Chapter 2
"You would not believe how crazy she is!" I said to Jacob later that night. "All of them actually."
Jacob arrived on campus just a few hours after Edward and Bella left, but I was otherwise occupied, so I didn't get his text until after the try-outs. He moved into a campus apartment that he shares with Brady, a canine comrade from La Push. I would have loved to move in with him, but Edward wasn't ready for that so Jacob suggested not even thinking of it. Which, of course, I did, and therefore, Edward did. It wasn't pretty. Edward has a pretty active imagination. I was sure that he pictured the Black apartment to be a scene of wild sex and drunken debauchery, but alas, I was still a virgin and planned on staying that way for a while. I was only seven years old after all. Not that I was not totally turned on by Jacob.
Even now, sitting her at the Spider Bar just off campus in the outdoor courtyard cooling with the late dusk Jacob looks angelic under the eternal Christmas lights in the trees. Albeit, a swarthy angel with his russet skin, dark eyes and dark hair, but an angel nonetheless. Totally relaxed in a loose shirt, jeans and skate shoes he fits right in with the college crowd around us. But I knew that under that pleasant façade lurked an animal. Looking into his dark eyes shot tingles down my spine and an irresistible urge to launch myself over the table and kiss him madly, but I refrained. After we ordered our turkey burgers I shared with him the events of the day ending with cheer try-outs to distract myself from thinking about what laid under his shirt.
I showed him how I begged off on actually auditioning despite Mandy's puppy dog eyed pleas. However, sheer curiosity kept me on the sidelines of the basketball court as I watch Mandy through herself into the air with a series of jumps. Then she was tossed with abandon as a couple of guys joined her in basket tosses. Finally, several other contestants constructed an intricate human pyramid and her small compact form fit perfectly on top.
Just for fun I attempted to replicate one of the jumps. I effortlessly pushed my feet off the ground and flung them in front of me while I stretched my hands to touch my toes as my legs separated. Once I landed on the balls of my feet I heard several gasps around me. With fearful eyes I tried to understand what I did wrong.
"You should try out!" a girl said.
"Did you see the height on that jump?" another girl whispered to her friend beside her.
"Man, why do I even bother," a third said and walked away with shoulders low.
I caught Mandy staring at me with narrowed eyes and I quickly looked away.
I was too late. Mandy bounded over to the side where I was and gushed. "That was fantastic. Sure you don't want to try out?"
Again, I shook my head no and didn't miss the smug smile as Mandy ran back to the coach in the center of the court.
"I can't believe I almost gave myself away on my first day at campus!" I told Jacob.
"You should have tried out. I would have loved watching you in those short skirts," he said.
"In your dreams." Jacob's eyebrows rose appreciatively suggesting that I had correctly guessed a subject of his dreams. I smacked him on the side of his head with a blow that would have taken out a chunk of the table had it been the table I hit instead of a mythical creature.
"You look great whatever you are wearing," he chuckled.
I blushed.
That was how our relationship progressed. He would tease me and I would blush. And drool.
After my high school graduation we both attended U of A for some basic classes: English, history and the like. We still lived in the Denali region so we car pooled to campus and met each other for lunch. It was wonderful for those few hours to forget that we were somehow "special" and luxuriated in the freedom of simply being human.
Over the summer we stopped hunting. For Jacob, it was easy to give up the game. He rarely even phased anymore and I noticed the hardening of manhood creep into his once child-like face. He was beginning to look more like the twenty-four year old man he was, but not too old to be a freshman at UT-Austin. I, on the other hand, took to abstinence a little less willingly. I enjoyed the hunt and eating the rewards, too. But, I weaned myself off of blood and currently avoid red meat altogether. The enticing aroma occasionally still teased my nose and I longed for the taste and texture again, but so far I have avoided temptation. All of them.
And now temptation with a capital "T" was staring at me with those incredible eyes. Eyes that I have drowned myself in over the summer. Eyes that I have –
"Enjoy your dinner," the floppy hair waiter said before he lumbered off back to the building. He had placed our platters on the table, but messed up our orders. Jacob had the burger (extra rare, I might add) and I had the veggie burger. The aroma from the plate in front of me was making me swoon.
"I believe that is mine," Jacob announced as he reached across the table to delicately retrieve his food. My nose followed its path and slumped a little when the garden burger replaced it. With a sigh, I reached for the ketchup bottle, but Jacob had gotten there first. Our hands touched. A tiny spark of electricity went up my hand and singed through-out my body. I snatched my hand back as though burned; however, the sensation was far from painful. I looked into his amused face and blushed again. The pattern forever repeated itself.
"So, tell me more about this vixen you have for a roommate," Jacob asked and then took an enormous bite of his burger. At this rate he would finish it in three bites. His metabolism was insatiable.
I hadn't yet touched my food. I waited for the feeling to return to my fingers before I approached the ketchup bottle again. "Well, in retrospect, she's totally the cheerleader type. You know, bubbly? And in your business. She just went through my closet and drawers like they were her own. I'll be keeping my valuables at your place."
"You think she'll steal something?" Another bite gone. One more to go.
"No, but some stuff just isn't her business." My memory was like a vault. I forgot nothing, but I liked to draw sketches of my memories and some I would like to keep to myself, especially those that might tell the true relationships of my family. I was fiercely protective of my privacy. Another reason to move thousands of miles away from probing eyes who wondered about my "siblings".
"Yeah, I can see how it's weird to have a roommate. I've lived alone for so many years. Well, since you were born." Jacob looked down at his plate. It was still uncomfortable to talk about the imprinting thing. "But I think Brady will be cool."
Jacob, after my birth, moved out of La Push and into Forks, Washington to be closer to me and the Cullen family. He then followed my family's latest move to Alaska. Brady was a member of the other werewolf pack—Sam's. But since there was no longer any vampiric activity in Washington, Sam eased up on the geographic restriction and permitted the now twenty-year-old freedom to see the world. Brady was extremely intelligent and earned a scholarship that he planned to use to study education and return to the reservation. He was a very quiet and likeable guy. I could see that he would easy to live with, unlike my roommate.
"Do you like your apartment?" I asked knowing it would be a matter of time before I made it over there myself. It will serve as a sanctuary from my boundary-encroaching roommate. The fact Jacob lived there made it all the more welcoming.
Jacob finished his burger in the anticipated three bites and wiped his hands before continuing. "Yeah. It's your basic apartment: kitchen has a microwave, bathroom has a shower, bedroom has a bed. It's got everything we need," he stated with a smile, the smile that turned my insides into jelly.
"Great." I busied myself with taking the first bite of my lackluster fare. I was hungry, but this veggie burger wasn't what my body was craving.
While absently sliding a fry around a puddle of ketchup on his plate, Jacob asked." Ready for class on Monday?"
"I still have to get a couple of books. I'll stop by the bookstore on the way to orientation on Saturday."
"I thought you already read all your books over summer break," he teased popping the fry into his mouth.
"Nah, I think I was otherwise preoccupied this summer." I grin.
"Now that you mentioned it…" Jacob leaned over and planted a kiss on my quivering lips. The touch was light and full of promise. I wanted to wrap my arms around his neck, hell, wrap my whole body around him. But instead I pulled back and gestured to my barely touched burger.
"Not everyone eats as fast as you do." The feel of the burger on my lips felt sorely inadequate and the meat sat like a rock in my tumbling belly.
As Jacob escorted me back to my dorm, a ten minute walk from the restaurant, we held hands and appeared to be like any other college couple. I have wanted this for so long, to act and be normal. Not having questioning eyes follow me around wondering if I was going to do something vampiric. My family loved me, but they also sheltered me. Granted, my first forays into human life weren't with a few mishaps, but I overcame them and grew from them. And now I wanted more than anything to be like the humans with whom I interacted with on a daily basis. I love my family, but spending eternity in high school was not for me. I leaned my head on Jacob's arm and he responded by wrapping that arm around my shoulder and we walked in the humid night.
"Help!"
I heard the cry and turned toward the sound. Jacob had heard it, too and fell into a partial crouch, ready to jump at whatever the threat was.
"Help!" sounded again from a female voice and was followed by laughter—male laughter.
Without a word we both half ran to the southeast where thought the sound originated. It was a fraternity house and people of both sexes were lazily sprawled across the entry steps. No one was alarmed. Soon we heard the same female voice laughing and peered up at the open window above. A blond girl, clearly intoxicated as evidence by her swaying and support offered by the guy next to her. She playfully slapped him and accepted his arms as they pulled her closer to him. Jacob and I turned to each other with shrugs.
I guess I have to learn to be more selective about what sounds I react to. I haven't lived in such a populated area. Healy, Alaska had less than a thousand people. More people were in that frat house then in my school. The University of Texas at Austin had over 50,000 students in a city of 1.6 million. The entire state of Alaska had 650,000 residents—total. I had no problem being around this many humans. I was in control of myself, but the bustling activity of so many was a little unnerving.
In front of the main door of the Kinsolving women's dorm and its signature marble outline, Jacob took me into his arms and gave me a knee-weakening kiss. "Good-night," he whispers and lopes off to his apartment. I stood on the steps looking after him as I tried to recover.
"Who was that!?" I heard a familiar voice say.
I groaned. "That was Jacob," I said.
"Wow, what a babe!" Mandy's eyes were threatening to pop out of her head again. "You have got to tell me about him!"
I sighed and made my way through the glass doors.
Kinsolving was an all-women's dorm built in the 1950s and was considered a technological marvel for its time. It housed upwards of seven hundred women in double rooms some with shared bathrooms, some with hall communal bathrooms. It had its own cafeteria, which had quite a high male attendance for a woman's facility, computer lab, rec room and blessed air conditioning and elevators.
Despite all these innovations, I had learned on my first night two annoying attributes. One, sleeping in a building with seven hundred breathing and sweating bodies was not pleasant. I heard all sorts of noises leaching through the cinder block walls as if they were made of paper: sighs, groans, mutterings, even a whimper from a girl on the third floor as she cried herself to sleep with homesickness. I stared at the ceiling until three in the morning when exhaustion finally overtook me. The second was the bathroom situation. I, in my lack of wisdom, was assigned to a communal floor. In other words, I shared a locker room with thirty women on my floor who all vied for a spot at that same time.
They came in various states of undressed, some in robes, some in t-shirts, some in underwear, all brandishing baskets of soaps, lotions and other do-dads. They left the shower floors saturated with water, toilet paper dispensers empty and sinks cluttered as they competed for valuable mirror real-estate as they slapped on makeup. I watched from the doorway until the rush cleared out at 8:30. That left me with only thirty minutes to shower, dress and get over to the coliseum by 9:00. I was a little less human this morning and finished up the bathroom chores by 8:45. I deposited my basket back in the room to find Mandy still asleep.
"Wake up! Orientation is in fifteen minutes," I said while I hesitantly shook her shoulder.
With a moan Mandy simply rolled over. I shrugged my shoulders, grabbed my back pack and headed out the door.
The freshmen were easy to spot. They were well-dressed, made up and had a perpetual look of giddiness with an undercurrent of unreserved fear. The upperclassmen, on the other hand, were much more casual in flip flops, t-shirts and unkempt hair as they slowly, but methodically, trudged their belongings into the room.
I marched to the bus stop and boarded the crowded campus bus to make my way over to the coliseum. It appeared that I wasn't the only one who was late to the showers this morning. Deodorants and wet hair were everywhere as nervous college students chatted with each other about majors and professors while casting glances at members of the opposite sex.
The occupants spilled out of the bus and joined the throng of roughly seven thousand in the NCAA Special Events Center. Nervous chatter filled the cavernous space as the spectators took in the sheer size of the facility that could seat more than twice our number and the banners that hung from the rafters declaring accolade after accolade of past winning seasons.
I took my seat about 20 rows up and was surprised when Jacob slipped in right beside me.
"Good morning," he said. He flashed me a smile that revealed perfect white teeth within his lips. I fought hard to not think about those lips.
"Good morning to you, too." I reached over and ran my fingers through his damp hair and only he and I would notice that I lingered in my touch. Our eyes locked and Jacob's smile disappeared as a look on intensity took him as he stared at me. My empty stomach did a flip.
It was only after I heard a cough that I noticed Brady sitting next to Jacob.
"Oh, morning, Brady," I said sheepishly after I returned my hands to my lap.
Brady gave a short wave in greeting. Jacob chuckled and I blushed.
"Good Morning, Longhorns!" a booming voice announced through the PA system. A stout middle-aged man wearing a white polo with an embroidered longhorn logo waving his fists with pinkie and thumbs extended greeted us on the quad-screens above center court. Needing little encouragement the student body returned the gesture with whoops and hollers. Jacob and I turned to each other with a giggle and proceeded to do the same.
After the pep rally/rules and regulations speech, we were directed to the stadium three blocks away. We marched, en masse, like a parade down Red River road to the juggernaut of a structure: Texas Memorial Stadium, a state of the art sports facility which seated over 100,000 spectators who had the privilege of watching football live instead of on TV like millions of fans throughout the country.
Waiting for us was food stands serving hot dogs, hamburgers and veggie wraps for us vegans in attendance, and a sea of tables circled the perimeter of the football field advertising every club available on campus. There had to be around two hundred organizations here from fraternities/sororities, performing arts, journalism, political, service, sports, and even video game clubs. I was overwhelmed by the vastness of the facility and the sheer number of organizations available. It was hard to remember that as a studio art major I was only one of about three hundred pursuing a fine arts bachelors degree. I was thankful I had chance to find a niche here. I felt sorry for that poor freshman who came here with no direction. And you could spot those with their wide eyes who stumbled over their own feet as they passed from table to table.
It was exhausting to watch. "I need to get to the bookstore, want to come?" I asked Jacob.
"Yeah. This is crazy" He shook his head. He was a leader, not a joiner.
After I finished picking up my every growing stack of books which Jacob chivalrously carried for me despite being no bother for me, I signed him in as a visitor to the dorm. I unlocked the door and was about to enter the room when I noticed Mandy was getting dressed.
I swiftly closed the door leaving Jacob and I in the hallway.
"Hey, what gives?" Jacob asked.
"Uh, my roommate, uh, she needs a minute." I blushed at the image of Mandy's putting on her sports bra or taking it off. I didn't know which, but good grief.
"Really? What's she doing?" Jacob reached for the doorknob and I swiped at his hand. Jacob had a mischievous smile which told me he had already gotten an eyeful. I sighed.
"I told you."
"You guys need to develop a system or something. Like put a sock on the door when you're 'unavailable'." Jacob laughed. I groaned.
"Come on in," Mandy sang through the closed door.
With trepidation I slowly opened the door and peered in. Mandy was smoothing out her sports top. When Jacob entered the room, she took her time sizing him up from his head to his toes and back up again. A sly smile appeared on her face. She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and kept her eyes on his.
"So this must be the mysterious boyfriend. Let me be one of the first to welcome you to Texas." She held out her limp hand.
Jacob took it gently but didn't kiss it which I was sure was her intention. "Thank you, ma'am."
"Ma'am?" she laughed. "You are too cute!" Her eyes roved his body again.
"How was cheer practice?" I asked after clearing my throat.
"Tiring," she replied with a sigh as if the weight of the world rested on her shoulders. Mandy checked her cell phone."Oh! I have to go. Practice starts up again in thirty minutes. Now y'all two behave in here while I'm gone," she crooned in that southern drawl and left the room.
"Told you she was crazy. Did you see how she had her eyes all over you? 'Now y'all behave'" I made a gagging gesture with my finger at my throat.
"She had her eyes on me, huh?" Jacob said as he took me into his arms.
I scoffed. "Surely, you noticed."
He nuzzled his face along my neck. I felt his warm breath and shivered. "Yes, I noticed. I also noticed that it made you a tinge bit jealous."
"Jealous?" I breathed. His lips drifting across the sensitive skin by my ear made it impossible to carry on this conversation.
"Um-hmm," he purred.
I closed my eyes.
"But you do understand that it is a biological certainty that I will only ever have eyes for you," he declared and abruptly pulled away.
"Don't remind me," I protested. I tightened my arms around his neck to try and force him back to me. I longed for his lips on mine.
"Hey, you heard the lady. We have to behave." Jacob released me and sat in the chair at my desk with a righteous smile.
I sat on my bed and pouted. "At least cheer practice will keep her out the room for long periods of time."
"Oh, I don't think she's so bad."
I threw a pillow at his head.
