Summary: Bella made her choice and she can't go back. But she will never stop dwelling on what could have been. Slight AU.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight saga or anything associated with it.
Author's Notes: This is my first Twilight story, a challenge on the For All the Little People Twilight forum. It's a short one-shot, set after New Moon when Bella chooses to side with the Cullens in the vampires vs. werewolves feud. Slight AU. I love cookies and reviews!
Set In Stone
I drove out to the reservation to see him.
I couldn't tell Edward. He didn't understand. "Stupid puppy," he would sneer, his disdain for our forbidden friendship as clear as his golden eyes, hard like stone.
I had to make sure that he was all right. It had been so simple at the time; there had been no option. My path had been set in stone the moment Edward's eyes first dazzled my own.
But now I realized that those mesmerizing tawny orbs had obscured something so important to me.
Jacob was more than a friend, more than a best friend even. I couldn't place it, but he had been there when no one else could be. He had slipped past my carefully constructed defenses, made me smile when all I wanted to do was die. He brought sunlight -- dazzling, perfect sunlight -- to my isolation, my darkness.
And when I was falling apart, it had been his arms that picked me up and held me together.
All of this I remembered as I coaxed the Chevy to a shuddering halt in front of his house, but I knew before my feet touched the ground. I knew even as I searched the garage, as I knocked on the door. I knew even before Billy answered, his voice a mix of hatred and pity.
"He's gone."
Billy closed the door in my face, and as I stood on his front step the skies opened above me. I didn't move even as I was soaked through my clothes. Any passerby could never guess that my tears fell as thick and fast as the rain, but I could taste them, bitter and salty like the ocean.
I trudged slowly back to the truck (His truck, I thought miserably), dripping and frozen. It occurred to me that this would never change.
He was gone. Never again would that easy, carefree grin flash in my direction. Never again would I feel his unnatural -- but never unwelcome -- warmth.
He was gone. He had left, and here I was, here I chose to stay. My future was cold and distant, a frozen remoteness even from the ones I loved beyond words.
I knew the choice was made, my ballot cast. The only option was to walk the path I had chosen, wherever it may lead. There was no turning back.
But I knew where the other path would end -- not in mystery, but the strong, warm arms I longed for.