Beating Heart | j. black

4

Lily's eyes fluttered open, the bright ray of sun impairing her vision for a second, it was Sunday. Ironically, she felt a rush of warmth even though Forks was a cold and rainy town. She stretched her arms above her head and dramatically rolled out of bed, walking over to her mirror she brushed out her dark brown hair and began curling it.

"Bella!" Lily shouted to her sister, who was most likely sleeping, "Um, yeah, what's wrong," spluttered Bella who poked her head into Lily's room. "Relax, you spaz, I'm going to hang out with a friend today so don't miss me too much," Lily joked, but Bella wasn't one for jokes lately, "Oh, yeah I won't, have fun."

Lily furrowed her brows, shaking her head as Bella awkwardly walked out of the room. Her behavior since coming back to Forks was, in one word, weird. She put the thought out of her head and continued getting ready. Throwing on a black leather jacket overtop of a plain white t-shirt and a pair of black jeans, Lily gave herself a look of approval in the mirror and went downstairs.

She looked out the window of the front door and saw Charlie's car was already gone, so she made herself some toast and put on her favorite black boots. The bike to La Push seemed shorter than the previous day, mainly because she was heavily anticipating hanging out with Jacob before going back to school.

"Hey, Lily, you came," Jacob cheerily said walking out of the garage to greet her. "Well I had nowhere better to go so here I am," she smiled, sauntering past Jacob who gave her a rather quizzical look. "So what's the plan for today?" Lily asked, hopping on the stool she sat on the previous day, "Um, I'm fixing my car, and you're watching," Jacob said as if he was speaking to a toddler.

"Oooh sounds fun," Lily sarcastically said, "What sounds fun?" Two boys made their way into the garage, one resembled Jacob perfectly, same skin tone, same hair, same height. The other was smaller, a slightly fairer skin tone, and short curly hair.

"Oh, guys, this is Lily," Jacob motioned to Lily, "Hey," the long-haired boy raised his hand and waved at her, "I'm Embry." A strange name, Lily thought to herself, but it was nice. The other boy walked over to Lily in a cocky manner and extended his hand to her saying, "Quil Ateara the fifth, nice to meet you."

Lily looked at him in amusement, then looked over at Jacob and whispered, "Really?" Jacob shrugged his shoulders and let out a short laugh. She turned back to Quil, "Yeah, okay, cool," she muttered in the most unimpressed tone she possibly could.

"So anyway, how do you guys know each other?" Lily said, averting her gaze over to Embry, "We've known each other since we were kids, what about you and Jake?"

"We've known each other since we were kids," Lily said mocking Embry, even though it was true. "Aw, isn't that so sweet," Quil teased, walking over to Jacob and playfully punching his arm.

"Hey, Quil, shut up," Embry said cheerfully, making Lily laugh, "Make me," Quil puffed up his chest and waddled over to Embry, shoving him backward.

"Ladies, please," Jacob put himself between the boys, Lily was laughing hysterically.

"Don't make me hurt you too pretty boy," Quil said standing on the tip of his toes to match Jacobs height. Embry walked over to Lily and they stood watching the other boys wrestle on the ground.

"5 bucks on Quil," Embry whispered to Lily, "Are you kidding me? Jacobs got this in the bag." As she said that, Jacob had Quils arms behind his back, pinned to the ground.

Lily held her hand out to Embry and smiled triumphantly and Embry placed a 5 dollar bill in her hand.

"Okay guys, out, I gotta work on the Rabbit." Jacob huffed, out of breath. "Can we stay, please," Quil begged as if he were a child, "Okay stay but distract me and I'll throw you to the end of the yard."

Quil, Embry, and their new friend Lily sat and talked while Jacob worked on the car. Jacob would chime in once in a while, mainly to diss Quil. Lily was enjoying her time with the boys, telling them about Phoenix and how she missed Forks.

"Well, you're lucky you got out of here before the 'Steroid Squad' started acting like they run things around here." Steroid Squad? Lily thought to herself, Embry explained, "Sam Uley and his minions."

Lily was still thoroughly confused, "Jared and Paul used to hang with us, but then they changed. Sam recruited them into his little cult, now they keep trying to rope us in," Jacob scoffed at the thought of the so-called 'Steroid Squad'. "Interesting," Lily said, still quite confused, but seeing as how upset talking about them made the guys she decided to ask no questions.

"Well, you guys are much cooler than them," Lily said smiling at them, "Well, that's nice and all, but you haven't met them so you can't really judge," Lily shoved her elbow into Quils ribs as if to say 'just take the compliment' and he winced in pain, "Woah, you're strong for a girl." Unamused, Lily rolled her eyes and looked over to Jacob.

"Hey, Jake, need any help?' She asked standing up, "No, I could've used some help like an hour ago, but I'm good now," he joked, also standing up. "In that case, I should probably go, it's getting pretty late."

She gave Jacob a quick hug and she turned to face Quil and Embry. "Come on, stay for a little while," Quil begged.

"Damn, you're so whiney," she laughed and hugged Quil, who wouldn't drop his pouty face. Embry gave her a warm smile and she returned the same. "Come back tomorrow morning?" He asked her with the same smile, "I have school," Lily groaned.

"Skip it, school's a drag," Quil interrupted, "I've only been here for a week, I can't start skipping now." She exited the garage and the three boys smiled deviously at each other, they had a plan.

Lily hopped on her bike and rode home. She had a rather enjoyable day with the boys, though the week would be long without seeing them until the weekend. She wondered about the 'Steriod Squad', she had never seen them around anywhere, though she hadn't been in town long.

Exhausted from the long ride home, she slowly made her way up the porch stairs, Charlie was still at work seeing at his car wasn't in the driveway, though it was getting dark so he should arrive soon.

"Bella!" Lilly called, she heard a loud thump, "Ow! Yeah, I'm upstairs," Lily rushed upstairs to see what had happened.

"Did you like, die?" She joked, Bella was lying on the ground, hugging her knees, "No, you scared me and I fell out of bed." Lily tried to hold her laugh but it was no use, the corner of Bella's lip pulled upward and she laughed awkwardly.

"Sorry Bells," Lily said in between laughs, she walked down the hall to her own room and collapsed on the bed, legs aching. Picking up her sketchpad she began to draw what she thought the Steroid Squad would look like, big arms and legs, incedibly toned, broad shoulders, chiseled jaws.

She laughed to herself, then she realized she had laughed a lot today. It had been a good day.
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Word Count: [1265]

This was a super cute chapter in my opinion. I really loved it :) So I'm sure you can already tell that the friendship between these four (Lily, Jacob, Embry, and Quil) will grow.

Next chapter is going to be the beginning of some development between Lily and Bella, I think it's really sweet :)

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Vote and comment <3