A/N: I own no part of Twilight.
BRIEF RECAP: Embry and Seth have been trying to locate Embry's father for a while now. Sam and Emily are together except they're not. Emily and Embry are actually together.
Of course, enjoy.
XXXIX.
don't take it back, i'll just deny
this constant noise all the time
"Joshua Uley," Embry said like he was really thinking about the name. "Joshua Uley."
Seth leaned back in his computer chair and placed his hands behind his head. "Yeah. I know what you're thinking."
"Me and Sam," Embry replied, "we're cousins."
"Okay, well, maybe not that. I was thinking—"
"We've gotta be cousins. It would make the most sense. I mean, the guy's last name is Uley."
"No, Embry, listen." Seth's voice was serious. "Everybody here's cousins. I think you and Sam are, well..."
Embry's voice became lower, quieter. "Brothers."
Seth nodded. "But that's just a theory. A good one, but still a theory. And I've found this guy's address and everything. Have you ever been to Everett? It's just north of Seattle."
"Yeah, but we can't come busting into some guy's house," Embry replied. "Even if he is my dad."
"That's the thing: he's your dad. Ain't that your right? It's especially Sam's, since the guy just up and left him like that."
Embry thought on that for a moment. "Okay," he decided. "But Sam has to come with us."
Seth nodded, and then he was silent for a while. He blinked when he looked up at Embry. "Do you have money for gas? I know for a fact that Sam's gonna ask."
South Everett was the rich man's Forks. Forks with a slight upgrade but even worse poverty problems and way more McDonald's locations.
Seth had never seen much out of the badlands. He'd only known open spaces and the ocean and trees, trees, trees everywhere. Out in the country, there wasn't much. Being in Everett was kind of excessive. That was when Seth realized that he and Sam and Embry and everyone out in the badlands were disconnected. When the biggest, greatest, most life-changing things happened to them, life outside of their friendships and relationships and feelings continued, unbothered. Life went on, and on, and on, and on.
For instance, there was this bum. Of course, there were plenty of bums in South Everett, especially around the apartment complex that the boys were headed to. That bum had probably lived in that same corner for months. He was a regular. Seth, Embry, and Sam walked past him, ignoring him, talking among themselves to fill the empty void. They tried to cause some noise, to act like all of this was normal. The bum watched them. He watched them knock on the estranged Joshua Uley's front door. He watched it all.
The boys fell silent, and it seemed to take an eternity for Joshua to even answer. When the white door swung open, Sam hardly recognized the tall man with eyes that matched his. They caught each other's glance first. Joshua wore a t-shirt and jeans, and Sam thought he looked funny that way. Sam had imagined him as so many things—a fireman, a cop, a hero despite him leaving—but this was it.
Then Embry met eyes with Joshua, his father. He and Sam and Embry all had the exact same eyes. It should have only been more evident.
Embry's mouth slightly hung open.
"Dad?"
Except it wasn't Embry's voice.
A little boy who had to be about four years old appeared from behind Joshua, hanging on to his legs and looking up at the three big guys at the front door. The kid had the same eyes, too.
"Josh?" a feminine voice called. "Who's at the door?"
And then a woman appeared from behind Joshua, too, like something out of a movie. She was almost conventionally pretty with skin the color of honey and dark brown hair in loose girls. She held a sleeping child in her arms, and she was so pregnant she looked like she was going to explode in any given moment.
"Oh, who's this?" she asked Joshua, looking at Sam, Embry, and Seth with a polite yet confused smile.
Sam just shook his head and turned around like he expected it to happen. Sam was like that—always pessimistic so in the case that things didn't work out for him, he wouldn't be disappointed. (He never was.) Seth followed him. And Embry kept his eyes on Joshua's, locking him into his memory for the first and last time, before turning around and heading towards Sam's truck.
Embry didn't know how to feel about it besides fucked over. Joshua wasn't living big now. He'd never been, back when he had been messing around with Sam's mom and Embry's mom, but he certainly wasn't now. Hell, the guy lived in an apartment in South Everett with a bum just a couple doors down. But Joshua didn't have to live big to be happy—that much was clear. What got to Embry the most was the fact that Joshua was trying now. Sam and him and probably a whole bunch of other guys out there were all doing the same thing, just wondering if they even had a dad, while Joshua was out here living. Just living. Sam and Embry had been the test trials, the designated fuck-ups. But now that they were out of the picture, Joshua was able to live with his own wife and his own kids. It was just like the damn movies and Embry hated himself for it. He was smart and he knew it, but he had never felt so stupid.
And Joshua wouldn't care. He just wouldn't. He'd shut the door and go back to kissing his real wife and play with his real son.
It had all played out like a silent film, Seth realized as the events immediately started to toss and turn in his head. On the way to the truck, he saw the bum. That homeless guy had seen it all, and life continued just the same. What had happened didn't matter. Not at all.
Letting South Everett slip from his view and his mind, Seth became disconnected once again, but he wondered if he had ever been connected in the first place.
A/N: I know. I know. I KNOW. I'm actual trash. I should have made time. But I promise to stop making crazy promises. I promise. (Did you know this story was originally going to conclude on February 19? Lmao.) I'll keep it rolling, no matter how slow it goes. I'm also really excited to share the rest with you guys.
If you've waited all this time, thank you. And if you haven't, thanks anyway.
HS