Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Well, this story sarts kinda depressing
Belén looked up from her phone in time to see the “Welcome to Forks” sign blur past her before she could distinguish the number of inhabitants. It didn’t really matter, surely it was a depressing piece of data, and she already had enough of that those days.
“Where’s the nearest mall?” She asked her dad in spanish, her first language and his second. She probably should’ve switched to english some time ago, maybe when they arrived in Washington and some Karen gave her a weird look at the airport, but she didn’t feel like it. It was the last thing she had from home, and she would hold on to it with tooth and nail.
Her dad sighed and didn’t look at her, his clear eyes glued to the road ahead. At first, after it had happened, Belén thought he maybe didn’t want to talk to her anymore, but she soon figured out he was just gathering the will to answer. She had come to accept that it wasn’t personal, so she made the effort of waiting patiently for him to speak.
Finally, after a sigh that had her left eye twitching, he managed to find his voice.
“There’s one in Port Angeles, I think. I don’t really remember.” he said, sounding like a man deprived of rest.
“One. Great.” was her clipped response.
“There’s more in Seattle, but it’s a longer drive.” he added, almost making an effort.
Belén began to smile, but then caught herself. How pathetic was it to be happy for so little? She forced the corners of her mouth down and turned to look out the window.
The center of town seemed to consist of the 101, and from the looks of it, it seemed like most stores were there. That’d make it all easier to find, she thought, and boring. At least there was a Subway.
Her dad stopped smoothly at a red light and she looked down at her phone again and hit the replay on the song after realizing she hadn’t paid attention to her favourite part.
The light turned green, Tom waited for someone to cross, and then turned left, quickly speeding off.
“School’s that way.” he said, his hand barely abandoning the wheel to point in a general direction to her right. Belén rose in her seat, as if that would help her catch a glimpse and sulked back down with a huff after being naturally disappointed.
Classes had started two months prior, but her dad hadn’t wanted them to move until their old house was sold. She had feared she wouldn’t be allowed to join the school body, but the principal had known her grandparents well, or so had her dad, Thomas, said a while back, when he could at least still open his mouth to talk.
As they passed a corner, the latina girl leaned in to take a look at the street sign: Calawah Way. After some blocks, the car turned left again, and then once last time as they slowed down in the middle of Mayberry in front of a two story house.
Belén knew it could be pretty, with some love and dedication of course.
It had belonged to her paternal grandparents, who died when she was ten, and there had been no one to maintain it afterwards, having no other close relatives left. It was a surprise, really, that it wasn’t in worse shape, not that she could really tell at first sight of course.
Her dad hadn’t fully come to a stop when she unbuckled her seatbelt and jumped out, needing to stretch her legs.
She stretched almost in a cat-like manner, cursing under her breath when her earphones fell off, but catching them before they hit the wet ground.
The grey clouds weren’t getting any prettier, but she doubted it’d rain till nightfall at least. Another thing to bitch about, the shitty weather. Her hair would start suffering soon, no doubt.
“Maybe we could paint it one of these days.” she suggested to her dad, looking at their new home with fake contempt before turning and opening the back door, carefully grabbing one of her suitcases and a black crate. From inside, a small sound of protest was made:l ‘meow’.
“We’re here, Usagi.” she told her cat gently, pushing the car door closed with her foot and moving slowly, so as to not scare her baby.
“‘S fine like this.” Tom sighed, again, and ducked into the trunk to get the rest of their suitcases out.
She begged to differ. The paint was so old and had come off on some many places, she couldn’t be sure what colour it used to be.
Green and white would suit it nicely. Anything that could give it a little life, it’d also help to lift her dad’s spirits, and god knew he needed it.
Preferably before she lost her shit.
On the steps leading up to the front door, under the mistreated porch sat a middle aged man, probably her dad’s high school friend, Charlie Swan. She remembered talking to him on the phone on hers or her parents birthdays a few times, and seeing a picture or two here and there.
Putting on her best smile, she walked up to him just as he rose to his feet, dusting off his pants and meeting her halfway.
“Hi, Charlie. It’s nice to officially meet you.” she leaned in and kissed his cheek, pulling back quickly when she felt something brushing against her stomach.
She fought back the blush as Charlie pulled back the hand he had extended in greeting.
“Uh, same, kiddo.” he brushed it off awkwardly, making her feel worse. Keep smiling , she told herself. “Sorry it had to be like this.”
Thomas walked up in that moment, and much like his daughter, seemed to forget where they were and placed a hand on Charlie’s shoulder before absentmindedly kissing his cheek. Unlike his daughter though, he didn’t notice his slip. He was barely there as it were.
“Charlie.” was all he said.
“Tom. Uh,” he looked from father to daughter, searching for the right words in a situation where there were none. “I’m sorry about Melissa.”
Thomas hummed, looking up at his old home with a faraway look, so Charlie turned to Belén, whose smile turned rueful.
“Thanks, Charlie. And thanks so much for the help with the move, it really means a lot.” Most of the furniture had been sold with the house, her dad wanting nothing that reminded him of his late wife. Belén had thrown fit after fit until he at least allowed her to keep her bedroom, which had been shipped along with most of their clothes weeks in advance. Back then, Tom hadn’t been so bad; he was adamant in leaving their lives behind and had arranged everything, but after the house papers had been signed, he had almost gone into a comatose state, which meant the last details of the move had fallen into a seventeen year old hands.
Thomas walked back to the car and returned with the last suitcase. He kept walking, mumbling something about going in as he passed by them.
“It was nothing, really.”Charlie dismissed it with a wave of his hand, dark eyes following his friend with concern. “I, uh, I put your stuff in your dad’s old room, if that’s okay.”
“It’s perfect, but you didn’t have to, really.” an image of Chief Swan pushing and pulling her heavy wooden closet into the house by himself made her cringe. That stuff was heavy.
“Of course I did. Some friends of your dad, Harry, Billy and Waylon helped.” he picked up one of her pink suitcases and began walking to the house while she carried the other. “Well, Harry and Waylon helped, Billy just bossed us around.”
Belén snorted a laugh and thanked him as he signaled for her to go in first.
She stopped in the small foyer before almost shily walking into the living room. The furniture was old, it looked a bit weak, but everything was clean and neatly in place. The couch took up most of the space, and in front of it sat a nice coffee table. The wood was dark, it had a small, crochet tablecloth, on top of which sat a glass with fresh flowers. Against the wall sat a big, ol t.v. She raised her eyebrows when she noticed just how old it was. It had a wood frame.
“Harry’s wife, Sue, cleaned up the house about a week ago. We left the windows open to let some air in and all.”
Yeah, she had prepared herself for a smell alright. It had been about six years since anyone had set foot inside that house. She had expected to find a two story rat nest at best.
She couldn’t imagine the state the house must’ve been in just one or two weeks ago.
“Do dad’s friends live too far?” she asked Charlie, turning to look at him as she addressed him. “I wanna cook something for them, it’s the least I can do to thank them, especially Sue I imagine.”
“I can give you directions.” he answered, pointing at the wooden stairs to his left. With a quick nod, he began to climb up and she followed, careful of Usagi in the crate. Old pictures lingered, but she didn’t stop to check them out. Otherwise, she’d just stand there for hours.
“Pa?” she asked, stopping behind Charlie, head popping out to look at him. He stood in front of an open door, looking confused. She caught a glimpse of her desk and looked back at his head. “You’re in Yaya’s and Tata’s room now, remember?”
A part of her wanted to offer to switch, but the bigger part of her didn’t want to coddle him too much and she had been raised to do things such as yield the biggest room to the adult. Having a bigger room would be pretty cool though.
“Uh, right, right, of course.” He picked up his cases and turned, crossing the small hallway and pushing another door open.
Charlie walked into her room and placed her suitcases in, returning to the threshold almost immediately, eyes darting in the direction Thomas had gone to.
“I thought-”
“He wasn’t so bad ‘till some weeks ago.” she spoke, understanding where his head was at. Clearing her throat, she made an effort to get rid of her accent. In the last few years, after her paternal grandparents died and her dad began to lose contact with his old friends, they had lost some practice with their english. She used to speak with a neutral accent as a child, but as she reluctantly and begrudgingly picked up the language again, she realized she was kinda screwed. “Me and Alba,” she was a friend of her mom. “talked him into therapy, and he went and did better, for about two months; but when the house got sold he just, I don’t know.” she stretched out her hand in her dad’s direction despite there being two walls in between them. “He turned into that. I told him not to sell the house, but you know how he can be when he decides something.” Hell, her being now stuck in that place was an example of how headstrong he was.
Charlie’s eyebrows rose and brushed his hairline as he gave her the reason.
“Yeah, I remember well.” he turned to her once more and looked around the room. “So, you like how we arranged everything? Because I can move it around, it’s no problem.”
“It’s perfect.” she lied easily. She hadn’t really looked at the room yet, and even if she didn’t like it, she couldn’t have Charlie getting an hernia from pushing her crap around. He had done a lot already.
“I was thinking of taking your dad fishing next weekend, maybe seeing Billy and Harry will help him. Waylon will probably come too, and you can meet Sue? She has a daughter, I think you’re the same age.”
Belén nodded; she really wanted to meet these people and thank them.
“Sure. That’d be cool.”
Charlie attempted to smile, and with some awkward noises resembling words, retreated into her dad’s new room.
Belén put the crate down and closed the door, leaning against it, the back of her head lightly hitting the wood.
She closed her eyes and gripped the handle tightly. God, she really wanted her mom at that moment.
The thought had her pushing herself off the door. She couldn’t start crying now, she had some shit to get done.
“Meow!”
Her eyes snapped open.
“Sorry, Usagi.”
She was fast in realising the cat, and didn’t make much noise as she stood up again, giving her room to come out on her own terms.
Looking around the room, she wasn’t surprised to find it was in desperate need of a hand or two of paint. She could distinguish what seemed like spaceships on the wallpaper, almost completely deprived of colour. The curtains were of a sad grey, pale baseball bats all over the fabric.
At least it had nice illumination. Or it could, if the sun ever came out on that town. From what she had heard, it wasn’t very likely.
Her desk had been unwisely placed under a window, and she could already see herself procrastinating by staring out into the woods out back, the dull trees much more entertaining than the homework she still didn’t have to do.
Her bed had been placed against the wall to the desk’s left, and the closet and dresser had been placed on the wall behind them.
She was careful not to trip over the boxes laying around as she advanced and sat on the edge of the bed. Someone had placed a set of sheets over it, along with her light green comforter and left a thin blanket neatly folded on top. The rest of her things remained untouched.
It was a nice gesture. She’d have to make sure to cook something extra special for this Sue.
Usagi’s yellow furr caught her eyes, and for a few seconds, she just watched as the cat slowly began to creep around the new place, her pink nose coming close to every solid object as she became acquainted with everything.
Looking around, she couldn’t help but feel as if everything about that place where wrong. From the windows to her left and in front of her. From the faded, old curtains to the wall of the neighbour's house. From the way her furniture had been arranged to the floor, which was wood instead of ceramic. From the way the room seemed to loom over her, locking her in, away from everyone, to the knowledge that even if she stepped outside she’d feel the same, albeit far more exposed.
The bed dipped to her left. Usagi kept looking around as her paws contracted and extracted over the sheets and she began to purr. Her dad had suggested giving her up for adoption, but Belén had channeled her inner Regina George and manipulated him into agreeing. She’d be better off with a vet in the house, and she trusted her dad to help her with everything. Usagi’s wide eyes centered on her, another meow leaving her, sounding almost like a question. ‘Where are we, human?’ How could she be selfish enough to drag a poor cat all the way across the continent?
Belén’s angst began to bubble, and as she recognized the anger that asked to surface, she stood up with a start, violently pulling the door open and heading into her dad’s room. He and Charlie sat shoulder to shoulder at the end of the bed, looking at the wall.
She could smell the awkwardness, and any other time might have cracked a joke or thrown some comment at them.
They both looked at her as she stood there.
“I need money for the groceries and stuff for Usagi.”
“Right, right.” her dad said, reaching into the front pocket of his jeans and pulling out his wallet. He handed it to her, and she grabbed the small thing.
“I guess I’ll leave you to it.” she said, getting no further response from either, and abandoned the lame scene as fast as she could.
“Does she have a driver's license?” she heard Charlie ask as she skipped down the stairs.
“Yeah.”her dad outright lied, to which she almost found some hope for him still.
She had no idea where the grocery store was, having not paid too much attention on her way into the town, but it couldn’t be too hard to find, right? In any case, she could always stop to ask someone.
The air had cooled, raising goosebumps on her olive skin, and she almost went back inside to get a sweater before shrugging. She wouldn’t be outside for too long.
Getting into the car, she looked at the house, sadly standing there, depressing as shit with the chipped paint and old windows.
She leaned back on the seat and looked up and down the street. None of the houses were fancy or anything, but they had more evidence of people living in them than hers. Modest as some seemed to be, they were in decent shape.
Slowly, she pulled out of the driveway and rounded the block before heading back down the street she had come, trying to guess where to turn to go back downtown.
She tried not to think too much about it, tried to convince herself that towns back home looked like Forks, but they didn’t really. The buildings didn’t quite fit into the images she had, and even if they did, the fact that this was some small place forgotten by god was impossible to escape. She had never wanted to move into a town, the idea dreadful; to permanently move into one on the other side of the continent was even worse.
She wanted to go back home, to cities and towns with houses of bricks, where she could grab a bus and be at her best friend’s house in five minutes, where she was the one giving people directions instead of asking for them, where she knew everyone at school, and everything was just normal and made sense.
The buildings downtown almost fooled her, until she’d read the names of the stores and streets in a language she knew but had never cared too much for.
No one looked at her as she found what apparently was a mexican grocery store and parked, but she still felt on edge.
She looked at the sign and sighed. It wasn’t home, not even close, but she wasn’t about to complain...out loud. It wasn’t the town’s fault that her life had turned to shit in the past few months, but-
Getting some hair out of her face, she hugged herself and headed in. She might be as miserable as someone could get, but she refused to starve.