To my dismay, this morning turned out much like the previous one. Granted, the weather was nicer, but a lot of the same events played out in the same order. When Jake finally woke Nessie, we went down and got breakfast at the same diner we'd eaten at a few days ago. Nessie still barely touched her food while Jake ate enough for several people. We made the drive into town again and, sure enough, the sun was shining brightly by the time we got out of the car. Funny—the thick layer of clouds earlier in the morning had suggested the complete opposite.
We messed around in town a bit more. Now that I'd already seen everything worth mentioning, we cruised around in the car a little, chatting and messing with the radio. As annoyed as I was with their secrecy, I just couldn't bring myself to be frustrated with Nessie or Jake.
While we were getting lunch, my cell phone went off. Not surprisingly, the caller ID read: MOM. I looked up at Nessie and Jacob, who were sitting across from me. It probably wouldn't be good to talk to Renee in front of them, but I didn't want to ignore her call, either.
"Excuse me, guys. I should take this," I said, smiling apologetically and slipping out of the restaurant booth. Nessie smiled and shrugged; Jacob ignored me and continued eating.
Just to be safe, I slipped through a waiting crowd and out the front door, where no one would be able to hear me, and answered the phone.
"Hey, Mom," I said. "How's it going?"
I could hear the smile in her voice as she answered. "Sienna, honey, where are you? It took you so long to answer; I was afraid I'd get voicemail."
"Relax, Mom. We're getting lunch and the restaurant was crowded. I'm outside now so I can hear."
"Oh, really? I hope I didn't interrupt anything."
"Just eating. What did you want?"
"To check in with you, of course. Do you like it up there? What have you been doing?"
I played it casual. "Nothing much, just messing around in town, shopping, eating out, a little bit of sightseeing. Not that interesting."
"Oh." She sounded a little surprised, as if she expected me to be more talkative. "Well, that does sound fun."
"Yeah, it is. Um, I should probably get back to lunch now. I'll talk to you tomorrow?"
"Sure, honey," she replied, not quite disguising the dismay in her voice. I was sorry I had to upset her like this, but if there was anyone who could not know what I was up to in Washington, it had to be my mother.
"Thanks, Mom. I love you!" Before she could respond, I hung up, slipped my phone back into my purse, and breathed a deep sigh of relief. Then I went back into the restaurant.
As I approached the table, Nessie and Jake seemed to be in the midst of some sort of important discussion.
"I promised I wouldn't..." Jake said to Nessie. She looked up at him from under her lashes with big, pleading, chocolate-brown eyes, and bit her bottom lip. It was like watching a child ask her older brother to give her candy while their mother was gone. "Please?" she asked him.
Jake looked as though he was about to reply when, suddenly, his head whipped around towards me, almost as if he had sensed me walking up behind him. The way they always seemed to know when I was close was more than a little weird, and it bothered me more than all the rest of the weird stuff.
I smiled as I took my seat. "Sorry about that," I told them. "It was my mom."
"It's okay," Nessie replied, grinning back. "I know what you mean."
I kept the smile on my face, but my eyebrows started to furrow as I wondered if she really meant that. Was her mom, my sister, really anything like my mother? Bella didn't seem like the type of person to call her daughter five times a day wanting to know how she was. Then again, Bella also looked the same age as me, when she should be about twice that age. How would I know what to believe about her parenting style?
And there it was again—the endless curiosity about the entire situation was beginning to make my head hurt.
Jacob was still looking at me, scrutinizing. His face was wary, like he knew I'd caught him saying something he wasn't supposed to say, and he was now trying to figure out how much I'd heard. I looked back at him and felt a mischievous grin appear on my face; I couldn't make heads or tails of the four or five words I'd heard of their conversation, but I was enjoying the anxiety he was practically seeping. If he wasn't going to tell me what I wanted to know, then I would have fun watching him sweat.
Jake and I finished our meals in relative silence—Nessie, of course, barely ate—and the three of us left the restaurant.
The rest of the afternoon consisted of seeing another badly-scripted movie in Port Angeles, the drive back to Forks, and me lying on the bed listening to my iPod, while I watched Nessie go through her wardrobe piece by piece. Apparently, a few members of Nessie's family were of the opinion that pieces of clothing should only be worn once, and she intended to go through them and give some to me, if I happened to be interested.
After an hour and a half of relaxing and laughing through what ended up being a fashion show starring Nessie, Jake appeared again. When we came home, he had taken off to wherever he lived, and came back in time to suggest watching another movie. I was beginning to understand why Bella spent so much of her childhood in Phoenix; there seemed to be no form of entertainment in Forks aside from watching movies. Living here year round must have been like watching paint dry.
When Nessie headed downstairs to make popcorn, I excused myself to the bathroom. I spent a little more time than normal there, redoing my hair a couple of times for no reason. I was hoping Nessie would be back when I returned to the room; Jacob had been giving me those looks again like he did at lunch. I didn't want him to take the opportunity to interrogate me while Nessie was gone for a few minutes.
I walked slowly back towards Nessie's room, trying to make sure she was there before I headed back in. In the end, it was her voice that gave it away.
"...can't hold out much longer, Jake," she was whining.
"Tonight," he sighed in response. "We'll go tonight, I promise."
I stored that gold nugget of conversation away for later reference and walked slowly back into the room, only to find both of them looking quite normal and cheery. Nessie was throwing pieces of popcorn at Jacob, who was catching them in his mouth and grinning while Nessie pretended to be frustrated.
"We picked a movie," Nessie said, waving the case at me. "Hope you don't mind." I shrugged and plopped myself down on the bed while scooping out a handful of popcorn. "Whatever's fine," I told her, and she got up to start the movie.
The second important piece of information I needed was shared, ironically enough, by Jacob, while Nessie was skipping through the previews.
"I noticed that half your garage was empty tonight. Everyone gone, then?"
Nessie nodded. "Emmett was being whiney, and they decided to check out and go camping for the night. Except Mom and Dad; they're over in their cottage, in case something goes wrong."
Although Nessie's explanation made no rational sense, I had gotten what I wanted from Jacob. None of the other Cullens were in the house tonight. It was the last thing I had been expecting, but probably the best thing that could have happened as far as my plotting was going.
As we watched, my mind wasn't anywhere near being focused on the movie. Another one of those plans was forming in my mind—the kind of plans that are stupid and ridiculous and seem like the perfect idea until you actually try to execute them and then watch the whole thing explode before your eyes by the second step.
Yes, I was that desperate.
Tonight was the perfect time. Nessie and Jake were planning something of their own, and everyone else was gone. This was my window of opportunity, and I was not going to miss it.
So, yeah. I have lots of excuses for not updating in over six months, but you don't want to hear them. Sorry. I would let you guys maul me, but then you wouldn't find out what happens next. The next chapter is the interesting one, I promise!
Your thoughts are always appreciated. I haven't given up--the middle of this story is the hardest part to write. Let me know what you think, and I will have the next chapter whenever I can, if you're all still here. And alive.