A/N: for those of you who don't like the Cullens, I have good and bad news. This chapter will contain a couple of the icky bloodsuckers, but it only leads the way for the sexy shape shifters (Yay, alliteration!).
Again, my plot changes, but Stephenie's brilliant characters and everything else.
To xTeAmXwOlFxPaCkX, you will find out soon!
For further clarification, this won't follow the timing of the books. For example: Alice has her Porsche, but Jake isn't a wolf quite yet.
Chapter 1 – I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
"Bella! Bella, wake up!" The shrill voice ripped me from my dreams. "What have you done? Your future is gone!" I blinked my eyes to dislodge the illusion of Alice-freaking-Cullen standing next to my bed.
"What…" I began, too tired to complete a sentence "What the heck are you doing here?" She paused in her pacing and turned around to glare at me. Normally this look from the pixy-vampire would scare the living daylights out of me, but hell, it was seven in the morning. On a Saturday.
"You. Broke. Up. With. Edward. He's ballistic! Catatonic!" She slammed her fist down on my window sill. I sat up straight when I heard the crack of the wood breaking.
"Gah! What the hell! Charlie is going to be pissed! You broke my wall!" I stared aghast at the vertical fracture trailing down my wall. "Shit." I muttered. I did not want to have to explain that damage to Charlie.
"Is that really your greatest priority?" Alice snapped at me, "Your fucking wall? Do you know what you've done?"
"You keep asking me that as though I'm the one in the wrong!" I stood up; I was almost one foot taller than the pixie. "I broke up with him, yeah, but he's the ass! You know what he did! I bet you all know, but instead of telling me you sat around laughing at the little human!" I was out of breath from yelling, so I just sat down in the chair at my desk. Alice looked at me, confused.
"What are you talking about Bella?" I let out a harsh laugh.
"I fail to believe that you don't know." She didn't move, but her face morphed into an expression of comprehension.
"Oh. How did you find out? Charlie? Jessica herself?"
"Charlie" I responded. I raised my eyebrow, expectantly. She owed me an explanation.
"What? It's not like it's a big deal. He did it for you." She smiled and resumed her usual fluttering around. At that point I was ready to explode. I stood up again.
"What!" I shouted, waving my arms like a maniac "He fucking cheated on me, for me? How the hell does that work?" Alice looked stunned at my outburst.
"Bella, calm down. It's nothing to be angry about." She sat on my bed and patted the space next to her. "Sit down and I will explain. Then you can apologize to Edward and we can get back to our day. I have plans for us to go shopping."
"Ap…polo…gize?" I stuttered out. Dumbfounded, the only thing I could do was sit down near her.
"You see, Bella, Edward has always had control problems around you. Of course, you know that already." She made me feel like a child. "So, Edward decided to follow that 'practice makes perfect' idea you mentioned to him. He figured that if he got some practice with Jessica, he could make it all safer for you." She smiled, like she had solved world hunger or something equally as important. I, however, saw red.
"That's ridiculous! He was supposed to practice with me! How would you feel if Jasper went around 'practicing' with Tanya Denali?"
"I don't understand that connection Bella. I'm not fragile like you. Jasper would have no reason to do such a thing. Edward loves you; it's hardly cheating if it's for your benefit."
"That is terrible logic. Get out of my house. Get out of my life." I walked over to my bedroom door and opened it. Gesturing towards it I continued, "Get the fuck out of Forks." Alice looked highly offended, but she did get up and start walking towards the door.
"I will just let you calm down then. Feel free to stop by when you do. By the way, I can see you coming over." I gaped at her.
"Fuck you." She smiled again. That bitch couldn't take a message could she? I slammed the door behind her. Downstairs, I could hear Alice say goodbye to Charlie. I grinned when he didn't reply. After I watched her drive away in the horrifically ugly yellow Porsche, I went downstairs to see Charlie. He gave me a satisfied smile, letting me know that he heard my shouting match with Alice.
"Proud of you kid." I smiled back, I felt light, like my problems were gone.
"Thanks Dad." I started walking towards the front door. "I'm going to run out to the store. Want anything?"
"Sure. Pick up some steak." I had to roll my eyes at that. Steak was all he ever seemed to want. That and fish.
When I got out to my ancient truck I almost screamed. A deep gouge covered the hood, in some places it went completely through the tough metal. I lifted the hood and shouted for Charlie. Some of the taller engine pieces were trashed. How did I not hear this happen?!
"Whoa. What happened Bells?" He ran his fingers over the inside of the hood.
"No idea." I ground out, but I had my suspicions. Alice. That bitch.
"The damage looks bad. Try to start it up, maybe it's just superficial damage." I got into the cab of the truck and inserted the key. The engine caught, but it sputtered out in seconds.
"Damn. Damn. Damn." I kept cursing under my breath.
"Huh. Maybe a branch hit it." We both looked at the hood then at each other. I then looked all around the truck and the driveway. No branch.
"Yeah, an invisible steel branch." He shrugged.
"Maybe we should call Jacob. He can tell us what needs to be fixed." I was pretty sure that what Charlie really meant was 'Lets invite Jacob over so he can flirt with you, I can hang with Billy, and you can fall in love with Jacob'. I sighed.
"Sure Charlie."
I sat in the cab while Charlie called Jacob and Billy. The time ticked by slowly as they drove over, one minute, two minutes, three. Banging my head against the steering wheel seemed appropriate right now.
When I heard the gravel crunch, I exited the cab. Jacob grinned at me when he stepped out of the small car, it looked like a bunny or rabbit, whatever that old Volkswagen was called.
"Hey Bells! How are you! I haven't seen you in a while!" Jake rushed over to me and gave me a hug. He was colossal!
"Whoa, Jacob, get off the steroids." He exhibited his deep laugh. When he stepped back, I had time to appreciate his new body. His white t-shirt showed off his buff arms and chest, and his abs. I had never seen abs that nice, it wasnnot a six-pack, it was a full-on eight pack. I wanted to run my fingers over them. He laughed again.
"Wanna touch?" While secretly I shouted YES PLEASE, my only visible response was to turn bright red and look away. I glanced over to the Volkswagen and saw Billy slowly exiting the car.
"Get over here son and help an old man out of your car. Small vehicles. Yeesh." Billy started to mumble as Jacob walked over to help him out. I turned to face my house as Charlie exited.
"Hey Billy! Getting old aren't you, since when do you need help to exit a car?" Charlie always seemed to tease Billy whenever I saw them. Billy just grinned as Charlie walked over.
Once Billy was out of the car and inside, Jacob walked back over to where I stood. He stepped close as he looked down at me. I felt like my neck was going to break from staring up at such a sharp angle. He was way too tall. We were about a foot apart when he spoke. It took me a second to notice that he was talking, the sheer closeness of him was overwhelming me.
"Bells? Charlie said something was up with your truck. What's up with it?"
"I…uh, oh. Yeah, the truck. It's hard to explain, you might just want to look at it for yourself." He smiled again and I almost passed out. So gorgeous. He stepped to the right and made a little mock bow, indicating that I should lead the way. I stumbled over to my truck and pointed wordlessly at the hood.
He let out a low whistle.
"What did you do to it? It looks like someone carved it out." He looked back at me and I could only shrug. He lifted the hood up and just stared at the damage. "Yikes Bells. This is going to take some time. If we bring it down to my garage I may be able to fix it faster, but it's still going to take me a few days." I groaned.
"Okay. I will get it down there somehow." He turned around and stepped in front of me. My heart started beating faster. We were practically chest to, well waist, seeing as how I was so short…when he reached out. I thought, and hoped, that he was going to kiss me, but he only tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
"You know what this means Bells." He smiled again.
"What?" I nearly choked on the word.
"It means that you are going to get to spend lots of time down in La Push." I think I just died and went to heaven. Of course, a little voice in the back of my head was telling me that I just broke up with my boyfriend yesterday, but thankfully the voice shouting "Jump him!" was a whole lot louder.
We could hear the game playing inside, with Charlie and Billy shouting at the players, but that didn't stop me from inching closer. My head tipped up in that classically obvious kiss-me tilt. Jacob slowly moved forward too. It seemed like our lips were only inches apart, then my phone started ringing in my pocket.
"Damn it." We both cursed. I pulled out that godforsaken device and looked at the number. Edward. That ass was still ruining my life. I opened my phone and closed it again. Hanging up on him felt good. I looked back up to Jacob and watched him back up a bit.
"Sorry Bells, I don't know what got into me. Look, I know you have a boyfriend so I will back off. I should get going." I was surprised at that. The "jump him" voice was shouting nooo!!!! in my head. Heck I think all of the voices were.
"I don't!" He turned back to me with a look of confusion. "Jacob, I broke up with Edward yesterday. He cheated on me." Jacob smiled, but he kept walking backwards to his car.
"Can you have Charlie bring Billy back?" I started walking towards him, I wanted that kiss.
"Sure." I responded. "When should I come over tomorrow?" Jacob paused, halfway into his car.
"Anytime. Just give me a call first." I was on one side of the door now, with Jacob on the other. I looked into his dark eyes and kept moving forward.
"Will do." We were inches apart again. I took my phone out of my pocket and through it into the grass. Jacob smiled at me.
"Bells?" I could feel is sweet breath on my face.
"Yea?" His hand was on my cheek.
"Call me Jake." Our lips met. My heart was beating out of my chest now, but all I could feel was the warmth of his lips on mine. It felt like we stood there for years, but when we pulled away, I felt like I didn't get long enough. He smiled again, and then he got into his car and backed out of the driveway.
I didn't move for a while, I just kept thinking about the spark I felt with Jacob, erm…Jake, that I had never felt with Edward.
When I returned inside, I could feel myself smiling. Charlie and Billy looked up and gave me odd looks.
I didn't realize that Billy had asked me a question until I was already in the kitchen and Charlie had followed me. He shook my shoulder lightly.
"Bells? You okay? Billy asked if Jake left, but you kept walking." I shook my head to get out of my daze.
"What? Oh, yeah, Jake left, he asked if you could bring Billy back. I need to bring the truck to their place so he can work on it. He said that it would take a while to fix."
Charlie gave me a knowing look before returning to the living room. I made a sandwich before heading up to my room. When I got up there, I went straight to the crack in my wall. Cursing, I tried to assess how deep the damage was. Damn you Alice, first my wall then my truck.
I jumped when I heard someone ahem from behind me.
"Ah!" I screamed, when I turned around, I saw Rosalie in front of me. "What are you doing here?" I tried to whisper, I didn't want Charlie to hear. Rosalie gave me a faint smile before gliding over to my chair and sitting down.
"I wanted to talk to you." She looked at me, waiting for me to respond.
"Well, I don't want to talk to you. Any of you." She rolled her eyes before talking.
"Grow up Bella. Edward is an ass. I'm not entirely surprised about that, but don't project your anger onto the innocent bystanders. The only people who knew were Edward and Alice. Both of whom are idealistic fools." I just looked at her silently.
"I didn't come to apologize. I won' t try to make up for Edward's foolishness." I glared at her.
"Then why are you here? To rub it in that I won't be a vampire? I don't care anymore." She looked at me as though I was a young, insolent child.
"Actually, I came to tell you that I am glad that you won't be joining us." I started to speak, but she continued. "Look, I know we have not got along at all, but I want you to know that if you ever need my help, or Emmett's, just call. I think I speak for the intelligent part of our family when I say that we really do love you Bella, and we want you happy." She got up from her chair and gracefully floated out the window.
"Thanks." I knew she could hear me, even though she was far from sight.