The skies were dark and threatening to dump their contents on the small town of Forks. Bella didn’t bother to snag an umbrella out of the stand by the door, since rain was a common occurrence in the spring. Plus, with her luck, she’d end up either leaving it in her truck or opening it inside accidentally. As that was supposed to be bad luck, it was something she could live without.

Walking down the driveway to where her car was parked in the street (it had started to leak oil and she hated to get those brown spots on the driveway), she was humming under her breath. It was a nice day, despite the impending weather, and a lazy weekend in general. By the time she had finally woken up, Charlie was already down at the station and his cereal bowl was in the sink. Bella couldn’t help but feel a little guilty about that, since she normally made him something hot like an omelet… but it was one day and she really didn’t want to have to wake up at six thirty just to make him food.

What she did want to do was go shopping to replace some of the t-shirts she had effectively worn out through days spent at Jake’s garage. She never purposely ruined things, of course, but she sometimes slipped… right into grease or oil or something that snagged the fabric and tore it. Most of her t-shirts had little holes in them from where they had been pierced by a lone nail on the wall, which wasn’t a good thing.

She pocketed her thin wallet, opening her truck’s door and pulling herself up into it. Bella took her car keys from her palm, inserting them into the ignition and with a turn of the key… nothing.

Nothing?

Crap.

Broken cars were never a good thing. Especially when she had thrown away all of her t-shirts because she had been expecting to get them replaced. So, not counting the blue one she had on today, her summer wardrobe was empty.

Again… crap.

Once again, she turned the key in the ignition, hoping that somehow she had just managed to not do it correctly the first time. It was pretty much impossible, seeing as starting a car was one of the easiest tasks in her day, but… A shred of hope rose in her as she turned the key forward.

Silence. Bella’s head dropped forward, resting on the bumpy black steering wheel. She took a breath in, her right hand still fingering the keys in the ignition. Well, this hindered her plans for today. She’d have to call the auto shop and wait for them to come pick up her truck. She hated going to that place, it was a garage full of her father’s friends who wanted to catch up with what Charlie was doing. It wasn’t at all like Jake’s garage, which was –

Jake.

Bella pried open her heavy truck door, before shutting it with a little more force than it really needed. Bits of paint floated in the wind for a moment, before being deposited on the blacktop. She didn’t notice it, though, as she was already storming inside and diving for the phone.

She punched in Jacob’s number automatically, having it memorized from calling it so many times over the year and some odd months she had been hanging around him. His cell phone (recently acquired as a birthday present – the result of Bella, Charlie, and Billy pitching in together) rang three times, before he finally picked up.

“Hey,” he said into the phone, nearly shouting over some loud music that was continuously booming in the background.

Bella winced, holding the phone away from her ear. “Hey, Jacob!”

“What?”

She frowned, talking louder this time. “Jacob! It’s Bella! My car – truck – is broken and I was wondering if you could – “

There was a hiss into the phone, then the sound of laughing, followed by a loud cursing noise. The brunette rolled her eyes. That was definitely the result of Jacob hanging out with his friends – fighting, laughing, cursing. “Hey, hold on – I can’t - Quil, get out of the way, you freaking loser!”

By the time that the noise from the combined forces of the friends and the music died down, Bella had thought about calling the body shop anyway. Finally, though, she heard Jacob’s voice.

“Hey? Still there?”

She leaned against her kitchen counter, her fingertips tapping against the countertop. “Hey, it’s-“

“Bella!”

She smiled. He always knew when it was her straightaway, though she assumed he had many friends that were girls. The thought of him hanging out at that gathering without her, with tons of his female friends there, made her stomach pinch a little. “Hey, Jake. Listen, um, my truck sort of… broke.”

More laughter radiated into her ear. “Why doesn’t that surprise me, huh? That thing is older than you are. Even if it was fixed up by some amazing mechanic before you got it, it’s only got a lifespan of so many years, Bella…”

That was true. Bella adored her truck, especially since one of her friends had gone to great lengths to make sure it was always running smoothly for her. The idea that she would eventually have to trade it in for something newer that didn’t spew steam at her occasionally made her sad.

She couldn’t help it. Her voice was edged with a whine as she pleaded into the phone. “Jake, I know you can fix it, please…” she asked, pressing her fingers to her forehead. “If you’re too busy, though, that’s – “

Again, he cut her off. He did that a lot over the phone, she noticed. “No, no,” he said quickly. His voice was lower as he spoke again. “I’m never too busy for you.”

She smiled as she leaned against her counter. His last sentence hung in her mind even when he hung up a moment later. I’m never too busy for you.