At first, Bella thought it was a coincidence. The pharmacy, grocery store, and several restaurants were located on Mainstreet. The beat-up Jeep behind them was probably headed towards one of those destinations. It was probably just the stress of the whole Edward situation making her paranoid. She put the car out of her mind and went back to belting out the lyrics to Someone to Love with Jake. It wasn't until she turned onto route 11 headed out of town that she realized they were being followed.
"Hey Jake," Bella said, trying not to let her panic show. "You see that Jeep behind us? The one with the broken headlight? I think we're being followed."
Jake looked over his shoulder and scowled. "It's Sam."
"Are you sure?"
The man behind them was a solid foot taller and fifty pounds heavier than the Sam she remembered.
"Yes."
Bella breathed a sigh of relief. He must have driven to the hospital to check on Jake only to realize he'd already been discharged. She honked the horn and waved.
"Don't!" Jake hissed.
"Why not?"
She'd known Sam since they were kids. The guy won't hurt a fly.
Jake crouched down low in his seat so that Sam couldn't see him anymore. "Because he's been following me!"
"Following you?"
Why did Sam even need to follow Jake from a distance? The last time Bella checked, the reverse was true. Sam was the closest thing La Push had to a celebrity. He was the top scorer on the high school soccer team, senior class president, and an all-around good guy. Jake practically worshiped the ground he walked on. He'd been following Sam around since he was old enough to walk.
Jake sighed. "A lot has happened since your last visit."
After Billy's health took a turn for the worst, Sam taught Jake how to drive and mow the lawn. Bella wondered what Sam could have possibly done to go from hero to zero in Jake's book?
"Sam missed the first month of school," Jake said. "His parents told everyone he had mono."
Poor Sam. Last year, the entire sophomore class spring break in bed recovering from mono. The only ones unaffected were Bella and her foster siblings. While their classmates suffered through fevers and body aches, the Cullens enjoyed a fun week of camping in Yosemite. Jessica, still upset over her canceled trip to Florida, nearly slapped Alice for showing her pictures of their adventure.
Jake glared at Sam's car in the rearview window. "I don't believe it though."
"Why?" Bella asked.
Mono was a common illness and Sam wasn't known to be a liar.
"I did at first, but he came back different. He got a tattoo and cut off all his hair." Jake rubbed his temples. "If that wasn't weird enough, he quit the soccer team. My ears are still ringing from the coach yelling at him."
Bella didn't like the sound of that one bit. Sam had been working his butt off since freshman year to catch the eyes of a recruiter. A soccer scholarship was the only way he'd ever be able to afford college. He didn't want to spend his life barely able to put food on the table like his parents. Why would he suddenly throw all his hard work away?
"It gets worse," Jake continued. "Last week, Leah found him under the bleachers making out with Emily."
"No way!"
Sam and Leah had been together since eighth grade. While their classmates switched partners like sweaters, those two love birds never seemed to have a single disagreement. Everyone thought they'd be the couple who'd live happily ever after.
"Yeah way," Jake said with a humorless laugh. "I saw it happened. Leah broke up with him in front of the entire school."
Bella couldn't imagine the heartbreak Leah felt. It was bad enough to be cheated on. But to betrayed by the cousin she thought of as a sister? That was the kind of thing people needed years of therapy to overcome.
"Two weeks later, the same thing happened again with Paul and Jared," Jake said, saying the names of his friends as if they were horrible swears. "They missed some school and came back a foot taller with shaved heads. It's like whatever happened to Sam is spreading."
"What do you think is happening?" Bella asked, trying not to lose her cool.
Could whatever weirdness that brought Edward back to life have originated in La Push?. No. That was ridiculous. What was happening in La Push was just Netflix-worthy high school drama. It was nothing something a devoted guidance counselor couldn't fix.
"I don't know," Jake said. "Maybe drugs or gang activity?"
Drugs would make sense. They were plenty of kids at Fork's High school who smoked pot behind the gym after school. Maybe La Push's drug of choice was steroids.
Jake crossed. his arms. "Whatever's happening, I don't want any part of it. I'll find new friends who don't cheat on their girlfriends."
Bella looked over her shoulder as they crossed the boundary line separating Forks from La Push. She was relieved to see that Sam's car was gone. Maybe Jake was wrong. Had Sam actually been following them, he wouldn't have given up so easily. The deep, dark woods of La Push were the perfect place to carry out a nefarious plan.
"Enough with my drama," Jake said, sitting up in his seat. "What's new with you?"
Bella relaxed her grip on the steering wheel. "Well...we have a new foster placement. His name is Edward and Rose hates him."
Jake laughed. "Rose, your sweet, loving sister, doesn't like him? He must be evil then!"
Bella forced a smile. "Yep. He'll probably murder us all in our sleep tonight."
her worries about what was going on at home.
Mid-way through the creation myth, Jake nudged Bella with his knee. "You know, it could be like this every day."
"How?" Bella asked.
Bella wished she could always feel like she did at that moment. Safe, happy, with a belly full of good food. If Jake had a way for that wish to come true, then she was all ears.
"Move in with me."
Bella opened and closed her mouth like a fish. She didn't have the words to respond. While she always enjoyed her time in La Push, she knew it was just a temporary break from her real-life in Forks.
"I already cleared it with my dad," Jake said, smiling from ear to ear. "Now that I've fixed the hole in the roof and gotten rid of the mold, you can move into Rachel and Rebecca's old room. I was going to ask after the dance..but you know."
After Charlie's death, Billy wanted to take Bella in. Unfortunately, his house only had three tiny bedrooms. The social worker wouldn't allow Bella and Jake to share and the girl's room didn't have enough room to squeeze another mattress in next to the bunk bed. The social worker took one look at Dr. Cullen's immaculate glass house and decided it was a far better home than a moldy shack in La Push.
"I can't," Bella said after a few tense seconds had passed.
"Why not?" Jake asked." Don't you want to get out of foster care?"
"I live in a mansion, not an orphanage."
Bella had never felt like other foster kids. She didn't carry her belongings from house to house in a garbage bag and Carlisle didn't treat her any differently than he would a biological daughter.
"But you could live here in La Push with me! I'll teach you how to fix engines and show you the best cliff diving spots!" Jake was starting to shake and had given up on being quiet. Everyone around them was staring.
"Jake," Bella said, frightened by the animalistic look in her friend's eyes. "Let's go somewhere where we can talk."
Bella grabbed Jake's forearm and led him towards the edge of the woods. His skin was still warm from the bonfire.
"Is it about the money?" Jake asked.
"No!"
If anything, Bella wished Carlisle's house was less extravagant. If the couches were threadbare and the floors scratched, she wouldn't have to worry so much about breaking something.
"Then why? Why won't you say yes?"
"I can't just leave my family!"
While Rose would probably throw a party if Bella moved out, Carlisle and the rest of her siblings would be heartbroken. While they weren't related by blood, they were a family. A loud and sometimes dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless. And there was still the matter of Edward. Bella had promised him she'd help find his mother. She needed to be there when he found out his rescue mission wouldn't have a happy ending.
"What about me?" Jake said, shaking with anger. "Am I nothing to you?"
"Of course not," Bella exclaimed. "You're one of my best friends!"
Jake was breathing as if he'd just run back-to-back marathons. "If that was true, you wouldn't have stopped visiting! You would have been happy about the chance to live together!"
Bella blinked away the tears. "I'm sorry that I stopped coming to visit, but I can't live with you."
She liked Jake, maybe even loved him, but her life was in Forks. There were people there who needed her. She thought of Edward and his bandaged wrists. He'd woken up in a changed world populated by people trying to hurt him. He needed her to help him make sense of it all. Maybe she needed him too for reasons she hadn't yet discovered.
A figure emerged from the woods. "Is everything okay here, Jake?"
Sam was wearing nothing but a pair of cut-off shorts. What was he thinking? It was fall in Washington. It couldn't have been more than 40 degrees.
"Everything is fine," Jake said. "I"m just realizing some people aren't who they claim to be."
"It's been a long day," Sam said. "We should get you home."
"I'm fine," Jake snapped. "I don't need to be put to bed like a child."
While every cell in Bella's body screamed danger, she still reached out and touched Jake's arm. "Jake, please, I'm sorry."
Bella was alarmed by the way his skin felt. It was like an open flame. "Jake, I think you should go back to the hospital. I think you have a fever."
A nasty fever would explain the shaking, hot skin, and irritability.
Bella barely registered a car pulling up.
Jasper jumped out and ran across the beach to where Bella was standing. "You! I've been looking for you everywhere! You need to come home, now!"
Bella's mind went through a dozen possible scenarios each more horrible than the last. "Why? What's happening?".
"Edward!"
Bella should never have left Edward. He didn't know about electricity, gas stoves, or looking both ways for cars before crossing the street. She'd never forgive herself if he got himself killed while she was goofing around with her friends.
"Yelling, anxiety, breaking dishes!" Jasper rubbed his temples. "I can't take it anymore! He thinks the Quileutes kidnapped you."
Bella felt a bit guilty. She hadn't meant to make Edward worry. She thought Emmett would be more than capable of distracting him while she was gone.
"I didn't kidnap anyone," Jake said, flaring his nostrils. "Bella was the one who insisted on coming here."
"I met Jake at the hospital and wanted to make sure he made it home in one piece," Bella said. " I texted Emmett to head back home without me."
"Emmett smashed his phone at the museum, remember?" Jasper said.
Bella had forgotten about that. She should have taken the five minutes to go find her siblings instead of just disappearing.
"Rose tried to call you, but you didn't pick up your phone," Jasper said. "They had to check the security camera tapes to make sure you didn't pass out somewhere."
La Push had many great things; lush forest, beautiful beaches, and a strong sense of community. However, cell phone service was often patchy at best. Most people used landlines.
"Edward freaked out when he found out where Jake lives," Jasper said. "He said it wasn't safe in La Push."
La Push had very busy streets and the crime rate was near zero. If anything, Bella was probably safer there than in Forks.
"Emmett told him it was best to leave you with Jake, but Edward didn't believe him. He kept saying you were in danger. Can you please come home so I can show him you're not dead?"
A wolf howled in the distance. Sam sniffed the air and froze. "Go home, Bella."
"But what about Jake?" Bella asked.
Jake was sick. Abandoning him to soothe Edward's fears would do irreparable harm to their relationship.
"Jake will be fine," Sam said, putting a hand on Jake's shoulder. "I'll take care of him."
"Go back to your precious Cullens," Jake snarled.
Bella looked at Jasper then back at Jake. Maybe it would be best if she gave Jake some time to cool off.
