WHERE I BELONG [P. LAHOTE]

[05]

"Where the hell did you manage to find these again," Skylar asked, amused. Bella had found dirt bikes that were more scrap than bike, and wanted to bring them to Jake for him to fix up.

Bella simply shrugged. "So you'll come with me?"

"Of course I'll come with you! Jake's been asking about you," Skylar winked at her sister. "I think he has a small crush on ya." Bella looked down, embarrassed. Laughing loudly, Skylar loaded up in her sister's truck, looking forward to seeing Jake again.

Pulling up in the Blacks' driveway, Skylar glanced over to Bella who looked nervous. Getting out, she saw Jake looking out the shed, face lighting up when he noticed the Swan twins. "Sky! Bella!" Picking up Skylar in a bear hug, she squealed as he twirled her around. Setting her back down, he did the same to Bella. "Where the hell have you been, loca?"

Bella laughed, running a hand through her hair. "I, uh, brought you something." Opening the back of her truck, she continued. "It's a little crazy." She pulled the green sheet up, revealing the bikes.

"Wow," Jake sarcastically said. "Scrap metal. You shouldn't have."

"I told her the same thing!" Skylar bellowed, punching Jake in the arm. Bella cleared her throat. "I think they'll probably cost more to fix than they're worth, but then I thought of the mechanic friend that Sky keeps mentioning to help me out then..."

"Ah! Me being the mechanic friend that Sky keeps mentioning," he said, giving the said twin a wink.

"That's right," Bella nodded. Jake motioned towards the bikes, "Since when are you into motorcycles?"

"Since now," Bella said, pausing. "I get it if you think that this is really stupid and reckless."

"Yeah, I mean, it's completely stupid and reckless," Jake mumbled. Skylar glanced between the two talking, smirking. He continued, "When do we start?" Bella looked up at Jake and Skylar, relieved. "Um. Now. Please?"

"All right," he chuckled.

Lifting the green sheet completely off the bikes, Jake grabbed one, making Bella speak up. "Oh, hey, be careful. Those things are actually really heavy, so..." trailing off as he lifted it up and set it on the ground. Sky walked up and threw an arm around the much taller boy. "Our friend Jake here is super buff."

"How did that happen? You're, like, 16. I don't get it," Bella stated. Jake smirked, "Mmm-hmm. Age is just a number, baby. What are you, like 40 now?"

Bella looked taken back before walking beside her friend and sister. "It feels like that sometimes."

The three of them continued to joke around, walking inside the shed and began to work on the bike. Well, Jake worked on it while Skylar attempted to help and Bella handed them tools. Jake had been teaching the Swan twin about fixing up motors and the training was beginning to pay off.

Weeks went by and the routine was almost the same daily for the two twins. Bella seemed to be getting over her funk, and after school, the two would head over to the Black residence to fix up the bikes.

Skylar rolled her eyes as she watched the two argue about age. She was about to interrupt when someone else did. "Yo, Jake, you in there?" She snorted when she saw Bella duck down.

"It's okay," Jake reassured. "It's just my boys."

"Hey, Jake," Quil said. Jake nodded, "Hey. Guys, this is Bella. Bella, that's Quil and Embry."

"Guys!" Skylar yelled, running up to both of them and giving them giant hugs. "I haven't seen you in foreverrr," she drawled out. Standing beside Embry, she watched as Quil flirted with Bella, making her roll her eyes.

"So the bike building story is true," Quil said.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, I taught him everything he knows," Bella stated, looking at the bike. Quil continued. "What about the part where you're his girlfriend?" Skylar snorted.

"Uh..." Bella trailed off, looking at her twin for help – Skylar smirked and raised her hands. "We're friends, you know."

Embry laughed. "Oh burn."

"Actually," Jake said before the two of them could go on, "remember I said she's a girl and a friend."

"Embry, do you remember him making that distinction," Quil teased. "Nope."

"So you guys have girlfriends? That's awesome," Bella said. Embry pulled Skylar closer, rubbing his knuckles along her hair. "Yeah, and Skylar here is mine," he pestered.

"Piss off, Embry. You wish I was," Skylar shouted, trying to escape Embry's hold.

"Yeah, right," Jake laughed. "Quil's actually taking his cousin to prom." Embry laughed, letting go of Skylar, who then punched him as hard as she could.

"Yeah, that's still a riot," Quil retorted. "You want funny, Black? I'll give you funny," he lunged.

Embry and Skylar walked over towards Bella, trying to avoid being hit. "Five bucks on Quil," Embry bet. "Oh, you're ass is so on," Skylar said, not taking her eyes off the fight.

The routine still stayed the same, with the two Swan's coming over all the time. Eventually, the bikes were both ready to hit the road. Somehow, the three of the managed to fit in the seat of Bella's truck.

"If I told you," Jake began to say, "that I couldn't fix these bikes, what would you have said?"

Bella adjusted her hand on the wheel, sparing a glance towards Jake. "Are you doubting your mad skills?"

"No," Jake scoffed. "Definitely not. I mean, they'll run fine. It's just," he paused, looking at Bella, then Skylar for a second before continuing, "Maybe if I was smart, I would have dragged out the rebuild a bit." Skylar sat back a little bit and started to pretend to play with her phone to let her sister and friend have their little moment.

"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 said. Jake looked at her before laughing, nodding his head.

Bella pointed out the windshield. "Is that Sam Uley?" Skylar looked up to see four boys on a cliff, playfully wrestling around.

"Yeah," Jake said. "Him and his cult." The three of them watched as they pushed one of the cliff, cheering as they did so. "Oh my, god," Bella muttered, pulling over the truck. "Did you see that?"

Skylar ran behind Bella towards the edge of the road, alarmed. She turned when she heard Jake laughing. "They're not really fighting, girls. They're cliff diving. Scary as hell, but a total rush."

"A rush?" Bella asked. Jake nodded, "Most of us jump from lower down. We leave the showing off to Sam and his disciples."

Skylar began to walk back towards the truck, trying to calm her hair with the wind blowing it every which way. "You have a problem with them?"

Jake shrugged. "I don't know. They just think they run this place. Embry used to call them hall monitors on steroids. Now look at him." Skylar whirled around, scanning the two males left. "That's Embry?" she gasped. "What the hell happened?"

He shook his head. "He missed some school. Now all of a sudden, he started following Sam around like a little puppy. Same thing happened with Paul and Jared," Jake looked down before continuing. "Sam keeps giving me this look, like he's waiting for me or something. It's kind of starting to freak me out."

"Well, you should just avoid him," Bella said, furrowing her eyebrows.

Jake shook his head again. "I try."