THE CAR soon pulled into the driveway and into the garage next to their small house on the outskirts of Seattle, and Avery began to stir as Sera hopped out on her side. With a yawn, the girl stretched out her arms until they met the soft material of the ceiling, and she rubbed her eyes before helping her sister bring the luggage back into the empty house.
"I'll probably head out early tomorrow morning," Sera murmured, standing in the doorway to Avery's room. The girl had just set her laptop down on the wooden desk next to the twin-sized mattress with a dark blue duvet and pillows on top of it. Apart from a large bookshelf and some potted plants, there wasn't really anything else in the room, as until recently, when Avery started university, the two had moved around a lot.
"Okay. Breakfast?" Avery asked, raising an eyebrow with a hopeful expression. Sera shook her head. "I think I'll leave as soon as the sun rises."
Avery walked over to her sister and wrapped her arms around her, resting her head on Sera's shoulder, as the blonde was slightly taller. "Be careful, alright?"
Sera nodded, ruffling Avery's hair gently before holding her at arm's length. "I promise."
With a soft smile Avery held up her hand, her pinkie raised in the air. "Promise?" Returning the smile, Sera linked her pinkie with that of her sister and nodded.
"Kick their asses, will you?" — "You bet. And now go to bed. It's been a long day." — "Love you." — "Love you, too."
❖
A few days later, Avery still hadn't heard from her sister. She knew that, by now, she should be used to it, but whenever it took Sera more than a week to message or call her, she couldn't help but start worrying.
She tried staying preoccupied with assignments and editing jobs, but when she lay in bed at night and stared up at the ceiling, desperately trying to fall asleep, the worry set in.
The morning of the eighth day, a Saturday, Avery was sitting on the kitchen island, coffee and a sandwich next to her and the newspaper in her hands. The rays of sunlight that made their way through the big window opposite her warmed her skin comfortingly, as the girl skimmed through the headlines, occasionally taking a sip from her beverage.
The sudden noise of Avery's phone ringing caused the girl to flinch slightly, before jumping up and discarding the newspaper on the floor. She took two long steps towards the couch and picked up the phone, taking a deep breath before answering without even looking at the caller ID.
"Dalton?"
It was silent for a few seconds until an unknown voice spoke up.
"This is Emily Young. Uh—... Jacob Black gave me your information."
Upon realising it was indeed not her sister calling, Avery frowned slightly, but remembered she was on the phone with a bride in spe and possible client, so she forced herself to focus. "Ah yes, he mentioned that a friend of his was getting married and hadn't hired a photographer yet …?" She dragged out the end of her sentence to sound more like a question, while heading to her room to open her laptop.
"Yes exactly. Well, actually we didn't even want to hire a professional photographer, but when he gave us your website as well I thought Why not look at it, at least?" The hint of a smile appeared on Avery's face. "But then I saw that one recent photo of another wedding, you uploaded as a preview and—well, now I'm calling you, aren't I?"
Leaning back in her chair, Avery scratched the back of her head at the indirect compliment. "So you changed your mind then, I suppose?" — "Well it depends …" — "On what?" — "The price."
The girl let out a chuckle at Emily's undecided tone. "I don't really have a set price, besides, when our car broke down we only had to pay for the new Belt, so I still owe a favor anyway."
On the other end of the line, there was muffled talking, and Avery waited patiently while skimming through her calendar.
"Jake mentioned you wanted to come back to La Push to take some nature photos anyway?" Avery hummed in response. "How about you come here a few days earlier and we pay for your stay at the hotel and the gas—" — "Just the hotel would be more than enough already, Ms Young." - "Oh, please, call me Emily. And are you sure? I know at your age money is a thing that—"
Avery interrupted her again. "Emily, I'm serious. Like I said, I still owe Jacob and Paul a favour, and if I can repay that by documenting this very wonderful and special day for their friends, then I'd be more than happy to do that." Emily chuckled.
"So when is the wedding anyway?" The girl asked. "The second weekend of August," Emily replied and Avery flipped through her calendar until she found the page, everything around it was still entirely free.
Over the course of the next half hour the two discussed further details, and by the time they said their goodbyes both of them felt like they would get along very well, once they actually met in person.
Upon ending the call, Avery picked up some clothes from the pile on a chair in the corner of the room, and got dressed before heading out of the house. A smaller library was within walking distance from the house—something the Dalton girls had both been delighted by, already when they drove past it the first time being in town.
The two-story building was in a rather pitiful condition; while the university library was nearly constantly being worked on, nobody seemed to care about such a comparably small establishment, and whether the whole structure had become dilapidated.
The familiar scent of old books and the wooden shelves put Avery at ease, as she strolled along the aisles for about the hundredth time since they had moved to Seattle. There was nothing in particular the girl was looking for, having already finished all assignments trying to distract herself from worrying about Sera.
Avery worried a fair amount about those she cared about deeply. Thus, she always tried to keep her distance, at least emotionally, since in this world nothing and nobody was permanent. The accident served as a grim reminder of that fact, dwelling in the back of her head at all times.
After aimlessly strolling around for a while, the girl soon found herself in front of the old couch she had sat on so often, studying her father's journals whenever Sera was away. Today, however, she had no book to read or work to do, but she sat down anyway, letting her mind wander off as people entered and left the library one after another.
A red-haired woman named Marina, the owner of the bookshop on the second floor, was on her way down the stairs when she spotted the small figure on the sofa with a glazed look in her eyes. Approaching the girl as carefully and quietly as her stiletto heels would let her, Marina gave a quick wave before sitting down next to her.
"Haven't heard from your sister yet?"
Avery shook her head, slowly turning her head towards the woman, meeting green eyes with her own, before averting her gaze again. "Normally she would have called by now," the brunette sighed, flattening out the material of her jeans awkwardly.
"Oh I'm sure she's just fine, honey. Sera's a tough one—besides, Eleanor went with her, didn't she tell you?" — "I uh- I think she forgot to mention that."
Sera had never introduced the two, but as much as she talked about her, Avery felt like they'd known each other for years. Eleanor often worked together with Sera and to Avery's understanding the two had become rather close partners over time.
"What about you? Why doesn't she bring you along anymore?" Marina asked in a hushed voice, even though the scattered carpets and wooden furniture avoided the sound being carried throughout the rooms.
"No hunting trips during the semester. At least that's what she says at the moment," Avery muttered, pursing her lips. "When I'm on break it's usually either 'But you deserve a break from all the work' or 'It's a small job so no need'."
Marina sighed, tilting her head to the side, trying to decode the indifferent expression on the girl's face. The woman jumped slightly as Avery suddenly stood, giving her a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "But I guess since Eleanor is with her, there's no reason to worry, is there? Thanks for letting me know."
"Oh are you leaving already?" — "Yeah. I still have an assignment due next Friday and just wanted to take a quick break." That was a lie, but Marina didn't need to know that. "Well then good luck, and get home safe."
The girl nodded, the forced smile nearly frozen on her face, as she made her way to the door and back to the empty house. There was nothing in the mailbox aside from bills which she mindlessly dropped on the kitchen counter, next to the newspaper she had discarded earlier when Emily had called.
The remainder of the weekend she spent working on photos, old and new, and doing some extra reading for an upcoming seminar.
The next week, lectures dragged on with even more theoretical examples and exercises, and Avery would have fallen asleep if it wasn't for the boy next to her who would always nudge her arm right before she could rest her head on the desk.
She didn't even know much about him, aside from the fact that his name was Drew, but he had sat next to her in every lecture and class nearly all semester. They would sometimes talk during breaks or sit together at lunch, and she appreciated the company, but after a while he had started to make certain advances that she consciously tried to ignore. This only encouraged him to make repeated attempts at asking her out or flirting, but she always managed to divert his attention or find an excuse.
Even now, as he was leaning on the side of her car and talked about a movie that was coming to theatres soon, Avery only smiled distantly and nodded every so often while other cars left and arrived around them.
Soon enough, Drew excused himself, stating that he was late for Lacrosse practice. Avery waved and gave him another polite smile, before getting into her car and moving to toss her bag onto the passengers seat but she stopped dead in her tracks with a shriek.
"I swear to god, Sera, do this one more time and I'll—" — "Sorry. I saw the opportunity and I took it." Sera gave her sibling a wide grin. "Can we stop somewhere to get food? The fridge is empty."
Avery shrugged, pulling out of the parking lot as she kept glancing over at her older sister. Something appeared off—her smile seemed a bit more stiff, a bit more put on, and her voice sounded louder than normal, as though she was trying to make herself sound excited. Or maybe she was just reading too much into it after worrying for Sera's safety so intensely.
"How is Eli doing?" the brunette asked after a few minutes spent in silence, as Sera adjusted her seatbelt.
"She's— doing alright. How did you know?" — "Marina." — "Of course."
Avery raised an eyebrow, letting out a sigh. "It wouldn't have killed you to give me a call, you know?" — "I know, I know. My phone broke." — "It broke?" Skepticism laced Avery's voice as she stopped at a red light and turned to face her sister. "And you couldn't have used Eleanor's?" — "She doesn't have a phone." — "Or a payphone? Damn it, next time just—please—if you won't let me come along at least let me know you're alive, okay?"
Sera blinked a few times, before giving her sister the first honest smile of the day. "You don't need to worry about me, Ava."