Again, I'm not Stephenie Meyer, she's too amazing at writing in Bella's POV and I could only ever hope to be as talented as her. But I'm not, and it's well noticeable. In 2020 we have all decided that Team Jacob is a no go, because Team Jacob wasn't Captain consent in Eclipse. But, this is New Moon, let's remember that. This was when we first rooted for him. When he was still a pure boy who just loved Bella and wanted her to get better. Did he hate the Cullens? Yes. but again, I AM NOT STEPHENIE MEYER, these characters are hers and not mine, except Malia (:
Chapter 24: Visitor
Jacob walked back and forth, looking down the road, seeming unsure of what he should do. He then looked back up at me and climbed back up the tree that blocked the view of my window, and then climbed back into the room.
"Jacob, wha- what are we going to do? She's after me, Jacob. She's coming after me, she knows where I live." I panicked running my fingers through my scalp pulling on my hair.
"It's not her, I would've recognized the scent, but I don't. It's somewhat familiar, as if I've smelled it before, but no not anything I can pinpoint it to."
"What do we do? Do we need to call the pack? I-"
"Well, I need to shift, but I'm too afraid to leave you and I don't wanna do it in the middle of the road where the neighbors will see." He pondered for a second, walking back and forth in my room, until he shifted towards me and lifted me off my feet, cradling me. He walked me to the bedroom door, opening it, and setting me on my feet in the hallway.
"Jake?" I looked at him, stress in my voice.
"It's fine, I'm just going to shift in your room, I don't want you near me when I do it.
"Jake, it's fine, I've seen you shift before-"
"Not in a small space, Bells. Two seconds" He shut the door behind him and I heard him shuffling around taking his pants off and shoes thrown across the room. Then a low growl turned louder, and I heard him tearing apart into his wolf form. I knocked on the door lightly, and walked in.
"Jake?" I gasped; I haven't seen him in his wolf form since that complication with Paul a while ago. His fur was such a beautiful, red russet color. I walked over to him, and he looked at me whimpering, standing back. "Jake, it's okay I know you won't hurt me." I then got closer to him and started running my fingers through his coarse fur. His hind legs started to stretch out, with a long grumble erupting through his throat. He then stiffened back up, shaking me off and headed towards the window looking out at it. Just like in my dream, seven pairs of yellow glowing eyes appeared in the tree lining, all coming closer but never past the trees, and never getting too close to the road. I figured Jacob was communicating with the pack about the visitor that was near my house.
"Jake, was the visitor ever in my room?" I walked forward to him to look out the window with him, as well. He looked over at me and shook his head. What if it wasn't just a visitor? What if it was someone I knew, my far away family who left me. Maybe one of them was checking up on me. I took a few paces back sitting back on my bed, staring at the lower wall of my room. What if it was Edward? What if he was the thing that tapped at my window, and he saw what me and Jacob were doing in my room? Did he come back for me? Did he come to check up on me? A few tears fell down my face, and I wiped them off quickly before he could turn around and notice.
I think I saw Jacob's ear twitch in my direction, and I remember during the biology course when Mr. Banner briefly mentioned that animals can detect fear, or emotions emitting off of another animal. Maybe that was the case with Jacob, too, maybe he was noticing my feeling of distraught. I looked across the room at the box that was kicked over to the wall closest to the door. Maybe it was Edward, maybe it was one of them. Jacob's been in my room before, maybe it was possible that the scent he faintly recognized from the past was from my very own room, and this scent being more stronger than the small lingering scents threw it off from being recognizable since he's never put the two scents together, or become accustomed to them. That would be silly, I suppose. Why would Edward come to visit me, just to leave? Why would he even visit me is the real question. He left, but he did call last week to check on me. Maybe he was going to come back, to come back to me, and I ruined it. I ruined it again. I ruined it by saying Alice's name on the phone, and now I ruined it by kissing Jacob in my room. I dropped my glance at the box and looked back at Jacob who was now staring at me.
"Jacob, is something wrong?" I rubbed my hands across the thighs of my sweatpants, "Everything's alright?" I choked a bit at the last word, trying to hide my grief was challenging, especially now knowing I ruined my chances of ever seeing Edward again. But then again, it could've very well not have been him, and I'm just making assumptions. It could've been another vampire crossing Forks who thought my blood smelt better than the others, like another nomad. Jake turned towards me and walked over to me putting his head on my lap, giving me the puppy dog eyes. I chuckled at him and rubbed the top of his head. He pulled his ears back and lifted his head up, sticking his tongue out to the side of his mouth, with his hot breath blowing into my direction. I moved my hand quickly to my nose holding it to block out the smell.
"Ew, Jake" I laughed at him, "Your breath smells horrid, what did you eat? Garbage?" He let out multiple large barks as if he was laughing along with me.
"Shhhh, Jake. Quiet." He walked away to the other corner in my bedroom and shifted back to his human form. His tall, broad muscular back facing me, along with his unclothed body. He grabbed his shorts and pulled them up and turned around facing me.
"So, Jared is going to keep watch on the exterior of your house, and if you'll let me, I'd still like to take you up on that sleepover offer," he said flashing a wide grin at me.
"They don't need you out there? I thought it was your shift, Jake don't blow them off because you want a sleepover with me."
"That's not it, I swear. I thought it would be best if I was in your room just in case they got inside the house somehow."
I felt unsure of the idea. What if it was Edward, and with Jacob being here, he wouldn't come back in here to speak to me or see me. What if he's left town again, and won't come back now? I sighed and scooted myself to my usual side of the bed and lied down. I don't know why I'm contemplating the idea of worrying about Jake being here just for Edward's convenience of coming to talk to me. I just chose, I think, didn't I? When I kissed Jacob in my room and invited him to spend the night? Was that my final decision on who I decided I wanted to be with? But, it's not like I have many choices. If that wasn't Edward, then he wasn't coming back. There's no reason for me to choose to be with him, because I don't even have the choice to choose him. There's only Jacob.
Jacob then looked at me, smiling, and climbed onto the other side of the bed closest to the window and lied down next to me.
"Is something wrong, Bells?" He asked as he propped his head up with his hand, "you seem a bit distracted."
"Oh no, nothing really," I lied, I was going through a bunch of thoughts in my head that would make him question even being here, "just making sure that I'm not a nuisance to the pack at the moment."
"Oh nah, you don't have to worry about them, they get a kick out of hunting for vampires. Besides, we all have to protect each other's mates." He looked at me smiling, laying his head down on the pillow adjusting himself.
I didn't think about what that kiss would've meant to him. It meant a lot to me, but I didn't think about how much more it would've meant to him. Besides, he has a girlfriend, or "mate". He has Malia, or so I thought they were together. I had to interrupt his thought process.
"Jake? What do you mean by mate?"
"Oh, sorry. I mean, girlfriend? My lady, my woman? Considering our massive age difference," he rolled his eyes at me, toying at the game we used to play at what our physical ages would be when I told him that he was too young for me, "you'd be the cougar, so I guess my women would be what you are to me." He chuckled a little bit rolling on his side again running his finger up my forearm.
"Jake…" I sighed looking at his finger running up my arm, "what about Malia? Aren't you two dating?" His eyebrow raised up at me and then his expression dropped.
"Oh, right. Malia, well. She's not you, of course. Besides, her and I've only been together for less than a week. I'm sure she's not going to care." He kept running his finger up my arm smiling at it. I knew this feeling right now made him happy, and I hated to be the one to put it down.
"I can't do that Jake, I'm not going to be a homewrecker, or a mistress. I'm not going to be one of those girls you read about in books that you root against." He looked at me confused and began hollering more in laughter.
"Well, Bells if I'm honest with you, I think you threw that idea into the wind when you decided to kiss me and asked me to spend the night with you." He continued smiling down at me. He was right, this was my idea, and it wasn't as if I was totally against it. I did like the idea of spending the night with him. I'm still trying to decide though if it's him who I wanted it to be with, or if I'm just feeling lonely, and nostalgic. I tried to stop thinking about these conflicting thoughts. I want to choose Jake. Jake's here with me, Jake wants to be here with me, too, and Edward didn't want to be.
I scooted up closer to Jake as he lied back onto his back. I rested my head on his chest and immediately started to sweat. I wiped my forehead and lifted myself off the bed to hit the switch on the ceiling fan. The room didn't feel much cooler that way though, so I walked over to the closet instead to grab a floor fan. It was a bit dusty. I pulled it out and saw Jacob standing behind me. He leaned over to grab the fan from me, shaking off the dust and went to plug it into the wall closest to my bedroom door and positioned it towards my bed. He looked down at the box full of my memories of Edward and picked it up.
"I can get that and move it somewhere else for you if you want me to…" I said to him, walking over to him to get the box from him. He nodded and handed it to me. I walked away from it and put it into the bottom dresser drawer that I don't use. We both walked back over to the bed and lied down, assuming our positions. We talked a bit more, that night. Laughing at the silly things that his friends did during their night patrol runs. I pondered the idea whether his usual patrols were at night, and whether this would be possibly the only night he would be able to spend the night with me.
"Jake, if I asked you to switch your usual shifts, is that something you would be able to do? Maybe you could run your shifts in the evening, and come back to my room at night?" I began running my finger down his torso, feeling the ridges between his abs as he deeply breathed.
"I can talk to Sam about it, maybe. Sometimes he has me run the twenty-four-hour shifts, but I don't think on a regular normal basis it would be a problem. We wouldn't be able to hangout during the day though." he said meekly. I do enjoy hanging out with him during the day, going on hikes along with walking along the beach at La Push. Maybe I would prefer that over having him in my room with me at night, "besides, I think my dad would tell Charlie I was spending the night over here."
"Yeah, never mind then. Scratch that idea. Besides, your right. I do enjoy hanging out during the daytime."
We laid there a little longer together while he ran his fingers across my arm until I fell asleep in his. I felt safe, I felt warm, and I generally felt happy. Jacob did make me happy.
The tapping on the window occurred again, I broke myself free from Jacob's lips, pulling my shirt back on. I ran to my window immediately and pulled it open and saw Edward there, holding onto the ledge. The bags under his eyes were dark, and his irises were almost black, as if he hadn't eaten in weeks.
"Edward, I- I'm so sorry. I—I didn't know if you were ever coming back," I looked at him shocked, my body was trembling with horror, adrenaline was coursing through my blood with terror and fear of the betrayal I just caused him.
"Don't you worry, love, I am here now, I will protect you. You do not need to apologize," he pushed his way into my room, "He obviously coerced you into deciding to make love to this mongrel." He held his arm back towards me to put space in between me and Jacob. I grabbed onto Edward's arm to stop him, but he just gently pushed me back. Jacob perched himself off the bed and stood up in a fighting stance.
"What the hell are you even doing here, blood sucker?" Jake held his ground in front of my bed, slowly trying to get closer to me. Edward then blocked his way from getting any closer to me.
"Bella, would you please go into the hallway, I don't want you to see this, love."
"What? No, Edward this is ridiculous! You can't just barge in here trying to fight Jake! I asked him to be here! Edward, please let's go outside and talk."
"Bella, please. I'm begging you, leave the room, get to safety," The worry in his eyes made me cross the room to the door, but I wasn't prepared to leave. I had to stop any movement towards a fight breaking out between the two men I loved.
"Oh, bloodsucker, you have no idea how long I've been waiting to do this," Jake's clothes flung into the air as he transformed into the russet wolf in my bedroom. I lunged at Edward trying to push him out of the way, Edward grabbed me, turning me away from the fight, pushing me to the other side of the wall. Jacob then lunged at Edward, but Edward soared his arm straight into Jacob's head and knocked Jacob against the wall. He then got closer to Jacob and grabbed both parts of his jaw and began to rip them in opposite directions. Jacob's skull ripped in half right before my eyes. I began screaming out in pain, and in grief…
"Bella? Bella? Bella wake up!" Charlie was above me shaking my shoulders. I opened my eyes and began to panic.
"NO! No, no, no! Jacob, not Jacob!" Tears were streaming down my face, my heart rate was increasing fast, and my face became flushed. I quickly breathed in a large gulp of air looking around me, turning to my left feeling the left side of the bed looking for him, "Jacob?!" I shouted in a panic.
"Honey, everything is okay, it was just a dream. Jacob isn't here," Charlie then sat on the bed next to me holding me in his arms, and then I felt his weight shift away from me, "wait, was Jacob here last night?" Charlie's jaw clenched and he turned his head over to the general direction I was looking at to see my face.
"No, no dad he didn't. I'm sorry, you're right it was just a nightmare." I felt my heart rate slow down, my breathing slowed down, and I felt my body calming down. It was just a dream; it was just a dream. Thank, God. It was another vivid dream again, but this time, it was between the two men I loved. I looked over at the window, but it was closed. I wonder if Jake escaped my room last night. I hope so, I hope he didn't have to hear the nightmare I was battling through.
"Well, everything is okay. It's six in the morning, do you want to get breakfast with me?" Charlie stood up and looked around the room and walked towards my closet opening the door quickly. I guess he was searching for any boy intruders in my room, specifically Jacob.
"No, dad it's fine. I'm still a bit tired. I think I'm going to lay back down for another hour."
"Well, alright kiddo. I'm going to head off to the river to go fishing now, then. It was actually Sue's idea. Her and Billy are going to join me today. I'll see you tonight when I get back." Sue? Sue's idea was to go fishing with Charlie. I never met a woman who chooses to go fishing, I know I never would.
"Actually dad, I think I'm going to hang out with Jake today."
"Oh, yeah? He's not going to hang out with that new girl of his?"
"I don't know. I'll have to call him and ask."
"Well, I think that it's great you two can still be friends. Just be home for dinner." He walked out of the room and shut my door. I leaned back and plopped back onto my pillows, calming myself down a little more. I heard shuffling going on next to the other side of my bed near my window. I lifted myself back up and looked over, seeing Jacob had covered himself on the floor with my dress pillows to hide himself from me. He looked up at me with a big grin on his face, chuckling a bit. I lifted my finger towards my lips to signal him to be quiet.
Jake slowly climbed onto the bed and we both didn't speak until we heard the front door downstairs shut. I shifted my weight back onto his chest, yawning. He traced circles on my shoulder in a counterclockwise motion until I drifted back to sleep.