"Mine is bigger," I stated with a sense of pride as I compared my blood drained buck to Jacob's small mangled doe corpse.
Jacob entered the clearing in a pair of cut of jean shorts. No matter how close we were, he still refused to phase in front of me. I think it has something to do with the nudity issue.
"I let you win," he said harshly. He was irritated that I had beaten him once again at our hunting game.
"Why do you always let me win?" I asked sarcastically. I flipped my bronze-colored hair over my shoulder, causing Jacob to pause with his answer and stare for the briefest of seconds, something he has been doing more and more often since my 6th birthday, almost a year ago. My 7th birthday is in two weeks.
"Hey! I won last week when I caught that mountain lion!" he exclaimed with a hurt pride when he broke out of his trance.
"I let you win," I said and unlike when Jake said it, I meant it. I purposely ignored that lion the first time I was aware of it. And the second. And the third.
"Whatever," he said, trying to sound indifferent but not succeeding. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't not believe me.
Jacob Black was my best friend. Since the day I was born, he has always been there for me. First, as a brother figure that was constantly looking out for me and willing to risk everything just keep me safe. As time passed, he transitioned from the older brother to the best friend. He became the person to which I confided everything in. Not that I couldn't trust the rest of my family or that I couldn't confide in them, I could and did, but Jacob was the first to know and not because he was nearly always by my side but because I truly wanted him to be the first to know what I was feeling and thinking. Although occasionally my father got to know first but that is only because he can read my mind.
"What time is it?" Jacob asked, looking up at the star filled sky, a rare sight to behold here in Forks due to the constant cover of grey, rain-filled clouds that blanketed the sky.
I stuck my right arm, the one on which my watch was strapped to, toward him. He took a step toward it and gently grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer to him as he stared at my watch much longer than necessary.
"It's getting late. We should probably start heading back," he said when he finally lowered my wrist. I noticed that he didn't let go of it but simply lowered it into the small space between us.
I looked down at his large, warm hand that encompassed my petit wrist and started to play with the idea of Jacob being more than just a friend, much more. I looked back up at him with a smile and took another step closer to him and placed my left hand on his cheek.
"Fine," he answered my question as I removed my hand from his face, "but no cheating this time. Don't start until I'm completely phased."
I gave a quick nod, the smile still on my face, then he dropped my wrist and ran into the forest to phase away from my eyes.
Deciding to be fair, I waited for him to re-enter the clearing, in his overly large wolf form, before I turned and ran full speed towards home.
I heard Jacob's footfalls behind me as he started to catch up and a low growl telling me of his irritation of my slight bending of the rules.
As we ran through the dark forest, he started to gain on me and by the time the house was in view, he had passed me. As soon as he was close enough to the house to be the official winner, he collapsed on the grass. I plopped down beside him when I reached him.
I rolled over onto my back and stretched out my hand to place it on his warm muzzle, letting him know how unfair I thought it was that he beat me again.
He let out a low wolfy chuckle. He then got up on all fours, nuzzled my arm, and then turned to run into the nearby trees. I shook my head and rolled my eyes as I watched him go then turned to gaze at the stars while I waited for him to return. Within moments, his face protruded into my untainted look at the diamonds in the sky.
"Come on. Let's go inside," he said, offering me his hand. I gladly reached up and grabbed it as I let him help me to my feet, then we started to the house where I could see Emmet sitting and watching TV. We walked through the door hand in hand.
I woke up the next morning to a cold hand stroking my head. I opened my eyes to find that the hand belonged to my mother who was sitting next to be on my bed. I reached my hand out to touch her face, telling her good morning.
"Good morning to you too, Sweetheart," she said, still stroking my head. "I was just wondering what you wanted your birthday."
I thought about it for a second then replaced my hand on her face, showing her a picture of a sleek, shiny, and fast Lamborghini. She sighed with a chuckle at my love of cars, inherited from my father. Even though my mother had a nice, shiny car of her own, she rarely ever drove it, preferring to drive my father's Volvo, well now his new BMW, or running.
"Do you want me to make you some breakfast? Or do you want Jacob to?" she asked with a laugh and that's when I noticed the sound of his heart beat and breathing in the next room. I let her know that I wanted Jacob to make me breakfast, and through our connection, she also caught the joy that filled me when I learned that he was here already.
"OK, I'll let him know," she said with another chuckle as she got up and walked out the door. I could hear her inform Jacob of my desire for him to cook me breakfast and then the sounds of the actual cooking being done.
I stayed in bed while Jake cooked, knowing he would be glad to bring me breakfast in bed. And he did. He entered my room with a plate in one hand and a huge smile stretching from ear to ear.
"Hello sleepy head. Glad you could join us," he said with a chuckle, eyeing my hair which I was sure was in a tangled mess.
"Shut up and give me my food, dog!" I demanded playfully, sitting up in bed.
"As you wish," he quoted from one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride. He then gave an elaborate bow as he placed the plate containing my favorite breakfast, a steak breakfast burrito with ultra rare steak, onto my lap.
Instead of responding to his playful teasing, I filled my mouth with the burrito and let out a sigh of content. As far as human food went, it wasn't too bad. Sure the blood in the bloody steak was stale and old, nothing compared to fresh blood; the eggs weren't too bad either. The tortilla was the worst part, tasting of grain and the bleach they use to tour it into white flour.
"Wow. I guess you were hungry," Jake commented with one eye brow raised as he looked at my mouth that was bulging with burrito. He then sat down next to me on the bed and his eyes left my mouth only to find mine.
I stopped mid chew, mouth probably hanging open with my half chewed burrito in plain sight for Jake to see, as I stared back into his eyes, as if in a trance. After what felt like hours, but in reality could have been only seconds, I was able to break free of his gaze to finish chewing my food. Right as I was swallowing, I noticed something missing from Jake's hands, his food.
"Aren't you eating?" I asked right before I shoved the burrito back into my mouth for another bite.
"I guess," he said, getting up and walking out of my room. I heard him walk into the kitchen and pull things out of the cabinet and fridge and then after pouring something into a bowl, he put the things back where they went (I hope) and made his way back to my room. He entered carrying our biggest mixing bowl filled with Lucky Charms. And in his hand was the largest serving spoon we had, also filled with Lucky Charms. That spoon disappeared in his mouth.
"Did you put an empty cereal box and milk carton back in the fridge and cabinet?" I asked. Nothing like thinking you had a box of cereal only to find it empty.
"Maybe," he replied after removing the spoon from his mouth and practically swallowing the mouthful of cereal whole, without bothering to chew. I glared at him and he put down the bowl on the top of my dresser then walked back out to the kitchen. I heard him open and close the fridge and the cabinet and then two thunks as the empty containers hit the bottom of the trash can.
By the time he returned, I had finished my burrito and as he walked in, I held out my plate too him with a smile. He rolled his eyes, took the plate from my hands and walked back into the kitchen, making a lot of unnecessary noise as he washed the plate and the remaining dishes and put them in the dishwasher.
He then sulked back into my room, grabbed his bowl from my dresser and sat on the end of my bed with his back to me and continued to eat.
I pulled myself out from under the covers and stretched out until my foot made contact with his backside.
"Hey, why do you have to be like that?" I asked with a playful tone as I gave him another nudge with my foot. When he didn't respond, I gave him another nudge. "Come on," I continued with a giggle, giving him yet another nudge.
When his only response was to eat faster, I decided to give up with the foot nudging and crawled over to him. When I reached him I placed both my hands on his shoulders from behind. I then leaned forward, putting my mouth right next to his right ear and then I placed my left hand on his cheek, letting him know that he couldn't stay mad at me for long, no matter how hard he tried.
"Doesn't mean I can't try," he said, then shoved another large spoonful of cereal into his mouth and down his throat, and then continued to ignore me.
I chuckled softly into his ear because of his pigheaded determination. I then leaned forward a bit more to kiss him on the cheek, something I have done many, many times over the years. But this time was different. My lips lingered longer than normal and I longed to kiss something else besides his cheek.
He then turned towards me and that's when I realized that I still had my hand on his cheek and he had seen all the thought and emotions that had just entered my body and mind.
I was overly aware of his lips, now right in front of mine. I wanted to close the inch gap between his lips and mine to make them meet in a kiss. I soon removed my eyes from his lips and looked into his eyes that were looking right back at me. My breath caught as I saw the desire that his eyes held for me. In the back of my mind, I was still vaguely aware that my hand was still on his cheek and was still letting him know my thoughts and feelings but I did nothing to move it, wanting to let him in on these new feelings for him.
Just as I decided that I was going to fill that gap between our lips, I heard a slosh quickly followed by a thunk.
"Oh, crap!" Jake exclaimed as he turned to see his cereal bowl, now on its side on my floor with Lucky Charms in a semi-circle around it. "Sorry," he apologized sheepishly, his cheeks slightly pink.
"Just make sure it gets cleaned up," I scolded him with a chuckle, and then moved back to the center of my bed and stretched out, touching the edge of my pillow with my fingers tips and the end of the bed with my toes.
Jake got up and bent down to pick up the bowl off the floor and scoop up as much cereal as possible off the floor. He then straightened up and turned to face me.
"While I'm returning this to the kitchen and getting stuff to clean up my mess, you might want to get dressed," he said while eyeing my spaghetti strap, mid-thigh in length, pink night gown with lace at the neck line. A Christmas gift from my Aunt Alice.
I was debating on whether or not I should change as Jacob left the room. Just as I decided that I was going to stay in the night gown that seemed to make Jacob nervous, something else changed my mind for me. My father.
"Change Nessie!" I heard my father demand from my parents' room in a hard voice. I couldn't hide anything from him, could I?
I slipped off my bed and walked over to my closet and pulled out one of my simple tee-shirts and then I walked over to my dresser and pulled out a pair of genes. I might have gotten the love of cars from my father but my mother gave me the need for simplicity when it came to my wardrobe, frilly nightgowns being the only exceptions. This relentlessly displeased my Aunt Alice exponentially.
As soon as I snapped the button on my jeans, I heard a knock on my bedroom door.
"Come in Jacob."
"You decent?" he asked as he cracked open the door and peered in.
"Yes. Now just come in!" I demanded, a little irritated at his behavior. I then reached for my brush sitting on top of my dresser and pulled it through my hair, disentangling all the knots and restoring it to its normal silky smoothness.
"So, what did you tell your mom?" he asked as he stared at my reflection in the mirror.
"What?" I asked as I turned around to face him.
"What did you say you wanted for your birthday. I'm still drawing up blanks," he replied. He then reached out for a piece of my hair and started to play with it. His playing with my hair wasn't anything new but the feelings that I know felt about the simple gesture were.
I guess I just stood there and stared because Jacob had to look up from my lock of hair in his hands and look at me.
"Well?" he said snapping me out of my trance.
"Oh, sorry," I apologized as I put my hand on his cheek and showed him the picture of the car that I had showed my mom earlier.
"Well, that doesn't help me," he said as his eyebrows knit together in thought. I took my hand off his cheek before he could see how much I wanted. "Good choice though," he said, giving his approval.
"Thanks. So, what are we doing today?" I asked while he continued to play with my hair.
"I don't know. I figured we'd just wing it," he said, twirling my hair around his finger.
"Didn't we 'wing it' all last week?" I asked with a sigh.
"Yup," he said, now starting to braid my hair.
For my whole 6, almost 7, years of my life, I have barely left Forks, let alone Washington. The farthest I've been from home was Seattle to do some shopping. My family used to talk about moving. They discussed starting anew somewhere else, sometimes the discussion was about moving to Alaska to stay with the Denali clan, and sometimes it was a discussion over where else we could go without being exposed by the sun. Once there was even a discussion about going to Europe. Over the years, the discussions diminished and became half hearted, and then all together stopped. It seemed no one wanted to leave Forks. Whenever I asked about it, they said they wanted to wait until I had stopped aging so that we could all enroll in high school. The fact that I haven't physically changed that much in the past year and that the discussions haven't started up again shows me that I was used as an excuse.
In the beginning, I wasn't bothered by it. I liked Forks well enough and had no desire to go anywhere else. Now, I felt bored. There were only so many things to do at Carlisle and Esme's house. I have seen almost every movie, read every book in Carlisle's library and then some, played every bored game, with and without the original rules, played on every game system, no matter how boring I found them to be, and I followed a good number of television shows.
The only time I left the house was to hunt, the occasional trip to the movies, or shopping. And that got boring fast. I was ready to move on, to go somewhere new, and to leave dreary Forks.
The next two weeks passed without incident. My life was still the same monotone it had been for the past 7 years, minus of course those couple of months in my first year with the Voultri. I did what I could to stay busy, watched movies I had already seen, played games I had already played, and I even practiced on the piano again, something that was unnecessary due to the fact that I was almost as good as my father. It was also something that Jacob couldn't do with me and therefore not something I did often. I did what I could to keep my mind off of my growing need to leave, especially around my father. If he found out that I wanted to leave as badly as I did, everyone else would find out and that was something I didn't want. I was also very careful not to make any decisions that would tip Aunt Alice off.
I also had to keep my mind off of my new feelings for Jacob. This was much harder to do because it was something I actually enjoyed thinking about. I often found myself daydreaming what it would be like to kiss him, to have his arms wrapped around me forever. I tried to keep these thoughts in check because I didn't know how my father would react to them. He liked Jacob and considered him to be family but there was a time when that was not so. I still remembered when my father would stare daggers at Jacob and I was afraid that if he thought something was going on with us that those daggers would come back.
Before I knew it, it was my birthday and I was waking up to the smell of steak and the sound of Jacob in the kitchen.
"Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!"
I jumped slightly in surprise of the closeness and suddenness of my mother's voice.
"Good morning to you too Mom," I replied, turning over in bed to look at her.
"Here!" she said, shoving a small box toward me, "It's from your father and me. Happy Birthday!"
I reached for the small box and took it from my mother's hands.
For someone who hated to celebrate her birthday, she was always ecstatic about mine often going over the top, helping Aunt Alice plan some elaborate party. My birthday always took center stage while hers, just a few days after mine, went unnoticed per her request. My father had even stopped buying her gifts, which of course meant that she got double for Christmas.
I opened the box to find a sleek key sitting on top of a pile of twenties.
"Thanks Mom. Thanks Dad," I said with a smile, looking forward to seeing my new car sitting in the garage.
I then swung my legs out of bed and hopped on to the floor to give my mother a hug. I always loved the feeling of being her cold marble arms and unlike those stupid teenage girls in the movies I had been watching to pass the time; I never fought with my mom, ever. I couldn't say the same thing about my father; we had a few disagreements over the years but nothing major. My mother was someone I could always count on to be there for me.
When I left my mother's embrace, I ran for the kitchen to see Jacob removing my burrito from the frying pan and placing it onto a plate.
"Perfect timing," he said as he turned to me with a smile and handed me my plate. He then turned back around and started preparing another burrito for himself.
I sat down onto the counter next to him and shoved the burrito into my mouth for a bite.
"So no 'Happy Birthday'?" I said as soon as I chewed and swallowed my mouthful of burrito. I then proceeded to take another bite.
"I was getting to that," he said giving me a quick glance as he was cooking.
"What you get me?" I asked, swinging my legs as I took another bite.
"You'll have to wait for the party later to get it," he replied, throwing me a nasty smile.
"Ah! That's not fair! My mother and father already gave me theirs. Why can't you give me yours?" I whined, knowing I was fighting a losing battle.
"Well, I'm not your mother or your father, am I?"
"No."
"Then you're going to wait."
"Fine! But I won't be happy about it."
"Then let me rephrase. You're going to wait with a smile. "
"Smiling doesn't mean I'm happy." I plastered a fake smile onto be face but kept my eyes angry "See?"
"Haha. Very funny. Now finish up with that burrito, I have the duty of keeping you occupied until the party starts," he informed me right before he shoved half the burrito into his mouth which was quickly followed be the other half.
I shoved the rest of the burrito into my mouth, hoped off the counter, and then dumped my plate into the sink. "Hurry up slow poke!" I said over my shoulder as I bounded toward the door.
"Who are you calling slow?" I heard him say as he ran past me and out the door. I quickened my pace and was soon right on his heels. Instead of passing him, I decide to jump and land on his back, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. Despite my extra weight and the element of surprise, Jacob didn't slow down.
I reached my hand up to touch his face, letting him know that we were even as he raced through the trees with me on his back.