SPOV

I had to focus really hard to actually hear what this Jacob was saying. I hoped he hadn't noticed how my eyes were darting from his chest back to his eyes. What I had heard however, was that his name was Jacob, he was 19 years old and he had just graduated as we had. I think he said something about being held back in 7th grade but to be honest, my mind had wondered then. I was severely distracted by him. "Are you going to answer that?", he said as he smiled and pointed to the phone in my pocket. "Oh, whoops, yeah." I held up my finger to him. It was Mandah. I remembered then just how starving I actually was. She was withholding information from me and that was just completely unacceptable. If it hadn't been for that, I probably would have stayed out here til I literally starved to death talking to Jacob. "So, that was my roomie/best friend Mandah. She called to let me know dinner was ready, wanna join us?" I asked, certain he would say no. His eyebrows shot up and a look of surprise crossed his face. "Food?", he laughed, "Pshhh, I'm there, let's go." Apparently my speed of walking wasn't fast enough for him because he stopped about 5 feet ahead of me, turned around and bent over in front of me so fast, I couldn't have stopped him if I'd wanted to. He lifted me up over his shoulder. It was very caveman of him. I giggled and kicked my feet, pretending to want to be put down. Thankfully, he didn't listen. We made it to the door pretty quickly and he set me down. I went for the door handle but looked back at him to teasingly glare at him. I turned back and opened the door. The smell of the food made my stomach do flips and if I wasn't mistaken, I think I heard Jacobs stomach grumble. I laughed as we walked in to find Mandah leaned over her plate, fork in mouth, looking as surprised as I felt that Jacob had actually come.

"Hi", Mandah tried to say. I shook my head in embarrassment for my friend. "Hey, nice to meet you", he said. I slid past him and grabbed two plates off the counter and loaded them both up. I set them on the table and motioned for Jacob to sit. He took a seat next to me as I began to dig in. He eyed his plate skeptically. "Um, what is this?" he asked while poking the squash noodles. "Just try it." I said while I nudged him and tried to smile without exposing the food in my mouth. He laughed a little and nodded. He twirled a small bite onto his fork and added a small piece of meatball. He lifted it to his mouth but before eating it, he sniffed it. "Smells pretty good." he said before sticking the fork into his mouth. Both Mandah and myself watched him chew with intensity. It was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. He looked up as his chewing slowed. His gaze darted between Mandah and me. "What?", he asked, mouth full of food. "Well?", I asked. "Well,", he began, "I know where I'm going to be eating dinner all summer!", he laughed. I had NO problem with that. Mandah winked at me.

After dinner, Jacob insisted on doing the dishes. I laughed, "Jake, we've got a dishwasher." He thought for a minute, "Well, it's still one less thing for you to do.", he smiled. "Alright, fine, knock yourself out." Just then Mandah got up and said "Well guys, it's been a crazy, long day. I'm going to go hop in the shower and go to bed." Jake said goodnight and that he'd see her tomorrow as she waved and walked out of the room. That made me smile. If she would see him, I would see him. Then I remembered, Mandah was witholding information from me. "You finish up, I'll be right back.", I told him.

I knocked on Mandah's door and walked in. She screamed a little and clutched a towel to her chest. "God Shawnie, there's a boy in the house. Wait for me to answer, you could have been him!" she squealed. "Don't flatter yourself!", I laughed. Jacob was mine. "Ok," she laughed, "Is there something I can do for you?" I looked at her like her IQ had dropped 50 points. "You got a phone call tonight?", I reminded her. "Oh, yeah, right....so Esme's son Edward called me." Wow, I hadn't expected that. "Seriously?", I asked. "Uh, yeah...he called to "apologize" or something. I didn't accept." she said. Well, that's rude. "Why not?", I asked. It wasn't like Mandah to hold a grudge. She and I got along so well because we were both pretty laid back girls. "I don't know Shawnie, his excuse was lame. I told him he could tell Esme I'd accepted though. There's no reason she should feel weird around me, especially since I'm going to be working for her. The only one who needs to feel weird is Edward and he deserves it anyway for being a complete asshole." she spat out. "By the way," she added, "did you call your parents? Ya know, to let them know we're here?" Oops. "No. I'll call when I go back out there."

Mandah looked deep in thought for a second and then an evil smile spread across her face. "So, Jacob, huh?" she said and laughed, "I know, right?", I said, in awe. "I think he likes you..." she added. My heart stopped. "Shut up.", I said as I rolled my eyes. I smiled inside. I figured she was probably just messing with me. "Whatever, you'll see." she said as she got up off her bed. "I'm going to go shower now." she announced. "Yeah, that smells like a good idea." I said. Her face was priceless. I laughed.

I left her to her shower and went back out to the kitchen. Jacob was standing, arms crossed, leaning against the sink. "So, are you tired, too?" he asked. I was. I was exhausted. I didn't know how I was still awake to be honest. "No. I'm good.", I lied. He smiled as if he knew I was lying. I probably looked half dead. "Well, wanna watch a movie or something?", he asked. Damn...I didn't pack any movies. "I don't think we have any..." I admitted. I was kicking myself so hard in that moment. I brought my whole damn house but I can't manage to squeeze in a damn DVD? "That's ok, I can run home and grab one. I'll be back in less than 5 minutes.", he offered. Two hours, in the dark, on the couch...with Jacob. "Sounds good!", I said. He smiled as he said he'd be right back and left. I watched him jog until he was swallowed up by the dark. I ran into my room and tore into my bags. Toothbrush! Where did I put it!? I found my toothpaste and settled for just that since time was not on my side. I squirted some onto my finger and "brushed" my teeth. I grabbed a suitcase I knew contained clothing and found a pair of pink and black pj's. I put them on in a hurry and darted for Mandah's room. Her things were all put away, I could find what I needed in there. I ran into her door and she screamed again. "What the hell Shawnie, what did I tell you?" she yelped. "It's no biggie, Jacob isn't here anymore." I laughed. "He's coming back though and I need a hair tie and some smell good stuff. We're going to watch a movie.", I confided. She pointed towards her vanity and continued getting dressed. I heard a knock at the door and knew it was Jacob. As I bolted from Mandah's room, she was towel drying her hair and turning on her tv.

"Ok, I grabbed a couple for you to choose from and I brought popcorn!", he said handing over the movies. I looked them over and decided I wanted to watch "Transformers". He was in the kitchen popping the popcorn. I started to her kernels popping as I saw him enter the living room with his hands behind his back. He put them in front of him, closed fists down. "Pick a hand.", he told me. I laughed and pretended to think really hard about which hand I should choose. I settled for the left one. He turned his hand over, palm side up, and opened his fingers. It was a Hersheys kiss. He opened his other hand and I saw it, too, contained a kiss. He unwrapped my kiss and came closer. "Open up.", he commanded while smiling. I never knew chocolate could be so intense. I parted my lips and he popped the kiss into my mouth. He then unwrapped his and popped it in his mouth before turning around to get the popcorn which I realized had stopped popping. I stood there with my mouth hanging open with the chocolate still inside it. I composed myself before he could come back. "Grab a couple waters, too!" I yelled. Suddenly, my throat was very dry.

He returned in a couple minutes with a big bowl of popcorn and 2 waters. I crouched down in front of the dvd player and loaded it up. I could feel Jacobs stare burning a hole through me. I blushed as I got up and grabbed the remote. I took a seat to his right. The movie was about 1/2 way through before I couldn't stay awake any longer. My head would lower and as I'd feel myself falling asleep, I'd jerk it upright again. This was embarrassing. I was surprised when Jacob put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me down onto his chest. I inhaled and realized he smelled amazing. I was in complete comfort. Suddenly, I was asleep.

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