[Jess Arc]

"The Vampire and the Wolf"

"-He's a huntin' dog now.

-You're right. And you're a fox.

-Oh that won't make any difference. Copper's gonna be glad to see me.

-Well, honey. Just don't get your hopes too high."

– The Fox and the Hound

Chapter 5

"You've been happier lately." Alice sat down next to me as I had a fixed stare on the sun in the sky. We were both sitting on the wood bench in the backyard of the house. Our backyard was on par of what I imagine the garden of Eden would have looked like, by Esme's design, and yet I still found the sun to be my favorite thing to gaze upon.

"Have I?" I asked amused. I felt a wistful grin touch my lips as I didn't break my eyes away from the bright orange ball capturing my attention.

"Yes." Alice patted her hand on my back, beckoning my attention to her. I turned to face Alice. Looking upon her didn't release my joy I had obtained from staring at the sun, but it was shift I still noticed. "It must because you're aware it's been officially decided."

I felt my twist in confusion to what Alice was implying I should already know. "We are moving in two weeks! We are signed up to go to school in Seguenay in Quebec! You'll finally get your first taste in assimilating with humans!" Alice clapped her hands together to add to the news she delivered in a cheery voice.

The joy I once felt evaporated in the air. I felt my smile strain to encourage Alice to think I was in agreement with her initial assessment: I was happy because of this. I felt the happiness within me slowly leak out and re-inflate with dread.

I had wanted this.

Before...I met Jacob.

How was I to tell him we were moving? He had become my secret best friend over the last few weeks. I was constantly treading a thin line to keep our friendship a secret. I prevailed for weeks only to have it now uprooted because I was moving. Would Alice believe me if I told her I wasn't ready? No... I have to figure something out. I can broach this topic when I see Jacob later today.

…

"You're late today," Jacob commented with his eyes closed while lying on the grass with all but my shirt wrapped around his waist. The sun was hitting him in all the right places. My eyes lingered on the fine lines of his muscles before my brain commanded my mouth to reply.

"I know! Alice is making it harder for me to get alone time lately..." I mumbled as I laid down next to him. I rested my head along his shoulder. His heat was something I missed in our long absences from one another. I felt Jacob's shoulder stiffen underneath my head.

"Why?" His question wrung the tune of concern more than curiosity to me. I slid my hand from my side to find Jacob's forearm and offered him a quick squeeze of comfort.

"Remember how I told you she can see the future? Well it's been really spotty lately concerning me. It's almost like all the time I spend with you blacks out her visions pertaining to me. It makes her apprehensive when she doesn't know what's in store for me." It was true, but I also was stalling on telling the truth about us moving.

Jacob's body began to quiver, and I knew what to do. To ease his discomfort or misunderstanding. I slid my hand further down my body to entwine with his own. "Jake, it's okay. She is just overprotective. She won't take this time away from me."

"Can you just call me Jacob, please?" Jacob's uneasy voice warranted my hand to retract to my side and I moved my head off his shoulder to be supported by the grass.

"Hey, no it's nothing like that," Jacob whispered softly before he turned to his side to face me. I closed my eyes before he could see the hurt he caused in them. I felt a warmth spread over my cheeks as hand caressed my face. Coaxing me to open my eyes.

I slowly lifted my eyelids to meet Jacob's dark eyes and a sledge hammer wreaked havoc on my chest. I had no beating heart, but my chest felt like I was alive with breath and a heartbeat from the way he stared into my own eyes.

"You always preferred calling me Jacob, despite my insistence you call me Jake. You also only wanted to be called Jessica." Jacob withdrew his hand from my cheeks by the time his admission was over. He knew what line he had crossed yet he had done it anyways. Don't bring up the past. I wanted to be mad and tell him off. But I couldn't...the past four weeks of our time spent together had made me wonder more about who he was to me. Do I really want to know?

"You know that's not something we are-"

Jacob cut me off. "It's time we do though. I can't keep playing this game with you, Jessica." Jacob's eyes were cold and distant, and I wanted to run away from them. The only time I had seen his eyes take form this way was when we first met.

"Why did you call me that?! It's Jess!" I insisted while pushing my hands to the grass and standing myself up.

"You know that's not the truth." Jacob stood up after me. He towered me and I almost felt powerless standing next to him. "I can't keep coddling you here. My time is running short. I need you to remember." Jacob's tone was clipped, and I wasn't going to put up with his treating me like I was a child. I was older than him! Before I could channel that state of being, I found myself yelling, "Remember what?!"

"Who you are."

"I know who I am!" I crossed my arms around my chest defiantly as I stared down an Alpha Shapeshifter.

"No, you don't. Otherwise you wouldn't be meeting me as often as you do. You feel it. You're missing things. Important things. And I am one of them." Jacob was putting on a display of machoness I wanted no part of. He couldn't control me like I was a part of his pack. We were supposed to be friends.

"Why must you push this?!" I shoved Jacob in his chest and moved him a hair of an inch. He was unphased by my outburst.

"Because it's not right!" Jacob growled at me. "And it's driving me crazy not knowing the truth." Jacob grabbed my shoulders and lowered his line of sight to my eye level. He was looking for something in my eyes.

"What truth if you already know my past!?" I exclaimed in frustration. A wave of horror rippled through me. I had just admitted for the first time between us I actually believed he knew me before I turned.

"If this was your choice! Because last time we talked, the last thing you wanted to be was..." Jacob flailed his hand in front me, "THIS!"

"I knew it. You hate me like this." I felt my face twist in mortification over the realization Jacob was repulsed by what I was. I thought we saw more in each other than the monsters we were...

"No, I don't! It's just not what I wanted for you. You're dead. A living corpse!" Jacob shook my shoulders and I looked away from him in defeat. I could not change what I was. He didn't accept me after all it seemed.

Jacob finally admitted the truth that he had been holding in for so long and it stung. And because he hurt me, I selfishly decided to hurt him by lying.

"I wanted this. I begged Alice to change me. So, go Jacob. You got your answer. Your precious Jessica chose this life and forgot you in the process. Let's leave the past to die like the human part of me did. That's where our friendship was meant to end after all."

I didn't even bother to say goodbye before I blasted into the trees to put as much distance between me and my cold dead heart I threw on the ground at Jacob's feet.

...

AN: So, if you're mad I skipped too much in time, lemme know? Otherwise we keep plugging forward on this one. Don't worry, they will bounce back from the drama lol This took awhile to post... but I think I know where it's going now though?