What We Want To Be

I'm Everything They Said I Would Be

"Thanks for doing this for me," Leah muttered to the girl at her side as they stood outside of the local Forks diner.

The pretty Asian girl just smiled and shrugged. "What are best-friends for? Or ex-girlfriends, for that matter."

Angela's tone was cheeky but Leah knew the young woman was only teasing. When Leah had been dumped by her ex, Sam Uley, for her cousin Emily, Leah hadn't been as devastated as she assumed she was supposed to feel. It wasn't until she visited with Jacob and noticed just how beautiful his sisters were that she began to suspect things about herself. She didn't find out until later that it had been Rebecca that she'd drunkenly shared her first female kiss with a few weeks after her breakup. And whoo boy, was there never more clear of an answer when she felt more passion and arousal in one simple kiss than she'd ever felt from her entire relationship with Sam!

Unfortunately, nothing became of her experiment with Rebecca as the twin had only been visiting from college. But it did open Leah up to the other end of the dating pool...which turned out to be a very shallow and short end, seeing as Leah was related in at least some way to most of the women in her age group. You can't live in such a close-knit community and not have a bit of commingling. So, that had led Leah to branching out to the internet and seeing what kind of interest she could find in Forks or Port Angeles (she wasn't quite ready to venture as far as Seattle, but it was in her plans if Forks turned up dry). She'd started her search on Craigslist of all places, but she found only a bunch of desperate guys or couples looking for a third, and she wasn't anywhere into that.

She eventually lucked out when a random search of her Facebook brought up a public post by the very same beauty that stood at her side, announcing her coming out. She'd apparently caught a lot of flack for it from her parents, especially her pastor of a father, but she'd had enough of hiding in the closet and wanted to spend her senior year as her genuine self. Leah had hesitated randomly contacting the girl, but her profile said she was 18, so at 19 herself, Leah didn't feel like such a creep shooting a message her way. They started up a slow friendship that quickly became a relationship that was surprisingly passionate considering Angela's shy and delicate nature. Oh, what a front that had been. Angela could be a downright bitch if the occasion called for it, and while it had intrigued and even aroused Leah in the beginning, their fire quickly burned out as they realized they didn't have much in common other than being the token gays of their communities.

Still, they stayed friends when they found one thing they did have in common: Beau Swan.

It turned out Angela was initially more bisexual than lesbian and had actually dated Leah's old best-friend when the two had been young teens. She said she had grown away from boys when Beau left three years prior to go stay with his mom. Leah couldn't blame her for that. She'd been devastated when Beau had left, having quite enjoyed her bestie's quirky, reserved nature.

He and Leah had been friends from childhood when Charlie started bringing him down to the Rez to visit. He initially befriended Jacob and his twin sisters, but eventually Leah had come over with her mom to one of their gatherings and she and Beau had kind of been inseparable. They play-fought, built mud-pies, then Beau would give this delightful laugh when Leah forced Jacob's face into their 'dessert'. She'd gotten into so much trouble for that boy just to see him laugh. She'd thought for the longest time that he might ask her out, but then he just up and disappeared.

They were all told he was going away for medical treatment, but no one explained what it was for, though they did assure them that it wasn't life-threatening. He'd continued messaging her over the years, even got a cheap webcam that let them share grainy Skype calls for a while until his camera mysterious stopped working and they could never afford to buy a new one. Even when she offered to buy him a new one, he'd refused. Leah felt that distance deeply the more that time went on, until about a month ago she'd received word in the form of a text that Beau was moving back to Forks to finish out his last year of high school. But before that, he had specifically asked to meet with Leah because he had some important news to share with her. At least Leah had her own news to share as well, since she hadn't found the right time or opportunity to tell Beau she was a lesbian.