DISCLAIMER: All characters and the world of "Twilight" belong to Stephenie Meyer. I own nothing—nothing! Not even a car.
A/N This is a plot bunny I had kicking around for a while – I hope you enjoy it. It's just slice of life stuff during the time-stretchy fluid Eclipse I like to write in. Eventual Jacob/Bella because that is how I roll plus LOTS of wolf pack being their awesome selves.
Oh and Jacob quotes South Park at some point – you'll know it (I hope.)
Jim Nabors.
Charles Magnante & the Mullen Sisters.
Bach's Mass in B Minor.
Embry sighed as he flipped through the final record in the stack, a copy of "Trio," the cover of which featured Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Rondstant beaming magnanimously. Vintage metal, old school rap, and weird percussion records from the 60s were the goal – the reality was the beatific smiles and big hair of Dolly, Emmylou, and Linda. Still, there were treasures to be found at the Salvation Army Store and Embry carried his stack of worn paperbacks and a T-shirt decorated with a picture of 1980s wrestler Brutus 'the barber' Beefcake, whose bow-tied visage had caught his eye, to the register for old Mrs. Delaskus to ring up.
"That's 5.23, hun."
"That much? Shi—shoot. I only have 4.50." Embry did some quick mental calculations, if he put back three paperbacks and walked instead of taking the bus home, he would have enough for the T-shirt and the Jack Vance books, including the promisingly titled 'Palace of Love.'
Mrs. Delaskus put everything in a plastic bag and offered him a peppermint with his change.
"I'll eat it later," he said and put it in his pocket with his coins.
"See you next week, hun." She gave him a small but kind smile. "I'll keep aside any of those robot or spaceship books for you if I see them."
"Thanks, Mrs. D. See you." Embry gave her a wave and twirled his plastic bag full of goodies as he headed out the door.
The weather looked like it was about to turn and Embry decided to take the short cut through the woods instead of walking along the road in hopes that somebody would stop to pick him up on his way back to the rez. Besides, in the woods he could run without people staring. Not that they did. He just felt self-conscious running around Forks even if he wasn't half-nude, like Jake was all the time. Some people had a little dignity.
Embry smelled the change in the air before it started - big drops of rain started plipping down. In a few minutes it would be pouring and he would have to cross the rez to get home. He didn't mind getting wet but his books would be ruined. The Black house was close, though. Jake and Quil had detention for the whole week due to an unfortunate incident in which Quil thought he spotted a leech out back behind the gym and ran off with Jake during fifth period to chase it, leaving behind their clothes and, more importantly, missing a crucial presentation on Alexander Hamilton.
"They weren't missing much, believe me," Quil had said with a resigned grin. "Jake was going to rip his shirt off and get the girls to stick some twenty dollar bills down his shorts."
"Was there even a leech?" asked Embry wishing, not for the first time, that he had been smarter about being smart and had stuck back in the regular classes.
"Yes," said Quil at the same time that Jake said, "No!"
They looked at each other.
Quil shrugged. "Well, she could have been a leech – I just wanted to make sure. I mean, if you want to take chances with Bella's safety that's up to you. I, on the other hand, feel obligated to follow up every lead."
Embry choked back giggles as Jake's face grew redder and redder.
"If you care so much about Bella," Jacob spit out, "Why didn't you care about how I'm supposed to protect her while I'm in detention for scaring some substitute teacher?"
"Don't start hating on the wolf instincts, dude – we're wild animals. You can't tame this." Quil tapped his chest boastfully. "I'm not responsible for what happens in the heat of the fight."
"If anything happens to Bella…" growled Jacob.
Embry had defused the fight by asking for more details about their aborted Alexander Hamilton project, which had caused both Quil and Jacob to gang up and tease Embry for being a nerd. But that had been Thursday and now it was Tuesday and the garage was empty as Embry sprinted up to it and ducked inside just as the rain hit hard, the drops rattling the tin roof.
The garage was like a second home to Embry, not that he would ever admit it, but with his mom gone so often for work or, worse, gone off drinking, it was nice to have another place to get away to. Embry pulled a warm Coke from the carton in the corner and flopped down on the couch with his paperbacks.
"Maybe Jake will give me a ride home," yawned Embry as he stretched out. And he even managed to read half a chapter of 'Palace of Love' before his eyes got heavy and he settled into a nice doze.
When Embry opened his eyes again, there was a small, white solemn face in front of them.
"'Sup, Bella," he said closing his eyes again and rolling over with a certain finality. "Jake's not here and I don't know shit about fixing cars."
He could here her standing there, breathing and fidgeting. She walked away a couple steps and Embry was sure that she had given up but then she stopped. "Where did he go?" It came out all in a rush, as clumsy as she was herself.
Embry didn't even open his eyes as he told her the lie that would get him into trouble. "He's with his girlfriend."
"Oh." Silence. "I didn't know." Her voice twisted tightly in his ears.
"I'll tell him you stopped by."
Bella didn't say anything else as she ran out the door and into the rain, which was still tapping gently on the roof. And Embry stilled the stirrings of guilt by imagining how happy Jake would be once Bella stopped hanging around and torturing him. The girl ran with vampires; she wouldn't die if her pet dog got taken away.
Jacob did give Embry a ride home, eventually. It was still raining.
"Thanks for the ride, dude," said Embry as they turned down the road towards his house.
"You've got to work on that 'at one with the elements' thing if you want to really wolf properly."
"I'm one of those modern wolves – I shit in a toilet, can kick your butt at Mario Kart, and don't have to sign my name with an 'X'."
"You've never taken a dump outside? As a wolf?"
"You would know," Embry rolled his eyes. " We're all up each other's butts with that pack mind anyway."
Jacob started giggling. "You totally hold it in until you can phase back!"
"Shut up!" said Embry, blushing, but it was too late as the giggles turned to great gulping laughs. Embry grinned. Jacob's moods were irresistible when he got like this. "You're going to crash the car." He kept a straight face, but barely.
"When we go on patrol tomorrow," Jacob paused to catch his breath, "I'm not going to be able to not think about this. Just so you know."
"Fine," sighed Embry with a faux-weariness. "But then I'm going to think about Be—" He caught himself, "—bananas."
Jacob pulled into Embry's driveway. The light was on the in the living room and the faint glow of the TV shined welcomingly from the window.
"Bananas?"
"Yeah, I don't know where that came from." Embry shrugged and started to open the door. "Hey, is that thing still on for this weekend?"
"The bonfire? Hell, yeah! Are you in for the keg? 'Don't you know the first law of physics? Anything that's fun costs at least eight dollars'."
"Sure, sure… I'll get some money from my mom."
"Sweet. See ya."
Embry tucked his bag of books under his shirt and ran inside.
"He's with his girlfriend," Bella repeated to herself as she tried to work up the energy to move from the cab of the truck back into her house. She didn't like him like that anyways, so she should be happy.
"Jacob has a girlfriend." She tried saying the words in a firm tone of voice.
"Girlfriend." The formerly innocuous word felt heavy in her mouth and left an empty pit in her stomach. For all that she pushed aside his attentions when they were inconvenient, Bella had gotten used to the idea that Jacob would be around whenever Edward wasn't – a backup so she wouldn't have to be alone.
Bella chastised herself for being so selfish. She had already made her choice but still she couldn't quite shake the small voice that whined, "And I thought Jake had chosen me."
With a world-weary sigh, Bella scraped her arm as she hopped down from the truck, ripped the knee of her jeans as she tripped on the walk up to the house, and then broke her key in the front door.
"If I was a vampire, I wouldn't have to use keys," she muttered, blinking back tears of frustration. "I could just open the door." She rattled the handle on each word but the door refused to budge.
She stared at it - the immovable object.
"If I was a vampire you would be splinters, door – just scraps of wood."
The door said nothing.
"I wouldn't even need a door, actually." Bella's voice grew louder. "I would just hunt animals and live in the woods."
A gust of wind kicked up and spattered her back. Bella swung around, furious. "And rain wouldn't bother me – it would just make me run faster." The wind blew her hair into her mouth and she sputtered a bit as Charlie's cruiser pulled into view. Her tirade against the elements was forgotten in the moment, overcome by relief at seeing a rescuer. She pulled up her hood and ran down to the driveway to great him.
"Bells, what the heck is going on, now? Do we need an ambulance?" Charlie had one foot in the idling cruiser and was leaning over the door his face full of concern.
"I broke the key in the lock - I'm sorry." She choked on the last word. Now Charlie was going to have to call a locksmith and they would be stuck outside and nobody would get dinner and it was all her stupid, human fault.
"Is that all?" Charlie shook his head and climbed back into the cruiser to shut down the engine. "The way you were running with that bloody leg, I thought you'd have severed an artery or something."
Bella looked down and saw that the rip in her jeans came with a nasty scraped knee. Now, the copper smell hit her nose and she began to feel lightheaded. Bella took a step back to steady herself as Charlie slammed the cruiser door shut.
"Now don't go fainting on me. We need to get that knee cleaned up and while you might weigh a couple pounds short of nothing, it's a couple pounds too much for this old back."
"But—the door—" A couple of tears slid down her cheeks and mixed with the rain.
"A door isn't a door if it won't open," said Charlie, "We'll go in the back way, come on, now. I'll call about the door tomorrow. I haven't seen Roy in a while, anyways."
They went around back and Bella watched as Charlie took the key from its hiding place and opened the back door. Her dark mood turned darker as embarrassment at her own stupidity was added to the catalog of sins the day had racked up.
Charlie shuffled a bit as he let her into the back hallway, "Sweetheart, I know 'Dad Wisdom' is the last thing you want right now and know you're real single-minded about things but sometimes it's worth remembering that there is more than one way to skin a cat."
Bella scrunched up her face at the analogy and Charlie gave a small chuckle. "Well, I didn't mean a real cat." He patted her on the shoulder and wandered in to the kitchen to get a beer.
Bella just stood dripping water into the hallway with a sour look on her face. Why did Edward have to pick this weekend to go hunting and leave her all by herself? He would have swooped in and opened the door for her. He would have stopped her from going to La Push. He would be in her room right now.
"I'm going to take a shower," she said to nobody in particular.
The warm water washed away some of Bella's cranky feelings but she still felt icky. Bella wrapped herself in towel and put on her terrycloth bathrobe with the hood. Steam from the shower fogged up the bathroom mirror and she wiped it off with a sleeve. The bathroom lights refracted the light a little bit and if she squinted, she could pretend that she had skin like diamonds.
Bella reached out her damp hand to touch the cool mirror. She pressed her palm against it and the Bella in the mirror did the same thing. Bella stared at herself, her features becoming sharper and more distinct the more she looked at them - the little hairs on her face, a drop of water making its way down her collarbone.
Human.