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RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT

THE MINUTE BELLA GOT ONTO THE BIKE, BILLIE KNEW SOMETHING WAS ABOUT TO GO WRONG.

In hindsight, something going wrong was a given to due how naturally clumsy the Swan girl happened to be. Even when Jacob had just finished walking her through the bike's mechanics, it jolted forward rather harshly.

The gasp Bella let out had both Jacob and Billie inching forward, the later furrowing her eyebrows as she looked on at her friend. "Seriously Bells, if you're not feeling it, we can try again tomorrow," she offered, seeing the uncomfortableness phase onto the brunette's face.

The look disappeared like it was never even there when she nodded. "I'm gonna go again," she declared, revving the bike into action. In a flash, she was racing down the gravelled and slightly dirty path, the wind rushing through her hair.

Billie was definitely not into motorcycles or dirt bikes or really any sort of two wheeled machinery, but even she had to admit that it looked kind of fun. Her smile at the thought dropped as soon as she noticed her friend begin to swerve on the path, shouting out a string of curses as she began losing control.

"Hit the brake!" Jacob shouted, also taking note that Bella was just one misstep away from eating shit.

His advice went unheard as Bella was thrown from the bike, tumbling onto the ground and hitting a nearby boulder with a hard thump. Rather than wait for Jacob to start up the other bike to reach the girl on the ground, Billie broke out into a sprint towards her friend's crumpled figure.

Jacob obviously beat her there by a millisecond, and she could thank her years of being on the track team for her speed, but both parties instantly crowded around Bella. She looked like she was in some sort of daze, eyes blinking at them owlishly as she muttered, "I want to go again."

"So not happening," Billie outright denied, shifting on her knees to help the girl sit upright.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Jacob asked in retaliation, stopping the girl from trying to stand, "forget it."

When Jacob murmured something about the girl's head, Billie turned her own to take a peak, and when she did she instantly felt her stomach churn at the sight of blood dripping from the brunette's temple. "Oh, I'm gonna be sick," she whimpered quietly, eyes now promptly avoiding looking at the crimson and instead narrowing in on Bella's flushed cheek. Billie had always been squeamish, and the mere sight of blood at all had her stomach flipping around like it was on a trampoline.

When Bella lifted her hand, touching the wound. "Ow— I'm sorry."

"What, you're apologizing for bleeding?" he asked, clearly dumbfounded. "It's just blood, Bella. No big deal."

Billie shook her head, trying her damndest to be supportive. "Not even your fault, Bells— but no more bikes... seriously." In reality, her stomach hadn't ceased its onslaught of tumbles yet.

Suddenly, Jacob lifted his shirt over his head, revealing a muscled physique that did not scream 'hey I'm sixteen years old'. He started dabbing the wound with the cloth, and Billie forced herself to stand when they started staring at one another.

Yeah, she didn't need to be a part of that.

"I'm just gonna... wait in the truck."

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School the following morning was fine, except after being holed up on the reservation all weekend thanks to observing the finishing touches on the bikes, it made her miss the Forks friends she had. She'd honestly been spending the bulk of her time with Bella, coaxing her out of her depressiveness, so much so that she hadn't even seen Jess outside of school in weeks. The lunch bell couldn't have come sooner, and soon Billie found herself seated in between her two oldest friends.

She was practically in the Stanley girl's lap, picking food off of her tray while she talked to Angela who was seated on Jessica's other side. "Something spooky in the woods... tell me more!"

"Eric only believes her because he's trying to get lucky," Jess interjected through her chewing. She swatted Billie's hand when she tried to pry a cucumber from her tray, but ended up handing it to her blonde friend anyway.

Despite Eric's laughter, Angela continued. "No, it was jet black and huge," she described, leaning closer to the table which allowed Billie to lean back in her seat. "On all fours it was still taller than a person."

"Do you think it was just a big bear?" Billie questioned with a raised eyebrow, asking Angela to give them the rest of her thoughts. The hispanic girl was a smart cookie; surely she had her theories, and Billie wanted to hear them.

"Or an alien?" Eric offered up, resulting in Billie kicking his calf. This didn't deter him as he continued on with a laugh, "you're lucky you didn't get probed."

When the table erupted into giggles, even Angela laughing at the absurdity of Eric's response, another voice, one that none of them had heard at their table in a long time, chimed in.

"You know you're not the only one," Bella said, hovering behind the empty seat that was positioned in between Billie and Mike. The table went a little silent, but the Burbank girl gave her friend a reassuring smile to continue. Bella took this as her chance to take the empty seat, addressing Angela once more. "My dad's been getting reports at the station— like, five hikers have been killed by some bear, but they can't find the bear."

Angela hummed, clicking her tongue at this new information as she turned to Eric. Only, Eric deflected her accusatory glare and laughed nervously. "That's the last time any of you clowns doubt my girlfriend," he said to the others at the table.

The couple started a conversation between themselves, allowing Billie the chance to squeeze Bella's knee. Their eyes locked for a moment, the blonde nodding in greeting. "Proud of you," she whispered, just low enough for Bella to hear.

Bella mouthed a simple thank you back to her friend, hand going on top of where Billie's was to squeeze it. The blonde then turned to the Stanley girl who had been watching the exchange, and there was a glint in her eyes that Billie just couldn't place.

"You alright?" she asked the brunette, knocking her foot with her own gently.

Jess nodded, yet began stabbing the life out of her salad. "Yeah, totally," she lied, and Billie knew that she knew that she'd been caught in the lie when she huffed. "Can we hang out this weekend? Just the two of us— so we can study for our English midterm, obviously."

Billie smiled at her friend. "Of course! My mom's been dying to see you anyways, so that actually works out great," she told her, watching as a relieved look flashed across Jessica's face. "Just us two, yeah?"

Now, Billie had always seen the good in everyone; some liked to call that her fatal flaw, but she saw it as the very trait that made Billie Burbank Billie Burbank. So, she was naturally oblivious to Jessica's inner scheme of getting her alone on the premise that she thought Bella was stealing Billie from her. It was childish, Jess knew this, but she wasn't about to lose her best friend and Mike to the new girl.

No, Jessica Stanley wouldn't allow it.

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[ wyn's note ]

jess is plotting, scheming, if you will. cue jealous girl by lana del rey honestly, cause yikes.

also don't fret, two more chapters until we arrive in italy (but these chapters will be very very important to setting up the shenanigans of eclipse).

till the next one! xx