Chapter Three

It had been a month since the Cullens left, since Sam found me in the woods, and I had begun pulling away from everyone. I was numb most of the time, when I wasn't I was afraid everyone else would leave me too. School was my main focus at this point; I worked ahead as far as I could every night and took extra notes to keep my mind from going back to last month.

This morning I was sitting at the kitchen table with Charlie pushing my cereal around my bowl absently.

My father seemed to notice this. "Bella, we need to talk."

"About what?" I asked in confusion, pushing my bowl away.

"About you, about this! You've been cutting yourself off from everything but homework and isolating yourself from everyone more every day! I thought it was a stage at first but you didn't get better, you got worse. You've left me no choice! I will speak with your mother immediately to make the arrangements and you will move to Florida with her as soon as possible!" He thundered pointing an accusatory finger at me.

"No, dad, don't! I'm not leaving Forks! This is my home!" I yelled back frantically.

"I have no choice. You isolate yourself from everyone, you are sticking your head in your books every spare moment you have, you cut yourself off from emotions most of the time and distract yourself purposefully the time you don't cut yourself off. Damn it, Bella I'm running out of options faster than a marathon runner passes miles! I don't know what else to do."

"Dad, I can't just turn it off. It will take a while to get to where I was before. I don't want to leave Forks."

"I'll let you stay here on one condition. You will stop avoiding everyone and you will cut back on working ahead to do so. How long has it been since you've talked to Jacob? You used to be friends and now you don't talk to him at all."

I knew he was right about Jacob. It was time to renew my friendship with him, starting as soon as possible. "I'm sorry, Dad. I promise I will stop avoiding everyone and renew my friendship with Jacob."

"Good, now I have to go to work to investigate a few disappearances for Seattle. Nothing to worry about, just a few drug addicts probably overdosed and such. Family has no idea of the drug use is the saddest part of the case." Charlie mumbled, shaking his head. "Remember you're promise at school today."

"I will, Dad. I need to take a shower and get ready for school. Be safe out there."

He just grunted and left, leaving me to finish breakfast. I thought about everything that my father had said, about my conversation with Sam last month, and my friendship with Jacob. What are you doing? I asked myself in frustration. I'm not going to think about last month!

I shoved myself from the table and went to shower. After I had cleaned off I pressed my forehead against the shower wall letting the water run down my skin, reluctant to face my old friends after a month of solitude. Maybe they won't be too harsh considering everything that had happened last month. Jessica and Lauren would be the harshest, but everyone else would most likely be as gentle and friendly as they were before everything changed. I used that as fuel to drive to school and approach them all in the parking lot. Angela, Eric, Mike, Jessica, Lauren and Tyler were lounging against Mikes' new SUV talking about their weekend at the beach. Jessica nudged Lauren when she saw me approaching, causing everyones' eyes to turn to me.

"Hey guys." I offered nervously, pausing a moment. They just stood there in shock, giving me the idea to ask. "How's it going?"

"Good, Bella, how are you?" Angela asked politely as she recovered from her surprise, causing me to flash her a small smile.

"Fine thanks, Ang. I've just been a little distracted the past month considering everything." I replied quietly, my small smile fading.

"I'm sorry, Bella, I didn't mean anything." She hurried in a worried tone.

"It's okay, Ang. I know you didn't mean anything by it, I'm moving forward with my life and making amends with my past. I was wondering . . . if you would forgive my foolishness and be my friend again?" I asked quietly, biting my lip nervously.

"Of course, Bella. I completely understand why you did what you did. You were hurting and confused, but now you're recovered and that's all that matters."

"Oh, Ang, what did I do to deserve a friend like you?"

"Don't worry about it, Bella. You can make it up to me later." She pulled me into a hug.

"I will do that, but for right now we need to get to class." I said, pulling away after a moment.

Mike smiled at me warmly. "Welcome back, Bella. How was your weekend?"

"It was pretty good. I read a lot of The Lord of the Rings novels. I had to quit at the second chapter of the second novel, The Two Towers this morning to get ready for school."

"I've never read them. Are they any good?" He asked innocently, though earning a death glare from Jessica. Their relationship had barely survived the summer due to the wistful looks he sent me, most of the time she caught him in the act.

"They're amazing! I can never put them down once I picked them up."

"Is it hard to follow language wise? Or do they use fairly decent language?"

"I can follow it just fine, but that's just me. You may find it more difficult since you prefer the modern form of speech."

"That is true. I could give it a try, though. Eric has been bugging me about going to see the movies and the previews look alright."

"If you say so." I replied with a laugh before heading to class.

The rest of the day passed like usual. Lauren and Jessica gave me angry glares telling me to back off of their men, I had to do a seriously gross dissecting project to do for Biology, and then I had to try to play football in Gym. I tried to decide when I was going to see Jacob and what I was going to say to him after all this time. What am I supposed to say? Sorry I've been avoiding you since the beach, Jacob I was up my vampire boyfriends' ass. Yeah, that isn't going to happen. I thought to myself bitterly. Finally it was time to leave for home and I still hadn't decided yet, butterlies fluttered in my stomach.

I paced the living room a while before jumping into my truck and driving the fifteen minutes to La Push. I needed to see Jake today so we could start over as soon as possible. By the time I parked in front of the Black residence I felt like I was going to throw up from the nerves. A dark form emerged from a shack like structure, and paused a moment before running toward me.

"Bella?" A familiar voice asked.

"Hey, Jake!" I squealed when he picked me up and spun me around. "I'm sorry for dropping in like this but I was stuck at home and wanted to see you. I know it's been a long time since the beach and I was wondering . . . are we still cool?"

"Sure, sure. We're cool don't worry about it." He grinned at me as he put me down. He motioned for me to follow him to the structure. "Come one, I have something to show you."

The shack was actually a garage and parked in the middle was a snow white doorless, hoodless car. Tools littered the ground around the car obviously he had been working on it recent. Wow, he's a mechanic. I thought in awe. "Jake, this is amazing! I didn't know you could fix cars! What's this one?"

"It's a Rabbit, I've been working on her for a while so I could drive her one day when I finally finish. I didn't mention it at the beach, Bells." He stated with a chuckle.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah, I know you didn't mention it at the beach. You were busy telling me scary stories."

We kept bantering like that while I watched him work on his car, staying in the garage until after the sun set and we couldn't see a foot in front of our faces. Charlie ordered pizza in celebration of my breakthrough in the isolation. I fell into a dreamless sleep that night.