TLS Special SNEAK PEEK Feature

 

The Lemonade Stand has spent so many years bringing you the best the Twilight fandom has to offer, and we are very excited to have the chance to offer you even MORE. We've watched stories grow and develop from first post through COMPLETE, and now we're lucky enough to share previews of the stories that will soon be your new addiction.

This week we are featuring Lily Jill, author of  Found Missing, A Muse in the Shadows, and Pursuing the Proposition. Today, she's sharing an excerpt from Chapter 6 of her upcoming fic, Unspoken.

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Unspoken

 by

 Lilly Jill

Summary: The truth often lies in words unspoken. For Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, both misunderstood in their small town of Forks, Washington, falling for each other amidst the silence is all they’ve ever known. Through life’s twists and turns, they learn that connections can be both born and broken in what is left unsaid.

~OOO~

Her presence in my car is overwhelming, and I fiddle with the volume on the radio to distract me as she sits in the passenger seat. She’s silent as we drive, her fingers tapping a beat against the side of her thigh in rhythm to the music coming from the speakers. She gazes out the window while I gaze at her; I have a hard time concentrating on the road, knowing she’s this close to me.

 

It’s the sound of gravel beneath my tires that snaps me back into focus. 

 

The music dwindles as the engine softens, a slight awkwardness in the air as we realize we’ve never been anywhere together outside of school and work. That one time at the diner had been coincidental, and since school and work aren't optional, it’s here I realize how different this moment feels.

 

I’m not here with her because I have to be.

 

It’s because I want to be.

 

It’s because when our shift at work was over a little while ago, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.

 

I don’t understand these feelings that have come out of nowhere, and it makes my legs shake beneath the steering wheel and my chest clench with nerves, but being around Bella has become what I look forward to the most each day.

 

It’s rare for the sun to shine here in Forks, especially given the time of day, but the rays slice through the tall trees around us, and we look at First Beach through squinted eyes as we leave my car behind in the gravel lot and walk towards the rocky beach. We stop to take our shoes off, the heavy grains of sand cold as they slip between my toes. The wind off the water sings softly around us, the amber hues from the sun casting her in a light I've never seen her in before.

 

As she sits on a large piece of driftwood washed onto the shore, she shoots me a shy smile that makes me wonder about all the other different ways I have yet to see her.

 

But fuck, do I see her now.

 

I’ve known Isabella Swan since we were kids — but she sits here next to me on the wood and transforms into a stranger, and I’m suddenly desperate for more. Desperate for anything she’s willing to give me, considering the walls she’s built meticulously around herself over the years. I watch as she closes her eyes and turns her face to the sun, taking in the warmth the same way I’m taking in the auburn streaks that hide between the dark waves of her hair. The same way I’m staring at her lips, wondering when they became soft and full and how I missed their allure for all these years.

 

She’s a sudden mystery I’m eager to solve.

 

Bella opens her eyes then, and I look down at our feet in the sand before she catches me staring. I clear my throat. “Were you serious yesterday?” I ask, our feet tracing interloping circles with our toes. “When you told me you liked me?”

 

Bella hesitates for a moment before nodding her head. Eventually, she shrugs the same way she always does, as if it’s just a simple fact without the weavings of human emotion around her feelings towards me. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” She asks. “I do like you.”

 

I can gather she likes my company; working with her these last few weeks has been surprisingly easy, but the way she had said those three words to me yesterday had kept me up all night, wondering what she had meant.

 

But now, as we sit in the rare setting sun, her hair blowing across her face, I need to know for sure if she’s feeling anything remotely similar to what I feel churning inside of me like a freight train.

 

These feelings I have when I think of her or when I’m near her hit me exactly like that — like a train suddenly off its track, careening towards the unknown.

 

It’s terrifying, but I can’t ignore it. “Like as a friend?”

 

Turning her face from the sun, she opens her eyes again, and this time, I know the answer just by looking at the vulnerability and honesty swirling in the dark pools of her eyes.

 

“No.”

 

We stare at each other for a moment before I nod in understanding at her answer, turning my gaze back down to our feet and to the haphazard circles we’ve made with our toes as we talk against the wind and waves of First Beach. It’s never crowded here, but it dawns on me that the appearance of the sun may draw some people from school to enjoy the view like we are.

 

The thought of my friends at school finding out about me, Edward Cullen, liking Isabella Swan sends a flash of panic through my bones. Shaking my head, I exhale loudly, hoping the crashing waves will take my worries out to sea.

 

It’s not like I’m embarrassed by Bella.

 

It’s just that I don’t like unnecessary attention brought to myself, and my friends would get the biggest kick out of it if they were to find out I feel something for Bella.  With college applications, work, and basketball season nearly suffocating me, the last thing I need is them breathing down my neck about things they know nothing about.

 

Risking a glance in Bella’s direction, I curse under my breath at how she’s become my hardest temptation.

 

“Wouldn’t it be weird if people found out about us?” I ask, reaching down to pick up a flat stone before skipping it across the water.

 

“No one would have to know,” Bella says softly, and I hear the words she leaves unspoken; she is aware of the burden it will become for both of us if we were to ever go public with whatever this is between us.

 

I look over at her, her face emblazoned with the fire of the sunset, and I wonder if she’s prepared for how different our lives are about to be because of our decision today.

 

There may be a million thoughts running through my head, alarm bells ringing in my ears, trying to warn me of the magnitude of the path we’re about to walk down, but the only thing clear to me is that Bella and I, without words, have made a decision.

 

And when I press my mouth to hers a minute later, her lips soft and welcoming against mine, I know nothing will ever be the same again. 

~OOO~

If you haven’t already, put Lily Jill on alert! Unspoken begins posting on Sept 19th!