DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM TWILIGHT. THEY ALL BELONG TO STEPHENIE MEYER.
EPOV
"Hey," Someone shouted. "What the hell are you doing here?"
I turned around and saw the last person I wanted to see. Only this time he was flunked by some cronies that didn't look too friendly.
Jacob Black.
I sighed, rolling my eyes as they approached me. This wasn't going to be pretty. I squared my shoulders and set my jaw, determined to not let this guy get to me. I had what he wanted more than anything.
I had Bella.
I had won.
She was wearing my ring. The symbol of the eternal love that I would feel for her. Nothing that this guy said or did was ever going to change that. And her agreeing to marry me only showed me that she felt the same way that I did. And I'll be damned if some kid's jealousy was going to take away the best thing in my life.
"I said, what the hell are you doing here?" He repeated, coming to a halt in front of me, his eyes full of hatred.
"Um...." I pretended to think. "I don't know. Walking. Enjoying the sun. Or at least I was." I felt a small smirk approach my lips and I did nothing to stop it. "That is until you decided to show up try to ruin my day."
"You're not welcome here." The guy standing to the right of Jacob sneered at me.
I switched my gaze to him. He was almost as big as Jacob was. He had the same dark skin and hair as Jacob so I knew instantly that he was also from the Indian tribe that Bella had told me about. The one that lived on the reservation a little way away from the beach. "And why is that?"
"You know why." Jacob hissed.
"Why?" I folded my arms over my chest. "Because of Bella? Because she fell in love with me instead of you?" He flinched when I said that and my smirk grew. I knew that I was unchartered territory. I knew that I was outnumbered. And I didn't care. He was trying to split Bella and I up, and I wasn't going to let that happen. "What's the matter Jacob? Can't handle that fact? Can't handle that she fell for someone other than you?" He didn't answer and that in itself gave me the answer I needed. "Of course you can't. Because in your mind Bella shouldn't be with anyone but you. And you'd even go so far as to make her extremely miserable and depressed to ensure that fact, wouldn't you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." He retorted, unconvincingly, I might add.
I chuckled darkly, shaking my head at him. "Okay, Jacob. If you're going lie to someone, make sure that it's not someone who's had years of practise." My gaze flicked to the other two. I knew that he had told them his warped view of where I had been. "So why don't you...quit acting like a child and tell me why you decided that it would be a good idea to phone Renee and tell her a load of bullshit."
"I didn't tell her a "load of bullshit"." He started to smirk now. "I told her the truth."
"Oh really?" I raised my eyebrows at him. "So what would that be?"
"That you're fucked up!" The other guy, the one standing to the left of Jacob snapped. Again he was big. Not Emmett big, none of these guys were that big, but they still had a definite size advantage over me. He also had the same dark skin and hair as the other two, indicating that he was from the same community as the other two. Hell, they were all probably related. It wouldn't surprise me. They all had the intelligence quota for the end product of generations of inbreeding.
"Right?" I pretended to think about that for a moment as I slid my hands into my pockets. I immediately found what I was looking for. My phone. I knew the buttons off by heart so I unlocked it without having to slide it up. I slid my thumb over the buttons, searching for the right number. Once I had found it I held it down, knowing that it was a speed dial button. Emmett. I smirked again, knowing that they would be at lunch round about now, so seeing a call from me he would definitely pick up the phone. I felt the slight vibration of someone answering the phone run through my fingers. "And where did you get that idea?" I asked, knowing that Emmett would be able to hear the conversation from where the phone was in my pocket.
"Well, isn't that obvious?" Jacob chuckled. "I mean, you have just spent the last eight months in an insano hospital."
I glared at him, trying to keep my anger undercontrol. The vibrations of Emmett shouting "Hello?" and panicking had stopped and I knew that he had heard this. I just prayed that he hadn't hung up by now, without hearing who it was I was with. If they heard they would know exactly where I was.
"Where did you hear that?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. "Because whoever it was has their facts a little mixed up."
"Really?!" The one to the right of Jacob said laughing. "Well, that's not what we heard."
"So tell me," I crossed my arms over my chest again, phone still in hand, hidden from their view. "What is it exactly that you heard?"
"That you're completely fucked up." Jacob answered quickly.
"Yeah, we already did that one." I retorted and the three of them snarled at me. I knew that I was getting under their skin by not giving them a real reaction, which I was guessing is what they were looking for. Any reason to display with their fists their displeasure at my being with Bella. "No, really. Tell me what you think you know."
"Why?" Jacob snapped, looking me up and down as though I was a poisonous snake, ready to pounce. He sighed and glared at me again. "Alright, tell us this. If you were "mentally sound"," He added quotation marks earning chuckles and sneers from the two people next to him. "Then why would you starve yourself huh? Why would you slice yourself up? Huh? I mean, those sound like acts of someone who's a bit fucked up to me."
"So Jacob," I looked down at the ground briefly before meeting his gaze again. "You ever heard of depression?"
"Yeah," He looked at me as though I really was crazy. "Of course I have."
"And did you know that everyone, no matter who they are, rich or poor, healthy, ill, no matter of their race, age, or whatever, gets depressed at some point in their life?" The three of them stared at me dumbly. I had stumped them. They didn't know that everyone suffers from some sort of depression throughout their lives. "No? Okay. Then you obviously didn't know that some people suffer a lot worse from depression than others. But of course, how could you know that? Because the three of you haven't been through what others have, have you?"
Jacob tensed up, earning the very reaction I wanted. I knew from Bella, that Jacob's mother had died when he was younger, so I knew that he would have a problem with that statement. The other two I didn't know about. Jacob was the only one I had met from the reservation.
"I've been through more than you can imagine." Jacob sneered through gritted teeth.
"Oh really?" I raised my eyebrows again. "I know you lost your mother. That must have been a hard time for you." I saw his eyes grow even darker and he began to shake from anger.
"Easy Jake." The guy to the right of Jacob placed a hand on his shoulder and he stopped shaking. "He's trying to rile you up that's all."
"Yeah," I smirked again. "And it's working."
"How the hell would you know what I felt back then?" Jacob snapped at me, barely keeping his voice under control enough to be understood. "How the hell can you imagine what-"
"Because I've been there!" I snarled back. "You lost your mother, yes? But you had your sisters and your father there, correct?" He glared back, knowing where I had gotten this information from. "Well....seeing as I know about you, and your loss, how about I tell you about me?" They all smirked at me, probably thinking that I was going to tell them some story about hearing voices in my head and being shipped off to a mental hospital, probably expecting a laugh from it. Sorry boys, I thought. If that's what you want, then you're not going to get it. "Did you know that Carlisle and Esme are not my real parents?" The other two looked confused and Jacob only smirked. "Left that detail out did you Jacob? Well, then it would surprise the two of you to know that both of my parents are dead." The other two glanced at each other and then looked at Jacob.
"Jake, is that true?" The one to the left of Jacob asked cautiously. Jacob didn't answer him, he only glared at me. "How could you not tell us that Jake?"
"Shut up Seth." Jacob snarled.
"No," The one I had learned was called Seth snapped. "How could you tell us that he was shipped to a mental hospital and fail to tell us that-"
"I was not shipped to a mental hospital." I sneered through gritted teeth, glaring at Jacob.
"You had therapy and stuff there." Jacob retorted, smirking again. "Little "activity sessions" as well? Sounds like an insano place to me. Full of fucked up little freaks like you, who think tha the only way to deal with your problems is to slowly kill yourself. Not something someone sane would do is it?"
"You have no idea." I whispered, knowing full well he could hear me. His expression flashed confusion before it turned back into a smirk. "Have you got any idea of what it's like to watch your parents die? To see them burn right in front of your eyes?" I kept my voice low, knowing that I would end up screaming at them if I didn't. I also didn't want to give Jacob the satisfaction of knowing that he'd gotten to me. Gotten under my skin. I had been able to keep my emotions under check for a decade or so, I could do it now. "Doesn't seem like it does it? Do you know what it feels like to know that if you had been a little quieter, or hadn't gotten into trouble at school that day, they'd still be alive? Didn't think so." I took a deep breath. "I do. Because I have done. I had to watch my parents burn to death, knowing that there was nothing I could do to help them. I had comprehend the idea that I was all alone, that I had nobody. Yes, you may have lost your mother Jacob, but you still had your father, your sisters around you. You could comfort each other. You had each other. But I had no one. No family. No family friends who would be able to take me in. I was all alone. Now, tell me, that you think you could go through that, at age six, and not be left with some form of depression. To not think a little differently. You three tell me, honestly, that you could go through that and not have your way of thinking altered even slightly, then ..... then there is something seriously wrong with you."
The other two looked shocked. They were glaring at Jacob now, instead of me. He had obviously forgotten to mention this little detail about my past. Something he obviously knew about because he was glaring at me, his hands bunched into fists.
"Why didn't you tell us this Jake?" Seth, I think was his name, asked Jacob. It seemed he and the other guy were getting angry now.
"Because you didn't need to know." Jacob sneered.
"Didn't need to know?" The other guy asked, disbelief in his voice. "You told us that he was insane. You told us that his being with Bella could and would hurt her. We thought that you were being a good friend! Not twisting the truth so that we would help you! You failed to mention what he had been through, even though it is obvious that you knew all along. You never mentioned that he wasn't insane, merely depressed!" I scoffed at his use of the word merely. If he heard me then he made no move. "You never said that it was depression that fueled it actions and nothing else. You made it sound as though he was one of these whack jobs that heard voices that told him to kill people or something!" This guy was getting angry now. "I can't believe this Jake! This was all because of Bella wasn't it?! Haven't you learned yet that she's not interested in you that way? She never will be Jake, even if Edward hadn't come along." He took a deep breath, realisation sweeping over his face. "That's why you phoned Renee wasn't it? Because you're jealous! Not to keep her daughter safe like you said. But because you didn't want the two of them together?!"
"Oh, that's priceless Jake," Seth scoffed. I don't know why, but it felt good to have these two standing up for me. "That's great. You really are one class act Jake." He started to clap his hands slowly. Sarcastically.
Jake was still glaring at me. He had begun shakin again and I knew that he was getting more and more worked up by the second. He took a step towards me and the next thing I knew I was on the ground, a throbbing pain tormenting the side of my face. Jacob had punched me. With the force of his punch combined with his size I had fallen back onto the sand. Before I knew it, his knee was on my chest and he had grabbed the front of my shirt.
Images of Emmett in the same position involuntarily flew through my mind as I started to panic inside. I knew that this was a different situation and really, had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with Bella. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't erase that night from my mind. The look of complete sorrow and desperation on Emmett's face as he stood in the doorway to my room. The fear as I realised what he was going to do. The terror as he pinned me to the floor, in the exact same position that Jacob held me in right now, cutting off my air supply. The two situations were too similar for me not to make the connections. Even though Emmett knew that what he had done was wrong, and had apologised profusely for it, it was something that would never be erased from my mind.
I felt his fist connect with my face again, from the same side and I felt my lip split painfully.
"Jake," I heard the two of them cry. "What the fuck are you doing man?" I could feel them trying to pull him off of me, but they weren't strong enough to get him off of me. He grabbed the front of my shirt and lifted my shoulders up, sneering at me.
"JACOB BLACK!" I heard a scream come from somewhere down the beach and he froze. I would know that petrified scream anywhere. And so did he.
Bella.
Emmett had worked out that I wasin trouble, and had phoned Bella, and Bella being the intelligent angel that she was, had worked out where I was. I heard her running down the beach towards us, as Seth and the other guy, I still hadn't learned his name, tried in vain to get Jacob off of me.
"Jacob!" I heard her shout. She was closer now. I heard her footsteps approaching my head as she slowed down. "Get. The. Fuck. Off. Of. Him. Right. Now!" She said every word as though it was a seperate sentence.
"Sorry, Bells." He sneered at me. Bella was standing over the two of us now, her face filled with a mixture of worry for me and anger and hatred directed at Jacob. "He said some stuff and I need to teach him a lesson." He smirked at me and I could tell that he was about to pull his fist back to hit me again. I could feel the blood from my lip running down the side of my face and I knew that I was going to have a nice bruise on my cheek the next day.
Before he could pull his fist back again, I saw Bella look up to the side of him as Seth and the other guy let go of Jacob, jumping away quickly. I didn't understand why they were doing this. Were they just going to let him beat the crap out of me? After they had been trying to get him off of me, were they just giving in to him? And what about Bella? Why wasn't she trying to get him off of me?
My questions were answered when something went barrelling into the side of Jacob, throwing him off of me and into the sand a good few feet away. I gratefully sucked in as much air as I could. Bella was at my side instantaneously. She placed a hand underneath my shoulders and helped me to sit up. I looked over to where Jacob was being held captive, wiping the blood off of my face with the back of my hand. Alice was at my side with a tissue. I took his and smiled at her gratefully, wiping the blood from my hand and face. I looked over to see that Rose and Jasper were here as well. Rose was walking over to me and Jasper had stopped and was taking in the scene in its entirity.
Looking over to where Jacob was struggling, I saw that Emmett was sat on top of him, holding him in the same position he had just had me in, his hands clenched in his shirt lifting his head up off of the ground slightly. Bella kissed my cheek softly and then stood up, storming over to Jacob and Emmett. She placed a hand on Emmett's shoulder and he looked up at her. Some sort of silent exchange went on between the two of them and Emmett shoved Jacob's head back into the sand and stood up, walking back over to where the rest of us were.
He held out a hand to me and I grabbed it, not caring about the physical contact that this point, although my muscles still involuntarily stiffened at the touch. He pulled me up gently and looked me over.
"You alright, man?" He asked and I nodded.
"Could be worse." I replied and he nodded, glaring at Jacob. Bella walked up beside me and wrapped her arm around my waist, smiling up at me before turning an evil stare on Jacob.
"What the hell did you think you were doing Jacob?" She snarled as he got up and stood in front of us. "Well?" He shrugged. "You think that's a good enough answer? You think that it's alright to hurt Edward just because you're jealous? You really think that if you hurt Edward, I'm going to come running? You know what, Jacob, grow up!" She placed her hand on my chest now, gazing up at me. "Are you okay?" She whispered, pressing her lips to my jaw. I nodded before pressing my lips to hers.
As I broke the kiss I saw Jacob was glaring at us. More specifically Bella's hand.
He had seen the engagement ring.
I smirked, knowing that this was going to get a hell of a lot more interesting.
Bring it on.
This is a little shorter than I wanted it to be, but this seemed like the best place to stop. I promise that the next couple of chapters will be longer :D
Well, he didn't get hurt. Okay, only a little. But think, it could have been a lot worse.
I'm still surprised by the amount of Jacob haters that this story has seemed to attract. There are a lot of team Edward's out there. To be fair I am Team Edward all the way. :D
Please Review. Edward would love it if you did :P
xx
