Suspicions

"If you follow only one rule, let it be this one: Be yourself. The really strong boy-girl relationships are based on what people really are, not on what they pretend to be."

I collasped like a lifeless ragdoll onto one of the couches in the living room. I was feeling completely worn out and on the borderline of being dead. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that Jasper was staring at me with an eyebrow cocked, a dull expression on his face. After so many years of dance, he was use to my actions after practices. I noticed that most of the member's of Tanya's coven were sitting in the room, excluding my boyfriend, thankfully. I actually would be embarrassed if he saw me in this horrible, disgusting state. They looked at me oddly; I even heard Conrad and Will snicker. Currently, I didn't care that they were laughing at me. After greeting Jasper, Alice skipped over to the couch, giving me a look of disgust. I heard her click her tongue.

"You're going to stain the sofa if you lay there any longer, Cecilia," she snapped.

"You don't know that for sure, Alice," I moaned.

"It's just an assumtion," snapped Alice, bitterly.

I groaned as I was stretching my arms up to the white ceiling. Alice was still pretty annoyed because I wasn't in her visions anymore. My biceps and triceps ached like the rest of my sore body. I gave out a small cry of pain. Alice and I just finished Dance Team practice. It had lasted a fair few hours after school had let out. Alice, of course, was in perfect condition. I looked so gross compared to my posed cousin. I didn't enjoy it much today, because all during reherseal I was only thinking about my plans for later that night. I was going to La Push to hang out with Jacob Black. I had been down to La Push over ten times and still had not been caught.

"Come on, let me help you get up," said Alice.

Alice didn't let me respond. Quickly, she got me back onto my sore feet. Mom rushed to me with a square bottle of fancy island water from the cold refridgerator while I was still in the living room. She told Alice that I could rest for a while on the couch, knowing that I was not ready yet to walk. My mother sat next to me, smoothing back my sweaty hair gently, a small smile on her dazzling face. The coldness of her stone hands also cooled me off. Evenually, Alice and Mother then walked me to my room so that I could clean up. We passed by Emmett, who laughed at me. Rosalie was with him, too. She gave me a look of disgust.

Once I got to my room I took a freezing cold shower. The bones in my body became less achey. After shampooing, rinsing, and repeating, I blowdried my brunette locks while listening to some rap song that was playing on the radio. By the time my hair was managable again, my body felt normal. I threw on a short sleeved pink blouse and my very favorite pair of skinny jeans. One of my many pairs of Chanel flats covered my feet. I brushed my cheeks with blush and lightly applied some dark liner on my eyes, complete with mascara and smooth eyeshadow. I examined my presence in a full length mirror, deciding that I looked decent enough to go out.

I headed downstairs, clutching tightly onto the railings like I was suppose to. I found that Ryan was standing in front of the last step. He wore a wary smile as he gazed up at me. I returned his gesture, but with a little more enthusiasum. Once I reached the second to final step, Ryan's hands wound themselves around my hips. My boyfriend picked me up quickly. I let out a gasp. Before I could count to two my feet were on the ground floor. Ryan's lanky arms were holding onto my slender body with eagerness. I looked up at his face with a surprised expression, which he chuckled at. Ryan held me so tight that it was embarrassing. On other occasions I wouldn't mind his unuasual wonderful gesture, but my family was here...probably in the general area...

"You look very lovely."

"Thanks. You're squeezing the living devil out of me." Nah, not really, but he had to stop this.

"Why must you tempt me so?" Ryan asked in a purr, ignoring me completely.

My boyfriend gently bent his head down and kissed my temple. I felt my lips twist and my eyes tighten in disaproval of his actions. Now was not the time. Besides, wasn't I too much for him to handle?

"Jade's tonight?" questioned Ryan while his cool lips traced down my cheek.

"And Audrey's," I added. My voice sounded so awkward. "I think my body's breaking." Again, he ignored me, his kiss moving lower and lower. Could he tell that I was lying...?

"You visit those girls a lot. However, you do not spend time with me as much as you use to." Ryan was at my jaw now.

"Jake!" I called while rapping on his front door for the fifth time. "Open up! Are you home? Jacob!" I was being far too impatient, but I was excited.

The shabby door finally whirled open. I gasped, a sheepish smile dancing across my lips as I looked up at Jake. He was wearing some grease stained jeans and a white colored t-shirt. A huge grin was on my friend's face when he looked down upon me. I knew that I was just a David compared to a huge Galiath whenever I was around Jake, but as he stared downward, I felt even more ridiculously short. Jacob would tease me by calling me a munchkin.

"Hey, Fish Biscuit," said Jacob in his usual friendly voice.

I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"What did you just call me?" I questioned.

Jacob chuckled a thoarty chuckle, still smiling at me.

"I believe that I just called you Fish Biscuit."

"Um, can I ask you why you called me that?" I asked, sounding awkward.

"Remember when we first met," Jacob began to explain. "Your friend, ahhh...what's-her-name? Like Harphead or something?" Jake shrugged, the look of confusion on his face expressing that he really didn't care.

I rolled my eyes.

"It's Harper."

"Whatever. Anyway, she was gonna make fish biscuits, remember?" Jake said, allowing me inside his house. I walked in, settling myself on the couch in his living room. "Do you like them or something, Cee? No offense, but they sound really sick." Jacob faked a heavy shudder.

"I haven't tried one. Ew, they do sound really awful," I laughed as Jacob plopped himself next to me. My eyes lingered to the space in front of me, finding that the crappy television wasn't there anymore. There wasn't anything in it's place.

"What happened to your TV, Jake?" I asked, my eyes wandering around to try and find it. Maybe he moved it or something.

Jacob bit his lip, his eyes turning tight.

"Did you fight Paul or something?" I suggested with sarcasam in my tone.

"How'd you know?" Jacob's expression was dumbstruck with surprised shock, his face looking abruptly very uncomfortable.

"I'm just an excellent guesser," I mused, feeling curious. "What did you guys brawl over?"

"Uhhh...it was really stupid..."

Jake put his large hand on the back of his neck, massaging it as if he had too much stress in that area. I didn't understand why he was acting this way. I figured that the pack got into stupid fights over food or whatever; Mom told me a few years ago I remember that they usually did. So, why was Jacob so uncomfortable suddenly? Did he not want me to know that the guys in his pack have stupid challenges over snack cakes and cans of lemon lime flavored soda? Ridiculous. I could handle that. Maybe he just didn't want to tell me because I was of the female gender. Well, that was just silly.

"Chips?" I guessed. "Was it over chips?" I repeated lamely.

Jacob's face immediantely relaxed, his hand continued to rub the nape of his big neck.

"Sure," said Jake. The sound of his voice was uneasy, filled with a hint of relieve. "Something like that."

"You should get a new television, you need to know what's going on outside of La Push."

Jake stifled a small, slightly shaky laugh. He moved his hand off of his neck and into his black toft of untidy, wild, long hair.

"Ha, yeah. I guess you're right, Cee--"

The front door then was beaten on loudly, making me jump off of the couch. I resembled a cat getting dunked into a pool of water. I was not expecting any visitors nor unreasonably loud noises that evening. Jacob leaped to his feet like me, a somewhat scared expression planted on his face. He placed his large hands on my shoulders, the heat of them making me shudder involuntary. I looked into Jake's dark eyes, not sure what my expression was. I feared for ten long seconds that it was my father or some member of my family knocking with rage on the door. I stopped breathing at ten seconds, suddenly afraid that it was Ryan Middleton. The beat of my heart felt like it had stopped. I could tell that Jacob knew what my thoughts were, and I was pretty sure that he was thinking the same as me.

"Hey, Alpha, open up!"

Jacob's face relaxed for a whole two seconds, then the visage on his face read that he was annoyed. I let out a sigh of relief.

"The door's open, Seth!" called Jake with a bit of an angry tone that I had never heard before.

My spirits, unlike Jake's, were lifted up. I was about to meet a non fictional character from my mother's stories of the past, a character who happened to be one of my favorites. A character who didn't care whether you were a werewolf or a vampire or a human or a six legged alien from Neptune.

"Just wondering if you had any powdered sugar, for some reason Leah wants to--oh."

Seth Clearwater stopped dead in his tracks as he was making his way into the living room. He looked just how I imagined him to be, what with a long, gangly build and short black hair on the top of his scalp. Seth wore a surprised facial expression, looking from Jake's gaze to mine over and over again. I wondered in my head why he was staring at us in that way. A ripple of cold flew up my torso, making me feel frozen like a Greek styled statue. Jacob had his too large palms on the blades of my skinny shoulders, his body very much close to mine. Jake must have realized that at the same time that I did. Jacob's hands at once left me, his structure now a lest two or so feet away from me. I bit my lip, a pink flush painting on my ice pale cheeks. Embarrassed, Seth looked down upon the carpet covered floor for a few moments. Jake was the first to speak.

"Shouldn't Leah be on patrol with Brady and Jared?" asked Jacob in a harsh voice.

"She is," said Seth, taking up for his older sister. "Is this Cecilia?" he added in an instant, now gazing in my direction. I felt myself blush again.

"Yes, I'm Cecilia," I greeted with a bit of embarrassment in my voice as I walked slowly over to the non fictional character. "You're Seth, obviously. I've heard so much about you from my father and my mother."

Seth's face brightened up, a grin spreading on his lips.

"Really? Do they?" Seth mused, totally animated. "How are they doing? I haven't seen Edward and Bella in so long. I've heard about you, too, Edward sends us a Christmas card every year with your picture on it. Jake's right, you really are pretty and beautiful--"

Jacob cleared his thoart, indicating to Seth that he should shut up. My cheeks flushed yet again. I noticed that Jacob grimanced with chagrin. So, Jake thought that I'm pretty? Beautiful, even?

"Sorry," Seth apologized, seeming embarrassed.

I giggled.

"There is not need to apologize," I said, softly.

"I don't know why Paul complains about how you--"

Jake gave Seth a warning look. The younger werewolf stopped chatting.

What did Paul complain about exactly?

I had strong suspicions suddenly that his complaints were all about me...

The broken, long gone television...

Did Paul and Jacob have a fight over me? Resulting in a destroyed TV because of me? Because I was hanging out with him? Was it because I was part of a vampire coven?

Seth said that Jacob thought that I was attractive...

Maybe Jacob had the same feelings that I secretly had for him...

My whole being, body and soul, hoped that Jake did.