DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM TWILIGHT. THEY ALL BELONG TO STEPHENIE MEYER.

EPOV

"Can I talk to you?" He asked in a low voice. "Outside?"

I didn't really know how to respond. All I knew was that whatever I did, it was going to be interesting.

I watched him walk away as I slowly stood up, curious and confused as to what he could want.

I followed him through to the back of the house and onto the porch that overlooked our garden and the surrounding forest that acted as a barrier between out house and the rest of the world. I walked out through the clear, glass, sliding doors to find Jacob standing there, his back to me, with his hands on the fence that surrounded three quarters of the porch, leaving a wide space directly in front of the sliding doors that led into the house that ended in steps leading down to the garden.

"What can I do for you, Jacob?" I asked him, my tone guarded as I tried to be civil to him. He was Bella's friend so I figured I might as well make the effort, even if he wasn't going to.

"What makes you think you're good enough for her?" He asked in a voice that was barely about a whisper. So quiet that I had to strain to hear it. But I did hear it. Every word.

"Excuse me?" I asked, wanting him to repeat it even though I knew exactly what he had said.

He suddenly shoved himself off of the fence and turned around to face me, the hateful glare still in his eyes. "What makes you think you're good enough for her?" He asked me again, his tone forceful and clipped. "What makes you think that you're good enough for her?"

I stood there in silence, unable to really process the fact that this guy, whom I had only just met, was trying to interfere in my relationship with Bella. Granted yes, he was her friend, had been for years, but that still didn't give him any right.

"Wh-wh....um, I'm sorry," I pinched the bridge of my nose between my forefinger and thumb, trying to stop the anger welling up inside of me. "What is this?" I snapped looking at him.

"What is what?" He spat back at me, his eyes not leaving my face.

"This!" I gestured between the two of us.

"I don't get what you mean?" He said, crossing his arms across his chest. Whatever he was thinking, this guy was not fooling me. As someone who has years of experience covering things up, I should know. This guy was an amateur.

"What I mean, is what the hell gives you the right to ask me something like that?" I placed my drink down on the table that was just outside the door and folded my arms across my chest, mimicking his position. "Because if you're going to give me the whole, "if you hurt her then I'll hurt you" speech then you can save it because Charlie beat you to it."

"That wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about." He said smugly and I kept my face blank, something that wasn't too much of a problem. I might have been working through my problems but that sure as hell didn't mean that I lost everything I had gotten from my years of self-destruction. I was still able to mask my emotions where I needed to. And right here I definitely needed to. I couldn't let this kid know that he was getting under my skin. "Now answer my question."

"I don't have to explain anything to you." I said flatly. "The relationship I have with my girlfriend is actually none of your business." I saw his eyes grow darker, if that was even possible at the mention of the fact that Bella was my girlfriend.

He shook his head at me, still glaring. I leaned back on the wall behind me, my gaze not shifting from his face, not breaking eye contact in any way. Not even to blink. I just stood there, not moving, giving him the blank stare that had unnerved many a professional before him. If this kid thought that he was going to get a rise out of me, then he was wrong. I sighed heavily and angrily and looked away, breaking the eye contact. I felt the corner of my mouth curl in the tiniest of smiles, but I got rid of it the moment he looked up, returning my face to its blank expression. I wasn't going to give this guy an inch.

"What makes you think you deserve her?" He spat at me, the hate clear in his voice.

"What makes you think you have the right to ask me that?" I countered coolly, throwing him off guard with my tone. I could see that he was expecting me to blow up at him, start yelling at him and act all possessive over Bella. It's true, I was possessive over Bella, but I wasn't going to blow up at this guy. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

"Because I'm her best friend." He replied, his tone beginning to get slightly irritated now.

"So?" I shrugged my shoulders slightly, my gaze still not wavering from his face. I still had yet to blink and I could tell that it was unnerving him.

"What do you mean "so"?" He asked me, anger welling up in his voice now. It was obvious that his plan was to get me angry enough to blow up at him, while everyone else watched and heard everything, so I could tell that he wasn't happy that I was the one remaining calm. I could tell that I had flipped the control of this situation, just like I had done with Jennie on my first day at the clinic.

"So?" I shrugged again. "You think that that gives you the right to dig into her personal relationships? To harrass her boyfriend?" I cocked my head to the side appearing curious. It had the effect that I was aiming for. He was getting angrier now. Where I had learned to get a rise out of people like this I wasn't sure, but I had always known that it would pay off someday, and it was. Right now.

"It sure as hell does!" He said forcefully. I could tell that he was trying to keep his voice down so as not to attract the attention of the people inside.

"And why is that?" I asked, crossing one of my ankles over the other, adding to my casual stance. I saw that this angered him even more as he was not expecting me to be so calm. Oh if only you knew, Jacob. I thought to myself. If only you knew how good of an actor I really am.

"I don't want her getting hurt." He said quickly, holding his chin high as though that justified his actions.

"Is that so?" I smiled at him, causing him to scowl. "Well, if that's the case then I'll just be going, because as I said, Charlie beat you to that talk." I finally broke the eye contact with him, picked up my drink and turned to go inside.

"I'm surprised you're drinking that." I said as I was about to step through the door. "Isn't it a bit high in calories?" Oh, no he didn't!!! I thought angrily. He did not just say that! How the hell did he even find out?! I was going to have to talk to Bella, and pretty quickly. I would have to settle this with Jacob first.

I turned around to face him, my blank stare still in place, but I could feel the anger and hate pouring from my eyes. He stood there, his arms still folded over his chest, but instead of the scowl that was on his face a moment ago, there was a triumphant smirk there in its place.

"What did you just say?" I snarled at him, slightly taken aback at the venom in my voice.

"Hit a nerve, did I?" The smirk grew bigger as he realised that he had in fact hit an extremely sensitive nerve. He tried to appear casual at that point, looking at the nails on one of his hands, pretending to inspect them for something. "Funny. An eating disorder. Kind of a girly thing, don't you think?"

I turned myself around to face him fully. "Yeah? And what do you know about it?" I snapped back. I walked towards him slowly, determined to keep calm. "Huh? What do you know about it?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I wouldn't let myself get that way." He looked at me, a triumphant look on his face. "Being obssessed over your appearance to that level. Not worth it man. All seems a bit fucked up to me."

I chuckled darkly at him. So, he thought that it was vanity that fuelled it, did he? Well I would have to enlighten him somewhat. "Oh, that's what you think? You think that it was because I was obssessed over how I looked? You think that I "let myself get that way" because I was worried about what I looked like? Did you?" He shrugged again. "You know, you are so far off the mark on that one." I shook my head, turning away from him.

"So....." He said, mockingly. "Enlighten me."

"Alright." I snapped back around to look at him. "How about this. Do you know how it feels to lose the only thing in your life that you can depend on? To have everything that you've ever known ripped away from you, and to be thrown into a world that you don't understand? Do you know how it feels to hate yourself so much that you'll do anything to disappear? Even starve yourself to the brink of death, wishing that something, anything would come along and put you out of your misery and stop the hurt? How it feels to have so much emotional hurt that you will do anything, anything, to distract yourself from it? Even cause yourself physical harm, to the extent where you could end up dead? I don't expect you to understand anything about this Jacob, but what I do want you to understand is that something like this does not come from vanity, it comes from having no other way out. It comes from having no other outlet for your pain. Some people, possibly people like you, are able to talk about their problems, but some of us, aren't able to do that as easily. So, those of us who can't open up, deal with it in different ways. Ways like this." I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt and exposed my arms to him, showing him all of my scars. Most of them had faded to white due to the age of them, so they glistened in the dim porchlight. Others, like the ones that showed as evidence from my attempt at ending my own life were still a deep purple from the damage that I had caused. Though I had not done any lasting damage to the muscles or nerves in my arms, the scars would forever serve a a reminder of that failed attempt. "Still think its about vanity?"

I walked away from him and rolled my sleeves down and buttoned them back up. "You know, you have no idea. And you know what?" I turned around to face him again. "You never will. Because, you like everyone else, don't care. You only care about what's on the surface. You don't care enough to see what's going on underneath. To delve deeper." I shook my head and put my hands on my hips in frustration. "The only person that has ever truly cared, and not out of obligation, is Bella. And you," I pointed at him, "have no right to question my relationship with Bella, or to pass judgement on me in any way. You don't know me. You don't know what's happened to me in my life. All you know about me is that I'm Bella's boyfriend. That's it. And for some reason its gotten under your skin." I felt my mouth form an "oh" shape as I realised. "It's jealousy, isn't it?"

"What?" He scoffed, trying to act like I was far off the mark, but hiding it poorly.

I chuckled again. "Jacob, if you're going to try to act like something's not true, you might want to do it with someone who hasn't spent the last decade of their life putting on a show for everyone around them." His eyes shot up to look at mine. I stared back, again using the unnerving stare that I had used on Jennie on my first day at the clinic. "And, yes, I'm talking about me."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, again trying to brush it off as though I was imagining things.

"Come off it, Jacob." I leaned back on the wall where I had been before, regaining control of the conversation. "It's obvious now. You like Bella and you want her as more than a friend. You're jealous that someone else is with her instead of you, before you had a chance to "make you move" as they say? Or maybe....." I felt a smile creeping across my face. "Maybe, you already tried and she knocked you back." I cocked my head to the side, smiling slightly. "Am I getting warm?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about." He snarled at me and I laughed.

"Oh, I think I do." I grinned at him, knowing that I was spot on, with at least one, if not both of my accusations. It could be that she had already knocked him back once, and yet he had been waiting for another chance to attempt at getting her again, and was jealous because I was with her instead. The expression told me that my guesses were right on the mark. Other people might not be able to read me and my expressions, unable to figure out what I'm thinking, but I found it easy to read other people. The only one I couldn't read was Bella. That was one of the things that drew me to her in the first place. Because she was unreadable, like myself. She was like a mystery that I had to solve, and eventually I fell in love with her. "Look, I'm with Bella. And nothing you say or do to me is going to change that fact. So just drop it okay?"

"No."

"Excuse me?" I looked at him perplexed.

"I said, no." He repeated. "I'm not going to drop it."

"And why the hell not?" I challenged him, pushing myself up off of the wall. I was surprising myself now. I wasn't normally one for confrontations. In fact I hated them, unless it was Jasper and Emmett going at each other, but then again that was just funny. I usually avoided any sort of confrontation wherever I could. Which is why I was confused as to where this newfound confidence had come from. But deep inside I knew where it had come from. This guy, even though he was her friend, was threatening Bella in some way. I couldn't let that happen. My feelings for Bella ran too deep, were too overpowering to ignore that. And so my heart began ruling my head as I squared up to Jacob, still staring at him.

"Because I know that she can do better than you." He snarled back.

"Oh and by that you mean you?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Not necessarily." He shrugged. "Anyone else but you."

"And why is that?" I asked, feeling my anger bubbling to the surface now. "What is it that you have against me Jacob? I mean, you've never met me before tonight? So why this personal hatred for me? Huh?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"It's true that I might not have met you before tonight, but I've heard stories about you." He smirked back at me. "Of your instability. Of how you're insane enough not eat anything and to slice yourself up whenever you get the chance." He glanced at my arms. "And now I see that the things I've heard were true." He stepped towards me slowly. "You're nothing but an fucked up little freak who-"

"Jacob Black!" Someone shouted behind me. I turned around to see Bella standing there, seething and staring daggers at Jacob. I turned back to him and saw him glaring daggers at me. "What the hell is going on here?!" She asked, looking between the two of us as she stepped through the door onto the porch.

"Ask him." I said flatly, walking past her and back into the house, leaving her outside with Jacob.

I knew that she would be able to handle Jacob on her own. My Bella was stronger than she looked and I knew that she wasn't afraid of someone like him.

I just needed to be alone for a little while.

There's the confrontation between Jacob and Edward. Sorry, for all you Jacob lovers reading this, but in this story he's not a nice character. Sorry again. Hopefully this isn't another reason for me to head back into hiding.

I'm sorry to say that this might be my last update for a while, as I'm going back home tomorrow for a week and I don't know when I'll be able to update. I hope that it won't be a week before I can update, but I can't promise anything. I'm going to try to get the next chapter up tonight before I leave. It will be BPOV. Beginning from where she interrupts the fight. Oooooo Jacobs in trouble ^_^

Please review, I love them very muchly.

xxx