A/N: Happy Valentine's day! I love y'all all so much, and hope you enjoy this humble gift from me to my loyal readers. Find someone you love and tell them you love them. And don't stay at home - if you need something from the store, go get it - who knows what might happen? Here's to Jake and Nessie.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Cake and Hairspray
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"Ve are about to close!"
Jacob nodded, even though the cashier probably couldn't see it from the back of the store, and continued searching the aisles for what he had been sent after. Quil and Embry would be super pissed if he came back without it - said they wouldn't let him back in the house. And it being Christmas eve and all, this was the only store in a ten-mile radius that was open, and about to close at that.
"Did you hear me?" The guy behind the register called out again, at the same time the door chimed. "I said ve are about to close!"
"Oh, I'm sorry," a girl's voice said from the front of the store. Normally, Jacob would check it out, but he was on a mission. "I'll be so quick, I promise - I just need to grab one thing."
Jacob turned the next and last aisle, desperation beginning to fill his stomach. Damn it, why didn't he make Seth go? If he missed Sue's red velvet cake because of this shit, he was going to have to crack some skulls.
He felt hopeful when he spotted packs of bobby pins and rubber bands. That meant it had to be close, right? Jacob came to a stop and surveyed the surrounding shelves. Shampoo, conditioner, lotion - no, no, no. Where was it?
There. Yes.
"Oh thank God!" A voice exclaimed softly from behind him, and at the same time his hand closed around the can of hairspray, so did a much smaller, much whiter hand. With pink nails.
Jacob's eyes followed up the hand's arm to its owners face. Damn. A beautiful redhead with full pink lips and wide brown eyes.
"Oh, okay, hi," she said nervously, flashing a smile that showed off perfect white teeth. "I'm sorry, but I really, really need this."
It took him a second, but that shook Jacob back into reality. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't give it to her.
Jacob shook his head. "I'm sorry, I do too."
The girl narrowed her eyes just slightly, like she was thinking, and licked her pretty pink lips. She sighed with an air of finality, then offered, "I'll give you thirty dollars for it."
Any other time, Jacob would have been all over that offer, especially considering it was a way to get in a pretty (read: gorgeous) girl's good graces. But, the cake. And it was cold. And he really, really believed Quil and Embry would lock him out of the house.
"No can do," Jacob turned her down. He opened his mouth to apologize, but she didn't let him get around to it.
"Oh come on, I have to be at a gala in Port Angeles in less than two hours and I haven't even started getting ready!" She burst out, shifting her weight and almost stamping her foot. The movement made Jacob look down at the rest of her; she was wearing tights, a big Forks High sweatshirt, and snow boots. "My dad's gonna kill me if I'm late and don't look appropriate, and I need this hairspray - look at my hair! Does it look like I can do anything to it without industrial-strength hairspray?"
Since she was screaming at him to, Jacob looked at her hair. To be honest, he'd already looked. It seemed just fine to him. A pretty copper color and really curly without being frizzy. Really long. Whatever she was trying to hold it back with now wasn't doing a very good job. He'd never been to a gala, but hair like that kind of stood for itself - it didn't really need anything else.
Jacob opened his mouth to say something once again, when he realized he had in fact been staring at her hair for a few seconds, when she beat him to it. Again.
Not letting go of the can, she put her free hand on her hip and gave him the scary girl look. Apparently all women could do that. His sisters and Sue in particular were experts.
"What do you need hairspray for anyway?" She asked bluntly, pursing her pink lips just a little. Jacob forced himself not to look. "You've got a good bit but I doubt you're about to attempt an updo."
That was the question Jacob had been hoping to avoid. He looked down at his boots and then back up at the space behind the girl's shoulder while he mumbled his answer. And he got the reaction he expected.
"You what?"
"We need it to try to blow something up," he said again, slower than before but still quick. She stared at him dumbly for a second so Jacob ducked his head. "Listen, my idiot friends have some brilliant scheme that I was sent out in search of hairspray to help fulfill - and if I come back without it, they won't let me in the house and I won't get any red velvet cake, and what's the point of Christmas eve if you don't have any damn red velvet cake?"
Jacob really hadn't meant to say all of that. Couldn't he just say his sister/girlfriend/mother/aunt had some event that required hairspray too? Or something else besides rambling his life story at her and talking about cake? But hey, maybe she hadn't meant to tell him she had a psycho dad that made her drive to Port Angeles in the snow on Christmas eve in a ballgown.
Hairspray really brought out the worst in people. Maybe that was why girls were so bitchy.
"I - I don't even," she announced simply, before her other small hand came around to hold the other end of the bottle, so she had both hands on it now. "No, seriously, you have to let me have it. You need it to blow something up? That's not a real reason!"
"Hey back there!" The cashier shouted from the front. "Tree more minutes - I have a family to get to, you know!"
This caused the girl to jump with fright and tug on the can with both hands. "Oh come on!"
"Sorry," he said again, tugging back, but up, so she had to raise her arms. As he straightened up to his full height, he realized just how short she was. "We're both stuck in the same boat. And I was here first."
For some reason, this seemed to annoy her more than anything else. Her literally watched the anger flare in her eyes.
"You may have been in the store first, but you did not grab it before me," she said clearly, her voice low but serious. "We grabbed it at the exact same time, which is why we are having this argument."
Knowing she was right and not wanting to backtrack, Jacob changed tactics.
"Look, I'm just trying to be nice to you because it's Christmas eve," he informed her, making her mouth drop open, just a little. "I can very easily snatch this can from you if I wanted to - "
"And I would climb your giant ass like a tree to get it back!"
Jacob wanted to laugh, really bad, but he knew that wasn't a smart move. They had to settle this soon or the store owner was going to kick them both out without what they needed. He tried to imagine her scaling him like a mountain to grab the hairspray from above his head and it made him want to laugh again - it also made him kind of want to see if she'd do it, and that had nothing to do with humor at all.
His mom would kill him if she were alive to see or hear about what he was about to do, but there was no way around it. He'd been gone half an hour already.
Jacob snatched the can upward, surprised by the fact that the force of his pull hadn't knocked her hands away. Now she stood on her tiptoes on the home accessory aisle of the only Forks convenient store open on Christmas eve, with her arms above her head, clinging with both hands to a hairspray can for dear life. Jacob couldn't pull up anymore without taking her whole body weight with him, and even he wasn't that good.
Damn it, he didn't want to wrestle this girl down over a can of hairspray. But then -
"Okay, okay, listen," she pleaded, in clear desperation. She was still on her tiptoes, still holding on to the can, and somehow in the midst of it all, still cute as hell. "Somewhere in the middle of all that rambling you were doing earlier, I heard red velvet cake."
Jacob tugged the can a little, just to see her bounce, and forced himself not to smile. He was intrigued.
"Go on."
"I make a mean red velvet cake. Completely from scratch, cream cheese frosting, the whole nine yards. If you let me have this hairspray," she offered, widening her eyes and Jacob was horrified to see the beginning of tears glistening there. Real ones too. Jacob's sisters had made him an expert on fake tears and he knew them when he saw them. "Because I really, really do need it . . . I will make you three red velvet cakes, whenever you want. I swear."
Those big brown eyes blinked rapidly and the shininess went away, and that's what made Jacob 100% sure they'd been real. Why not turn on the waterworks unless she really hadn't wanted him to see them?
And three red velvet cakes made from scratch? That was . . . that was a damn good offer, especially considering what they were arguing over was a can of hairspray Quil or Embry was undoubtedly going to use to set something on fire. Also, it would be an excuse to see her again. Because he kinda really did want to see this girl again.
"Three red velvet cakes?" He asked as though he were considering bartering, even though the decision had already been made. "Whenever I want?"
"I'll give you my phone number, Facebook account, and address," she swore, and he chose to believe her. "My grandfather is Carlisle Cullen, the chief of medicine at Forks Hospital - I won't be able to hide from you even if I wanted to."
Hot damn, she was a Cullen. That explained the fancy galas on Christmas eve when all normal people were with their families, and the rest of the douchery. Even if he hadn't decided to already, he'd have had to give her the can then. Getting into a fight with a Cullen girl was the last thing he needed to do. End up in jail on Christmas eve.
Even as he thought it though, he knew it wasn't true. If she had wanted to play the name card, she'd have played it from the beginning.
Jacob let go of the can and her arms fell like a rock being dropped into a bucket. She clutched the can to her chest and absolutely beamed at him. Like a sap, Jacob knew immediately he'd done the right thing.
"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, actually doing a little jump. "Thank you so much! I can't believe it, thank you, thank you! Give me your phone and I'll put my number in it so you can text me about your cakes!"
Jacob let himself smile then - a pretty girl and the promise of cake, what wasn't there to smile about? - as he fished his phone out of his pocket. He handed it to her and before he could ask her if she knew how to use it (it was really old), she'd already began punching her number in.
"I sent a text to my phone, so I have your number too," she said happily a second later, still smiling brightly.
Then, without warning, she jumped straight up to his height and wrapped her arms around his neck. Jacob barely had time to grab her waist for support before she had pressed her lips against his cheek in a warm kiss and hugged him hard around his neck. The next second, she was back on her feet.
"Thank you so much, really, I mean it!" She called out, almost skipping backwards towards the register. "Text me anytime!"
Jacob watched her smile brilliantly at the cashier who looked like he immediately forgot that he'd been about to kick them both out of his store. She handed him what looked like a twenty and apologized. Then she headed for the door.
Jacob couldn't believe the twist he felt in his stomach.
"My name's Jacob, by the way!" He called out to her as she flew towards the door. She stopped with it half open and turned back to look at him, the bell already chiming, her curls all around her face and her cheeks flushed. Jacob felt like his were too.
"I'm Renesmee Cullen!" She called back, bouncing on her toes, smiling like . . . well, like it was Christmas. "Have a merry Christmas, Jacob! It was nice to meet you!"
And with a wave of the hairspray can still clutched in her hand, Renesmee Cullen was gone.
