Bella's POV
I drove away from Billy's house. I was driving faster than I would normally feel comfortable with, but I wanted to get out of there as soon as humanly possible. I was really pissed off right now. I kept replaying my breakup with Jared over and over again. I'd been so devastated by our breakup. It wasn't as bad as with Edward, but again, that was probably because it was the second time I was left. Also, my relationship with Edward was different than with Jared. I'd felt almost dependent on Edward. It had never been like that with Jared. I loved Jared, but I never felt like I needed him to survive.
Suddenly a saw a glimpse of something in my rearview mirror. I looked into it and saw Jared chasing after me on foot. I looked back at him like he had grown a second head. Was he seriously trying to outrun my truck? Jared had always been a pretty good runner, but come on! Even the fasted runner couldn't keep up with a pick-up truck.
Maybe Jared thought if I saw him running after me, I'd stop. Well, he had another thing coming if that's what he thought. I wasn't stopping for him. I was going home and as far away from him as I could get.
I kept driving, speeding up just slightly. He wouldn't catch up to me, but I wanted him to be out of my sight as soon as possible.
I drove for a few more moments before looking to my right. I gasped in shock. Jared was right outside the passenger side of my car. He had actually caught up to me. That shouldn't be possible, not unless he was a vampire, which he wasn't. "What the hell?"
"Bella, please pull over," Jared begged.
I claim shock from seeing him actually running beside my truck as the reason why I pulled over. I wanted to know how he could do that.
As soon as I came to a stop, Jared opened the passenger door and got inside. "Thank you."
"How the hell did you do that? How did you catch up to me?" I demanded to know.
"I…I'm a good runner?"
I glared at him. "No one's that good a runner, Jared. How long have you been able to do that? Since Phoenix?"
"No. It started about a year ago for me," Jared said.
"What did?" I asked.
"That doesn't matter right now. Look, I wanna talk about us," he said.
"There is no us, Jared. You left me!" It was becoming a common theme. First Jared left me, then Edward, and finally Jacob. While Jake was just a friend, his sudden absence still hurt. About the only thing that was different with him was that I was pretty sure he didn't make the choice. It was all Sam Uley and his gang, which apparently Jared was a part of. "Just go! Get out of my truck!"
"No, not until you listen to me. I didn't wanna leave. You know what happened. My mom got legal custody of me. I was forced to leave," Jared said. His voice was laced with pain.
I forced myself to ignore his pain. "Yeah, I know that. I also know we could've made it work. We could've seen each other. I could've come to see you and you could've visited me." Hell, if I'd known where Jared had been moving to him, I would've come with him. I would've convinced my mom to let me move in with my dad earlier. But I didn't know where he was moving. All I knew was that he was moving to an Indian reservation in Washington.
"No, we couldn't have. My mom wanted to phase out everything about my life in Phoenix. My mom's always wanted my life to be all about her. She never would've even considered letting me visit. I would've been two years before I could see you again. That didn't seem fair. I didn't want you to have to wait for me. It just seemed better to let you go.
"And the hell with what I wanted, right?" I asked angrily. It was weird, but I was angrier at Jared than I had been with Edward. Actually, I wasn't angry with Edward at all. I wasn't really sure why. Maybe it was because a part me always believed that Edward was too good for me or maybe it was because of the difference between my relationship with him and my relationship with Jared. Or maybe it was both. I could never seem to be angry with Edward. I just seemed to have such low self-esteem with him. It had never been like that with Jared. I grew up with him. I always felt worthy of Jared's love, therefore, I was never afraid to be angry with him.
"No, of course not. I never meant to take your choice away. I just wanted things to be okay for both of us. I figured that even if we tried to hold out for each other, it wouldn't work and it would be harder for us when we realized that. I thought we should both just move on. But I couldn't. I loved you with all my heart. I couldn't be with anyone else. I couldn't even picture myself with anyone else," Jared said.
I glared at him. "Is this where you judge me for being able to move on?"
"No, of course not. All I've ever wanted is your happiness. If the le… if he could've made you happy than I would've been grateful, but obviously he couldn't," Jared said.
"Who are you to judge? You're no different." Okay, that wasn't really true. Jared hadn't left me in the woods like Edward had and he'd been much gentler than Edward had. But I wanted to hurt Jared and making him worse than Edward seemed like the best way.
"I didn't feel like I had a choice. I would've stayed if I could, but I couldn't. I'm here now though," Jared said.
"So what? You think we can just go back like nothing happened? You think I can just forget that you left me? You're insane if you think that. Just go, Jared. You had your say and I wanna leave," I told him.
Jared sighed. "Alright, but this isn't over. I know I hurt you and I'm going to make it up to you. You'll forgive me someday and we'll be together again."
I laughed humorlessly. "You're out of your mind."
"I love you, Bella. That never has and never will change," Jared said before opening the door and jumping out.