𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 ☾ 𝒑𝒂𝒖𝒍 𝒍𝒂𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒆

[07]

Bella, Lizzie, and Jacob finished the bikes over the next month, Bella sometimes going over even when Lizzie couldn't, continuing to work on them with Jake.

Through the course of time, Bella was starting to get better. She smiled. Laughed. Had fun. Lizzie was able to move back home for a while, but the nightmares started coming back. Charlie called her in the middle of the night, asking for her help. She went over, but Bella was still freaking out.

She seemed to lighten up, though, when they went to test drive the bikes the next day. Lizzie was still exhausted, and she fell asleep on Jake's shoulder on the way.

"What if I told you I couldn't fix these bikes?" Jacob asked.

"Are you doubting your and Lizzie's mad skills?" Bella asked, quirking her eyebrow.

"No, definitely not," Jacob stated. "I mean they'll run fine, it's just- uh, maybe if I was smart I would have dragged out the rebuild a little bit."

"If you told me you couldn't fix these bikes, I would say that that's really too bad, but that we're just gonna have to find something else to do." Bella replied. She pulled over on the highway a little bit, making Lizzie wake up. "Is that Sam Uley?" She asked, pointing to a cliff just off the road. There were a line of boys atop it, and they were all shoving each other around.

"Yeah. Him and his cult." Jacob replied drily. They shoved the one boy off the cliff, and he dove gracefully into the water.

"Oh my god. Did you see that?" Bella asked, worry lacing her voice as she jumped out of the truck and ran to the barrier. Lizzie and Jacob followed, the latter laughing at her worry.

"They're not really fighting, Bella. They're cliff diving. Scary as hell, but a total rush." Jacob explained as he leaned against the truck.

"A rush?" Bella asked, staring. Lizzie watched, her eye catching one boy in particular, as he did a flip off of the cliff, diving into the water.

"Most of us jump from lower down. We leave the showing off to Sam and his disciples." Jake continued.

"You have some kind of beef with him or something?" Bella asked, coming back.

"Oh, does he ever." Lizzie said, shaking her head. Jake shot her a look.

"I don't know. They just think they run this place. Embry used to call them hall monitors on steroids. Now look at him."

"What?" Lizzie asked, her head snapping up. She glanced up just in time to see the boy, his hair cut and now running around with Sam, jump off the cliff with a yell. He was almost unrecognizable.

"That's Embry?" Bella asked, frowning.

"Yeah."

"What happened to him?"

"He missed some school. Now all of a sudden he's following Sam around like a little puppy. Same thing happened with Paul and Jared. Sam keeps giving me this look. Like he's waiting for me or something. It's kinda starting to freak me out." Jacob explained.

"Well, you should just avoid him." Bella advised.

"I try."

The three of them made it to the spot they agreed to test the bikes. Jacob showed Bella how the bike worked while Lizzie nervously watched on. She trusted Bella, to an extent, but after what Jess said about that night, she was a little nervous. Bella released the clutch and sped up, the bike flying past them. Maybe they should have brought helmets. Bella started whipping her head back, like she was looking at something, before she started swerving.