I came here to keep my promise, he had said. And I'd hit him with an aluminum bat and kicked him.
"Sorry Jake," I finally said as I sat on the bed. "Why are you trying so hard to keep your promise when it seemed so easy for you to forget me?" It was already a bit much for me. Then again I'm just a big fat whiner and I always whine about my problems so rather than be the damsel in distress crying to myself about how he betrayed me and how I'd cried myself to sleep over this boy and feel alone from the rejection like some stupid gushy girl in a stupid romance book I closed the window and sat on my bed glaring at him through my eyes. "Just answer me and explain. Because I don't want you to use me and be my friend by night and not when you're around Sam."
"Well its not like he won't know if I'm your friend," grunted Jacob jumping up from the floor with so much vitality and spring you would hardly know I'd kicked him and beat him with an aluminum bat.
"If you don't explain I'll get the bat."
"Your dad just took it Bella." I walked over to my closet and opened it revealing 5 shining aluminum bats leaning against the wall. Working at a sports store had its advantages.
"You were saying Jake?" That's when I noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt. He was large, so large he took up most of the room in my bedroom. It was like he was growing everyday and right now he was sucking up all of the matter in my room for himself. "Why did you show up without your shirt?" Did Jacob just like running around in the freezing cold outside without his clothes? Had he joined a nudist colony? Or did he come here to seduce… I grabbed a baseball bat and aimed the end at his chest. "Just because I take pictures of myself doesn't mean I'm that type of girl."
"Bella," he chuckled. "You goof! I'm not going to molest you… I just wanted to say that I was sorry Bella. I'm incredibly sorry." His eyes looked so sincere as he held the end of the baseball bat, that had been centered on his chest, and pushed it away. "I couldn't leave things the way I did this afternoon. It was so horrible. It broke my heart to listen to you."
"You didn't act like it. As I recall I was the one crying over it and arguing to keep you in my life Jake," I hissed. I still hadn't lowered the baseball bat from his chest.
"I didn't mean it. I just needed to get you away from me for your safety."
"Like I haven't heard that BS in my life," I said swinging the bat at him but he jumped out of the way in one graceful move that only Edward was capable of and I hit my vase. I heard Charlie coming up the stairs and groaned as Jacob rolled his eyes and ducked back under the bed. Charlie came in with the previous baseball in his hand and opened the door with a brow raised at the image of me, the identical bat, and the broken lamp.
"Bella? Can I ask why you have more than 2 bats and you're breaking the furniture I bought for you?"
"I saw a raccoon out my window and reached out for another bat… when I got up I accidentally hit the lamp…."
"Why do you have 2 bats?"
"I want to try out for baseball."
"But you suck."
"Charlie! Just because I suck means nothing. Sports builds character," I said.
"Whose your favorite team?"
"The Chicago Bulls?"
"That's basketball. Give me the bat Bella." I sighed as Charlie took my bat. "Now go to sleep." He left the room with 2 bats in tow as Jacob rolled out from under the bed avoiding the glass on my floor. I'd pick that up in the morning if I didn't forget and step on it. I reached out to open my closet meaning to get another bat but Jacob stood in my way. He was too fast. How did he get so fast?….. Steroids?…. Mutant spiders?…. wait, that's a Spiderman thing and I'm not entirely that stupid to suggest something without any imagination like some girls so rather than guess Spiderman I'll guess a radioactive hippo.
"Look I want to explain but I can't. Its against the rules."
"When did you follow the rules? You're the one that suggested me to make that website."
"Bella haven't you ever had a secret that you couldn't tell anyone? Something that you had to keep from Charlie?…" Was he a mind reader? "Something you won't even talk about with me? Not even as your boyfriend?"
"We're not together anymore if you remember," I replied and then suddenly realized what he was saying, "YOU'RE A VAMPIRE!" Jacob's eyes widened in surprise, shock, disgust, and then irritation as he rolled his eyes.
"Yeah right. I'm not a bloodsucker, though thanks for finally giving away that secret Bella." I slumped onto the bed mentally stabbing myself in my head, allowing a horde of Jaspers to attack me, and then letting a mob of angry spiders terrorize my corpse to save the grasshoppers……… -SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: WILDLIFE ROCKS…. SAVE THE TREES….-
"Bella, its okay. I found out before you admitted that."
"What? How?"
"I can't tell you," he said his brows furrowing as his fist clenched angrily. He let out a groan, "I really wish I could tell you."
…From downstairs in the solitude of his big screen television that had been bought with Bella's college fund Charlie watched a football game and heard the loud male groan in Bella's room. Oh great, Charlie thought to himself, Bella's hit puberty and her voice is changing…
"Look… I'm in a situation similar to it Bella," he breathed out plumping onto the bed beside me. I scooted away from him pointedly. "This is an issue of loyalty. I owe you loyalty but this isn't my secret to tell." If I had thought to myself that I couldn't argue than I was a ditz. Because I could argue.
"But what about us? Why do males always assume women are so weak they can't handle being with them when there's danger? You said it wasn't safe for me well I'll be the judge of that," I hissed.
"Well… I didn't think you'd be able to handle dealing with me… I can get quite emotional now…"
"You've had a sex change?"
"No," he squeaked staring at me with bulging eyes. "What the hell?"
"Sorry I'm trying to guess."
He rubbed his temples bitterly. "This is so frustrating Bella. I already told you all about this! Everything! Before this crap even happened!"
"When?… wait do you guys want to join the military so you guys are going to take a vow of silence from all your family and friends to try and be the soldiers at the Arlington Cemetery?"
"What the hell Bella?" Jake actually chuckled at that. It was nice to hear him laugh for once at my ridiculous guesses. He leaned forward and suddenly grabbed my face in his hands staring into my eyes with such intensity I thought he was going to kiss me.
"Jake we're broken up now so don't kiss me or I'll beat you with another bat." He just laughed again.
"Bella I'm not going to kiss you… though I do have a question to ask you… but first, Bella I think I found a loophole. I can't tell you but you can guess it! That would get me off the hook!"
"You're making meth in your basement?"
"No. And stop with the stupid guesses," he grinned before looking at me severely. "Be serious here Bella. Let me think of some clues." He let go of my face and leaned on one hand deep in thought. Bella there's a guy in your room and its not me! Get him out! He's dangerous to your virginity! He's of the opposite sex! Technically you're not a guy Edward! And I'm trying to guess what's going on with him not hit on him! Besides, technically I could loose my virginity to a girl and you haven't gotten onto me for letting Angela or Jessica in my room. Angela wouldn't hurt a fly and Jessica's just Jessica. Meaning? She's an idiot. She can't pass math class much less plan your death. Point taken. Now get out of my head. Say the magic word. Please, get out of my head. That wasn't the secret words! It was grasshopper! You lose so I'm staying. Meany. Correction, vampire.
"Bella," Jacob's voice interrupted my thoughts, "remember the day we met on the beach in La Push?"
"The one where we posed for the pictures?"
"No not that day the first day we met on the beach."
"Oh, about a year ago, 200 pounds scrawnier, and 7 inches shorter for you?"
"I'm going to ignore that," he said rolling his eyes. "Now tell me what you remember."
"Jessica in skanky clothes… Mike Newton hitting on me. Sam standing there without a t-shirt in the cold and sweating like a dog." Jake's eyes bugged out with meaning and I just kept on talking. "What? Sam does sweat like a dog." Jake moaned. "It's the truth so handle it. His sweat glands are broken. Um… I remember us going to that huge tree and talking after I attempted to flirt with you to drag information out of you."
"You tricked me," he said taken aback.
"You liked it," I hissed back. "You took it like a man and enjoyed every bit of my fluttering of the eye lashes."
"I thought you had a twitch but other than that I did think you were flirting."
"Oh thanks Jake," I breathed sarcastically fluttering my lashes at him.
"What about the sto-" His mouth shut as if on its own accord and it looked as if he'd just swallowed a fly with his eyes bugging out.
"Uh Jake… are you okay? Nod your head if you can breath." He nodded.
"Sorry I can't say."
"Oh… well I do remember the stories. I'm not entirely stupid." I remembered the 1 story that had mattered to me at the time. The 1 that I had needed to guess what Edward really was.
"Well what were they?"
…………dead silence as I screwed up my face in thought and Jacob slapped his forehead exasperated with me……………..one one thousand…………… two one thousand…………. A cricket army is forged and they find the one ring to rule them all and the one ring to bind them……… the crickets plan for a war on this middle earth to destroy the spider people who have been destroying not only the crickets and grasshoppers but the wandering hobbits as well………………………………… another tree is killed……………… The Volturi finally send Bella an email after tying Caius up on a chair and revising letter after letter creating a 500 page volume that is in fact her email………… Edward writes another letter and is seeing the shrink now because he is hearing Bella's voice inside his head arguing with him and is seeing visions of her in dire situations. And oddly enough he can read the minds in his visions of everyone except Bella and come to find out in his visions he thinks Jacob is a werewolf and at the moment tells his psychiatrist that Jacob is trying to get Bella to guess something though Edward worries for her virginity because she has a guy in her room who is a werewolf and highly attracted to her…………. His psychiatrist hits on him…….. his psychiatrist is a man…………………………… his psychiatrist also subscribed to Bella's site………………………………. Edward turns him down…… psychiatrist tells Edward that the truth is he is a demented man who is a pansy when it comes to Bella and needs to get things straight and tell her he loves her and stop being a wuss because women got the right to vote years ago and they can push football sized children one after the other through their womb so they can handle anything. Where does he think he is? The 1900's?…….. Edward ties up the psychiatrist and places him in a box with 3 holes gagged and pays FedEx to deliver him to the Volturi as a gift……………………..
"Bella? Have you come up with it?"
"Jake I'm tired," I replied after thinking for a full 7 minutes in silence. "Maybe I'll remember in the morning. I promise to try my best Jacob."
"Can I ask you a question or two first?"
"Sure," I replied pulling back my blankets and leaning against my pillows comfortably.
"About the vampire story… did you not know until I told you the story? Was I the one who told you what he was?" Rather than wonder how he knew this and stare blankly at him like an idiot who didn't trust her best friend, like a complete idiot of a female who kept the secret of a man who betrayed her and left her in Forks while he gallivanted off into a world were there were sexy vampires who sparkled, I feebly nodded an answer. Hell, if Jacob found a loophole and I could guess then he could guess too. Technically I wasn't telling him either.
"I'm bound by… well I can't say what but I am bound," he breathed angrily. "I want to tell you but I can't." I didn't like the way his eyes closed as if he were in pain as if he were bound.
"Okay. One more question… did you really mean it?"
"Mean what?"
"When you said… you know earlier today… that you started having 'beginning feelings' for me? And that you don't care for them anymore? That you care about me? I mean that goodbye kiss was a little stiff but I felt like you kind of… liked it."
"I do care about them but I cared about you more this morning… and yeah I had the beginning feelings for you before you screwed it up. And yeah, who knows maybe I did like it a little. But that was earlier today."
……………….Somewhere in Italy Edward yelled out in the middle of the street market, "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY GIRLFRIEND!"… people stared at Edward as he kicked a vendor's table breaking it with that kick and sending it over a hosue but he was too annoyed to care, and the Volturi were to busy snacking on his psychiatrist to care, and the people on the street thought he was a new character off of Heroes to care……… Bella heard a very angry voice inside her head yell, Get away from my girlfriend!
"So… you could still have feelings for me?"
"You'd have to try and get my trust back Jacob," I replied, "but yeah… I mean they haven't left completely…" Jacob grinned. Edward got into a fight with Emmett just because he was looking at him wrong, watching Bella's website, and he needed to take some of his anger out, Emmett felt abused, Jasper placed bets with Alice…. Alice won. Rosalie beat up Edward and Emmett because Edward was beating up her husband and Emmett was on the computer. Esme decided to remodel Emmett's room pink with unicorns and roses. Carlisle learned the ancient language of nfkdlajgkldsajgkla, which is "Idiot" in English. So now he had no worries about talking to Emmett.
"Well then I'll try my hardest. Because now I can be honest since I'm with you. I still care about you. A lot… Well I've got to go. I had to sneak out because I'm not supposed to see you."
"You don't have to tell them anything."
"Its not like I can't even if I wanted too."
"I hate them."
"No," he said with wide surprised eyes, "you don't hate them."
"Don't tell me who the hell to hate. You're not my boyfriend yet."
"It's not their fault. This is something that's happened a long time ago and we can't change it… And they're all really cooler than you think…. But I had to come because Bella I made you a promise. I didn't know it would be hard to keep but I care about you so I had to try. I'm going to do what I can to be here for you just like I promised Bella," he breathed, "so please figure this out."
"I'll try."
"And I'll try to see you soon. I hope you'll still want to see me."
"Even if you grew fur and a tail I'd still want to see you Jacob." He let out an aggravated groan and pounded his head on the wall. Charlie almost got up to go back up to Bella's room but decided against it because if she died it wasn't his fault. Charlie had taken away the bats, set his precautions, and if she died he wouldn't have to pay to feed her and keep her in his home. And he'd get to use the rest of her college money. Jacob opened the window and sat on the ledge.
"Don't break your leg Jake."
"Wait, one for luck and as a precaution I don't see you again," he smiled swooping in and wrapping his arms around me tightly. I couldn't breathe it was such a bear hug that I had to gasp for air. Jake let go with a chuckle. He touched my face and stole a kiss on my head before getting back on the ledge of my window and falling out. I wasn't going to get up and look out the window. I was already in the bed and decided to stay that way. And like hell I was going to close the window after he'd left it open. I was lazy and lethargic at the moment.