Chapter Two: Coming-of-Age Crap
By:
Interest Me
Stephenie Meyer owns all copyright on original characters and original plot. Based on the Twilight series.
Jacob watched Renesmee stomp to the car. She could really be bratty when she wanted to be. He stopped that thought because it struck him as nearly blasphemous. She yanked open the car door, plopped inside, and slammed the door shut. The car shook in protest. Well at least she hadn't ripped the door off its hinges. Maybe she wasn't all that mad. He slid into the driver's seat.
Renesmee crossed her arms and pouted.
"Mom doesn't want me to grow up! I can't stay under her wing forever."
"I know you feel grown up, Nessie, but give your mom a break. It's only been five years."
"That's no excuse. Five years; a hundred and five years, it's all the same to her. Dad didn't say no. He's always been the reasonable one."
"I think maybe he was just speechless as rare as that is," Jacob chuckled because he knew Edward was still listening to them; reading their minds. They would have to get beyond the three mile mark to have any real privacy. Jacob shifted the car into drive.
"Buckle up," he said.
"Oh puleeze. The car is more fragile than I am."
"Yeah, yeah, but you know how your parents like their props."
She defiantly ignored the request. He stepped on the brakes and waited. The car idled motionless for a full minute. She grabbed the belt, threatening to pull it off its bolts, and clicked it.
"You know, Nessie, I adore you, but your vampire side can really get irritating," he said.
She bared her teeth and hardened her eyes in classic vampire mode. He countered with a wolfy growl. She finally smiled, and Jacob's heart warmed.
"Jakey, I just wanna go to school," she whined. Jacob fought the impulse to give in.
"Nessie, you got the perfect life 'cuz you don't have to go to school. Any kid would love to be in your shoes."
"I'm not a kid."
"Sure, sure."
"Normal kids don't want to go to school because they get to go to school. They have the luxury of complaining against something they take for granted. They haven't been deprived like I have."
A single tear escaped her eye and slid downward where it puddled in the corner of her mouth. Jacob was pretty sure that her flair for the dramatic came from Edward. Bella never complained. He noticed that she had slipped back into grouping herself with the "kids".
"Nessie, I know it sucks. I went from sixteen to twenty-five in just a few weeks, but I was still being marked absent from school. We're different. It's not fair. It's just the way it is. It's not all bad either," he said.
She looked out the window and Jacob welcomed the silence. The best debater rarely won an argument with Renesmee, and his DNA practically forbade it. Since imprinting on her, his every desire was to make her happy at all costs, in other words, to give her whatever she asked for. He hadn't signed on for all of the female coming-of-age crap. In reality he hadn't signed on for any of the other crap that had been handed to him, but he wouldn't trade it for anything. What did she want; to go to school or to grow up? It didn't matter. He couldn't give her either. Not yet. Not now. Why now? Crap. He turned on the radio and they rode the rest of the way in silence.
Jacob steered his car into the bowling alley parking lot. The pale blue and white of the neon sign bathed the car's interior with anemic color. Renesmee turned to face him. Her skin was nearly as white as her parents', but a peach glow painted human life on her cheeks. Bella allowed her to wear a small amount of makeup, but her skin was flawless. He saw that she wore a soft apricot lipstick and no other makeup. She gazed back at him with intelligent brown eyes. He realized in horror that without anyone's permission, she had indeed grown up.
"What are you looking at Jacob?"
"Nothing."
"Figures," she said, and instead of unbuckling her seat belt, she simply ripped the bands apart as though they were nothing more than tissue paper.
Edward is going to pay for that, thought Jacob. Renesmee was halfway across the dark parking lot before he got out of the car. Why was she so damn mad at him? He remembered Bella's stunned expression when he told her that his friend Quil had imprinted on two-year-old Claire. He had explained to her that imprinting wasn't romantic but that Quil would be anything Claire needed; from big brother to best friend to . . . he stopped his thoughts. And dammit, he would be whatever Renesmee needed if he just knew what the hell that was. He followed her inside.
Jacob scanned the alley but didn't see her. He caught her scent and followed it. It led past the shoe counter, the vending machines and the racks of bowling balls. It turned into a darkened doorway. The bar! There she sat with a drink in front of her. Music thundered from the jukebox. She laughed at something the bartender said. He felt his temper shake the air around him and took a deep breath. He stormed over to where she was sitting.
"What are you doing here?"
She glanced at him as though she just now noticed him. He knew this wasn't true. Renesmee could pick up his scent and hear his foot patterns from long distances, even under the smells of bowling shoes and the boom of balls smacking pins.
"Oh hi, Jakie. I'm having a drink," she giggled.
"What's in that glass," he asked, but he could smell the alcohol.
"It's a rum and coke minus the lime. I don't know what humans find appealing about lime."
He grabbed her arm and tried to tug her off the stool.
"I'll scream," she warned.
"Ma'am is there a problem here?" the bartender asked. How dare he act like her protector? Jacob was her protector. Jacob shot warnings into Renesmee's eyes.
"No problem, Johnny Baby." Baby!
"This is my adopted brother. He came from a disadvantaged home and isn't very good socially," she said and dazzled him with her smile.
Jacob took the stool next to her.
"Look little girl," Jacob started.
"I'm not a little girl," Renesmee interrupted. Then she popped a cigarette in her mouth and Johnny Baby appeared with a lighter.
"Get that out of your mouth!"
"No," she said and blew smoke in his direction. She sipped her drink.
"Renesmee, Carly, Cullen. . ."
"Excuse me," she said and hopped off the stool and headed to the ladies room.
Jacob grabbed her abandoned cigarette and crushed it in his hand; ember and all. He scowled at Johnny Baby who looked quickly away and scurried to the opposite end of the bar to fill an order. The jukebox went silent for a moment, and the happy beat of an old song filled the smoky air. Jacob listened to a childlike voice sing, "girls just want to have fu-un" as he watched the restroom door. She was taking too long. Jacob contemplated going in after her. He grabbed her drink and spilled it under the bar. He turned back to watch the door. A deep laugh interrupted his thoughts, and he looked for its source. A tall man in his mid-twenties leaned on the jukebox flirting with a woman picking out songs. She wore a tight red sweater, and even from behind he could see that it fit every curve. Just when he decided to personally drag Renesmee out of the restroom, the woman by the jukebox turned around.
Renesmee! She beamed up at the man and tucked her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and pushed her, her . . . he couldn't even frame the word and found a substitute . . . her chest upwards. The man bent forward, and in an instant, Jacob flashed between the two of them. The man's stunned face pulled away from Jacob's glare. A soft growl rumbled through Jacob's lips.
"Whoa, hey buddy, I'm not looking for trouble. The lady talked to me first," the man said with his hands raised defensively.
"And I'm talking to you last!" Jacob growled.
The man walked back to his table and leaned his head toward his friends while pointing at Jacob.
"Aw Jakie, I was just having fun,"
"Get in the car."
The song changed, and Whitney Houston breathlessly crooned, "I'm not the foolish girl you used to know…" Great as if his life didn't already suck enough, it now had a soundtrack.
"But Jacob."
"Get in the car now or I'm calling your parents and they will bring Emmet and your entire family to carry you home. Get in the car!"
She stomped her foot but obeyed his order. Jacob followed her to the car. He slammed his door and frowned at Renesmee. He saw that her apricot lips were now painted red. He could look at her no more. They shot through the night at 100 miles per hour without seatbelts.