Okay, so I'm back! I used to be addicted to FanFiction to the point where I couldn't go to bed at night without writing something! And then for some reason, I just gave up! But now I'm back, and determined to actually FINISH a story. Anyway, back to this story, it takes place in the middle of New Moon. Bella has been spending countless hours with Jake and that little hole in her heart is slowly mending. Anyway, this is about the part where her, Jake, and Mike are going to the movies… Enjoy!
Bella's Point of View
"Bella, I'm so sorry we couldn't make it!" I heard Ben repeat for like the thousandth time! And as much as I was dreading the awkwardness of it just being me, Jake, and Mike tonight, I completely understood why they cancelled.
"Ben, it's fine! Go take care of Ang! She could use someone to hold her hair back," I joked. Angela was the kindest, most pure-hearted person I know and I honestly did feel horrible for her. Nobody likes the stomach flu.
"Okay, Bella. Again, I really am sorry. Enjoy Crosshairs without us!" Unlikely. Very unlikely. But I have no other choice.
"No problem! Tell Angela to get better soon!"
"I will. See ya tomorrow! Bye, Bella." I hung up the phone, dreading the night ahead. I had to go see a movie with two guys that obviously liked me, and I was no where near liking them. Well Mike, at least. Jake was another story.
These past few horrendous months have been awful. But in the past couple of weeks, they actually seemed a tad bit brighter. Jacob was a cheerful person whose smile was contagious. He always seemed to make me laugh, especially on the days that I needed it. Or the times when I would try to trigger a hallucination, and nothing would happen. Even though he would have no idea what was bringing me down that day, he would do everything in his power to lighten my mood anyway. And somehow, as if he had some kind of supernatural power, he could always pull a smile from my lips. But even with Jake, life still wasn't a walk in the park.
I still had the nightmares. The nightmares that woke me and Charlie up every night. The nightmares where I would search, search for him, and come up empty handed. I would wake up screaming. Every night. And oh yeah! How could I forget the gaping hole in the middle of my chest that ached and burned every second that I wasn't with Jacob. And sometimes the hole would rip it's way through my chest, even if I was with Jacob. There would be those times when our conversations would somehow get redirected back to my past relationships or "That Cullen Guy" was what he was known as to Jake. And of course, the fact that he wasn't here. The fact that I wake up every morning from a restless night, and know that he's still gone, and won't be coming back.
As if to purposefully pull me from my not-so-pleasant thoughts, the gaping hole in my chest burned itself a little bit bigger. Eager for Jake, I grabbed my bag, slung it over my shoulder, and headed for the door.
Mike and Jake stood awkwardly in my driveway, both with their hands stuffed in the pockets, and their eyes fixed in different directions, looking as if something was really that interesting. Nothing in Forks was that interesting. They snapped out of their stillness when they saw me approaching.
"Well, Jessica suddenly has other plans, and Angela got the stomach flu that seems to be going around. So Ben stayed behind to take care of her."
"Awh, no big deal. It'll be just us three tonight." At the sound of Jake's voice, right on cue, the hole seemed to seal up…. Well, more like go numb. Jake was the morphine that took the pain away.
"Okay! Mike are you sure it's okay?" He seemed to be standing off to the side of us, obviously feeling left out.
"Oh, uhm, yeah definitely!" Mike had on his "Let's-impress-Bella-and-show-up-this-loser" face.
"Alright, good!" I said. I turned to Jake. "Is it okay if we take your car? I mean, I understand how proud you are of it, being that you just rebuilt it from scratch." Mike stifled a gasp. I saw Jacob's mouth curve up at the corners, trying to hide a smile. Great. I knew he was going to have some fun with this.
"Oh, yeah, absolutely! Is that okay with you, Mike?" Jake had on a mocking smile.
"Uh… Yeah." The "cool" Mike was obviously failing him, being that I could read every emotion on his face; Jealousy. Jealousy and annoyance. Jacob cleared his throat, obviously covering up a laugh. No doubt Jacob could read his face, too.
The ride there was awkward, but thankfully, Jake filled it with conversation. He talked mainly to Mike, using "car words" as I had so often called them. And I knew he was purposefully using those terms, wanting to show up Mike and all. A smile of perfect white teeth would break through his lips every time he would use a word that most certainly was out of Mike's vocabulary. Mike, not wanting to admit he had no clue what Jake was talking about, would just nod, assuring Jacob that he had succeeded.
But Mike also did his fair share of excluding Jacob. Whenever there was even a second of silence, Mike would fill it talking about some school project, or who was dating who. This was his way of letting Jake know he wasn't aloud in the conversation. But somehow Jake would find a way to pull himself back in the conversation, like saying "Oh, Bells, is that the girl you told me about?" or "Bells, that sounds like something so and so would do." He made sure to call me Bells every chance he got. This obviously frustrated Mike. His only nickname for me was "Arizona," and that died before it even began.
Once we arrived at the theater, Mike was the one reminding me of buying Jake's ticket, since it was rated R. This very much pleased Mike. Jake's face surprised me, though. Ever since we met at my house, Jacob seemed very composed. No matter how annoying Mike decided to be, he let it slide by, and just one-up him. But this time was different. His jaw muscle tightened, and his hands balled into fists. I gave him one teasing look as if to say "Awh, Mikie hurt your feelings?" he just rolled his eyes and relaxed.
The movie was ten times as awkward as the drive there. As soon as I took my seat in the middle of the two of them, it was war. One would offer to buy me popcorn, while the other was getting me a soda. One would scoot closer, and so the other would scoot even closer.
Not only did that make the movie awful, but the movie itself was terrible. The gore was as fake as they came. Every time a head would be cut off, or someone would get eaten, Jake would just laugh. Surprisingly, Mike didn't try to be all tough and laugh, too. Instead, whenever I would glance at him, he would be staring at the ceiling or pretending to be watching something not interesting. I noticed his face was glistening, as if he was sweating. The light from the screen reflected off of his face to reveal his sallow color.
As soon as I noticed the way he looked, before I could even say anything, he had already jumped up and was making a run for the exit. "Wow, real tough." Jake muttered as I stood to follow Mike out.
Once we were out in the lobby, I turned to Jake. "Give the kid a break. Obviously he got what's been going around! It wasn't because of the movie, I noticed his green color earlier!" My words came out more like a yell than I'd meant. I had just had enough of them acting that way.
Jacob just rolled his eyes, not in a way that was teasing. He actually seemed mad. He walked on toward the exit.
"Jacob, you're seriously gonna leave? I didn't mean to yell! Honest!" Why was he getting so angry? I did nothing! Jake was usually able to control himself more than this.
"I'll just go get the sick puppy so we can leave." He marched off to the men's bathroom. I stared after him, wondering where that all came from. He was in the bathroom for about thirty seconds before I saw him walk out, Mike not behind him. "I'll be in the car." He said as he stormed past.
"Jacob!" I grabbed his arm trying to stop him. My arm quickly fell as I felt his skin. It was hot, like really hot! Not just a fever, HOT! "Jake? Maybe you're sick! You're burning up!"
"I'm fine," he said behind locked teeth. I said no more, just stared blankly as he walked towards the car.
Mike stumbled out of the bathroom a minute later, his face now a pale white. I hugged the once again present throbbing pain in my chest that appeared because of both Jake's absence and the little reminder Mike's skin color gave me.
"I think I should leave," Mike said, obviously feeling embarrassed. I smiled warmly at him.
"It's okay. That's what I figured. Jake's in the car waiting." He followed me out of the theater as we made our way towards the Rabbit. I saw Jacob sitting in the driver's seat looking straight ahead, his face expressionless. Wow. Was he really that mad?
I let Mike have shotgun, knowing that Jake wasn't exactly in the mood to sit next to me. Well, I guess nothing would put him in the mood to sit next to Mike, either. He didn't say a word the whole way home. He had his hands balled into fist over the steering wheel. Mike sat next to him with his used popcorn bucket in his lap in case he needed it. Every few minutes I saw Jake take a glance Mike's way just to be sure he wasn't going to get sick in his precious baby. But he never took a look my way.
Mike showed him the way to his house, and I promised him I would bring his car by in the morning. He thanked us both for taking him home, then weakly climbed out of the car. I don't know if I was expecting Jacob to say something once Mike was out of the car or not, but I shouldn't have been surprised when he didn't. His expression never changed from the hard mask of anger… A mask that I had no idea why it was there.
Once Jake pulled into my driveway, he simply unlocked the doors, his way of telling to get out. I did just that. Without saying a word, I climbed out and headed for the door, but I decided otherwise. I turned back around and stopped at his window. I stood there for about ten seconds before he finally gave in and rolled the window down.
"Oh, it was no problem bringing you home, Bella." He said sarcastically, clearly talking about my lack of thanks.
I rolled my eyes. "Jake, I don't know what's up with the attitude, but maybe it's time you get a hold of yourself. If you're angry about me yelling atyou, then I'm sorry. It was an accident, I was just annoyed with the way you two were treating each other. And I would've said the same thing to Mike if he wasn't busy puking his guts out. And if you're angry about Mike getting sick, then that's ridiculous! He can't help it! So maybe you should lose the attitude!"
He snorted. "It's not him I'm angry with, even if I would like to punch his lights out."
"So then it's me!" I concluded.
"Yeah, it's you! "he retorted.
"Well, then I'm sorry you're so sensitive. I didn't mean to yell."
"I'm not angry over that. Just forget it." He began rolling the window up.
I yelled loud enough so that he could hear me through the window. "So I guess you're going to leave. The last time someone I truly cared about gave me the silent treatment like this, they left. It broke me. I'm still broken. I'll always be broken. But I guess I'll thank you. Thanks for helping me find myself again. I never told you this but you always seemed to make the pain disappear. I don't know how but you did. That's what makes it so easy to be around you." The last part was an accident, and I wish I could just swallow the words. But I couldn't, and I could see Jacob's eyes widen. He was shocked, hurt, confused, and most of all, angry. Yes, he was very angry.
He stepped out of the car this time, and I could feel the waves of anger and pain rolling off of him at once. He stared down at me and for the first time, I actually realized how huge he was. He stood towering over me, and it was hard not to feel like a child around him. "I knew it." He spat.
"Knew what?" I asked confused.
He rolled his eyes. "Don't play dumb, Bella. I've known it all along. Why else would you want to hang around me? There had to be a reason, and you just admitted it. The only reason you kept me in your life for so long was to make you feel better after what that Cullen guy did. I've always known I wasn't good enough for you, Bella." When those words came out, it broke my heart. For, I had known exactly what it felt like to be not good enough.
Jake waited for a response from me, but I had no idea what to say. So he took that as his cue to leave. He turned and stalked off towards his car. I ran after him and grabbed his arm, whipping him around.
"Tell me, Bella. What good am I besides a painkiller?"
This question caught me off guard, and I knew I had to choose my words carefully, or one mistake could make him disappear, just like everything else important in my life had. But as I thought of an answer, I realized that it seemed like I was hesitating.
"Well, say goodbye to your Tylenol." And then he began to tremble. Not just tremble, but he was shaking so violently that I could no longer see his face clearly, he was just a blur. I stepped forward, and that seemed to be the biggest mistake I'll ever make.
The rest happened so fast.
Jacob. My Jacob, disappeared. He vanished. And in his place stood a… a…. a bear, maybe? Or a horse? I wasn't sure. It was taller than me on all fours. It had brown, shaggy fur that shook as the beast growled at me. Before I had time to run or scream for help, the beast lunged toward me.
It's razor sharp claws ripped and tore at my clothes, and I could feel them digging into the skin on my stomach and sides. I could feel the warm blood sliding down my skin and drip onto the concrete. The smell of the rust and salt reached my nose, and I felt light headed.
The monster stared at me with wide eyes. Then it looked down at its paws, then back to me.
"Jacob… where… are you? Please… help." I choked out the words with a pull of blood that followed. That's when I lost it.
My legs went limp and I heard a crack as I felt my head hit the ground. Nothing made sense. None of it. But I had no more time to think.
Everything went black.
Woooooo!! Cliffie (: Anyway, please, please, PLEASE review if you want me to continue! I won't have any motivation if you don't! Let me know what you think! P.S. I just want you to know matter what team you are, you'll get a little bit of everything, trust me (: REVIEWWW! Thanks for reading!