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two chapters in one this time. you'll see why.
(he)
Angela Webber had graduated as salutatorian of the class of 2008.
And yet, here she was, working as on office assistant at Ketchikan high school, doing little more than filing papers and drinking coffee. Ugh. She'd never had so much coffee in her life; she was going to have to make an appointment with the dentists to have him whiten her teeth again…
She sighed, mired down in epic boredom.
She wrote a late pass.
Pointed an unruly sophomore into the dean's office.
Checked her texts.
Drank some more coffee.
She was about to get started on the photocopies she been asked to ready for Ms. Cope's freshman English class when the door opened and shut, bringing with it a frigid gust of air and the hottest man-boy Angela had ever seen.
Hol-ee crap, she thought, automatically smoothing her pink cotton v-neck so that it didn't wrinkle funny.
He was absolutely beautiful: tall, lanky but obviously well built, eyes a green between apples and pine, hair the color of a new penny, lips meant for kissin'.
Hot damn, she'd never seen anything like that in all her years at Ketchikan High – not as a student and certainly not as part of the administration. She bit down on her thumbnail, abruptly hot and cold all at once.
He sauntered up to the desk nearest hers, quietly setting his books on the desk between him and the school secretary, Emily. Judging by the look on her face, she was feeling it too.
"Morning," he said, a crooked smile at his lips. "May I have a late pass please? Our car… got stuck in the snow this morning."
"Oh, oh of course," simpered Emily, her perky little tits heaving in excitement. "Um, your name please?"
"Edward Cullen."
"Oh! You're Garrett and Katie's nephew! Small world," she breathed as she filled out his pass.
Angela rolled her eyes, bringing her gaze back to Edward. He was staring at her, smirking at her reaction, no doubt.
Looking down at her desk to hide her burning cheeks, Angela silently berated herself.
Are you freaking kidding me right now? He is a child! A seventeen… or maybe, hopefully, eighteen year old student! Get a hold of yourself, you, you cougar!
By the time Angela had wrestled herself out of such tawdry thoughts, he had gone.
Meanwhile, Edward was taking his time getting to class.
Forks High sure as hell didn't have secretaries like that in their office.
And the one in the pink sweater? Nice rack.
(she)
Jake wants to be a fire fighter.
I can see this; he's got the build for it, if there is such a thing, and he is both passionate and compassionate. He feels most alive when he's in helping-mode, which is basically all the time. He doesn't have an aloof bone in his body.
This is the same fire in him, pun not intended, that prompted him to seek me out when I was a shell of myself, half frozen on La Push beach that night two years ago, literally and figuratively. He burns hot, inside and out, bright and contagious. You'd have to be halfdead to resist his charms, and even when I felt like that I couldn't deny the way he made me feel.
Normalness is not something you recognize until it is gone, and then, if you're lucky, comes back. And, I know it's a relative thing – what might be normal for me isn't what's normal for you or him or her. That's irrelevant. What matters is finding your own normalness and then thriving. People say "I just want to be happy", as if that's an attainable thing, like because the Constitution mentions it, it's an entitlement.
No. The Declaration of Independence says we're entitled to the pursuit of happiness, not the feeling itself.
Happiness I can strive toward. Personal normalness I can achieve. And I have.
Normalness can't last forever though; the bitter has to come along to balance the sweet, I guess. Two years into a relationship with a guy who is now my best friend... I realize I love him but I have fallen out of love with him. That's so sentimental and cliché. It feels like there should be a greeting card for this sort of thing.
I mean, I fell out of love as easily as quickly as the two of us fell into it. Falling in, he was ahead of me…but I caught up. Falling out, I'm ahead of him.
Way ahead. I don't know if he will catch up. My heart breaks with the knowledge I'm about to break his.
Times like this I'm glad we didn't end up at the same school. I'm halfway to an English degree with a minor in communications. Jake's about to complete his two year program at Peninsula College in Port Angeles. It turned out to be the best plan for him, because now he wants to devote his time to becoming a firefighter and paramedic. He's going to be incredible.
But, he'll have to do it without me. I just hope I can salvage our friendship which, again, sounds terribly cliché…and selfish. "I still wanna be friends!" Ugh.
"We're going to Schultzy's for a quick bite, you in?" my roommate asks, poking her head in the door.
"Nah, not this time Kate. Thanks, though…"
"Want me to bring you back something?" she offers, tucking her hair behind her ear.
Shaking my head, I smile, kindly. "It's okay. Thanks."
"'Kay. Call me if you change your mind," she says, her voice fading as she leaves our dorm.
Jake is coming up tonight, like he always does on Thursday. It's been our routine forever now; he's always purposely kept his Fridays free so he can drive up Thursday night and leave Sunday evening. My college friends are all used to him – hell, they love him. Our living space is littered with pictures of our group out and about and having fun from both freshman and sophomore years and Jake is in many of those pictures.
My stomach twists, and I feel too warm and over anxious. How am I going to tell him I want to go back to being friends? Can I really be the one to kill the light in his eyes?
On cue, my phone rings and I glance down at it, seeing Jakes name pop up on the little screen. I'm tempted to let it go to voicemail, but that's stupid.
"Hey," I say.
"Hey, Bella. I'm almost there, just had to stop for gas."
"Oh, it's ok. You don't usually come 'till later anyway," I assure him, my heart skipping around frantically.
"Yeah… you need anything?" he asks. I can hear the sound of the wind rushing by.
"No, I'm cool. Just… drive safe."
"I will. Love you," he says.
"…love you too."
ETA: there's a time jump between sections 1 & 2 of this chapter. the rest of the story will take place in the "2 years later".
