To Build a Home by The Cinematic Orchestra
"When the gusts came around to blow me down
I held on as tightly as you held onto me."
VI. Thread
Abby hadn't felt more like herself in the past two and a half months until Leah had brought her in for a big hug the second Abby opened her front door. And Abby held onto her like she was a missing limb; it suddenly felt so much easier to breathe.
"You didn't have to apologize, you know?" Leah said into Abby's shoulder. The girl didn't loosen her hold on her best friend and Leah didn't expect her to. The Native born girl knew Abby like the back of her hand; she was never the type to fully feel or really even accept her emotions. Abby was a huge fan of pushing the problem away and forgetting about it till it eats at her to the point where she spontaneously combusts.
"What do you mean?" Abby whispered, struggling to let go of Leah. It was a mistake pushing her friends away, especially Leah. She knew that now. She couldn't get through any of this alone, if alone meant feeling like nothing would ever get better than it wasn't worth it.
Leah was the one to pull away and hold Abby by her upper shoulders, saying, "No one expects you to be fine, Abby. I'm not going anywhere; you had no reason to apologize."
She instantly noticed the unshed tears in her friends eyes and her quivering bottom lip. Abby turned her gaze to her mahogany stained wooden floors, subtly brushing away the loan tear that made it past her eyelashes. She felt Leah lead her to the gray sectional and they both awkwardly plopped down on the cushions.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Leah asked cautiously, throwing a piece of Abby's long hair past her shoulder.
"JD was in the hospital today after tripping on some stairs," Abby mumbled, curling up on herself. Her knees were pressed to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs forming into a tight bubble. She rested her chin on her knees before continuing with her soft voice, "It brought me back to July."
Leah almost stopped breathing when Abby mentioned the beginning of summer. She never spoke about it - almost refused to acknowledge the accident. "It's barely been three months. You have to give yourself-"
"Time?" The girl cut off harshly, feeling the free flowing tears touch upon her cheeks. "Time for what? To get over them? To forgive the drunk man who lost his life as well? Or to forget about them? Time-," she let out a shaky breathe, "-time means absolutely nothing." She gulped down the sob building up in her throat, knowing she was unfolding one sentence at a time. "Time won't heal the gaping hole they left behind."
"Abby -"
"I-It's so h-hard to breathe without them, L-Leah." Abby cried out, covering her face with her hands. Leah looked on, holding in her own tears watching her best friend break down. "The way I-I f-feel-" she hiccuped into her hands, "I j-just, I-I wish I couldn't f-feel anything."
"It's going to be okay," Leah tried to pacify her, placing a comforting hand on her back and slightly rubbing the surface.
"H-how!?" Abby pulled her hands away from her face and Leah grimaced seeing her angry, hot tears streaming down her face. "E-Every inch of t-this house is f-filled with m-memories of t-them. I s-see them everywhere."
And Abby unraveled, feeling the tears dripping off of her chin and the desolate sobbing escaping her lips. Leah took the smaller girl into her arms and Abby shook so ferociously with grief as she cried into Leah's awaiting shoulder. Leah knew she was hanging by a thread, knowing that Abby had to somehow go on existing without the ones who raised her. And she watched as Abby let go, dissolving into a fit of despair that could only be repaired through her heavy pants.
In hindsight, Abby was lucky than many children to have some of the most loving parents in this unforgivingly cruel world. They were the kind of parents that went to every parent teachers conference, that wanted their children to succeed in doing something they loved, that had dinner at the table every night, and almost survived three decades together with pure love.
Samuel and Mary Davis loved each other and their kids with love that was entirely impenetrable. How could anyone really, truly move past the ones who made a house into a home? They don't. They just have to make room for the pain in their hearts for the rest of their lives.
Leah had always envied on how fast Abby rebounded back to whatever would qualify as her 'normal self' after breaking down. Even when she was a kid, she'd have full on sessions of hysterical crying and then minutes later, she'd be fine. Abby was always one of the strongest people Leah has ever known and she highly doubted that'd ever change, even when she's going through the worst pain imaginable.
But she was fine. Abby came back down to the living room, drying her wet hair into a towel after a much needed shower and openly smiled at Leah who was prepping the pepperoni pizza on their respective plates. Leah had seen Abby ugly sob countless amounts of times but this one single time? This was different - they both knew it.
Abby openly unleashed the built up torment in her heart and she felt better - healed? No, Abby knew she would never fully be healed. But better - good.
Baby steps.
"Thank's for never leaving me, even when I'm a little crybaby," Abby mumbled, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
Leah rolled her eyes, sliding a plate with two slices of pizza towards Abby, "If you weren't such a crybaby, I wouldn't be such a hard-ass. We complete each other." She took a seat next to Abby with her own two slices of cheesy, gooey goodness.
Abby released a small laugh and watched Leah take a large bite into her pizza. Her hair had grown longer, Abby realized. Leah's hair was something that the entire world would be jealous of. Actually, Leah and her cousin, Emily, had very identical hair and hair textures so the world would be jealous of both of them. Jet black, sleek straight hair that was so thick and full that it reminded Abby of feathers of a raven. Leah was incredibly stunning, dark eyes and sharp cheekbones, it was no wonder that her boyfriend, Sam Uley, worshipped the ground she walked on.
"How's Sam?" Abby asked, taking a bit of her slice.
Leah chewed and swallowed before replying, a forlorn look flashing across her striking features, "He's been sick for a couple of days now; I think his dad said pneumonia or something so I haven't gotten to see him."
"Oh, god," Abby felt terrible that she didn't know what Leah was going through, or Sam, "I'm so sorry. Is he getting better?"
"I hope so," Leah shrugged. "I miss him. Class just hasn't been the same since he's graduated."
"Hey, you've only got a year left," Abby smiled at the senior next to her, "you'll be off marrying the love of your life in no time."
"More like finally have as much sex as I want and not worry about homework," Leah smirked at her and proceeded to bite into her slice again.
"Leah!" And she immediately felt her cheeks start to burn up at the thought of sex. God, she was such a prude - not that it was by choice, the boys in Forks did nothing for Abby. "Stop being gross while we're eating!"
"What?" Leah laughed, "Listen, eventually you'll realize what I'm talking about."
Abby scoffed, "Yeah, at this point I'm going to die a 40-year-old virgin."
"You could always ask Paul? I'm sure he'd be a willing participant." Leah grinned
"Oh, please," Abby let out an astonished laugh, "I'm surprised the boy is still standing after being a town bicycle for God knows how long."
Leah chuckled, and swallowed the bite she had taken before asking, "Okay, fine, so there's no one within a fifteen mile radius you find remotely interesting?"
Alluring butterscotch eyes and a tantalizing crooked smile hurtled into Abby's mind without her permission, momentarily knocking her breath away. She almost choked on the bite she was working on in her mouth and quickly took a large gulp of her water. Abby glanced at Leah, who was giving her a suspicious look, and proceeded to shake her head 'no'.
"Mhm," Leah hummed, doubtful, then said, "Now, why don't you tell me who it is so I don't have to label you a liar?"
"I'm not lying Leah, it's nothing." Abby said, unconvincingly. Leah glared at her and Abby winced, before saying, "Have you heard of the new family that moved to Forks?"
The girl suddenly scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Yeah, Old Quil won't shut-up about them 'coming back'."
With a raised eyebrow, Abby asked, "Coming back? We're talking about the same family, right? The Cullen's?"
"Yeah," Leah nodded, leaning back into her chair and crossing her arms across her chest, "remember when we were younger and we went to those bonfires with mom and dad?" Abby nodded which prompted Leah to continue. "Remember the story about the Cold One's?"
"Um, no," the girl shook her head, trying to recall the stories that were said at the bonfires. But Abby and Leah were young girls then, they stopped going the second they were old enough to get manicures instead of freezing at a beach listening to legends.
"Well, dad's great-great grandfather or something came across the same family back in like the mid 1900's because you know, apparently they were wolves or something in a pack - shapeshifters more like. Jacob Black's great-great - whatever grandfather created some kind of treaty to keep them off of our land because the Cold One's were the wolves' natural enemies. The treaty still stands to this day. Apparently, the leader is still the same leader but now, there's more of them. They're called the Cold One's." Leah explained, officially finishing her second slice while telling the story.
"Why exactly are they called the 'Cold One's'?" Abby wondered, using her pointer finger and middle finger to use as quotations.
"Well, their skin's really cold, almost like ice, and they need blood to survive," Leah elaborated, picking at a pepperoni from Abby's second slice of pizza. "The Cullen's apparently drink animal blood. In the real world, they're not called the 'Cold One's'. They're vampires."
Abby burst out laughing - a real laugh, a ridiculously hearty loud laugh. Sure, Edward's skin was kind of cold but come on, vampires? Please. He had a more likely chance of being bitten by a radioactive spider than being a vampire. Leah couldn't help but join Abby in her laughter, the stories were, after all, just legends. They weren't real. They couldn't have been.
"Alright," Abby said, sobering up after her laughing fit, "I need to either smoke or drink whatever Old Quil's having because vampires and wolf shapeshifters? Those are the kind of stories I want to dream about."
Leah laughed again, shaking her head and saying, "The elders are convinced these are the same Cold One's from back in the 40's. They're just stories, right?"
"Duh," Abby grinned, placing her last half-eaten pizza slice back in the box. "Do you want to sleep over tonight? We can go to Port Angeles in the morning for some much needed retail therapy." She thanked the Lord that the weekend was here, sure it was only two days of school but she was already exhausted - mentally and physically.
"Yeah, let me just call mom and you can tell me all about your little crush on a Cold One. Don't think I forgot about the 'new family'. " Leah teased, getting up.
Abby tried to swat at her, whining, "I don't have a crush on anyone, Leah!"
The older girl dodged Abby's attempts of hitting her and speed walked to the stairs while saying, "Yeah, yeah, yeah those words mean nothing to me, you vampire sympathizer."
Abby laughed aloud and brightly, watching Leah go upstairs to Abby's room to call her mother using Abby's own landline. She picked up the two plates from the kitchen table and went to the sink to wash the minimal dishes in the sink from the day.
She didn't bother turning around when she heard her brothers keys jingle from the backdoor that was within the perimeter of the kitchen. She heard him let out a tiny 'ooh' of happiness before he opened the box of pizza and grabbing a slice for himself.
"Hey," JD called out, after taking a giant bite of the near cold pizza. "Did I just hear you laugh? Abigail Davis released a chuckle?"
Abby released another laugh before turning around and smiling at him, taking JD by surprise to see a smile so intense on his little sisters face. "Leah's here, we're going to Port Angeles in the morning."
"Leah?" JD asked, with a small grin. "You're talking to her again?" The brother still had his sling on him and the bandaid on his head had been changed but looking at his sister smile made all the injuries stop aching.
Nodding, she turned around and continued the tiny chore and said, "I should've never shut her out. I'm sorry for shutting you out, too."
"No need to apologize, Abs," he walked over to her and wrapped his good arm around her. He pulled her to him and placed a kiss on her temple, "I'm just glad I'm getting my little sister back."
Baby steps, Abby thought, mom and dad would be proud of her for coming back to herself, for refusing to lose herself.
She just needed baby steps.
A/N: Ooooo, Abby just found out about the Cold Ones - what could that possible mean for her and Edward? Also don't we just love a cathartic crying session? They always help, don't they?
Review guys! Seriously, I love the follows/faves but I really really want you guys to review.
Also to my first guest reviewer, G1234: I know; I never quite understood how a vampire's lover could also be someone who's blood he craves the most in the world. And hmm, how would you feel about young Jensen Ackles playing Jason? I think he'd fit LOL. Love that you thought of Dean Winchester. Thank you for reviewing!