Art of Love

Author: L

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters.

Author's Note: I haven't written a story in a long time so my writing needs more practice. I'm sorry but I won't be able to update this until next week because I have four AS exams to revise for. I think the timeline is inaccurate because I haven't read the books in a while. This prologue takes place before Twilight which means that Bella hasn't arrived yet.

Prologue

Fourteen-year-old Jacob Black wandered absentmindedly through the streets of La Push, occasionally kicking a lone rock across the gravel, watching as it left a path of dust in its trail. He was bored. His father, Billy, had allowed him to build his own makeshift garage next to their house but stopped short of actually providing Jacob with the cars to work on.

"Hey, Jake, wait up!"

Glancing over his shoulder, Jacob saw his two best friends, Quil and Embry, sprinting in an attempt to catch up to him. His eyes brightened at the sight of them, hoping that they were going to come up with another one of their thrill-seeking ideas which would hopefully curb the tediousness of his day.

Both teenagers were completely out of breath by the time they reached Jacob but that didn't stop excited smiles from spreading across their faces. Embry, being the first to recuperate, was eager to share what they had witnessed only mere minutes beforehand.

The words flew out of his mouth in a rush. "We know why Sam and Leah broke up."

While there was plenty of fun to be had in La Push (see: surfing and cliff-diving), nothing out of the ordinary ever happened here – despite the stories Billy liked to share with his son – so when news of the high-school sweethearts' break-up became public knowledge, rumours began to fly incessantly within the small reservation.

Jacob and his friends had always idolised Sam Uley because he was pretty much the definition of the word 'cool'. Whenever Sam visited his old school, every woman – teachers and students alike – would be caught under the spell of his charming smile but he only ever had eyes for one girl. Leah Clearwater was every teenage boy in La Push's dream and also the sole inhabitant of Sam's heart. She was beautiful and down-to-earth with a close family and a happy life. They were the perfect couple.

Over the past few years, people had been placing bets on when their wedding would take place; Jacob, himself, was sure that they would get married straight out of high school. No one had ever expected to hear that they had broken-up.

"If this is another one of those..." Jacob started in a cynical tone, raising his eyebrow sceptically at his friends. He had learnt that when people were bored, they could dream up some really ridiculous things.

Quil shook his head quickly, cutting Jacob off mid-sentence. "No, this is real. We saw it with our own eyes," he insisted. "Sam was holding hands with Emily Young!"

His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion as he listened to the words over and over again in his head, just to make sure that he hadn't misheard them. When Jacob was certain that he didn't need his ears checked, he questioned out loud in a disbelieving tone, "When you say 'Emily Young', you don't mean Leah's cousin, do you?"

They both nodded at once but stayed silent as they watched his expression scrunch into complete bewilderment. It had taken them several minutes to register what was happening before their very eyes and it would probably take Jacob even longer to let it sink in.

Jacob eyed his friends with suspicion. "You know, of all the things that you could have come up with, this is crossing the line," he reprimanded, not amused by this latest accusation of betrayal on Sam's part, especially with someone who was practically a sister to Leah.

"We saw them together, Jake," Embry said in an adamant tone. "We couldn't believe it either at first. Sam and Leah had always been so happy together and they really loved each other as well. I mean, if Leah was my girlfriend..."

"Yeah, keep dreaming," laughed Quil. "Leah is attractive but from where I was standing, her cousin is even more beautiful. I can see why Sam traded –"

"Quil!" hissed Jacob in a low voice but the damage was done.

Leah was stood a few feet away from the boys and when all three sets of eyes focussed on her broken expression, they saw that she was trying – and failing – to fight the tears that were threatening to spill over. An apology washed over Quil's features at once but before he could say anything, Leah had already spun around on her heels and taken off back down the path she had come from.

"I'll go," Jacob murmured, giving Quil a sympathetic pat on the shoulder as he rushed after Leah.

In an attempt to save herself from experiencing further humiliation, Leah hastily wiped her tears away and broke into a sprint when she heard Jacob calling her name. She felt exposed; every time that someone had looked at her after the break-up, she wondered if they knew the extent of the pain that her boyfriend, her high school sweetheart, her Sam had caused. She wondered if they knew that the source of this heartbreak came from someone within Leah's family – that it was her cousin who had stolen her boyfriend. She didn't want to see the pity in people's eyes or hear the sympathy in their voices. She didn't want to feel the aching pain wrenching through her heart anymore but right now, the one thing that she wanted the most was for Jacob to leave her alone.

Jacob reached out and grabbed Leah's arm. She tried to shrug him off but he held onto it firmly, refusing to give her another opportunity to run away again.

"Leah, I'm sorry. We're sorry. Quil didn't mean what he said," Jacob told her; a part of him was desperately hoping that there could be some way to undo the pain those words had caused her.

"Sure he did," Leah responded coldly with a bitter laugh. "Why would anyone go for Leah Clearwater when they could have Emily Young? Like Quil said, she's beautiful and... Well, I'll have to find him later and let him finish off the list of reasons why no one would want to be with me." Her voice started to crack as she finished her sentence and she began to struggle away from Jacob again, trying to spare herself the embarrassment of crying in front of him.

"I can't think of a single reason why anyone would not want to be with you," Jacob murmured in a softer tone. "You have the most captivating personality out of everyone in La Push and whoever even thinks about questioning your beauty seriously needs to have their eyes tested. You don't need Sam to be happy. I know that you'll find someone who is willing and able to appreciate how special you are, and that person would never be stupid enough to let you go."

Leah's eyes locked with his and she saw the sincerity he held in them but no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't let herself trust him. She had believed everything that Sam had ever told her, listened to every promise that he had made but in the end, all she got was a broken dam of tears.

Instead of doing what she really wanted to in that moment – which was to wrap her arms around Jacob and let herself cry into his shoulder – she wretched her arm free of his grip and released her emotions in a completely different way.

"What do you know? You're just a kid, Jacob! You're not mature enough to understand what it's like to love someone only to have them break your heart and sacrifice everything that you had or could have had together for someone else. You don't understand... You won't ever understand."