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Chapter XXXVII Title: 'Majoring in the Minors,' by SugarCult

(BPOV)

"Come on, Jacob. Pick up. Please pick up," I pleaded with the unanswering pay-phone. I glanced at the street sign on Fork's only Main Street to give my eyes a new subject to stare and inwardly curse at. Jacob still refused to pick up the phone and I suspected that Billy knew almost every time I called that it was me and just decided not to answer. I had a feeling of déjà-vu from when Jacob had taken to avoiding me before, but this time I knew his secret. This time I knew what I was up against.

I just had no idea how much longer I could keep fighting.

I slammed the phone down after a few more rings. I felt like the ringing was mocking me. Time and patience were absent as I huffed into my hands that smelled too much like the Vanilla Bean coffee that I had made two hours ago. Why did my hands still smell like it? It was starting to wreak havoc on my nose and thoughts. Thoughts that really should have been on my future and school, but instead were caught in a supernatural triangle that seemed to go on and on. A tragic love story that was only beginning to unfold or was it closing to an end?

The poison that Juliet swallowed was starting to have great promise. At least in death, I added morbidly. Well, I certainly wasn't going to stab myself; there was no heart left in my chest anyway...Oh Jake...

My spring semester classes were starting in the next two weeks and my mind was beginning to feel the weight for all the approaching things I would have to do. I was excited about my classes and smiled easily for a few seconds without having to be prompted by Edward. I glanced over my first semester curriculum again for my major in Art Restoration and my fingers hesitantly trailed the oak paper of my pad on the counter. A loud ring interrupted my reading.

"Bella, could you get that coffee please and hand it to the customer?" Another girl, named Maxine, called out. I smiled some more, swung around, knocked over a stack of cups but secured the large Vanilla Latte and handed it off to a middle aged woman. She smiled graciously, probably happy that I hadn't spilled her coffee again like I had done with her first cup. I had only been working at the coffee shop/bookstore/music store for a week and I was desperately still trying to get the hang of it. I still had my other job at the Newton's Sporting Goods store, but tuition at Forks Community was going up and I was determined not to let my money woes stop me. Edward had offered to pay for any school that I had wanted to go to, but I had declined.

Many times.

It actually started to become a running joke between myself and the Cullens.

I did like having multiple jobs though, despite the rush of people that flew in and out of the place. I was surrounded by books. I received a discount on the books in the store and on my lunch break if I was not with Edward, my Dad, or Alice, then I would curl up in the corner for the ½ hour of my lunch and read a classic. I tried to stay away from the romance, but it seemed next to impossible to manage that feat. Edward encouraged it, but I feared he had a secret agenda that I was not aware of at the moment. My nostrils were filled with a wonderful scent that was not just from the coffee filter.

"Next order, Bella. Pronto." A wiry boy named Kevin was now rushing me to make haste, but I smiled at him too. He looked at me expectantly and then cleared his throat when I didn't get the message. I turned around and saw my next customer.

It was Edward.

I beamed at him in his light gray collared shirt and felt myself flush. He still had a small effect on me, I had to grudgingly admit. "Edward! You're early."

His smile continued to dazzle me and a few other girls in the shop, including Maxine behind the counter. "Bella, I just wanted to come and give you this." He held a plain envelope to me and I saw from the light that it was a check with some numbers written on it in fancy handwriting. "And you can't give it back. I already wired it to your account. This was just a formality as I am now showing you the approved check."

I stepped back. "You can't get a check approved that quickly."

"I have my ways. The teller was a very understanding woman. She saw what I had at stake."

My eyebrows raised a little. "And what exactly did you have at stake?"

"Well," he paused, "I told her that I had to send a very pretty human girl to college and that it was her duty to assist me in all ways possible to make it so."

"You didn't call me a 'human' to her face, did you?"

"I just whispered it into her ear. No harm done. I don't think she heard most of what I said. For an older woman, her mind was very ah...very explicit."

I giggled openly and grabbed the counter. My breath was caught. I found that when I laughed too hard I would feel a pain somewhere in my chest or in my side as if I were missing something that was very important. I already knew that I missed my best friend. My throat was suddenly dry and the smell of coffee and Edward's pleasant freesia smell were a distant memory that I had not properly tied down to anchor the rest of me. Edward knew the look and calmly touched my arm. I felt like paper underneath him. The two men that I cared for the most had to be so careful and exert such restraint to keep from hurting me that it was amazingly obvious that I was a fragile porcelain doll. My small laugh turned hollow.

"Excuse me, I would like to take Bella on break." Edward's voice called out over me. I didn't hear the answer but Edward casually lifted the small counter door and led me around to a clean table. He sat down and his fingers closed around mine in one fluid motion. "Are you alright, Bella?"

I nodded. "It still gets to me…about how things turned out. I'm going to school in a couple weeks. You're being the understanding and compassionate friend that I need and Jake…" My lips folded underneath themselves. "I'm sorry." I started to pull my hands away but Edward clutched them.

"I am sorry that you are feeling at fault for his decision." His eyes were troubled as I heard him sigh a little under his breath. "Alice is here. She would like to chat with you about what you will wear on your first day of class."

"First day of…Oh no.' My face drew red as I watched Alice bound around the corner with a sullen looking Jasper. Her beautiful dark blue camisole stretched over her black leggings and suede boots as she sat down next to me immediately, taking a few guys eyes with her.

"Bella." Her wonderful, melodic tone sounded sweet, but knew her too well. She wanted to talk 'shop' and in her favorite language: girl. "I've come to take you shopping after your shift is over. I can see you in this beautiful dark brown—"

"You know I hate to shop." I was already shaking my head. "Whatever you pick for me to wear is fine. I won't be going anywhere except to class and back home anyway. The first day of class is like a formality."

"True Bella, but Art Restoration is not an easy process. It takes quite some years to master." Jasper's voice was a little terse, but I knew it was from being surrounded by people. He had still not forgiven himself when he had tried to attack me and didn't feel that he could be trusted when among so many. I had felt that he was doing quite fine.

Alice's voice chimed in. "And I foresee a little difficulty with the class Environmental Control and Collections. And you will suffer from quite a nasty fall on the field trip, but you will be fine—"

"Okay, okay. I know. I am a walking calamity. I get it. You guys do not have to rub it in." I pushed my hair back a little and arranged my name tag a bit better, desperately trying to figure out what to do with my fingers.

"Come on, Bella. I like dressing the human. It's a lot of fun. And that's not the only thing we can shop for. We can pick up Jacob's birthday gift—"

"Alice." Edward's honey eyes changed closer to ebony as he warned his sister off. My eyes darted down and I almost cried when I felt a slow smile spread on my face instead. I could hear the birds outside and feel the spring wind that would sweep my face in the next few months after this winter and after I had gotten accustomed to my classes. Even the coffee beans smelled less as I took in the wild rain smell and my toes curled a little from being lifted off the ground. Jacob use to curl my toes. There were a lot of things he had done right. A lot of things he had done right many times. I felt myself slip back into darkness but was forced out. I felt angry suddenly and my eyes settled on Jasper, who looked guilty.

"You're like a see-saw Bella. I've never found it difficult to pinpoint an emotion on a human before but you switch moods like…"

My smile was for real this time as my look softened for Jasper's sake. I then turned to Alice who gave me a knowing smile. "Don't say 'you don't want to hear it' because I know for a fact that you two make up. You always do. And if Edward would say something—"

"That's enough, Alice. I think you have said enough for both of us." Edward cut her off again.

Alice flicked a small fleck of sugar across the table and then turned to me in a high voice, "I personally think that we should get Jacob a set of tools or something. I don't know much about tools so I would much rather pick some clothes out for him instead. I can guess him liking the tools, but not the clothes and honestly, who wouldn't like the clothes that I pick out? I think that vision might be wrong. I think he may not like them simply because we picked them out for him, but if you were the one to just give it to him, Bella—"

"Alice," I cut in. She was talking so much that my head was starting to drown into just melodic tones and phrases. And I was feeling sick again. Alice saying Jacob's name so casually as if I didn't miss him, as if I didn't want him or need him was making the gaping wound that was my heart fester. I grabbed the lower half of my body and considered laying my head down on the table when Alice placed a cool hand on my shoulder that I felt through my white cotton work shirt.

She sighed loudly. "Edward, if you don't—"

"I understand, Alice." I heard movement but I wasn't sure what was happening until Edward's body was next to me. The ease to swallow now became a little less difficult to bear and I quickly wiped at my eyes with my short sleeve. "Bella, would you mind looking at me. I couldn't bare the thought of telling you anything without looking into your eyes."

I couldn't smile though I gave it a conscious effort. When I finally could lift my head enough to make out Edward's flawless features he looked as if he was having difficulty breathing. In the back of my mind I knew that such a feat was impossible since he did not need to breathe, but there was suddenly less air in my chest when I saw how difficult it must have been for him to see me flit in and out of my moods like this. Maybe it was too much for him. Maybe he finally had had enough. Maybe he was telling me he was leaving again and I would truly have no one. I couldn't have Jacob and I couldn't hold onto Edward. I was a wreck. "Edward, what is it?" I forced myself to ask.

"I went to see Jacob some days ago."

Edward stated it so simply as if to say, "I went to the store." My eyes blinked rapidly for a few seconds before I was angry enough to move the seat with my legs. "Huh? You did what?" I snapped.

Edward smiled a little at my outburst, like he was amused by a child throwing a temper tantrum. His haughty look made me a little angrier as I turned completely around to face him. This I had to hear. His perfect face then moved closer to mine as if he was going to kiss me, but his next statement was a little hesitant. "Relax, my love. We did not fight. I only went to see if you two could still be friends."

My sullen mood returned. I already knew the answer. "Obviously we can't be because he's still not here." I turned away from Edward and silently cursed everything. "Darnit, Jacob. He's so stubborn. He never…he could never compromise. He has to have it all," I said bitterly. I twisted a stray napkin that I plucked out of a napkin holder.

"Bella, you have to understand something. Something about how the pack works." Edward's movements became cautious and also conflicted. "Has Jacob ever told you how the wolves find their mates? Or some equivalent thereof recently?"

I nodded and tried to keep some level in my voice as my tears began to show themselves. "Yeah, one of the 'wolf girls' I guess you would call them. Emily, who's Sam's…I guess fiancé now, said that the pack has this thing called an imprint and all that it means is that this person is supposed to be in their life or something. When I was with Jacob, I was always worried about what kind of girl he would end up with if this imprint thing is supposed to be so definite. That there was absolutely no way to…" I trailed off when a horrible thought crossed my mind. I turned frantically back to Edward. "Oh God, that's why he won't see me anymore? Jacob found his imprint and he can't be around me anymore." More tears trailed my cheeks as Edward placed my head into his chest. I couldn't hear the heartbeat he didn't have, but the silence was welcoming and soothing.

I heard Edward's jaw tighten.

"He did find his imprint, but it doesn't mean that the person is supposed to be romantically involved with them. They have to choose to be that way with them and it's only then that the soul mate part of the imprint is real. Everything has to be a choice for them."

My sobs quieted. "How do you know so much about imprinting?"

Edward's fingers cooled my chin and he gently pulled my head from his chest. His eyes were sad and I almost felt the other half of me sink. "Jacob has imprinted on you, Bella."

I heard a noise from my lips but I didn't recognize the sound and I never even thought that I could have made that noise. My eyes widened and my jaw suddenly hurt from being held open for far too long. I clinched my fingers around the hard wooden coffee table, but I didn't register the numbing pain of the grip I held until seconds later. "He…he what?"

Edward slowly nodded. "I don't approve, but he loves you and it's real."

I shook my head. "But he never said…he never said anything. You can't keep something like from a friend. You can't keep secrets—"

"It wasn't a secret. The whole pack knew. The imprint is the one who has to make the choice and define what the relationship is. It always has to be what the she needs."

"And I wasn't ready to make a decision like that. I wasn't ready to know," I finished lamely. A small breath filled the air around us as I remembered the first night I had seen Jacob after the carnival. The night our friendship suddenly went a little further than expected. He had been next to me in my room the same night that I had seen him as a wolf and had not even known it was him. The same night I felt that seemingly gravitational pull towards him that would never let go. I always had to have him close to me. I always had to see him or hear him or think about him at least once a day, sometimes more. The same night that we kissed for the very first time and I had never felt anything else like it since. Even kissing Edward had felt drastically different, but I had thought that it was because he had changed. That I had changed. That our feelings for one another were strong, but that I suddenly had less heart to give him simply because someone else had a piece of me, a big piece.

I felt sick again. And angry. I tried to stand but my legs gave out under me. The chair screeched a little across the floor and Edward's hands shot out to help catch me. My eyes noticed that Maxine had rolled my eyes, but I didn't care at the moment what she thought of me. Alice turned looking concerned for one moment until her eyes held a blank stare for a few seconds and then she smiled. I turned to Edward, grateful that he had caught me, but I tried to shake him a little. "Bella, what are you thinking? You know I can't read your mind."

"I have to see him." I said with certainty.

Edward looked panicked. "Bella—"

"I am going to see him, Edward. He should have told me. If he knew that I had—"

"Would it have changed your mind?" Edward turned me to him. "Would you have stayed with him then if you knew that he was supposed to be in your life in some way?"

I faced him and almost felt as if I were looking at him at eye level though he was inches taller than me. "I still would have loved you both."

Edward looked oddly satisfied with the remark. "Your shift isn't over for another few hours."

"I don't care."

"I've never tried making coffee before. I'll stand in for you." I jumped as Alice appeared behind me quickly and smiled brighter than ever. "I enjoy doing new things. Makes me feel human," she quipped. I stared at her and started to say 'no' because I knew they would never let Alice fill in for me but Alice gave me a look. "I think I can convince them that I'll make a great barista. And Jasper is here to help them feel more at ease about the situation." Jasper looked stunned, but even I saw a tiny smirk on the corner of his lips.

"I'll drive you," Edward's voice wavered. "To the border."

I breathed a sigh of relief and hugged Alice tightly. Jasper nodded in my direction, still afraid to be too close to me and Edward lightly grabbed my hand. My heart kept a steady high beat as I sat on the edge of my truck's passenger seat as Edward drove us toward the La Push reservation.

*A/N: Almost...