Chapter 2

I walked down stairs and said goodbye to Charlie. I got in my old truck and drove to school. The lot

was almost full and when I got out, like I predicted, everybody was staring. I heard Jessica say

something like 'I don't feel bad for her.' and Mike say something like 'Its my time to make a move.'

Ugh! This was going to be hard.

The day went by in a blur. Some people asked me if I was okay. I always said something like 'No.' or

'Not really.' If I lied they would know. I thought I was doing really well about not letting my emotional

mood take the best of me, but then came biology…

I sat down at my normal seat when I looked over to my left. The seat was empty, were my love use to

sit. That's when I broke down and started to cry, bawling was more like it. Mike came over and helped

me up, I didn't know I was on the floor. He took me outside and let me cry into his shirt.

"Shhh, Bella it's okay. I'm here. It's okay." He was being so nice. I just wish he didn't have to see me

like this.

I had a mental break down in the middle of class and Mike was the one to help…

Mike escorted me to the school office. I couldn't bare the thought of sitting through gym class on the sidelines. Lord only knows how I would react with nothing but free time and my thoughts. Once I was cleared for early dismissal I practically ran to my truck. I was so embarrassed by my emotional outburst that I could have crawled under a rock and died.

As I sat in my truck, trying to gather the will to turn on the ignition, I decided to put on some music to clear my thoughts. Yeah big mistake, I should have checked the CD played first. I forgot that I still had my Debussy CD in it. The first track…Claire de Lune. I started hysterically sobbing and curled up into a ball on the front seat.

The school nurse must have called Charlie, because a short time later he showed up on the school parking lot in his police cruiser. Guess he was wondering why I didn't come straight home. Here we go with thee I told you so's…

He hesitantly knocked on the driver side window. "Bella would u like me to take you home and come back for your truck later?" he offered.

I just nodded. He opened the door a picked me up and carried me to his police cruiser, then laid me across the back seat. He was surprisingly quiet the ride home, that is until we pulled into the driveway.

"Would you like me to call Jacob and tell him not to come over?" he finally said.

"No, he can come if he still wants to; I'm not hungry so I'll be in my room," I responded.

"Now, Bella you have to eat something…It's been a week," he argued.

"Please Charlie give it a rest, besides I don't think I'd be able to keep anything down at this point anyway." I said. "I'll eat when I'm hungry just let me be the judge, okay."

At that point I got out of the cruiser and walked toward the house. I headed straight upstairs. When I got to the bathroom, I decided to go in and give myself a look.

"Ugh!" I exclaimed. I looked terrible. My hair was all matted down with sweat, my complexion was ashen, and my eyes were red and swollen. This isn't healthy to keep dwelling on the past I thought to myself. I swore to myself at that point that I would never cry another tear for Edward Cullen.

I decided to take another shower to wash away the evidence of what transpired earlier. As I was walking to my room, I heard the voices of Billy and Jacob as I passed by the stairs. Well, if things were going to change in my life, might as well start with not sitting around in my room and sulking. So, I got dressed and went downstairs.

Charlie, Billy and Jacob were sitting in the living room around the flat screen. They were watching the Mariner's game and eating pizza. As I entered the room the all looked towards me.

Only Jacob was thoughtful enough to just say, "Hey Bella" both Billy and Charlie had to ask how I was feeling.

"I'm fine", I mumbled. "I think I'm gonna make some soup".

Jacob sprung to his feet. "Let me help you with that", he offered.

"Sure" I said. And we both walked toward the kitchen.

As I started to get out the chicken soup when I looked up to see Jacob starting at me, he looked really concerned about me.

"Bella, umm…." he trailed off. He knew about the whole Ed-…him thing. So I decided to help him out.

"Jacob, I want to thank you for being there for me. I really wished you didn't have to see me like that."

"No problem, Bella. I heard about what happened at school today. I'm sorry…"

"You didn't do anything. You don't have to apologize."

It was quiet after that. After I ate, I followed Jacob into the living room. I regretted it almost immediately. A commercial for the newest romance movie came on the TV. I gasped and ran upstairs.

When I got to my room I could hear what was going on downstairs.

"That girl needs to get a grip." I heard Billy muttered. Charlie growled and Jacob was the next to talk.

"Dad, could you be a little more understanding? She's been through an awful lot lately," Jacob chastised him.

"Okay Jacob calm down! I'll tell you what. Charlie and I will watch the rest of the game at my house. Maybe you can talk some sense into that girl. Don't stay too late. Drive the truck home, okay?"

"Okay." Jacob was coming up stairs as I heard the cruiser start up.

"Can I come in?" Before I could answer he was in my room and sitting on my bed.

He was wiping the tears from my face that I didn't realize were there. He gave me a hug and laid me down on the bed, his skin was really hot but I didn't care.

"Bella don't be sad." I didn't have to look in his eyes to know he meant it.

I turned around so I could see his face. He was sort of beautiful, I appraised him in my mind. God! I must be out of my mind allowing him to get so close. Even though I knew this moment was wrong, it felt right all at the same time.

"Jacob…"

Before I realized what I was doing, I leaned in a started kissing him. He responded vigorously.