Gracie's POV
The following day, Jacob stopped by at noon, five hours before he was supposed to pick me up to go to Sam's. He ate lunch with me, then we both crawled onto the couch and turned on the TV. When we couldn't find any good shows, we resorted to MTV again.
I turned the volume down so that we could talk if we wanted, and I laid back into the soft cushions and closed my eyes.
"Tired?" Jacob asked.
"No." I answered. "I don't get tired because I don't sleep, remember?"
"Oh, yeah."
Silence again.
"Gracie?"
"Hmmm?"
"If I told you that I thought I might be getting over Bella, would you think I was heartless?"
Jacob's POV
I didn't know that I'd wanted to say it until I had. But I wanted to know. I'd been thinking about her less and less, and Gracie more and more.
The night before, I'd wanted to rip that guy to shreds for touching her, and this morning, it had taken everything I had to wait until twelve to come to her house.
I was scared for her, and I'd never been that scared for Bella.
Come to think of it, I hadn't ever really known Bella. I knew Gracie. I didn't just care about her, she was my best friend, and had been for longer than Bella had.
She sighed, but didn't answer, so I rephrased.
"I mean, would it be wrong of me to like a different person now?"
She hugged her knees to her chest. She looked so tiny when she did that, and it made me want to protect her even more.
"I'm not the right person to ask, Jake." She said.
"…why not?"
"Because I can't answer honestly. I could tell you what I think, but I can't say that I'm thinking only of what's best for you."
It was like she was speaking in code. What did she mean by all of that? What did she want from me? I always felt like she was waiting for something, or holding herself back from really telling me everything. I didn't understand. What could she possibly have to hide?
Unless…
She looked up at me, and asked "Do you understand?"
I shook my head somberly.
"No."
Meg's POV
Early in the twilight of the 26th, I sat by the window in my room, forcing myself to not try to talk to Grace again. The day before, it had been easy not to bother her, but now I felt like I needed to have another go at it.
As the sun sank lower behind the gray clouds, I was quite shocked when a voice began speaking rapidly in my mind.
'Okay, maybe it's time that we talked.'
'Grace?!'
'Yes. I know you wanted to find out if he's causing trouble in our pack and he wasn't…until now.'
'What happened?' I asked as gently as I could while my amazement was subsiding.
'He's flirting with me!' She replied in a rage of disgust.
'He's courting you?!' My vocabulary wasn't up to today's date on most levels.
She processed what I said, then answered 'Unfortunately.'
'I thought you already had a mat. That –what's his name again?- Jacob?'
'No.' She said a little too quickly. 'Anyway, seeing as both of our packs -or coven in your case- are screwed, I think it would be in both of our best interests to work together.'
'Has your pack agreed to this?'
'Not exactly…I haven't told them. Besides, I'm technically not in the pack.'
'Don't worry. It'll take a while to get my family to agree to this. Looks like we're in the same boat.'
My thoughts drifted to Edward for a moment as Grace's went to Jacob. They were different, yet the same. Like Grace and I. Their hearts grieved for the same reason and were slowly mending.
'I hate her.' Grace whispered in my mind.
'So do I.' There was a long silence. 'I'm sorry.'
'If you keep saying that, I may have to start believing you…' And then she was gone and I was alone again.
'Damn it!' I thought as I gazed out the window at the oncoming night. 'I hope he wasn't listening…'