Drive This Ocean Road-7Everlasting Friend

Delay the hurtful words of complicated overcast/please take the message that I'm picking up my chin at last/ I might crumble I might take a fall again/still missing you/ but you're my everlasting friend/ will you be coming home?/ I just want to know that you'll be coming home

It's been four years but the memory of her was still fresh for me. Hard for it not to be since I was surrounded with familiar places and familiar faces.

She never called.

I hear about her once in a while from Charlie, trivial stuff, ordinary stuff. I can't believe Charlie—a cop—bought her false assurance and half lies. 'I'm fine, I'm good, college is great' was her usual responses, she never went into the personal stuff, never went into details.

I wonder about her change.

The bitterness left me two years back and I was able to function without thinking of her for long periods of time so I don't know what it was about today that made her scramble across my mind.

I almost muddled an oil change, a task that I could do with one hand tied behind my back and two of my eyes close…when I was eight.

I passed high school—barely—and started a garage with Embry and Quil two years later, it was hard, sure, and we almost didn't survive the first year but we persevered and fumbled through. It was a good thing that I already had a name for fixing stuff along the rez and those same people said some things to the right people. It helped that there was no decent—reasonably priced—garage around Forks for people to go to.

Besides, it was fun working with my brothers—most of the time.

We have our strengths and weaknesses and our contrast in character blended into our work seamlessly, complementing each other with our different skill sets. Quil was the people person, I was the machine whisperer as they jokingly call me and Embry was the man for the details and paper work whom nagged both of us constantly.

If they needed some extra hands, the pack was always ready to help.

My hands fumbled with the box wrench and I cursed silently. I was never going to finish this in time if I kept going like this. I ducked out of the hood and picked up a bottle of water.

The sky was darkening and from the scent of the air, it looked like rain.

"Jake, man. You're not done, yet?"

I rolled my eyes at Embry's arrival, his voice already taking on that needling tone that he got whenever something didn't fit in his schedule. "It will."

"I'm just saying, that Mike kid will come to pick it up at-"

"Nine. I know, Embry."

Embry eyed me the way a good friend would when they noticed something was wrong. "You've been distracted all day."

I wiped the sweat off my face with the bandana that I kept in my back pocket. "Just some things on my mind."

"What kind of things?"

I turn back toward the car and ducked under the hood, fiddling with the machine without really thinking, hoping he would go away, knowing that he wouldn't. I saw the look on his face. "Jake-"

"I know."

"You have to-"

"I know, Embry. Give it a rest." I can sense his eyes on me but ignored that too. Whatever he was going to say was cut short when footsteps entered the garage. "Boys, how's it going?"

Embry stepped up to the plate, knowing I wasn't in the mood for visitors. "Good, Parker. How are you?"

Peter Parker was an amiable man who knew nothing about machines and a fondness for a good chat, so he was a familiar face around their garage. Well-rounded and white haired, they've joked often enough that he looked like Santa Claus and behaved like one too. Always good natured, always had candy for the kids that followed him around like he was God, always had a smile for everyone and the name was enough to have some kids do some hero worshiping.

He was one of our customers that I didn't hate for what they did to their cars. At the very least, Parker admitted his ineptitude and followed my orders to a T.

I smiled and waved hi with the bandana to the older man. "How are you Jacob?"

"I'm good, Parker."

"My." He squinted his blue eyes at the both of us. "Are you guys still growing? You look bigger every time I see you."

Embry snorted. "Unlikely, Parker, if we get any bigger we'll be giants. You came for your sedan, then? It's ready."

"Yes, yes." He nodded. "You boys are always so punctual."

The smile on Embry's face was sharp as he turn to look at me. "We try. I'll get it for you."

He patted me on the back. "I'll wait here with Jacob, then."

How is your father, Jacob?"

"He's good."

"Sam and Emily? Still wrapped up in marital bliss?"

I smiled at the thought of Sam's and Emily's wedding a year ago. "Sickeningly."

Parker laughed. "Glad to hear it. When you're old like me, Jacob, you relish any kind of good news that you get."

We turned at the sound of a dying engine at the front door and saw Embry getting out of Parker's car. "Here you go, Parker. Don't let it tempt you to let loose on the highway, now."

Parker grinned. "And here's your check." The check disappeared into one of Embry's jacket the way Quil money does whenever he entered into a bet with him.

Parker was on his way outside when he turned as in afterthought. "You know Sheriff Swan's daughter Isabella, don't you, boys?"

Embry slid his dark eyes at me, probably sensing my tension. "Yes."

"I saw her in Port Angeles the other day, so I wondered whether she was back."

"That's not possible." I muttered through stiff lips.

The man nodded. "Yes, I did hear she was in…Alaska? Was it?"

"Yes." I breathed out against the wild thump of my heart. "So, it can't possibly be her."

"I'm pretty sure it was her, Jacob. I saw her from up close, she was even wearing that unique bracelet of hers." He rolled her eyes. "I remembered because my granddaughter wanted one just like it, the one with the charms; a wolf and a seashell."

I felt the blood drain from my face and my heart clenched tightly in remembrance.

"Oh, well. Maybe she was just visiting." He waved at us, not realizing that I was frozen in place.

"Jake."

I shook my head and turned away from Embry's probing eyes. "Leave it alone."

"I saw her too, Jake."

I turned back to him. "What?"

"I saw her at Charlie's when we were patrolling. " He smiled warily at me. "She left us cookies and milk." He shifted his feet. "She's back."

I blinked at him, my mind wasn't able to process this new piece of information. "What?"

"She's back. She's been back for months."

I tossed down the remaining water that I had but my throat still burned. "…matter."

"What?"

"It doesn't matter."

Embry looked at me like I was nuts. "I'm telling you that the girl you've been driving yourself crazy over is back and you say it doesn't matter?"

"Yes."

"Jake, don't you get it? She's still human. She's not in Alaska with them. The vampires didn't follow her. She wasn't even wearing a ring."

"What?" I repeated dumbly, my brain numbed with shock.

"I don't think she's married."

I shook my head, trying not to hope but it gripped my heart with tight, slippery fingers. "No, I was there, Embry."

"You were there before it even started. It was delayed, she was sick or something. Then the next thing we know, they moved. Who knows what happen? Maybe she changed her mind."

I turned away and kicked the tool box, it clanged loudly as it slid to a corner. "Damn it, Embry. Why are you telling me this for? For years, you guys kept telling me I should move on."

"Have you?"

I glared at him, trying to smother the pain with anger. "Have I what?"

"Move on."

I didn't have an answer to that so I just stomped away to picked up the tool box. "I don't want to talk about it. For once I'm listening to you guys, ok? I'm staying far away."

"She asked us not to tell you."

The taste of betrayal was slick and acidic though I wasn't quite clear on whose betrayal that hurt most. "Whatever."

"She probably didn't want to lead you on again. But since now you already know, I thought I just cleared it out for you."

"It's clear." I narrowed my eyes at the tangle of wires I was supposed to be working on.

"She has a bookstore/café in Port Angeles, it's quite popular."

"Great."

Books and food, it suits her.

"It's called Bells."

When I didn't react, he threw his hands up in the air. "Look, she asked us not to tell you but come on, this is a small town. Sure she doesn't live at Charlie's anymore but you're bound to see one another. She knows that. She's probably waiting for you to notice."

"Fine." I wrenched my tools out of the box and dove into the hood.

"Jake-"

"Didn't you say this should be done by nine?" I asked him without looking his way. I kept up my pretense well after I heard his feet shuffled back into the office, and then I just sat down on the floor and relearn how to breathe.