[Bella's POV]
The weekend at the Cullen house passed by quickly. Jasper stayed by my side for most of it, and Alice kept giving me the same looks Jess did back when I was crushing on Edward. Surely Alice knew that Jasper and I would never work. He had a mate waiting to meet him. One that would love him far more than a mere human like myself ever could.
I tossed my bags on to my bed after reaching my room. Thankfully Charlie was used to Alice buying me over the top gifts for no reason at all, so he wasn't shocked when a new bookshelf showed up over the weekend. He just set it up in my room waiting for me to fill it the way Alice filled her closet. I smiled seeing it next to my desk. Empty and waiting. The only question left was how to organize my books.
Maybe I would call Jake and his father over for dinner, and make Jake help me sort them. I could make fried fish, mashed potatoes, and a side salad. Nodding I went back down stairs.
"Hey dad! Is there a game or something on tonight?" I called walking into the living room.
"Yeah, but I wasn't sure if I was going to watch. Why?"
"I thought we could call Jake and Billy over for dinner. I could make fish and you two could watch the game." He thought about it then pulled out his phone. He smiled my way.
"That sounds like a great plan, Bella. I'll call Billy and get them over here. You need anything I can run to the store."
"No. Unless you need me beer?"
"Yeah I'll call Billy then go pick some up. You kids want some pop?"
"Yeah that would be nice. Thanks dad!"
He waved me off while dialing Billy on the phone. Smiling, I went to start cooking dinner for all of us.
Time Skip
"Yo, Bells!" Jake yelled walking into the house.
"We're home!" Charlie's voice joined him. I heard the TV turn on. Jake walked into the room a case of beer under one arm and pop under the other. I waved to the fridge as I pulled the fish out of the oven, and killed the heat to the stove.
"Smells good! Need me to grab the plates?"
"Yeah Charlie and Billy can eat in there. You cool with sitting at the table?"
"Sure. Here you go." I grabbed the plates I filled two and passed them back to Jake to take to our fathers. He took the food and left while I filled our plates and took them to the table. Jake rushed back to the dining room and joined me at the table. He scarfed down the meal.
"That was great!" He complimented moving to wash his plate.
"Thanks Jake." I finished up my much smaller portion, and joined him by the sink. He grabbed my plate from me and washed it too.
"Alright, so why did you want us to come over?"
"I might have been hoping you would help me organize my bookshelf?"
"You got it!"
We headed upstairs together going over the pro's and con's of different ways of organizing a bookshelf. Jake wanted to do it by color, whereas I wanted to do it alphabetically by author's name. We piled all the books next to the shelf and stacked them by series first with stand alones stacked together.
"Are you sure they'll even all fit?"
"I think so. Jasper helped me pick it out, but I have no clue if it's big enough."
"Jasper? The tall blond empath?"
"Yeah." I started putting all the A books on the top shelf.
"You went shelf shopping with him?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Bella. Don't be mad, but isn't that the one that tried to kill you?"
"He only attacked me because of his gift! He feels emotions! What's thirst?"
"Wait! Hold up! Are you saying this poor fucker has to deal with his whole family's bloodlust on top of his own!"
"Yeah, but I don't think the Cullens have thought about that. They keep blaming him if he slips up."
"Dude that blows. Here this one goes next." He passed me the book he was holding.
"Thanks. Yeah. I'm not even sure he's thought about it very much you know. Everyone just keeps saying he's bad at this lifestyle." I sighed moving on the next letter I had.
"Dang and I thought the pack mind was hard to deal with."
"Speaking of you. How's your girl?" Jake sighed a lovesick sigh.
"She's great. She took the news of the pack well." He passed me a new stack of books to shelf. A goofy smile on his face. "She still works at the cafe, but she wants to go back to school."
"Oh what for?"
"She wants to open her own cafe! She has so many plans! I could listen to her talk about it all day. She wants to make it 24/7 with a spot to sit and read." He laid back swinging his arms across the floor. Tilting his head toward me he sighed again. Was I this lovesick over Edward?
"She likes dark chocolate over milk chocolate, and takes her coffee with any pastry she has on hand at the time. Her favorite color is cherry red, because it reminds her of the summers she spent with her grandmother. I don't know how I thought I was in love before."
"You seem happy, Jake. I'm glad you found someone to make you happy." He sat back up suddenly serious.
"Now you need to be happy too. I'm serious Bella. Just because your thing with Edward failed doesn't mean you get to give up! I say this because you've been talking about tall and handsome a lot lately. Now I'm not saying you should jump on it now, but I do think you should think about what you want. I do mean what you want, not what you think he wants."
"It's not like that. He and Alice just split up, because Alice saw him meeting his mate soon. He has someone out there that will love him far more than I ever could Jake. I'm not broken like when Edward left, but I am still dealing with a lot of stuff. I can't think about the chance of us when he's not mine, you know?"
"How do you know? Alice could be wrong. She's not all knowing, Bella. Her visions have been wrong before. After all she did see you and Edward together after your change, and there's no way that's happening now. Right? You not going to take him back are you?"
"No I'm not, Jake. I just don't want to think about it. Yeah he makes me feel safe, and always listens to what I have to say. He cares, but I think that's just because I'm the youngest child in the family now, you know? I mean I guess. I've never had siblings before to know for sure."
"Don't look at me, I'm the youngest too. Of course, I think my sisters loved making my life miserable." He rolled his eyes at the mention of his older sisters. "Dad still has all the pictures of us as kids hanging up at the house, so." He shrugged.
"Ugh! What's with dads keeping those up? Charlie has every picture just sitting on the mantle!" I tossed my arms over my head and fell onto my back. We both laughed. We talked about non important topics while waiting for our fathers game to end. It was a nice night.