DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT OR ANY OF ITS WONDERFUL CHARACTERS. EVERYTHING BELONGS TO MRS. MEYERS.
I awoke to Jacob's not-so-gentle snoring. He was sitting on the floor by my make-shift bed, my palm pressed to his warm cheek. I drew my hand back and sat up, a little bit confused. He had stayed with me all night, with my hand pressed to his face, watching my dreams. It was a strange concept, and I wasn't sure why it hadn't occurred to me before that my whole family had probably seen my dreams at one time or another. I threw the blanket off and stood, turning my body so I could see the clock; it read six o'clock am. There was a good possibility that nobody was really concerned with my whereabouts yet.
Then I heard the banging in the kitchen. It sounded like someone was slamming pots and pans together. I folded up the blanket I had used and hauled both it and the pillow back to their shelf in the closet. I eased the closet door shut and then tiptoed into the kitchen to see Rosalie and Emmett standing by the counter, an array of pots and pans spread out before them.
"Um, what are you guys doing?" I asked warily as they both turned to look at me.
"Oh good, you're up. Now we can tell the mutt to leave." Rose's playfully harsh lips smiled cheerfully. I rolled my eyes.
"We're not telling Jake to leave. What's with all the pots and pans?"
"Alice asked us to take inventory of Esme's kitchen supplies while they're off hunting." Alice, Jasper, Esme, and Carlisle had left yesterday afternoon and would be home in a few hours.
"Okay, so why didn't you wait till Jake and I were awake?"
Emmett laughed cruelly. "We hadn't realized you two were sleeping together." Rosalie smacked him while she tried to keep from smiling. I ignored him.
"We were trying to wake him up so he would leave. The house smells awful, and you should probably go take a shower." I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Auntie Rose," I whined. "I thought you said you would be nicer to Jake?" she looked regretful almost simultaneously.
"I'm sorry sweetie. It's more a habit than anything." I nodded and left them to their inventory lists. Jake was still asleep, so I kneeled down on the floor next to him. I shook his shoulder gently, trying to wake him up with out startling him. He opened his eyes slowly and smiled.
"What a wonderful way to wake up." I rolled my eyes and looked away to keep from blushing.
"Get up, you're an idiot for staying here all night." He snorted as he stood up sleepily.
"I sleep on your couch all the time. Nobody cares."
"Nobody cares if you sleep on the couch, when I'm in my own bed. You and me sleeping on the couch together was probably not the best idea." I thought I heard Emmett laugh quietly from the kitchen, but I brushed it off. He could laugh all he wanted; I wasn't the one with the sex addiction.
"Maybe not, but I technically wasn't on the couch. I was on the floor." His statement reminded me how annoyed I was with him.
"Jake, we need to talk about that." I said as he took my hand. I could tell he was trying to read my expression as we made our way across the room.
He held the door open for me as we walked out onto the lawn. "What do we need to talk about?"
"Um, you were watching my dreams."
"Yeah, so? You're entertaining when you sleep. Now I see why Edward likes reading minds so much."
"Jake, do you hear yourself? Did you consider that maybe I wanted my dreams kept private?" The change in his facial expression was so sudden it startled me a little bit.
"So you're not okay with me watching your dreams?"
"I want you to apologize, and promise not to do it again."
"I'm sorry; I never meant to upset you." He looked sincere and repentance colored his tone.
"And promise not to do it again." I commanded. His features grew thoughtful.
"How about I make it up to you instead?" I rolled my eyes.
"How?"
"How about tonight, we go out on a date?" His proposition was completely and totally so unexpected that I was momentarily at a loss for words. It was so random and foreign, and the idea of going on a date with my Jacob made my heart skip a few beats.
"Why?" So it wasn't the most idealistic thing say considering he had just asked me out, but it was the first coherent words that came to mind.
"Because I think it would be fun." He raised his eye brows expectantly.
"Alright. Tonight."
"Cool, I'll pick you up at eight." He kissed me then, which sent my pulse hammering. I watched as he climbed into his car and drove off down the driveway, probably headed to his dad's house.
I walked to the cottage slowly, giving myself time to think. I was going to go on my first date with my amazing Jacob, tonight. In like fourteen hours. We were going on a date to-. I had no idea where we were going. How was I expected to dress? What if we ended up going to some greasy fast food joint, and I was dressed in an evening dress? Or what if I wore blue jeans and we ended up going to some kind of fancy restaurant?
It was such an awful dilemma that I knew I had no other choice than to go to Rose for help. She wouldn't like that I was going on a date with Jake, but she would love the chance to play make-over. With Alice gone, she was all I had to turn to, since my mother hates anything to do with fashion and/or make-up.
I neared the tiny cottage and took in the familiar smell of roses and saw dust. As I entered the house I discovered Mom and Dad sitting by the fireplace, absorbed in a tiny, leather bound book. They both looked up and smiled as I shut the door behind me tightly.
"Morning sweetie. We got a little worried when you didn't come home last night, but Rosalie called my cell phone to tell me you were sleeping on the couch at the main house."
"Yeah, we were watching a movie and I just kinda fell asleep." She gave me an all-knowing look, but smiled.
"That's fine; just call us next time, alright?" I nodded.
"Sure thing. I'm gonna go change now," I said as I ducked out of the room.
I pulled a t-shirt from my chest of drawers and hurriedly changed my clothes. I brushed my hair back and wove it into a tight braid, to keep the loose strands out of my face. Throwing a quick glance at my mirror to make sure I wasn't a total wreck, I grabbed my book and bolted out the window. It was a warm day and a little bit of sun light leaked through the clouds. My skin glimmered ever so slightly, nothing like my family's, but a faint sparkle was still visible. It looked a little bit like that dust-on glitter so many girls wore around their eyes.
I found a quite spot about a mile and a half from the cottage. There were a few wild flowers and a moss covered log that made a lovely bench. I opened my book of haiku to the first page. It read:
Green frog,
Is your body also
freshly painted?
Sick and feverish
Glimpse of cherry blossoms
Still shivering.
-Ryunosuke Akutagawa's poetry had always had a calming effect on me, and as I continued to read I could feel my anxiety about the upcoming date start to leave my body. A frog was a symbol of luck, or metamorphosis. Green evokes the feeling of nature or health. So the poem was referring, in part, to a healthy change perhaps. Cherry blossoms represent feminine beauty. Maybe Akutagawa was trying to correspond his poem with the benefit of change verses the vulnerability or fragility it may cause. Jake and I going out on a date would be a good thing. I was new to romantic emotions, and I felt so terribly vulnerable. Surely he had been on dates before. Surely he would expect me to act a certain way. I was way over my head this time. How the hell was I supposed to conduct myself? I definitely wasn't going to base my behavior off a movie or novel. I would just have to pretend to know what I was doing. And try not to fall over, or run into anything. It seemed an impossible task. I went back to my reading and names like Basho Matsuo, Natsume Soseki, and Nicholas Virgilio lined the pages, each with their own symbolist message. My breathing slowed and it seemed as though the book engulfed me in a pool of isolated understanding. I suppose I fell asleep after a while, for my next conscious realization was that the sun was migrating closer and closer to the western horizon and I was hungry. I slammed the book shut and ran to the main house quickly. I breezed through the doors and came to an abrupt halt in front of the huge antique clock Esme cherished so greatly. It read six o'clock pm. Great, I had spent all day philosophizing over poetry in the woods, and now I wasn't going to be ready when Jacob showed up. I had two hours to find something to eat, get my nerves in check, and make myself presentable. I needed Rose's help. Her immediate help. I rushed up the stairs to her bedroom, and knocking on the door as I swung it open, I found her sitting in the middle of her vast bed, a collection of scrap booking magazines laid out before her.
"Auntie Rose, I need you help. Its important, and I know I can count on you." She looked worried for a moment, so I hurried to explain. "I have a date with Jake in roughly two hours and I have no idea what I'm doing."She gave me a knowing smile and with out further ado, set to work.
I hope you enjoyed the second chapter. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment.
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a poem of my own composition:
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Glimpse of insight
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--
Little Orange Frog
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