I had just dropped Bella off at La Push, although I would have preferred for her to stay in Forks with Alice. Actually, given the tenor of Jacob's thoughts, I would have preferred for Bella to stay almost anywhere but La Push. Jacob had decided to tell Bella that he was in love with her, with the hopes that Bella would, in turn, realize some romantic feelings for him, and forget about me. My knuckles turned white as they clutched the steering wheel, all of my thoughts concentrated on Bella being alone with Jacob. Jacob could protect Bella from Victoria, but there was no one there to protect Bella from Jacob; his emotions were running especially high today, with the ludicrous prospects of the two of them living happily together, in love forever.
...or at least until their human lives expired.
Turning into my driveway, I tried to shake off any bad feelings I had gathered during the drive back home. I told Bella I trusted Jacob, and that was true…to an extent. I trusted him, as a human, to keep her safe, and protect her from the monsters that constantly circled her.
As I walked into the house, I heard my siblings laughing from the living room. As I walked into the room, Jasper eased the tension I felt about Bella. I smiled at my brothers and sisters. Rosalie was sitting on Emmett's lap, with her head nuzzled in his neck and one hand twisting in the curls of his hair. Alice and Jasper took a more subtle approach, and had their arms intertwined, sitting close to each other on the couch.
"What were you all laughing about before?"
No one answered.
"Oooh, we're in trouble." Rosalie thought to herself. My eyes narrowed, in confusion only, as anger was seemingly difficult with Jasper in the room.
"Seriously, what's going on?" I asked.
Alice pursed her lips together, as if she was trying to hide a smile.
"It's nothing." She said. "Jasper and Emmett were fighting, as usual."
"About what?"
Snickering all around. Clearly, this was one joke that I was not meant to be in on. But secrets in the Cullen household were rare. They all looked around at each other, sizing up who would talk first. Finally, Rosalie spoke.
"Oh nothing…just a little tiff about Bella." She smirked.
If I were in control of my own feelings, I'm sure right now my temper would be rising. Perhaps I had misinterpreted Japser's seemingly good deed of easing my stress over Bella. In all likliness, he had calmed me down in anticipation of my reaction to what my brothers were fighting about.
I sighed. "What about Bella."
No one spoke. Emmett put his head in Rosalie's hair, attempting to muffle the laughter escaping from his lips.
"I have a right to know what you're discussing if the subject is Bella." I stated. They couldn't argue with that. Especially since they knew how worked up I was about her being in La Push for the afternoon.
..or how protective I was of her in these fragile times.
One by one, they all looked over to Emmett. They all figured that coming from Emmett, whatever they were hiding from me would loose some of its seriousness. Actually, only Alice and Rosalie were thinking that; Jasper figured that when I finally got Emmett alone, he would be strong enough to handle himself.
Emmett looked at every one, and realized that he had been selected to deliver the punchline to me. It was obvious that he was annoyed with the overall consensus that he was to play messenger.
"Fine, I'll tell." He sighed. "Well, we were all talking about…you know, general happenings in our lives…" he paused.
"Like?" I asked.
"Um, the newborns, graduation, the graduation party….." he trailed off slightly. "…changes that might be occurring to some of us after graduation, and that got me and Jasper talking, and we just set a little wager about when and if Bella would…" he mumbled something to finish the sentence. It was too soft for even me to hear, especially over the laughter of Rosalie, Alice and Jasper.
"You made a wager for what?"
"We made a wager for how many times….that Bella would…slip up during her first year….as a..vampire." He finished, with a grin on his face. Jasper made it impossible for me to feel anything but calm.
"Okay." I said. "And how are you two betting?"
"I'm betting she'll slip up three times." Emmett said confidently.
"I'm guessing a bit higher." Jasper finished.
"How much higher?"
"…like, twelve, fifteen times."
"How much is the wager?" I asked again, feigning an interesting.
"You don't want to know." Alice chimed in. Apparently, the cash prize against the will power of Bella was obscenely high.
"Probably not." I conceded.
My siblings started to giggle again, watching me stay uncharacteristically calm, once again, thanks to Jasper, as I processed this new information. I shook my head and rolled my eyes.
"Not a word of this to Bella."
The roaring laughter started again.