Chapter 12: His Room

I woke up to someone yelling. It was very unpleasant.

"Jake! Man, where are you? It's 10 in the morning! You're late for shooting practice!"

The only thing that made it more unpleasant was that I recognized the voice as Amelia's. What the fuck was she doing here at… wait did she say 10? Fuck, I was late for class.

I bolted up in bed and made to stand up, but a strong pair of arms pulled me back down. "Nooooo." Jake moaned behind me. "It's too early."

"Jake, I'm late for class. It's 10. And that bitch, Amelia, is here to pick you up, I presume." My voice took on a mocking tone towards the end.

Jake sat me up with him this time. "It's 10? Wow. I don't remember the last time I slept in like this. And Amelia's not a bitch, Ness. I know you don't like her because-" I gave him a warning look. "Because of our history, but, Ness, it's over. I'm not asking you to like her, but I still have to work with her. Whether either one of us likes it or not, she's a part of my life right now. So, just be cordial with her, please. You don't need to talk to her or anything, but don't be deliberately rude. Can you do that?"

"I'll try, but no promises. If she starts something…" I waved my hands around.

Jake leaned in and kissed my cheek. "Thanks. And I'll talk to her, too." I rolled my eyes at him.

Right then, Amelia burst into Jake's room. "Hey, Ja-" She paused and her eyes widened as she took in both of us in Jake's bed underneath his blanket. "Oh, sorry. I didn't realize I was interrupting."

Jake got up quickly leaving my back chilled without his heat. "No worries. I didn't mean to sleep in. Sorry about not meeting you at the range." Jake went over to the pile of clothes that was near his closet for a clean shirt. I couldn't help but notice that Amelia watched his bare back too closely.

She took a step closer. "How can you even tell what's clean in that pile?"

"This is what he's been doing for years. Got a good sniffer." I tapped my nose. Both Jake and I laughed at my joke. Amelia who wasn't aware of Jake's wolfish tendencies looked confused.

"What?"

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it." Jake looked over his shoulder and I gave him a genuine smile. He smiled back.

"I love it when you smile. I missed that." I smiled broader, and Amelia coughed.

"Okay, if you two are done being sappy, Jake let's go." She shot a look in my direction, and my smile faded.

I must've had a murderous look on my face because Jake quickly came over, putting his body between me and Amelia. Smart guy.

He started giving me puppy dog eyes, and I felt the corners of my mouth turn up. I want to hurt her. I mouthed the words, and Jake's eyes narrowed.

Don't. He mouthed back, and I rolled my eyes.

"Will I see you later?" This time he spoke out loud.

"Later?" He knew I hated it when he said that instead of a more specific time.

"Tonight. After I'm done with our exercises? Sometime around 7?"

"Yeah, I'll be here." I smiled at him again.

His brows furrowed. "You're not going to school?"

I looked at the alarm clock on the window sill behind me. "Well, considering there's only about 30 minutes left of my last class for the day, and it will take me at least 45 minutes to get there… no."

"Okay. Have fun. Mi casa es su casa." His accent was completely American, and I had to giggle. "Shut up. I never really learned Spanish. High school drop-out, remember?"

I brought my hand up to the side of his face, and he leaned his head into my palm, much like a dog would.

"I'll see you tonight, okay? You better go." I glanced behind him at Amelia who had a scowl on her face. "We'll talk."

"We could do more than just talk." Jake raised his eyebrows suggestively.

I pushed him away. "Don't push it, Jacob." He simply shrugged, and left with Amelia, winking at me.

I stood up after about a half hour of scrolling through Facebook while lying in Jake's bed. When I finally felt ready to get up, I grabbed a towel from the closet and went to take a shower. I passed Rachel in the hallway.

"Hey, Rach. How are you?"

"Hi, Ren. I'm fine. How are you?"

"Good." She was still staring at me as I closed the bathroom door behind me. I guess I was going to have to explain last night to her. Great.

After a too-quick, hot shower, I retreated back into Jake's room. I went into the bottom drawer of his dresser. It used to be my drawer with some of his clothes from before he went wolf. Small enough to fit me, but big enough that it was still my boyfriend's clothes. To my pleasant surprise, the drawer hadn't changed. I quickly pulled on an old wife beater with oil stains and some sweats.

Then, I thought about what I would do for the rest of the day. I needed to talk to Rach and Billy and probably Paul, but that could wait until lunch, leaving me an hour. I decided to clean up Jake's room. I separated the pile of clothes in front of his closet. Clean clothes I dropped on the bed to be hung up, and the dirty were put in a pile by the door. I cleaned up the discs that were scattered on Jake's. CDs and DVDs went back into their cases on the shelf above his stereo. The Xbox discs I placed back into their cases under his TV, next to the game consul. Then I went about putting his clothes back into his closet and dresser. I stripped the bed and threw the sheets with the dirty clothes. Finally I dusted the top of his bed stand and dresser.

I looked around, satisfied with my work. I figured I should go out and talk to Jake's family now, so I grabbed the pile of laundry and headed out to face the wolves.