I had that nightmare every night, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. It was my 18th birthday…
"Time your cut your cake Bella!" Alice announced.
"You guys got a cake? You guys don't even eat!" I argued.
"Whatever." Alice replied as Carlisle handed me a knife. I took hold of it, took a deep breath and prepared to cut the cake. However, the knife slipped out of my and I caught it, by the sharp blade. I reflexively let go of the knife, letting it clang on the white carpet. My hand was instantly covered with crimson blood.
"Shoot." I said, when I remembered that I was in a house full of vampires. I looked around and saw thankfully, that they weren't thirsty. All except for one. I saw Edward tensed into his hunting crouch and his golden eyes turned midnight black with thirst, low snarls escaping through his teeth. Emmett and Jasper saw, and held him back; shouting at him, just before he lunged towards me, entirely consumed by thirst…
That was usually when the screaming started. I shuddered away form the memory of his thirsty eyes, ready to tame his thirst with my blood. I lay awake for another few hours and got out of bed when I heard Charlie open his bedroom door, yawning loudly next door. After we both finished brushing our teeth and washing our faces, I made breakfast while Charlie answered a telephone call. I laid our breakfast on the table.
"Bella, Jacob asked if you can go down to La Push today. You up for it?" Charlie asked at breakfast while shoving toast and eggs in his mouth to get to work on time.
"Alright. Did he say what time?" I asked. I was eager to see Jacob again.
"11:00." He replied, putting his fork down on his plate; looking as if it was licked clean.
"Okay." I said while taking the dishes to the sink and began washing them.
"Well, I have to go to work now Bella." he said, getting out of his seat and headed to the door.
"Be careful. Bye Dad." I called to him, as he waved goodbye, shutting the door behind him. I sighed. I had another hour until it was time to go to La Push. Then, the phone rang and I went to pick it up.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Bella?" a familiar voice said.
"Jacob? Hi."
"Hey Bella. So, are you coming to La Push today?"
"Um, yeah. 11:00 right?" I asked.
"Yup. Do you want me to pick you up?"
"If you want to." I replied, remembering that Jacob had finished his car; he probably wanted to show it to me.
"Cool, so I'll be there at 11."
"Kay. Anything else?'
"Um, not really. Well, see you then."
"Bye Jacob."
"Bye Bella." he said, and then he hung up. I decided to go take a shower to give me something to do in the next hour. When I finished showering, I looked through my closet, finding something to wear. I eventually chose a violet top paired with my jeans. I thought of Alice, and remembered how she would have scrutinised my 'plain-and-boring' outfit and how I would roll my eyes, not caring. I also sprayed my Unforgivable Woman perfume (from Renee as a present) on my shirt and jeans. I heard a honk outside, so I looked out my window and saw Jacob outside, leaning against his car and peering into the house. I practically ran downstairs and flung open the door.
"Bella!" Jacob greeted.
"Jacob!" I said as I walked towards his car. Then, suddenly my air supply was cut off as he pulled me in for a rib-crushing bear hug.
"Jacob-Can't-Breathe!" I managed to choke out.
"Right. Sorry." he said as he put me down on the ground. I took a deep breath, finally able to breathe once more. He laughed and opened the car door for me to get into. I got in and shut the door as he went to the driver's seat and got in. He started driving and put his arm over the back of my seat. I looked outside the window for a while; taking in the blur of trees and dirt outside. Then, we stopped outside a beach. We got out of the car and Jacob took my hand as we walked along the sandy shore.
"So…You been up to anything lately?" I asked, trying to make conversation again, as usual.
"Not really. What about you?"
"Naw."
Then, he started talking about his friends, Quil and Embry. I asked questions, truly curious and eager to know more about him and his friends. It was as if we hadn't spoken in a century and we were reunited once again and were eager to talk; find out about what happened while we were away. We laughed, smiled and talked a lot. We passed by a couple, and they were holding hands as we were, talking and laughing as we were. I realised that we also looked like a couple, what with our hands clasped together so tightly and our manner of talking; friendly and joking.
"Quil and Embry really want to meet you, you know." he said as he kicked a small rock to the side. The wind blew my hair.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Should we see them today?" I asked, supposing he was hinting that.
"If you want." he replied. In the end, we agreed to meet them today and Jacob called them and asked them to come down to La Push. They said okay and in a few minutes, we could see distant figures emerging from our left.
"Quil! Embry!" Jacob called, waving as he spoke. They saw us and ran towards us.
"Quil, Embry, this is Bella." Jacob introduced.
"Hey Bella. I'm Quil." he said, smiling.
"Hi Quil."
"I'm Embry. Well, you probably already figured that out though." He said, smiling as well.
"Hi Embry."
Then, they seemed to notice that our hands were locked together and exchanged glances. Jacob saw, let go of my hand and smacked them both on the back of their heads. Quil rubbed the back of his head and mouthed 'Ouch.' I fought back a laugh while watching them. They reminded me of brothers for some reason. I looked at Jacob and saw that he was a shade of red, from anger or embarrassment I don't know; but it had a weird but nice effect on his skin, making him look slightly vulnerable but defensive at the same time. I kind of liked it. Then Jacob realised I was looking at him and self-consciously asked "What?"
I shook my head. "I'll tell you later." Then, the four of us began walking along the beach, talking as we did so. Unfortunately, being me, I tripped over a rock. Jacob, a second too late, reached out to pull me back, only grasping the air.
"Bella! Are you alright? Are you cut or anything?" he asked frantically.
"I'm fine Jacob, no need to worry." I said, finding a bleeding cut on my leg. I tried to hide it by turning my leg to the opposite side to prevent Jacob from seeing and making a fuss, but he saw. He reached into his pocket and got out a Band-Aid. He removed the wrappings and stuck it carefully on my cut, his hand lingering ever so slightly on my leg. I looked at his face and saw that he was well…Beautiful.
"Thanks." I mumbled.
" 'S alright." he replied. For a moment or two, our gazes locked and it was as if the world was still. Then, we looked away, both blushing. Quil nudged Embry and they both fought back a laugh. Jacob saw and shot them a warning glance. Embry raised his eyebrows two times at Jacob, his eyes flashing.
"Alright. That's it. We're leaving." Jacob declared, taking hold of my hand and pulled me firmly but gently away.
"Bye Embry. Bye Quil." I called frantically before we went out of earshot.
"Sorry 'bout that." he said, still embarrassed.
"It's fine." I replied. Quil and Embry seemed fun but mischievous.
"What was it that you said you'd tell me later?" he asked curiously.
"Um…Do I have to tell you?" I asked, embarrassed.
"Kinda yeah."
Ugh. "Well, you know, um…"
"Keep going." He said, eager to know.
"You're kind of…Beautiful." I confessed, deeply embarrassed. He blushed and didn't say anything.
"You're beautiful as well." he said quietly after a while. I didn't reply but I blushed, as he had. We went on walking hand in hand along the beach. Then, we headed to Jacob's place, as he was complaining that he was starving.
When we got back to his house, it was empty and quiet because Billy had gone over to Harry Clearwater's place. I told Jacob that I would make him lunch and he stood by me in the kitchen, watching me work and occasionally sneaking a bit of food into his mouth. After Jacob finally felt full after 3 helpings, we went up to his room. His room was pretty tidy, just the odd shirt here and there. He took out his phone and took a picture of me quickly, as for me not to notice. I did.
"Hey!" I complained, taking out my phone as well. "What about we each take a picture of each other properly?"
"Alright. You first" he said, positioning his phone. I flipped my hair back and smiled. Jacob's finger pressed down and lifted back again. Then, I took a picture of him and we tried a couple of shots together, laughing at the failures. In the end, we ended up with around 50 photos of each other. I set a photo that had the both of us as my phone background and we exchanged phone numbers.
"Whoa! It's like, almost 6 o'clock now." I told him as I saw the time on my phone.
"You need to go back right?" he asked.
"Yeah, I need to cook for Charlie. Sorry. We could get together tomorrow though."
"Okay!" he agreed eagerly. "I'll send you back." We both headed to his car and he sent me back to Charlie's. I sighed, then got into the house and began to cook Charlie's dinner in the kitchen; waiting for the next day to come.