"Oh my god." I think I had an idea of who that person was. But I couldn't – and I wouldn't – tell my friends. I had already lied enough, and they were probably even more angry with me. I would've been grateful for that diversion, but now I realized it only made things worse. There was no turning back.
I threw the door open and rushed downstairs. I didn't bother to tell Olivia and Nicole where I was going. While making sure not to trip down the stairs, I thought angrily to myself, Bella's such a hypocrite! What did she mean 'I had disturbed her peace'? She disturbed mine! Jacob and I were totally having a moment! What a vampire-loving brat. I was glad Edward wasn't around to read my mind.
Luckily, Emily and Sam were probably snug in their bedroom, doing god-knows-what. I didn't care. I was just glad there was no one on the first floor. Sure enough, all the lights were switched off. When I was little, I used to be afraid of the dark, but I was thankful the lights weren't on so no one would see me.
Sprinting down the pavement I forgot that Olivia and Nicole could probably see me from the guestroom window. I hoped that they wouldn't come running after me – they hadn't done that last time I'd randomly run out of the house. Plus, it was nighttime.
Then it hit me. I didn't really know my way around this town in the daytime, how could I possibly know at night? There was a little voice in the back of mind that said, don't do it, you'll get lost, but I tried to ignore it. I was done following the rules.
As I darted around the corner, I spotted the big hulking figure that had been listening to us. When I got up closer, I realized my guess was correct.
"What's going on?" I called, just loud enough for my voice to carry to his ears; he was standing about seven yards away.
Jacob turned around to face me, which let me catch up to him a little bit. "You tell me."
"What were you doing in the tree?" I demanded, ignoring what he had just said. "I though we agreed I'd see you tomorrow."
"I couldn't wait," he admitted. "I wanted to see you. But what the hell is going on here? 'I didn't kiss Jacob Black'? 'Fiction story world'? 'This is all a dream'?" He mimicked me very well.
I didn't know what to say. How could I explain that his world was a fictional storybook, let alone werewolves and vampires? He didn't even know he was going to be a werewolf yet! I couldn't think of a good enough explanation that he would actually believe.
"Um…"
"I'm waiting."
"Well…"
"Spit it out!"
I was taken by his shrill tone.
"If you didn't wanna tell me, then why did you take the time to come down here?" he asked, his nostrils flaring.
I took a deep breath and exhaled it out, trying to rid my body of all my anxiety and stress. "I do want to tell you! It's just that…I can't…" My voice faded away.
"Wow," Jacob mumbled. He seemed to have calmed down a little. "For a second I thought I actually liked you. I thought us might actually be a future…but I guess not. I have plenty of other girls I could go out with" – he paused and sighed dreamily, and I knew he was thinking of Bella…as if! Just wait and see, Jacob Black – "If you're gonna keep stupid secrets from me, then I don't think this is going to work out."
"What?" I blurted, no longer trying to hold my temper in. "You just don't understand! I can't tell you! It's nothing personal, I swear! First off, you won't believe me. Then I would just get into trouble, and everyone is gonna hate me…"
"Won't believe you? Won't believe you?" Jacob was fuming now. "You think I won't believe you? You're so selfish, Ali. And you honestly think that if you tell me a secret that it's going to make everyone hate you? How dark is this damn secret anyway?"
His whole muscular, tanned, and extremely hot (LOL) body was trembling – well, his face was now reminding me of a maraschino cherry, not tan at all anymore.
I was starting to feel dizzy. Everything seemed to be in slow motion now. Jacob was growing…taller, taller, taller. His back was arching so his body looked like the shape of a giant candy cane. Jacob leaped into the air and sprouted russet-brown fur. Random scraps of his clothes flung everywhere in the cold grass.
Oh my god. Oh my god! OH MY GOD!
My mind was screaming for me to run, but my legs stayed put on the ground, as if they each weighed a ton. This wolf looked nothing like the one in New Moon. It wasn't CGI, for one thing. This looked like a real, huge, wolf, and that actually made me afraid.
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I knew Jacob probably wasn't listening right now. He wasn't human anymore. He was a crazy, out-of-control animal.
Then I realized something. What if I ended up like Emily, marred for life by the werewolf I loved? Though I wasn't sure Jacob loved me anymore. If he didn't love me, I wasn't going to waste my time loving him. Even though he was amazingly hot.
Before I could even draw up the conclusion that now was a good time to run away, Jacob's paw swung dangerously close to my face as we was swiveling around. It missed, just barely grazing my arm. After that he stood up on his hind legs and howled, only to disappear into the forest. Phew. My face was still intact.
Holding up my arm, I realized that his claws still had caused damage. Three eight-inch lines were scratched diagonally onto the inner part of my forearm, blood leaking out of it, dying the part of the grass red. Oooo, Christmas colors, I thought stupidly. But honestly, my arm didn't hurt that much. It was just spewing blood like hell.
What was I supposed to do? I didn't have the courage to face my friends now. Besides, I truly didn't know the way back to them. I just began casually walking down the asphalt as if my arm wasn't violently bleeding.
I came to the edge of the neighborhood – beyond that was just a sea of trees. I kept on walking toward it.
My little fantasy dream had been to end up with Jacob Black ever since he took his shirt off in New Moon. I never thought it would actually come true, but now it almost did. And I had ruined that. If only I hadn't run after Jacob – I could've made up an excuse for what I had said and confront him the next day. But no, I had to be a stupid, lovesick teenage girl and run out to him like this was some soap opera.
I suddenly felt scared of the dark. I was completely alone, my only companions the black, towering trees. Where would I sleep? I surely didn't want to sleep outside – ew. I hadn't even camped out before. If I couldn't sleep outside in a tent, what made me think I could sleep without one?
Maybe, I hoped, Jacob had phased back to his human form and was sulking somewhere between those trees, and I would find him and comfort him, and he would take me back to his house and apologize for getting mad and he would treat the scratch I had on my arm, even though he was the one who caused it. I was willing to forgive Jacob for that.
My heart skipped a beat when I heard the some trees rustle in the distance. My head shot from side to side, trying to spot anything or anyone that could've made that noise. Nothing.
BOOM!
The sound of a huge boulder slamming against the ground filled the air. Something that looked similar to flames whizzed around before me.
Then I caught a full glimpse of what had made that sound.
I screamed.
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