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CHP 9

Charlie was wary of me the following weeks. He side-glanced at me often, let me off cooking duty, and encouraged me to hang with Jake at every possible moment.

It had become the norm for me to leave my window cracked for Jacob to come in during nights when he wasn't on patrol. I felt like Wendy, lying awake waiting for my Peter Pan, but Jake and I were much less exciting than the Never land kids. Our only adventure was falling asleep.

Though I'd decided to stay in Forks, everything Leah said resonated in my mind on a daily basis. Edward left you. He'd promised to stay with me forever. Abandoned you. He never came back for me. Dumped you in the friggin forest to die. Sam had to rescue me. He didn't want you. He doesn't want me. He still doesn't want you. He never will. He tore your heart out. And broke it. Edward doesn't need you now and he never will. I knew that. He never needed me like I needed him. The more I thought about it – and I thought about it a lot - I was just a tiny part, a fleeting second, of his immortal life.

Leah's words stung, sending trails of fire through my stomach, but they were true. As much as I wanted to deny them, I couldn't escape the truth.

Slowly, with Jacob's help, I began to move past the thoughts of It was my fault, I wasn't good enough for him and on to thoughts of He almost destroyed me, I need someone who won't abandon me as he did. In the back of my mind, I knew Jacob never would, though still doubts and fears from the past hindered our relationship.

On top of everything, Mike was ever persistent.

"Hey!" he said enthusiastically, sitting down next to me at the lunch table.

"Hey," I answered, trying to return some of the eagerness and failing.

"So…" he continued awkwardly, fingering the metal lid of his soda can. "I know our last date didn't go so well…"

"Date?" I questioned.

"Oh, I mean, you know, when we went to the movies." He stammered.

I looked at him questioningly.

"Don't you remember? We went to see Face Punch. With that kid you were babysitting from La Push."

"Ah," I said, busying myself in my chemistry lab report. "I remember now." I ignored his jibe about the babysitting. Not only was obvious Jake stood a good foot above Mike, but I'd seen Mike glaring when Jake picked me up from school on my motorcycle (which he never let me drive anymore in an attempt to keep me out of the hospital). No one would glare like that if they thought I was babysitting.

"Anyway," he continued. "Maybe you'd want to go out on another date sometime? With me? Just us two?"

I paused. I'd lost my train of thought. It was hard to calculate electron numbers when someone was hounding you. "I don't know, Mike."

"Come on, Bella! It'll be fun."

"I've been really busy lately..." I started, racking my brain for a solid excuse.

"Yeah, Mike, everyone know that Bella's, like, really busy." Jessica interjected. For once I was glad for her interference. "I'd go with you, though, if Bella can't go." She flipped her hair.

Mike ignored her. "How about Friday night?" he persisted.

"I can't…" my brain was scrambled. I needed an excuse, fast. I looked down at my hands and saw the bracelet Emily gave me. "I'm going to La Push that day."

"Yeah, she's totally going to La push, Mike." Jessica exclaimed.

"Maybe some other time then," he mumbled.

"Actually, Mike…" I really didn't want to have this conversation again in the future. "I'm kind of busy every day."

"Yeah, Mike, she's totally busy!" Jessica said, close to shouting. "I'm free though, like really."

I glanced over at her, baffled. She was leaning so far towards Mike that I thought she might fall out of her chair. I guess Jessica had decided to go with the forward, desperate approach. She was in full form today, that was for sure.

When she met my eyes, she continued, "I mean, don't you already have a boyfriend, Bella?"

"Kinda," I mumbled, returning to my work.

"What?" Mike questioned, "A boyfriend? Who is it? Does he go here? What's his name? Have I met him?"

"Yeah! That's so right! Bella, isn't it that guy from La Push? The tall, tan, gorgeous one that picks you up on the motorcycle. He's totally cute, right? He's so great for you! So Mike- what about…"

Again, he brushed her off. "You're dating Jacob?"

My mouth was hanging open. "Well," I faltered, trying to recover. "Well, I mean he's my best friend, but..."

"But you like him," Mike mumbled, leaning back in his chair, defeated.

I shrugged.

"Oh, she totally does! I can tell. Seriously. It's obvious."

Angela, who hadn't said anything yet, chimed in. "I think it's cute, Bella. He is really nice, after all. We met him at La Push once, remember?"

I remembered.

"Yeah, but he's even cuter now, Bella. A good pick for you." Jessica agreed fervently. Was she always this loud, or was she being extra obnoxious today?

Mike looked pretty down trodden. I tried to light him up. "I'm sure you can find someone else to go with you, Mike. There are lots of girls at Forks High School."

"Yeah," he murmured, adding something incoherent at the end. Jessica seized the momentary silence to grab his full attention. She began ranting about the newest movies: which ones would be best to see and which ones would be "totally lame". Mike faced her, not entirely paying attention, and for a moment a felt bad, but I was glad he wasn't talking to me anymore.

"So you and Jake are dating now?" Angela whispered.

I shrugged again. "I don't know. I guess so. Maybe." I thought for a second. "It's a work in progress."

She nodded. "I understand."

We didn't say any more about it, and I was glad.

I was anxious to get to Jake's that afternoon. After the Leah incident, none of the wolves gave me a hard time about being with Jake. I supposed they assumed she'd said it all.

Feeling like I had a lot to say to Jake because of everything that had happened at school, I rambled on while he worked in his garage. He working busily to replace some part of his car, just basic repairs, and I loved watching him work. His hands worked quickly and without mistake. The ever prominent muscles in his arms and back flexed when he picked up something heavy. The unconscious grunts he made when he was tightening a screw or bolt made me laugh inside.

This garage was one of my favorite places to be. It was comforting, and brought back a lot of memories from a couple months back – the secret motorcycles, ordering pizzas, meeting Quil and Embry. I loved everything about it, even the oily, gasoline smell.

At first I ran through my morning – how I'd tripped and scraped up my hands in the driveway on the way out to my truck (Jake's remark had been "typical"), how Eric Yorkie had gotten sick in history and thrown up, and how Lauren's new haircut made her look like a poodle. Jake listened, commenting at the appropriate times and laughing some, too. Talking with him was so easy.

"Mike tried to ask me out on a date, too." I said.

Jake glanced up at me from under the hood of his car. "And what did you say?" he asked, sounding casual, but I noticed his wrench had stopped moving.

"I told him I was busy every day."

He picked up his work again. "Wow. Busy, busy. I hope all your plans aren't gonna cut into our hang time."

"These are my plans, Jake."

He chuckled. "Oh," he said cheerily. "Then I'm glad you told him off."

"Everyone assumes that we're dating, now." I tried to sound casual about it.

"Oh?" he asked.

"Yeah."

He put down his tool and stood up straight, looking at me as he picked up a towel and wiped the car grease off his hands. "Well is that okay with you? That they assume that?"

I had trouble looking up, so I just let my eyes stay on the ground "Yeah. I think so."

We were silent for a minute.

"Does that mean…are you ready?"

I didn't answer. He set the towel down on the edge of the car, and dropped his hands to his side. He started to take a step forward, but stopped.

Just as I was about to speak, Jake inclined his ear to the garage door. Howling.

He cussed. Looking at me, he hesitated, taking one step towards the door and then two steps back towards me. "Bella, I gotta go."

Yeah, I know.

He crossed the space between me and him and two steps. Gently, almost shyly, he took my face in his hands and brushed his lips lightly over my forehead.

"I'll be back," he said softly. He turned around and broke out in a hard sprint towards the trees.


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