Oh my gosh! I got a lot of reviews! They really made my day, guys c: Just for that, here's a new chapter! I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

Bella P.O.V.

The next three hours of my life were a little more than agonizing. We just sat there, staring at the stupid TV like we were actually enjoying it. My grandpa and his friends didn't seem to notice our lack of conversation, which just seemed sad because the old men were having more fun than us teenagers were.

But then the front door open and Grandma walked in the house. I had never been happier to see her in my life.

"Grandma!" I said, standing up and walking over to her.

She cocked her head at me. "What are you still doing here, Bella?"

"She and Jacob are becoming friends," Grandpa called.

I heard Jacob snort from his place on the couch. I refrained from snorting along with him and said, "If you can even call it that."

Grandma looked at me sympathetically and then walked into the kitchen. I heard a whistle of appreciation – no doubt coming from James, the lecher - and then someone yelling, "Ow! What did you hit me for?"

Billy answered, "For being a damn pervert."

I walked into the kitchen and went to the fridge, grabbing myself a soda. I cracked it open and took a sip, reveling in the feel of the cool drink sliding down my throat. As I walked back towards the living room, I listened to the chattering of the elderly.

Grandma laughed. "Hey boys, are you all joining us for lunch? I'm making chili and cornbread."

"Chili?" Phil asked incredulously. "In this weather?"

Grandpa guffawed. "You won't care about that once you taste Lorraine's famous chili."

"There he goes again, bragging about his wife," Billy chuckled.

I sat back down on the couch next to Jacob, who was busy trying to crush his soda can against his forehead. From some of the noises he was making, he wasn't having much luck.

"You bored?" I asked.

"No," he said sarcastically, "I'm totally entertained right now. There's nothing in the world that I would rather be doing than sitting here in a house that smells like cookies and old people."

I scowled at his response, and he grinned back at me. "I'm just messing with you." He looked away, his eyes back on the TV. "So how come I've never met you before?"

"Huh?"

"Well, I live in this neighborhood. And I've met your grandparents; I just wanted to know why I haven't seen you around." He kept staring at the TV, not looking back at me once while he talked. It was creeping me out a little.

"Oh," I said, "um, it's a long story."

Jacob gestured behind us at the kitchen. "Hell, I'm not going anywhere. We've got plenty of time to kill."

I sighed. "I came to visit my grandparents for the summer. I live in Tucson, which I is why you haven't seen me." After I said it, I felt stupid for calling it a long story, but Jacob didn't bring it up.

"Ah," he said.

I bit my lip and brought my legs up onto the couch, curling into a ball. "I've been here for almost two weeks, and I haven't seen you either."

I know it wasn't the brightest thing I could have said. But I was, surprisingly, trying to keep our conversation going. If I could make just one friend outside of the Cullens in Phoenix, then I would feel a lot better. Just because I wouldn't feel like such a loser if they weren't the only people I associated with.

"Yeah," he grinned as he talked and finally turned to look at me. "I haven't been hanging around here as often as I usually do."

"Oh." I felt a little disappointed at this. "Why not?"

"Because of my girlfriend." His eyes got a dreamy look and he leaned back, putting his arms behind his head. "She's been keeping me busy this summer."

"Oh," I said. "Well, that's cool."

We got silent again after that. I stayed curled up, taking a few more sips of my soda before setting it on the coffee table. The TV was playing a rerun of Gilligan's Island. Great, I thought, now the theme song will be stuck in my head for the rest of this day.

A half-hour passed, and I was starting to get uncomfortable again. I was bad with silence. Usually I would plug my iPod into my ears and blast it, but once again I was reminded of its absence. Thinking about it put me in a sour mood.

"So," Jacob said, startling me. "You clean the Cullens' house?"

I sighed. So he was back to this again. "Yes."

"How come?"

Why did he want to know so badly? "I got in trouble, okay? It's not really any of your business."

Jacob held his hands up. "Whoa, whoa, I was just asking."

"Yeah, well don't."

There was a beat of silence. And then he broke it again.

"Hey, you wanna know a secret?" He asked, smiling like the Cheshire Cat again.

"Sure."

Jacob leaned over and said, "Cullen hates me. You saw the way he looked when he saw me, right?"

I furrowed my brow. Edward had been looking at Jacob? He continued, "We got into a fight halfway through the school year, and I gave him a black eye. Totally beat the crap out of him." He laughed at this, as if it was somehow funny.

My blood felt like it was boiling. I hissed, "Because violence is just awesome, isn't it?" Picturing Edward all beat up somehow made me furious. "Why the hell did you two fight?" I asked, resisting the urge to smack Jacob across the face.

Jacob seemed oblivious to my anger and said, "Because my girlfriend… used to be his girlfriend." He cracked a smile, and I completely lost it.

I stood up, picked up my soda, and dumped it on top of his stupid head.

He gasped from shock and started breathing hard, glaring up at me. The kitchen went silent, and I felt everyone's eyes on us. Jacob stood up fast, towering over me. "You bitch!" He shouted.

My heart was pounding but I stood my ground, crushing the aluminum can in my hand. I narrowed my eyes. "That was for Edward."

His nostrils flared, and for a second I was almost afraid that he was going to punch me. But he just let out a frustrated noise and spun on his heels, opening the door and slamming it behind him as he left.

I let myself relax and looked at my grandma and grandpa, bracing myself for what they would say.

But instead Billy started laughing, shocking me completely. "That kid had that one coming."

I was speechless.

Grandpa stood up and walked over to the couch and stared down at the huge brown splotch on the couch. He looked up at me, his grey eyes calculating. I waited for the yelling to start, for my cue to run up the stairs and slam my door shut.

But he smiled. My grandpa Peter smiled at me.

"Jacob has been needing a good kick in the butt. That's why Billy brought him over here. He figured you could set him straight if he did anything out of line."

I was even more speechless.

Billy chuckled, and I looked at him. "You're a good kid, Bella," he said, smiling kindly. "I trust you. I'm sure he deserved it."

You're a good kid... I trust you. Hearing those words describing me almost made me cry. But I held them back and smiled at Billy, who was quickly becoming the grandfather I wish I could have.

"But you still need to clean this up," Grandpa said sternly, though not rudely. That was probably the best I would get from him now.

"I know. Sorry for getting it on the couch." I said sincerely, seeming to surprise my grandpa. He smiled again, a little one.

That tiny smile gave me some hope.

Edward P.O.V.

After moping around in my room for about fifteen minutes, I had decided to get the hell out of the house. I laced up my running shoes, changed into my workout clothes, and ran out the door, ignoring Emmett's demands to know where I was going.

I ran for a long time, enjoying the solitude and the feel of my shoes slapping against the sidewalk.

It was almost dusk by the time I got back to the cul-de-sac. Not really wanting to go back inside my house, I sat down on the curb near Bella's house. Inside, I could barely hear the sounds of laughing and talking. It sounded like there was a lot of people visiting.

I imagined Jacob being in there, talking with Bella, telling her all sorts of things about me that weren't true. He was just that kind of jackass. I clenched my teeth together to keep myself from shouting with frustration.

Knowing Bella, she would believe every word he said... and end up hating me even more. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, feeling more depressed about that than anything. I had been trying to "be good" or whatever Alice had said.

"Edward," she had said, "if you don't stop being rude to Bella, she's going to end up despising you so much that she won't even acknowledge your existence." She was in the bathroom, and I had just been passing by, minding my own business, when she decided to give me a lecture. She was putting on some weird green stuff that girls use on their faces.

I raised my eyebrows. "And what makes you think that I care?"

She gave me a look. "Trust me. I know you care."

How did she know that? Alice freaked me out with her intuitiveness. It was like she just knew everything.

"Alice, it's hard to take you seriously when you have that green crap all over your face."

She scoffed. "It is not crap, big brother. It's a facial mask."

"Okay." I said. "Whatever. I'll be nice to Bella."

And I had been. I hadn't randomly kissed her, or called her a brat, or locked her in my room. We even had a decent conversation or two. Emmett got her to play a couple rounds of Halo Reach, and even though it was tempting, I didn't even kill her. (She killed herself a lot, though.)

I had tried so hard. And now I felt like my last chance at winning her over had vanished.

Just then the door of Bella's house opened. I heard muffled curses and then a slam. I stood up and turned around to find Jacob Fucking Black walking out of her house, shaking his arms, dripping with some kind of brown liquid.

I wanted to laugh, but I just waited until he saw me. When he did, his eyes widened comically and he said, "What're you looking at, Cullen?"

The way he said my name was like a curse. It seemed so childish. It almost made me want to laugh.

"Nothing, Jacob. Nothing at all."

He walked up to me, puffing his chest out, trying to intimidate me. "You wanna go? Huh?"

I didn't know where he learned to talk smack, but it sounded like it was from his grandmother. "Not really." I muttered, looking down at him. He was tall, but not as tall as me, which certainly helped me with my confidence.

"That Bella chick. You like her?" He asked, glaring at me under his brow.

The way he said her name mirrored the way he had said mine, and I got suspicious. "Why?"

"I just wanted to tell you to get out while you can," he sneered. "She's a little bitch."

I snapped my fist back and punched him in the face as hard as I could. He went sprawling, falling down and hitting the curb. He cursed under his breath, and glared up at me.

I grabbed the front of his soaked t-shirt and pulled him to his feet, shaking him for good measure. "Don't you ever talk about her like that," I snarled, feeling fury course through me, making me shake. "Or else."

He tried to seem like I hadn't fazed him, but he was trembling under my hand. I imagine he was remembering our first fight, and how it hadn't gone too well for his face. Or his stomach. Or his back. I had beaten the crap out of him and had gotten in so much trouble with my parents that I had only been off of grounding a few days before Bella came to the neighborhood.

"Or else what?" He asked, his voice sounding almost tough. Almost.

"Or else I will tear you apart," I said, shoving him back on the ground. "You got that?"

He took off, scrambling to get up and away from me.

"And while you're at it," I called after him, "just stay the hell away from her!"

Bella P.O.V.

That night, I lay on my bed, unable to fall asleep. I had gotten ready for bed around eight because between Jacob and Billy and the impossibility of everything, I was so tired that I could have fallen asleep standing up.

I had gotten the soda out of the couch before it stained, so my grandma gave me ten dollars for a job well done. Then, as Billy was leaving, he had taken me aside and talked to me for around an hour, about his reasons regarding his grandson.

"I just don't want you to think I'm being needlessly cruel to him, Bella. That boy has caused me a lot of grief over the years. He stole my money a while back to buy something for his girlfriend because he forgot about her birthday until the very last second. And he's still refusing to pay me back."

I sat there, wondering what it was with grandparents and their grandchildren these days. It felt like no matter where I looked, there were situations like mine, where I could almost never get along with my grandpa. Up until that day, at least.

"By bringing him here, I was hoping to get him to understand that he's headed down a very dark path. He's getting out of control."

"But I don't think that trying to force him out of his bad ways are going to help anyone," I said. "He's either going to get better or worse on his own."

Billy stared at me, a gleam of surprise in his dark eyes. "Is that really how you feel?"

"Yes."

Billy scratched his chin and smiled. "Well, then. I'll see you next week, Bella. Have a good day."

And just like that, he left, leaving me more confused than I had been before.

I groaned, rolling over to the cold side of my bed. I just didn't get it anymore. Everything and everyone around me was constantly changing, so much so that even I had changed, just a little. But it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I noticed that I didn't mouth off as much as before, at least to my grandparents, which certainly helped to keep my life simpler. The Cullens only bothered me every now and then, not nearly as much as they used to. Especially Edward. He had definitely backed off, giving me some space. It was nice, and yet I found a part myself wishing that he wouldn't back off.

I smiled as I thought Edward. Then I stopped smiling, because I wasn't sure why thinking about him made me smile.

I seriously wasn't planning on making Jacob a jerk, so I apologize to any Jacob fans who may be upset about that. I had actually wanted him to be nice. He just sorta turned out to be a butt munch... The characters seem to take control and say what they want to say whether I like it or not c:

Let me know what you guys think! I love hearing your opinions. They give me ideas sometimes, and inspire me :)

Asta-la-bye-bye!