Chapter 25

I suppose it would have made Jacob happier, if I had just lied to him and arranged everything behind his back. For a while, I had considered it. Seth would never have dreamt my requests might be anything other than pure, and Leah, and maybe even Sue, could have been won over with logic and a bit of pleading, but the logistics would have been hard to orchestrate. Besides, I hated the idea of lying to Jacob.

So I told him the truth.

Mostly. I may have altered my reasons a tiny little bit.

"I want to invite Frank over to watch the movie with us today. To make up for the way you treated him the night of the bonfire." I watched Jacob's face as it twitched with annoyance. "If it's all right with you. Please?"

"I didn't even lay a hand on the kid that night," he muttered.

"You marched me off like I was a common criminal. And then dislocated his brother's shoulder last week—which did not foster fraternal affection."

As Frank and I had remained in contact through various online means, I had unfortunately heard the news of Brady's injury, and subsequent recovery, more times than I had ever wanted. Was it too much to ask, hoping Jacob would play nicely with others?

"The thing with Brady wasn't—that was a territory thing. Sure, I might have enjoyed it a little more than I was supposed to but...he healed."

I rolled my eyes, but just said, "You've had a lot of problems with territory lately, haven't you?"

"Don't worry about it," he shrugged. Like it didn't matter to me.

Maybe I was sulking a little, when I responded. "I hope you have it under control. I would hate for you to miss the wedding."

"I'm not going to miss it." He only wished he was. "Is...are the others still coming?"

"The half-vampires? Shelia just wrote me yesterday. Elmira finally agreed, so despite her reservations, yes they are. I don't think they would have come if she had insisted on staying away—the three of them do not do much apart." Not quite what my Jacob wanted to know, but I wasn't going to make this easier for him. Though if I did, maybe he would cease his harassment of Frank. "And Nahuel's coming, of course. He would have come regardless."

"Of course," Jacob muttered, but opened the door to the Clearwater house without further comment. He didn't have to say anything. I had heard his arguments with my parents—Jacob was under the delusion that Nahuel planned to club me over the head and drag me by the hair back to his cave to be his mate. As my imprint, he had to protect me from hair pulling.

But in the face of Nahual, Jacob did not forbid me from inviting Frank. Rejoicing in my success, I followed Jacob into the kitchen. There, the beautiful sight of familial love greeted us.

"Who the hell puts cookies above the fridge?" Leah was demanding of her brother.

"I didn't know the cookies had their own special spot."

"They do! Any place that's not above the fridge."

"Do they get lonely up there?"

"Don't be an idiot, Seth."

Seth said something stupid, in order to prove that reverse psychology really did work. "You're just jealous 'cuz I'm taller than you."

She hit him in the stomach. Needless to say, she did not hold back. As her brother doubled over, trying to breathe, Leah said sweetly, "Not anymore, asshole."

"I'm telling mom," he whined as he clutched his stomach.

Jacob finally saw fit to intervene in the domestic disturbance. "I'd move the crackers."

"Thanks," Seth muttered.

As he hobbled around the kitchen to do just that, Jacob pointed to the phone. "Go invite the kid. Not like he has anything better to do on a Saturday afternoon."

"If you're going to talk like that, Jacob, then I'll just invite myself over to his house."

Jacob and Leah smirked at each other. Thank you, Frank. It was Leah who shrugged. "You're never going to Brady's house."

"I will if Frank invites me."

"No you're not," Sue announced as she came into the room. I wanted to stand up straighter and salute her, as she went to the fridge to gather some groceries. I suppose she was making dinner at Charlie's again. The two of them were most strange, with their impracticality. Living together would be much cheaper—the savings on gas alone would be significant.

Jacob attempted to explain, "It's Sam's land."

Sue opened her mouth to say something else, but Seth cut her off: "You need me to carry that stuff to the car?"

"You offering to be helpful or to bum a ride?"

"Both."

Sue sighed, muttered something about lazy offspring, and helped me to figure out where Leah got her tendency for dramatics. "Well, what are you waiting for? Pick them up and let's get going."

We said goodbye as mother and son headed towards the door. Jacob turned to me and asked, "Aren't you going to call?"

I glanced at Leah, but she wasn't about to help me. Fine. I didn't need her. "I sort of already did."

"What?"

"Well, it's not really your house, Jacob. I asked Leah's permission before I came over."

She scowled at me as Jacob turned to face her, his eyes looking like they were attempting to escape from their sockets. "You're letting her hang out with—with—" He couldn't even get the words out. "I thought—I thought you were on my side. Boys are evil!"

"As much as I agree with you...it's not like we don't know where she is because my idiot brother forgot to tell us. Nothing's going to happen in this house. She's tough. And you need to let her meet other people."

"Not seventeen year old boys. Do you know what goes on in the mind of a teenage boy?"

The two of them stared at each other for a second, then burst out laughing, in unison. Frank wasn't even present, but I think I fell in love with him, at that moment. As Leah tossed a dishcloth in Jacob's face, he just shook his head ruefully.

"Sorry."

"You should be. All of you scarred me for life. Fifteen seconds is such an overstatement."

"Fifteen seconds?" I asked quietly.

The two of them hesitated, but after Jacob gave the tiniest of nods, Leah offered: "That's sort of a saying about how often guys think about sex."

"Teenage guys," Jacob corrected. Leah raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. So he whipped the dishcloth at her rear.

"Ass," she muttered, punching him in the arm. They both seemed surprised and I tried not to wonder if it was the first physical contact they had performed in months. In the interests of not letting the moment turn awkward, I decided to distract them.

"What's the statistic on teenage girls?"

"Girls don't think about sex," Jacob announced firmly.

"Do you really think brainwashing is going to work?" Leah asked.

"It's worth a try."

"Let's pretend I didn't ask," I said with a smile. An overly bright smile I had to direct at Leah, because as much as I loved Jacob and he always knew exactly what I was thinking...he was going to be intentionally obtuse today.

Leah rolled her eyes, but ended with a wink. Then she obliged me by saying, "Hey, Jake? You want to go buy that dishwasher we were going to get my mom?"

"Sure. The movie won't take that long."

Her sigh echoed through kitchen. "Now, dumbass."

His voice rose until it was higher than mine usually was. "You want to leave them alone together?"

"The genius child is not going to do anything stupid. Besides, Frank's a big pussy. He won't lay a hand on her." Though she mouthed the words, she didn't say them, so Jacob didn't hear her when she added, "Unless she tells him, too."

Unfortunately, I could see her. That's why I was bright red when he said:

"I don't like it."

Jacob looked awfully sweet when he pouted, in my opinion. I think it just angered Leah, however, because she began ranting, just a little bit.

"Oh stop being all Ward Cleaver. The kid should be able to do whatever the hell she wants and you have no right to stop her. Or can you just not leave her alone for two freaking hours?"

And just like that, it was as if it was the week after Halloween and nobody wanted to look at anybody anymore. I wanted to cry as Leah stared out the back door and Jacob stared at Leah, trying to figure out what he could say that wouldn't make the horrible situation worse. The doorbell rang. Frank was thirty seconds too late—I could never love him now. How disappointing.

"I'll get it," I mumbled, pushing past them.

"Fine," Jacob declared. "Fine. We'll go."

I turned around, a little bit shocked, to be honest. Despite assurances from various Clearwaters, I had never expected Jacob to agree. My private hope had been that Sue would create some particularly enticing culinary miracle to distract Jacob, or Seth would stick around and the two would end up wrestling so Leah would be justified in kicking Jacob out of the house. Never did I think Jacob would actually allow me to be put in any sort of jeopardy—no matter how much I begged.

Neither had Leah, if her shocked but slightly glowing expression was to be believed. She returned his smiled tentatively, asking, "You sure?"

"Yeah. We'll sneak out the back. Don't feel afraid to break his bones, Nessie. Any and all of them."

"Thank you, my Jacob," I said, throwing my arms around his neck, lifting myself right off the ground. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"Yeah, yeah. Wait. Do your parents know about this?"

"Of course," I lied smoothly. It wasn't really a lie. Rosalie and Alice knew. I needed to look nice, and neither one would stop me. Of course, I had spent the past two weeks talking Rosalie out of hiring a private investigator, to make sure Frank was suitable, but that was a minor annoyance. And Father and Mother would find out the next time I saw them. Possibly. If everything went well. "Now, go. I have to answer the door."

Leah's fingers just barely brushed against his wrist. With one last sigh, he turned to follow her out of the house. As the doorbell rang again, I watched them as they walked down the porch steps, together.

When I opened the door to greet Frank, I was practically glowing.

"Hi," I said eagerly, still bouncing with excitement. I was acting like Alice, dancing across the room, but I didn't care. "Come in. How have you been?"

"Good. You?"

He followed me through the door, backpack swung over his shoulder, glancing around carefully. As he nervously pushed the tangled wreck that masqueraded as his hair behind his ear, I had to ask: "Are you looking for something?"

Voice down to a whisper, he admitted, "My brother said I should find Jacob Black and grovel for a few minutes in order to avoid evisceration."

"Jacob's not here. He went...out. With the Clearwaters. They let me take over their house."

"Oh." There was a slight darkening of on his cheeks and then he blurted out: "As part of the bushido code, samurai warriors would sometimes perform a ritual suicide called seppuku, where a cut was made across the abdomen. Sometimes the internal organs were pulled out before decapitation occurred."

"I didn't know that," I admitted. "Jacob wouldn't decapitate anyone. Leah might, but Jacob wouldn't. I promise."

Once he had gotten the morbid factoid off his chest, Frank seemed to calm down somewhat. Placing his bag on the kitchen table, he leaned against the furniture and asked: "What do you have over them anyway, to get the house?"

During our various discussions online, I had revealed that I lived just outside of Forks with my family. I wish I had thought to come up with an excuse as to why Jacob was so terrifyingly determined to protect me. I settled for a few truths that were rather misleading.

"Jacob's an old family friend. He's known my mom most of his life. He feels he owes her to look out for me."

"And the Clearwaters just—actually..." Looking a little nervous, he said, "They sort of just do what Jacob wants, don't they?"

"He's their friend."

Frank snorted. "Seth talks about him like he's the second coming. It's kind of...weird. And embarrassing. The guy can't be that awesome."

Swallowing down my retort—though Seth could be a little overenthusiastic about some people, I'm sure he had only done Jacob justice—I didn't bother explaining. I couldn't—Brady was part of Sam's pack and I had no right.

"They've been friends a long time. They've all known me my whole life."

"I picked up that one." He fiddled with the heavily beaded necklace he wore, lost in thought for a moment. Then he abruptly changed the subject. "I wanted to thank you again, for helping me out. With all the math stuff."

"Well, thank you for your help on those quests."

"You didn't do too bad, for a noob."

"Thanks."

His praise was less glowing than I deserved. Having more brains and needing less sleep than the humans who played massively multiplayer online role-playing games, I was climbing up the ranks in the strange pixelated world of Azeroth much faster than I should have been. Though I still did not understand the point. Frank hadn't understood the question, Jacob and Leah maintained there was no point and that I should get a new hobby and even Seth had come up with only the uncertain, "It's fun?" Why would you devote your life to something when there was no purpose?

Still, it was enjoyable. When people couldn't see you, they were much more likely to trust you. Humans were strange that way. And watching Emmett slowly become addicted to becoming a master fisher was rather funny.

One hour and he couldn't stop. Everyone in my family was amused for now, but I could hear Emmett talking to Jasper and it was just a matter of time before he convinced my other uncle to give the game a try. And then...despite the fact you couldn't win, I had no doubt Jasper would find a way. The poor humans would never have a chance.

"So what's in the backpack?" I asked as I took a seat at the kitchen table. He sat down beside me, opening it up to show me the computer inside.

"It's not a good idea for me to leave it at home. No one there really gets that they have to treat computers with respect. I padlock my room, but I keep my laptop with me because while they don't realize the other stuff is valuable, even their tiny brains recognize laptops."

"Your brother's a snoop?"

"Naw, Brady's the one who bought me the computer. He might be a total meathead, but he tries to get it. He's only a year older, you know."

He stated the fact as if I wouldn't believe it and it took me a moment to remember that the werewolves all appeared older than their actual age. I think Leah was only the second to reach her physical age, and that had only happened recently. Add that to the fact Frank didn't quite look seventeen and I could understand why I was supposed to be confused. If you didn't know about werewolves, the whole thing would appear a great mystery.

"So the two of you are close?" I asked.

"We were—I guess we still are. You might not have noticed, but he's...a big guy. He turned thirteen and just sort of—he got lucky."

"I bet he thinks the same thing about you."

Frank hadn't stood around me in a circle, expecting to die. I'm sure Brady thought his brother was the fortunate one.

But Frank remained oblivious. "Doubt it. He's always off with his friends...I guess I shouldn't complain. When he remembers I'm alive, he's pretty cool. And he keeps my dad off my back. Best day of my life, when Brady hit puberty. I guess I'm just pissed he always acts like his brain is in his bicep."

So apparently, it was a werewolf problem. Jacob was never going to be cured of his need for violence. Joy.

"What's it really like?" I couldn't help asking. With the date of the wedding fast approaching, I wanted to meet the hybrids with a better understanding. "Having a sibling?"

Frank deliberated for a moment and then provided his verdict.

"It's the best and worst thing, ever."

"I thought so." I hoped they liked me. What would I do if they didn't? I forced myself to smile. "So are you ever going to show me those moves you keep talking about?"

Ever obliging, Frank opened his laptop and proceeded to give me a much more detailed tutorial of his latest strategy.

A/N: Please correct me if my terminology is wrong. And just so there's no confusion—the wedding Nessie is talking about? Is not hers. You will find out who's getting married the next chapter, if you don't guess first.