The Taxi Ride

Chapter Nine: Victoria who?

I was mad.

I was pissed off.

I was highly upset.

All at Jake.

"Jake, that was such a rude way to treat someone," I scolded him as I pulled the car over a block or two from where we dropped Victoria off, and turned around so I could glare at him. The way Victoria had exited the car made me upset that she was upset. I felt like I had failed her in some way. I didn't want her disliking me now because my friend had been rude to her.

Jake folded his arms across his chest, the muscles in them bulging out. "I'm not going to apologize for upsetting her. But I will apologize if I have upset you."

"Jake, what is your problem with her? Was it a bad hook up?"

"You're kidding right?" He glared at me, like I had just said the most offensive thing ever.

"No, I'm not. Because I don't know what else would cause such a negative reaction."

"She wasn't behaving any better than me, you know. But I don't hear you complaining about her actions."

"She's not my best friend. So I can't feel responsible for her actions," I countered. Usually whenever I had an argument with Jake and used the phrase best friend, then he would soften up. But not this time. Whatever had bothered him had him wound up so tightly that I wasn't sure when his anger would fade.

"She's just dangerous, Bella," he said softly at last, the anger in his body directed at her and not me. "Just be careful around here and don't drive her around anymore."

"You know how absurd that statement sounds right now?" I threw my hands up. "She's not going to hurt me."

He just shook his head.

"Why do you think she'll hurt me?" I looked at him for a long time, the silence stretching. He didn't meet my eyes. At last he let out a sigh, whatever he had been contemplating, he had arrived at a conclusion for.

"It won't matter. Not for long anyways. I'll make sure you're safe. " And with that he wretched the car door open.

"Jake! Wait!" I called out but he was already gone, jogging down the darkened street. "Shit, where is he going?" I called him on the phone, but he didn't pick up, the call going to voice mail each time no matter how many times I called. "What is that boy doing?" I rubbed my forehead in worry but deciding I couldn't do anything else right now, I drove around the streets looking for him. Naturally I didn't spot him so I was left worrying over him as I drove back home.

I was nervous because what if he ran into the killer? They went after college aged boys. Granted, Jake wasn't a white student, but still. He was alone, and the killer was indeed evolving like my dad said they would. They'd already gone after a female student.

Shit, now that I thought of that, I definitely wouldn't be able to get any rest. I punched in Jake's number one more time, praying that this time he would pick up. It was five in the morning. The rings stretched on for eternity until finally, finally, he picked up.

"Bella?" His voice sounded groggy.

"Jake! Are you okay? I was worried for you. I had thought the worst. Especially with that psycho on the loose-"

"Bella, I'm fine. I'm at my house right now." He let out a loud yawn. "Sleeping. Or I was at least before you called."

I let out a relieved sigh at this. "Thank goodness."

"Yea. You don't have to worry about me. And you won't have to worry for yourself either anymore." Those words were cryptic as heck, and they made a shiver go up my spine. "Now go to sleep," he chuckled before hanging up.

And so I did. But the world of sleep was still a long time coming, because I couldn't get over Jake's weird behavior. I knew I had to ask him about it. And I had to find Victoria and apologize to her for the behavior or else I was worried she'd no longer want to ride with me.

Finding Victoria wasn't going to be an easy task. I didn't have her number, and I had no clue what classes she took. Maybe I could find her in the student registry? But that was going to take a while to find. Finding Victoria consumed my thoughts for most of the morning the next day, with me barely paying attention in class. Angela noticed my distracted state.

"You okay, girl?" she asked as we moved onto our next classes.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just a bit distracted. Thinking about work and stuff."

"Getting stressed out by driving obnoxious drunks around?" she gave me a sympathetic smile, an image of Jake flashing in my mind. "You could always get a different job you know. There's a lot of options for students like you on campus."

"I know, but the job pays good and I get to use my car instead of just letting it lie around. Besides, if I didn't have the job and hadn't told Charlie I needed a new car for it, I'd still be using that truck to get around."

Angela wrinkled her nose up at the memory. "Ugh, yea. Never mind." She remembered all too well how slow and loud that monstrosity had been.

"By the way," I said slowly, a bit embarrassed to be asking this but getting desperate to do so, "do you know a girl named Victoria?" I didn't want Angela thinking I was a weirdo, to be asking about other people but I had to find Victoria.

"Victoria?"

"Yea, red flaming hair. Uh, red eyes. Pale skin. She's really pretty," I added at the end hopefully when Angela's face stayed blank. She shook her head.

"Sorry girl, but that sounds like some weird made up person."

Well, there went that option. "Thanks," I thanked her anyways.

"Why are you looking for her?"

"Uh, she left something in my car and I want to give it back to her," I ad libbed.

"Then why don't you go the campus taxi service head quarters? I'm sure they'll have her name on files and can give you it."

Why hadn't I thought of that before! I felt like slapping my forehead loudly but I didn't. "Thanks girl. See you later." And with that I dashed off to the campus taxi service head quarters before my next class began.

I got there a bit breathless as it was a run halfway across campus.

"What can I do for you?" asked a rotund woman as I went up to her red in the cheeks and gasping for breath.

"I uh, well I work for the service and one of my customers left something in the car-"

"You can leave it here with us along with a name and we'll return it," she said in her flat voice.

I didn't actually have something. It was just a lie. But I decided to roll with it. "Her name is Victoria. That's all I know."

"And what's your name? I need to go through your past records." The rotund woman turned to me, peering at me over her glasses.

"It's Isabella Swan," I said quickly, glancing at the clock on the wall over her head. I had to hurry. I didn't have much time before class.

The woman typed some stuff up and began looking through the files and such. She gave a harrumph. "Seems there's no one named Victoria here in your files."

"What?" I got closer to her desk. "That's not possible. I drive her around like every weekend."

"There is no mistake in the system. Maybe you misheard her name?"

"No, that can't be," I said softly, reeling a bit in shock. My heart was beating faster. I gripped the desk top, trying to ground myself.

"I'll check the records and find out who you drive on the weekends." There was more clicking of keys, the sound large and loud in my head as I tried to steady my breathing. There had to be some error. It wasn't possible otherwise.

"You've driven a girl named Sarah constantly each weekend," the woman said at last. "It's possible that could be your customer."

Reflexively I shook my head no. "I...there's no way...I'm sorry I'm gonna go." I left the room hurriedly, my legs shaking. Victoria didn't exist? What the hell? Why would she lie to me about her name?

Jake's earlier words rang in my ears. She's just dangerous, Bella. But that couldn't be true. There had to be some explanation for this. Jake's paranoia was getting to me and I couldn't let it. Shouldering my bag more comfortably, I left to class, trying to get this incident out of my mind.

A/N: Will Bella discover the truth before Victoria gets to her? Or will the vampire manage to get to her even past Jake?