Jacob and I sat on my front porch, watching as Charlie pulled away. He stopped briefly to roll down his window and shout that he loved me before he drove away.
"I love you, too." It would be one of my last opportunities to tell him. I would leave in four months. I would miss Charlie. He has been great to me.
"Becoming one of them means leaving him behind, Bella." Jacob looked at me, his eyes failing to mask the sadness that the thought of losing me brought to him. "Leaving him behind. Leaving me behind."
I looked down, ashamed of the hurt I was bringing upon him, and wishing desperately that I didn't have to lose him in the process of marrying Edward. Edward, who hated Jacob, my Jacob, and protected me far too much, meant going without my father, mother, and most of all, best friend and love.
"Can you leave us, Bella? Can you leave us the way he left you?" Jacob's voice cracked at the words. "Can you break us? Can you break me?" I forced myself to look up at him. Edward leaving had left me broken, empty. Jacob put me back together. Without me, what would he do? I pictured him lonely, in werewolf form, standing on the cliff I had dived off of, howling. Could I? Could I leave him like that?
He reached for my hand, the warmth of his enclosing it. "Don't, Bella. Don't break me."
I slowly shook my head. I couldn't do it, not to the one who saw me as whole when I was empty, perfect when I was broken, who had brought me back when I was gone. How could I hurt him the way that I had been hurt? How could I do that to my rescuer?
I leaned in to him, my arms encircling his warm body, collapsing against his chest as my tears were lost in his shirt. "I won't, Jacob. I won't break you."
He kissed the top of my head. "I love you. Don't leave me."
He was a loss that not even Edward could make up for.