— THREE MONTHS had passed, three painful months of quiet and of the same routine. Brooke was sure she'd become a zombie at this point.

Barely making time for her friends, and spending her time at home with Bella.

So when Bella finally decided to give signs of life and go hang out with Jessica the night before. Brooke took the opportunity to clean her room.

It was a mess.

She was barely in there most nights, in favor of accompanying her sister. 'Fighting off the nightmares' as Brooke would tell Charlie.

But today, Bella stormed into Brooke's bedroom in a rush.

"You know how to get to Jake's house, right?" Bella asked, in an urgent tone. The younger twin simply raised an eyebrow but nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Get dressed, you're driving." Then she was out. Brooke's face fell into one of disbelief. "What? I'm not driving that horrid truck of yours!" Brooke shouted after her twin.

"You have five minutes!"

With a groan, Brooke lazily got up and decided to throw on whatever was comfortable. Which just so happened to be her favored brown juicy couture tracksuit, pairing it with a white spaghetti strapped shirt under the hoodie with some white sneakers.

Jogging down the stairs of her home, she locks the front door with her house key before going down the steps to the drive way.

"What the hell are those?" Brooke pointed at the pieces of scrap metal that Bella had in the trunk.

"A distraction." The answer was simple, and clearly not the answer she was expecting.

"You're so weird."

—

The familiar cabin came into view as they approached the home. The red chipped paint obvious all around the house. Brooke loved it there. She'd spent so many nights in that house.

Listening to Billy tell them the Quilete legends and such. It was her second home.

Jacob came out from the front door, having heard the familiar roar coming from the engine of Bella's old truck. Brooke grinned before hopping out of the vehicle, making sure she'd turned it off.

"Jake!" She squealed, bounding into the arms of her best friend. "Penny! Feels like I haven't seen you in years." Jacob picked her up, spinning her around.

"That's dramatic, Jakey. I've just been with Bells." She gave him a lopsided grin as she pulled away from the embrace.

Jacob finally looked behind his best friend, catching sight of Bella. "Bella!"

Brooke had wandered inside the house, leaving Jacob to greet her sister. "Uncle Billy!" She called out, looking around for the man.

"Sweet Pea!" Billy grinned, turning his head to look over at the girl he considered family. "How you doin', old man?" Brooke walked over to lean down and give him a hug.

"Old man? You wound me, Sweet Pea." The elder man placed his palm over his heart as if she'd just broken his heart.

Bella and Jacob walked in not long after.

"You stayin' for dinner, Penny?" Billy asked, and Brooke shook her head. "No, actually. Bella wanted to come see Jake, we both need to be home for dinner. Y'know how Dad is with cooking."

"You're father can burn water." Billy chuckled.

"Actually, I called Embry on the way here. I'm gonna head over there." Jacob let out a groan. "Embry? I thought I was your best friend." He pouted dramatically.

Although he was right, Embry and Brooke had always been close, from the moment they met. He was like a brother to her and vice versa. The number one reason they were so attached at the hip.

Tiffany Call had become a mother figure to her in her years of friendship with Embry.

"I'll see you guys later. Bella, um, I'll send you the address so you can pick me up?" Brooke looked over at her twin who simply nodded

With a grin, she said her goodbyes before walking out of the home. Starting her way down the road, Embry's house was only a few houses down from Jacob's.

—

"Embry!" Brooke knocked on the front door for what seemed to be like the hundredth time in the past five minutes that she'd been standing outside.

"Jeez! Brooke, could you be any more aggressive?" Embry groaned, opening the brown door.

"I've been standing here for five minutes, Em!" Her disbelief at how long it took him to open the door was obvious.

"I was asleep."

The tan skinned boy opened the door wider for Brooke to enter his home.

"At this time?" Brooke made herself at home on the sofa of his living room. She'd spent days there sometimes, especially during summer, she felt comfortable enough there.

"Why're you here anyway?" Embry plopped himself beside her.

"Bella wanted to see Jake about something, I dunno. I didn't wanna sit and watch Jake try to flirt and fail. It's painful." Brooke shrugged her shoulders.

"You stayin' over?" The girl shook her head.

Before she could answer, a message came into her handheld.

FROM: DAD
another 'bear' sighting.
don't wait up.

"I guess I could. Let me just ask my dad." Brooke told Embry before she typed a response back to her father.

TO: DAD
can i stay at embry's?

Only a few seconds later, Charlie had answered giving her his permission to stay over. She looked over at Embry with a grin, the boy only matching her grin.

"We gotta do somethin' then." Embry said abruptly aftee a few seconds of silence.

That was the thing about Embry, he could never not be doing anything. He always wanted to do something when she was over, or when the group was together.

"I'm not wastin' my teen years sittin' around." He'd say, but he'd sleep in until the afternoon.

"C'mon, let's go to the store. Get some snacks, then we can watch like American Psycho or somethin'." Embry stands from the couch.

"Absolutely not. We're watching Mean Girls." Brooke shook her head as she followed after her best friend. Embry sent her a playful glare as they both walked out of his house.

The store wasn't far, so the teens decided to walk. Embry's mother had taken her car to work, so they couldn't use that, and Brooke was not hopping onto Embry's dirtbike with him.

"No! I've watched that movie far too many times with you." The boy complained, remembering the countless times that Brooke had stayed over and made him watch the movie.

"How about...a Tim Burton film?" Brooke suggested, quirking a brow.

"Which one?" He asked, knowing that she'd been dying to watch one but just hadn't found the time to buy the dvd.

"Charlie and the chocolate factory?" Brooke gave him a persuasive grin, to which Embry simply rolled his eyes at. "If they have it at the store, we'll get it."

"Yes!"

—

DONT WE JUST LOVE BROOKE AND EMBRY
my fav duo.
besides her and jared, but you'll see more of them soon enough.