Beating Heart | j. black

1

"Goodbye, mom, I'll miss you," Lily Swan hugged her mother, Renee, tightly and walked towards the car, where her stepfather Phil was waiting by the car. She sat down in the backseat and put her headphones in, "You ready girls?' Renee looked back at her daughters who nodded awkwardly. They were going back to Forks, Washington to live with their father Charlie, who they hadn't seen in what seems like forever.

The drive to the airport was short, along with the plane ride, the girls barely spoke, tensions were quite high. "Hey girls," Charle welcomes his daughters with open arms, "Hey Charlie,"
Lily went and hugged her father, who unfortunately felt like a stranger to her, Bella watched unsure of what to do. Lily motioned her head towards Charlie and Bella gave him the same sort of greeting.

The drive to Forks seemed like a lifetime compared to the previous drive, the three sat in silence as they approached the town, "Your hairs gotten longer," Charlie said to Bella, "I cut it since the last time I saw you," Lily quietly chuckled at this, it was somewhat comedic to her. "Must've grown out," Charlie muttered before turning into the driveway of his home.

Lily felt a wave of nostalgia flow through her as she looked at the tall two-story home with white paint fraying at the edges and remembered watching baseball with her dad, running around with her sister on the lawn, and having family dinners.

Bella went in first, but Lily waited a while. She sat on the porch and watched the cars pass by until, "Lils, come on inside, I want to show you your room," Lily obeyed her father and followed him into the house, it smelled of fish, beer, and cologne, but that would soon change as Lily was already making plans to 'febreeze' the house when Charlie went to work. "It's down the hall from Bella's, mine is downstairs," she nodded and walked to the end of the hall.

"Here we go," she quietly whispered to herself and she turned the handle and walked through the door. It was perfect. It could use some redecorating but to Lily it was perfect, left exactly as it was the last time she was in forks, "I hope everything's alright with the room, oh and remember there's only one bathroom," Charlie popped his head in quickly to check on his daughter and left in the blink of an eye.

Lily flopped onto her bed and just lay there for a while when she heard a car pull into the driveway, she went outside and saw Bella and Charlie speaking with Billy Black and a boy who appeared to be his son.

"Hey Lils, just in time, I'm sure you remember Billy and his son Jacob," Jacob, now she remembered, "Of course, the storyteller and the bully," a smirk appeared on Jacobs' face, "Bully? Now if I remember correctly it was you who was the bully," Charlie piped up, "Alright settle down now, Bella, here's your homecoming present."

Lily tuned out the rest of this conversation and thought about Jacob, remembering moments of her childhood that she had tuned out for the past couple years, "Lily, you alright?" She snapped out of her daydream, "Yeah, Charlie, I'm good." After some more small talk, Billy and Jacob left, and Lily and Bella continued to settle in.

— a few hours later —

"Girls, dinner!" Charlie shouted from the kitchen, Lily exited her room and made her way to the kitchen where Bella and Charlie were waiting. The night was, to put it into one word, awkward. Charlie tried his best to catch up with the girls but Bella was very closed off and more focused on her food than the conversation.

Lily tried to make an effort to have a conversation with her father but it was mostly small talk with long pauses of thinking what to say next.

Lily retired to her room afterward and Bella followed her in. "Hey, you nervous about tomorrow?" The amount of small talk occurring in the Swan residence made Lily uneasy, nevertheless she indulged her sister, "Not really, I mean we'll both meet new people, get used to the town again, nothing to worry about, what about you?"

Bella shifted awkwardly on her sisters' bed, "I-I don't know, I just miss Arizona," Lily embraced her sister in a tight hug and gave her reassurance, "We're gonna be okay, Bells, we always were and we always will be."

Bella smiled at her younger sister and left the room, leaving Lily to her thoughts, thoughts of her mother in Jacksonville, thoughts of Forks, and Jacob, but most of all thoughts of her first day of school.

She picked up her sketchbook and a pencil and started drawing random shapes that turned into flowers, trees, houses, fields, and fell asleep surrounded by a scatter of crumpled paper, broken pencils, and her sketchbook in her hand.

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Word Count [829]

So here's the first chapter of my Twilight fanfiction! I'm extremely excited to start this series and share what I've written.

Next chapter involves the Swan sisters first day of school, and the introduction of the Cullens... So stay tuned!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed.