Something really weird has been happening with the last chapter. I have received lots of reviews (Thanks a lot!), but my traffic page claimed that no one had read my story. I don't know what's up with that, but I asked the support team to help me.

Disclaimer: I own only what my mind has come up with, not the Twilight characters.

Chapter 8: Mrs. Road TankerBPOV

When I came home from La Push, Charlie was still up. I silently groaned and tried to sneak past him to my room. I definitely wasn't in the mood for being questioned.

But apparently he had been waiting for me because I couldn't even tip-toe halfway to the stairs when he spotted me. "Hey Bells, how's it been?"

"Good," I answered halfheartedly.

"I'm going to bed." Usually that would shake him off. But this time he seemed to be very curious. "Jake is a nice guy, huh? I'm glad that you finally found a friend here. I don't want my only daughter to be lonely. After all, I think I own you a pleasant stay. And I really like seeing you happy. Maybe you should see him more often…"

Charlie was obviously having one of his rare sentimental moments. He hadn't spoken that much since two years ago, when I had broken my leg trying to climb up a tree. I should've known better than to climb a tree, but I kind of had a thing for getting myself on the edge of death of at least into the hospital every other year. So far, this year had passed without a major incident. Hopefully, I would be able to keep it up.

"Don't worry, dad. I really like staying with you and I already found some friends at high school. You know Jessica Stanley or Mike Newton? I ate lunch with them the past few days and they're really nice. I might be hanging out with them a lot. You know that I love you and that I came here on my own account." With that, I left to my room, knowing that staying longer in the living room would've caused an awkward silence. Charlie and me weren't the people to talk about our feelings all that often and when we did so, neither one of us felt comfortable.

And I definitely wasn't in the mood for his one day obligatory lecture on dating. He seemed to see a date in every boy that I happened to mention around him.

On the one hand, he wanted me to end up with a nice guy and probably kids, but on the other hand he didn't want it too happen all too soon. Maybe in college. Or much rather, afterwards. Sometimes he is so much a stereotypical dad, I thought to myself and opened the bathroom door.

After the long day I fell asleep very quickly. Just before I dozed off, I thought I heard waves washing over the shore. Although that was an impossible thing to hear, it calmed me and carried me into a dreamless sleep.

…………….

When my alarm clock rang the next morning, I turned it off, rewrapped myself in the blanket and fell asleep again.

Half an hour later, I awoke with a startle. Now I really had to hurry. I quickly showered, tossed on a shirt and jeans, grabbed a sandwich from the fridge and left. Charlie had already left for work, his police cruiser was gone.

This was already the second time that I had slept in late this week and I was beginning to wonder why exactly that was.

……………

I was in a really great mood when I got to school, although I was almost too late. I had really had a great weekend. My skin still felt warm from yesterday's sun. Today the sky had clouded over, though.

I realized that I didn't care about the weather as I pulled into the empty parking lot. I had probably had enough sun for the next few weeks. Silently, I chuckled to myself as a comparison to a road tanker sprang into my mind. Maybe I was able to stock up on sunlight just like my truck was on gas!

Suddenly, my heart stopped still. I was late and still there weren't any cars in the school's parking lot? Something was definitely odd here.

After parking my car in one of the many empty spaces I checked my truck's clock. 7:58. The parking lot should have been full and students everywhere. It wasn't until I walked up to the school's main entrance and realized that the doors were locked that I realized why there wasn't anyone present.

It's a Sunday.

Charlie must have gone fishing, I realized. He had told me about that on Friday. And stupid me must have set the alarm clock last night when I was already halfway asleep.

Great.

Now that I was already in town, I might as well visit someone, I thought as I walked back to my truck. Sighing, I checked my cell phone for telephone numbers. Sadly, I only had Jessica's and I knew that she was in Port Angeles to visit her aunt.

Who else was there? I didn't know any phone numbers or addresses. Jake!

I knew for a fact where he and Billy lived, but I had no way of giving them a warning about me coming over. Charlie probably had their number scribbled down somewhere at home, but I didn't want to drive back and forth so much just to get a simple number.

I turned the ignition and made my decision as the truck stuttered to life. I would just drive to his house and see if he was there.

……………

When I pulled up at the Blacks' house, I was a little nervous. It just wasn't customary to knock at someone's door without an invitation or warning.

Especially since I had talked to him just twice. Well, I had talked to him before Friday, but more because he was related to someone I knew. And that was way different.

After a moment I had pulled together my nerves and gotten rid of the awkward feeling of being uninvited and walked up to the door.

Jacob lived in a small cottage with his father, but it didn't look small. It rather looked cute and a little out of proportion next to their huge garage. I wondered what they kept in there. Never had I dared to enter it, us girls had shied away from all the guy stuff in it.

Hesitantly, I rang the bell. No one answered.

Maybe they weren't at home. Billy was fishing and maybe Jake had decided to come with him and Charlie. I almost gave up, but decided to ring a second time. Possibly he just hadn't heard me.

"Come in!" a muffled voice called from within after my second 'ring'. I timidly did as he said and carefully closed the door behind me. As I waited for him to come out of wherever he was, I curiously took in my surroundings. So much had changed since I had been here last time. All the girl stuff had disappeared from the living room. There were also less shoes in the small hallway leading to it and the house smelled a little different.

It smelled of guy. Dah, there's only guys here, smart alec.

After a few minutes I began to feel uncomfortable just standing in the living room of someone else's house. "Jake?"

I heard a rumble in the bathroom, then Jacob came out with wet hair. "Oh, it's you," he said, stopped dead in his track and blushed deeply. As I looked at him, I turned red, too. He wasn't exactly wearing a lot of clothes…

In fact, he only had a towel slung around his hips. After a moment of shock, he sprung back through the door and called "I'll be right out!"

After a moment, he came back out with a larger towel that covered up more of his russet skin and disappeared into his room.

Too bad. He wasn't one who had to hide his body… I hadn't ever noticed before.

Remembering what I had just seen, I blushed again. I was glad that he was in his room and couldn't see me like that. It just wasn't like I had seen a lot of half-naked boys recently. He had just taken my by surprise. That was all.

When Jacob came back out in shorts and a t-shirt, there was an awkward silence. Luckily, he broke it soon after. "Sorry for that, I just expected that it would be one of the guys."

"I figured," I smirked at him. Then I told him about the reason that I had come to visit him in the first place. We laughed together about my colossal stupidity.

"I never though that it would be so easy to confuse you, Bells. Apparently, all I have to do is throw a beach party and get my dad to take yours fishing in order to have you come by my house the next morning confusing time and date," he chuckled.

"Yeah, that's me. But don't tell Billy, I don't want my dad laughing at me when I get home."

"If you don't want that, I won't". His face turned serious again. "You just gotta tell me, okay?"

"I will," I assured him.

"Sure, sure." I smiled at his words. They seemed to be some kind of his signature move.

"What are you smiling at?" he asked me, noticing my mood. "Nothing," I grinned at him, "You wanna go outside?"

"Sure, though it's not as sunny as yesterday"

I sighed. "It's not like you can expect more than two days of sunshine a year around Forks."

"Do you miss the sun? I figured that it would be bothering you, Phoenix is one of the sunniest places in the states, right?" I can't believe he remembers that!

"Yeah, but right now it's okay. I just refueled." He furrowed his brow in confusion, so I told him about my road tanker-analogy, thinking he would consider it to be funny. I wasn't disappointed, his infectious laughter was in the air even before I finished my story.

"Right, Bells, you're so much like a road tanker. All big and heavy, with four tires and a few thousand gallons of gas inside. Right." His words really made me laugh and whenever I had collected myself enough to take a breath, he would top it by making tires' squeaking sounds and announcing "Here comes Bella!", which caused me to have another laughing fit.

"Stop it, Jake, I can't breathe," I was finally able to gasp out. "Only if you can escape me," he said with a mischievous smile and started a tickling attack. It was almost impossible to escape his torturing fingers and I was very ticklish, but somehow I managed to get away from him and run to the door.

"Don't you think you can run away from me, Mrs. Road Tanker!" With that Jake ran after me, but I could tell he wasn't really trying all too hard to get me. He let me run almost all the way to the water before catching up with me. Foreseeing his next move, I just sat down on the sand myself and held my hands up giggling. "I surrender."

"Too bad." Jake smiled at me and then sat down next to me. "I don't think I've ever known someone as ticklish as you."

Suddenly, my cell phone started ringing. It was Charlie. "He doesn't know where I'm at," I told Jake and then answered it.

"Hey Dad, you're home already? I'm over at La Push, don't worry. There should be some sandwiches in the fridge, if you want some."

"Um, okay, Bells. I was just wondering where you were since you didn't leave a note. Didn't know that you were planning on visiting Jacob. You're with him, right?"

"What else would I be doing here, dad?" I sighed and then added, "See you in a bit, I'll be home for dinner." I just couldn't leave him to eat sandwiches once again.

"Bye Bells!"

I turned back around to face Jacob. He had a mocking smile on his face, which he tried to hide when he noticed me looking at him.

Apparently he couldn't keep the charade up for too long: He chuckled and told me "It's so funny to watch you talk to your dad. It's like either one of you knows what the other wants to ask and you answer the questions without hearing them. As if you two were able to read each others' thoughts!" He was right with that, most of the time it was best to answer all of Charlie's questions before he even got to ask them. Our communication was very effective.

I grimaced. "Ugh, I definitely don't want Charlie reading my mind! If he knew what's going on in here," I tipped my temple, "he would probably send me to a brain hospital. And it would be quite embarrassing to have you dad know your every thought, don't you think?"

There were a lot of things I didn't want Charlie to know. For example the thoughts about Edward's behavior (I was instantly angry and confused as soon as I thought of his name) or the memory of Jacob in only a towel. Instantly, I blushed at the mental image.

Jake didn't seem to notice or otherwise politely ignored me turning beet-red. "I don't really want Billy to snoop in my brain, too. Just the thought of it. Someone knowing your every thought, it's creepy. Look, I'm even getting goose bumps." He held his arm over to me and really, there were goose bumps. I smiled at him.

………….

We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing the pros of knowing other peoples' thoughts and the cons of having other people read our minds, grabbing a few sandwiches to eat at the beach around three. Although it was cloudy, it was a nice day to be outside. Luckily, I had thought of bringing my jacket to school. Without it, it would have been freezing cold on the beach.

Like yesterday, the time went by very quickly and before I knew it, it was time to drive home and fix dinner for Charlie. I couldn't believe that I had left for school about 7 hours ago. It felt like much less time.

Before I left, we exchanged cell phone numbers, so I'd be able to warn him the next time should I spontaneously decide to visit him again.

As I drove home, I thought of the other good things about having his number. He wasn't going to our high school, after all, and now I had a way to arrange meeting him again, if I wanted that.

After dinner I kept thinking about the profits of mind-reading. I would be able to read Edward's mind. I wouldn't have to bother with waiting for him to maybe explain his strange behavior one day, if it ever pleased him to do so. I'd know why he hated me or why he didn't. I could stop thinking about him so much. He was making me all self-conscious and angry.

But, wait.

I hadn't even thought about him for two days.

Maybe I had found a way to be comfortable with myself. Maybe I had found someone who could make me forget the 'unwelcome'-feeling.

Jake.

Strange that I hadn't ever really talked to him before. How strange that I only really knew him for three days. Smiling at today's memories I fell asleep. I was his Mrs. Road Tanker.

…………………

Sorry that it took me so long to update. I'm very busy with my finals right now, the first is up tomorrow. Please keep reviewing and adding me to favorites so I'll know that someone DOES read this ;-) Or just read it, I'm fine with that, too.

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