Free
Jacob exited the house about ten minutes after Leah. When he slammed the door, the glass shattered.
He got in the car, his hands shaking slightly, and shoved the key into the ignition. Within a few seconds he maneuvered the car out of the narrow driveway and shot down the tree-lined dirt road.
"Well?" Leah demanded.
He glanced at her, "It's done."
Leah felt a strange sense of reverse dejavu, and narrowed her eyes, "What happened?"
Even though he was angry, Jacob managed to crack a wide smile, "I told him to fuck himself in about twenty-three different ways."
Leah let her head fall back against the seat, and simply let his words wash over her. Nothing could have possibly made her feel better except for those words.
Emily would not hold that fight against Leah – she knew it was a long time coming. Her and Emily still had a peaceful, calm understanding, tinged with the bitterness of an unsolvable separation.
But Sam – Sam was probably writhing in the horrendous shit hole Jacob just gleefully threw him in.
In fact, Sam probably resembled the spawn right now. Nessie had been utterly mortified when Leah had dramatically stormed out. Sam was probably gagging on his own embarrassment.
"God that feels good," Leah glanced at him, "what did you say?"
"The short list or the long list?"
"The long list," Leah replied instantly.
Jacob grinned and swerved onto the highway that led away from Leah's house, up the road that hugged the cliffs and the great, sweeping Pacific Ocean.
"Well first, I told him he was being a hysterical child, and that tears and shouting were reserved for kids of Claire's age," Jacob chuckled, "then I told him that he made the baby cry, not you, and that you and Emily had just attempted to resolve your differences. That's why Emily was crying."
"That probably made him feel like a prat," Leah observed.
"Oh it did," Jacob assured her, "then, he tried to say that he was simply basing his reaction off of your previous behavior, and I asked him to come up with an example."
"Which obviously he couldn't, since I've never actually made Emily cry," Leah reasoned.
Jacob nodded, "Exactly. So then I told him he was an assuming idiot, and that he showed the least maturity out of all of you. Actually, I kind of hit below the belt here, by saying he was the most unfit leader for a pack I had ever seen in my entire life."
"Nice," Leah nodded.
"Then I said Emily and you were both too good for him, that he didn't deserve either of you, and that it was only by some higher power that Emily saw anything in him."
Leah wrinkled her forehead, "Pretty much."
"And then it got ugly," Jacob sighed, "he started going on and on about how you were only acting up because you were still in love with him, and how Sam couldn't do anything to make you stop. He actually said, and I quote, 'Leah's love for me is hurting her, Emily, and me. If she would just get over me, all these stupid problems would go away.'"
"That asshole," Leah exclaimed, outraged. She sat up straighter, wanting to punch a hole in the dashboard of her mother's car.
"I know, I know," Jacob said quickly, steering the car expertly to put her off balance, "I told him he was an egotistical jackass. I said you weren't in love with him, in fact you were repulsed by him, and that he was being completely moronic in assuming all of this revolved around him."
"And?"
"He didn't believe me," Jacob rolled his eyes, "he is so confident in the fact that you – both you and Emily – are madly in love with him, that he can't see the truth. So I . . . kind of lied."
Leah scowled, "Lied how?"
Jacob seemed vaguely uncomfortable. He fidgeted, even as the car drove precariously between the solid line of trees and the harsh cliff drop.
"Spit it out!"
"Okay, okay," Jacob glanced at her, "don't be mad, alright? It was for your own good. There was no way he was going to believe me otherwise."
Leah frowned impatiently. Jacob sucked in a deep breath, "I . . . kind of told him you had feelings for me."
What?
Leah prepared herself for that familiar feeling of fury to engulf her. She waited for the wave of wrath to overwhelm her entire being.
She hated it when people made decisions for her, and so she was utterly shocked when her heartbeat didn't quicken and her head stayed cool.
She wasn't angry.
"I'm not angry," she said aloud.
"Phew," Jacob beamed, "I thought for sure you'd gut me. But it was kind of funny – he didn't believe me. He was like, 'she could never love someone like you.'"
"What did you say?" she asked curiously.
"I said I was in your head all the time, I always knew what you were feeling, and it was just obvious to me. It was like how we always knew you loved Sam when were all in that pack. Eventually, he believed me. And he was so shocked he sat down."
Leah felt surprised too. Of all the crazy lies to tell, that one certainly would have knocked Sam off his feet. The only thing that Sam was sure about in the world was his own desirability.
Really, he probably considered himself a heartbreaker. His ego was swollen with the years of believing Leah was pining over him, even when he had someone as beautiful as Emily.
Jacob was a clever bastard, she had to give him that.
"So then what?" she asked.
"Then he muttered something that sounded like an apology, and I went into a tirade," Jacob smirked, "I told him he had to stay the hell away from you, that as your pack leader I would protect you from everything, and that he was no longer welcome in your home. And I told him that if he were to ever speak to you again – because you know he would have tried otherwise – I would kick his ass. Because we all know I could."
"Cocky, aren't we?" Leah said, though she was smiling.
"Around him? Yeah."
Jacob was flying. She could tell that he was utterly weightless at the moment. After being freed from his spawn, and then freeing Leah from her stupid ex, Jacob was understandably excited. He was practically bouncing in his seat.
"How'd it end?"
He beamed, "I told him to fuck himself. And then I left."
Jacob Black, you are my hero.
"And now?"
He shrugged, "We can do anything we want I guess. Nessie and Sam are both going to stay the hell away. The vampires are leaving, so we're not really even obligated to stay in La Push anymore."
Leah considered this.
In reality, he was right. The only thing holding them back before was the stupid spawn, who had been neatly eliminated from the picture, and Sam, who was probably having an excruciating paradigm shift in thought at that very moment.
So anywhere, anything . . . Leah felt a little overwhelmed by the possibilities.
"Well?" he asked her.
"Cliff diving," she decided randomly.
He grinned, "Adrenaline rush?"
"More or less," she smiled.
For the first time since childhood, Leah felt free. She no longer felt as if her identity stemmed from Sam and Emily's twisted relationship. She was Leah. Just Leah. And Leah could do anything she wanted to do.
And, for the first time since her heartbreak, Leah had a best friend. Jacob would do anything for her, and she would do anything for him.
She glanced at him, curiously, and saw how happy he really was. Light seemed to burst from every pore in his body. He was free as well – free from the overbearing, dramatic weight of Bella Cullen, free of his sadistic spawn, free of the presence of a coven of dysfunctional vampires.
They were both free.
