FORKS, WASHINGTON WAS GLOOMIER than Edgewood, but Lydia didn't really mind. She supposed the weather was fitting, given the circumstances that brought her and her family to the small, rainy town.
She set down her last box, glad to be done lugging her things up the stairs. She could hear her mothers downstairs, already beginning to unpack in the kitchen and living room. Lydia looked around her room, taking in the layout. Right now, the only things in her room, aside from the boxes, was a queen-sized bed, a bookshelf, a dresser, a desk and chair, and a nightstand to the left of the bed. The furniture was all white, which matched well with the blush pink walls. Her bed was against the wall opposite to the bedroom door and the bathroom door. There was a large window on the wall to the left of her bed, looking out into the forest behind their backyard. It was a beautiful view, especially with the raindrops streaking down the glass.
Lydia unpacked her bedding first, going to work on making her bed. When that was finished, she turned to the box full of desk supplies. She worked on unpacking for a while, turning on some soft music to hum along to.
Lydia was nearly finished unpacking when Tracy called her downstairs for dinner. She stood up and walked down the staircase, joining her two mothers in the kitchen. There were two boxes of pizza on the table—one cheese and one meat lovers. Lydia grinned, taking a plate and grabbing two slices of cheese.
The family of three sat down and ate together, making light conversation.
"How do you like Forks so far?" Johanna asked.
"It's rainier than back home, but I think I'll get used to that," Lydia replied honestly. "I like it here so far. It feels cozy."
Tracy smiled. "Good."
Lydia returned her smile, feeling an immense sense of gratefulness as she looked at her mothers. They'd picked up their entire lives to move to a new town just so Lydia could start fresh after what had happened to her. She was incredibly lucky to have them.
When they were all finished eating, Lydia volunteered to do the dishes. She hummed to herself as she quickly got it done, returning to her unpacking when she was through.
She was finished unpacking everything by eight-thirty. She dropped down onto her bed, the day's events catching up with her. With a half-hearted groan, she sat back up and went to her attached bathroom, grabbing a towel out of her cupboard.
After a long shower, Lydia set about getting ready for bed. She knew it was fairly early for her, but she was exhausted from moving. When she was ready to go to bed, she told her parents goodnight and laid down, praying no nightmares would find her that night.
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Lydia woke to Johanna shaking her lightly. Lydia let out a soft groan, opening her eyes with a little bit of effort and looking up at her mom.
"Morning, honey," Johanna said softly. "It's nine, but we're going to go have breakfast with Mama's friend and his family, so you need to get ready. We're leaving at nine forty-five."
"Okay," Lydia murmured, her voice still raspy from sleep. She sat up as her mother left the bedroom, closing the door behind her. Rubbing her face to try to wake herself up a little, she thought about what she should wear. A quick glance out of the window showed that it was cloudy, which she suspected was a near-constant, but there was no rain.
Lydia grabbed her phone and checked the weather forecast. Throwing back her covers, she got out of bed. She winced at the coldness of her hardwood floors. She went to her closet, picking out a suitable outfit for the temperature outside and the occasion. She liked to make good first impressions, and even though she was pretty sure she'd already met Tracy's friend before, she still wanted to dress nicely.
She put on dark wash skinny jeans and a pale teal sweater. She paired them with her favorite brown ankle boots, then went to her bathroom to freshen up.
By nine-forty, she was ready to go. She went downstairs after grabbing her phone and purse. Her mothers were both ready to go, so they went ahead and got into the car. As her mom drove, Lydia looked out of the window, taking in the scenery.
"Michael has a daughter your age, Lydia," Tracy said from the passenger seat. "Her name's Gwen. You two used to play together whenever we all got together, but you were both pretty little, so you might not remember. She's a junior at Forks, too, so I'm sure she can show you around. He has a son, too—Nicholas. He's in middle school, I believe."
"Great," Lydia said. "At least I'll know one person at school."
Her mom looked at her through the rear-view mirror. "You'll make friends easily, Lydia. You've always been very charismatic."
While her mom was right, Lydia wasn't sure she wanted to make a lot of friends at her new school. Sure, one or two would be nice, but did she want another friend group? The last one she had dropped her without attempting to understand what she was going through. She wasn't sure she could go through that again.
They arrived at a small café. The exterior was nice and inviting, with large windows across the front that let passersby look into it. Lydia followed her mothers into the café, taking in the decor. It was decorated nicely, with pretty light fixtures over every booth and throughout the rest of the building. She spotted a few different pieces of artwork and photographs on the walls. Whoever was responsible for the decor had great taste.
"Michael!" Tracy exclaimed, hugging a man in one of the booths. The man picked Lydia's mama up off the ground, not having any trouble given how small she was. Lydia smiled at the reunion, even though she barely remembered her mama's best friend.
When Michael put Tracy down, Johanna hugged him as well. "It's good to see you, Michael," she said, giving him a friendly smile.
"It's always a pleasure, Johanna," Michael replied. He looked at Lydia, his smile growing. "Lydia!" he said. "God, you've grown up."
"It has been about fourteen years since the last time you saw her," Tracy pointed out.
Michael laughed as he gestured for them to sit down. "Lydia, I'm not sure if you remember, but this is my partner, Nicholas, and our children, Gwen and Rory."
Lydia gave Michael's family a polite smile. "It's nice to see you all."
A waitress came and took their orders. When she walked away with their orders, Michael asked Lydia, "You're a junior like Gwen, right?"
"Yeah," Lydia said, smiling at the aforementioned girl. Gwen returned her smile with a warm one of her own. She was a very pretty girl—with blonde waves and sparkling blue eyes that shone with kindness. The softness of her smile just added to her beauty.
"I can pick you up tomorrow for school and show you around, if you'd like?" Gwen offered.
Lydia's smile widened. "That would be great, thank you."
"Of course," Gwen said.
The two families continued to converse, the conversation barely lulling when their meals arrived. Lydia found that she and Gwen had a lot in common—they had the same taste in music, they both enjoyed fashion and makeup, and they both had a sport they'd been playing since they were little. While Lydia's was soccer, Gwen's was volleyball. As they laughed and chatted, Lydia could see her and Gwen becoming very close friends. She was glad—she could use a friend.
About half an hour after everyone had finished eating, the two families finally decided to part ways. Gwen and Lydia exchanged numbers before they parted, with Gwen telling her she'd pick her up at seven-forty the next morning.
Before they went home, they ran to the store to get some new school supplies for Lydia. When they were finally back, Lydia went up to her room to organize her things for school the next day. She took her time labeling her notebooks and organizing her backpack, thankful for the distraction from her thoughts.
She made herself a simple ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, knowing Johanna was out meeting with some of her new co-workers and Tracy had run to do a few errands before dinner. After finishing her lunch, she went back up to her room, resolving to start hanging up some of her wall decorations.
Lydia took out her box of decorations, excited to finish decorating her room. She carefully hung up the string lights she'd brought from her old room, hanging them above her headboard. When she was sure they were secure, she moved on to the rest of her wall decorations.
After a while of decorating, Lydia picked up the shoebox she'd put at the bottom of her decorations box. She let out a quiet sigh, opening it. There were a lot of pictures, some developed, some polaroid, some from a photobooth.
She picked up the photograph on top, smiling at the subjects. It was of her and her mothers on their wedding day. Lydia was almost three, she believed, dressed in an adorable baby blue dress with her hair braided to the side. Both of her mothers wore beautiful white dresses, different but matching each other beautifully. Lydia barely remembered that day, since she had been so young, but she remembered how happy her mom was to marry her mama.
Lydia's father had died when Lydia was only a few months old, which had broken Johanna's heart. They weren't married, but he was her best friend, much like Michael was Tracy's. They'd had a drunken one-night stand that resulted in Lydia, but they were both ecstatic to be parents. When he was killed in a car crash, Lydia's mother lost her best friend of fifteen years.
It was Tracy who helped her mother through it. And in the process, the two friends fell in love.
Lydia smiled, putting the picture aside. She picked up the next one. It was of her father, Benjamin Rowe, holding her as an infant. He had a wide grin on his face as he looked down at baby Lydia. Johanna often told her she'd gotten her personality from him—he'd been a friendly, outgoing person who did everything he could to care for the people he loved.
She put that picture with the previous one, taking the next one and examining it. Her happy mood diminished a bit as she looked at the picture of her and her old friends, all sitting on Samantha's couch. Lydia had a leg thrown across Rachel's lap as the girls all smiled happily at the camera. Lydia studied her own face, trying to remember what she had felt like at that moment. Before everything came falling down around her.
She laid that photo down away from the previous two, starting a new stack. She went through the rest of her photos, smiling nostalgically at some of the pictures of her and her old friends. Even though they had hurt her by refusing to believe her, she still missed the times they'd spent together.
Lydia came across a photo of herself and another little girl, her face vaguely familiar. With a smile, she realized it was her and Gwen as toddlers. She barely remembered their visits to Forks as a kid, but the picture brought a smile to her face. She put it with the pictures she wanted to put up on her walls.
The next picture made her heart sink. It was a polaroid of her and Justin, taken by Rachel when she'd gotten her new polaroid camera for her birthday. She was on her tiptoes, kissing Justin's cheek. The sight made her sick to her stomach as she put it into the other stack, facedown.
When she was done going through her photos, she had a significantly smaller stack of pictures to display compared to the other stack. She set the smaller stack on her desk, then looked down at the other. Picking them up, she went to the small wastebasket next to her desk. She dropped them into the wastebasket, a weight lifting off of her shoulders as the pictures hit the bottom.
She sat back down on her bed, just a little more ready to start her life over.