"The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause."
MARK TWAIN
FRIDAY, APRIL 14
Cupid's Chokehold; Chapter Twelve. Bella.
The phone had been ringing pretty regularly since Saturday and I'm sure if I took the time I could calculate how many times Jake had called me in the past four days. The calls started Saturday night and while it might have only been seven in the morning on Wednesday the calls were already starting.
I was getting pretty good at ignoring the ringing and after the second day Charlie had given up on answering as well, tuning it out with the TV. He had yet to voice his worry on the sporadic relationship Jacob and I had since he expressed his worry of me being involved in drugs. It was obvious in the way he acted and the long stares he'd give me, he was attentive enough to know that something was wrong.
I wanted to stop the worrying. I didn't like having to add to Charlie's list of worries, but how was I supposed to bring this up? "Hey Dad, so there's this new teacher at school named Victoria and she wants to kill me. She's a vampire; last year Edward and his family killed her mate. But you shouldn't worry too much; cause you see, Jake and his friends are werewolves—yeah—so, no worries, cause werewolves are like the only things that can kill vampires. What'd you want for dinner?"
Oh yeah, that would go over so well.
I would have plenty of time to talk to him since he had all but signed me out of school in order to help me with the project. He had been thrilled when I had asked him for the help and we had both spent our afternoons in his cruiser driving around the small town looking for any rule breakers. It was tragically boring. Tourist season had yet to start and all the locals knew better than to speed or break any laws, the town was small enough and the police force was big enough so that the possibilities of getting away with any rule breaking was slim to none. If our population had been high enough we could have been America's safest city.
Charlie had left for work, promising to pick me up at 3:20 sharp. I knew he would be waiting for me at exactly 3:20, I had never seen Charlie so punctual in my entire life.
I was running late and while Charlie had offered to drop me off in order to save on time I knew that I needed to finish my list of things to do before I could go to school with peace of mind. I was running to the door quickly putting things back in their place, doing things almost mechanically. The phone rang and I begrudgingly answered it, only realizing that I had been boycotting the phone when I heard the caller's voice.
"Bella?"
I wanted to hang up, I really tried, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, "Hi Jacob."
"God, I've missed hearing your voice," I knew that it was my turn to talk but I had nothing to say to that. I missed talking to Jake, but I didn't want to say that to him. I didn't like this estranged friendship any more than he did, but it was what had to happen.
"Jake, I—" I stopped. I what? I didn't want to be friends with him. I didn't want to talk to him. They were all lies. I wanted to be friends with him, possibly more. I wanted to talk to him more than I wanted to talk to anyone else, he understood me. He understood why I was withdrawing from everyone around me. I didn't want him to get hurt. That's what I could say, but I could just see how that would go over. "A measly vampire isn't going to hurt me, Bells. You hurt me, really, you should have a little faith in me." But I didn't have time to start because Jacob began talking again.
"I just needed to call you, Bells. Um," I realized now that he was quiet and not his usual jovial self when he was around me. Something was wrong, "I'm at the hospital. My dad had an accident, Bells. I needed someone to talk to. I'm scared, Bella."
The vulnerability in his voice was far from hidden and my heart ached with the pain I heard, "Jacob…" what was I supposed to say? I didn't feel like 'sorry' would cut it, it wasn't big enough to cover what I wanted to say.
"Could you come down here, Bella?"
I nodded and then realized that he couldn't see me, "Of course I can. May I call Charlie? The school will call him if I don't show up soon," I was already tardy, I didn't want to add truant to the list, "I'm not sure he's convinced that we aren't involved in some drug circle, he might worry," I tried to make him laugh, but failed.
"Tell him not to come down, Dad would be embarrassed." I could only imagine. Billy was a strong person and not one to easily break, it had to be hard for him to sit there and be treated like an invalid.
"I'll be there as soon as I can, Jake."
After hanging up I called Charlie and informed him of my impending absence. It was hard to convince him not to come down, but I succeeded and quickly made my way towards the only hospital in the area. I quickly found his room and peered in through the window, it looked as if they were both asleep. For Billy that might be true, but I knew better than to assume that Jake would be able to sleep right now. He was huddled on the small loveseat that was in the room, elbows on his knees, forehead in his hands. His pain exuded through his body and hit me.
I carefully opened the door and went in and sat next to Jacob, he looked up and my heart ached for him again. His eyes were red and tired, what youthful innocence he had left after being changed was gone from his eyes.
"Can you tell me what happened?" I asked slowly. I saw his chin waver and I bit my lip. I pulled his hand away from his face and intertwined our fingers, Jake looked down at the knot. His skin was strikingly dark against my own.
"Someone pushed him. I mean, he shouldn't have been out there anyway, but Dad was going over to Harry's house and someone—no, that vampire, Victoria," her name made him gag, "I can still smell her on him. He must have been near the cliff, she must have come from behind him and thrown him off. It would have been so fast that he never even noticed what happened. He wouldn't have screamed, no one would have heard him. He would have been too shocked to swim to the top, he's not strong enough to anyway.
"Sam saw his chair on the cliff on his way to work, he did CPR on him. He was breathing when the ambulance arrived. Sam had called the rest of the pack but they couldn't find her. She managed to escape, I don't know how though. It's the pack, Bells. The pack…."
"Has he woken up?"
"No. They say he will though, they just don't know what his…condition will be."
I had no idea what to say, but "I told you so" was strong in my mind. I hadn't wanted to be close to Jacob because I didn't want him to get hurt and now he had. Not directly though, but it was a two for one type thing for Victoria. Jacob got hurt and was urged not to pursue her and because Jacob was hurt, I was hurt and anything to prolong my pain was great in Victoria's books.
But I could tell him "I told you so" I had a heart and that heart cared deeply for Jacob. I couldn't bear seeing him in this much pain. I let go of his hand briefly and leaned into the arm of the couch, I pulled him with me and he laid his head down in my lap. I wrapped my arms around him the best I could, "Go to sleep Jacob. I'll wake you up when Billy does, we'll figure this out together. I promise."
I didn't have to wait too long to drift off to sleep because within minutes Jacob's snores filled the room creating a weird harmony with the beeping of Billy's heart monitor.
AN: 9 reviews for chapter 11 and 140 hits… my math doesn't suck that much you guys! Like, seriously, review and you get quotes. It's low and it's bribery… good thing I never said I'm against stuff like that. That and reviews remind me that I need to post the next chapter, that's why it's been so long since I updated. See, not reviewing has consequences!