The sky had unleashed a torrent unto the small town, which had taken refuge from the sheeting rain. The streets had begun to flood, and in the darkness of the winter evening only the headlights of oncoming traffic blurred by the sudden downpour could be seen.
Bella clasped her hands on her lap and looked outside the passenger window with unease. As she bit her lip she dared a glance to her left over to Jacob, who was tensely hunched forward over the steering wheel as he swerved around the slower traffic.
She exhaled, she was forgetting to breathe. She quickly looked back outside the window to the dark blur of trees scuttling by. She could see the faint outline of her reflection against the window; her pale skin and dark eyes looked back gloomily at her. She didn't recognize herself. Closing her eyes she rested her forehead against the cool of the window, and released the pressure that had been building up all day.
Tears. A human reaction. The muscles in her throat became tight and she wanted nothing other then to fully give into her emotion, and cry with unabashed freedom. Jacob cannot see me cry like this, she thought to herself. It was no use, she hiccupped began to weep with no fear of the reaction the angry boy sitting next to her would have.
She crossed her arms around her stomach and squeezed her eyes shut to block out Jacob, who she could sense was looking at her out of the corner of his eye.
Jacob sighed. The turn signal flicked on and the car slowly came to a stop on the side of the old highway. Bella refused to face him, to open her eyes, and to accept his aid.
The roar of the engine quickly halted as Jacob turned the key off. He reached out his hand and placed it on her shoulder.
"Bella…."
She gulped and pressed her head harder against the window of the car. The rain thudded on the rooftop above her head, and beads of perspiration gathered on the window around her face.
Jacob cleared his throat and leaned closer to her. She needed his companionship again, she needed him to make her laugh, and to gaze into his dark eyes full of mystery, mystery she still could barely comprehend.
"Bella, I…I wont be here forever. I cant just sit her and watch what he is putting you through, he left. He left, and it was only me to pick up the pieces of the mess he left."
She turned to face him, and stared into those big brown eyes. His eyes were hard with anger, glaring at her.
In that moment she felt that no one loved her. The one who she had given her heart to, left her as a cold jumbled mess huddled in the woods. And now the one that she confided in, the one she had grown so close to in the past few months, was discarding her in the same tragic way. He doesn't want me either, I am a curse, and I am doomed to be alone forever.
Suddenly he car became her death trap. In a flurried second she unsnapped her seat buckle and slammed her body against the door and jumped out of the car into the freezing cold rain. It was natural to run, to run away from the world. Her legs sprinted in front of her in unstable leaps and bounds. The rain stung her eyes and her hair matted heavily on the nape of her neck. She could only hear the sound of the rain, and she ran, off of the road, and into the woods. She barely dodged the trees and nearly tripped over the shrubs around her. Her breath came out in huffs and her lungs ached for reprieve from the excess of effort.
She could see nothing in front of her in the pitch black of the winter evening. Thud, thud, thud. Her racing footsteps were not taking her far enough away, she wanted to escape.
A growl cracked through the sound of the simmering rain and before her eyes a large figure leaped in front of her. Fear seized her stomach for an instant and she tried to stop her momentum before she crashed into the beast.
In the darkness she could barely makeout the change in form as the best shrank down in size and became human. Bella squinted against the rain and her jaw unhinged in protest, but before she could speak, before she could shout her frustration at Jacob, he grabbed her violently and pulled her frail body to him.
The hard edge in his eyes did not disappear, he looked down at her and took her face into his hand. In one quick moment he leaned down and kissed her.
At first Bella was outraged, she tried to push him away. She loved Edward. But Edward did not love her….And Jacob did not love her….no one wanted her.
She wanted to run again, run against the wind and rain, away far into the wood.
She melted in his arms. His strength overcame her, and she gave up fighting his need. She kissed him back under the storming gail of the rain.
She parted her lips slowly and accepted his warm caress. He became still again and the passion died away. He held her close against him, and she opened her eyes again to meet his.
"I love you, Bella."