Author's Note: OMG, I am sooooo sorry about the LONG wait for this chapter. I had a lot of change in my life and ended up taking the entire summer away from writing and when I finally did get back to writing I just... I don't know how to explain it. This chapter is shorter than I would like it to be but it is semi-fluffy and it leads to where I want it to lead so, I hope you all like it. Please, please review! I know I made you wait forever but I would still REALLY appreciate the reviews! THANKS!
Chapter Six
Jacob POV
Someone was watching me. I could sense her and I could smell her and before I even opened my eyes I knew she was smiling.
"What are you doing?" I asked, my eyes still closed.
"Watching you sleep." Renesmee responded.
I felt her moving and then her body curled up next to mine as her head came to rest against my chest and she took a deep breath.
"You smell amazing." She whispered.
"Like 'yum, my next meal' amazing or like 'wow, you showered today' amazing?"
Renesmee laughed, the chuckle shaking her body and ringing warmheartedly in my ears.
"Like 'today is Christmas Day and all I want is to lay here in your arms forever' amazing."
My heart skipped a beat and my eyes popped open to find her staring directly at me, a smile playing on her luscious, cherry red, full, very kissable lips. My mind immediately wandered back to the night we had spent in the hotel just a week ago and that one mind-blowing kiss we had shared. I was about to claim a repeat performance when I realized what I was about to do. It took every ounce of self-control I possessed to very slowly move away from her and out of bed.
"Where are you going?" Renesmee sat up in the bed, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting.
I couldn't make myself speak to answer her. My self control would slip if I opened my mouth to talk. Instead, I reached out my hand to her, silently asking her to join me.
"Jake?" Renesmee took my hand and followed but she was clearly confused as she whispered to me, "Where are we going?"
I pulled her with me down the stairs to the colorful Christmas tree in the living room. The sun hadn't yet risen and the only light in the room were the twinkling lights from the tree which made Renesmee seem almost as sparkly as a full vampire. She was staring up at me inquisitively.
"Sit down." I whispered, wanting to make sure we didn't wake Marnie just yet, "You're gonna open your first present."
"Really?" Her eyes lit up and she grinned excitedly, "K, I'll sit."
She sat down on the floor near the tree and waited patiently while I dug out the oblong package I had wrapped just a few days before. It was buried beneath the avalanche of presents which Marnie had added to the pile overnight.
"Here you go." I sat down across from Renesmee and handed her the package, "When you open it, you can't scream though cause you'll wake up Marnie. Quiet okay?"
A mischievous grin spread across her features and she nodded, her fingers poised to rip the colorful wrapping paper away.
"Okay. Go for it."
Faster than the words were even out of my mouth Nessie had torn the paper away and was left with a large white envelope in her hands. The envelope was addressed to her and had clearly been mailed to her recently, showing the wear and tear of traveling the United States in the care of the U.S. Postal Service. In the upper left hand corner, printed in green, were the logo and name for Dartmouth College.
Renesmee's mouth fell open. She didn't speak but her eyes rose from the envelope to connect with my eyes and I could see the unshed tears sparkling. Her hand rose to my face and I saw her silent question. Was this her acceptance to Dartmouth?
"Open it." I said quietly, "I didn't open it but I imagine they don't send big, thick white envelopes to those who didn't get in."
Her smile began to grow and, as if the envelope would crumble in her hands, she very carefully and slowly eased the seal open and pulled out the enclosed paperwork.
"Dear Isabella,
Congratulations! It is with great pleasure that I inform you of your admission to Dartmouth College. You were selected from an accomplished and academically talented group of applicants who applied under the Early Decision Plan. You and your classmates are truly outstanding in your achievements, your diversity of interests, and your potential.
The faculty and staff join me in welcoming you to Dartmouth. This is a particularly exciting time at the College; the opportunity for personal involvement in all facets of your education here is significant. The College continues to be distinguished by the commitment of its faculty to combine excellence in teaching with exceptional scholarship and research. New major initiatives undertaken in the last few years, including a reaffirmation of the commitment to a diverse student body, an expansion of the financial aid program, and a major revitalization of student residential life, will each enhance Dartmouth's national leadership in liberal arts education.
I hope this early acceptance to Dartmouth will enable you to pursue the rest of your secondary school experience without the additional demands of the college admissions process. It is our expectation that you will remain fully engaged in your studies and other pursuits for the remainder of your secondary school career. As you know, under the early decision agreement you are required to withdraw applications at all other colleges and refrain from initiating any new ones. Please confirm your decision to enroll by submitting the form that is enclosed with your paper notification.
Again, congratulations on your acceptance. Please let me know if we can be of any help to you between now and next September. You can expect to receive information pertaining to the first year from the First-Year Office in February and then again in May. We look forward to welcoming you in the fall and working with you during the exciting four years ahead.
Sincerely,
Maria Laskaris
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid"
"You're in." I whispered, too quiet for Marnie to have ever heard. Even my own eyes were watering up now, "Nessie, you did it."
Her tears were falling evenly now and she was clearly at a loss for words. Her hands shook and her lips quivered. She looked up at me and smiled.
"I'm going to Dartmouth."
"You're going to Dartmouth." I repeated, smiling back at her, "Congratulations."
She didn't raise her hand or speak the words but just staring into her tear filled eyes, I knew exactly what she was thinking. Her thoughts were with Edward and Bella and the life they should have had at Dartmouth, the life she should have had with them. Her dreams were coming true and yet, they were incomplete. She did not have her parents to rejoice with her.
"Nessie, they'd be so proud of you." I moved to sit behind her, pulling her against my chest which allowed her to rest her head on my shoulder, "Your parents loved you so much and they would be so proud that you've worked so hard at this dream. You've worked to accomplish their dream."
Her hand rose and came to rest on my cheek, showing me a vivid memory of happier times. Times she had spent with Edward and Bella, before the death and destruction came looming around us all. Times when they had read to her and taken her hunting and the times when they had just held her, instilling their love for her deep into her memory banks.
"I miss them Jake." She whispered, letting her hand fall to her side, "I want them to be here. To know that I got into Dartmouth on an Early Decision application. To tell me how proud they are. I'm tired of remembering them and knowing how much they loved me but not being able to experience it first hand. All I have are memories and I feel like that just isn't doing it justice anymore. Their love for each other and for me is going to get lost."
"Aww Nessie…" I held her tight and kissed the top of her head, "As long as you have memories Ness, it will never get lost. You'll always remember them and so will I. They're gone but they'll never be forgotten and they are with you now. They always are."
She sniffled, burying her head further into my shoulder.
"You'll never leave me right Jake?"
"Never Nessie." I promised her, "I'm always here for you."
A throat clearing from nearby interrupted our conversation and both Renesmee and I turned to see Marnie standing on the staircase, smiling over at us curiously.
"Am I interrupting?" She asked quietly.
"No." I lied, straightening up and moving from behind Renesmee to stand up, "I um, I just gave her the Dartmouth package and we were right. It was an acceptance. She's in."
"Eek!" Marnie squealed loudly and launched herself into Renesmee's arms, "Honey, I'm so proud of you!"
"Thanks." Renesmee hugged Marnie back with appropriate force, "It's mostly thanks to you that I got in. I mean, if I hadn't been able to stay with you for this long, if we couldn't be honest with you and be ourselves here, I wouldn't have the opportunity to go. I'd have to be starting over again so, thank you for loving me and for loving Jake and being awesome."
"Well I couldn't love you both so much if you weren't awesome yourselves so, thank you for being great kids or well," Marnie laughed, "For being great other worldly creatures."
All three of us laughed, Renesmee wiping away the last of her tears. I could see she was forcing herself to block out the sad thoughts of her parents and focus on the day ahead of us instead.
"So now that you're up, let's open the rest of the presents huh?" Renesmee headed for the tree and grabbed a box, "Jake, this one's for you."
It took a good twenty minutes just for Nessie to sort through all the presents, creating three stacks, one for each of us to open. When all the stacks were organized we each began the process of opening each package.
"Um, this is a beautiful picture of a chair but…" Marnie held up the box which contained a picture of a reclining arm chair, "Thank you I guess?"
Renesmee laughed loudly.
"The picture isn't your present Marnie. The chair is silly. Look on the back of the picture."
Marnie pulled the picture from the box and turned it over.
"Marnie,
We promised you vampire and werewolf proof furniture and well, this was as close as we could get. We promise not to wrestle in the house anymore so we don't break anything else. Around noon on Christmas Day, your brand new furniture will be arriving. Merry Christmas.
Love, Nessie aka Belle & Jake."
"Do you like it?" Renesmee asked quietly, waiting for a reaction from Marnie, "It was supposed to be delivered yesterday but the delivery men were running late so they agreed to deliver it today instead. So we found a picture of the chair from the living room set and wrapped that for you."
"I love it." Marnie grinned widely, "Thank you so much you two. I can't wait to see it for real."
After at least twenty more minutes of opening presents, mostly clothes and practical items we could actually use from Marnie, we were finally all down to our last present. The small box sitting in front of me was carefully wrapped with a bow and a tag that said it was from both Nessie and Marnie. I was intrigued.
"Open it." Renesmee was grinning from ear to ear as she and Marnie both watched me intently.
To torture them both I slowly undid the bow and removed it from around the square box, then delicately undid the wrapping paper, sliding the white box from inside and smiling at them both as they groaned.
"Sometime this decade Jake." Renesmee complained.
I removed the lid from the box and inside was a key, clearly decorated with silver wings and the name Aston Martin stamped across them. My mouth fell open.
"Is this real?"
Both Marnie and Renesmee nodded excitedly. Renesmee was grinning from ear to ear.
"It was really hard to hide it from you but we did it. It's in the driveway now."
Together, Renesmee and I ran to the front door and out to the driveway. The sun was just rising and its rays glinted off the silver paint of the new car. MY new car. It was going to take awhile to admit that the beautiful, sleek, sophisticated car in front of me was actually mine.
"You guys seriously bought me a V12 Vantage? It's really mine?"
"It's really yours." Marnie joined us in the driveway and put one arm around each of us, "Well, of course you'll probably have to drive Renesmee around everywhere because she loves this car too."
"I really do." Renesmee laughed and smiled over at me,
"I will drive you anywhere." I promised her, "All the way to Dartmouth."
"What am I gonna do when you two go off to New Hampshire? I'm so used to having you around now!" Marnie sighed and laid her head on top of Renesmee's head.
"Don't start that now." Renesmee whined, "Then you're gonna make me cry again and I hate crying."
"Let's take the car for a drive." I interrupted them before either of them could begin to cry, knowing that was the logical next step to their conversation and wanting to avoid it, "Nessie?"
"I'm in. Where are we going?" Renesmee jogged to the passenger side and smiled, waiting for me to unlock the doors.
"Don't know yet. Marnie?" I waited to see if Marnie wanted to go but she waved us off.
"You two go. I'm gonna get breakfast started." The grin she flashed us didn't reach her eyes and I could tell it was beginning, the sadness of knowing that Renesmee and I were going to leave and there was nothing she could do now to stop us.
"We'll be back shortly." I called out to her, unlocking the doors so that Renesmee could slide into the car.
"Take your time." Marnie raised her hand in a wave, like she was already saying goodbye for the last time, "See you when you get back."
Marnie had been really good for Renesmee and I. She treated us very well and so it upset me to see her so sad, especially because the two of us leaving for Dartmouth was nothing in the realm of goodbyes. I wasn't about to remind her that she was aging while we were not and eventually, we would never be able to come back to this place and she would die while we lived on. No, I wouldn't remind her of that because that made me sad. I didn't want to imagine what it would make Marnie feel.
"I love this car." Renesmee interrupted my thoughts as we pulled off of the street we lived on and out onto the open road, "Doesn't it feel like we could just get in this car and drive forever? Like we never have to stop, just keep driving until there's nothing we haven't seen."
"Yeah." I could tell that my response should have been a little more enthusiastic but my mind was still preoccupied. The lack of enthusiasm didn't go unnoticed.
"What's wrong?" Renesmee questioned me, turning in her seat to look at me.
"Nothing." I quickly denied, not wanting her to worry about Marnie like I now was, "It's nothing Nessie. I just can't believe you guys got me this car, that's all. I'm amazed."
I could see in her eyes that she didn't believe me, but she didn't press the matter either and turned her eyes back to the road.
"It's an amazing car and I knew you would love it." Renesmee replied but her enthusiasm was no longer as potent either.
"Hey, don't do that." I let one of my hands slide off the steering wheel and found her hand, resting on the edge of her seat. I clutched her hand inside mine, "Seriously, I was just thinking about Marnie and feeling bad about leaving her here alone. That's all. Don't let it get to you."
"We could take her to Dartmouth with us." Renesmee suggested, a little of the light in her eyes returning, "I know most kids would hate having a parental figure around for college but I wouldn't mind having her there."
"We could do that." I agreed, unsure if I should really unleash the force of my worries onto her, "But what about after Dartmouth? When she's four years older and we're still the same? What about when we go back to Forks? Do we take her with us there too and if we did, can we really expect her to just keep moving her life over and over like we'll have to do for the rest of our lives because Nessie, this doesn't change anything. You're not going to get any older and if I have my way, I won't either and so we won't be able to stay in one place for very long ever. It's Dartmouth this time but then we enroll you in high school again and maybe next time it's Harvard."
"Wow." Renesmee interrupted my rant, "Where did all your pessimism come from? Weren't you just rejoicing with me an hour ago about getting into Dartmouth and now it's just what I'm doing for the next four years? Now it's just the next step? I don't get it Jake."
I knew exactly where the pessimism was coming from but I wasn't going to tell her. This was exactly what I didn't want to do today. I didn't want to burden her with my worries. I didn't want to tell her that I had seen the sadness in Marnies' eyes and it reminded me just exactly why we shouldn't be getting attached to people. People would always come and go from our lives. Attachments made leaving them much harder.
"I'm sorry." I squeezed her hand, still nestled inside mine, "I didn't mean to be so pessimistic. I'm just worried, that's all. Worried about how Marnie will handle us leaving."
She was quiet after that and I knew the wheels had begun to turn in her head. I had set in motion a train of thought that might be quite dangerous. She was now either going to try to figure out how to keep Marnie happy, which seemed impossible to me, or figure out how to break Marnie's heart with the least amount of pain, which would inevitably fail and just bring her more pain.
When I pulled the car back into the driveway in front of the house, it no longer seemed like a happy Christmas Day. Both Renesmee and I were lost in thought, all traces of the carefree spirits we had woken up with gone. The Aston Martin paled in comparison with the worries for our future.
"We'll have to make a clean break." Renesmee whispered before I could open the car door to exit, "When we leave for Dartmouth, she'll need to understand that we're not coming back."
"We could probably squeeze in a few years of visits Nessie. We don't have to break off contact when we leave."
Renesmee shook her head, the tears already glistening in her eyes.
"The longer we prolong our presence in her life, the more pain it's going to cause her when we stop coming around."
"Ness, it's going to be painful for her no matter what. Don't you want to give her as much happiness as we can for as long as we can? She deserves that much. She's been great to us."
Her head shook violently back and forth. She swung the car open, exited, and slammed it shut before I could stop her. I had only enough time to grab her before she sprinted into the house and pull her back to me, cementing her body against my chest.
"I don't want to talk about this anymore." Renesmee whispered, her eyes moving to look up at me from under her long lashes.
"I don't either." I whispered back, not releasing her, "But we have to go inside now and be happy today, for Marnie's sake. And then we have to be happy for the next several months so that by the time we leave for New Hampshire, we will have a plan and no matter what we do, at least Marnie will have had good memories of us. Okay?"
"I don't know if I can just go in there and be happy Jake. Now that I realize we have to leave her?" The tears begun to glisten again and suddenly I knew exactly what I needed to do.
I needed to make her forget about her worries. Distract her with happier thoughts.
Without a word or warning, I dipped my head and brought my lips down on hers. There was no force needed as she instantly reacted, bringing her arms up around my neck, pulling herself closer to me. My worries instantly vanished, her soft body pressed against mine. Her full lips moving in time with me, deepening the kiss and filling it with passion. I could feel this plan working all too well.
I had to force myself to pull away first, coming up for air and setting her back down on the pavement. I had no idea how she had ended up off the pavement, her legs wrapped around my torso, in the first place. Apparently kisses like that erased my memory and my self control all at once.
"Okay, I think I can be happy now." Renesmee nodded slowly, a blush rising in her cheeks, "That was, um, wow."
"Yeah." I managed to let one word slip but my mind couldn't form coherent thought past that. The way she felt was still at the forefront of my thoughts and it took all my control not to pull her back to me and repeat the process.
Her grin was widening.
"Come on you. Let's go inside."
She grabbed my hand and led me inside the house, the smell of eggs and bacon immediately hitting us as we opened the door. I took several deep breaths to try to clear my head, focus on food rather than the incredibly tasty girl walking in front of me.
"Marnie, we're back!" Renesmee called out, "What are you cooking?"
"Nothing for you." Marnie met us in the hallway outside the kitchen with a glass of what appeared to be blood, "Here. Don't ask me where or how I got that but I thought you would like it. Everyone deserves to have their favorite meal on Christmas just please drink it somewhere where I can't see you, okay?"
Renesmee dropped my hand to hold the glass with two hands, raising it to her nose and taking in the scent.
"Seriously? How did you manage to get me an entire glass of human blood?" Renesmee was absolutely thrilled.
"I told you not to ask." Marnie laughed and waved her away, "You disgust me. Get out of here. Jake, you and I get to eat eggs, bacon, pancakes and/or waffles and an assortment of fresh fruit, muffins, toast. Sound good?"
"Sounds perfect." I moved past her into the kitchen so that I could take in the scent of the food even deeper, as Renesmee had with the blood. I refused to even try to guess where Marnie had gotten that blood from so I pushed the thought away and focused on the spread in front of me, "This looks amazing Marnie. Thank you."
"You're welcome." She grinned at me and then flipped the pancakes as she continued to cook, "I just want you guys to have a great Christmas. It's the first for the three of us together and I wanted to make sure it was perfect."
I smiled back at her. She really was a great person. She cared about both Renesmee and I, probably more than we deserved. She was the mother that neither Renesmee or I had ever really had, since mine had also died when I was young. My heart ached again thinking about having to leave her for good in the not so distant future. I immediately pushed that to the back of my mind and abandoned my train of thought. She wanted a perfect Christmas so I would concentrate on making sure she got that, first and foremost.
And it was a perfect Christmas. After breakfast we all went our separate ways to shower and dress for the day. We were just deciding how to proceed with the day when the delivery men showed with all of the furniture we had purchased for Marnie. She cried for an hour because she loved it so much.
In the afternoon, Erin and Russ' families all joined us at our house, starting an impromptu potluck by bringing their dinners to our house so we could all be together. Erin's family was more traditional with turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Russ's family erred to the non-traditional side, bringing lasagna, homemade breadsticks and an entire Italian feast. By the time dinner was over, everyone, except for Renesmee who did her best to fake eating a little of everything, was stuffed.
It was just getting dark outside as all of us were gathered in the living room laughing, telling stories and having a good time. Renesmee watched me from across the room, where she sat perched on the edge of the couch next to Erin who was busy telling a very animated story about the Christmas her dog had eaten the entire meal her mother had prepared. My eyes locked with Renesmee's and she motioned very slightly with her head, so slightly no one else would have seen it, for me to follow her to the front door.
Everyone was so engrossed in Erin's tale that they didn't seem to take notice when Renesmee and I slipped away.
The first words out of her mouth as soon as we were outside were "thank you."
"For what?" I responded, smiling down at her as we both watched the sunset in the distance.
"For being amazing and for distracting me earlier so that I wasn't focused on the negative things all day." She raised one eyebrow, "Yes, I knew you were just trying to distract me with that kiss but it worked and I am definitely not complaining."
At that, we both laughed.
"It's been a great Christmas." Renesmee wound her fingers through mine and leaned against my side with a sigh, "And I don't want to go back to thinking about negative things or the goodbyes we face in the future, but I did just want to let you know that, while it will be hard to say goodbye to Marnie and Erin and Russ and to the people that we meet in the future who we will inevitably have to leave, as long as you and I are together, it's gonna be worth it you know? I can live through goodbyes with everyone else, but I can't ever lose you Jake. That would be too much to take, on top of everything else."
I knew exactly what she meant and I felt the same way. I could lose everything else in the world as long as I still had her. She was my world.
"You'll never lose me Nessie." I promised, "I'm with you always."
She snuggled closer to my side and I could feel her smiling without even looking at her.
"Merry Christmas Jake." She whispered, the sun disappearing over the horizon.
"Merry Christmas Nessie."
