10 days. That's all that's left, all that's left until Romeo and Juliet shows in front the whole school - my dad, the school, basically everyone I know. Help me! It's been two weeks since the incident with Edward, and things on that front have died down but everyone is all riled up and nervous about the big show. Edward, whenever I heard the name it was like a knife was being rammed through my chest. We didn't speak, and he barely acknowledges me unless we were doing scenes.
Everyone knew something was up, even the teacher, because me and Edward were not on speaking terms to say the least. It was showing in our performances, too, making them almost half hearted and lose the passion they had before. The teacher had kept us back to ask about it, but we just told her it was nerves, not wanting to explain the whole mess to her.
"Bella!" Being brought swiftly out of my thoughts, I swivelled round and grinned at Jacob while I watched him plough through the students in the school corridor. Me and Jacob were doing the exact opposite to me and Edward. We were getting closer, and the more time went spent together with him and all the others, the hole Edward had left in my heart was slowly but surely starting to heal. He was like my own personal sun, shining through all the bad things in my life. He always knew what to say and when to say it. He was, in a word, perfect.
"Hey" He caught me eyeing one of the many posters around the school advertising the play. "You nervous?" He grinned, raising his eyebrows.
"Psh, me nervous? No. No, not at all." I said weakly, leaning on the wall opposite him. I watched as his shoulders started to shake and he bit his lip, I let my eyes drag on his lips, I licked my own then looked back up where Jacobs face had gone red. What the hell is he having some kind of seizure? Then I heard a laugh escape his lips, Okay, what the hell is so funny he's practically having a fit in the school corridor?
"What?"I huffed, and he looked up to something above my head, I followed his eyes to a paper sign stuck roughly on the wall that read 'WET PAINT'. I glared at him, pushed myself off the wall and looked at the paint smears all up the side of my t shirt. I looked him square in the eyes "So you think this is funny?"
"No not at all!" he spluttered, fighting back a grin, I advanced on him, he stepped back and away from me, I smirked and raised a brow, taking another step forward, watching with amused eyes as he banged into the wall. I pressed my palm to his chest, went on my tiptoes and whispered in his ear;
"You still think it's funny?" I felt him shake his head, his hair tickling my cheek, then I was gone. I moved my hand, turned and walked down the corridor, leaving him stood there against the wall felling quite pleased with myself. The natural smile fell from my face and replaced itself with a fake smile, more like a grimace than anything else. He was walking down the hall surrounded by his friends, looking off to the side, obviously not bothered about what was going on around him.
I passed by him, feeling that familiar shiver that I always felt when I was close to him. Whenever I was close to him that composure and wall I'd built around my mind and heart cracked. I passed by quickly and slipped back into my composed façade. I took my normal seat and blew out a breath of air. I stared intently at the board then back to the clock to first see if I could will the time to go faster so I could get out of here; second seeing if I stared hard enough I could actually learn something this lesson and not sit here doing bugger all whilst resisting the urge to bang my head on the table. Everything about this lesson is boring, even the classroom – it's just an off grey colour spread on the walls around me with maths is cool and maths is fun posters adorning every inch of wall. Where they get these things I really don't know. Who would ever actually say that maths is fun? Eventually I rested my head on my arms. Apparently I wasn't going to learn anything this lesson and I most certainly couldn't speed up time so I settled for taking a nap - the teacher's voice was kind of soothing anyway. I was brought back to reality when a piece of paper hit the back of my head.
I turned around and scowled at the culprit. When I saw who it was I just raised an eye brow as if to say "Really? What are you playing at?" There sat Jacob with a sheepish look on his face, miming something, what is this charades? Is it a book? A movie? I sighed and watched him as he mimed opening something, then his eyes scanned his hands as if reading something... oh, he wants me to read the paper
Swivelling in my seat, I inconspicuously picked up the note off the floor and opened it under my work sheet, which was blank due to my boredom:
Speak to you after class?
Sure. What's up?
Iwrote back, and when the teacher turned his head again I chucked it across the classroom, hitting a surprised Jacob on the head, where it landed safely in his lap. His head shot up, he glared at me and picked the note up, read it and wasted no time in chucking it back. This time I caught it and stuck my tongue out. Yep, I'm mature.
I just want to ask you something. Meet me outside?
Sure. Now stop distracting me from my learning! I chucked it back to him, he smiled and choked back a laugh.
Well, Miss Swan. I never knew you loved Maths so much.
You learn something new every day! And apparently, Maths is cool!
He let out a full blown laugh at that when I passed it back; it went like that until the end of the lesson. When the bell rang I packed up my stuff and Jacob fell into step beside me as we left the classroom.
"So what did you want to ask me" I looked up at him, his hand was rubbing the back of his neck. He was nervous?
Um, well, I was just wondering whether..." he stopped for a second, almost having some kind of internal battle, before continuing, sounding more confident "Whether you would like to go out with me sometime?" My eyebrows shot up. I stopped and looked at him. He stopped just beside me, looking more nervous the longer I took to formulate a response.
Edward was a jerk, Edward didn't love me and Edward gave me this aching feeling in my chest so why should I dwell on him any longer? Jacob was sweet, gorgeous everything I wanted in a boyfriend and he made my heart feel good again. It hadn't been long, but I needed to get out of the house when I wasn't at school. I was shut up at home mostly. When I was at school with my friends they helped to dull the pain, but when I got home, alone with my thoughts, it just ended up taking over my mood, making me feel unwanted, crap, shit any other adjective you can think of. So I looked up at him and smiled "Sure"
He grinned and we both sorted out the details as we rushed to class, the bell going off as soon as I walked into my classroom. I smiled down at the table as I took my seat, doing a mini happy dance in my head.
I pulled my black jacket on and examined my appearance in the mirror, my hair in smooth curls skimming my waist over the deep purple top that hung loosely on my curves. I brushed my hands over my black jeans, pulled on my purple heels and grabbed my bag. Part of me wondered whether I was doing the right thing going out with Jacob tonight, I mean, he might become the rebound. It's only been two weeks since, well, everything.
The other part of me was saying go for it - you know you want to ... I know what I feel for Jacob is more than just the things I would feel if I was going on the rebound, but there was still something in my head that wasn't clicking, something that was missing, something that wasn't right. The doorbell rang, giving me no more time to ponder this dilemma.
I pulled the door open and grinned at a nervous looking Jacob, who grinned as he met my eyes "Hey" I greeted.
"Hi. Shall we?" he motioned with his arm outside, towards his car.
"Sure. So where are we going? Or is it a secret?" I teased as I shut the door behind me and we walked to his car. He looked over at me and chuckled.
"Nope, no secret. I thought we could go watch a movie and grab a bite to eat?" he sounded nervous as he rattled off his suggestions for tonight. If I was honest, it sounded perfect - it was all I wanted right now, simple.
"Yes, yeah that sounds absolutely perfect" I smiled as his face lit up at my enthusiasm. He opened my door to let me in the passenger seat, then ran around to the driver's side door, and climbed in beside me. As we drove we chatted about anything and everything, no real silences which was good, meaning no awkward moments but I still couldn't shake the feeling in my gut that something wasn't right.
We arrived at the restaurant Da Vinci's. I knew it was expensive and tried to convince him to take me somewhere else he just laughed and told me not to be ridiculous. Inside the waitress showed us to a table for two with a single candle flickering at the centre - a tad cheesy but the idea was sweet. We ordered drinks and Jacob slid his hand over to mine holding it in his across the table. I looked down and blushed as he studied my face. I was starting to relax and enjoy the peacefulness when I looked towards the bar and the smile dropped right of my face. It was him.
I gasped, my eyes widening. I shot up from my seat, grabbing it to stop it falling back into the person sitting behind me, pushing it haphazardly back under the table and dashing away, leaving Jacob who was still left sitting bewildered and probably wondering what the hell was wrong with me. To be fair I would be thinking the same thing if I watched my date crawl across the floor in a posh restaurant.
I grabbed a menu from a nearby table, hoping to shield my face from view. I was still crawling across the floor, causing the woman I grabbed the menu from drop her drink in her lap, making her stand up and screech. Her face was so scrunched up, it looked like she had a stick up her ass. I just crawled away as fast as I could, narrowly missing a pillar. I peeked around the pillar making sure he couldn't see me before dashing into the ladies room, knocking over a waiter in the process, hearing more noises of anger and annoyance from behind me, not bothering to look back.
I went through the door to the ladies room, slumping against the sink trying to process what had happened when I heard a voice at the door.
"Bella?" Jacob called.
"He's out there! Oh my god he's here - why is he here? Is he intentionally trying to make my life hell? I can't even have a date without him ruining it!" I groaned, throwing my arms and head back, consequently hitting my head on the mirror.
"Oww"
"Bella, are you okay?" He asked, concern evidence in his voice.
"Yeah, but I could use a drink" I murmured, only now noticing the dryness of my throat. I heard him sigh through the door then answer me.
"Sure, I'll just go get a waiter" he said
"Really?" I asked, not actually realising he was being sarcastic and didn't mean it.
"Sure. I'll bring the dessert tray for you to look at whilst I'm at it" He drawled, this time I got it; I huffed and crossed my arms as I lent on the door.
"Hey, no need for that" I protested. He sighed.
"What am I going to do with you?"He chuckled "Who's out there anyway?" He asked through the door.
"Edward" I growled. I heard him mutter something unintelligible. "Why did he have to turn up here of all places?"
"Do you want to get out of here?" He sighed, sounding disappointed. Whether it was because we had to leave or the fact that Edward turned up I couldn't tell. I just pushed the door open slowly and nodded as he looked over at me.
"Please." We left the restaurant quickly, leaving a flustered waitress behind us as we rushed out the door. As we jetted out of the restaurant my eyes met with Edwards. He showed no emotion in his eyes as me and Jacob ran out of the restaurant. Everything seemed to slow down around me and I could only focus on his eyes, those green mesmerising depths. I looked away and everything around me sped up and before I knew it, me and Jacob were out the restaurant door.
We headed off to the movies after the disaster at the restaurant. We watched 'Nightmare On Elm Street 2, eh, he looked more like a demented scarecrow than a burn victim but, sequels are never as good as the original. Yep, the perfect way to cheer myself up - watch a horror movie where a 'demented scarecrow' comes into kids dreams and scares the crap out of them. It really wasn't all that scary but it was good for a few laughs. We arrived at my house from the movies in fits of laughter.
We walked to my door still laughing. Jacob grinned, his eyes glowing as they looked down at me. As our laughter subsided it became quiet, our eyes locked and he started to lean towards me. His mouth was inches away from mine and I could feel his warm breath against my face. I leaned up another inch or so and he met me half way, our lips just touching.
His lips pressed into mine with a fiery warmth, rather than the cool passion of Edward's kiss. They were polar opposites, yet I felt strongly for both, making my mind spin with confusion. Our mouths slid open, tongues mingling together; his arms clutched my waist and my hands slid round his neck into the dark mess of hair on his head. I clutched his head, pulling his lips roughly onto mine as he did the same.
The niggling feeling at the back of my mind had dimmed when our lips touched but it was still there, taunting me, teasing me. His lips moved with mine in perfect sync, almost choreographed. We pulled apart, breathing deeply, chests rising and falling, foreheads resting against each other. He grinned at me brightly, I gave him a small coy smile in return and bit my lip.
"I hope we can try this again. Maybe without all the drama?" He laughed and he rubbed the back of his neck, looking at me.
"I'd like that." He leaned down again and captured my lips one last time, before wishing me goodnight and walking to his car. Before he got in, he looked back at me and smiled looking at me with such an affectionate expression it almost hurt. I smiled back, hoping to give him what he was giving me. He got into his car and I watched as he drove off, feeling a sinking feeling in my stomach whenever I was left alone.
I stood on the porch and took in the sunset, watching as the sun relinquished its place in the sky, the orangey light slowly dying, being replaced by the moons soft glow, brightening the ever growing darkness of the night.