Chapter 2 : On the road back to friendship

I push past the door in to the Black living room.

Messy as always. This guy won't ever stop leaving his socks around.

I crinkle my nose, half smiling at Jacob's disgusting habit of discarding his – used- socks all over the place.

I want to raise my voice, call his name, but my tongue is sort of tied up in this little knotty bunch at the back of my throat, so I just cautiously pick my way through the mess.

"H-hello?"

Jacob's room is vacant. His bed is a mess of pillows and a holey blanket, jeans and sweaters hanging over chairs and a ripped up North Star sneaker, nearly shredded, under his bed. I guess he still has a problem with the temper. He preferred Adidas, only it got so ridiculously expensive every time he blew his footwear apart into little bits of canvas and leather when he got temperamental or forgot to take them off.

I…I think nobody's home. phew

I'm kinda mad nobody's home; just see, I had to work up all that gut to come and look at this. Empty house. Though I am rather relieved at being spared all that.

Okay, go go go go.

I hastily make my way back out past Jake's bedroom door before he materializes out of somewhere and I have to figure out the words I'm planning to say all over again.

And …

I walk straight in to a 7 foot burning wall of flesh.

"Bells!"

Ah, shite.

"Uh…Jake."

I have to crane my neck backwards to look at Jacob's face. Gosh, he's really shot up. Like some giraffe on steroids. When did he grow so much? When did his hair grow so long? It's brushing his shoulders in uncombed, wavy russet brown locks.

A wave of embarrassment washes over me in heated warmth, infused with a tinge of remorse at myself. How could I let things get so out of hand, that I had let guilt push my best friend to a little corner of my life? I mean, the last time I saw him, his hair had just been cut and I could speak without having to stare at the bottom of his jaw.

Jacob's stunned at me being here, I can see that. He's got this dazed look on his face. All at once he clutches my arms with two massive hands, gripping with painful intensity, like he's scared I'm gonna dash between his legs (which I believe to be possible. He's like the Eiffel tower, for crying out loud.) any minute.

"Bells!" He repeats, stunned, pushing his face really close to mine, like he just realized it's me.

I automatically jerk back. "Uh…Hi."

What's he going to do?

Then Jacob settles it all and envelopes me in a huge hug that makes me feel like I've been pulled in to a scorching furnace, arms like tree trunks wrapped around me like he's not ever going to let go.

Thank God.

And I hug him back with everything I've got.

I have to tiptoe though; he's nearly pulling me off my feet.

"Oh, God, Bells, I've missed you," murmurs Jacob, his head buried in the thickness of my hair. I can feel him rocking back and forth on his heels.

My own head is rested on his solid shoulder, and I bite my lip to stop the tears prickling behind my eyelids like sharp pins; the sorrow and longing and complete joy is so disturbingly evident in his voice.

"I've missed you too, Jacob." I turn my face to give him a small peck on the cheek.

He turns and kisses my forehead back, lips brushing over the smooth expanse above my eyes. His mouth is hot, all of him is hot, though I'm snugly wrapped in a jacket and he's wearing a Canucks jersey. The heat emanates through all those layers of cloth, and warms me right away.

His lips linger on my forehead, and I disengage myself from him.

He puts me back down at once, and becomes suddenly very self-conscious, fingers twined in the hem of his jersey like a little boy.

"So…you… you got here yourself?"

"You know I did; there's no way you couldn't have heard that crazy car coming from a mile away."

He smiles at once. "Yeah. I did, actually. Let me look at it?"

We both fall in to a too easy pretense of relaxed camaraderie, both too relieved at the moment to be with each other after starving ourselves of each other's company for so long. He'll probably bring it up sooner or later.

We walk out the house, Jacob teasing gently about the light shade of make-up dusting my cheekbones, and marveling that I'd morphed in to a complete sissy in his absence.

"Alice made me! You wouldn't believe the cases of eye shadow alone she bought the other day. She's got her mind set on me walking down the aisle looking like a painted bozo."

Jacob stiffens a little at the mention of my wedding, and I silently beat myself over the head.

I toss him the car keys and he catches it easily, making a dash outside. I lift the hood up with his help, and Jacob nearly falls to his knees in absolute worship at the sight of the polished, gleaming, intricate engine.

"That leech must've spent a bloody fortune on this! It's not on the market yet, much less on this continent!" Jacob's face is a mixture of bliss and disbelief.

He softly strokes the engine.

I roll my eyes, disregarding the blatant rudeness of that word. I'm used to it.

He looks up at me, eyes huge as saucers from where he's kneeling in the mush of snow. This crazy guy.

"Let me drive it." His voice is a hushed whisper.

I laugh at him, and gesture to the door.

We both get in, Jacob actually opening the passenger door for me before hurrying frantically over to the driver's seat, having to run one huge circle over the massive hood which encloses the massive engine, before sinking in to the lush leather seat.

He turns and looks at me, and gives me the biggest grin I've seen in a long, long time.

"When do you have to be back?" His voice has a slight tone of resentment at the fact that I will, at some point in time, have to be returned to the hated bloodsucker, but it's masked with pure gladness at my sole presence, and a little boy's exuberance at being let loose in a candy shop. His fingers reverently gripped the steering wheel.

"Not for as long as you want me here," I automatically say, throwing back a grin.

His gaze softens, and I hasten to add, "Preferably by 7."

"Well…down to the beach then?"

I nod happily.

The engine purrs to life, the whole car body gently vibrating beneath me. I strap myself in quickly. There's no way I'm sitting in this monstrosity with Jacob Black at the wheel.

And we're off.