I wanted to say that time flies by quickly but then I would be lying.
Everything was agonizingly slow and yet when I finally looked at a calender, it was suddenly June.
The only reason I bothered with checking my calender was because I overheard a bunch of the Forks kiddies talking about graduation and it was annoying hearing the same thing from twenty different people.
Especially when there were a bunch of prepubescent boys that regularly visited because they thought the tall Indian chick was hot.
Bastards.
"Someone looks like they're having fun at their job." Immediately, the voice, as if having this magic over me(which I guess it did), calmed me down and I lost my annoyance.
"It gets old fast." I retorted, throwing an exasperated look toward the boys that were pretending to be undecided over a bag chips as they discussed who would get the privilege of asking me out to Prom.
"You mean they're still coming?" Jacob said, more amused than anything. I shot a glare at him before sighing, and deeming it not worthy of getting worked up over. I was just glad he was here.
Something about having your imprint near really calmed the soul.
"So how was school?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Boring. Long. The usual." Ah, something happened. He hadn't actually given anything away but he was staring straight at me, as if willing me with the intensity of his stare to believe him, which was why I didn't – believe him that is.
Before I could interrogate him, the Forks High School boys began their way to the counter, ready to buy their whole two bags of chips for five growing boys, making me roll my eyes at their idiocy. At least try to be subtle.
Jacob discreetly stepped away, suddenly intent on a rack full of gum, completely unnecessary when the boys where focused on me and wouldn't notice a 6'5 teenager that looked like he was on steroids.
I repeat: Bastards.
"Everything all right?" I asked, putting my voice up a few octaves. Seriously, it was my only form of entertainment. Giving these kids hope so I could crush it later was my only incentive for not punching their lights out the first time I heard them talking about me.
"Uh, yeah." The one who was paying replied, swallowing nervously. I couldn't help but grin by how nervous they were. Time to step it up a notch.
"So why don't I see any of you with any girlfriends?" I purred, handing the change over and handing him the bag. The counter empty, I set my elbow on it and leaned, making sure they could only see the tiniest bit of cleavage. I gave my winning smile and waited for them to regain their composure. Yep, I still got it. It was disappointing though because I knew that Jacob would have merely raised an eyebrow and played with my hair. He was becoming far too accustomed to my teasing and it bothered me a bit.
So I ignored Jacob's snickers.
"What are you doing?" Somebody growled from the door. It was low and the boys hadn't heard it but my werewolf senses did.
"Leah!" Seth complained as he approached the counter, loud enough to get the Fork's kiddies attention. I hadn't heard him outside and I blamed Jacob for my inattention. It was hard to pay attention to other things when he was with me.
"What!" I yelled, annoyed that he interrupted my bout of fun.
"How can you do that?" Seth said, disappointment evident in his voice. "And you!" Seth rounded on Jacob, the Forks boys fidgeted as they were ignored – and also, probably intimidated by my baby brother's stature. "She's your – girlfriend. You're not supposed just stand there and snicker!"
"You have a boyfriend?" One of them cried out. I rolled my eyes and glared at Seth. There went my hope of crushing their hearts – or rather, their fantasies to do it with a hot Indian chick during Prom.
"Sure if that's what you wanna call it." I answered with a shrug. Jacob took that as his cue to go behind the counter and stand beside me. I couldn't help but meet his eyes and give him a knowing smile.
We had come up with a theory – one that we spent a whole month trying to explain – that maybe we imprinted for a different reason. That we had imprinted because we needed someone in our lives to mend our broken selves. Sure, it didn't explain a lot of things like why sometimes I had this uncontrollable urge to kiss him but I didn't want our relationship to get even more complicated than it already was. In the two months since, the lines had slowly been blurring and boundaries were pierced through and instead of talking about it we just kind of went with the flow.
Like now.
"But Leah looked like she was having fun." Jacob argued, winking at me.
"Ugh – I'll never understand you two." Seth muttered, grabbing a bunch of snacks and I moved as he sat them on the counter.
"Are you going to actually pay for these this time?" I asked, knowing that he didn't have any money.
Seth merely gave me his best puppy dog face and I rolled my eyes at his predictability.
"You're lucky you're my little brother." I mumbled, running them though the scan so the alarm wouldn't ring. The cash register opened but I merely closed it and threw the bags at his face. "You know the rule."
"Don't tell the gang that you pay for my food." Seth recited. I rolled my eyes at the gleeful expression he made as he opened the bag and I wondered if I should give the kid more money for school. There was no way he could eat enough food for him to be satisfied with seven measly dollars.
"Hurry up Seth, its your shift up next." Jacob said, inclining his head toward the clock. Seth nodded before waving and exiting.
I was going to start grilling Jacob about whatever the hell had happened when I remembered the Forks boys were still there. Which annoyed me.
"Are you boys going to buy anything else?" I asked none too politely. They looked uncomfortable and kept shooting looks between me and Jacob so I glared, no longer able to tolerate Forks teenagers. After a moment of deliberation they made the smart choice of hustling out of there.
"What happened?" I said, turning on Jacob. I was glad to see that he didn't bother with trying to pretend like he didn't know what I was talking about. But instead of spilling like I was expecting him to, he began to dig in right picket. After a moment, a crumpled paper emerged from his hand and he gave it to me with a rather serious expression.
I raised an eyebrow but wordlessly spread the crumpled paper on the counter and uncreased it to make it easier to read.
I didn't even get five words in before I scoffed and flung the paper back at Jacob.
"The bitch is trying to apologize through a letter?" I asked, slightly disgusted by the girl's cowardice. She had the balls to love the very thing that was created to kill her but she couldn't even fucking apologize properly? I was really disliking the girl more and more.
"Be nice." Jacob chided. It wasn't obvious but I knew that he was disgruntled by my reaction. I suddenly felt and decided that talking shit about Bella probably wasn't going to make Jake feel any better. So I sighed, letting out my annoyance, and focused my attention on Jacob.
"Look. Does this make you feel any better?" I asked, curious. Jacob remained silent, staring unseeingly to the side, like he trying to muster up what he was feeling and put it into words but unable to. I waited, knowing that this was hard for him, like it had once been for me when I tried to understand how I felt for Sam when I was returning home.
"I don't know." Jacob finally said after a moment. There was some real emotion in his tone and it made me feel better. The idea that he was my soul mate still bothered me, especially because of the fact that, as time passed, the idea seemed less and less unsettling. So knowing that our old feelings didn't go away, just like that, was a huge relief.
"Then don't stress about it. Forcing the words out ain't going to be much help so stepping away from it will do you some good. The words will come to you – if you really want to sink to her level." I added, unable to resist.
"Shut up." Jacob grumbled. I grinned, glad that I was good cheering him up. It meant that he wasn't a stranger to me anymore and I knew him almost as well as I knew myself. Spending a lot of time actually inside his head also helped a bit.
Jacob wrapped an arm around me, putting his forehead against mine, no longer such a hard feat as I had grown several inches in my two months as a wolf. I was going to hit six feet soon, at the rate I was growing and I might have felt freakishly tall if the rest of the pack wasn't taller than me which I didn't let linger on the fact that it was going to be impossible to find a guy that was taller than me – if I ever got around to dating again.
"Thanks." He professed. I could literally hear the gratitude in it and my grin softened. I knew how the whole Bella situations really bothered him so I kinda knew how he really needed a hug at the moment.
"Anytime."
Sad thing was, that if he needed me, I probably would drop everything – just for him.
"I'm up. Now why the hell would you risk your life by waking me up?" I grumbled. My threat probably wasn't much considering it was halfhearted and my head was between two pillows, muffling my words beyond comprehension.
"Oh. Sorry Leah. Didn't mean to wake you up." Jacob apologized distractedly. Ugh, he had to get all apologetic. Now I didn't feel like hurting him. But the damage was done and I was awake, far earlier than I should have been on a Saturday, especially when I had been patrolling from midnight to whenever the sun had risen.
"Why are you awake?" I mumbled, removing a pillow. I turned so I was facing him and I realized that he was sitting on his desk hunched over a piece of paper, his brows furrowed in concentration. It was a funny sight considering they bought that desk for him when he was twelve and now dwarfed the thing.
"I thought of what to say." Jacob murmured, jotting something down. I blinked a few times before realizing he was talking about The Note. I don't know why but my heart stopped for a moment in some odd sense of trepidation.
"What did ya put?" I asked, my voice quivering slightly. I attributed it to sleep.
"That I miss her too. But it doesn't change anything." He answered, straightening up. Instantly, I felt better. I was confused at why I felt bad in the first place. I shook my head and got up, curious to see what he wrote for myself. I leaned over his shoulder... and smacked his head.
"Ow! What the heck was that for?" Jake cried indignantly.
"What did I tell you about stressing over your reply?" I chided as I looked at all the crossed out sentences.
"What did I tell you about putting on my clothes to bed?" Jacob retorted, eying his shirt – that I was wearing. I rolled my eyes at the change of subject but didn't pursue it further, knowing that the kid was going to clam up anyway. So I stepped away and laid back onto the bed, still sleepy even though I knew I wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep.
Yes, I slept in the same bed as Jacob. It was a habit. Because most of the boys had school, I didn't want them to fail because of patrolling so I volunteered to take the graveyard shift with Paul. It could be worse. It could be the graveyard shift with Sam and no matter how much easier it was with Jacob around, it was still pretty awkward and I didn't want to have to go through that every night.
So Sam and Jared took over six in the morning (it used to be just Sam but school just recently let out for the Quileute kids and Jared managed to graduate this year) and since Jacob's house tended to be closer, and I was tired as hell – not to mention the pull of the imprint – I just got into the habit of crashing at his place. And wearing his shirts for pajamas.
"What time is it?" I asked, not caring that his shirt had ridden up, exposing my stomach and the blue underwear I was wearing. Modesty was something you lose when the littlest things angered you enough to rip your clothes to shreds and are left to phase back in your birthday suit... in front of a pack full of horny guys – and my little brother.
"Like twelve or something." Jacob said, rubbing the tiny bit of stubble on his chin. I scrunched my nose at it, not at all liking the idea that Jacob could grow a beard.
"At least I got some sleep." I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.
"I'm gonna go give my Dad the note." Jake said, standing up.
"Please don't." I said immediately.
"What?" Jake said, startled.
"Its pathetic enough that you guys are exchanging notes like in grade school," I said, repeating one of his crossed out lines, "but I will not let you sink to her level. Give me the note. Might as well see what the big deal is about Isabella Swan."
"You wanna-"
"Meet Bella." I affirmed. Jacob looked like he was about bolt so I tackled him, snatching the paper from his hand. "I promise not to hurt her." I said with a roll of my eyes.
"That's not what I'm worried about." Jake said, struggling.
"And I won't tell her about the imprint." I mumbled, trying really hard not to take it personally. I knew it had nothing to do with being ashamed of me – though I wouldn't blame him, after all, the Rez saw me as the pathetic ex-girlfriend still being strung along by Sam – and everything to do with his unresolved feelings with Bella. Plus, the imprint made it really hard to stay mad at him.
"...Okay."
And that was that. I was going to Bella's.
Short but it did it's job.
