Ch. 6 Into the Woods
The next morning, after I called Angela—who sounded legitimately disappointed—to cancel, I convinced Charlie that I actually did want to go with him to his favorite fishing spot. I really liked Charlie. When I read the books, I kind of just discounted the way Bella brushed him off all the time because I had never had a good relationship with my own parents. I couldn't relate, but now that I was here and saw the real, breathing man standing in front of me and was the recipient of all that fatherly love and devotion, I could bitch slap Bella back to the Middle Ages for those times when she chose her supernatural drama over spending time with him.
I had never been fishing before, but how hard could it be? You put a worm on a hook, toss it in the water, and fish bite. Pretty elementary stuff...
"Ok, good, now cast your line." Jacob instructed me after I got the bait hooked, trying not to laugh as I dodged said hook which swung back toward me when I stumbled.
He and Billy had coincidentally—or maybe not so coincidentally—already been at the little hidden pond when Charlie and I arrived. I had the sneaking suspicion that Billy and Charlie arranged the meeting without mine or Jacob's knowledge because when we came up behind the pair I overheard Jake whining to Billy, "I still don't understand what I'm doing here so early. I could've been asleep right now!" His tone changed when he turned around and saw me walking toward them. He looked me up and down with a smile playing on his lips. I almost snorted when I noticed him rearranging his shorts. Gross. He was only like 15. Barf.
"What the he—Err—how do I cast the line?" I growled. Fishing was not easy. I'm not too proud to admit when I'm wrong.
"Come on, Bells, I taught you this stuff before you could barely hold a fishing pole. Stop embarrassing me." Charlie chided. He had been heckling me since the beginning of this whole debacle.
"Oh come now, Charlie. You know it's harder for girls with their lack of upper body strength. They were never meant to be the hunters." Billy mused, garnering a hearty laugh from Charlie. Son of a bitch. I had never pegged him as a bigot. The more they laughed, I was seeing red. Billy and Charlie only laughed harder at my expense.
"Dad! What the hell?" Jake piped up just as I readied myself for the pounce.
"I'm only joking, Jacob. Get your panties out of a bunch. Bella knows I didn't mean it. Besides, your mother would roll over in her grave if I really believed that way, and your sisters would disown me." He laughed easily.
"Good riddance." Jacob mumbled low enough that only I could hear as he turned back to help with my line. Apparently Jacob was suffering from a little sibling rivalry.
I sighed in relief that I wasn't going to have to verbally castrate Charlie or Billy as a service to society, but was still frustrated with the lack of fish in my bucket.
"That's it. I'm doing it my way." I positioned the pole back over my shoulder.
"You probably shouldn't—" Jacob started, but I cut him off because I had this. The men were just over-complicating this whole thing.
"Fire in the hole!" I called out and flung the hook toward the water, but I didn't account for how close I was to the water's edge or the direction the hook swung when it got stuck in my ponytail. I tried to swat the line away, lost my footing, and fell backward, waving wildly all the way down. Just as I anticipated hitting the freezing cold water, two russet hands reached out and caught me. Damnit, Jacob Black, why are you and the Cullens always having to save me? Can't I just have this one moment?
"This is not really your thing, is it?" Jacob snickered as he unhooked my hair.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "No, but you should see me with a needle." I didn't mean it as a threat, but my tone came across much harsher than intended.
"What? Like tattoos?" Jacob didn't seem to notice my frustration.
"Never mind. Hey, what is there to do around here?" We were at the edge of La Push. I could hear the ocean somewhere close calling to me. I glanced over my shoulder toward Billy and Charlie who were seven beers in and looking pretty drowsy.
"We could go down to the beach." Jacob suggested. Bingo.
"Cool. Lemme just tell Charlie where we're going, and we can head over there." I walked to where Charlie sat dozing with his fishing pole propped against his chair. His eyes were closed and his hands were folded lazily across his chest as he leaned back. He wasn't snoring yet, so I knew he was awake.
"Dad? I'm going with Jake to the beach, ok?"
"Hmph." The noise sounded affirmative, so I shrugged and turned back to Jake.
"Let's go." I stomped off, but Jake grabbed my shoulders and spun me around, redirecting me the opposite way.
"Sorry, this way's faster." He smiled, showing off his pearly whites, the color stark against his dark skin. Man, he is very pretty, not that I was interested. Firstly, he's a baby. Secondly, I was not going to start that stupid Twilight love triangle thing. If anything, I should have probably planned on leaving Forks and spending some time alone one of these days.
•PTaT•
The sea was calm today, but the wind blew my hair around my face. I was bundled up because it was below freezing out, and my teeth were starting to chatter now that there weren't any trees around to block the wind. Stupid, freezing cold Forks. I was from Atlanta which was lush and green in some areas, but for the most part it was a cement jungle of buildings. Freezing was the coldest the temperature dropped down to most of the time, but even that was just a couple of times per year. I was used to sweltering, hot temperatures eighty percent of the year. This rainy, wet mess of weather could go to hell as far as I was concerned.
"Ugh, maybe this was a bad idea." I complained as I flicked a stray hair away from my face for what felt like the hundredth time in the last twenty minutes. I looked over to Jacob who seemed totally at home in the disgusting climate.
"You're not a fan of the cold, huh." It was said as a statement, not a question.
"No, not quite. Maybe we should go find our fathers and just go home..."
"No!" Jacob nearly shouted, but backtracked looking embarrassed. His voice had cracked a little too with his outburst, but I didn't say anything. Only an immature jerk would make fun of someone for going through puberty. He cleared his throat, and began again much more quietly. "I mean, no, why don't we go back to my house? We can order pizza and play video games or something. My friend, Quil, is supposed to be over later anyway." He looked to me hopefully.
"Hanging out with two teenage boys and playing zombie games? Lovely." I rolled my eyes in jest.
"Hey, you're a teenager too!" Oh, right. "Sorry, I don't have My Little Pony." He laughed.
"You don't spend much time with girls do you?" I joked. I hadn't meant the question to be offensive, but Jacob blushed and looked at the ground. Well, crap.
"Sure...I've had plenty of girlfriends..." he reached down to grab a rock, tossing it into the waves while avoiding eye contact with me.
"They're lucky girls." I said in hopes to cheer him back up. He really was like this ball of energy that could lighten up any situation, probably even a funeral. Wow, that was morbid, Iris. Tone it down a tad why don't you? It was refreshing to be around him, though.
Jacob looked down through his lashes at me, his face still flushed. The expression on his face was unmistakeable. He had a crush...a bad one. "You mean it?" His voice was lower all of a sudden.
Oh shit. Clean it up. Nope. Hard stop, McGee. This is actual pedophilia to encourage this behavior! "Uhh, sure. Any girl would be lucky to have you as a friend. You know, like us. We're friends. Great friends. I would never want to change anything about our relationship, anything at all." I was speaking too quickly to sound normal, and blushing furiously myself. Damn this stupid blush!
Jacob seemed to light up at the words our relationship and it freaked me the fuck out. This kid can't take a hint. Hell, I don't know how to be anymore clear without jumping the gun. I mean, he hadn't actually confessed himself to me, so it would be pretty presumptuous of me to tell him to back off.
"Did you ever hear the story of our tribe? It says that we come from—" He started.
"La la la la—" I plugged my ears. He was going to say wolves. He was just going to stand there and casually disclose all their tribe secrets to me, breaking the treaty in the process, all to impress me. I didn't even ask him about it. I wasn't even trying to flirt! What the hell? It truly felt like no matter what I did, Twilight would have its way and get the story back on track, and that really freaked me out.
Jacob was staring at me like I had lost my mind, which maybe I had, I mean, here I was standing before Jacob Ephraim Black, a fictional character, but I digress.
"Those stories are supposed to be tribe secrets, right? I'd hate for you to break the tr—promise you made with your tribal leaders. Save story time for your friend later. Look, I'm feeling kind of sick all of a sudden. I... Yeah, I might barf, and you don't want to see that."
"Bella?"
"No, I'm fine. It's fine. I'm going to go find my dad." I was backing away as I talked. Jacob looked like he might cry. He really was just a boy.
I left Jake standing there as I briskly walked—I was too scared of injuring myself to actually run or even jog for that matter in this body—into the woods and back toward the path we had taken earlier. Jake didn't follow, of course, probably mad or confused at how I had responded to his obvious flirting attempts.
•PTaT•
I had been walking about forty five minutes—I had to guess at the time since I didn't own a watch or a cell phone thanks to 2005 Bella and her aversion to any safety measures—when I had to stop denying the fact that I was lost. It had only taken us about fifteen minutes to get to the beach from the fishing spot which meant I was half an hour off. Now I was just plain old lost, no getting around it. Damnit all.
I stood there in the center of a bunch of trees, trying to decide which way I should go. Continue straight and potentially go deeper and deeper into the woods? Or turn around and maybe go back the direction I came? I couldn't really even be sure that was the direction I had come from. These freaking trees all looked exactly the same. I was freezing my ass off now too. My legs were numb, my face chapped, and my eyes burned from the constant wind blowing. It looked like there might be a storm soon too because, like why not? Fan-frickin-tastic.
It was darker now as the sun filtered less and less through the dense trees. With a deep breath, I chose my course and trudged on. I had taken approximately five steps, closely watching my feet move each time so as not to trip which I had already done in spite of all the care I had taken not to, when I heard something, Just a small sound of a twig snapping in the distance.
My head shot up instantly at the sound, and I paused, scanning the area but coming up blank. Ok, iris, it was probably a squirrel or something. You're acting paranoid because you're out here all alone and it's getting dark. You're fine. Just keep moving forward.
I hadn't even placed my foot back on the ground when I heard her.
"Hello there." The female voice spoke seductively, and the hair stood straight up on my arms at the sound. My eyes met hers, and I knew I was in trouble. Oh shit.
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