jenequilter for her prereader skills.

Chapter 7 – Garage – Ghost of Me and You

My eyes fluttered opened at the beaming light that was splayed across my pillow coming from the window. I guess I'd forgotten to close the curtain when I drifted off after my last visit. Getting up, I looked out the window and saw the ocean lapping at the shoreline in it's never ending rhythm. Its sound which was supposed to be soothing was starting to get on my nerves.

Hmm… I wondered if I wished to be somewhere else, I could get away from the waves and the incessant noise of them.

Closing my eyes, I thought about being on the top of a mountain but when I opened them, instead of being far, far away from the sea I was now perched on top of a steep cliff overlooking the sandy expanse and the tiny cottage I assumed where I'd been staying.

Shit, I can't even get my wishes right.

"You need to relax. All this excitement seems to be sending you off the charts." There sat Alistair, sitting on the cliff, his legs swinging over the side, the sun basking him in a heavenly glow.

"I'd relax more if I knew this eternity thing was actually going to be relaxing," I huffed, taking a seat beside him.

"Sometimes hearing about your past isn't as comforting as it should be."

Looking over at him, I had this intense urge to push him off the cliff. I was so tired of his Confucius mumbo jumbo.

"So now what? Are you going to tell me how my life was worth living? Or I don't know…? Maybe tell me why the fuck I'm here? You haven't answered a single question I've asked, so why are you even here if you're not going to help me?" I knew I was being a bratty petulant child about the whole thing but honestly, how did he think I was going to react to all of this… this-whatever it was.

"Well, I think you're sufficiently rested up for your next visit. I'll be back in a bit."

Poof, he was gone.

My anger surged and I had an intense urge to run and jump off the cliff we'd been perched on, just to see what would happen.

Instead, I found myself sitting in the backseat of my old friend Jake's VW Rabbit. A car I knew he'd gotten rid of years ago.

"Can you hand me that socket wrench?" he asked from beneath the hood.

Ah, Jake. We'd grown up together, our fathers were best friends and we were both attached at the hip until middle school when we were separated into different school districts. We'd remained close for my entire life.

I saw my college aged-self reach into his tool box and hand him three different options of what I thought were wrenches.

"Bella, I swear. One of these days, I'm going to teach you the difference between a wrench and pliers." Chucking the two he didn't need back in the box he turned to look at me with a look of teasing exasperation.

"So, you finally dumped that Eric guy, huh? He sounded like a complete tool if you ask me." Jake kept his head focused on the engine.

"Yes you were right, I was wrong," I sing-songed back to him, trying to lighten up the mood. Even though I was the one who did the breaking up, it still smarted to be reminded of my poor choices.

Turning around, he leaned his large muscular body against the bumper and looked intently down at my former self where I was sitting beside his tool box. "Bella, it's not about being right. I've known you a long time. I just want you to be happy. So far, I haven't been real impressed by your selections."

I laughed watching myself do my trademarked eye roll whenever Jake tried to bring up my past relationships. He never liked anyone I dated and it never mattered who it was. He was always the dissenting voice. Come to think of it, he was the only one who didn't like Aro too.

If only I'd listened to him when I had the chance.

Jake turned back to the engine, ignoring my no comment and continued chattering away about why he thought I couldn't find an upstanding guy who'd treat me right.

He had his theories.

I lacked self-confidence.

I was looking for someone to take control of my life.

I just wanted a warm body to come home to.

There were many he regaled me with but honestly I didn't know the magic equation to my poor stats in the dating pool.

Perhaps I just wasn't meant to find love. Hearing Jake's comments from long ago, only reminded me that I was batting a big whopping zero in the romance department, especially after choosing Aro. Maybe my shop was all I had been meant to have in this life and that should have been enough?

Turning my attention back to the scene playing before me I watched as I hugged Jake, kissing him on the cheek and telling him I'd see him when I was home for spring break.

What surprised me was that instead of going back to my little cottage oasis, I didn't vanish from the scene. Instead it continued to play out, in a way I never would have expected.

Jake was standing over his car, his hands were gripped tightly around the frame of the car, supporting all of his weight. His breath was heavy and deep, almost panting.

Once my car had driven off, his calm demeanor had completely crumbled. Standing abruptly, he threw the wrench towards the wall screaming, "FUCK!" for no one to hear in the dusty garage.

"Why? Why can't she see? Why can't she love me?" he shouted, scattering tools around with the sweep of his arms.

Sliding down to the ground he let his head rest on the bumper. Closing his eyes he whispered, "you're breaking my heart Bella. You just keep ripping it to shreds. How can you not see it?"

I wanted to run to him and tell him I never knew he felt like that about me. He'd never once told me that. I'd never gotten that impression in all the twenty five years we'd been friends.

The scene dimmed to black and I was again in my little cottage, peering out the window towards the sea.

Seeing that made me wonder if things were different and I had known, would it have changed anything?

Deep in my heart I knew it wouldn't have. I would probably have pulled away, limiting our friendship to when our families got together but otherwise, his admission of feelings towards me would have ruined the platonic love I had for him.

No, I was selfish in life and his confession would have only prompted me to close down and shut him off. He was right keeping this secret from me. It would have destroyed us.

"Well, that was unexpected," Alistair piped in, not even bothering to knock.

"Now what? Another one of your pep talks? Sorry, but I'm not really in the mood." Turning back towards the window, I waited to hear Alistair leave; instead he stood beside me and said his usual exit soliloquy of good bye, so long and get some rest because you're going to have a busy day tomorrow.

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Hearing the door shut, I closed the curtains and curled myself up into a ball on my bed hoping that perhaps tomorrow would instead bring me peace and a way out of this Groundhog Day movie reel.

A/N

Thanks again for reading. Next chapter will be up on Thursday!