A/N: All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer, the story is mine.
Thank you to all of you and to my lovely Beta Ashlie Christine.
Chapter Six: Meet Jacob
Edward woke up—as he had been doing last couple of weeks—with his heart raceing. A slight layer of sweat was on his forehead and his throat was completely dry because of the screaming through the night.
His nightmares, or better yet, the one nightmare that he had been having lately wouldn't stop tormenting him, and the situation was starting to really upset him.
Since the night he saw that Aphrodite's sister in that fashion show, he couldn't stop dreaming about a freckled girl that seemed really familiar, but he just couldn't say who she was. It was just too frustrating.
He got up from his bed knowing that he wouldn't be able to get to sleep again and walked to the kitchen in his apartment, which was located on the ninth floor of the best building in Seattle. As he was drinking a cold glass of water, he remembered the dreamy look of a little girl; clumsy and ravishing, soaked by the permanent rain in Forks, with her boots covered by mud and her hair all tangled. She was a mess.
Immediately after, the memory of the image of the beautiful nymph appeared walking on the runway; however, it didn't matter how desperately he called to her, how hard he tried to reach her, he just couldn't. He kept falling on his knees in front of her staring with increasing terror of how she was holding in her hand his beating heart. That was his dream.
The dream itself was creepy and bizarre, but that wasn't what was bothering him the most though, it was the feeling of complete sadness and loneliness within the fact of seeing the woman walking away from him; without even looking at him and he couldn't do anything to prevent it. The young man snorted and finished his glass of water to get back to his bed and try to recover some sleep, that same morning he had to drive all the way to Forks in order to visit his mother, which didn't thrill him so much.
Edward loved his mother with all his heart, but lately she didn't stop talking about him trying to find some nice woman, get married and give her the grandchildren she deserved. His brothers didn't have that dilemma though; Every time Esme tried to talk about that with Emmett he always answered that he was working on it, which was a relief to their mother although the reality was he was slightly giveing his mother a pick about his reckless life in New York. Jasper on the other hand didn't suffer about that because Esme still looked at him as her baby.
That was why, he as the middle child, was the only target left for his mother's wishes; which she wouldn't stop pushing until one of her sons gave her the future Cullen's heir.
Back in his bedroom, the young man tried to get to sleep again, only to turn in his bed until the first hours of the morning and inevitably having to start his trip. Back on the other side of the country, thousands of people swarmed around a well dress and made over Isabella, who was ready for her second Chanel show of the year.
"Remind me again, why your crazy girls decided to fly to that shitty town, aka Forks, instead of staying here for a Chanel show?" Jacob Black asked. He was her personal makeup artist and one of her closest friends, who was absent during three weeks enjoying a well deserved vacation.
"They promised Renee." Isabella answered, Jacob nodded as he looked over her lip gloss again.
Jacob Black was the typical young and attractive man that everyone assumed was gay, however, that couldn't be farther from the truth. His love for makeup had born by the incentive of his mother, who assured him there couldn't be a more perfect form of art than working on a face. Where could you find a more vivid canvas than on a beautiful woman's face?
He had been born on the small Quileute reservation in Forks and the reason why he and Isabella never got to hang out before, was because Jacob had spent most of his teenage years with his mother in Texas. He didn't use to visit his father very often, Billy Black, Charlie Swan's best friend, because he didn't approve of the way his ex wife was educating his only son. Within time, Jacob just stopped visiting his father and accepted that his father considered him homosexual. Instead he just focused on living out his dream of working with the best top models. That came true and now one of them was Isabella Swan.
"You mother can be persuasive when she wants," he said distracted, checking that there wouldn't be any flaws in his friend's makeup.
"Tell me about it." ,she said with a little snort.
"It's time." ,one of the organizers yelled cheerfully, hurrying the young models up.
"Break a leg, sunshine." ,he whispered nicely, slightly kissing her lips and watching her head with grace to the stage.
The previous weekend Isabella had gone to Forks with her friends and after they had disappeared for a few hours without telling her where the heck they were, Renee had convinced them to visit her soon and they had delightfully accepted and even proposed to visit her every free weekend they had, starting from that one.
The fact that Isabella wasn't allowed to leave New York that weekend didn't stop them and Rosalie promised she would handle everything despite the long distance, without neglecting any of them, so she called Jacob and asked him to shorten his vacation in order to be with Isabella in the fashion show. With all set and done, Rosalie and Alice took a flight from New York to Seattle and then they would drive all the way to Forks avoiding the flight in aircraft even if it took them a little more to arrive, or so they told her.
As always, the beautiful model did an exceptional job, leaving more than one person in the crowd overwhelmed by her beauty and elegance, after all she had been a model for five years and she was one of the most recognized figures in the industry. That was almost natural for her. She walked along with the music at the beginning and to the end of the catwalk, and she walked by Karl's hand at the end of the show to receive the general applause.
Behind the scenes Jacob was waiting for his friend with a dazzled face, there was no doubt how much he admired his best friend, even more because unlike Alice and Rosalie, he did know what Isabella had been through in Forks during her last years of high school. Jacob knew that because, just like Isabella, he had suffered in high school to the disdain of the teenagers due to his passion for makeup. The difference was that ,unlike Isabella, that had suffered just from one guy, he had to stand the stalking and bullying from all the boys in the school.
"As always, ma chérie, you were perfect!" he said with a huge smile on his face as he opened his arms to give a crushing hug.
Isabella hugged him with the same enthusiasm because there was nothing that could comfort her as much as Jake's hugs, and to be totally honest she needed it. She missed having Rosalie shouting out to everyone and Alice running around her with her endless energy. They were her best friends, her support and company. Out of them, Jacob, and her parents, there was no one else; not even a crush. And all that was because of her continuous ghosts and fears from her past that didn't allow her to have a normal and peaceful relationship.
An old feeling of bitterness trapped through her chest and settled in her eyes, stealing from her a bit of the beauty of her face.
"Isabella, don't think about him, please." the young man begged her, bringing her back from her world of shadows.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, more serious than before and getting away from his friend, "I'll be ready in a minute"
As she said that, almost immediately Isabella was ready to go and head to Jacob's apartment where she would be spending a nice and relaxing evening. Jacob could tell her all about his trip through the Mediterranean Sea, just relaxing and trying to not think about her past.
Far away from there tho, the model's friends were spending a lovely evening with their best friend's mother and Mrs. Cullen.
"All right, I know you want to hear what happened to Isabella years ago." Esme said straight out when Renee Swan had left the living room; where they were chatting about an hour ago.
"You're very perceptive, Esme." Alice applauded her, she was too.
"I have three male children, you bet I am." the woman joked about, as she was creating more suspense in the girls.
"Don't worry, I'll tell you all what I know, but not in here, I'll be waiting for you to come to dinner at my place, then we can talk"
The young women accepted delighted to be going to dinner with the fine woman, without being aware of the presence of the three men in the Cullen's mansion.