CHAPTER FIVE
I was relieved to find that my Dad still wasn't home from work when I got in; or maybe he had simply gone straight to a bar. At least he wasn't likely to find out I had detention. I threw my bag and jacket into my room, kicked my boots off and raided the refrigerator. There wasn't much in there so I made some grilled cheese and a mug of coffee and sprawled on the sofa, thinking about Jacob. It seemed an awfully long time until Monday and I still had to talk to Melissa.
"Shit," I muttered, remembering she had called me earlier. I pulled my cellphone out and switched it on. Three missed calls and two text messages. I read the last one only, sent just minutes before.
'Where the hell are you?'
"Nice," I said. I sent her a message back. 'I was in detention. Will call you tomorrow.'
She didn't reply and I put her out of my mind, switched on the television and went back to thinking about Jacob. Our lips had only touched for a few seconds before he pushed me away and I felt as if it had scrambled my brain. I giggled to myself, unable to wipe the smirk off my face and thinking it was a good thing no one could see me.
My Dad didn't come home all night and he still wasn't in when I set off to catch the bus just after nine in the morning. I had already called Melissa and told her I was going into Forks to see her. She was sulky, but agreed for me to go around to her house since her parents had already gone out. I got there just after ten-fifteen and rang the bell.
"Hey, Paul." Melissa actually gave me a smile as she opened the door and I began to feel like a bit of a shit for what I was about to do. Still, there was no point in me dragging it out. We went and sat down in the lounge room and she offered me some coffee.
"Uh, no thanks, I'm not staying long," I said.
"Great. You only just got here. What's wrong with you?"
"I'm just fed up," I said. "Of everything. The gang and all their shit."
"And me?" Her eyes narrowed.
"I wouldn't say that exactly, but I think we should break up," I told her.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No. I just don't want to be with you any more."
"So have you got someone else, then?" She pursed her lips up and scowled at me.
"Not exactly."
"What he hell does that mean? That you want someone else? That you'll go after her when you get rid of me? That's real nice, Paul!"
I stood up again. "Yeah, I do want someone else. At least I'm going about it the right way instead of cheating on you."
"Oh, that makes it alright then." She jumped to her feet and glared at me. "Get out. Go and tell your little slut, whoever she is, that you're all free and single again. Seems like I had a lucky escape."
A minute later I was walking down the street away from her house, thinking that it had gone a lot better than I expected, when I ran into Tom. He was usually in the gym on Saturday mornings, but he was carrying two paper sacks of groceries.
"Hey, Paul." He stopped for a moment. "Been to Mel's?"
"Yeah."
"Leaving already? Did you stay over?" he grinned.
"No. We broke up," I said, guessing he would soon hear it from Kate anyway once Melissa called her.
"What? Shit, what happened? Did you piss her off?"
"Oh, I like how it has to be because of something I did," I grumbled.
"Well, did you?"
"No! I ended it."
"What the fuck?" Tom's mouth fell open. "Why the hell would you break up with someone like Melissa? Half the kids in school are jealous of you for being with her."
"Yeah, well it wasn't working."
"You better not have fucked her up, Paul," Tom said then. "Are you seeing someone else?"
"No, I'm not. Yet. Not that it's anything to do with you," I snapped.
"It has plenty to do with me and the others. Anyone messes with one of us, they have the rest to answer to."
"Fair enough. Then I guess I'll be catching up with the rest of you soon enough."
I shrugged, shoved my hands into my pockets and walked off, leaving him standing there with his groceries. A couple of people eyed me strangely as I passed them and I straightened my face quickly, realising I was grinning to myself like an idiot.
I went to catch the bus back to La Push and then spent a few hours on the beach hoping I might see Jacob, but although I walked miles, I didn't see another soul and I remembered he was spending the day in Forks with the police chief's daughter. I went home half way through the afternoon and found my Dad in the kitchen drinking strong black coffee.
"Hey, Dad," I said, hoping he wasn't still hungover or mad about something. He turned to look at me.
"Not seeing Melissa today?"
"No. We broke up," I said.
"Oh? I thought you two were pretty well suited," Dad said. "She's a lovely girl."
"Yeah, well it's over."
"I hope you haven't been fooling around with...uh...boys again," Dad growled, grimacing as if he had a nasty taste in his mouth.
"No." I left him to his coffee, thinking that any time soon I was likely to have a different answer to that.
Sunday crawled by. I didn't see anyone and no one called me. I didn't have Jacob's number otherwise I would have been tempted to call him. Instead I did all my homework properly for about the first time ever. Usually I ended up scribbling away in a frenzy on the school bus on Monday mornings. Dad treated us to takeout for supper and then I went back to my room and spent the evening listening to music and watching the clock creep around towards eleven which was the time I usually went to bed. I gave up when it reached ten and crashed early, hoping to get an extra hour's sleep to pass the time.
By the time I went to catch the bus to school on Monday, I was filled with nervous excitement. I couldn't wait to see Jacob, but much to my disappointment he was nowhere to be seen. Embry and Quil were waiting for the bus and I walked over to them.
"Where's Jacob?" I asked.
"What's it to you?" Quil looked at me and frowned.
"I was just wondering."
"He's keeping out of your way," Embry said with a sneer.
"Why?" My heart plummeted and I wouldn't have been surprised to see it lying on the ground in front of me.
"He's just going to be in late, that's all, he went to the hospital with his Dad," Quil said then.
"Oh, is he ok?" I asked.
Both of them looked at me as if I'd descended from another planet.
"It's his diabetes, he has to have regular check ups," Embry said.
"Jacob's diabetic?" I gasped.
"His Dad, you moron," snorted Quil.
"Oh, ok." I took my cellphone out and pretended fascination with a non-existent text message, aware that the pair of them were still staring at me in disbelief. I should probably have held my tongue and just waited until I saw Jacob.
For once the bus was late and by the time we reached school, there was only time to run in and get to the first class so I didn't see anything of Tom and the others or of Melissa, much to my relief. I was too keen to see Jacob to be thinking about any potential fall out from my break up with Melissa right at that moment.
Jacob still hadn't turned up by lunch time and when I overheard Embry and Quil saying they were going to spend the break in the library, I decided to follow them. I doubted they would appreciate me hanging around, but I supposed I ought to try and let them see I could be a decent guy if I was going to spend any time with Jacob.
The library was on the second floor overlooking the front of the school. Embry and Quil sat down at a table in front of the window and I grabbed a random book from a shelf and wandered over.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" I asked, indicating the two empty chairs at the table.
Embry eyed the other half dozen free tables in the area and raised his eyebrows. "I guess."
"Thanks." I pulled the chair out next to the window and sat down.
"I thought you'd be in the food hall with your friends," Quil said.
"I don't really think they're my friends any more," I said, opening the book I had picked up. It was a history book. I couldn't help grinning at the irony.
"Interesting reading?" asked Embry.
"Not in the least." I closed it again and looked out of the window, wondering what to talk to them about. Then I saw Jacob walking in the gate. His hair was loose for once and he was wearing jeans, boots and a fleece jacket. "Jacob's here," I said.
"Yeah, cool," Quil said absently, his nose in his own book now.
I watched as Jacob came into the yard, his hair whirling around him in the strong breeze. I wanted to run my fingers through it and I smiled to myself again as I looked at him. He came closer to the building and then halted suddenly as if someone had approached him. Because of the height of the window I couldn't see who, but he took a step backwards. I stood up to see better and peered downwards.
"Shit!"
"What?" Embry looked up and Quil got to his feet, following my eyes.
"Those asshole friends of Paul's are bothering Jacob," Quil said.
"Like I said, they're not my friends. Not any more," I grunted, shoving the window open and looking out. I couldn't hear what they were saying down there because there was noise from elsewhere; kids shouting and laughing and running around. But I could see what was happening and as I watched, Tom shoved Jacob hard in the chest, making him stagger backwards, almost falling, saved only by the fact that he collided with Bobbie. Bobbie in turn pushed him back the other way so that he hit the wall.
"Fuckers!" hissed Quil. "We need to get down there, come on, Embry."
Embry leaped to his feet, knocking his chair over and I hesitated for a moment, wondering how long it was going to take them to run down the four flights of stairs, out of the building and around to the other side. Too long. I climbed onto my chair and put a foot on the window sill. It wasn't that far down. I lifted my other foot up beside the first and held onto the frame.
"What the hell are you doing, Paul?" Quil said, pausing half way to the door.
"Don't worry about me, get down the stairs," I told him. I didn't waste any more time thinking, but launched myself off the sill. In the brief moment of time during which I plummeted past two sets of windows, I wondered how many bones I would break if I landed wrong, but then my feet hit the ground and I was in a crouch right beside Tom.
"Fuck me!" he gasped, stepping back.
I straightened up cautiously, amazed that nothing hurt. Tom and the others were a couple of inches taller than me, or least they had been. Now I found myself eye to eye with Tom without having to look up. Weird.
"Leave him alone," I said quietly.
"What? You're taking up for this fag now?" Bobbie said incredulously, cuffing Jacob around the head. I reached out to grab Jacob's arm and pulled him away from them.
"Back off," I said to Bobbie. "You want to pick on someone, try me."
"You were gonna be next," Steve said now. "You know Melissa was around our place last night crying to Patty after you shit on her."
"I doubt it," I said. "She's probably glad to see the back of me."
"Well, why did you break up with her, Paul? Turning queer like your new friend?" Bobbie said.
"What if I am? What the hell has it to do with you?" I snapped. "It's the twenty-first century, Bobbie, it's not like they still hang you for it."
"Fuck, you are gay, aren't you?" Tom said. "Shit! The number of times we showered together and stuff at the gym..."
I couldn't help laughing now. "Get over yourself," I snorted. "You might think you're God's gift to the entire population, Tom, but you don't do it for me."
His face twisted into a grimace and he launched himself at me, but surprisingly Bobbie and Steve both grabbed him and held him back.
"Leave it, Tom, it's not worth it," Steve said. "They're welcome to each other."
The three of them glared at me for a few more seconds and then all began to walk away, just as Embry and Quil arrived at a run. I ignored them and turned towards Jacob where he stood by the wall behind me.
"Are you ok?" I asked.
"Yeah; thanks." He laughed nervously. "You know you just asked for a whole load of trouble from those jerks though."
"I don't care, it's been a long time coming."
"What about your girlfriend? They said you broke up with her?"
"Yeah, on Saturday," I said. "I told you I was going to sort things out."
He smiled and then looked up at the building above us. "Did you really just jump out of that window?"
I followed his gaze and realised it looked incredibly high up from down on the ground.
"Uh...yeah, I guess I did."
"You're crazy."
I lowered my eyes again and met his. "It was the fastest way to get to you."
"Paul!"
I jumped and turned to look at Jared who had just arrived and was now glowering at me. Much to my surprise, he grabbed hold of my wrist and dragged me away from the others. The first thing I noticed was that his hand was like steel and I had no choice but to follow him. He halted out of earshot of everyone and let go of me.
"What the hell were you doing, jumping out the window, drawing attention to yourself like that?"
"Huh? What?" I stared at him in surprise. "You'd rather I just left Jacob to get beat up by those dickheads again?"
"Stay away from Jacob," Jared growled at me. "All you've done since you got here is cause trouble for him."
"It's nothing to do with you," I snapped.
"It has plenty to do with me. We look after each other and you're fucking with his head. He likes you."
"Yeah, well I like him. Why do you think I split with Melissa and walked away from my so-called friends?"
Jared's eyes narrowed. "Don't even think about it," he said. "Jacob's better off without you."
"Don't you think that's up to him?" I was suddenly furious, even more so than I had been with Tom's gang. It was nothing to do with Jared. From what I'd seen he and Jacob weren't even that close. Embry and Quil were Jacob's friends and Jared just seemed to tag along every so often when he felt like it.
"Mind your own fucking business!" I snarled at him now.
"Calm down," Jared said quietly.
"Go to hell!" No one was going to get between me and Jacob again. Certainly not Jared. My rage rolled inside me like a ball of fire and I broke out in a sweat, my whole body quivering.
"Paul, listen to me. You have to relax, right now. Take a deep breath."
I was looking into Jared's eyes which seemed strangely black and for some reason I felt that I had no choice but to do as he said, damn him. I took a deep breath and then another. Gradually I stopped shaking and the heat began to leave me. Jared heaved a sigh of relief.
"Come with me," he said.
"What? Where? What about school?" I protested.
"There's someone you have to meet."
"Can't it wait until we finish for the day?"
"No."
"What about Jacob?" I protested.
"Leave him alone."
"I have to talk to him," I said.
"Well, it's too late, he's gone off with Embry and Quil."
I looked over my shoulder and discovered that the three had indeed disappeared. Sighing, I began to walk with Jared as he led me towards the school gates.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"To see Sam Uley."
"Who?"
"Stop asking so many questions."
Jared met my eyes again and I found myself biting my tongue and doing as I was told. I didn't seem to be able to argue with him. It was a mystery to me, but no more than my recent growth in both height and muscle and my ability to bench press two hundred pounds and jump out of second storey windows without injury. Maybe this Sam Uley, whoever he was, would have some kind of explanation for me.