"So you guys are dating, right?" I asked Isabella at breakfast the next morning. It had occurred to me that a guy and girl hanging out together didn't necessarily mean anything. Stupid Tyler.
"Who's 'you guys'?" Bella asked a bit too innocently, dumping the last bits of scrambled egg on my plate and glancing through the kitchen door toward the front of the house.
"Dad is gone. And you and Edward." I stabbed the table with an accusatory finger. "You two are dating now, right?"
"He doesn't feel that way about me." Bella shrugged and turned to stare gloomily out the window.
"Good." I said flatly. She turned to me with widening eyes. "He's no good." I explained.
"What do you mean?" My sister mumbled. She didn't look too surprised.
"Well, I don't know what his deal is now." I told her. "But I saw that look he gave you. The 'stabbed by a pencil' look? And if he liked you now, that makes him more crazy, not less."
"He's not crazy." She said. And she did seem certain. I pursed my lips and stared at her, puzzled, until she got up to cram the dishes into the sink. From the misery on her face, I was becoming more and more certain that telling her about Edward's visit to my car would be a bad thing. Bad as in encouraging her, I mean. The last thing my mopey sister needed was a bipolar boyfriend.
"I'll see you later." Isabella walked out the door, seeming to realize I wouldn't have anything nice to say after that.
I just grunted.
…
The rest of the day was pretty good. Edward 'the Dick' Cullens was gone, along with his brother(whom I nicknamed Emmett 'the Buttface' Cullen during a staring match with his girlfriend when she caught me looking at their table). Tyler was trying to be nice to me, though I wasn't sure if we were going to the dance together. And I didn't have to talk to Bella as Annalise was going to the beach and invited me to sleepover at her house. All in all, falling asleep to Airplane was a pretty good end to a pretty good day.
The sun splitting my head in half as a wakeup call was therefore all the more irritating.
By the time Annalise and I had made it to the parking lot of the Newton's family store, Annalise and I had had two arguments, one of which involved whether or not we had accents and the other one whether The Taming of the Shrew was a play within a play. When Austin and Ben walked over to greet us I answered with a grunt and Annalise went to nap in the back of Newton's van. I joined her and, with a welcome bit of caffeine from Conner Rodigg, the two of us were soon almost human again.
Bella was the one of last to show and we drove off soon after she arrived, her way up front with Newton and Jess and me squashed in back with Lauren and Annalise. There was also a couple other girls, all the boys having joined Tyler and Lee in their cars.
"You guys are going to make a driftwood fire again, right?" I asked one of the guys, I didn't know his name.
"Already working on it." Ben called cheerfully.
"Awesome, Ben! You rock!" I laughed and walked over to join him, asking him about the different colors that might pop up and ignoring everyone else. Ben, Angela, and Tyler were the only ones of Bella's friends I could talk to when I was this grumpy. Annalise was now sleeping in Lee's minivan, growling at him as he tried to wake her up.
When I came back, I sat on one of the empty logs and shivered once as a wind chilled through my mist soaked clothes. I opened my mouth to jokingly yell at Ben to hurry up but Mike had started lighting smaller branches on fire to entertain Isabella and I felt it unnecessary to bring Jessica's evil eye anywhere near me. I shivered again and pulled at the summer dress I'd optimistically thrown on over a swimming suit. Had I remembered to pack a sweatshirt in my overnight bag? I thought I had—
"Want this?"
"Aaaargh!" I growled, finding a thick sweatshirt suddenly draped over my head. I heard a deep laugh as I managed to tear it off and turned to glare up at Tyler.
"Well?" He asked.
"Well what." I demanded.
"Do you want it?" He repeated.
I stared at him, my mouth forming a slight pout. I stared at him a little longer. I looked away and back again. Then, finally…
"Yes."
He laughed again. "That's what I thought." He teased, jumping easily over my log to sit beside me. I pulled the sweatshirt over my arms and stared at him, wondering what had gotten into him.
I glanced away for a second to laugh at one of Mike's jokes and he called me back with a tap on the shoulder. "What's up?"
"I've been meaning to ask you." Tyler said, lowering his voice to be more serious. "Has your dad told you anything more about those attacks?"
"My dad?" I asked. "What?"
"You know. Those weird animal attacks that the newspaper's 've been going on about." He insisted. I looked at him blankly, my brow starting to furrow. "Your dad has to know more about it, right?"
"If he does, he hasn't told me." I muttered back, glancing around. No one was paying attention to us-Lauren was being a bit too obvious about not paying attention to us—We were isolated enough on our lumpy log, the ends big and rough and twisted, that no one was close enough to hear anything we said if were quiet about it.
"Huh." Tyler replied.
I waited for a moment and then my patience broke. "So you gonna tell me or what?"
"Oh." Tyler laughed. "Sure." He leaned in further, dropping his voice to the kind of hushed tone reserved for horror stories. I had to lean in to hear him. "It started a couple weeks back, I think. At least, that's the first body they found."
"It's been killing people?" I whispered, pulling his sweatshirt tighter around me.
He nodded. "There've been no survivors, that's the problem: the only clue toward what it is has been the bodies."
"Man…" I breathed. I glanced back at the forest that lined the beach. There was so much uncivilized land around Forks, who knew what could be hiding there? I shuddered. "What are the bodies like then? I mean, it's definitely not human?"
Tyler looked at the dread on my face and took the opportunity to wrap a comforting arm around my waist. "No. No, there was something about… One of the bodies was crushed, practically, I heard. And they all are messed up: bitten and bled out…"
"That's horrible." I glanced at the woods again and then pushed myself closer to Tyler. I was remembering now, remembering the worry in my dad's voice a couple weeks ago. Remembering how odd he's sounded when he told me to go straight home and call him when I got there. It had been unlike him and he hadn't mentioned it since but… But if he'd been worried… Who knew where the thing could pop up next? "And it's around Forks? Like in these woods?"
"It might have moved on." Tyler admitted. Then he shook his head. "Or it might have learned to hide its victims."
"Dude! Tyler!" I bumped shoulders with him in playful anger, hiding the jolt of fear I'd felt. "Don't say that!"
"What?" He laughed, his voice getting louder again. "That it could be right behind us? Waiting for one us to wander off?"
"Gaaaah!" I covered my ears and knew that people were looking over at us now. "Jerk!"
"Why's he a jerk, Swan?" Someone asked.
"Because there are monsters waiting to eat us if—Oof." Tyler laughed as I elbowed him in the ribs. "Sorry." He said with a shrug. I playfully slapped his shoulder and he gave an exaggerated wince before laughing again. "Sorry! Sorry!"
"You'd better be." I said, jabbing a finger in his face and glaring dangerously.
"Hey weren't you guys going for a walk or something?" Lauren interrupted, smiling like it hurt her to do so.
"What? Who?" I glanced around and saw Mike and Lee nodding as they got up.
"We're going hiking," Mike said, turning away from giving my sister his puppy eyes as she considered going with him.
"In the woods?"
"Yeah, aren't you afraid of the—" I jabbed Tyler with my elbow again to stop him. He just started laughing at me again.
"We'll be in a group, Gen." Lee promised. "And besides', it's the middle of the day and it's sunny."
"I'm sorry." I said, dripping with sarcasm. "I keep forgetting that we don't live in a horror movie and therefore everything is always alright and bad things in the newspapers never attack."
"Shut up, Gen." Annalise grumbled as she stumbled over.
"We're just heading up to the tide pools and then straight back." Mike insisted.
"I'm not coming either way." I told him. "I've seen those things a million times."
This was actually true: my dad had only recently stopped dragging me up to the Res when he came to visit Billy and the tide pools were one of about five things to do when it wasn't sunny.
Several of the girls and Tyler and Eric decided to stay. I was undecided until Bella agreed to go and then, curious as I was as to what made my clutzy sister want to go hiking of all things, I decided to hang around with our lazier friends.
The hikers left, while Tyler and I shouted advice we'd learned from watching too many horror movies. The two other remaining boys joined in and left me and the girls in giggles as they gave us various stories as to how everyone who'd just left was going to die. As their footsteps faded we moved on to wondering what the killer animal actually was and were getting into the area of what animals might have escaped from the Seattle Zoo when there was a loud crack.
As the crack faded away in echoes, we were left in an abrupt and tense silence, all of us peering into the woods as we wondered what had made the noise.
Another crack, this one obviously a piece of wood breaking, rang out from what seemed like right behind me. I screamed and jumped forward, closely followed by a wide eyed Tyler as we scrambled past the fire and closer to our friends. It was about then that we made out the sound of several boys laughing their heads off.
As they stumbled out of the woods, holding their sides, my eyes focused on one happy grin.
"Jacob Black!" I yelled. "You ass!"
"Sorry, Gen." He laughed.
"But really," Paul said, appearing at my side. "you guys set us up perfectly."
"Oh, I should have known it would be your idea." I growled, glaring up at him. I knew he was over me: I also knew that messing with me was something he would never be able to resist.
"You're not too mad, right, Gen?" Jacob said, bouncing into the clearing like a hyperactive puppy and giving me his giant grin.
"I'll hate you forever." I said with a haughty sniff but I was joking and he just laughed at me.
"Going to introduce us to your friends?" Lauren interrupted snootily. She had somehow managed to edge her way between Tyler and me. Ugh.
I glanced around and realized that I actually did know about half of the LaPush kids. With a shrug I moved away from the Forks kids, leaving the battle with Lauren for another day. Turning back to face her and Tyler, I began to dramatically point at the couple kids I actually knew.
"Paul." I said first, to get it over with. He gave a dramatic bow and then shoved past Tyler to get to the food some of the older Res kids and Jess had started to set out. "Kate. Um, Kim? Kim. Hey, Kim. Sam?" He gave me a grunt. "Embry. Joy." And of course. "This kid." I finished, pointing to Jacob.
He laughed and shrugged it off. "Nice to see you too, Genevieve. How's the car?"
"Still running and still ugly." I told him. "How's your… um… bike?"
His smiled faded a little and I realized that he had taken it as a dig at his age. I allowed him to keep thinking it: if only I was that clever.
"Fine." He said, his tone a little less friendly.
I glanced around and realized that most of the others had wondered off to grab some food: Tyler was over there with Lauren, though he was glancing over at us… I fought down a scowl. So jealousy was the way to go? Not really my style, Crowley.
"Jacob." I said, feeling slightly bad, if only for a second. "Thanks again for your help with…" I left my mouth hanging open, hands raised as I helplessly looked for way to describe the precious heap of junk that was my transportation.
"With your car?" Jacob asked drily.
"Yes, that!" I said thankfully. "And with teaching me."
Jacob nodded. "I could show you some more stuff." He offered. "I know the truck won't have much, but I'm working on—"
"Maybe." I interrupted, trying not to sound mean but having about enough of entertaining him. "For now, we should probably grab some burgers before your friends start in on their fourths."
"I am only on thirds!" Paul insisted through a mouthful of food, his posture tensing up as he readied to lose his temper.
"Shut up, Paul." I said, whisking by him and ignoring him as he began to choke. "Eric. Where are the plates?"
I spent the next ten minutes hiding behind Tyler to avoid Jacob trying to ask me polite questions and Paul trying to yell at me about food. By the time the boy magnet that was my twin appeared, I was seconds away from going off on a hike by myself, monsters or no monsters. Luckily, Jacob went over to talk with her and Paul soon went off to the beach with some of the other guys and I had one moment of peace.
"You know, it's too bad none of the Cullens could come up."
Just one moment of peace.
"Why's that, Lauren?" I snapped, seeing her try to sidle Tyler away from me again.
Tyler glanced between us awkwardly, sensing the age old tension of a love triangle with an indecisive boy. Bella's laugh rang out and the three of us turned to look at her, before Lauren and I both took a quick peak at Tyler. Grr. More like a love square then.
"You know Bella, too, Jacob?" Lauren called out sweetly. I was too busy reading the look Jacob was giving Bella: maybe a love hourglass? With Tyler in the middle and… No… that wouldn't work…
"We've sort of known each other since I was born." Jacob said with a laugh, smiling at Bella before waving at me.
"Played house and everything." I commented, mainly trying to draw Lauren's attention back to me and Tyler. But, no, her jealousy was focused on Isabella now.
"Bella, I was just saying to Tyler that it was too bad none of the Cullens could come out today. Didn't anyone think to invite them?"
"You mean Dr. Carlisle Cullen's family?" I turned to see Sam looking up from his fifth hamburger with a stern frown.
Lauren turned and gave him her bubbly fake smile. "Yes, do you know them?"
"The Cullens don't come here." He said stiffly. He turned back to his conversation, leaving a brief awkward silence.
Tyler filled it by asking Lauren and me what music we were coming up with for prom and when I looked back for Isabella and Jacob, they had disappeared. The conversation went downhill from there, what with Lauren bringing out the side of Tyler that I didn't always like. Gradually I felt myself shifting out of the conversation and finally just took a step back and away without them even noticing I'd left. I had my hands in the pocket of Tyler's sweatshirt and my head and shoulders slumped as I moved around mopily, talking to whoever happened to be nearby.
After about ten minutes of this, Annalise came back with Lee and two of his friends I didn't know and they entertained me with a story of some seagull flying at their heads. I was actually starting to laugh when I happened to turn back toward Tyler and Lauren at just the right moment to catch his eye as she planted a big kiss on his cheek and he returned her enthusiastic hug.
"Gen?" Annalise asked.
I turned back to realized that someone had just asked me a question about whether every animal around here was known for attacking humans. I managed a smile and a noncommittal answer, then claimed to want a quick look at the beach. Waving off Annalise and another girl as they offered to join me, I made my way quickly toward the water, brushing past Tyler without even looking at him. I sped up when I hit the sand, desperate to get out of sight before the tears started: I wasn't even sure if they were angry or hurt tears but I could feel them welling up, starting to blind me as my feet caught in the wet sand.
Clouds were gathering but I didn't really miss the sun: in Forks, the sun doesn't really belong, not really. It's always felt more like a broken promise to me: a glimpse of summer and then that glimpse flees leaving rain and cold and dark.
When I was far enough down the beach that I could be sure no one would find me by accident, I sat down in the sand and pulled off my flip flops, dabbing my toes in the freezing water and trying to blink away the tears.
I told myself it was fine if he didn't like me. He couldn't help that, could he? But why did it have to be Lauren. That bitch Lauren. He thought she was more desirable then me? Uck, and my boring sister! Was that what all the boys were looking for? A conniving bitch or a shy little blob of nothing? I winced back a little at the thought, knowing that was a bit mean and that Isabella wasn't that bad… that it wasn't her fault… But why?
Just… Just…
Why?
I ran my fingers through my hair, pulling it away from my face so that I could stare out at the nothingness of the water. I wiped my tears and nose on the sleeve of the sweatshirt and dipped it in the water to get rid of the evidence.
It might be better if Paul hadn't been my first boyfriend, if I could tell myself that if my first boyfriend had liked me then others like him would. But I had no desire for a repeat performance of all the temper tantrums we threw when we were together, no matter how much fun he'd been otherwise. I wanted someone better. Someone nicer. I wanted Tyler.
I turned my dejected gaze down to the sand and began drawing a squiggly design between my legs, distracting myself with a pattern of nonsense. Boys. It was always boys. Stupid, stupid-
"Genevieve?"
Oh, come on: him?
"Gen?"
And her.
I gave my face one last swipe and stood shakily, changing from sad to defensive and bad tempered. "Isabella, Jacob." I greeted them half-heartedly, wiping wet clingy sand from my soaking wet butt. "Hey."
"What are you doing over here?" Bella asked.
"I could ask you the same question." I retorted, trying desperately to think of something.
"Just sharing the old Quileute stories." Jacob said cheerfully, his eyes looking over my face with a hint of concern.
Oh, leave me alone. "Well, it looks like we're getting ready to leave so… Isabella needs to start coming back." I lied easily, not having to fake the impatient tone. "I had just sat down to rest: you guys really went far."
"Sorry about that." Jacob said and his voice was so sincere, just so nice….
Sometimes, when I'm in a bad mood and feeling down about myself, kindness is the last thing I want. I felt the lies and mask I'd been solidifying immediately start to crumble.
Isabella didn't notice: she was looking up the beach. I glanced around, still working on hiding the tears, and found Mike and Jessica heading down toward us.
"There you are, Bella." Mike called enthusiastically. But he was basically glaring over at Jacob.
Did he not even see me here? Do I just not exist?
I turned away quickly to see Jacob and Bella being very careful not to look at me.
"Is that your boyfriend?" Jacob wondered.
"No, definitely not." Bella whispered.
I laughed at the tone in her voice but it came out more of a choked sob. Damn it! Why? Why did Jacob have to be nice?
"So when I get my license…" Jacob started, still avoiding me.
"Your license?" I asked, trying to be normal.
"My temps." He told me, turning back and keeping his voice neutral.
"You should come visit us." Bella said, looking to me for my agreement. I didn't respond. "It could be just like old times." I smiled weakly: I could hear Mike and Jess arriving behind us and I had no desire to add to the rumors I'd already started by fleeing.
"Where have you been?" Mike demanded, still focusing his words on Bella. I gritted my teeth and felt my hands turning into fists inside the giant sweatshirt sleeves.
"Jacob was just telling me some local stories." Bella said, watching as I crossed my arms, tucking my fists into my elbows and staring at the sand. "Gen said we're leaving soon?"
"Yeah." Mike said, seeming to notice me for the first time. "Didn't realize she'd come to get you… but it looks like it's about to rain so we're packing up."
"Alright we're coming." Bella promised.
"Yeah." Jacob said quickly. I saw him glance from my narrowed eyebrows to trembling chin. "You go on ahead. I'm just gonna catch up with Genevieve, ok?"
"Going to tell her some of your scary stories?" Bella teased him as she walked away.
I opened my mouth to snap that I'd had enough of that from Tyler but found myself fighting down another rush of tears. "Tell Annalise to save me a seat next to her?" Was all I said to my sister.
"We'll be right up." Jacob promised. They were already walking away.
Jacob looked after them and when he judged they were far enough away he finally looked straight at me. "So who do I need to punch?"
I burst out laughing.
"Thank—thank you, Jacob." I said finally, still short of breath. "It's been a bad couple of weeks."
"Yeah?" He said. He still looked serious, ready to defend me: like a puppy growling at thunder.
"But no need for violence." I told him, still smiling shakily.
"If you think that," Jacob said with a grin. "You're clearly not watching the right movies."
"Oh?" I started walking, following the many footsteps back to the firepit. "So Die Hard, Boondock Saints, Pulp Fiction… those aren't teaching me the right lessons?" I asked sarcastically.
"Seriously?" Jacob said. "You like those movies?"
"I like most movies." I said with a shrug. "They're in the top hundred."
Jacob snorted. "Then what's the top ten?"
"Oh, you know…" I had no idea. I tended to only watch what happened to be on tv. "It changes."
"Huh." Jacob said, looking down at the sand as we walked. I looked past him, over the ocean. It was working up into a storm. "Genevieve?"
"Huh?" I brought my focus back on him.
"You know… you know that animal attack… It's nothing you need to be afraid of. And I'm sorry we scared you, it was just—"
"You know I would do the same thing if given the opportunity. Besides, you were doing it to Isabella, too right? Filling her head with the scary tales of the haunted forest?"
"Be—" He started to correct me and then seemed to remember that I was her sister. "Sort of. Vampire stories really. She seemed interested." He looked distracted for a second, looking a bit longingly up the beach where the others had disappeared. Then he turned to shrug at me. "They're just the usual legends though. Except for the part about… Oh, but you probably agree with your dad." He said, looking embarrassed.
"I don't know why you're making that face." I said, my tone a bit scathing. "I have no idea what you're thinking so I can't possibly be mad."
"True." He said. "But it's probably best to leave it alone."
"Fine." I said, thinking I could just ask Isabella. But it was hard to think who it would be more of drag to interrogate: Jacob or my sister. Jacob, I decided. He was the one who had started me crying again.
We walked on in silence for a bit. I was starting to calm down but still feeling more heavy hearted then I could ever remember being, at least since my parents' divorce. When we got to the last stretch, close enough to hear a car start, Jacob stopped and reached out to grab my arm, pulling back when I flinched away.
"It'll work out in the end, Genevieve." He promised. "Whatever happened, you'll figure it out."
"I don't think I have quite as much trust in myself as you do." I replied drily. "Can you tell I've been… Is my face ok?"
"Your eyes are a little red, but you can just say it was the wind." He said. "Feeling any better?"
I shrugged. "I'll see you later, Jacob."
"Yeah… Maybe I'll finally get up to one of your games… You're varsity right?"
"Yeah…" I said noncommittally: Jacob Black watching my games was the last thing I needed. "Not that it means much, not in Forks." I looked over the water again and felt a couple drops of rain hit my hair. "Oh, Forks." I sighed. I turned and started to walk up the slope, catching sight of the last couple people packing up.
"Bye, Genevieve." Jacob called.
I waved halfheartedly.
It was all I was willing to give him.
...
Author's note:
Hope you like it. Next chapter coming Thursday... Man, I can't wait to get to some actual romance! Grrr! Genevieve, grow up! Let me know what you think :)
