My father insisted that Amadeus and I wear suits to the wedding. "The rest of the pack is," he said, "so you have to too."
"But we don't have suits," I complained.
"I'm sure that Amadeus will fit into one of mine," came the reply. "And Sam has a spare one you can borrow, Jacob." Sam's spare suit felt tight across my shoulders, but Emily insisted that I looked wonderful, and at least the legs weren't too short.
Amadeus, though… The last I'd seen of him was him being shoved into the bathroom, a blue bundle in his arm, the strict instructions to have a decent shower following him in. I'd winced when I'd heard that. It was true that neither of us had been particularly focused on personal hygiene when we'd been travelling, but at least I could have a wash in various streams in my wolf form, and I wouldn't get frozen by the cold water anyway. Amadeus needed hot showers and soap, and in the excitement of the previous day, and the rest of the pack meeting him, there had not been enough time to send him in that direction.
Even then, I wasn't expecting what I saw when the bathroom door next opened, over half an hour later. He stepped out, a shy smile on his face, and I was speechless. The old suit fit him perfectly, making him look slender instead of skinny, and the blue was less harsh on his colouration than black would have been. His green eyes sparkled below a mop of dark gold hair that refused to lie flat. As I stood there, he bit his lip.
"What you think?" he asked.
"I…" I covered the distance between us and wrapped my arms around him, pulling him to my chest. Close to, he smelled clean and fresh, but there was still the scent of Amadeus, the scent that I always associated with him. "Perfect." I saw colour rise in his cheeks and smiled.
Sam's cough made me look up, and there was amusement sparkling in his eyes. "We have to go," he said. "The wedding will start soon."
The church was not that far from the High school, and was not the sort of place that I thought Bella would get married in. Maybe it's the leech's idea, I thought as I parked the car outside it and helped my dad towards the door, Amadeus following. We were quite early, but even so, there were still many people around. I felt like the whole town was watching me – or, more accurately, watching Amadeus by my side. He was new, and they didn't know who he was, and so, of course, they watched him like hawks.
"Maddy!" I smiled as I heard that familiar voice, and saw Kim heading towards us. She hugged Amadeus and they started talking to him, and he seemed happy enough, so I left them and went inside the church to get Billy comfortable in his seat. One of the leeches was there – one of the female ones, I couldn't remember her name – and as she came over I forced myself not to wrinkle my nose at her stench.
"I thought you would come, even if Bella said you wouldn't," she said with a beaming smile on her face. I frowned.
"What?" I asked.
"I thought you would come, even though you'd run off." Alice, that was it.
"That's nice."
"Bella was so insistent that you wouldn't be coming, though. It'll be a nice surprise for her to see you." She smiled. "Glad you could make it."
"So am I."
"Well, I've got to go; organising weddings takes a lot of time. Enjoy it."
Ah, I thought as I watched her walk away, that's why this wedding is so different to what I think Bella would've wanted. I smiled to myself. I wonder what Bella really thinks of all this.
Amadeus' face came into my mind, and I headed back to the outside of the church, where he was still talking to Kim. Jared was standing behind Kim, his arms around her, and I headed towards them, planning on copying the gesture. But something made me stop, and that something was the looks of the rest of the town. I frowned. They were still staring at Amadeus, but I saw they weren't just staring any more, and the stares were no longer benign. Whispers were going around the people standing there, and I realised that they were speculating about who Amadeus was – and probably why he had come with me, too.
At first I thought that Amadeus wasn't aware of it, but as I came to stand by his side I realised that he was tenser than usual, and his eyes occasionally flickered to the side, looking around warily. He didn't smile when he saw me, either, and I felt rage building up inside me, directed at the crowd who were obviously distressing him. Forcing it down, I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, and I felt his muscles loosen, even as the whispers increased.
He didn't think I'd accept him, with everyone watching, I realised, and the rage almost overcame me. I forced it down, concentrating on Kim's words and the fresh smell of Amadeus next to me instead, and soon I was calm enough to head into the church, my arm still wrapped around him.
Luckily, Billy was sitting in the middle of where the leech – Alice, must call her Alice, she's Bella's friend – had decreed for us werewolves to sit. Amadeus sat between Billy and I, and the rest of the pack formed a wall around us, shielding us from the whispers of the town. I ignored them and concentrated, for once in my life, at the lee… vampires. All apart from Cullen – Edward – were there, but it wasn't long before the Cold One who had stolen Bella's heart away from me made his appearance.
You don't need Bella's heart any more. You have Amadeus'. I smiled at that thought, and turned to Amadeus, but to my surprise, his eyes were wide, and he was staring at Edward.
"What is it?" I whispered, turning back to face said vampire. He was dressed immaculately in a slightly old style suit that I actually thought suited him well, but there was nothing odd about him – nothing that screamed vampire at anyone who didn't know. Amadeus does know, though, a voice in the back of my mind said. Maybe that's why he's staring.
If it was that, though, he would have been staring at the rest of the vampires. He knows about them. I realised that Amadeus hadn't answered my question, so I repeated it.
"It's… That's him?" Amadeus asked.
"If you mean it's Edward Cullen, Bella's soon-to-be husband, then yes." I frowned. "Why are you asking?"
"Oh… Well…"
"Come on, Amadeus, what is it?"
"He's that man."
"That man?" Amadeus nodded.
"The first man," he added, and suddenly I understood. Unbidden, my thoughts flew back to when Amadeus was telling me about his life, before he had met me.
"I was walking down the sidewalk, past the bookshop," Amadeus had said. "Just walking, just laughing. It was a grey day, even though it was summer, and I wanted the sun to shine. And then… I saw him."
And something else that Amadeus had said floated into my head, something that made my heart freeze.
"I realised I was… I was attracted to him."
"Different eyes though," Amadeus interrupted my thoughts.
"This was… You were attracted to this guy?" Please, please let him say no… Amadeus nodded.
"Pretty handsome," he said.
"Are you… still…?" I couldn't finish it. I knew what the answer was, even though Amadeus didn't respond. I'd known even before I'd asked the question. Of course he's still attracted to the leech. Haven't you seen him? He's a vampire, he's made to be beautiful. He's made to attract people, to lure them in and take their blood and feast on their vulnerability. And… first Bella, now Amadeus. Or maybe it should be first Amadeus, now Bella. Even so… does he have to take everyone that I care for? Does that leech have to poison every aspect of my life?
Because that's what's happened. He hurt Bella then took her from me like a toy that he could just play with. And now, when I find the one person who means everything to me, when I find the one person I can be happy with after Bella, when I find the person I care about the most in the world… He's got to Amadeus first. He took Amadeus from me even before we had met – even before I had Amadeus. And that's it, isn't it? I've never had Amadeus. I've imprinted on someone that I can never even have…
I wanted to run. I wanted to hurt Edward Cullen, leech, Cold One, I wanted to kill him, and then run again, run far away from La Push, from Forks, away from everything. Only this time I wouldn't stop running. This time, I would run until I was as far away from them as possible, until I was alone.
If I couldn't get that far away… Well, I doubted that I could hear them in my head, hear their sympathy at having lost the two people I cared about most in the world to Edward Cullen, if I was dead.
"Jake?" Amadeus' voice broke into my thoughts, and I felt his hand on my arm. The wedding march was starting, and Bella was going to walk down the aisle soon, and Amadeus wasn't staring at the first 'man' he'd ever fallen for. He was staring at me…
"What?" I asked.
"What's wrong?"
"I… Nothing."
"Not going to leave."
"What?" My eyes widened. Does he know what I was thinking?
"Not going to leave you. Love you. Never leaving… unless you…"
"I'm not going to tell you to leave," I whispered harshly. "Sorry, I just…" He loves me… He's not going to leave me for the leech…
"Bella's coming – be quiet!" Jared hissed behind me, and I turned to see... Bella. Looking at her caught my breath. She was swathed in white, lace and silk flowing around her. Alice must've been behind the dress, I thought when I saw the self-consciousness in her face, but she was smiling too, and her smile was beautiful. She started to walk, and I saw something familiar on her wrist: the bracelet I had given her. Yet the sight of that didn't thrill me anywhere near as much as it would've done before I'd met Amadeus.
I was suddenly acutely aware of Amadeus beside me, looking withdrawn, a frown on his face, and I realised that our places were reversed. The irony of it made me smile even as I reached out surreptitiously with my hand and grasped his. He glanced at me, shock all over his features, but I smiled and gave his hand a squeeze, and he smiled in return before the pair of us turned back to the wedding going on in front of us. But as I watched, my thoughts were on the young man beside me. If ever I'd needed proof that Amadeus was more to me than Bella had ever been, this wedding would have been it. Seeing Bella then had brought back all I had ever felt for her, but Amadeus' hand in my own and his warmth beside me was more important to me than Bella, even if she was wearing the bracelet I had given her. I love you, Amadeus. I more than love you. Just don't forget it.
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I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that chapter seven was twice as long as I intended it to be. Therefore, I have actually got chapter eight somewhere. However, I have no time to edit it and check it, since I should actually be doing school work, since, you know, I'm at school, on a school computer, so you'll have to wait. I'll probably do it tomorrow. At home.
What you may not be pleased to hear is that chapter eight is the last chapter. It's longer than this one! Don't kill me!
