A/N: Okay so in this chapter we finally get to know what the flip is wrong with Jake. I know most of you want to know what his problem is. Also there is going to be a little bit of football talking in here so excuse me if I get it wrong or whatever cause I honestly have no clue what's so ever about football.
It wasn't long until the guests left that Victoria called me up to her room to discuss tonight's little "accident".
Sluggishly I made my way up the stairs towards her room. I needed to be ready for anything she was going to throw at me.
I took a deep breathe to calm myself before stepping through the doors and into the room.
Waiting for me in front of her bed was Victoria. Her blue/grey eyes were alive like wild fire in the summer. Even a moron could feel the fury and anger radiating off of her.
It was times like these that I truly felt fear at the bottom pit of my stomach, but I wasn't going to let her see that. I put up my poker face. The less emotion I showed in front of her, the better.
She stalked her way towards me. The way she walked looked like a wild jaguar making its way towards it prey.
Once she was a foot away from me her right hand came out over her head and within seconds connected to my face. Shit it hurt!!
I already taste the blood that pooled at the inside of my mouth. Victoria might look skinny and bony but fuck did she have a hard ass hand.
"You stupid little bitch! Do you have any idea how humiliated I was at dinner tonight when your stupid clumsiness caused everyone at dinner to be rained on by drinks!? Oh but you will pay for this!!" She spat her words at me as she grabbed me by my hair and threw me across the room.
Thankfully I didn't hit into anything. Just simply dropped to the ground. One thing I learned throughout my years here that it was better to make her feel that she was in charge instead of standing up against it. If you did that then things got way worse.
I slowly lifted myself back up in a standing position. But before I could fully get up slap! Her hand reconnected with the same cheek she had slapped moments ago. Fuck as if this cheek hadn't been through enough for one day. It was on the same side that I had busted my lip earlier on during the day so now I could feel my lip steadily leak drops of blood onto my uniform.
"As of this moment on you will report back to the house after school I don't want to hear anymore bullshit about your school projects or whatever! Also you will stay here during the weekends until I say you can go out again! And further more, starting tomorrow you will be cleaning out the attic. It's gotten very filthy up there. Do you understand that Isabella?"
"Yes, madam, Victoria." I mumbled the words softly. Gawd I hated calling her that!
"Good. Now get out of my room! I don't want to see your stupid face for the rest of the day."
And with that I scrambled back onto my feet and made my way down to my room.
Yeah things for me seem to be going down hill this week. Worst part is it's only fucking Monday!
I made my way to my room with my hand rubbing over my left cheek. Fuck this was going to be badly swollen tomorrow. Hmm… this should be fun to explain.
With a slight push of my hand, the door opened, and I stopped inside my cozy warm room. This was the only place in the entire house that I felt more at home at. Well, this one and Jacob's, but for right now the chance of me walking back into that room were slim to none.
I was too caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice the still house of a person sitting on the edge of my bed.
The lights were off so I couldn't see clearly. I gulped in air ready to give out my biggest scream when the person on the bed turned on my night stand lamp.
The lights turned on and I could see the person sitting on my bed perfectly.
I didn't know whether to be happy of even more frustrated at who it was.
Gawd, wasn't there a limit on how much crap a person could take per day?
Sitting there perfectly still was no other than, Jacob. His dark brown eyes looked straightly at me. With a sigh I put my hands on my hips and glared at him.
"What the hell are you doing in my room Jacob?" Yes it's not the best way to start an actual conversation with him but right now I could careless.
He didn't seem to have heard me or was ignoring me because the first thing he did was rush up to my side and brush my cheek slightly.
"Does it hurt bells?" He asked concern evident in his voice.
Yes, I know I should probably be forgiving the big jerk but I was stubborn and hurt by him.
"Nah, Jake, it feels wonderful having a swollen cheek. What do you think genius??" I put as much sarcasm and hate into my words.
Jake's eyes feel onto the ground.
"Right…." he mumbled.
I sighed a big, heavy sigh. I couldn't be mad at this guy as much as I wish I could. He was a big part of my life and I couldn't hold a grudge against him.
"Jake, why are you here??" I said my voice going back to normal.
"I wanted to talk to you and to explain why I've been acting the way I have…" His eyes still wouldn't look at me. That small gesture somehow was able to bring back some of the irritation that had just vanished.
I crossed my hands over my chest and looked at him. "Well start explaining."
He grabbed me by the wrist and tugged me over to the bed. "Sit," he told me.
I sat on the edge of the bed and crissed-crossed my legs. While he plopped down on my bed.
He kept his gaze up at the ceiling. I know I should probably be more patient with him but right now my patience was not waning but entirely gone.
"Jake by any chance do you expect to explain right now or am I going to have to wait 5 hours?"
He drew in a deep breathe and squared his shoulders. "Yeah, sorry about that, it's that I'm not really good at explaining so I don't know how to start."
"How about explaining why you wouldn't reply to our emails, texts, or answer your cell throughout this whole year?"
He laughed once without humor. "You always have to go straight to the point don't cha Bells?"
I didn't reply but just simply rolled my eyes at him.
"Okay will the reason I didn't do anything of that and don't take it the wrong way okay? It was just that my mom told me that if I wanted to, I could start over in Portland with her. It didn't sound like that bad of an idea, but the thing was that I knew if I kept contact with you guys I would be hard for me to choose. So instead of keeping myself conflicted throughout the whole year I just simply stopped checking my email and I turned off my cell completely. I wanted to see if I could live through a year without you guys. That way it wouldn't be so hard for me to let go afterwards if I chose to stay."
He looked at me, his eyes pleading for understanding.
I couldn't bring myself to say anything. Jake hadn't told us about the staying to live there forever part. Just thinking about it made my heart drop straight down into my stomach.
I felt a hand touch my shoulder and slightly shake me.
"Bells are you in there? Hello?" Jake asked.
"Yeah I'm here…." I replied softly.
Jake sighed. "I knew my explanation wouldn't make things better…If you want me to leave now I'll understand…" He started to get up from the bed.
I grabbed onto his hand tightly. "No it's okay Jake. Plus you still haven't finished explaining everything." It hurt, I'll admit that. It hurt a bit to know he was trying to get away from us, but still I couldn't bare the thought of having him become distant anymore.
He sat down right next to me his eyes cast down again.
I gently leaned my head against his shoulder. Jerk or no jerk, Jake was like my brother and I wasn't going to lose him no matter what.
We stayed like that for a couple of minutes before the silence became way too awkward.
"So you came back….you chose to come back right? You came back to us after all." I lifted my head up to see his reaction.
The moment I looked up at him I could see nothing but pain in his eyes.
I quickly turned my face away and wrapped my arms tightly around him.
"It's okay Jake you don't have to tell me anything." I told him softly.
He took a long shaky breathe. "No it's best if I get this out of my chest once and for all."
I looked up at him again but this time he didn't have any emotion displayed on his face.
"I really didn't plan on coming back to Phoenix anytime soon. I was honestly starting to like Portland, sure the weather there was whack, but I met some pretty cool people at school and was enjoying my life there. I still thought of you guys day after day but I knew I'd have to move on.
"In Portland I tried out for the football team and I made it! I became a defensive player - one of the best at that. We were having our championship game against Lincoln high school. I was all hyped up about it.
"My two sisters Rachael and Rebecca were busy that day so they couldn't take me, Mom offered to drive me so I accepted.
"We were on our way to the school when out of now where some dumb ass didn't stop at the light in the intersection and collided right at us. It hit the driver's side of the car. The car spun around a couple of times before hitting a light pole. Needless to say the car was a total wreck. I was still a bit conscious after the incident, but I wasn't able to move from the position I was in. All I could think of was that the driver's side of the car was the part that had taken the worst hits. I tried to move again to get my mom out of the car, but I couldn't it was as if I was paralyzed. After what seemed like hours I drifted away into unconsciousness.
"When I woke up all that my mind would let me see was the moment before the car hit us. The doctors walked into room and told me the words that made my physical pains feel like it was just a small cut. My Mom had died minutes after the crash. One of her ribs had broken and poked through her lungs making her drown in her own blood.
"After a month with my sisters, I couldn't stay over there any longer. The guilt I felt and still feel about my mom's death is too much. I couldn't bare to stay in that house. Not anymore. So I packed my things and came back.
"Through the whole flight to Phoenix all I could think about was her and you and Leah and my dad. I was somewhat glad to be coming back to see you guys, but once I got here I remembered how I had been ignoring you and I knew I had to explain. I was being cowardly and decided if I ignored you two than I could postpone the explanations. But honestly I've been away from my other family for too long and now, I'm truly happy that I got everything off of my chest."
Throughout his whole explanation I stood their motionless and silently. I couldn't believe what Jake had told me. Right now I felt like a total bitch for thinking all negative about him without knowing his whole story. Yeah what a true friend I am.
I wrapped my arms round his neck tightly and pulled him towards me in a big hug. Jake replied instantly hugging me tightly against his chest. I could feel a trickle of tears rolling down my neck and I let some of my own spill.
"I'm so sorry Jake." I whispered. I couldn't think of anything else to say. I had been in a sort of same situation as him, yet I couldn't think of anything to say.
We let go of each other after a couple of minutes had passed by.
Jake wiped the remaining tears out off of his face and looked at me.
"I guess we both lost our mothers." He said softly
"Yeah we did…. But, hey, we still have Billy to bug!" I said trying to cheer him up.
To my astonishment it worked well. Jake chuckled slightly. "Yeah you got a point. Plus we still have Sue and Harry's life to make miserable too."
That stopped my happiness quickly. Jake hadn't been informed about Harry's death and it seemed I was going to be the one that would have to break it to him.
"Jake…we only have Sue's life to bug now Jake."
He looked at me with a confused expression.
"What do you mean only Sue? What happened to Harry?" He asked.
"Well while you were in Portland, Harry was having some problems with his health…he died of a heart attack about 5 months ago."
Jake laid himself down on my bed and covered his face with his fists.
"How is she doing?" He asked.
I didn't need to be a sidekick or read his mind to know which who he was talking about.
"She took it hard the first few weeks but than after she became better Kate and Seth had left to go live in a Boarding School not too far from here. Leah stayed with Sue. The two have supported each other throughout this situation."
Jake just lay there silently with fists over his face. Finally after what seemed like hours he removed his fist.
"God, what a horrible friend I've been to you guys. I wasn't here when you needed me. So much for being the big brother." He said sadly.
I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a reassuring hug.
"You're here now and we still need you Jakey."
My words were able to bring a small smile on his face, but his eyes were still filled with mixed emotions.
"Thanks." He mumbled and kissed my forehead before getting up off of the bed.
"Where are you going Jake?" I asked as I saw him make his way to my door.
"I'm going to go talk to Lee Lee and give her the explanation she deserves."
"Umm, yeah, she deserves the explanation Jake but don't you think you could give her the explanation tomorrow it's almost 11. I'm sure you still don't have to go to school but we do, so…… why don't you try tomorrow?"
He shook his head at me before opening the door.
"I want to talk to her today even if it is this late. Plus it gives me a good excuse to go over there now." And with that he walked out of my room.
I couldn't help but smile and roll my eyes at the goof. Jake and Leah had feelings for each other, it was completely obvious, but they both were too stubborn to let the other one know.
I got my butt off my bed and headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower.
Today hadn't turned out so badly… I now knew why Jake was acting the way he was. I got to see my other friends and I met a gorgeous guy.
Nope, not so bad after all.
A/N: Okay so I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know it's a bit sad but hey you guys wanted to know what was wrong with our Jakey so there you have it.
I want to say thanks to every single one of my reviewers for encouraging me to continue on writing and giving me some great feedback!
Ya'll all rock!
Like always thank you to my lemony Beta Jessica Marie Cullen. =]
Oh and before you exit out of this page do me a favor and review??
P.S. I was thinking of writing a Leah point of view for the next chapter which still takes place during that night so you guys could see how Jake and her relationship is…but I'm not sure. So I'll leave it up to you. If I get more than 5 reviewers saying that they want to read that chapter than I will post it. If I get less than 5 I'll just send those people the chapter through private message.
P.S.S. I'm not sure if I can update as soon as i want seeing how my beta Jessica went on vacation to the magical world of disney!! So if by any chance y'all want me to upload Leahs point of view chapter(which im thinking of uploading it into a one shot IDK) it's going to be raw meaning no grammar fixes or error corrections. Just giving y'all a warning.