Chapter 5 – The Morning After the Night Before

NPOV

After Jake left me sitting by the fire, I thought I had better give him some time alone to think, so I sat by the fire and ate the whole bag of marshmellows. Oops! I just kept running over his words over and over but they weren't making any more sense to me.

I tried to wait until I could hear his breathing change so I would know he was asleep, but eventually I gave up and crawled into our tent. I hoped that maybe he was waiting for me to come in so we could talk, but as soon as her heard me coming he turned towards the wall and moved as far away from me as he could.

For some reason I could feel tears well up in my eyes, but I refused to cry. Whatever was going on in his head was his fault, not mine! But why would he shut me out like this over some silly teasing? We were having such a good time together. This weekend was going to be miserable if he just kept ignoring me.

After what seemed like hours laying in the darkness, I drifted off to sleep, still aware that he was wide awake. I don't think we'd ever gone this long not speaking to each other.

...

When I woke up the next morning Jacob was gone. I felt panic for a second, imagining that Jacob had gone home and left me here in the middle of nowhere, but I knew he would never do that. I know that I could run home from here in a day, but I'd never been alone in the wilderness before and Jacob just wouldn't put me in any danger.

In the distance I could hear splashing, so I put on my bikini under my clothes and grabbed a towel. When I got down to the lake I could see him about 50 metres out. When he saw me, he started swimming back to the shore. I watched him for a while, admiring what a strong swimmer he was. With his huge muscles he powered easily through the water. As he came close I could see his big cheesy grin on his face and let out the breath i didn't realise I was holding.

I threw down my towel and started to strip out of my clothes, but when I pulled my shirt over my head Jacob called out for me to stop. I looked up to find him staring at me with a look I had never seen on his face. My heart fluttered strangely for a second, but then it turned to hurt as his face screwed up in disgust and he turned away.

"What's wrong Jacob? Why are you being so weird? I thought this was supposed to be a fun weekend away together. But if you're not even going to talk to me we may as well just go home now!" I shouted and ran off into the woods.

I didn't know where I was running to; I just knew I didn't want to cry in front of him. I didn't even know why I was crying. Well, obviously it was because I was upset, but I didn't even know why I was upset. I didn't have a clue what I had done to Jacob to make him hate me all of a sudden. Eventually I stopped at a fallen tree and sat down to try and gather my thoughts. After a few minutes I heard the padding of huge paws coming in my direction, so quickly wiped away my tears and tried to pretend nothing was wrong.

Jacob came slowly up to me still in his wolf form. When I looked up him I could see that his eyes looked upset and guilty. Damn it, he could tell I was crying. He came and sat by me, his huge head still higher than my own. I reached out to scratch his ears like he loved, and he licked my face happily.

"Ew, gross Jake!" I laughed in relief. "Can you change back and talk to me please. I just want to know what I've done wrong."

He only whined in response and jumped up, turning his back to me and bumping me with his hip, urging me to jump on. I gripped onto his fur and settled myself in, and then he was off. We ran and ran for a long time. It had been a while since I had ridden him just for the fun of it and it was exhilarating. With the relief of Jacob not being angry at me anymore, I felt like I was flying.

When we finally got back to the lake, I began to release my grip on his fur expecting that he would stop. But he just kept charging and with a huge leap he threw us both straight into the icy water. When my head broke the surface all i could do was scream! I don't think I had ever felt so cold in my life. The sound of Jacob laughing just made me angry.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Jacob? Its sooo cold! We don't all have your freakishly warm body temperature you know!" I shouted as I tried to make my way to the shore.

"Wait Nessie, please" he begged. "If you get out now you'll be even colder. Your clothes are wet too. Come here and let me use my 'freakishly warm body temperature' to warm you up...please."

He grabbed my arm and pulled him into a big bear hug, instantly making me feel warmer. It felt so good to have the combination of hot and cold against my skin that I snuggled deeper into his chest. I could hear his heart beating in his chest and I felt so happy.

After a while I noticed that his heart rate was still oddly high. It should have slowed down from the run by now. I looked up at his face to see if there was something wrong and found him looking at me with a big sloppy grin on his face. He held my gaze for a few minutes, and I didn't speak because I didn't speak because I didn't want to break the happy mood.

When I shifted slightly though, the mood did break and suddenly Jacob got awkward again. He gently pushed me away and moved us both towards the shore. He went to get out, but suddenly stopped and blushed furiously. "Nessie, we have a problem" he said, making my heart sink. We were going back to being uncomfortable again.

"Jacob, please just tell me what I've done wrong and I will fix it, but please don't stop talking to me again" I pleaded with him, but was surprised when he just laughed at me.

"Nessie, it's not what you've done, it's what I've done." He chuckled. "I don't know where my clothes are!"

"Oh..." Well that was unexpected! "Umm... What should I do? I'll run back to the tent and grab you some clothes." I offered, but he just shook his head.

"No Nessie, it's too cold. You'll freeze out there" he protested, thinking to himself. "Just get out and close your eyes. I'll carry you back to camp."

I did as he said and in no time Jacob swept me up into his arms and began to run. He was right, I felt even colder out of the water than in, but his body heat kept me warm enough. Again I leant down to snuggle myself into his shoulder, enjoying the closeness. In my mind I began to think about what people would think if they saw us running through the woods like this, when I realised that Jacob had no clothes on. OMG! I had never been this close to a naked man before and was horrified to think about how I had been pushing myself into his body just a short time ago in the water. Then I thought of the look on his face when he was looking at me, only one thing came to my mind...

W.T.F!