Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight, and all recognizable characters and situations contained therein. All original content contained in this story is property of the author. Story is rated M, and contains the recreational use of marijuana by minors(Marijuana is legal for those 21 and older in the state of Washington by the way, woot!), underaged drinking, graphic language and sexual content.
A/N: Just want to say thanks to everyone still reading, I know it's been a while!
**One Week Later, 4th of July, Bella POV**
Charlie is working yet another double shift, Jesse's throwing a party for us at his grandpa's house. The last week has been a bit rough, I had been alternating back and forth through a major funk, and being majorly high.
Jesse had really taken me under his wing, he never asked me for money for the weed and alcohol the way he did the other guys, and he wasn't pushy about physical contact. He would put his arm around me, cuddle with me, kiss the top of my head, but he didn't push for more than that, and he never made me feel like I owed him anything.
He had taken me shopping, and insisted on buying me a bikini for his party, I had told him I didn't need anything, but he told me to just let him do it, that it wasn't like he didn't have the money for it.
I've gained back a couple of pounds, but it's only been a week, and I'm still almost painfully skinny. Thankfully though the dark circles under my eyes have started to fade.
I grab the pint bottle of vodka that Jesse had bought me, and swig from it as I adjust the top of the bikini, it has a distressed American flag print on it. Very 'girl down south' as Jesse put it. Short cut-off jeans shorts over the faded maroon bottom complete my outfit. I tuck the bottle into the waistband of my shorts and I hear the horn of Jesse's SRT in the driveway.
Not wanting to chance Charlie coming home, and giving him a raft of shit if I linger too long, I hurry out to his car, and hop in the shotgun seat. He leans over, and in the guise of kissing me hello shotguns me a lungful of weed smoke.
I peck his lips politely, I wish that he gave me the tingles, maybe I'm just not trying hard enough. His soft lips press against mine again, his beard scratching my face slightly as I exhale back into his mouth, passing the smoke back and forth like that diminishes the amount of smoke that is ultimately exhaled. I mean who wants to be driving around the Police Chiefs daughter in a car filled with weed smoke?
The feel of his beard on my face had felt kind of good, maybe we could end up being something more. He pulls away from the curb, and Mikey breaks the silence in the car, "So where's my kiss, Princess?"
Mikey calls me Princess because in his opinion I have zero life experience and may as well have been raised in a tower guarded by a dragon. Rolling my eyes at him, I reply sarcastically, "Please, if I was your Princess, you'd still be a frog."
Jesse chuckles, his blue eyes shifting to grey, as he runs his hand over my bare stomach to my side, and pulls the pint bottle out of the waistband of my shorts. He hands it back to Mikey, and says, "Here, take a swig of this, calm down, and find your own girl will ya? I found this one, she fell out of the sky into my arms. That means she's off limits, so do all of us a favor, and back the fuck off."
Mikey passes the bottle around to Tommy, and Dami, before passing it back to Jesse who takes a quick sip, and passes the bottle back to me. There's not much left and I swallow it quickly before one of the others decides to take it.
Numb, the combination of weed and drink is like Novocain, it makes me feel tingly, numb, and also deliciously light. Like if I don't hold onto something I'll float off the face of the earth and drift up and out into space.
Jess drops his hand off the gear shift onto my thigh just above my knee, the heat of his hand seeps into my skin, giving me slight shivers. I smile at him, and he says, "You look hot, Babe."
I can feel my face getting flushed, and I whisper, "Thanks", as I turn my attention to the scenery passing around us. Jesse is a good driver, even high, but I know that if we get pulled over some, or all, of us are gonna get hauled into Forks PD. I kind of hope it happens, I would love to see the look on Charlie's face.
We get to the outskirts of town, and Jesse turns down the dirt road that will take us to his parent' estate. As he pulls in I notice that the blue Cadillac sedan that belongs to his Grandpa isn't there. Confused, I blurt out, "Jess, where's Gramps?"
He smiles, "He went to Vegas for the fourth, he does that every year, says they have better fireworks than even NYC."
We head in through the house, and out the back door to the pool area. Dami jumps in first, still wearing his baggy black shorts and vintage Nine Inch Nails tee shirt. He surfaces, and calls over, "You guys the water is great! Jess, good call on turning on the heater this morning!"
Stripping my shorts off, I blush as the guys whistle and cat call. Jesse comes over, and grabs me, tossing me over his shoulder. Pounding lightly on his back, I yell, "Put me down Jess!"
He runs over to the pool's edge, crying out, "Never!", as he jumps with me into the pool.
We hit the water, and I get water in my mouth and up my nose because I was still screaming when we went in. He grasps my hips, guiding me back to the surface quickly. I break the surface of the pool, coughing, and sputtering, "Damn it Jess!"
Tommy and Mikey make their way into the pool, and the four of them huddle up for a minute, leaving me to catch my breath. About a minute later, they turn back to me, and Jesse says, "Okay, we're going to play Marco Polo."
Mikey yells out, "I'll be it!"
The game begins, and immediately Mikey is pulling his shit, ignoring the other guys, and only coming for me. He has me almost in the corner of the pool, as he yells, "Marco!"
Jesse has worked his way around till he's standing right next to me. He steps forward and lets me move behind him. He leans down, Mikey senses the movement, and turns directly facing Jesse. He yells out again, "Marco!"
I jump on Jesse's back, and yell "Polo!"
Mikey reaches out both hands, I'm guessing reaching for what he thinks are my boobs, instead he grabs Jesse's upper stomach. Mikey's eyes fly open, and Jesse laughingly shoves him back, and in an imitation of an old lady slaps Mikey lightly across the face, and yells, "Fresh!"
Laughing along with the rest of them until I can barely breathe, I take a deep breath, and scold from my perch on Jesse's back, "That really wasn't cool Mikey."
He feigns innocence, "I have no idea what you're talking about, chick. The game is Marco Polo, I'm supposed to grab you."
I roll my eyes, and Jesse sounds a little pissed as he responds, "You're supposed to go after everyone equally, not just try to grab B's tits, and by the way what part of she's my girl do you not understand?"
This time I have to speak up, "Jesse stop. C'mon, let's go talk somewhere okay?"
He nods, letting go of my legs, setting me down, and letting me lead the way out of the pool. He pulls a towel off of one of the lounges and hands it to me. I wrap it around my waist, and follow him into the house.
Jesse leads us upstairs, and into his bedroom. He sits down on his bed, and pats the space next to him, "Sit, babe."
I bunch the towel up around my waist, and sit down next to him. I sigh lightly, and look into his blue/grey eyes, "Jess…I don't want you to fight with Mike over me. You all have been friends for a long time, and I don't want to cause any friction between you. I'm not ready to be your girl, or anyone else's, and I don't think I will be for a long time. I hope that doesn't mean we can't be friends though."
He smiles at me, and puts his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close, and saying, "Of course it doesn't mean we can't be friends. I understand you don't want to be in a relationship with me, and I'll stop with the 'you're my girl' stuff. I just hope that when you decide you are ready that you'll consider me first."
I nod, "I will. Thank you."
Turning, I kiss him, he keeps it light, pulling back a bit, before easing in to peck me in a friendly fashion before standing up, "C'mon, kid, let's go back out to the pool."
**Time skip about a week later**
Jesse and I meet up with Tommy and Dami in the woods by the school. Jesse's parent's came home from their expedition early. Gramps was still in Vegas, apparently he hit a hot streak and the hotel comped him, and I guess they didn't trust their juvenile delinquent son and his friends in the house by themselves for too long.
It meant we couldn't hang out there anymore, so we made do with the woods. They found a clearing not too far from the playground, but far enough in so that cover wasn't an issue, and now they are in the process of building a shack.
Jesse bought the lumber, and a sheet of corrugated tin for the roof, Dami pitched in and bought the concrete, and Tommy rented the truck to haul it all back. Mikey had left shortly after Jess's parents got home. He decided that if he was gonna have to listen to parents for the summer it was gonna be his own, and not Jess's.
Jesse stirs concrete while Tommy digs the trench. Once Tommy has all four sides dug out with a gap for the door, Jesse comes over and pours the concrete into it. He and Tommy level it out while Dami starts to insert the wooden boards.
It takes them about a half hour but they get all the boards side by side. Now we just have to wait for the cement to dry. Dami comes to sit by me, asking, "So what do you think, Princess?"
I shrug, "it looks pretty good, how are we attaching the roof?"
Tommy comes over, a cigarette drooping over his lower lip, as he says, "I got a nail gun, we're gunna put the tin on top, and nail it into place at the corners. Once the cement dries we'll be able to perch a ladder against the sides, and tomorrow we'll come back and caulk between the boards. This place'll stand for a long time, once we caulk the boards and that dries we can cut out a couple of windows. We'll seal them with clear plastic sheeting. The only thing it ain't gonna have is a door, I mean we can install one, but at this point what's the point."
I nod, and Jesse comes over, and takes a joint out of his pocket. He lights it, takes a drag, and passes it to me. Putting it to my lips, I inhale deeply, getting a good lung full of smoke, and pass the joint to Dami. One, two, three, four, five, six… I exhale the smoke in a plume, and laugh as Dami does dragon claws, and exhales smoke through his nostrils.
We pass the joint around till it's down to a roach, Jess takes the last hit, and grinds it out on the butt of the lighter before flicking it into the woods. He sits down on the tree stump with me, his hands rubbing my shoulders. I'm feeling good, the weed has me tingly, and Jesse's hands on my arms just increase the feeling.
He pushes my hair off the side of my neck, and leans in to gently brush his lips over it, a breathy sigh escapes my lips, and that's when we hear it. Snarling, growling, everyone just stops dead, and we all look around at each other… Dami speaks first, "Um, guys… I think we should probably get out of here. I don't know what the fuck that is, but it sounds big, it sounds mean, and it sounds close…"
Tommy nods, and takes my hand to pull me up off Jesse's lap, and we all head back out of the woods. We cross the playground, and Jesse gives directives, "Tommy, let's get our stuff out of the truck, we'll put it into the trunk of the SRT, and we'll follow you down to Port Ang to return it. I guess after that we'll go see a movie, do a weed and liquor run, and come back here. Maybe we should buy a door for the place, keep the animals out."
Dami nods, "Sounds like a plan man…"
