Even though I had heard Jacob's words clearly, I still couldn't believe that my brother had become a vampire. I just couldn't believe it. I was shocked, but partially relieved to know that he wasn't actually "dead." I had been living for about a month without knowing if Riley was dead or alive and if he had died, I wouldn't have wanted to know. Well, I would have, but it would've completely damaged me as a person because I would lock myself in my room and cry forever. My mom would probably have a serious breakdown too. Speaking of which. . . What was I supposed to do in front of her? Act like nothing was happening? I knew that I wasn't allowed to let her in on the whole werewolf/vampire world, but I just felt so bad. Our mom was constantly worrying about him and I felt guilty to know more about his disappearance than she did, especially since she still had high hopes for him to return to us alive.

"I don't understand why Riley would want to harm Bella. He has never talked to her before and well, he's definitely not psychotic," I said as I let out a short laugh. I thought the idea of Riley trying to kill someone was ridiculous so I was trying to be reasonable. I wanted to keep Jacob, Bella, and Edward away from believing that my brother was going to become some sort of killer.

A stern look appeared on Edward's face. "You need to understand that newborn vampires can't control themselves, Cecelia. They're easily influenced into attacking and feeding on humans."

After hearing Edward's words, I couldn't protect myself from suddenly drowning in a depressed state and I think Jacob sensed it. He wrapped one of his strong arms around my back and placed his hand on my arm, squeezing it gently to calm me. "So are you saying that Riley isn't the same as before?" Jacob asked for me.

"I have never seen a newborn remembering its morals so I am assuming so." I almost flinched when I heard Edward calling a newborn an "it." This meant that newborns were so vicious that they weren't even considered as something even close to being civilized.

I suddenly remembered what Diego had said to me. He had told me that Riley warned him not to harm me. This gave me a little hope that my brother hadn't turned into a merciless monster. I mean, he still seemed to care, right?

"Who's Diego?" Edward asked out of the blue, surprising me.

"I-I uh, w-well," I stammered a bit as I tried to recover from the shock that Bella's boyfriend had somehow heard my thoughts. "He's some vampire who apparently knows my brother, but w-wait. How did you-"

"Edward can read minds," Bella quickly answered in a casual way. Psh, like reading people's minds was supposed to be a casual thing to say.

"What?" I asked very loudly. My world had suddenly become a lot more complicated. What is life? What is this place that I'm living in?

"Yeah, it's true and it's annoying as hell," Jacob replied as he glared at Edward.

"Is it like a vampire ability or something?" I asked, feeling very confused.

Edward nodded. "Sort of. Only some vampires have abilities though and we call them 'gifts.' You know my sister Alice? She can see the future."

"Yeah, and Jasper can manipulate people's emotions," Bella added. I could tell that she was very much on the vampire side seeing that she supported the Cullens. No wonder the pack called her the "Vampire Girl." I listened attentively as Bella went on. "Oh, and Rosalie was beautiful as a human so as a vampire, her traits are enhanced-"

"Yeah, she get's it," Jacob interrupted. "You don't have to explain everything about them." Why was he being so rude?-Oh yeah, his kind hated vampires. He always talked about them like they were the most despicable beings in the world.

"Wow, that sounds awesome," I revealed my honest opinion as I disregarded Jacob's harsh words towards his friend. I guess having one of these "gifts" was one of the perks of being a vampire.

"Please don't tell me that you're fascinated by that. Werewolves are still so much cooler, right?" Jacob looked at me expectantly.

I'm not sure actually. I guess I'm feeling neutral now since my brother's a vampire. I didn't tell him that though since I didn't want to disappoint him. Instead I said, "Yeah, yeah. Definitely," as I ignored my thoughts. I think I saw Edward smirking from the corner of my eye.

"So what's your family planning on doing?" Jacob questioned.

"We were planning on getting rid of him."

Getting rid of him? Like kicking him out of this area?. . . Or does he mean. . . killing him? My eyes widened at the violent idea and for a few seconds, I froze at the thought of my brother being killed.

Jacob's face was fully covered with anger. "What? You can't be serious! You cannot do that! Riley is her brother."

"What about Bella though? Don't you care for her?"

"She's my best friend. I do care about her, but you're being fucking unreasonable!" Jacob yelled. This was my first time seeing him so worked up about something.

"I'm trying to protect her," Edward spoke through his clenched teeth.

"But do you have any idea what that will do to her?" Jacob asked as he pointed to me.

"Stop it you two! Seriously, stop," Bella ordered as she stood between the two. "Nobody is going to kill anyone."

"Unless it's necessary," Edward added which made Bella give him a glare.

This was when I stepped in. "So that's it? You're going to kill my brother just like that? Do you even have any emotions? He didn't even do anything wrong yet. All he did was take Bella's shirt. A shirt! Like you said, it's probably to remember her scent or something, I don't know. But what I do know is that you're scared that he's going to hurt her, but we don't know that for sure. Not yet anyway. We don't know if he really will attack her or not," I spoke furiously. "So you tell me, Edward. Does my brother deserve to live or die?"

"Honestly, I don't know anymore." The vampire in front of me sighed. "I need to inform Carlisle that Riley is your brother. We were talking about. . . destroying him, but I guess we'll have to think this through again considering our new facts," he said, his words directed at me. "We'll have to find a way to negotiate with him. If it's possible."

"Yeah, there has to be a way because I'm not letting you kill him."

As soon as Jacob and I got into his car, I began complaining. "Geesh, Edward is so obsessive over Bella. He only cares about her. I mean I understand that he loves her a lot and I respect that, but how can he even think about killing someone's brother? I-God, this is frustrating."

"Don't worry so much."

"How can I not? I'm scared that. . . The Cullens will go behind my back and. . . k-kill him. Or maybe even one of the guys from the pack-"

"Cecelia. That's not going to happen. I won't let it happen. Not when I'm around," Jacob assured me.

"Thanks, Jacob."

"But you have to understand that if Riley does get into some sort of trouble and it affects the people around here, we'll be forced to do something about it," Jacob told me seriously.

I gulped. "Let's hope that won't happen."

"Thank you so much for the lovely dinner, Emily," I told her again as I helped dry the dishes.

"No problem. You're always welcome to come here at any time." She gave me a warm smile.

"Thanks," I replied happily as I finished drying the last dish. "So do you always have so many dishes to wash?"

"Pretty much every night." Emily laughed.

"Wow, you're amazing." Seriously though. She was amazing.

She shrugged off the compliment. "Not really. I'm just doing what I enjoy doing."

"Well, then. You'll have to teach me how to cook some time because I'm horrible at it," I revealed a new fact about myself.

"I'm sure you're not horrible. Anyone can cook if they learn."

"If you say so," I replied with a laugh.

After saying goodbye to Emily, I went outside and sat on the steps by the porch waiting for Jacob. He and the other guys had gone for a short run around the area. It was already dark and I could feel my eyes slowly closing from being tired and sleepy. "Ahem," I heard from beside me a few minutes later. I opened my eyes to see a tall and confident looking La Push girl peering down on me.

"Um, can I help you?" I asked.

"Yeah, where's Paul?"

"He's out with his friends." I decided to answer her with little detail because I wasn't sure if she knew about the shape-shifters or not.

The girl looked majorly annoyed when I told her that Paul wasn't available. "So who are you?" she asked. "You don't look like you belong here."

Gee, thanks. "I'm sure you meant to say that I don't look like I'm from around here, not that I don't belong here."

"No, don't change my words. I meant to say that you don't belong here. You are the opposite of an ideal La Push person."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever that means," I said sarcastically. Geesh, I didn't know who this girl was, but I already disliked her just like I disliked Paul.

"Miranda, what the hell are you doing here?" I heard a rough voice yelling. It was Paul.

As he approached her, the girl named Miranda started pouting as she said, "I came here to see you. You haven't visited me in a while."

"I was a bit busy."

"Still, you should have left out a little time for me. You're not even sorry?"

"No, why would I be?" Paul asked in a cold tone.

"Aw, don't be like this." Miranda slid her hand into his and started dragging him away. The last thing I heard from her was, "My parents aren't home. Let's go to my house."

Yes, I can officially say that I don't like her.

"Man, what is up with that chick? She's so annoying," Jared bluntly said as he watched Miranda and Paul getting into her car. "How can he even stand her?"

"You obviously know why he's letting her stick around," Embry replied with a smirk.

Jacob shook his head again as he listened to his perverted friends laughing together. "I'm going to take Cecelia home. See you guys later."

"Bye," I said to the three guys and they quickly waved us off.

In about twenty minutes, we were finally back in Forks. I thought it was pretty funny watching such a big guy like Jacob driving my Mini Cooper.

"Jacob, we need to talk," I told him as the two of us got out.

"Oh no. It's 'the talk,'" Jacob said dramatically.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't worry. It's not anything bad. So um, you said that you liked me. . ."

"Yeah, I did."

"Well, I obviously like you back. . . So where does this leave us?"

Jacob looked hesitant to speak.

"Why do you seem so uncertain about everything when it comes to us?" I questioned as I suddenly remembered the times where he kissed me on the cheek instead of on the lips after seeming to have a long debate in his head.

"Huh?" Jacob looked flustered.

"Did you not mean it when you said that you liked me?" I asked as I suddenly felt panicky inside. Had I been too forward?

"No no no. I meant it for sure, trust me. It's just. . . I don't want to force you into starting a relationship with me."

"Why are you so worried?

"I'm just afraid of scaring you away," he told me honestly and I couldn't help but melt at his words. "So is it okay if we take things slow for a bit?"

"Yeah." I nodded with a smile. "That sounds good. We'll start our relationship one step at a time."

"Great." Jacob smiled back.

"Great. Well then, good night." I leaned onto the tips of my toes and gave him a light kiss on his cheek.

"G'night."

From my room's window, I saw Jacob disappearing into the darkness of the woods and a few seconds later, I heard loud steps on the ground but the noise quickly faded. I immediately knew that Jacob had phased. It still felt a bit surreal to know that werewolves and vampires existed.

I tossed my body carelessly onto my bed and let out a long sigh. It felt good to be home. The day had been crazy, but it was still interesting. My relationship status had changed a bit today. It was unclear since I didn't have a boyfriend yet, but I wasn't exactly single. I began smiling though as I knew that I'd officially have one very soon.

Author's Note: Yay! I updated! I'm so bad at updating like how Cecelia is bad at cooking haha. Anyway, this story is going in a good direction so hopefully there will be more interesting chapters coming soon. Thanks for reading and PLEASE leave some more reviews. Seriously, they will help me feel more motivated, especially since I have so much stressful things going on in my life right now T_T I barely even have time to write, but I still do it because it's what I love to do and it takes my mind off of things…So yeah, I shall expect some more comments :) Thanks!

-PinkStar46 (Jessica)