Chapter 21

Bella

I climbed into Emmett's truck, waiting for him to come out of the school, considering how the holidays had crept up on me. Christmas Vacation came again, already.

Sitting inside, I watched the front doors, swinging open every couple of minutes to let gobs of excited students out into the crisp winter air then close with none of them being Emmett. I wished he would hurry, because I was just as excited as anyone else to get home and start my vacation away from here.

When I finally located him behind a cluster of students, I wondered why he was bringing Edward Cullen over with him. They were good buddies on the football field, but they didn't hang out with each other outside of that, so I couldn't really call them good friends. I rolled the window down as they approached my side of the truck.

"Bella, Coach created a highlight-clips video of my best plays this season. He wants to share it with me before he sends copies out to the recruiters who are asking for it, and then we'll go over the list of schools I'm interested in attending next year. So, I'll be awhile, but Edward, here, offered to give you a ride home," Emmett said, patting Edward on the back of the shoulder.

Edward smiled, revealing a cute dimple, gracing only one side of his face.

"Sure," I said, lifting my book bag from the floor of the truck. He and I had a study hall together, so we were on friendly terms, and I had gotten to know his sister, Alice, well. The initial new-kid-in-town fanfare faded, but he was still popular and was just an overall nice guy.

Once we were inside his car and out of the parking lot, he asked, "So, has Alice called you yet?"

"About what?"

"You haven't heard? She's heading up the spring prom committee and plans on getting every, single junior involved."

It was the junior class's responsibility to host the seniors for the Junior-Senior prom. That was the Fork's tradition, because Forks High didn't have a huge student population. There were only about a hundred students between the two grades. "No, I didn't know that."

"Well, heads up. She'll be calling." He fumbled through a cd holding-case strapped to the car-visor above the steering wheel.

"I'm not much for planning things, but I wouldn't mind, helping to decorate or do something inconspicuous like that."

He found whatever cd he had been looking for and slid it into the stereo. As soon as the music started, I heard the first song of Debussy's Greatest Compilation and grinned. "You remember that day?"

"Not at first, but I figured it out though. I just always wondered if you remembered it."

I opened my mouth about to say, how could I forget? Thankfully, I caught the words before I let them go, switching my reply to, "I remembered you, but it was such a long time ago, Christmas vacation last year, in fact."

Comparing the guy who was sitting behind the wheel to the guy who rescued me that day in the mall, I realized the memory of him didn't quite match the person he seemed, after getting to know him better, so I never gave it much thought anymore. "It's funny, because you don't seem to be the type of guy that would be into this kind of music."

He was an amazing quarterback, and because I watched him play football all season with Emmett, all I noticed him as, was a jock—a jock that could have a successful male modeling career if he ever wanted to—but the guy that suggested the classical piece of music that day had all but disappeared from my memory.

He told me he played the piano. Taking his eyes off the road for a moment, focusing on me, he explained. "Normally, not this kind of music. I play a lot more Elton John, Billy Joel, and other modern-music piano players, but I like to practice with classical music, because its complexity helps me to improve my skills. I play with a band in Port Angeles now and then on the weekends."

"Wow! I wouldn't have guessed that, but it sounds like a lot of fun."

"It is. Maybe you could come and hear our band play one of these days?"

"I'd love too."

In the short ride to my house, I'd learned he used to attend a private boarding school when he was younger, but as he grew older, it didn't suit the person he felt like he was and wanted to be, so he convinced his dad to let him transfer back to public school. That said a lot about why he seemed so refined and charming, with good manners and politeness, and he was very intelligent too, the total package.

I thanked him for helping me that day and wanted to ask him why he did it at all when he wasn't even an employee of The Music Shop, but he started to say something else as we were coming up on my street. "Bella, we're going to Chicago for Christmas, but I was wondering if ..."

"Jake!" I blurted, cutting Edward off, when I saw Jacob's rabbit parked in our driveway, after we rounded the corner. It was sticking out at me like a glowing red thumb. After everything that had happened between us, you would have thought he would have had the decency to stay away from me. Far, far away from me.

He shouldn't be here, not now. Jasper and Emmett told me he was going back to his new home in California over break, and I couldn't have been happier with their news. The only thing his return would accomplish was to ruin my Christmas vacation.

Edward stopped saying whatever he had been on the verge of saying and pulled up alongside the curb.

I glared at Jacob's car, wondering why he thought he could invade my life again, and deciding that I would not let him get away with it this time. Grabbing my things, I opened the door, preparing myself for a confrontation. I was so preoccupied that I barely remembered climbing off the car until I almost slammed the door shut without even thanking Edward for the ride home. Coming to my senses, I tugged the door back open and leaned down to see him better while replaying the past few minutes of our conversation in my head. "You were saying something, Edward?"

"Forget it," he said. When I kept staring at him, he squirmed and swiped his hand through his auburn hair. The gesture made me noticed the contrast in the color of his mane brought out the greenness in his eyes spectacularly. It was a great combination. "I was just saying that we were going to Chicago for Christmas, and I was wondering if you and your family had any similar plans during the holidays."

"No, nothing as exciting as going to Chicago. We're home bodies."

He smiled, and my eyes hit his one dimple again. "Well, happy holidays to you and your family."

I nodded, wishing him and his family the same, and thanked him for the ride home. Once Edward pulled away from the curb, I turned my attention back to Jacob and his stupid, ugly car. He should have known better than to show up here like nothing was wrong with his coming over, and he was about to have a rude awakening.

My mom's car was gone, but the police car was home, so Dad and Jasper were both inside, which was too bad for them, because I didn't care who may have been keeping him company. Whoever was inside would have to watch me kick Jacob out of my house. Storming through the door, I heard Jasper talking to him from the kitchen. A spark of rage ignited, spreading through me like a flame caught by the wind, and throwing my backpack on the couch, there was no stopping me. I barged into the kitchen, raising my voice and spewing at the back of Jacob's head, "What are you doing here?"

He spun toward me with a laugh. "Nice to see you too, Bella."

"Seth!" I jerked back, stunned to see his face wearing Jacob's hair. He looked more like Jacob every time I saw him. I cupped my cheeks. "You cut your hair!"

"And that's why you're going off on me?"

Relief washed over me it wasn't Jacob who was standing in my kitchen, acting as if he had a right to be there. When I gave him a hug, I reached for the missing locks at the nape of his neck, scrubbing at his short hair. "I'm sorry, Seth. I was just surprised to see you, that's all."

Jasper laughed, and I knew that he knew precisely who I had originally thought Seth was, and when Seth told me that Jacob gave him his car as a birthday present, I knew he, too, understood my outburst.

An abrupt sadness rose in me at the news of Jacob's car, because to me that was a sign that Jacob wasn't planning on coming back here anymore. Even though I didn't want to see him, it hurt knowing he was really gone from my life for good. Information about him was probably always going to, either piss me off or hurt me, so I pushed the awful feelings down as quickly as they came up and replaced the subject in my mind with Seth's growth spurt.

It shouldn't have weirded me out how much he compared to Jacob. Seth always had the same sweet bright smile, pretty-brown eyes, framed with thick eyelashes, and the same bronze skin with a hint of ruddiness to his high cheekbones. Those traits were nothing I never noticed before, but it was jarring this time, because not only had he cut his hair, he had caught up to Jacob's height, which was about six foot two. He also had the fit form of well-trained boxer. He wasn't as muscular as Jacob yet, but he was getting there. The bone structures of their cheeks and chins were a little different, but I could bet they would easily be mistaken for one another now, to someone who didn't know them very well.

"Leah's waiting for us at the house. My mom and dad are out Christmas shopping, so we have the house to ourselves to hang out in until they get back," Seth said.

"We were waiting for you and Emmett," Jasper added.

"Emmett's busy going over recruitment offers with his coach," I told them. "But, let me put my stuff in my room before we go."

It felt strange to be in Jacob's car again on the ride over to the Clearwater's, because a pile of his things sat in the back seat with me.

I was so happy to see Leah though, and we had a lot to catch up on. The blaring stereo gave off a party vibe while we all sat in the living room, visiting. Leah's face brightened, and she stood up from the chair, displaying a mischievous smirk. "I've got to show you guys something. I'll be right back." She went to her bedroom and when she came back out a few minutes later, she was wearing a short, black and red cheerleader's uniform. Spreading her arms wide in the shape of a Y, she whooped, "Ta Da!"

The sight of her tickled me. Leah never seemed interested in cheer-leading before. She changed so much since attending the boarding school, good changes. Glancing at Jasper who was sitting beside me on the couch, to see his reaction, I caught his eyes rolling up and down her long, tan, and toned legs with his jaw hanging open a little. He pulled his eyes away from her and looked over at me, unable to hide the redness that appeared. He was so my brother. I grinned at him, reminding myself to tease him about it after we left.

Shaking himself and turning back to her, he tried to play it off by saying in a casual tone, "Okay, little miss cheerleader. Give us a cheer now."

It was her turn to make an embarrassed expression. She shook her head bashfully.

Cupping his mouth and using a deep voice with a cheer-leading rhythm, Seth mocked, "Braves, Braves, what do you eat?"

Then he changed his tone to a high pitched, girly voice and answered himself. "We eat panther meat! We eat panther meat!"

"Braves, Braves, how do you like it?"

Fist pumping in the air, he sang, "Raw, Raw, Raw!"

We all cracked up laughing.

"Is that one of them?" I asked her.

"No," she said, snapping her eyes at her goofy brother. "Well it was, but we couldn't do it, because the athletic director ruled it to be un-sportsmanship like. I thought that was a stupid cheer."

A moment later, Jasper leaned forward and asked us all, "Well, what should we do tonight?" When no one offered and idea, he suggested, "The Teen Holiday dance is tonight. Should we all go?"

I realized the Chemawa kids usually weren't home yet on the night of the Teen Holiday Dance, so I asked, "Why are you back so early?"

Seth answered me. "Mom was lonesome for us, so dad drove down there to take us out of school two days earlier, as a Christmas surprise for her."

"The holiday dance sounds like fun," Leah said in enthusiasm. "I haven't been to one of those in two years, so let's do it."

Jasper nodded. "Okay, me and Bella will go home and get ready, and you can pick us up later, Seth. Emmett won't want to go with us. That's not his style."

"Do you want me to give you guys a ride home?" Seth asked.

"No," Jasper answered in a hurry for both of us. "It's nice enough outside for us to walk."

I was happy he said that, because I didn't want to get back into Jacob's car again. There were too many memories of him in there. Furthering Jasper's walking suggestion, I said, "We might as well walk to the dance too, just like we did when we were younger."

They all agreed.

When we got outside and a little way up the street, Jasper asked, "So, do you think Leah will go out with me if I ask her on a real date to the dance tonight?"

I snapped my head toward him. "Really, Jasper?"

"Yeah, Really."

That was the last thing I would have expected from his mouth. Not only that, I honestly didn't know if she would say yes or no, because she'd never acted as if she was interested in him that way. "I'm not sure."

"Well, we made out with each other already, once," he divulged, nonchalant, as if it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me.

A flabbergasted laugh burst from my lips and both of my hands clasped over my mouth, shocked. "What? When? And does anybody else know?"

"Last summer when Emmett stranded us in the truck together at the party, and no, nobody else knows. You're the first person I've told."

I couldn't believe my ears. Leah was my best friend, and she never told me anything, and I was furious at her because of it.

Jasper sighed then smiled. "It feels good to say that out loud to someone."

"Is that why you and Maria broke up after the party?"

"No, I was already planning on breaking up with her, or that wouldn't have happened between me and Leah. The next day when I told Leah I broke up with Maria. She felt guilty and blamed herself. I couldn't convince her Maria and I would have broken up, anyway.

"After that, Leah made me promise I'd forget about it, and we ended up spending the rest of the summer trying to hang out a little more than usual with each other just to get back to normal."

I frowned, remembering exactly what that was like. His speaking of last summer made me think of the night that Jacob lost his match during Nationals, and we were all in my bedroom, talking about it. Jasper told us he had invited Leah out to eat pizza with him and Emmett, before he had even invited Seth out to eat with them. It really was a blush I thought I observed on him that evening.

"Do you think there's someone else?" Jacob had asked when we talked about Jasper and Maria's breakup. She helped Jasper over his relationship withdrawal. "Now that you've told me that, I really have no clue if she'll go out with you on a true date." I didn't even know the real Leah Clearwater, apparently, and she would get a mean lecture about it as soon as I got her alone. "All you could do is ask her."

"Yeah, I'll call her as soon as we get home."

"What if she says no? Are you still going to come with us to the dance?"

He rolled his eyes, as if I'd asked a stupid question. "Sure I am. If she says no, she says no."

I wondered how he could be so cavalier about it and thought maybe it was just a guy thing. They didn't have any feelings.

Jasper and Leah walked several feet ahead of me and Seth. He and I dawdled behind them to give them privacy while we made our way to the Civic Center. As they passed by the playground, they both almost slipped and grabbed on to each other for balance. "Watch your step. It's icy over here," Jasper called out, looking back at us.

Now holding hands, they turned toward the playground and started gliding around on the blacktop of the basketball court. Seth and I caught up to them and sat down on the court bench while Jasper twirled Leah around on a piece of ice, layering the area. As we watched them goofing around, hanging all over each other, and giggling, I asked Seth, "Did you know anything about this?"

"No," he replied, watching them with a look of disbelief and a smile tweaking his lips. "I'm just as shocked as you probably are." He chuckled.

"God, some people are so sneaky." I grimaced, annoyed with both Jasper and Leah for hiding this from all of us.

Seth narrowed his eyes and glanced at me from the corner of them. "You got that right!"

Yeah, who am I to talk! I chuckled at myself for being sneaky about Jacob for the longest time.

Jasper bit the dust, pulling Leah down to her knees with him. Seth lifted his voice in concern. "Be careful!"

They both turned to us with glowing smiles on their faces. Getting to their feet and holding on to one another, they started swaying like they were slow dancing to music only they could here. "Isn't this weird to you, Seth?"

"Is it weird to you?"

"Kind of. I mean, they don't really go together or something," I tried to explain. Maybe they did, but it came so out of the blue that the thought of "Jasper and Leah" romantically was foreign to my mind, and I was having trouble adjusting to it.

Seth observed them. A few minutes later, he said, "They go together okay ... kind of like ... mashed potatoes and steak, but not as good as peanut butter and jelly."

I laughed. "What are you talking about, Seth?"

Grinning, he said, "I'm talking about-I'm hungry and mom was making steak and mashed potatoes tonight, but I should have at least eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before we left."

"Oh." Shaking my head at his silliness, I zipped my jacket further up my neck. I started to feel cold waiting for Jasper and Leah to quit messing around.

"You know? We could have drove over here," Seth told me, and when I told him I didn't want to, he asked, "Jacob's car?"

I nodded.

Moving closer to me, he placed his right arm on top of my left arm to help warm me, so I snuggled into him. No sooner did I do that when I started to think about how easy it always felt between the two of us. We were so natural together and had been for the longest time. I never had to hide who I was from Seth, and he always seemed to take such good care of me. It occurred to me I was more comfortable with him than I'd ever been with Jacob. I just didn't know why it was barely becoming clear to me.

Another thing came to my mind about the party we had all got stranded at. It seemed like Emmett might have tried to fix me and Seth up that night. He was drunk, but still, so it was possible he saw something I didn't see, which was that Seth and I made a good couple.

And if I really wanted to get technical about it, Seth was the literal first guy who ever kissed me, and he could kiss. I knew that much from the locker room incident, so before I talked myself out of it, I said, "They go together okay, but not as good as like, say, Seth and Bella go together for instance."

He pulled his body away from me, turning to look me in the eyes, wearing a dumbfounded smirk.

"Don't you think?" I asked, pressing him for an answer and to let him know I was serious.

After studying me for a moment, a smile broke through. "You're being dumb, Bella," he said, letting out a laugh and shaking his head as he turned away. Re-positioning himself on the bench, he stretched his legs out and stared into the darkness.

His silence and withdraw from me didn't make me feel uncomfortable; that was just how comfortable I felt with him, and I wondered if that was the way Jasper meant it when he had said, "If she says no, she says no." It wouldn't bother him.

Sitting there listening to Seth's silence, I decided that even though I didn't feel uncomfortable with what I'd said to him, he must have felt uncomfortable with it, and at some point I would probably have to apologize, but I didn't want to take it back just yet.

He finally broke the quiet with a loud huff and said, "Hey..."

When I met his gaze, his eyes roamed over my face for so long I could see his consideration. His eyes lingered on my mouth. Swallowing, he wet his lips and leaned in to kiss me. Our lips touched, and it was remarkable how quick he overwhelmed me with feelings of comfort and safety. Seth would never hurt me. He felt warm and right and tasted as sweet as he'd always treated me.

He followed up by wrapping his arm around my shoulders, and I huddled into his chest, winding my arm around his back, as we continued kissing, neither of us caring that Jasper and Leah were there. We didn't even break apart when I heard Jasper whispering to Leah in the background, something I couldn't decipher, but I heard her say in a very low voice, "Hurry. Let's go."

I assumed they walked away, Jasper called out, "See you guys inside."

"Sh-"

"Ouch! Or not," he mumbled.

A/N What will Jacob do now?