Jacob Black never claimed to be a fountain of positivity, but, as if delivered straight from the hands of whichever cruel ancestors hated him most, he found himself falling into states of melancholy and unusual episodes of deep thoughtfulness.
For this, Jacob blamed Bella (and Edward's) influence entirely.
If not for their sulky ways, he could have continued acting according to his natural, more carefree (and according to Edward, "truly moronic" state).
Jacob sighed deeply in that dumb, lovestruck way that his family had gotten to know and somewhat reluctantly accept. He heard Sam snort in disgust in the other room and gave him a mental finger.
Bella, who was seated on the other side of the couch, rolled her eyes. She didn't need to be a part of the pack to know exactly where his mind had gone at that moment.
It wasn't like he could help it!
In his more cynical and dramatic moments (like right now), Jacob Black couldn't help but compare his relationship to Edward to Romeo and Juliet. He was woefully unaware of the alternate roles of Mercutio and Benvolio. Bella had given up teaching him the minor details and correcting his perception of the book a while ago.
Luckily, despite not being the smartest wolf in the pack (or outside of it) Jacob had spent too much time around Bella not to know at least the basics of the story line, even if he hadn't bothered reading the book back when it was assigned.
Unfortunately, that really hadn't helped him woo Edward. At all.
Clearly, Edward's love of knowledge and lengthy existence had proven fruitful, because even asking Bella (the classical book fanatic) for book recommendations hadn't yielded any results. Though in hindsight, he shouldn't have expected it to. Of course the over-a-century old vampire wouldn't be impressed by Jacob's poor application of Pride & Prejudice quotes.
At this point Jacob was no longer sure his feelings for the vampire were obvious to Edward, until Bella assured him that Edward could probably hear his thoughts from Alaska with how obviously he was behaving. And if not, Jasper could definitely feel him.
So he decided to do what any love struck teen might and kick it up a notch. If Edward wasn't willing to accept him now, then there had to be other options.
And when he told Bella, she had laughed at him before tripping over her own leg and falling to the floor, though she was already on her way to the ground with the force of her laughter. After collecting herself and with an eye roll at his dramatics, she declared that she would stick with him, no matter how much Jacob embarrassed himself.