Precious Time; Chapter Two

Cut it out, drop it, count me out - baby stop it!
Life is too short, so why waste precious time!
Life is too short, so why waste precious time!

When I woke up it was foggy and the clouds were ominous, just another day in Forks, except for one thing. There was a Bella Swan whose gaping emotional hole was healing itself and she was okay with it. I was okay with it, I wasn't planning any extreme events in order to hear a certain someone's voice. And it felt right, I finally felt like a normal eighteen year old, albeit an eighteen year old who was going out with a werewolf.

Was that what we were doing? Were we boyfriend and girlfriend now? It hadn't been so confusing last time.

Charlie had left a note on the table explaining that he was going fishing with some of the guys from La Push. We were all trying to get our lives back in gear, fall in to the normal pace of things.

I was getting ready to leave for Jake's house when I heard a light knock on the door, it was Alice, "Hey," I said softly. I had forgotten all about the past few days events.

"I saw what happened," she looked down at her shoes, I'd never seen Alice lost for words, "I hope you two can be happy," her words sounded forced, like she didn't mean them at all.

"I hope I can be happy, too."

"Do you want me to tell Edward?" Did I want Edward to know about Jacob and me? Edward would probably find out that he was a werewolf, which meant that I would never be safe.

And Edward wouldn't stand for that.

"No, not just yet. I wanna find a way to tell him myself," Alice seemed to understand that.

"I should go now, Jacob is getting anxious. I'll keep an eye on you, Bella, and we'll probably come up in a few years to check up on you. See how things are going," she trailed off. The moment of silence bounced between us, echoing off the trees. And then she spring through the door and embraced me in the biggest Alice hug imaginable, "I'm really gonna miss you, Bella!"

I laughed despite the situation, "I'm gonna miss you too Alice," and I hugged her back.

We promised to keep in touch, I didn't want to talk to Edward, not yet, but Alice had become a dear friend to me and it wasn't her idea to leave me in Forks.

After Alice left I sat down at the table and tucked away that portion of my life.

It began to rain as I neared Jake's house and the waves were higher than ever, it reminded me of a day that seemed forever ago but was really only a few days ago. So much had happened in those few days.

Jake was waiting outside for me, it appeared as if he had been waiting for a while, since he was completely drenched, "Hey," I smiled. It hurt my face, but it felt nice. He ran over to me and hugged me, ignoring the fact that he was soaked with rainwater and if we didn't take this meeting inside soon I would be soaked to.

He kissed my forehead and my face, clearing it of the raindrops, "You're happy to see me?"

"Yeah, I'm always happy to see you, I always have been," it was nice to have someone care about me in that way again.

"Can we go for a walk?" I had heard similar words before and remembered what they had led to. I motioned toward the wooded road ahead, I wanted to be somewhere quite for this long talk, "We should talk… or I should talk and you should listen," oh yeah, this wasn't awkward.

"Of course, Bells, whatever you want," he took my hand in his hand once again I was reminded of his warmth, not only physically but emotionally. I really hoped that I would be able to put the past truly behind me and care for him as much as he did for me.

I could forget the past. I could forget the past.

We had walked only a few feet into the woods before I started talking, I took a deep breath; this scene was all to familiar, "Jake, seeing you was never the reason to fix up the motorbikes," I didn't look at him when I said so I had no clue what his reaction was, I just needed to get it all out before I lost my steam and my courage.

"My friend and I went to Port Angeles one night, to see a movie. Well…" I went into the story of what happened that night, it seemed so long ago, like years had passed. I had aged, my teenage years were forever behind me and it was useless to try and get them back, "…I thought that maybe just hearing his voice would make it easier for me, even if I did make that promise to him," I smiled at myself. The one thing he asked me to do I was unable to.

"Promise?"

I never had explained that night to Jake, I sat down against a tree and he followed and I began to bring up the memories I had pushed so far into the fissure of my mind. I told him what had happened in my months of darkness, what I remembered, however, everything I had done those months had been so monotonous that one day- one week really blended into the other.

"So, riding the bike, jumping off the cliff was all just to hear his voice?" When put like that my thoughts that I was crazy were confirmed. I nodded meekly though. He seemed to digest that for a while, it made me nervous, was the fact that it was never about him specifically enough to make him change his mind about us?

"But, Jake, I am glad that things turned out the way they did," I took a chance and snuck a look at Jacob's face but I couldn't read the emotion, "Jake?"

He took his time answering me, "You still like me best, right?"

I smiled at the reference, "Better than all the guys and girls. And you're still sort of beautiful."

"Well, I think your really beautiful," he leaned down to kiss me and that's when the perfect beginning of my new life was shattered.

Jacob growled suddenly and bent forward in a predatorial stance, he glared over my head and snarled at whatever was there. Slowly, as if trying to get past a poisonous snake I turned around to see a creature much deadlier than a snake.

Victoria.