With deep friendship and respect, I blame this one entirely one The Only Pancake.
Also, some of the quotes are probably wrong; I don't have my copy of Twilight, so I'm using my memory.
Slightly influenced by Being Jacob Black.
"Really? A new girl?" you ask your sort of friend, Tyler Crowley. He's cool; you hang out together. But not really.
"Yeah," Tyler goes. "Chief Swan's daughter."
"Yikes."
He nods at you. "I know, man. It's gonna be hard to go out with her."
You reluctantly bump fists with him. Another reason why you don't really like Tyler: he's a man whore.
"Yeah," you say. You know that you're going to protect his girl --whoever she is-- from Tyler. You can't let another innocent girl get ruined by the small time player of Forks.
-:-
You sneak at peek at Jessica. God, you love her hair. It's always so shiny and curly. You want to run your fingers through it, but you can't. You have to "like" Isabella Swan when she gets here, and going out with Jessica will leave Bella venerable.
You stifle a small sigh. Isabella is going to be here tomorrow. You just have to get her away from Tyler and his ways and then you'll be able to do whatever you want with Jessica. You stare longingly at her. Maybe she doesn't even like you. You've never really talked to her before.
She raises her hand in response to the teachers question. Her shirt rides up in the back, revealing a bit of pale, creamy, skin. You sigh when you see what you can never have.
Life sucks.
-:-
Finally, the day has come. You introduce yourself to Isabella --Bella, you correct yourself. She likes to be called Bella-- taking care to make it seem as if you like her. You think to yourself about your plan, going over it, making sure it can't go wrong.
You take her to Biology class; make it seem that you're disappointed when the seat next to her is filled by Edward Cullen. That doesn't bother you. He hasn't gone out with anyone from school before; why should Bella be any different?
He turns angry and starts to glare at Bella. Concern rises up in you. What was wrong with him? You swore to protect Bella against Tyler, but it seems that you have another guy to add to that list.
-:-
After class you joke around with her.
"So, did you stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or something?" Hopefully, only you can hear the anger in your voice. Bella is too fragile looking --God, you almost see through her skin, shes so pale!-- to have to deal with someone like that.
She answers negatively and looks troubled. Damn, this is too hard. You should have known that a new girl would only cause this to happen; the whole school, no the whole town, goes into a frenzy. You escort her to gym class and offer to be her partner. You smile at her and hand her the basketball. She goes forward to shoot, but trips over nothing, and scraps her elbows against the floor.
You grin to yourself. Maybe you should add Bella to your list of things to protect Bella from.
-:-
Oh, damn! The dance! You completely forgot about it.
You hurry up to Bella. You try to act like you're nervous.
"So, Bella, wanna go to the dance with me?"
She tries to hide a frown; you try to hide a smile.
"No, Mike, I'm not going to be here that weekend."
Yes! That makes it so much easier to protect her from Tyler!
You act confused when Bella says something about Jessica.
"Jessica?" You put confusion in your voice.
"Really, Mike, are you blind?" You hear the annoyance in her voice and smile.
Of course you aren't blind. You look across the parking lot to where Jessica is sitting. The sunlight is making her pale skin almost glow, and showing the red highlights in her hair. She tosses her head back and laughs at something someone said. Jessica sees you staring at her and bites her lip. She gives you a shy smile, then turns away quickly. She whispers something into Angela's ear and they both giggle.
God, you love making her laugh.
-:-
You're not really sure of what to think when Bella sits with Edward at lunch. At one point, you debate on going over there to stop the fight they seem to be having, but you shove that notion down. It really wouldn't help.
But then Bella and Edward get more serious. They always sit together at lunch, but then one day, Bella and Edward aren't there. You look out the window. It isn't sunny, so the Cullens didn't take Bella out on one of their hikes. But, now that you think about it, none of the Cullens are there. You heart just about stops when you hear that Bella fell down a flight of stairs and shattered her leg. Is she alright? Is she hurt? Did Cullen cause this?
Edward has lost the respect that he slowly gained in your mind over the past few months. He no longer deserves to be called Edward. He is Cullen, and that's final.
It's then when you realize that you love Bella. Not as a couple, but as a sister. You can't bare to see her hurt, and you would hurt anyone that hurts her.
Except Emmett. He's a freaking monster.
But, still, you would try.
-:-
"Bella!" you call out nervously. "Bella!" you shout again into the forest. Where is she? She went out on a walk with Cullen and she never came back. So now you, your father, a lot of other men from town are combing the forest looking for her.
"Bella!" You shine the flashlight on the ground in front of you, looking for anything.
Your phone chirps, breaking the silence that had settled in the forest after your last shout. You think the worst-
(-Bella's body was found, Bella's badly injured, she's hurt, she's dead, oh God, tell me I'm not right-)
-dread settling in your stomach as you flip your phone open.
"She's fine," your dad says tiredly. You sprint to the Chief's house. You walk slowly into the living room and see her sitting on the couch. Pale, shocked, but still, alive.
You finally breath a sigh of relief.
-:-
You're worried about her. She's not a whole person anymore; you can sense it in her that Edward isn't just some lost boyfriend. He was much more and it's destroying Bella from the inside out.
"Bella?" you ask her quietly. "You coming into work tomorrow?"
Her eyes narrow slightly; the most emotion you've seen in a while. "Yes, Mike, when have I not come in on Saturday?"
The first week after Edward left. But you don't mention that. You never mention Edward.
A few reports about huge bears come into the store and Bella eventually goes home. She disappears one weekend, then comes back on Monday looking better than ever. She's not the nice healthy tan that you want her to have, but still, it's better than the death pale that she was before. You mentally applaud the person doing whatever they're doing. It's helping her, and you're glad.
-:-
You haven't gotten the chance to hang out with Bella, just Bella, in a while. Sure, you always see her lunch, but it's not the same. So, you invite her to see a movie. Immediately, you wince, wishing that you hadn't worded it like you were asking her out on a date. To diffuse the awkwardness in the air, Bella offers to invite some of her friends. You grasp the offer as soon as she says it. Thank God that wasn't too awkward.
But, at the movie, only you, Bella, and one of Bella's friends, Jacob, show up. It's a bit awkward, Jacob obviously thinking of you as competition for Bella (as if), Bella both probably thinking that you were both fighting for her affections. It almost comes a relief when you get sick.
But, as things always do, things take a nose-dive down. Jacob starts avoiding Bella. Bella's heartbroken, and you, as her protector, wants to go beat the crap out of him. But you can't. You don't know where he lives. You try to comfort her a little bit, but probably end up hurting her feelings. She's broken again. And just when she was getting better.
Damn.
-:-
Bella comes in smiling one day and you figure it out. Jacob stopped being an asshole and apologized to Bella. Good. Now you don't have to kill him. The next few weeks go by in a blur, with Bella coming in with cuts and scrapes on her. You get worried, is Jacob hitting her? You find out that Bella and a garage filled with sharp pointy objects don't go together very well.
And then suddenly, Bella doesn't come into school. Charlie is throwing a hissy fit, saying that the Cullen girl, Alice, came and took Bella away. Jacob told him. You seeth in worry for the next weeks. Where is she?
Then she walks in one day and the transformation is obvious. She's smiling, glowing in fact, her pale face now healthy. Her eyes aren't the dark empty holes they used to be, now sparkling with joy, and laughter, and love. Oh, and her arm is Edward Cullen.
That stupid basta-
But you stop that train of thought. Maybe...
Maybe Bella was so damaged by the fact that Cullen left because....
Because they loved each other.
And this wasn't the love that the cheesy chick flicks talked about. This was true love, soul mate crap, and you could see it in every move. Cullen handing Bella the salt at lunch: practically screamed love somehow. They wouldn't let go of each other. Cullen lets go of Bella hand for one second and her empty hand automatically curls around his shirt. He notices, but doesn't shake her. Instead, he smiles slightly and grabs it as soon as his hand is free.
Even you can't deny the love between then.
Maybe Cull - Edward wasn't so bad.
But, you'd be watching him very closely.
-:-
"What's going on?" you ask Tyler lowly.
"That big guy from La Push showed up about ten minutes ago. Edward and Bella came up about two minutes ago. Now they're talking."
You squint at the guy from La Push. Jesus Christ, is that Jacob? That monster of a man? Bella's face falls and you look at her. Edward winces and puts a hand up to his head.
"Stop it!" you hear Bella shout. "Just stop whatever you're doing!"
The principal comes over, breaking up the fight that never happened. You walk away. In Math class, you are talking with your friends, discussing what happened.
"10 bucks on the La Push guy," someone wagers. Everyone else places their bets.
"Wonder what it was over."
As one, you all look towards Bella.
"My money's still on Jacob," you mutter.
At least Jacob didn't rip Bella to shred and leave you behind to try and put the pieces together again.
-:-
"This is madness," you mutter towards Jessica, shaking your head. "Honestly, who designed this place? Martha Stewart?"
Jessica looks around the living room, which was redone as a club for the party. "If Martha Stewart was from a club, then yes, Martha Stewart."She grins up at you and you feel this jolt thing in your heart. You swallow and excuse yourself for a drink.
You stop on the way there, though. Bella's trapped by three huge guys. You recognize one of the vaguely as Jacob. It still surprises you how huge he is. You start to walk over to-
(-maybe save her? Rescue her? But she doesn't look like she's in any danger-)
-Bella, but you see Alice Cullen, little graceful Alice, dance over to her. The guys immediately back off when Jasper comes over.
The Cullens are good for something, you guess.
-:-
You swirl the apple cider around the glass and glance around the party. It's quite swanky for Forks, but you think it fits Bella and Edward perfectly.
You see Bella and Edward by the first table, whispering together. They make quite the pair; both pale as snow, both extremely beautiful, both in wedding attire. You eye Edward for a few seconds; you never told anyone about your plan, but Edward seems to know somehow. Odd. You take a sip of the apple cider. No champange for you, seeing how you're only 18.
I'm passing the torch to you, Cullen, you think to yourself.
Take care of her.
Edward looks in your direction and nods. You smile to yourself and walk away. You put your arm around Jessica.
"Fancy a dance, m'lady?" you ask her. Jessica rolls her eyes and swats at your shoulder, but she still dances with you.
And when it's the last song, you picture her in a white dress, and you in a tux, and you've never felt happier in your life.
I know I kinda just skipped over Eclipse. I know. Don't review saying "There was nothing about Eclipse!" Yes, I know that. And, the whole Mike excursion?
Really a lot of fun, surprisingly. I know. Odd, but I love Mike.
The Only Pancake is to blame for that. And my love of Paul. And Jasper. And Silas.
Damn you and your way of making me love the underdogs!
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