Part V
The Scene: A Mexican restaurant in Seattle; Alice's choice, of course.
I had no idea why Alice was taking us to a restaurant to have this meeting. It was probably just so that they could appear normal whilst talking to us, but I'm sure anywhere else would have been a better choice. They couldn't eat; that might cause a problem.
We slid into a booth and gave our drink orders to the waitress, who kept looking flirtatiously at Edward. Jacob got a Dr. Pepper, Alice a water, and I ordered a Coke. Edward didn't want anything, and you could tell that the waitress was trying to get him to look her in the eyes, as tough that might change his choice. When he refused, she scampered off, and I held in a chuckle.
Alice cleared her throat as soon as she was out of earshot and looked over at me and Jacob. I realized then and there that the only reason she was speaking now was because I was there. I shrugged it off. It was better if she spoke, anyways. We didn't want a fight between Edward and Jake. That would be a disaster.
"The reason my brother wanted to speak with you is because of the treaty," she began. "There are boundaries, as you know." I felt Jake tense up beside me, but thankfully, it wasn't noticeable in his appearance, because the girl came back with our drinks at that moment.
She wanted our order, but to stall her from the shock of our not wanting anything to eat, Alice asked for the nachos. Our waitress, still vainly trying to get Edward to look at her, headed off again, and Jake spoke up.
"I didn't think the treaty would still be in effect if you weren't there," he said through clenched teeth. Alice smiled wanly. "That's the thing, dog, you didn't think. But we're all returning, so yes, it will be in effect again." She shot me a warning glance, but I wasn't responsive to the look. I was trying to play it out in my head to figure out what she meant.
It grew quiet. Jacob spoke next. "Why the need to return? The pack and I can take care of this problem ourselves," he said, anger perceptible now. Alice sighed. "This isn't your problem to solve," she said. "We caused it, so we'll fix it. All you need to do is guard your territory and we'll do the rest."
"The rest of what?" I suddenly asked. I couldn't stand it anymore. I was hopelessly lost in the conversation, and needed some answers. Everyone stared at me, including Edward, but it hurt to look at him, so I stared up at Jake. "What's the issue?"
He looked away, opened his mouth to speak, and then groaned as the waitress came back with the nachos. They looked so good, but I didn't want to eat in front of Alice and Edward. It would have been too rude. Jake, however, disregarded this common courtesy and dove right in.
"What are we having today?" the girl asked in an overly sweet voice. "We need a few minutes," I said quickly, turning to Alice. I knew Jake would be of no help, now that he was eating. The girl huffed and walked off. Alice's eyes cast downward.
"Victoria's back," she said quietly. I slumped back in my seat in disbelief. She was back? The redhead that was trying to kill me? Didn't she know that I was of no consequence to her anymore? That it was useless trying to kill me to get to Edward? He didn't care. Or, at least, I didn't think he did. The only reason why he was acting this way was because of the way things had ended last we met.
Alice took my response as a cue to continue. "So, what we're saying, Bella, is that Carlisle and the others are returning, Edward and I will return to school, and everything will be going back to the way it was. Except for a few things." She mumbled this last and cast a sheepish look at Edward, who shot her a glare. Jacob continued snuffling chips into his mouth, but now he did so with vigor. I took it that he didn't realize that all the Cullens would be back.
"What does that mean, though? For Jacob?" I asked, innocently. He stopped eating to listen, his ears perked intently, a chip in each hand.
Alice sighed again, deeper this time. "Unfortunately for your friend, this means that his…abilities…will be confined to La Push. We will be taking over Forks again, continuing our duties as guardians to you and everyone else."
Jacob threw down the nachos and snarled at Alice. "You mean I can't protect her?" Edward raised his head, glaring at Jacob now. "Yes, dog, that's exactly what she means. You can take care of her on your Indian reserve, and we'll deal with the problem in Forks. Do you understand that much, or shall I repeat it?"
"You didn't care enough to protect her earlier. You left, remember, blood sucker? You left her, and didn't care enough to protect her then. Now, because you lost your shot, you want to come back and make everything okay? It doesn't work like that!"
Edward stood, and whispered, his voice shaking, "It was never my intention to leave her unguarded, Jacob. And I never stopped caring." He turned to leave, but Alice yanked him back down onto the booth's seat. "Get over yourself, you're making a scene!" She hissed. Jacob was about to pounce at him across the table, but I grabbed his shoulder.
"Jake, calm down. We'll solve this," I said calmly. "I'll just make sure that I'm in La Push every waking moment. That way, you can be in charge in case anything happens there, and they can deal with the night shift. It works better for everyone this way."
He seemed appeased for the moment, because he sat back. I looked at Alice, who nodded. "Reasonable solution, Bella," she praised. "Thanks," I replied, grabbing one of the few remaining chips that were left.
Our waitress, whose name was apparently Ashley, swooped down upon us again, demanding our order in an impatient tone. I could see her making eyes at another boy and another table. Obviously, Edward's lack of enthusiasm had bored her, and she was preying on someone else. I asked for the check, which she promptly handed me, and we paid right then and there. The deed was done, and we were free. No need to linger awkwardly around.
We rose and turned to leave, but Jake's stomach was still growling, so he crammed the remaining chips into his mouth and downed the Dr. Pepper. He laughed at my face and cry of, "You pig!"
The four of us left the restaurant together, but before we parted our separate ways, the fight I'd been dreading came upon us. Jake put his arm around my shoulder just as we were diverging, and he must have thought of something insulting to Edward, because the vampire was upon us in a moment, baring his teeth.
"Take it back!" he yelled. Jake stepped in front of me, then bluffed, "No." Edward growled, but Alice came to the rescue and dragged Edward away. "Get out of here," she shrieked, "Before he goes over there!"
I didn't understand the statement, but assumed she meant Edward coming over to where we were standing. We hurried away to the car, Jake and I, and sped off towards La Push as quickly as possible, though, just to take precautions.
"What did you do?" I asked nervously once we were safely on the road. Jake shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he said. His mood got even darker when a car sped past us, clearly violating the speed limit even more than we were, which was saying something. He beeped the horn several times and screamed curses out the window, but no response came from the car, which soon drove out of sight.
To calm him down, I turned on the radio. I sang along to most of the songs, wincing at how awful my voice sounded, but it seemed to cheer him up. He started to sing along by the time we reached La Push. Unfortunately, that was when my phone started ringing. It was Charlie's ring tone, the old Hank William's song he liked, but this worried me because Charlie never called my cell. I knew something was wrong.
I shot Jake a look, turned down the song, and answered. "Hello?" There was silence for a while, and then, "Isabella Swan! What do you think you're doing?" Oh, crap, what did I do now? "Just driving around with Jake, dad. What's up?"
"What's up? Oh, I'll tell you what's up. Billy Black just phoned and told me he saw something in Jacob's garage that startled him. Want to tell me what it was, Bella?" I looked at Jake, but he shrugged. "I dunno, dad, what did he see?" Charlie blew up on me. "He saw motorcycles, Bella! What were you doing hanging around motorcycles?"
"Nothing, dad. Why do you think I was part of it?" I was stalling. Charlie hated stalling. But I seriously didn't know why he thought I was part of it.
"Maybe because one of them has your name on it, that's why!" he screamed. He proceeded to go on and on about how he had told me to stay away from bikes, and how now he knew where all the injuries were coming from. I stopped listening and moved the speaker away from my mouth. "You didn't…" I began, but Jake was grimacing at the windshield. "Edward," was his short reply.
I knew in that instant that it had been Edward's car that had sped past us, and Edward had gone to La Push and put my name on one of the motorcycles. "You're grounded from La Push for a month!" I heard Charlie saying. "If Jake wants to visit you, then so be it. Otherwise, you'll not be leaving the house other than to go to school!" Then he hung up on me.
"He did that on purpose," I muttered, "So that…" Jake shook his head furiously. "So that I wouldn't be able to protect you!" He slammed his hand on the steering wheel and cursed again.
I groaned. That was exactly it. He wanted to be the one to protect me. I realized then his motives: one, he was getting revenge on Jacob for whatever thought had offended him, and two, he was still in love with me.
Well, that's a wrap. I hope you liked my first FanFic ever, please R&R to let me know if it's any good or not. I hope it is. If so, onward to Harry Potter!