Mimic | Jacob Black

28. Hostages

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Sounds of tinkering filled River's ears. He was staring down at the red motorcycle. He could see from his peripheral vision that he was in Jacob's garage. But he also quickly realised he couldn't control his body. This had to be another vision, but it was like Alice's, in the sense that this was him. He could tell from the humming. His grease covered arms tightened a bolt onto the bike and his eyes scanned across the full thing. River quickly realised the bike didn't look as new as it looked earlier.

Earlier.

That's right. He had spent the afternoon with Jacob after Bella went to Angela's place. They rode the bikes for a while, and then after a couple of hours Jacob gave River a ride back to his house. River enjoyed hugging Jacob's waist on the way back much more than he would dare to admit, as if he would admit that at all to anybody. He remembered going inside after that, hearing Charlie and Julie in some part of the house as he moved to his room, but not falling asleep. When had he dozed off?

"Is that good?" River asked. He looked up, and saw Jacob sitting nearby, working on his motorcycle. He looked just as dirty and grimy as River.

Jacob peered at the bike and nodded. "Yeah, looks good. Still got a bit more to do, though."

River sighed and leaned back on his heels from his kneeling position. "How do you do this so easily?"

Jacob laughed. "It's your fault. Maybe next time don't tear the bike up through the bushes."

"I couldn't even see where the track veered off! How was I supposed to know?" River rubbed his cheek, then seemed to realise his mistake. He pulled away his greasy hand. "Damn it." He glared at Jacob who started laughing at him. "Stop laughing!"

Jacob tried to control himself. "Sorry. Also, I think your face should be the least of your worries." He eyed River's lower half, and River followed his gaze. His t-shirt and jeans were covered in grease, and so was the jumper tied around his waist.

"That's never gonna come out, is it?" River asked defeatedly.

"Nope," Jacob said, popping the p.

The sound of footsteps approaching could be heard and they both looked up to see Bella walk into the garage, carrying two boxes of pizza.

"That took longer than expected," she said, then focused on River and smiled. "How did you get so dirty in such a short amount of time?"

He gave her an unamused look before standing up. "I'm gonna wash off."

Jacob copied his movements. "There's a tap around the back, we can wash our hands there."

Bella set down the pizza boxes and River followed Jacob around the side of the garage, to a small tap. Jacob washed his hands clean before letting River do the same. Suddenly, Jacob's eyes lit up.

"Oh! I nearly forgot. I'll be right back."

River watched him run off towards the front of the house before turning to look at Bella, raising an eyebrow.

"What's he doing?"

Bella shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine." Then she wrinkled up her nose in disgust. "You guys stink like oil and dirt."

"Well, I apologise, your majesty." River gave her an exaggerated bow once his hands were clean. "From now on, I'll try only to present myself with your standards in mind, seeing as you won't help fix the bikes."

"I wouldn't mind, but this is on you. You're the one who crashed it, not me," Bella countered.

River rolled his eyes. "Whatever."