AN: Thank you everyone for your reviews and support. I'm starting to feel the pressure to make every chapter perfect, so you should know that this one isn't. The next one will be better, I promise...I hope... Sorry it's so short.

Chapter 8

Ness put down her fourth magazine. Jake had let her choose as many as she wanted while he hit the auto parts shop across the street to pick up the parts for Shane's car. It had been such a novel idea at first, reading magazines like all her new friends, but it turned out to be incredibly dull when you could read thirty seven words a second. Maybe it would have been more interesting if she had picked up a wider variety, but she wanted to read all the girly ones her friends read, and that was not the right choice. Not only did every one seem to contain at least one quiz to test how perfect your boyfriend was, which was kind of a touchy subject at the moment, but they all obsessed over the same fashion accessories and celebrities. She sighed and left the stack of magazines in the middle of the floor on her hunt for Jake, he always knew how to liven up an afternoon.

"Jake," she called, wandering the halls, "where you at, boy?"

She couldn't hear him anywhere, and she checked the kitchen and the garage before deciding that he had probably had gone down for an afternoon nap, so she went to check his room. When she opened the door to his room her breath was knocked from her chest. It looked like a war zone; dust and rubble coated the ground, piling up in the middle of the room. Large chunks of concrete were missing from what remained of the walls, adding to the disaster zone. When had this happened? Ness racked her brain, trying to remember anything that she had heard over the past few weeks to explain the mess, but she couldn't come up with anything. Jake hadn't been sleeping in his room for a while though, and she counted back the nights. The night she broke up with him was the last night he had spent in his own room. Had she done this? She couldn't remember anything much from that night, she had gone straight to her room, blasted her music, and cried. If anything had happened that night, she wouldn't have been able to hear it.

The only thing still in tact in the room was a small, delicate teddy bear. Ness remembered giving it to Jake years ago; it was the bear she used to use to get to sleep at night. It always reminded her of Jake, and it made her feel safe as a child. She had given it to him to look after because she insisted that she had grown out of such childish things but couldn't bring herself to throw it away.

The small reminder of Jake, and how he made her feel, drew her into the room. She crouched over the bear and clutched it close to her chest. It smelled like him; like the forest, like air, like life.

"Ness?" Jake startled her and she dropped the bear. He was standing in the doorway, using an oily rag to wipe mud from his hands and making an even bigger mess in the process. There were muddy handprints on his new jeans. "Were you looking for me? I was out in the garden."

"Jake," tears stung her eyes. It was all too much; seeing him, and remembering how things used to be. "I'm so sorry," she choked, looking around the room.

Jake stumbled through the mess and wiped the tears from her cheeks. A comforting but pained smile played across his lips, "For what, this mess? I've been meaning to clean it up for weeks now."

"I'm so sorry," Ness sobbed, burying her face in Jake's muddy shirt. He instinctively put his arms around her.

"Don't be sorry, Ness," he soothed, "this is what you want."

"No it's not. I just got so scared. I didn't know what to do."

"Scared? Scared of what?"

Her chocolate eyes looked up into his, "You."

"Of me?" Jake sputtered, "You never have to be afraid of me Ness. I won't ever hurt you. Don't you know that?"

Ness nodded, "I know that Jacob."

"Then why?"

"Because, what if all I ever think about is you? What if the world is crumbling around me and all I see is your face? What if something happens to you and all I'm left with is a broken world?"

"That's a lot of what ifs," Jake smiled, trying to be reassuring, but Renesme needed an answer. "If something does happen to me, then you will pick yourself back up, and you will be just as amazing as you ever are. You are strong, and brilliant, and talented, and beautiful; there is nothing in this world you can't have. If the world is broken, then you will fix it. If you are alone, then you will find another to love."

"But I don't want to love anyone else," she pouted, "I just want to love you."

"Well, then it's a darned good thing I'm not going anywhere."

Her eyes were still locked with his, and she couldn't stop herself from doing the thing that felt right. She stood up on the very tips of her toes and kissed him. It felt like such a cliché moment from a bad movie, and when it was over, Renesme regretted it. She wasn't ready to go back to Jake. No matter what he said, those fears were still there.

"Well, um, I've got a car to fix," Jake said with a goofy smile. He whistled all the way down to the garage, and the melody continued through the walls as he set to work. While he whistled, a knot settled in the pit of Renesme's stomach. She couldn't be sure, but she felt like she had just made things so much worse. Gently, she picked the teddy bear up from the ground and held it close. Its russet fur tickled her nose as she drew in Jacob's smell. No matter the mess she had made, and no matter how afraid she was, his smell would always calm her down. She settled herself onto the ragged and ripped futon mattress that was draped over some of the debris, and fell asleep. Jacob's scent broke through into her dreams where she ran, laughed, and played with a big, russet dog in the forest.

"Um, Ness?" Jake's voice pulled her back to reality.

"Yeah?" she yawned, stretching her arms.

"This is kind of awkward, but your boyfriend is waiting for you at the front door," the smile still hadn't been wiped from his face.

"Oh." Renesme stood, not really sure what to do.

"Here," Jake held out a set of car keys, "get my keys back, will you? It's getting too cold to take the bike."

"Does that mean that you aren't going to take me out like you promised?"

"I never break a promise."