"Please?" I asked again. Jacob called and wanted to see me. Of course I said yes right away, but I didn't know Edward would be so difficult.
"No." Edward's voice was sharp and cutting. "It's too dangerous. Jacob is a young werewolf!"
"He can control himself," I muttered, looking down so he couldn't see my eyes. Jacob had a hard time controlling his temper, but he never phased.
Edward's finger lifted my chin up so I was forced to look at him. "I just worry about you."
"Don't. I'll be fine." I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my head against his chest.
He sighed. "All right. You can go." He put his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. "But I'm driving you there."
"Sure, sure."
--
Edward drove to the boarder line and I was getting impatient. My foot tapped frantically; Edward was driving slower than usual. I haven't seen Jacob in so long, since our conversation in the woods before Charlie yelled at me about the motorcycle.
As soon as the car stopped, I jumped out and ran to Jacob. He caught my gaze and smiled big. I waved to him.
"Hey, Bella!" He pulled me up into a tight, bone-crushing hug.
"Hi, Jacob," I gasped.
"Oh, right." He put me down. I turned to wave bye to Edward but the silver Volvo was already gone and out of sight. It was silly of Edward to worry. Jacob was completely fine to be around. Maybe that was just in Edward's nature though. Worry at every little thing.
"So how've you been?" Jacob asked.
"Great now that I'm here. It's so good to see you again, Jake."
"Yeah. Same here."
We went down to the beach and just talked, sitting on a log. Catching up, I guess you could say. Nothing new was really happening with Jacob. Though he's taking a short break from the pack. That was good. He told me how much he wasn't sleeping, and now that he's taking a break, he can catch up on those missed hours of rest.
"So...how are you and the Cullen's?" I don't know how we got on the subject. It just came up.
"Good."
"Hmmm." I guess he expected something more interesting.
"I got the impression the last time we met that something was going down with the lot of you"
"Well," I hesitated, not sure if I should tell him. Of course I could. Jacob was my best friend. "Carlisle is planning on changing me after graduation, I now have an army of vampires after me that want me heart stopped one way or another."
Big mistake.
"What?" Jacob got to his feet in an instant. "Changing? You mean into a block sucker?" I could see it now. Jacob was shaking from head to toe. You'd think there was an earthquake.
"What's wrong, Jake?"
"I can't believe it! You're just going to do that? Throw your life away so you can be one of them?" He grabbed handfuls of his hair, and at first I thought he was going to rip it out from the roots.
"I'm getting older and older each day, Jacob. I can't stay human. Besides, I'm such a clumsy person. With really bad luck." I tried talking calm to ease Jacob but he was still shaking. Harder now.
"NOOOO!!" he yelled.
And then he exploded into a werewolf.
It all happened so fast. The next thing I knew, Jacob's paw was coming straight towards me. His claws scrapped all along my side and stomach, it hurt like hell. I fell onto the ground and tried not to scream. I looked up at his face. At first it was angry, then horrified. He turned and ran off.
Tears streamed down my face. My side was all bloody and hurt a lot, all the blood made me want to gag. I gripped my side with my right arm as I used the left to hold onto the log and get up. I cringed at the pain.
And then something occurred to me. What would I tell Edward? More importantly, what would he do when he found out what happened; saw me like this? Firstly, he would be furious with me. Not good. And secondly, he would kill Jacob. I didn't want that either, of course not. It wasn't Jacob's fault he phased. It was my fault. I should have kept my mouth shut. I was such an idiot for saying that. It was like I was just asking for it. I'm going to piss Jacob off so much that he phases and nearly takes my whole left side off.
This was bad. No. It was horrible.
I decided to soak up the blood on my side with my shirt. I went over to the water, made sure nobody was looking, and lifted up my shirt. I splashed water on my side and got the blood off my skin. I felt very dizzy. I hated the smell of blood. The salt and rust scent wasn't pleasant at all to my nose or stomach.
Once all the blood was off I took the sweatshirt that was tied around my waist, and put it on over my blood stained shirt. I would wait for an hour for the blood to dry. I shuddered.
I wondered where Jacob was...With Sam? Trying to gain back control, or just looking for some new pairs of clothing? Maybe he was just too embarrassed to look at my face.
I didn't want to risk Edward noticing something was wrong so I decided to walk home. It took me about an hour to get home apposed to the five minutes by Edward's car. As soon as I walked through the door the little silver phone rang,
"Hello?"
"Bella you can't still be there can you?"
"No, I'm not I decided I wanted to walk home so that's were I am"
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Edward calm down"
"Do you want me to come over tonight?"
"No thanks I'm a little tired and I'm just going to go to bed"
"Do you want a ride to school tomorrow?"
"No thanks I'm good"
"Okay then, sleep well and see you tomorrow"
Edward sounded a little put off when I hung up the phone, who wouldn't be if their girl friend wanted to spend 24 hours of the day with you and then passed up seeing you at night and a ride to school. I trudged up stairs and jumped in the shower, I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, I had a thin scab running in three lines across my stomach to my side where there was also another scab that looked as if you had been dragged across pointed stones. After seeing that I got dressed for bed and went to sleep.
In the morning I got up and got changed and looked at my school timetable. I only had two classes with Edward today Biology and English, but in English I sat next to Jessica today was going to be reasonably easy compared to any other day. I gathered my books and carefully packed them into my bag, which I slung on my back but it hurt so I just opted to carry it. I started my truck and got to school. When I got there Edward was waiting outside his car talking to Alice they seem to be deep in a convocation so I took the window and make it to calculus. At lunch time I saw Edward and Alice seated at the table we normally ate at, I didn't really want to sit there because there was double the chance that one of them would notice the smell of my blood, which I guessed had increased in intensity because I had hit a table with my side earlier and the corner had broken the scab and it was still oozing blood, so I ditched lunch and tried to figure out a way to stop him figuring out in Biology and in the end I came up with one… ditch and gym was after Bio so I just decided to get a note from the school nurse and go home, which amazingly actually worked, I knew that no matter what decisions I made to keep this from Edward he would never know because I was doing it to save Jacob and Alice couldn't see decisions that involve werewolves.
I went home and checked on the scab it didn't look very good in fact it looked worse, but the good part was today was Friday I didn't have to worry about seeing Edward over the weekend because it would be sunny that also meant that Carlisle wouldn't be at the hospital so I could go in and check that there was nothing wrong with the massive cut.
On Saturday I drove down to the hospital clinic and booked in, I waited for about an hour before someone came out and led me to an examination room. I sat a chair and waited two minutes later someone came in and it was exactly who I didn't want to see Dr, Carlisle Cullen. He looked at me with some curiosity and I looked at him, too late to ask for a specific doctor now.
"Hello Bella what seems to be the problem today?"
"Aren't you supposed to be off today?"
I said bitting my lip
"Yes, I was but they were under staffed today so I had to come in. Is something wrong with me being your doctor today?"
He asked looking at me more curiously then before
"That depends can you keep this off your mind when Edward's around?"
"Yes, I don't think about work at home"
"Then there is no problem what so ever"
I said relived
"Okay, Bella so what is the problem that I need to keep from Edward?"
"Well, I've got a um how could I explain it?"
"Why don't you just show me?"
"Okay"
I lifted up the front of my shirt to show him the three scabs, he stood looking shocked for a moment then he quickly changed his face back to the normal professional look. He traced the cut around to the side where he lifted up the shirt more so he could see the big, no, massive scab that had formed on my side. He dropped the shirt back down and came to the front of me
"Bella what exactly happened here, it looks like so animal attacked you?"
"You've sort of just answered your own question there"
"You mean Jacob don't you?"
I nodded
"He sort of just lost it, it was my fault anyway. I said a couple of things I probably shouldn't have"
"Bella how long ago did it happen?"
"Thursday"
"Okay not too long ago, did you clean it?"
"It sort of healed over before I got home"
Carlisle looked at her questioningly
"Well, before I went to La Push. Edward kept telling me how dangerous they are and stuff, I convinced him otherwise. I didn't want Edward to know that Jacob had hurt me so I sort of just soaked it up with my t-shirt and didn't move for an hour whilst it stopped bleeding then I walked home because I was covered in blood. So really in between the accident and a bathroom there is about 2 hours and fifteen minutes"
"Does the scab break easily?"
"Yeah"
"Okay, well sine you didn't clean it, it will most probably get infected but I can give you antibiotics to help with that and then come see me or someone again when the skin under it heals more completely and Bella, be careful."
Carlisle wrote something on a prescription pad for me and gave it to me, I thanked him and was just about to open the door to leave when Carlisle said
"Bella, I wont tell Edward or think about it but he will find out eventually, he always does and don't worry about Alice either since you're doing this to protect Jacob Alice cant see that. Look after yourself and take those twice a day and don't worry about Edward thinking you smell different he is nearly desensitized to you"
"Thanks again"
I got the medication at the chemist and went back home. Charlie was fishing today so I spent most of the day cleaning up around the place, whilst trying not to aggravate the scab on the side of my body. By the end of the day I was sore, I made Charlie's dinner and grabbed an ice pack out of the freezer and headed upstairs, on my way past I took one of the pills that Carlisle had prescribed, they were tiny and smooth and thankfully easy to swallow. I got changed into a pair of comfy sweats and a tank top and lay down on my bed. I placed the ice pack on the left side of my body over the scab to numb it so I wouldn't feel all the pain. I could hear Charlie get up and go to bed at about 10:45 and then not surprisingly at 10:55 Edward popped through my window.
"Hay, Bella. I missed you at lunch on Friday and at Biology what was up?"
"I didn't feel to great so I got a note and went home"
"Are you feeling better now?"
He asked as he came over to my side and sat on the bed placing his hand on my head
"Yes, I'm fine now"
"Good, but you look tired I think you should go to sleep"
"I agree with that I am tired"
"Do you have any objections to me staying here?"
"None at all"
Bella curled up under the blanket, keeping the ice pack over her side whilst she drifted off to sleep. Edward could see that she was having some trouble sleeping though he couldn't fathom why, so he just lay across on the bed next to her playing with a strand of her hair with humming Bella's lullaby. Bella ended up going to sleep but the ice pack shifted off her body and fell close to Edward, even under the blanket he could feel the temperature of it. He placed his hand under the cover and pulled it out. Bella's hiding something, he thought. He gently and tactfully moved his arms so that Bella was resting on one and the other was on top of her tank top searching for the coolest spot because that's where the ice pack had been. He found it was just above the hem of her tank top so he pulled it up and rested his hand on the spot, he felt the difference immediately just above her skin was soft but where the ice pack was it was hard yet fragile. He traced the scab from the side of her body to her stomach where it split up into three lines. As soon as she felt the hand on her stomach, her eyes flew open and she tensed. Edward could tell she was awake and keeping his tone light said
"Is there something you should be telling me?"
Bella gulped she tried to turn over but Edward held her how she was
"No you stay like that and I'll come around"
In less than a second the cold hands left her sore side and returned to it but this time Edward was facing her. She tried to pretend that she had gone back to sleep but Edward could tell because she was anxious and her heartbeat was irregular.
"Bella, I know you're not asleep. Just tell me and I promise not to get mad"
"Promise?"
She whispered in a small voice
"Yes, I promise"
"It was an accident and it really wasn't his fault I made him angry, I'm sorry"
"Bella start from the start your starting at the end and that's no place to start"
"Okay, well you dropped me off at La Push and me and Jacob got talking and I said some thing I shouldn't have and he hasn't been around Sam much for awhile and he forgot how to control his temper and… he phased"
Edward tensed up a bit at this but his hands stayed just as gentle as before
"Can I have a look?"
He asked
"Okay, but remember no getting angry please and don't go after him or anything"
Edward nodded in agreement. He pushed down the covers until the top half of her body was free then pulled up the left half of her tank top, he could see the mark clearly now, it was much bigger than he had thought but he kept his promise to Bella and kept his cool.
"That's why I didn't ask you for a ride home and that's why I ditched lunch and the last two periods. I didn't want you to notice and be angry"
"Bella I could never be angry at you. I think you should get Carlisle to have a look at that though"
"He has he had a look at it earlier. I told him I didn't want you to know; hell I didn't want anyone to know. I only went because I thought since it was sunny he would be off, but he promised he wouldn't tell you or think about it, in the end he gave me some antibiotics"
"Okay as long as I know you're being looked after"
"Yes, I'm being looked after and I will be fine. Remember you promised not to hurt him"