Part Seven

I

Later on, she can not tell for sure what really happened and what her imagination added in the twirl of adrenaline, fear and shock. But she knows that one moment she saw Edward Cullen staring at her from across the parking lot, her hands rummaging through her bag while her mind was filled with rocky beaches, and the next moment she was laying on the ground between two cars, Edward Cullen hovering above her, his golden eyes so close. Closer than ever before.

Something inside her has her trapped between gratefulness and distrust. The words thank you will not pass her lips, because she knows he was far away and then, all of a sudden, here was there, right next to her, and somehow Tyler's van had stopped just in time on the slippery ground.

No one could have reacted this quickly... Right?

Her head is spinning, headache mingling with pure exhaustion and suspicions and Charlie's worried voice begging her to just lay down and talk to her mother.

"I'm tired," she mumbles, head sinking into her pillow, and faintly she can hear her mother's frantic voice on the other end of the line talking her into an unsteady sleep.

II

"Yes?"

The tired, whisper-like mumble from the other end of the line, gravelly and dry like a summer afternoon, becomes the center of Jacob's world for a fragment of a second, and his heart calms back down to a normal rhythm.

All his father has told him was something about a car accident, and all the horrifying, blurry memories shot through Jacob's mind like razors reflecting sunlight, cutting through everything and leaving behind a blinding darkness.

"Bella? You okay? Your dad told Billy something about a car crash? Are you alright?"

Sheets shuffle in the background, and the sleepy sigh suddenly seems like the most beautiful, relieving sounds in the world.

"I'm okay, don't worry. The other car didn't even hit me, it's alright."

"What happened?" he asks, sinking down onto the wooden panels in the hallway, back flat against the cool wall.

Silence seems to stretch on forever between them, the rush of the phone line so uncomfortable compared to the rush of a river, or water running across stones.

"Can I come over, Jake?"

III

The tingle in her legs spreads slowly as the limbs are trapped underneath her body. She nervously kneads her fingers, almost as if she was trying to tie a sophisticated knot.

The heavy silence that lingers in Jacob's small room is suffocating, and Bella starts to regret ever having driven here.

It had taken her much longer to drive down to La Push than it normally should, but Charlie had been more than reluctant to let Bella drive her truck after the accident earlier today. The minutes she had wasted reassuring her father that she had not even been in her truck at the time had been minutes that increased the anxiety bubbling inside of her like molten lava. She needed someone to know.

"Bella," Jacob sighs. He sits on the floor, looking up at her with worry and uncertainty.

"I know it sounds silly, but I don't think I imagined it. He was on the other side of the parking lot when I came out of the school, I'm sure. And then he was just... there, all of a sudden. How? I couldn't have imagined him, right? He was right there, right in front of me. But he couldn't have crossed the parking lot that fast."

Bella suddenly feels silly for opening up about these suspicions. Maybe she really hit her head, maybe she wanted answers so badly that her mind made them up for her.

"Bella... you had a bad day, I'm sure that was a lot of stress and maybe... you know-"

"You think I'm making it all up?"

"No, Bella. No," Jacob whispers, pushing himself off the ground to kneel in front of Bella, "I don't think you made it up, I trust you. I believe you think this is what happened. But... Maybe I shouldn't have told you those stories. Maybe, with all the stress, you just believe this is what you saw, you know? Maybe he was closer to you than you think."

"Yeah, maybe," Bella mumbles. She is disappointed. Somehow, she has hoped that telling Jacob was the only way to make it real. He is the only person she wants to tell this. Then again, what did she expect? Maybe she was going crazy.

"Thank you for listening, Jake."

"No problem," he says with a smile, chastely patting her knee as he stands up, "Try not to worry about it too much. Maybe you should avoid the guy for a while. And who knows, maybe your memory will clear a bit, or you'll think of something that you forgot."