A/N: Thanks to everyone who is reading and reviewing. This chapter is Jacob-centric and gives you some back story into his life. For those of you curious this story is going to be strictly a Jacob POV and you'll learn Bella's story as he does so be patient with me lol.
Sorry the update took so long and it will probably be another week or two before the next update. Our website is having a contest next week and I know it's going to be crazy for me time wise. so hang in there with me. lol
thanks always to my master-beta (hahaha) Neutron Phantom for her love and support!
Table for Two: Chapter 3
"GET HIM! Now, there behind that tree. DAMMIT SETH!"
"Me? You left my blind side wide open; you were supposed to be my back up! What the hell?!"
Seth and I scowled at each other as both halves of our fifty-four inch screen turned red, indicating we'd both just been killed by enemy zombies and their stupid dogs. "You suck," I sneered as I threw the controller down and stomped into the kitchen to grab a soda.
"Fuck you, your aim is shit-tastic," Seth pouted as he leaned over the game console to switch out Modern Warfare for Madden Football. Yeah, we were big swinging bachelors on a Monday afternoon playing video games, but hey, classes would start soon enough and there would be no time for this shit.
I smirked as our next argument over who was going to be the Seahawks began. I don't think that the two of us could ever manage playing video games without fighting with each other. About half way through the second quarter my cell phone started buzzing.
"Hello?" I asked, irritated as I shoved it up under my chin and pinched it with my shoulder trying to hold it in place so I could still play my game.
"Hey Son," my dad said with a laugh in his voice. Damnit, I should have looked at the caller ID.
"Oh, hey Pops. Sorry, I didn't know it was you."
"That's alright kid, am I interrupting anything important?" Always being too concerned that he was imposing on me pissed me off, nothing was too important for him.
"Naw, just kicking Seth's ass… Run, run you little video game monkey… Aw SHIT!" Seth's defense slammed into my player cutting off his touchdown run.
"I would run Son, but the legs… they just don't want to!" He was now in full on laugh mode.
"Funny Old Man. Just a sec," I paused the game and motioned with my finger for Seth to hold on. He nodded and then got up to run to the bathroom. "Alright Pops, what's up?"
"Not much, just checking in. Did you get all registered for classes?"
"Yep," I said running my hand over my face, "got set up on Friday. A few more weeks of freedom and it starts."
"Good, good, and the job? First week went well?"
"Yes Dad, and just like I told you on Thursday, it's been nice. I should be able to make enough money to pay for school and rent." It was no secret that money was not a luxury for us. Hell, no one on the reservation was rolling in it, but with Dad on disability it was always a struggle. It was a good thing that I was able to get so much financial aid.
"Alright, well you'll tell me if I can help, I can always see what I can do." I nodded silently.
"I know Pops, I know," I sighed, still trying to read his tone. I knew there was something he wanted to say but I was going to have to weed it out of him. "What about you, what's new?"
"Not much, same old." Yeah right.
"Well, I have the next three days off, I was thinking about coming home to see you." If he wasn't going to tell me what he needed then I was going to figure it out one way or another.
"Oh," he said, sounding very excited. "Well that's good to hear. I miss you, you little shit. Too quiet around here without you causing trouble," he laughed, knowing very well that the only trouble I ever got into was in the seventh grade when Quil, Embry and I decided to skip school to go to the beach.
"Well, then I'll see you tomorrow? Oh, and maybe Wednesday you could tag along with me to my appointment, if you want." And there it was, his monthly check up, the first one since I'd moved out and he was scared to go alone.
"Sure Pops, I'll take you. Talk to you tomorrow morning okay?"
"Yeah kiddo, see you." We both hung up, knowing we didn't need to say that 'love you' shit to each other; that was a given with us.
"So… going home tomorrow?" Seth asked, standing in the archway to the kitchen.
"Yeah, Dad's got an appointment and I don't think he wanted to go alone." A silent nod of understanding from Seth and a short glimpse of pity in his eyes was all it took to put me in a sour mood. I hated that look, especially from my friends. My life was what it was and it was a good life: a happy childhood, I was loved and fed, and yeah, I had to deal with shit but everyone does.
"Game?" I asked not feeling like talking about this shit anymore.
"Sure, but watch out because I was just getting warmed up that first half. Third quarter I'm going to make you my bitch."
And that is why everyone loved Seth. He was a good kid from a good family; he was there when you needed him and knew when you needed space or quiet and would always find some way to get you to focus on something else.
Seth and I didn't become friends easily though. He was always the young kid following us around like a pet. He was more annoying than anything but my dad always made us include him, told me one day I'd appreciate the kind of loyalty and free nature that he embodied.
So when I was sixteen and he was fourteen and I watched him try to kick the ass of nineteen-year-old Sam Uley who had just dumped his sister, I finally gave up pretending that he was just a gnat sent here to annoy me. He was a decent guy, so like friends should, me and the guys jumped into the fight and collectively got our asses kicked by Sam and his gang.
"What's with the smirk?" Seth asked, breaking my daydream.
"Oh, just thinking about the Memorial Day picnic," I eyed him mischievously and he cracked up.
"Yeah, my jaw still clicks when I chew," he joked popping his jaw for affect. "That ass and his worshippers fucked us up good that day."
"Ass huh? That's no way to talk about your brother-in-law. What would Leah say if I called her right now and…" I pulled out my phone pretending to dial, knowing full well I had no intention of calling that bitch or her douche bag husband. The two of them were made for each other, though I feared the beginning of the apocalypse when they finally produced a devil spawn.
"Screw her, I take an ass kicking of epic proportion and six months later she's engaged to the bastard? If only the last five years had made either of them older or wiser. I'd swear that if my mom wasn't such a good woman that Leah came from the milkman. No way she and I share DNA."
I laughed heartily completely agreeing with him on all accounts.
~~**~~
I woke up early to get a head start. I knew if I didn't get my ass moving I would sleep all day. Work Monday night was boring – well not boring, just the same as every day before, except for Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, it was because Bella wasn't there. I sat in the break room at our table, still not willing to venture outside with the other staff. I wasn't even supposed to know about the outside break area yet but Bella told me anyway.
A smile spread across my face as I thought about her. I realized I was passing through Forks already, half way home. I looked around the small town as I passed through, driving extra slow. I don't know if I was expecting to see her or what, but I was watching everything and everyone. I wondered where she lived, what she did in this boring town when she wasn't working, and I wondered if she thought about me at all.
I had no idea what it was about her that made me feel this way, whatever "this way" was. I was taken with her simple, natural beauty. I was amazed by her laid-back personality that didn't seem to get flustered even under the busiest of restaurant chaos. But mostly I was drawn in, drawn in to the mystery in her presence, I wanted to get to know her, to find out what her secrets were, wanted to break her out of that walled-in jail she built around herself.
I sighed audibly as I left Forks' city limits and pushed on toward home. It wasn't long before I was passing through town and turning up the small alley of a street to my house. I hadn't been home to see Pops since I moved to Port Angeles three weeks ago. It was strange, not seeing him every day. I worried about him a lot; how was he getting around? Was he taking care of himself? Guess that happens when you become the man of the house at fourteen.
"Hey Old Man, where are you?" I asked, entering the front door of our small single-level home. It wasn't much, but it was ours. I put my bag down by the front door and looked around the living room. Wood paneling graced every inch of wall space—but not that you could tell, because nearly every surface of usable wall was covered with mounted fish or old school pictures of my and my sisters. I sighed while brushing my finger across one; I was going to have to dust while I was here.
I stared at the senior picture Rachel and Rebecca took together. I was only fifteen when they both graduated…and ran. I scowled at the thought. Six years hadn't fixed anything for me. I know they were escaping for their own sanity, but to me, they bailed on my dad and I when we needed them most.
"You know, one of these days you'll understand why they left." I turned to see my dad sitting in the entryway to the kitchen. I smiled involuntarily. He looked older to me now, as if being away I was able to finally see what his illness was doing to his body.
"I don't think so Pops." I bound over to him, giving him the manliest hug a twenty-one-year-old can give his father. "But we aren't going to talk about that now." I effectively ended that line of conversation that always ended with me screaming at my father about the girls being ungrateful. Maybe I was just jealous that I wasn't old enough to get out when they did, that I had to stay. I don't begrudge the fact, but sometimes I do wonder how things would have been different.
I spent the rest of the day and night helping around the house. I ran to the grocery store because Old Mother Hubbard had nothing on my dad. I helped clean, and I made us dinner. After saying good night I lay on the couch flipping through all four channels we had, trying to sleep and cursing the fact that I took my bed with me when I moved out.
~~**~~
"I met a cool guy at group a few weeks ago," Pops, said staring out the window trying to pretend he wasn't nervous about his appointment. I kept looking straight ahead. Somehow he was more worried than usual and it got me on edge.
"Yeah? That's cool. You need more friends, I was afraid you were creeping up on hermit status."
"Smart ass kid, no respect." We both laughed and were silent most the way to Forks Community Hospital. "He's from here. Forks," he said, finally breaking the silence.
"Huh. What happened to him, why's he in group?"
"Work accident," was all he said. Dad hated talking about other people in his therapy group, like it was breaking some code or something. "We went fishing last week, down on the pier," he said nonchalantly, but I could see the spark in his eye.
"Good, now I won't worry so much," and that was the end of the conversation as I pushed him into the doctor's office. We were men of little words when it came to talking about that stuff, but we understood each other.
"Hey Doc," I said as Dr. Marks greeted us in the waiting area.
"Jake! Glad to see you could make it," he said holding the door open as I rolled my dad into the exam room.
"So Billy, I wanted to talk to you about your latest blood tests. It looks like your insulin is up again and staying up. I don't think this is something your diet can control anymore, so I'd like to start upping your meds, maybe even consider moving on to daily injections."
I blanched, my face draining of all blood. Shots? That had to mean the diabetes was getting worse. We knew that this day would come, where diet and pills weren't enough, but hearing it out loud just seemed surreal. And now he was going to have to endure daily shots just to keep his insulin in check?
I don't know how much time had passed or what all was said after that. It was all a haze. I knew it didn't necessarily mean his health was deteriorating; people lived with diabetes every day. But these people weren't my dad… They didn't have the added burden of being in a wheelchair. They had people to take care of them.
We left the doctor's office in silence and began our long drive back to La Push.
"Jake, Jake… I know what you're thinking." I scoffed at my dad and gripped the steering wheel even harder. " It's really not that bad. I've already talked to Sue about this."
"You knew this was coming? You knew you were getting sicker and you didn't tell me?"
He sighed loudly, "Jake, you wouldn't have left. I can handle this."
"Of course I wouldn't have left, I should come back."
"No! Jacob Black, you listen to me. You deserve a chance at life. You need to live for yourself for once. For the last six years you've taken care of yourself, of the house, of me. It wasn't fair to you. It's not what your mother would have wanted."
"She wouldn't want you alone," I growled out at him.
"I'm not alone kiddo, I've got Sue and Harry. I've got grouchy old Quil coming to check on me. And now I've got Charlie. Believe it or not, helping him adjust to his new life has been like an awakening for me too."
"I wish you still had mom," I said but immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry dad, I didn't mean…"
"I know Son, I know."
We didn't say anything the rest of the way home. I know we were both replaying the day that dad's diabetes got the best of him and his insulin-induced seizure caused the car accident that killed my mother. It was what put him in that chair for the rest of his life. And now, it was the disease that was slowly taking his health.
The rest of my time home was spent helping dad learn to use his new medication. We practiced giving oranges shots until our hands cramped. I went over all of the medicine lists. I called Sue Clearwater, since she was a nurse and his therapist, to fill her in on everything. She got dad a medical alert necklace in case anything ever happened to him.
I packed up late Thursday night to head back to Port Angeles. "I don't have to go," I said, placing my bag back at the front door.
"You do Son, you've got a life to get back to. Promise me you won't worry about your old man okay? You deserve this Jake, don't let anyone tell you any different."
"Sure, sure," I nodded and gave him one last quick hug. Driving back to Port Angeles, I thought about everything that happened and two things became clear to me. One, my dad's health was fading and fast. And two, he pushed me to go to school and get out so he could see me live my life and be happy for once, and damnit that's just what I was going to do.
By the time I got back to our apartment it was nearly ten and I figured Seth should be home from work by now unless the bus ran late again. I quickly ran up the steps to our second floor apartment. I was in a good mood again—tired and emotionally drained, but glad that I was coming to terms with leaving my dad behind to fend for himself.
I had a new lease on life. I was going to live every day like I was dying. And not just for me, for my dad too. It's what he wanted, and it's what my mom would have wanted. I clanked through the door and threw my bag down the hall. I heard the TV on and video games blasting.
"Hey man, what's—" I stopped dead in my tracks.
"Bella? What are you doing here?"
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