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"You were there, Bella. You know what happened."

"You know that's not true. I was blind to the whole thing. I need to know, Jake, for clarity's sake."

Jacob looked me over and groaned. He apparently didn't want to be here doing this right now. My assumptions were that he brought me to these woods for other frivolous activities but that wasn't going to happen. He should have known that by now. I reached up and placed my hand over the scar on my neck. It was therapeutic almost, feeling her there…permanently and forever. Jacob ran a hand through his hair and his eyes met mine. This was taking too long for me so I spoke again.

"Look, all that I know was that after our little escapade in my room, you cursed the Cullens and ran off. Mere hours later, Alice and the entire family are leaving me! Don't tell me you didn't have a part to play in that." I pointed a finger at him and he glared at it. Then he heaved a great breath and I watched his shoulders fall.

"I'm afraid that if I tell you, you won't speak to me again," he said softly. That was definitely a foreboding comment. And I couldn't tell him what he wanted to hear. Because I might just not want to speak to him ever again after hearing his testimony. So I merely looked at him and waited. He waited too and after a few more moments he finally started speaking, turning around so that I didn't have to see him.

"We, the pack, knew that you guys were going to the field tomorrow. Beyond the south side of the trees is Quileute territory so we scouted to make sure that it wouldn't be breached and that you would be safe. I saw the intruders. They came from the north or we would have stopped them before they reached you. However, your precious Cullens seemed to have taken care of it. Then I saw Alice leap at you and it took Quil and Embry to hold me back." He looked at me then as if he expected some sort of reaction. I didn't give him the satisfaction of one and he glowered before continuing.

"Alice leapt at you and the blonde one pulled her back. Then one of them was dragging you away. And you were protesting to go back to her. That's when I couldn't watch anymore. I left Quil and Embry to make sure you would stay safe and headed to your room to wait for you. I didn't mean to get so angry but, Bella, you have to see my side of the story!" I gave him an expectant look. Because I didn't see his side of the story. The Cullens didn't want Alice to attack me and Alice sure as hell didn't mean to attack me. Rosalie grabbing her was proof alone that they didn't want that. Otherwise they would have let her continue to ravage me.

Jacob began breathing heavily, getting angry and I found myself a tree to lean against. He came just a bit closer but stopped when he was still what I would consider a safe distance away. "I don't know what happened to make Alice jump at you but the point was that she did. And it was simple. How can you be with someone that can change like that?" He snapped his fingers violently and I flinched. He looked at me as if he'd said something profound. When it hit me that he was serious, I couldn't help but laugh out loud a bit.

"Are you serious, Jacob? If I got you mad enough I'd end up just like Emily or worse." He flinched at my words but I knew he deserved them. The realizations of his ignorance hit me wave after wave and I grew angrier with each thought. "You rag on them all the time, Jacob, but what's the difference between the two of you save for hair and body temperature? Blood to them is your rage. Hell, I'm the only one without murderous tendencies but you don't see me throwing my judgment around, do you? You're just like them!"

Jacob was in front of me in a moment, shaking violently. His fist raised and I shielded my eyes to hear him pounding at the tree behind me. It shuddered against my back with his force and I fell to my knees. Jacob hit the tree a few times more and I heard him stepping away. When I finally looked up I saw his palm reaching out to me. His eyes were pained and his breathing returned to normal so I took it and he helped me up. We stood in silence for a few moments and despite my best efforts, he couldn't look me in the eye. So I turned my eyes to the ground, letting him make the next move, whatever it was going to be.

"I'm sorry," he said finally. I looked up at him and he repeated it, stepping closer. "You…you may be right. But when I saw her attack you. And then what happened in your room. I just…I saw red. And I hated them. I still do…despite what you say."

"Why were you there? How did you know about what was going to happen in the woods?"

Jacob licked his lips and paced around in a circle for a moment. Then he ran a hand through his hair again and shrugged. "I saw that Alice had…" he gestured to my neck, "and like I said I saw red. I went to tell Sam and he got mad too and called a meeting with them. We met in a neutral zone with the head Cullen, Carlisle. Sam told him about our concerns but Carlisle cut him off, informing us that he was already leaving. He told us that Alice would speak with you and that right after they would leave. He requested one of us take you home. I volunteered."

"Did you hear what Alice and I talked about?"

"No, I stayed in your truck and had a glare-down with the blonde in the Mercedes."

That image instantly filled my head and I giggled at the thought of the two biggest glarers I knew battling it out. It was comical. "Who won?" He rolled his eyes and that gave me my answer that Rosalie had indeed won like I thought she did. I laughed and Jacob returned it slightly. "She even followed me all the way to your house."

I stopped then, eyeing him. "Wait, Rosalie followed you to my house?"

Jacob nodded. "Then she followed me up the stairs. She…well, all of them smell terrible but I thought I was gonna pass out carrying you up the stairs with those fumes. And she wouldn't leave until my dad came to pick me up. If you weren't upstairs sleeping, I think I would have kicked her ass." Jacob glowered but it seemed only reminiscent which made me feel slightly better. However, Rosalie's behavior was beyond strange. I thought about asking Jacob, but he knew far less than I did on the topic so there was no point. In fact, there was no point to dwell on her anyway, she wasn't coming back. Alice wasn't coming back. None of them were. My eyes began to burn again and I brushed them away after a soft laugh.

"Something tells me she'd give you a run for your money."

"I'm better than her," Jacob said quickly, taking me by surprise. I looked over at him and he was giving me a strange look. My instincts told me that it was not a good look but I held my ground. He came closer to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "I'm better than all of them, Bella." Knowing this had taken a turn for the worse I opened my mouth to tell Jacob to back off. But he cut me off by placing his lips on mine.

Again, my instinct kicked in and I wrenched out of his grasp. He looked at me like he was surprised at my actions and I slapped him hard across the face. I was doing that a lot lately, it seemed, but dammit if it didn't seem necessary all of a sudden. Jacob placed his hand on his reddening cheek and looked over at me. He looked hurt and it hurt me to see him that way, but we both knew he had taken advantage. Thoughts of Alice swarmed my thoughts and I allowed the tears in my eyes to fall. "You know, for once, I'd like to be in charge of all of this shit," I muttered as I turned around. I could hear the sounds of the beach nearby and instructed Jacob not to follow me as I headed for it.

The beach was just a few minutes away and as I stepped away from the trees I took a deep breath of the humid air. It was pure and salty and relaxed me. A perfect day had been ruined by…everything. Everything that I hadn't really dealt with. I headed over to the edge of a cliff and sat down, letting my feet dangle over the waves. It looked like a storm was coming and the waves crashed angrily against any obstacles. I laid my hands on the ground and closed my eyes. Alice was gone…she wasn't coming back. And would I take her back if she did? Surely I deserved better than that, right? But Alice was the best. Jacob…Jacob would always be a friend. How could I get that through to him?

I sighed, wiping the tears from my eyes and rubbing my chest, which always seemed to ache nowadays. It was lame, but at least I wasn't moping around all of the time. I wanted some normalcy right about now. I wondered if Angela was busy tomorrow. Maybe we could catch a movie together. It seemed like a nice idea and I smiled into the misty breeze. There was that hope again. The silver lining that I always looked for never failed to catch the sun and show itself to me. If there was one trait that I liked about myself, it was that I always saw the glass half full. I could get through this. I would get through this. It wouldn't be easy, but eventually it would happen. That thought comforted me more than I thought it would but I welcomed the relief that washed over me.

Footsteps were heard behind me and my mood was instantly broken as I stood up and dusted myself off. I told Jacob not to bother me but when did anyone listen to what Bella Swan had to say? I ran through a list of the most recent times that people had actually listened to me and save for my father, I came up short on a lot of options. Still dusting myself off, I muttered, "Jacob, I told you not to follow me." The footsteps came closer and I turned around only to feel him grab my shoulders.

Fingernails pierced my skin through my jacket and I winced. I looked up into Jacob's face and it only took a moment before the flash of red told me that this was not my friend. The red headed vampire from the field was standing before me. She looked pissed and amused and that did not seem like a good sign to me. I screamed, only to have her hand slap over my mouth. It was a hard motion and my mouth stung as I felt her other arm reach behind my neck and grab my hair. She pulled it out of the way and sniffed my neck sensually. She pulled away with an emphatic exhale and rolled her eyes before finally looking at me. Being this close to her I realized that her eyes were a deep red color. The color of what would be my blood soon.

"Well, isn't it a good thing Jacob listened to you?" she said with a smirk and I felt my knees go weak.