Chapter Three : First Encounter

A black Ford Fusion zoomed down the highway with its owner hoping to find the Forks beach. "Dimples do you think I should ask for directions?" the brown haired girl looked at her dog. Dimples was asleep, again. "Well regardless what you think I think we should." She pulled into a gas station feeling a bit crazy from talking to her dog. "Hello, ma'am." The girl behind the counter had her feet on the counter and snapped her gum loudly while looking up at Sapphire from over the magazine she was reading.

"How can I help ya?" she sat up straight and looked at Sapphire up and down.

"I want to know how to get to the Forks beach?"

"Never heard of it." She said quiet rudely.

"Really … um, well thanks anyways." Sapphire turned to head out.

"It's the La Push Beach."

"Excuse me." Sapphire looked back at her.

"Forks don't have a beach it's in La Push."

"Ok well how do you get to La Push?" The girl pulled out a map.

"Look ya see we're right here and the beach is ova here." She pointed with her chipping black nail polish.

"Thank You." Sapphire grabbed the map and headed out.

"Hey Thief!" Sapphire quickly turned around as she started to get nervous about something she didn't know was stolen. "Ya gotta pay for that." She pointed to the sign that was above the 25 cent maps.

"Sorry." Sapphire said not wanting to cause trouble and took out 25 cents before leaving. "Ok Dimples now were headed to the beach."

She drove and got there fairly quickly and also had to pee very badly. While she was in the bathroom she noticed she had gotten her period unknowingly making her heartbroken because she wanted to get into the water, badly. While in the bathroom she saw a group of girls give her a dirty look. One of them was beautiful she had copper skin, rich shiny black hair, and eyelashes like feather dusters, but she was obliviously not the group leader, if she was even in the group. No the circus leader was the one who had unnatural blonde hair it looked like she attempted to bleach from black to blonde horrible mistake. She was tall and skinny with an unnatural spray tan. That made Sapphire giggle. Mistake.

"What are you laughing at?" she raised one black eyebrow.

"Nothing." Sapphire waved her hand as she left. While walking away she could hear them giggling about something but decided it would be best if she didn't know. Not being able to swim was already making her day a bit gloomy. "Hey Dimples. Sorry I left you I had to pee." He raised his head and went back to sleep making her frown a bit. While she drove out of the lot she looked down at Dimples for one quick second. A second after that she found herself slamming on the breaks. A group of about seven boys were walking in front of her car. All of them were abnormally tall, had fairly dark skin, and had no shirt on to cover there well developed abs. Sapphire found herself drooling over that part but thought 'Am I crazy there probably grown men on steroids.'

"Hey watch it!" One of the shorter one's yelled although he was still probably six feet tall. Sapphire felt her blood rush through her veins making her heart beat quicken. "Where did you get your-" one of the taller one's grabbed him and whispered something that made him stop. He shifted his head telling the rest to continue on and they followed his orders. He walked up to Sapphire's Fusion and waited for her to roll down the window.

"I'm sorry about my friend. His name is Paul and sometimes he doesn't know how to behave he's a bit of a hot head. I'm Sam by the way." He stuck his hand out.

"Sapphire," she shook his hand, "nice to meet you."

"Well I have to make sure he gets what he deserves. See you around." He took off running toward his waiting group of friends.

The stunned girl turned her head to her dog. "Maybe we should just go see a movie."

***

"Man, I have to pee again." Sapphire rushed to the bathroom as soon as the credits for the movie started. When she came out she saw the girl with the feather duster eye lashes again.

"You know Sam?" She confronted.

"Um who?"

"Sam the boy who talked to you at the beach"

"No, not really why?"

"Oh … I thought you did. I'm Leah."

"Sapphire. Hey you know your blonde friend?"

"Oh no," she quickly corrected, "That girl is not my friend. I just happened to be going to the bathroom at the same time as her."

"Oh that's a relief." Leah perked up.

"I have to go." Leah said as she swiftly left. Leah had heard something that was inaudible to the regular human ear. Sapphire wondered for a second before turning around to leave. While turning she crashed into another female who let out a shriek as she feel to the ground.

"You again" she hissed at Sapphire. Sapphire looked at her as she got up.

"Sorry" Sapphire said with no emotion as she did not really mean it.

"Ever heard of a pad or tampon." One of the girls said loud enough for the whole theater to hear. Everyone turn their attention to Sapphire's lower half. Sapphire hadn't noticed the bloody leakage that was visible on her pants. All the girls laughed evilly as Sapphire tried to make a quick escape. One of the girls stuck out her foot make Sapphire tumble to the ground embarrassingly making everyone join in the laughter. Sapphire got to her car crying she had only been there a day and she already the laughing stock of Washington.

Sapphire pressed on the pedal as hard as she could only thinking about going to the beach. Forgetting everything she ever worked for, anyone who loved her, everything. Emotions got the best of her nothing today had gone as planned, nothing today went right. PMSing played an important part in her insanity, hormones getting the best of her. Covering her face like a mask shielding out the things she should be thankful for. She parked the car and went to the highest cliff. Heights didn't bother her, dying didn't bother her; she had been waiting for it to claim her until she had first been diagnosed with the same thing that took her mother's life, cancer. And then she jumped. She felt the wind blowing her hair into her face not long after that she felt water all over her body, cold water that stung everywhere. She tried to open her eyes but closed them just as fast feeling the salt water sting. Air her brain thought you need air stupid. She opened her mouth filling her lungs with water, only to have them close up instinctively for water was not the right element they needed.

'All this,' she thought, 'all this for nothing. Just to have myself throw myself off a cliff at the very end of things. Radiation treatment, the side effects, the pain after all of that, for nothing. I don't wanna die. I wanna live.' She mentally scram. Darkness started to cloud her mind but she would not let go not yet if there was any chance of surviving she would take it.

One of the Quileute boys was watching her the whole time. One of the boys that had lost his way. The one who had just come back from running away one that didn't want to be bothered. He had thought he had just lost the love of his life to a "bloodsucker" but was terribly mistaken. Maybe he just hadn't met the right person that's all. He watched the unknown person jump off a cliff. At first he thought it was someone just cliff driving. Then he noticed the lack of skill the person possessed, you don't just fling yourself you dive. He blew it off as a first timer, until he noticed the person just left their car on. Something that was wrong in the car lover's eyes and a car in almost perfect condition. Finally it registered that it was suicide the person hadn't come up for air for about four minutes way to long.

Jacob took off running into the water in order to save a strangers life. At first the water stung him because of his hot skin but figured saving the person's life was probably more important. He swam as quickly as possible to the location he saw the person plunge into the water. He panicked when he couldn't find them until he felt their skin bush against his. He grabbed the persons arm and dragged them out of the water as quickly as possible.

When Jacob got to shore he checked the pulse. It was starting to die out. He noticed that she wasn't breathing and decided CPR would probably be best. It was to dark out for him to get a good look at the face so he started right away. He pressed his lips to hers and began to blow. He tried to avoid any unnecessary touching as he put his hands on her chest to get her to start breathing again. Finally she came to coughing up all the sea water that had filled her lungs.

"Are you all right?" The boy asked.

Sapphire tried to look at him but couldn't to ashamed of what had taken place. She shivered her clothes were soaked form the ice cold water. "The Fusion is your car isn't it?"

She nodded shivering at the same time. "Ok." The boy picked her up effortlessly and started towards the car. Sapphire clung to the unusual heat that the boy's body temperature supplied. Jacob put her in the passenger side of the car and zoomed down to the nearest hospital, Forks Hospital. Sapphire didn't talk or look at him the whole trip there nor when he brought her to the hospital. They had checked her into a room after they had stabilized her.

***

When Sapphire woke up in the morning she had IV tubes jammed in her arms. She wanted to leave as soon as possible the hospital held bad memories. After she got up and finished packing her stuff she was on her way out when a man walked into the room. Sapphire thought she was dreaming the most handsome man walked in her room. Blonde hair, pale skin, golden eyes everything on the man seemed perfect.

"Hello Sapphire how are you feeling today?"

"Fine," she answered breathlessly.

"Well you're free to go home anytime."

"Just like that?" evidentially the boy hadn't told them everything about what happened or he really didn't know it was attempted suicide.

"Why? Is there something you would like us to know?" he raised one eyebrow.

"No," she shook a hand in front of her face.

"We didn't know who to contact. We couldn't find anything one you. So we need to know how you're going to pay the hospital bill."

Sapphire didn't have any money to spend on a hospital bill and if her aunt found out she was in the hospital she would have to come home immediately. "Do you guys have like layaway or some type of program because I'm broke?"

"Well I'm sure we can work something out."

"No like I'm completely broke. Nothing, nada, zip." He finally understood what she meant.

"Well then I guess…" he put his hand behind his head, "I can let this go since it's your first time here. I'll pay don't worry." Sapphire was surprised at how nice he had been. Then it struck her that Dimples had been waiting for her at the hotel. She quickly ran off yelling thanks back to the angelic man.

"Aw man Dimples please be ok." When she arrived at her room she found Dimples sleeping. What a surprise. She sighed in relief until she looked at the rest of the room. Pillows torn up, feather everywhere, pee stains on the carpet along with other items, and other ripped up things. Sapphire yelped making the owner quickly come to her room. She hadn't locked the door behind her and once he saw what had happened he threw her out. Not only that but he was mean enough to call any other business hotel to make sure they wouldn't accommodate her. What a disaster trip. Sapphire had found herself sitting at the beach once again hugging her knees. Sapphire didn't know what to do now she had no place to go.

A Frisbee had been thrown out in front of her. She just stared at it while its owner came to pick it up.

"Hey it's suicide girl." The large man yelled with a toothy smile. Sapphire looked up putting her hand in front of her eyes to see him more clearly trying to block the sun.

"Hey its steroids boy." She said mockingly amusing the boy who plopped down beside. Now he got a good look at her face and vice versa as well. Both of them had forgotten about what happened the previous night and only stared at each other in amazement. They both had never seen anything more perfect than what they saw now. Sapphire found it more perfect then the doctor at the hospital. And Jacob found it more perfect than he ever thought of Bella. She now had her reason to live and he now had his reason to stay in La Push.