Motorside Picnic

"Hey, Bells I was thinking about going out for lunch today..?" Jacob suggested from the kitchen counter without looking up, sipping his mug of sugary tea with the newspaper in hand.

"Oh, yeah? Where to?" His wife asked, straightening bits and bobs in the house like she would every morning at half ten.

"I don't know...picnic outside maybe? Somewhere outside of the whole La Push/Forks area..." Bella looked at him; Jacob didn't usually like leaving his hometown so this was a first. She reluctantly agreed, wondering if there was something else going on behind this. She let the thought drift to the back of her mind, feeling slightly guilty she was accusing Jacob of something purely because he wanted to explore the state a bit more. Hey, if he wanted to get out of the house, he could. They pottered around for the rest of the hours, dawdling away time. It felt odd for Bella; she had fun cooking for Jacob and with him in the afternoons. When it hit 11, they both went upstairs to get some necessities and Bella decided to make somewhat of an effort, adding mascara and light lipstick to her usual of no makeup. She grabbed a cardigan and a raincoat to keep in the car as she pranced down the stairs. Jacob came down not short after and grabbed the picnic basket and car keys.

"You ready, hon?" Bella nodded and grabbed her handbag from the counter, skipping out the door Jacob held open for her. He laughed at her energy that could only be seen in a mature woman 21 years young rather than a smaller kid.

"What?" She asked from the car, buckling up. He chuckled again and shook his head as he glided into the Rabbit.

"Nothing,"

"Hmm." From there, they set off to have their days' picnic adventure, reminiscing with all the memories the songs from the radio played.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Jacob sighed in exasperation from behind the wheel, throwing his hands down in a huff. Several policemen up ahead were stopping cars and controlling the traffic. This was the motorway, what was going on? Jacob honked in symphony with several other cars. Bella rolled her eyes. By the time they got to wherever their picnic destination was it would be past lunchtime, and her belly was already rumbling slightly. "Sorry, Bells, I didn't plan this..." He said grumpily. She looked past it with a shrug. 30 minutes later, the small red car had progressed two miles. Jacob sighed again and Bella peered out the window at the emerald forestry beside the car. It was REALLY green, especially in the light of the sun. "You know what..." he murmured under his breath. He indicated into the hard shoulder and parked up. Bella's brow crinkled.

"What are you doing? We can't just park here," She questioned.

"It's not like the traffic's gonna go anywhere," he motioned for her get out the car with an inclination of his head. "Come on, grab the blanket and we'll have our picnic here." He grinned. She laughed.

"I don't think so, Jake. We'll probably get arrested. We can't just 'hang' by the motorway."

"Ah, don't worry. I'll say the car broke down but it was too busy to call a tow and we had to wait or something...we'll figure it out." He said confidently. Bella sighed and mentally weighed the chances in her head. He was right. She slid out the car, blanket and cardigan with her and leant against the boot.

"Where are we gonna do it? There's no grass. Picnic's require grass, Jacob." She spoke matter-of-factly. He smiled and wove his hand through hers.

"Follow me, milady," and he disappeared off between the trees. She hesitantly followed behind and found herself wandering amidst thin and narrow-ish tree trunks, the floor of fallen red leaves and flattened grass, slightly damp from the fleck of light raindrops. She took in her surroundings with wonder. These woods weren't like those back home; they were much greener rather than brown and looked significantly healthier. Jacob had let go of her hand and was now setting down the blanket, putting her raincoat that he'd grabbed from the car on top so their bottoms wouldn't get wet. She sat down, smiling slightly. "You like?"

"A lot more than I thought I would, yeah. That is taking into consideration my strong dislike for cold, wet things..." She smirked and he grinned. He unpacked the food and poured a glass of red wine for her. He toasted,

"To our motorside picnic." And the clink of glasses was heard.

Bella's head was perched in the fold between Jacob's crossed legs, an umbrella above her head to protect her from the scatter of raindrops. She swallowed a grape.

"Hmmm. Jake, I don't think I actually know your favourite colour..."

"You don't? Oh, I feel wounded," he mocked. "It's maroon. And I believe you don't have one...am I correct?"

"Yes. I told you it changed every day."

"Huh. And I guess today its green."

"Correctomundo. Umm, your favourite movie is Beetlejuice, right? And you prefer sunrise rather than sunset?"

He nodded, looking surprised. "I never told you those. How'd you figure that out?"

"Ha-ha, you see. I'm observant. Whenever we go into a movie shop and you see that video tape you always pick it up, smile and put it down again which means it must have some special relevance. And before, when you used to have your little wolf shifts you used to howl before you changed back. You'd pretty much always howl just after sunrise but never after sunset, always before. If that makes sense." She sighed. He smiled at her and kissed her lightly on the nose.

"Beetlejuice was an 18 movie but it was the only one I could watch with my mom's permission, the rest of them I had to sneak into my room from the cabinet in the kitchen. And sunrise...well, I was born in the early hours of the morning so I guess it's just something that's stuck with me." He exhaled and smiled again and Bella looked at him. "Come on, we'd better get moving. Traffic should be quicker now..."

"I can't hear the cars moving..." She challenged.

"You don't have super-wolf hearing." She rolled her eyes, took the last sip of her wine from the glass and gathered her raincoat and basket. Placing the stuff in the boot, she got into the car again. 'Off we go, back to the real world.' she pouted. Jacob pecked her lips.

"Cheer up, Bells, knowing us we'll end up doing this again anyway."

And the thought made them both feel happier. Maybe their second motorside picnic could be when the moon was out instead of the sun.

Yippee, another story done! I was in the car passing some really nice landscapes when this idea came up so I wrote it down and fleshed it out a bit more. It's not my best but at least I have something finished and uploaded.

Thanks for reading, a review would be nice too...

Yours Sincerely,

ColourMeChaos :) x