Hi everyone! Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed and followed and favourited! I appreciate it so much. I also appreciate your patience so much! Jacob and Jenna are finally back and I hope worth the wait!
If you enjoy their reappearance or are being acquainted with them for the first time, please consider leaving a review! Thank you!
I'm waiting impatiently to lose myself in her eyes
Waiting to give up everything I have in pursuit of her
There's been a face in my heart for years
Maybe she's also been waiting for me?
Everytime I see her
I can't stop this feeling of love
Jenna had a big day ahead of her. The rest of her life hinged on her ability to control her emotions tonight. Considering her track record to this point, she wasn't incredibly confident. She'd tried journaling, she'd tried meditating, she'd even tried rehearsing in front of the mirror. That had been cut short when her mother had gotten home and knocked on the bathroom door, asking her who she was talking to. Luckily for Jenna, she'd always been eccentric, and so, her mother hadn't batted an eye when she'd truthfully replied that she was talking to herself. Being caught stung regardless and, worse, she hadn't even gotten a solid script out of it.
The old Jacob had been easy to read, predictable. She could guess what he'd say, how he'd say it, how he'd raise one eyebrow, lean against a wall and let that sunshine smile of his pull at one corner of his mouth. Jacob 2.0, however, was an entirely different story. He would flip between joking around and being intimidatingly serious so quickly, that Jenna would get whiplash trying to keep up. The proposed answer to this would be to assume that he couldn't be predicted and, therefore, she should just … live in the moment. That was stupid advice, and it'd been given by an even stupider person.
Quil. He'd taken it hard when he'd learned that Jenna would be spending time with Jacob. She'd felt even worse when he'd refused to show it, simply shrugging and telling her that she had her work cut out for her before he proceeded to sit in brooding silence for the rest of the day. On one hand, she wanted to return Quil's loyalty and avoid Jacob the same way he'd left Quil behind. On the other hand, Jacob 2.0 was even more stupidly attractive than he'd been before. Jenna could still feel the heat of his hands through her shirt when he'd casually lifted her up and out of his way the day before. Without so much as breaking a sweat, not a peep, not a single strained muscle. And they were gigantic muscles. If they had strained… she would have noticed. Then he'd had to go and lean against the metal like that, towering over her like an avenging angel.
Avenging angel? Jenna glared at the romance novel sitting at her bedside. She had to stop reading them. They weren't doing her any good, especially not if they made her refer to Jacob as an avenging angel. He was the devil. She'd decided that a long time ago. Her eye caught on the novel again, reading the title. Devil's Darling. It seemed too coincidental to be purely by chance, clearly, there was a higher power out to get her. So, obviously, Jenna could no longer refer to Jacob as the devil. Or she could, but she would never be the darling of that particular devil. Jacob was just an ordinary guy.
Except, she mused as she watched him walk into class later that morning before it started, ordinary guys did not look like that. They were not that tall, they were not that stupidly perfect. Definitely stupid, but certainly not perfect. Jenna's heart leapt when he looked in her direction and beamed his idiot grin, wide and, dare she say it, perfect.
"Hello there, Jennifer," he grinned, settling down beside her.
"Good morning," Jenna returned, nodding in his direction before forcing her attention back to her book.
She'd intended to leave Devil's Darling at home, she truly had. It wasn't her fault. How could she have been expected to leave it at home when the great misunderstanding was on the verge of being resolved? James had just learned that Marlene hadn't betrayed him. Before he could go to her, news had reached him of Marlene's carriage being overturned during the storm. He'd been rushing to her side when Jenna had been leaving the house, there was no way she could have left the book at home and not been able to return to it until later that night. No, she had to know whether James found Marlene alive and well or whether she'd gone over the edge of the ravine with the horses. Luckily, Jenna had replaced the dust jacket of the book with a plain, unassuming black one. She didn't think she'd ever live it down if anyone saw the true cover with James and Marlene's heated embrace drawn on it. If Jacob saw it? Well then, Marlene would have to move over, because Jenna was going down that ravine before anyone else.
"Whatcha reading?"
Jenna froze, slamming the book shut and shoving it back into her backpack. Stupid Jacob. Why did he have to ask? Why did he have to notice at all? Now she'd never know whether Marlene was dead and if she wasn't, how James planned to make amends for his behaviour. Speaking of making amends, she only wondered how Jacob planned to make his.
"Nothing." She forced her voice to be casual, drumming her fingers on the desk in front of her. A sidelong glance at him told her that it was obvious he didn't believe her.
"Nothing?" He echoed, raising a solitary brow.
"Nothing," Jenna affirmed, nodding to emphasize her point.
Jacob stared at her in silence for a long moment and Jenna kept her eyes glued forward, determined not to meet his piercing gaze.
"What was it, Jennifer?" His voice was a low murmur now, and she felt an answering swoop in her stomach.
She knew better than to tell him it was none of his business. For some reason that seemed to just spur him on. Apparently, he'd decided that everything to do with her was his business. Freak.
"A book."
Jacob sighed, moving his chair closer to her and Jenna froze as she felt his rough exhale ruffle the hair on her crown.
"Yes, I can tell that much, thank you," he rolled his eyes. "What book?"
"I don't know why it should concern you," Jenna snapped, "it's not as if you can read."
Jacob gave an unexpected bark of laughter, depriving Jenna of the satisfaction of getting in a good barb.
"Touche," he laughed.
How dare he be a good sport about it?
"Alright Jennifer, you can keep your secret for the present, if you want to be mysterious," Jacob exhaled, settling back into his chair, and Jenna gave him a sidelong glance. That couldn't have been a -
"Lord of the Rings," he answered with a smirk. "Not that I would know, since I can't read."
"Touche," Jenna allowed, fighting a smile. "You could have gone with the movie scene-"
"But where would the fun be in that?"
"Indeed," she agreed, finally looking at him. For a moment, it was like seeing him in a different light. Not as just Jacob, her nemesis for as long as she could remember. But as Jacob who had read The Lord of the Rings as well. She wondered whether he'd sat up late at night like she had, hidden under the covers with a flashlight trained on the pages, devouring the story.
"So, what do you want to do tonight?" Jacob asked, leaning towards her again. Dare she say it, he seemed excited.
"Uh.. study," Jenna reminded him. "You have a shit ton of work to get through."
He rolled his eyes, waving her words away with one large hand. "That's fine, that can be done another day, too. Tonight is for fun."
"Another day?" Jenna echoed, crossing her arms across her chest. "What do you think? You'll beckon and I'll come running?"
"That's exactly what I hope for," he smiled, his voice taking on that low murmur again that had made her stomach feel as though a cage of butterflies had been set free in it. "For what it's worth, I would come running if you beckoned too."
"Charmed," Jenna managed at last, pulling her gaze away and mustering a shaky inhale. She rubbed her sweaty palms on her jeans, cursing him under her breath when Jacob looked amused.
"Do you like zombies?" He asked suddenly, and Jenna blinked, forced to abandon her nerves to confront his question.
"Zombies?"
"Zombies."
"Well, that depends," she began, "what kind of zombie are we discussing?"
Jacob blinked, his features twisting in momentary confusion. "The only kind there is, Jennifer. What the hell do you mean?"
She couldn't help herself. Jenna turned towards him to face him fully, shaking her head rapidly. "No! There's lore, Jacob."
"Lore?" He questioned, but she appreciated that he didn't look weirded out.
"Lore! There are zombies that have to be staked in their coffins, there are zombies that are reanimated corpses, there are "zombies" that are mutated humans - while the definition of the word refers to a reanimated corpse, the genre has expanded to include infected people who also consume flesh."
Jacob was silent for a moment, looking speculative. "Huh. That's quite a point."
"Sometimes people group vampire movies in with the genre, but that's ridiculous, they're completely distinct. For one thing, no one wants to watch a vampire movie."
Jacob grinned and Jenna had a feeling she was being looped into an inside joke she didn't quite understand. "Not a fan of vampires then?"
Jenna paused for a moment, feeling like he was weighing something in this answer of hers.
"No," she shook her head. "Vampires are… well, a violation of humanity's greatest taboo for one thing. I don't mind a vampire that makes no pretence at being anything but a monster. Like 30 Days of Night. It's when you get to things like The Vampire Diaries that I begin to wonder."
"The Vampire Diaries?" Jacob looked confused and more than a little bit disgusted. Jenna had to wonder what on earth could have caused such a visceral reaction to the notion of vampires.
"It's a series of novels," she explained, shrugging in discomfort at how intensely he was watching her now. "This girl falls in love with this guy. Surprise, he's a vampire."
Jacob didn't look amused anymore. "You don't say."
"Never fear though," Jenna continued, feeling obliged to fill what she was sure would be an awkward silence if she stopped talking, "turns out he's a vegetarian. Only eats animals. Not sure how that equates to vegetarianism, but that's another discussion, I guess."
She lapsed into silence then, and she was right, it was immensely awkward. Whether Jacob felt awkward about it, Jenna couldn't say, he seemed to be too busy brooding over something. She could, however, say that she wished she had gone over the ravine like Marlene potentially had rather than sitting in her seat at that moment.
"Not your favourites then?" Jacob finally asked, seeming to shake his gloomy cloud off and turn to her again.
Jenna regarded him for a long moment. "Not by a long shot, no. Monsters aren't something you fall in love with."
There was a different kind of heaviness in the air between them then. The kind that made her feel as though she'd somehow said something wrong, something she didn't mean. Truthfully, she'd recant anything if it meant that wounded look came off of Jacob's face.
"How do werewolves factor into that equation?" He'd deliberately tried to make his voice sound casual but, again, Jenna was struck by the sensation that he was placing weight on her answer that she didn't quite understand.
"Well… " she hedged, "it depends."
"On what?" He sounded irritated now as if he'd expected an easy answer and she was deliberately drawing it out. How was it her fault he didn't understand the nuance?!
"You have your Wolf-man style werewolf, you have your Lycans like in Underworld, but you also come into the strange grey territory of shapeshifters that turn into wolves and get lumped in." Jenna snapped.
"And these are all different things?"
"Of course they are!" She insisted, wanting to hit him with the book she'd stuffed away. The only thing that stopped her was that she couldn't risk the dust jacket slipping and revealing the book underneath.
"How can you blame someone who can't control a very painful change that occurs against their will? If you use Underworld as your source material, Lycans seem like they're pretty sketchy regardless of the form they take, so yeah maybe you can judge them. When you look at a shapeshifter, that's basically a normal person who just conveniently gets to turn into a wolf and run around the woods, I guess."
"Conveniently?!" Jacob echoed, looking incredulous now.
God, she wished she could be running around the woods rather than having this conversation.
"So, by your judgement, a shapeshifting werewolf doesn't count as a monster?" Jenna would never be able to keep up with Jacob's moods, now he looked fairly pleased with himself and with her, which she couldn't understand. She hated not understanding things.
"Not if you like wolves," she snapped, throwing her hands up in surrender. "Which I do, so sue me. I never said I was consistent with my judgement."
"I like your inconsistency," he announced, settling back into his chair with a delighted grin. "In fact, it's suddenly my favourite thing about you."
Jenna declined to answer, rubbing her temples with a deep sigh. He would drive her crazy one of these days. That had to have been the longest twenty minutes of her life. It was unbelievable that she hadn't been sitting there for hours having this ridiculous conversation with him.
"Would you like to hear my other favourite things about you?"
"I most definitely would not."
The remainder of her day went by fairly quickly, and Jenna had almost been able to forget about what she'd have to do once the school day was over. She'd gotten so far as her locker before the remembrance hit her. Hit her in the form of the hulking giant already waiting for her.
"You ready?"
She ignored him for a second, debating whether to even begin fidgeting with her locker. Jacob's eyes followed hers, and he sighed, shifting to stand in front of it and yank it open with an ease that made her insides clench with envy.
Jenna opened her mouth to make a snide retort before deciding against it. There was no reason to upset him when they were going to his house and he could bury her in his backyard. The possibility existed. The figures were there, murder was a prevalent and pressing concern for young girls.
"Yup."
That was a safe enough answer. An easy enough response.
"You don't sound very enthusiastic," he mused, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Oh no," Jenna assured him, nodding emphatically, "I am so enthusiastic. Bursting at the seams with excitement."
"Have you ever read The Walking Dead?" Jacob asked suddenly, ignoring her attempt at sincerity.
"No," Jenna responded, her interest piqued. "I've been meaning to, but never gotten around to it."
"Perfect!" He announced, straightening from his perch against the lockers and treating her to a wide grin. "That's what we're going to do tonight. You can't debate zombie lore without having read The Walking Dead."
She supposed she'd have to give him that. "I don't debate zombie lore," she said, sniffing in a dainty motion. "I simply know more than you."
Jacob rolled his eyes, plucking her backpack from her hands and hoisting it over his own shoulder. "Sure, sure. We'll see."
Jenna followed him out of the building, wondering how on earth she was possibly meant to keep pace with him if they were walking home. That was when she saw it. A great, hulking motorcycle. One that looked just as imposing as the boy walking towards it without a care in the world.
"What the hell is that?"
Jenna was surprised at how calm her voice came out. None of the alarm bells shrieking at full volume in her mind seemed to have found their way to her voice box.
"Ah, that is what is commonly referred to as a motorcycle. Closely related to the manually powered bicycle."
Jacob smirked, settling himself on top of the death contraption and locking his eyes on her. He looked amused and Jenna sent a venom-laden glance in his direction.
"Enjoy your ride." She gestured for him to leave the parking lot, giving him a small wave. "I suppose we can just chat over the phone - or better, reschedule!"
Well, he didn't like hearing that. His smirk vanished, shoulders stiffening, and when he spoke, all traces of amusement had been wiped from his tone. "Get on the bike, Jennifer."
"I would rather die." She retorted, eyeing the contraption warily. "Although, if I get on it, it might go that way regardless."
Jacob frowned, storm clouds gathering on his brow. He crossed his arms across the expanse of his chest. "I would never let that happen."
"Forgive me for my lack of faith in your ability to control fate," Jenna scoffed. She took a step backwards, seeking to put more distance between her and the death machine.
Jacob glanced down at the bike and sighed. He stood up, swinging his leg back over with ease and striding towards her, his long legs swallowing the distance between them in a matter of steps.
He stared down at her for a long moment, his gaze soft, before he spoke in a quiet voice. "If you're that put-off by it, we'll walk. I'll leave it here and grab it tomorrow. No one's ever going to force you into anything."
Jenna blanched, wishing he'd said anything but that. How dare he be so lovely - so sincere - so … dare she say chivalrous? She kept her eyes glued to his chest, unwilling to crane her neck all the way back to attempt to make eye contact with him. God only knew what she looked like from his vantage point.
"Jen," he said in a low voice, "I'm serious. Whatever you want."
Her heart flipped in her chest, clenching erratically by the time her brain caught up to what he'd just said. Jen. He'd called her Jen. Not Jenna, not Jennifer. Jen. Part of her wanted to smack him, demand who he thought he was talking to, calling her Jen. The other half wanted to curl into a purring ball and demand he say it again. This was the worst.
"I'm good," Jenna finally managed, swallowing hard around the sudden dryness in her throat. "It's - I'm - it's fine."
"It's okay if it isn't," Jacob persisted, looking like he wanted to reach out and touch her. Her eyes were drawn to the stunted movement of his hands before they finally flexed at his sides.
"It is," she insisted, steeling herself to look up at him. She was taken aback by how warm the darkness of his eyes was. Inviting, velvety, the kind of dark that called to someone. "I was just overreacting, it's okay."
He was silent for a moment, taking in every aspect of her face, trying to deduce whether she was being truthful with him. Jenna stared right back, determined to not make more of a fool of herself than she already had. Well, more than he had made her out to be by being so gracious about her stubbornness.
"Jac..ob," she muttered, "I mean it."
She'd intended to try and return the favour, try to call him Jake, see how he liked her switching the game up but had lost her nerve upon speaking the first syllable, leaving her to follow through awkwardly with the rest of his name. This couldn't get worse. Except it could, because he noticed. He noticed, she knew he noticed because of the idiotic grin that was spreading across his face. Jacob must have read her mounting ire on her face as he showed her mercy, swallowing whatever taunts he'd been about to make and nodding at her.
"Okay, if you insist."
"I do." she snapped.
"Alrighty then."
"I do insist. I insist very much." Jenna continued.
"Glad to hear it."
Oh, she was going to hit him.
"I insist so much that I'll drive the damn bike to your garage myself if you don't stop smiling at me like a loon."
Jacob gave a bark of laughter. "And that is where I, regretfully, must draw the line." He strode back towards the bike, easily settling himself on top of it and pulling a helmet off the rear set to offer to her.
"Why do I have to wear a helmet and you don't?" Jenna grumbled, pulling it from his fingers and lowering it over her head.
He waited until she'd struggled onto the bike behind him to answer. "I have a hard head, I'm sure you agree. Hold on tight."
Jenna paused for a moment, before exhaling in a rough motion. She'd rather hold on to him than end up splattered on the pavement. Splattering on the pavement would be one thing but it would be even worse to fall and survive - then she'd have to face him afterwards. No, no, she'd just hold on to him and deal with whatever came from that later. Her fingers were hesitant in reaching for him, sliding around his front to interlock over his stomach. Despite her most diligent efforts not to, she couldn't help but notice the feeling of his muscles flexing under his shirt against her palms.
"Scoot closer," Jacob instructed over the sudden roar of the bike.
Jenna grumbled under her breath, moving closer until she was close enough to lay her helmet-clad head against his back. He reached down, pulling her arms tighter around his stomach. She fully intended to snap at him and move back to a more comfortable distance, but then he'd started riding. She simultaneously hated and loved it. Jenna was scarcely aware of sidling up indecently close to him, her fingers shifting from simply interlocking over his middle to clutching at the fronts of his shoulders like desperate claws. Later, she'd tell herself that it was merely a self-preservation instinct, and there was no reason to be embarrassed by it. But that was for later. For now, she could focus on the feeling of his muscles under her fingers.
The wind was most definitely not whipping at her face or through her hair, the helmet had nicely taken care of that. She couldn't comment on the blur of the trees whizzing past them either, as the entirety of her view was Jacob's broad back where she'd buried her helmet-clad head once the bike had picked up speed. What she could attest to was the fact that he smelled wonderful. Woodsy, like the trees. A deep, masculine scent that made her want to take multiple deep inhales.
The bike came to a sudden stop, the silence jarring, and Jenna lifted her head from Jacob's back to realize, belatedly, that they'd arrived in his yard. The familiar red house sat some metres away. She pulled the helmet off of her head, sitting completely still for a brief moment before realizing that her arms were still locked around Jacob, fingers digging into his shoulders. He was completely still as well, as though he was afraid of her reaction when she realized their position. Had Jenna not been the one to have grabbed him the way she had, she would have agreed that he was right to be afraid. As it currently sat, she had no leg to stand on.
She dropped her fingers from his shoulders, yelping when her hands landed on Jacob's thighs instead. Nope, no, that was worse. That was so much worse. Jenna felt his entire body tense at the contact. She yanked her hands back as if she'd scalded them - though she couldn't say that Jacob's intense body heat hadn't done exactly that. They were both silent for a long moment. God, she wished she'd fallen off on the way. She'd take being splattered all the way down La Push over having accidentally dropped her hands into Jacob Black's lap.
Jenna struggled off the bike, falling part of the way off and staggering back to her feet. She noted that Jacob made no motion to disembark and help her. Smart boy. He waited a whole second before swinging himself off of the seat and seemed to be avoiding looking at her. Well, at least they were both on the same page of mutual humiliation. It could be worse, he could have been completely unphased. That would have stung.
"Um," he began after their shared horrified silence. "My dad is with Harry Clearwater right now, so…"
Jacob trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck in an awkward motion that made the muscles in his arms flex. So they were alone. Completely without supervision. Not that, that meant anything, she - it - she wasn't - it didn't mean anything.
"Okay," Jenna muttered, squeezing her hands together while she looked anywhere but at him.
"We could just… head straight into the garage then?"
Jenna had never heard Jacob sound less sure of himself than he did then. It was a reassuring sight.
"Sure."
"That's where I keep all my stuff," he volunteered, looking like an oversized deer in headlights. "We could use the house if you want - I just thought-"
"No," Jenna interrupted, somehow calmed by his rising anxiety, "the garage is fine."
They shared another moment of silence before he nodded in an abrupt motion.
"Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Yeah, that's great."
"Yeah," she hedged, waiting for him to lead the way in. "Lead the way, I guess."
"Oh fuck," he swore, nodding as he turned to begin walking towards the small structure a ways off. "Yeah, my bad, follow me."
This was nothing like what romance novels described. Men in romance novels didn't walk with giraffe legs like the devil was on their heels, leaving their significantly shorter, stubbier, and rounder counterparts to trail behind or risk being out of breath from doing the equivalent of a sprint to keep up.
"Sorry," Jacob mumbled when she finally caught up, meeting him at the entrance to his garage. "I forget how short you are."
Jenna craned her neck back to glare up at him. She wondered whether her face was displaying the tension she could feel bottling in every part of her body. If his face didn't exist in the equivalent of another timezone, she might have tried to hit him. He seemed to pick up on the fact that he'd misstepped as he sighed and squeezed his eyes shut.
"Fun-sized?"
"Stop," Jenna hissed, baring her teeth at him, "while you're ahead."
She moved past him with all the dignity she could muster up, ignoring the slightly amused look he wore.
"Like a fucking chihuahua," he muttered under his breath, sobering when she turned to glare at him again. "Adorable and… by far my favourite dog."
"Funny." She hoped the word conveyed just how opposite of funny she found the interaction. His answering grin told her that her ire was very much apparent to him, he was just enjoying it immensely.
Jacob followed her inside, lowering her backpack onto a crate that sat between two empty chairs, gesturing for her to have a seat on one of them. Jenna lowered herself, in what she hoped was a dainty motion, into the one closest to the exit, just in case she had to make a run for it.
"Alright, here's a peace offering from me," he announced, and Jenna looked back at him in time to see him standing in front of her, offering her a can of Coke.
She accepted the offering, taking the can between her fingers, careful to avoid touching any of Jacob's. He noticed, and looked amused again, leaning back against the draped car that took up the remainder of his garage. Jenna glanced out of the garage again, wondering how much time she could possibly have if she were to run. Not much, not with the length of Jacob's legs now. She cast what she hoped was a surreptitious glance at them, glancing up only to blush when she realized he was watching her with a confused look on his face, his head tilted to the side like an overgrown puppy.
"What are you trying to figure out, Jennifer?"
Oh, so it was back to Jennifer, was it?
She decided to be honest. "An escape route."
Jacob blinked, the can of Coke pausing at his lips for a long moment before he finally took a sip and swallowed. He was silent for another long second before finally speaking, seemingly struggling to find the words. "To - why - for what?"
"In case you decide to murder me." It was better to keep him on his toes, let him know she was on to him if the thought crossed his mind.
"In case I decide to WHAT?" He looked appalled. The prospect genuinely seemed to have horrified him so much that Jenna was forced to bury the idea. There was no murder on the cards. Not tonight, at least.
"You think I would hurt you?!" Jacob demanded, looking hurt by the idea.
"It's not personal," Jenna explained, a defensive note entering her voice. "Anyone can be a murderer. I just like to… stay on my toes, that's all."
"It feels personal," Jacob snapped, his hand tightening around the can of Coke, denting it.
"Haven't you ever seen Dateline?! It's always the person you least expect!" Jenna protested, crossing her arms across her chest.
She froze, wondering whether she should even think about addressing the fact that she had seen Jacob's eyes momentarily drop to her chest at her movement. He'd glanced back up almost immediately but she'd caught it. She'd caught it. What was she supposed to do? Did she uncross her arms - did that make it obvious? Did she leave them cross and hope he looked again? DIDN'T look again. Never looked again.
"I'm the person you least expect then?" He asked after a long moment.
Jenna forced herself to nod. Maybe she'd imagined it. Could she say with complete confidence that he'd looked? Could she say anything with complete confidence?
"I mean... " she cleared her throat, before she continued, "I would hope so. I don't think we're so far gone that you'd use your newfound status as The Incredible Hulk to do me in."
"We are not," Jacob emphasized in a hard tone. "We will never be."
"If you say so," Jenna shrugged.
"I do say so!"
"Fine!"
More silence. Funny how they were so good at that. Jenna stewed, tapping her foot. Jacob was staring out into the light drizzle that was coming down, his jaw clenching. She supposed it wasn't fair to expect him to understand the workings of her mind, not when she was so much smarter than him.
"I didn't mean to imply that you're a murderer." She finally volunteered. His gaze snapped back onto her, his eyes narrowing.
"I just like to always be prepared for the possibility. People can die whenever, and… for girls it's that much more real."
Jacob seemed to deflate slightly at her words. "Right," he sighed. "That's fair."
He was looking at her differently now as if he'd gained an insight into the machine that was her brain.
"For the record, I will never murder you." His voice didn't brook any disagreement and Jenna wisely remained silent.
Could he say that with complete confidence though?
"I can say that with complete confidence."
There he went again, doing his creepy mind-reading thing. Freak.
He glanced down at the can of Coke in her hand, raising an eyebrow when he found it unopened. "Would you like me to take a sip before you do in case there's poison?"
Jenna ignored the tinge of mockery in his voice, sniffing in a dainty motion as she pulled on tab, revelling in the crack and hiss noise as the can opened. "No, thank you. But I will be so angry at you if, after that whole speech, I end up dead."
Jacob rubbed a hand over his face, looking at her like he wished he hadn't promised he wouldn't kill her. "I'll take my chances."
"Suit yourself," she mumbled, taking a sip of the fizzy liquid.
He pushed up off the car and walked towards the far wall, easily retrieving a box from a high shelf and bringing it back over to where she sat. Jacob sat down in the seat beside her, rifling through the box to pull out a stack of comics.
"What," he questioned, looking at her as he rifled through his box of geek memorabilia, "no commentary on what a nerd I am?"
"I mean," Jenna hedged, "you did already promise you wouldn't murder me, so yeah, why not."
Jacob rolled his eyes, scoffing, and returned his attention to the box.
"By the way," Jenna announced, leaning forwards to peer into his treasure trove, "you're not a nerd, you're a geek. There's a difference."
"Is there?" Jacob's attention was still focused on his box, his huge hands carefully sorting through comic books, figurines and more.
"You're a geek but not a nerd, I am a nerd but not a geek."
"That does not make sense to me," Jacob admitted, wrinkling his brow in a motion that Jenna had to privately admit was adorable.
"You like Star ….. something in the stars," Jenna began, waving a hand in the direction of his box.
"Star Wars," Jacob frowned, a defensive note entering his voice. "It's Star Wars."
"Yes," Jenna allowed, "that."
"And while we're on the subject," he continued, pointing an accusatory finger at her, "it's Luke Skywalker. Not Skyrunner. Not Earthwalker. Skywalker."
"Geek!" Jenna cried, throwing her hands up in victory. "You're a geek!"
Jacob rolled his eyes. "So be it. Star Wars is no laughing matter."
"Yes," Jenna drawled, leaning back in her chair and fixing him with a droll stare over the rim of her Coke can. "I'm sure no one has ever been anything remotely close to amused while watching those movies."
Jacob dropped the figurine he was holding back into the box, shifting towards her to glare in her direction. "That's blasphemy. You're telling me you didn't like them at all?"
"I've never seen them," Jenna countered, laughing at the offended look that crossed his features. "You couldn't pay me enough to."
"You can't judge them when you've never seen them," Jacob protested, scooting closer towards her. "You've gotta give them a chance." He looked earnest now.
"Why would I do that?" Jenna asked, grinning and fiddling with the tab on her pop can.
"Because," Jacob said in a low, beseeching voice, "they mean a lot to me, and I would like to share them with you."
Jenna ceased her fiddling, lifting her gaze to look at him with a question on her lips. "Why do you want to share something important to you with me?"
Jacob shifted his chair closer still, and Jenna noted that he was close enough now to reach out and touch her if he so chose. His eyes bore into hers and she jumped slightly when his hand reached out to close over hers, squeezing it in a gentle motion.
"I think you know why."
It was and wasn't a question at the same time, and it was all Jenna could do to maintain eye contact with him and nod ever so slightly, acknowledging for the first time this energy, this connection that had surged between them for longer than she cared to admit.
Jenna stayed completely still when Jacob moved forward, completely still when he leaned towards her, and finally relaxed into him with an exhale when he pressed his lips to hers in her first-ever kiss.
She definitely couldn't have imagined this.