I never called him. I would sit there by the phone, staring at it, trying to decide if I wanted to call him or not. I just could not get myself to pick up and dial his number. I reached for it a million times but never touched the phone. I didn't start school for a week or so I sat on the couch waiting for Embry to get back home.

"You know Jacob wasn't at school again today."

I sipped at my drink and shrugged.

"You care. I know you do."

"Why did you get home so late?"

"I went by Jake's house to make sure he was still alive."

I sat there and looked at him. I just shrugged again. Embry and I just stared at each other before he took a deep breath and grabbed the phone. He started pressing buttons.

"Embry, what are you doing?"

"I'm calling Jacob. I going to have him come over and you are going to talk to him whether you like it or not."

"Well I don't."

I jumped for the phone but he was a lot taller than me. I started to throw a temper tantrum and he stared at me wide eyed as he put the phone to his ear.

"Hey Jake, can you come over? *pause* Yeah she wants to talk to you. *pause* No she's fine. Just get here soon I might not live to see you."

"Damn right you won't!"

I snatched the phone from Embry's hand and hung it up. Then I hit him with it.

"Look, I'm sorry but you were just going to sit there and stare at the phone until someone made you call him. So I called him for you."

"Whatever."

"You're mad at me?"

"Yes. I would've called him when I was sure of what I wanted to say to him. I have no idea what to say to him."

"You shouldn't have to wonder. Tell him what you're feeling."

Jacob doesn't live that far off. He could run and considering he was probably already on his way here to talk to me. I also considered the fact that Embry went to his house before coming home, probably explaining to him his master plan for getting me to talk, which means Jake was probably already on his way. If he was outside the door now, then he would hear everything I was about to say and I wouldn't have to repeat myself, so I went for it.

"I would tell him that I feel like Bella means more to him than I do. I would tell him that I feel like I could lose him to her any day now. It could be one of those days I go to visit my dad and I'll come back to find him and Bella making out on the beach or on the cliff. Or we'll just kinda grow apart. She'll be around all the time and eventually I'll go over to his house, she'll be sitting next to him and I won't be able to sit with him. I'm not jealous. I'm not mad that she's his friend. I'm scared I'm going to lose him for whatever reason."

Then I heard the front door open. I looked past Embry to see Jacob standing there, tears in his eyes. Embry turned and went down the hallway.

"You could never lose me. You will never come home to find me with her. You are everything to me. We will never grow apart. Every day I've spent with you brought something new with it. It brought our first kiss. It brought so many new things. I taught you to swim. We went cliff diving together. We walk the beach together. We did everything together. It's not too late for us to keep it that way."

He extended his hand out to me and I just stared at it. Then I glanced up at him and back down to his hand. I stood and ran to him, throwing my arms around his neck. His arms wrapped around my waist and he held me tight against his body.

"I thought I would lose you forever." I mumbled against his shoulder.

"But you didn't. I'm here."

"Yeah, for how long? Long enough for me to snap on you again?"

He pushed me back and looked at me, concern plaguing his features, "Snap on me all you want. Just like this time, next time I'm going to keep telling you I love you."

He pulled me back against him. After another few minutes, I pulled back enough so that I could kiss him. We stood there, our lips pressed together, for a few minutes. We pulled away from each other but we stood there, our foreheads just barely touching.

"Oh, how I have missed your kisses, not even a week apart and it feels like years."

I stifled a laugh, "How long did it take you to come up with that line?"

"Since Sunday when Embry told me he was going to come up with a plan to get us back together."

I smiled up at him and his hand found its way to my face.

"Let's go to the beach. Quil and the others are having a bonfire tonight."

I nodded and my smile widened.

"I have missed that smile as well."

"Why are you so proper all of a sudden?"

"It's not all of sudden, love. When you ran from me, I decided I needed to make some kind of change. I don't talk to Bella much anymore if at all. She's got a boyfriend now anyway. He doesn't like her coming around here. That just means I can have more time with you."

We went to the beach and it was almost like that first night. Jacob and I sat by the fire, his arms around me. Quil walked over and handed us some chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers. We set the box of graham crackers on the ground and just shared the chocolate and marshmallows. I broke off a piece of chocolate and held it towards Jake. He smiled and ate it from my hands before kissing me.

"It's nice to see you two all lovey-dovey again." Quil laughed.

Jacob threw a marshmallow at him.

"Hey now! Those aren't meant to be projectiles."

"Yeah whatever." Jacob smiled.

"Whatever."

Some time passed. We laughed and told stories. Jacob kept trying to get me to eat s'mores. After a while I started yawning. I lay on Jacob's shoulder and he put his arm around me.

"Getting tired?"

I nodded, "What time is it?"

"A little before midnight. You wanna go home?"

I nodded again. He stood up and crouched down in front of me.

"Climb up."

I climbed onto his back and he got to his feet. He carried me back to his house and dropped me on his bed. He pulled the cover over me and I rolled over. He kissed my cheek.

"I'm gonna go call your aunt. Let her know you're staying here tonight."

I nodded and he left the room. A little while after that he was speaking.

"Hey Ms. Call. ** No they're both fine. ** Yeah, we were at the beach and she was getting tired. I didn't know that she would make it all the way back home so I just brought her to my house. ** She's sleeping now. ** Yes ma'am first thing in the morning. See you then."

He hung up the phone and came back into the room. He stood in the doorway.

"She says I have to feed you before I bring you home."

I rolled over to look at him.

"I don't want to go home. I like being right here."

"I know you do. I'll see you in the morning."

He turned around.

"Jacob!" he turned back to me, "Stay with me. Please."

He climbed in the bed with me. He put his arm around me and held me close to him body. I pulled his arm tighter to me. His fingers were clenched into a fist.

"What's wrong?"

"You should know."

"Open your hand."

He unclenched his fist. I kissed the palm of his hand and he let out a breath. I traced a heart around the kiss and placed my hand in his. Our fingers intertwined.

"You know I love you right?" he whispered.

"Jake, tell me. What is it?"

I rolled over and looked at him. The moonlight came in through the window. His eyes were closed.

"Jacob, open your eyes and look at me." He did as I asked, "Tell me, Jake. Why are you acting like this?"

"I was thinking of everything. This past week without you killed me. Now the idea of not seeing you until the end of the day is bringing those feelings right back. I wish you didn't transfer schools. I wish I hadn't made you want to leave me in the first place."

"You think that was your fault?"

"Wasn't it?"

"Not completely, it was mostly Embry though. It was him with the way he kept coming home telling me Bella was at your house or you were with her."

"But every time I was with her, I was thinking of you. I was wishing I was here with you just like this."

I sat up and looked at him. He lifted his hand to my face.

"I love you Aria, so much more than I could ever love her."

"Prove it."

"How?"

"Kiss me and put every ounce of your love for me behind it."

Then he was kissing me, the warmth of his lips moving against mine. I could feel every bit of his love for me. He pulled away after a while and smiled at me. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and smiled back.

"Again."

He chuckled and pulled me onto his lap. With my legs on either side of his body, he pulled my face down to his. Our lips touched over and over. Then he turned his face from mine.

"I love you so much."

"I know. I love you too."

Then we were kissing again. His hands, which were once resting on the back of my legs, moved up to my thighs and then up the back of my shirt. That's when I realized what was happening. We had turned sixteen, he just a couple of months before me. We had talked about the right time when Embry started threatening Jacob about it. 'Don't even try to have sex with her Jake! I mean it!' This was too rash, too sudden. I was sitting here on top of this guy that had just a week ago made me cry. I pulled away from him.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

"No, no it's okay. It's just…"

"Alright, I understand. Just answer me this, do you want me to stop?"

"I don't know."

"Do you realize I would never make you do something you wouldn't want to?"

"I do. I know we talked about this, Jake. I'm just not sure if I can truly wait until we're eighteen."

"Then as of now, you won't have to make any decisions. We will wait if that's what you want but we don't have to wait until we're eighteen. When we're both ready, then we will decide. Okay?"

I sighed, "I love you."

"I love you too."

I climbed off of him and then out of the bed. I went to his dresser and started searching through his drawers.

"What are you looking for?"

"Just wait a sec."

I found his white dress shirt then I pulled off my jeans and t-shirt. I put his shirt on and buttoned it up, leaving the top two buttons undone.

"You're not going to make this holding back thing easy are you?"

"No."

"Are we going to go to bed or not?"

"Yes."

I smiled and climbed into bed. I curled into his side and he wrapped his arms around me again. He took in a deep breath. As he drifted to sleep, I stared up at his face in the moonlight shining through the window.

Everything would be okay, I thought, he'll never hurt me again.

Then I closed my eyes and let myself fall asleep.

Chapter 4: The Day We Compromise

The next morning, I woke up alone. I sat up and looked around the room. The sunlight came in through the window but the hallway outside of Jake's door was dark.

"Jacob?" I muttered.

Then he poked his head around the corner, "Yes, love?"

"What are you doing?"

He didn't reply. He just smiled and then walked back down the hallway. I got out the bed and followed behind him, my bare feet against the cold floor. The top few buttons on the shirt were undone so it was practically falling off my shoulders. I went into the kitchen. He was sitting at the table with his dad.

"Jake what's wrong?"

He looked up at me. He extended his hand out to me. I walked over and took it. He pulled onto his lap.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing at all."

"Jacob we can't let her do this. It's not safe for her or for us."

I cocked my head to the side. Jacob shook his head at me and then looked at his dad, "She's old enough to make her own decisions. If you want I'll talk to her but that's all I can do."

"What's going on? Is this about me?"

"No, it's about Bella." Billy said coldly.

"Bella? What about Bella?"

"Dad, stop it. It's nothing."

"Yeah sure," I stood up and walked to the end of the hall, "it's nothing."

I walked down the hall and back to Jake's room. I found my clothes and pulled on my jeans first. I was just changing into my shirt when Jake walked in.

"Where are you going?"

"Home."

"Why?"

"Because you apparently have to go see Bella, I don't want to stand in your way."

"You've never been in the way. Come with me."

"No, I'm going to go home."

He sighed. I pulled on my shirt. I turned to see him staring down at my arms.

"What?" I said softly.

"What happened to your arms?"

I looked down. I hadn't told him. Up and down my arms were dark lines. Over the past week, while Jake and I were apart, I had been scratching at my arms. Only the marks were more than mere scratches. I had dug into my skin leaving behind what looked like cut marks.

"Nothing." I pulled on my jacket and tried to walk past him. He put his arm out, blocking me.

"Tell me, Aria."

"It's nothing, Jacob, just some scratches."

"Please tell me you're not lying."

"I'm not lying."

"Let me rephrase that. Did you do them on purpose?"

"I don't know. Do you want me to lie to you?"

"Aria!"

"I'm not doing this right now Jake."

I moved his arm and left him standing there. This time, he didn't watch me leave. He followed me. I went through the door. He was right behind me. Eventually I was far enough away but when he yelled out for me, I had to stop to look at him.

"Aria, tell me the truth!"

"You want to hear the truth? That's what you want? Fine, here it is! I did it on purpose Jacob! I was alone! I was hurting! I watched myself bleed over and over again hoping one day you would just come through the door and stop me! But you didn't Jacob. You never came!"

"You didn't want me to! I tried to bring you back to me the day you ran away! You didn't want to come back! I called after you!" he walked closer to me with every word and his voice turned to whispers, "Do you honestly think I didn't want to chase after you?"

"Then why didn't you?"

"You wouldn't let me. By the time it had really registered with me that you were gone, it was too late. You were long gone."

"You knew I would go home. You should have come there."

"I would have had Embry not called me and cussed me out."

"Why does everything always come back to him?"

"It doesn't matter. What does matter is that I love you. What does matter is that I will never let you run from me again. What does matter is that you and I are going to be together no matter who may come into my life."

"Bella didn't just come into your life. She's been there since the beginning."

"So you're going to leave me again?"

I had felt like I was going to cry until he asked that. Then I just started laughing.

"What are you, on crack?"

He laughed with me, "I'll take that as a no."

"You're right. Jake, I'm not going to leave you because of something like this."

He let out a relieved sigh before taking my face in his hands and putting his forehead to mine, "How did we get here?"

"We fought Jacob. It was a battle that we may have won but there's still a war to come."

"What makes you say that?"

"I start school on Monday."

'Which means?"

"I'll be seeing Bella every day."

"It's all my fault."

"Now, Jake, will you stop that? It's no more your fault than it is mine. If I hadn't been so quick to switch schools…"

"Then we never would have had last night. If you were still in school with me, you and I both know it would've only been a matter of time before someone knocked your books out of your hands and I would've been the only person that stopped to help you. Then I could've walked you to class and by the time the day was out you and I would've been making out behind the lockers somewhere."

He smiled. I laughed a little bit because he was right. That was probably how it would've happened.

"So do you think your aunt will let you just finish out the semester there and if you don't like it switch back?"

"We can ask. Hopefully she'll go for it. If not, I'll just tell her I miss all my old friends at the Rez School and maybe she'll take that."

So he walked me home. My aunt was sitting at the kitchen table with Embry.

"Mom, just calm down. Everything will be fine."

"What's happened?"

"Some mill guard was killed by some animal last night in the next county over. She's bugging out, scared it's gonna get closer to town."

"Yeah Mrs. Call, we'll all be fine."

"Not helping Jake. We'll be fine, though. Don't worry." I assured her.

She nodded, "Did you feed her like I told you to?"

"Didn't get the chance. She ran out on me."

Embry sighed, "What for this time?"

"My dad wants me to go see Bella."

"Jeez, Aria calm down. His dad wants him to go see her it's not like he wants to."

"It's the principle of the thing. I know Jake wants to go to. I'm not stupid."

Embry stuck his tongue out at me. I stuck mine out at him too.

"Will you two grow up?" his mom scolded, "Would you like to eat something?"

"Nah, I wanna go down to the beach for a little while."

My stomach growled; she rolled her eyes before picking up an apple. She held it out to me and I took it with a smile. I walked back out of the kitchen, taking Jake's hand as I passed him. I took him to my room where I changed clothes. I switched my jeans for a short red and black cloth skirt and a black cami. I put on a pair of red flip flops.

"You sure you don't want to put on something more? It might get cold later."

"Nope, it's supposed to be sunny out today."

He nodded. I pulled him from the house, although pulled may be the wrong word. He happily followed me but I was walked in front of him the whole time. We walked down to the beach hand in hand. I carried the apple with me, unbitten. As we stepped onto the sand, I took my shoes off. I left them there.

"Are you actually going to eat the apple?"

"I don't know."

"She'll be mad if you don't."

I took a bite, wrinkled my nose and spit it out.

"What's wrong?" he asked concerned.

"It tastes weird, like it's been sitting in hard liquor."

He took the fruit from me and sniffed it. He took a small bite then shrugged.

"It tastes fine."

"Hm."

"Maybe you're too stressed out. A beach day is exactly what you need."

I smiled. He tried to give me that wretched fruit back but I just shook my head.

"Come on, maybe the second bite won't be so bad."

I sighed and took the apple from him. I took another bite and he was right. It was fine. I finished it off as he found a stick and wrote something in the sand. I dropped the apple core at the base of a tree and watched him. When he was finished, I looked at it and wanted to start crying.

R & J

4-EVER

**Imagine it written inside of a big heart ")**

"Oh my gosh, Jake you are such a girl."

"Why would say that?"

"Only girls do this kind of thing."

"But you love it anyway."

"Yeah, I do. And I love you, so much. But you're not going to see Bella."

"But what if she really does need me?"

I thought about it, "Okay, you can go, but not without me. I'll wait in the car if you want but you're not leaving me here."

"Okay, I won't. Plus, that was the deal from the beginning."

I stuck my tongue out at him and he chased me down to the water. My legs were wet and so were his jeans. He caught me after a very short time. We stood there in the water kissing like there was no tomorrow.

"Hey, this a family beach." Someone yelled.

We looked over to see Quil and Embry.

"Well no one told you to watch."

"It's kind of hard to miss. I mean look at you, wrapped around each other like you're glued together."

I grabbed Jacob's hand and pulled him out of the water, "Jealous much?"

"Just a little."

"Then you're really gonna hate this."

I pulled Jacob to me and kissed him again. Embry cleared his throat. We looked at him.

"Do you need anything from the store? Quil and I were just on our way there."

"Pop-tarts? Or do we have some at home?"

"None at all. I'll pick you up some. Same kind as usual?"

I nodded.

As they walked away I could hear Quil whisper, "How did Jake get so lucky?"

I laughed a little bit and looked at Jake, "Did you hear that?"

"What Quil said? Yeah, that's not the first time either. He hates he didn't get to you first."

"Well, I'm too happy with you to even think of another person."

"Me too, which is why this feud between you and Bella has to end."

"We'll see how my first day at her school goes first."

He shook his head then kissed my forehead. We went back to playing in the sand until the sun went down.