ANNA COULDN'T DENY THAT JACOB WAS THE ONLY THING SHE THOUGHT ABOUT IN THE FOLLOWING WEEKS.
Even during her weekend getaway with Julia in Seattle, the Quileute boy remained a constant presence in her mind. Her blonde friend, naturally, picked up on it. Surprisingly, though, her constant teasing didn't bother her as much anymore. Deep down, she knew her friend was right. She did have feelings for Jacob. And it felt extremely liberating to be able to admit it.
And so, after counting the days to see him again, she finally found herself returning to the Black house.
And just like it happened every time her mind knew she would see him, nerves completely took over her body. It wasn't fair. Not when Jacob acted so relaxed, oblivious to the deep effect he had on her.
"Hi Jake," she greeted as the door swung open, revealing his radiant presence.
"Thought you weren't coming," he said, smiling and gesturing for her to enter. "You know, an eye for an eye."
Anna placed a hand dramatically over her heart. "You offend me! I never forget my commitments."
"Ouch."
She smiled playfully, following the boy through the house. It seemed they would be in the kitchen today. Her smile persisted, adorning her face with an undeniable hint of silliness, until she noticed the other presence in the kitchen.
And of course, she didn't mean for it to seem personal, but her expression changed drastically.
"Oh," she gasped, then cleared her throat a tiny bit. "Hi Quil."
Now, she genuinely liked Quil. Truly, she did. He was fun, made her laugh and celebrated her sarcastic remarks, which was rare since most people were annoyed by them. But Quil understood her sense of humor and that was something she appreciated.
But still, she hadn't expected to see him there that day. And all the expectations she had of finally getting some alone time with Jacob were now gone.
"Hello, hello, Anna," he said, grinning. "Sorry for dropping by the party without warning, but your lover here forgot that we have to make a history paper due this monday."
Jacob hit his head. But he wasn't even red like Anna's face at that moment. Lucky the two started arguing and didn't give her a second glance, until she spoke again.
"It's okay," lie. "No problem. Actually, I have history homework too."
"See, she doesn't have a problem," Quil pointed out to Jacob who just rolled his eyes. "Anna I hope you know about economics in WWII. Not pressure, but we could use it."
Anna nodded, with a faint smile that failed to reach her eyes. Pulling out her homework, she sat down next to Quil, across from Jacob. And while the boys began to discuss their work, she poured her head into her textbooks.
After an hour Anna decided it was too noisy to concentrate. Quil seemed incapable of ceasing his incessant chatter, and he certainly didn't know how to modulate his voice. And when it wasn't Quil, Jacob's murmurs filled the air with that tiresome song she had heard countless times on the radio.
On top of that, they kept bickering about their project, without making any real progress, which had made her feel obliged to interrupt them and give them some advice on how to do things, forgetting her own assignment.
Certainly, nothing had turned out as she had hoped.
"Damn, I hate History," Quil said after he finished writing about... A half paragraph of the five pages they were supposed to deliver. "Embry was good at this. If he wasn't playing cult with Sam we would have finished it by now."
Anna lifted her head from her reading and looked at Quil, who had a disappointed expression. Jacob was silent, but she could see that his expression matched his friend's.
"Cult? You mean that cult?" Anna repeated, intrigued. Truth be told, it had been strange not seeing Embry there, since the three boys seemed to do everything together. But she had quickly brushed it off, deducing that perhaps the work they were supposed to do was only in pairs. But from Quil's words, that didn't seem to be the case. "What's Embry doing with them?"
The two boys exchanged looks. Jacob even cast a wary gaze towards the living room, as if he feared someone's presence. Anna followed his direction, confused. There was nothing.
"Okay, that's a little..."
"Embry doesn't talk to us anymore," Quil blurted out.
"What?" Anna asked, her brow furrowing.
Jacob sighed. As if the conversation he had avoided having was finally going to happen. "It's a little more complicated than that."
"No, it's not. He just ditch us," Quil contradicted, his initial disappointment morphing into anger.
"That... Doesn't sound like Embry," Anna voiced her thoughts after a brief pause. Although she was unaware of the details, she found it hard to envision someone like Embry abruptly abandoning his friends as Quil seemed to imply. "What happened? If you guys want to tell me."
Again, Jacob and Quil looked at each other, as if they were having a mental conversation. After a moment, Jacob finally cleared his throat and spoke.
"Okay. Do you remember those guys who were in your store?" he asked. Anna nodded. Hard to forget. The same guys she'd seen cliff diving. "Well, Embry is with them now."
Anna frowned, visibly confused. "But wasn't it that you guys, like, didn't get along?"
"We don't." Quil clarified, curtly.
"Or so we thought. But out of the blue Embry disappears from the earth. He was never home and missed a whole week of school. And that's not Embry's at all, he likes good grades, he's a bit of a nerd." Anna rolled her eyes at the extra comment. "We tried everything to contact him, but nothing. And then..."
"And then he shows up out of nowhere following Sam around like a puppy," Quil interjected, frustration evident in his voice. He tossed his pencil on the table, folding his arms over his chest.
"No explanations?" Anna asked.
Jacob shook his head. "You should have seen him when we tried to talk to him. He looked... Panicked, like he wanted to get as far away from us as possible," he looked down at the table with the saddest expression Anna had ever seen on him. "Can you imagine what it feels like to have your friend since kindergarten do that to you?"
Anna bit her lip anxiously. It felt so wrong to see Jacob and Quil, two usually radiant and happy people, so sad and hopeless.
Still, there was one part of the story she didn't understand. Why had Embry missed a whole week of school, and what did it have to do with being new friends with this Sam? Because yes, from a superficial perspective, it looked like Embry had abandoned his old friends, just as Quil had said. But Jacob had put emphasis on his behavior, first disappearing for a whole week and then seeming frightened at their presence.
It left a lingering sense of inconsistency, as if pieces of the puzzle were missing.
"But..." Anna mused, her brow furrowed as she struggled to articulate her thoughts."Why did he skip school? What does that have to do with this guy? Because if he just wanted to... I don't know... A change of friends or whatever... You don't have to miss school for that."
Suddenly, the mood in the room had become somber, as had the expressions of the boys sitting with her. Anna realized that she had asked the question that Quil and Jacob had been trying to find the answer to.
"That's the thing, Ann," Jacob uttered, his voice considerably lower now. "It was all strange. Embry didn't like them. Then he vanishes, without anyone talking about it. And all of a sudden he's with Sam Uley and the others, without explaining himself to us," he paused, his gaze fixed on her, seeking understanding. "Like I said, Embry's been our friend since kindergarten. Do you think he wouldn't tell us if we did something that upset him?"
Anna pondered the question, allowing it to resonate within her, drawing a parallel between her own bond with Julia. If, by any chance, she no longer wished to spend time with her, she would undoubtedly express her feelings, aiming to establish clarity between them. Because that was the normal thing to do in a relationship. Even if it was ending, an explanation, a closure, even a discussion was expected, needed. So she could understand what Jacob was getting at.
"So..." she began to say. "What are the theories?"
"Brainwashing," Quil stated.
"Serious theories," Anna clarified. Then she looked at Jacob, who was pursing his lips in a little line. "Oh, please! You guys can't believe that."
"What else could we think of?" Jacob asked her. "Even if it's not that, it's definitely something. And not something good. At least I don't think so. It's not the first time it happened," he continued, his tone growing more desperate with each word. "The others, you know, Jared Cameron and Paul Lahote... They started out the same way. They skipped school, acted weird... And neither had anything to do with Sam until..."
"Until?" Anna repeated, eager. Jacob only sighed.
"I don't know. Until something happened in the middle."
"How come no one's talking about it, then? If it happened with others, there's definitely a pattern," she said, trying to reason. If what Jacob said was true, maybe Embry hadn't left them, maybe something had happened that he clearly couldn't talk about.
Quil let out a bitter laugh. "Sure we did. I told my grandpa, you know, he's one of the Quileute tribal council members, Jake's dad too, and..."
"There's nothing to worry about, boys. Someday you'll understand," Jacob interrupted, mocking his father's voice.
"What? That's all?" Anna asked, perturbed. How could they turn a blind eye to an issue that was clearly troubling them?
"That's all," Quil replied.
Anna couldn't believe it. Above all, she couldn't believe that Billy Black, the man she considered to be so wise and perceptive, wouldn't wonder or question what was going on with the boys at the reservation.
A question rose to the back in her mind. "When did you say this started happening with Embry?"
Jacob gave it some thought. "About two weeks ago, I think."
The same amount of time that had passed since she had seen him on the beach. And back then, everything seemed fine with him.
"I'm sorry guys," Anna apologized, her voice tinged with empathy, even though she wasn't entirely sure what she was apologizing for.
It all sounded extremely confusing and she had about a million questions on her mind. But she didn't want to overwhelm them when they knew as much as she did now.
"Yeah, it sucks," Quil sighed and then looked at both of them. "Promise to be honest and punch me in the face if I ever pull a shitty behavior like that."
Anna chuckled, in an attempt to lighten the mood, and pinky promised it her commitment. Jacob, on the other hand, looked more serious than ever.
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By the time they finished studying, Jacob suggested having a movie night since Billy wouldn't be home until late.
Anna agreed, sensing that the boys truly needed a break from everything related to the cult, Embry's behavior, and the lack of answers. It seemed that their presence there momentarily filled the void left by their friend, as they had always been accustomed to being a trio.
"Actually, I could get used to this. You can pass for Embry," Quil had joked. "You already have good grades and you're good at cooking. We'll ignore the detail that you're a girl. Though ditching the lipstick might help, you know."
But even though the boys tried to make jokes about it and repeat that they didn't need him, there was undoubtedly a sadness in their eyes that it could be seen for brief moments, when they remembered some story or were simply silent, thinking.
It made Anna feel sad, but most of all, frustrated. What had happened with Embry? She had been so sure that he was one of the nicest people in the world, incapable of harming a fly, let alone his own friends.
Could it be that for the first time she had failed to read someone?
Her head simply couldn't stop thinking about it. Even as they were about to start the second movie, the subject was still on her mind, haunting her. It felt overwhelming.
"Don't start it yet, I need to go to the bathroom."
Would Tiffany be aware of what was going on with her son? There's just something off about them. That's what he had told her that afternoon on the beach. How then had he changed from one day to the other?
Freshening up in the bathroom hadn't helped. As she looked in the mirror, the questions continued to pile up.
She was making her way back to the living room when she noticed a small library almost hidden in a corner. It didn't have too many books on it, it was filled mostly with pictures. But there was one book in particular that caught her eye.
Quileute Legends.
It wasn't as thick as the others and the pages didn't seem like those of a common book. In fact, Anna doubted it was a book that one could find in any library. Its dark brown cover was hard and a little torn at the edges.
Curiosity got the better of her and she opened it in the middle. To her surprise, its pages were nothing more and nothing less than handwritten.
It definitely wasn't a library book.
"Are you done yet? We're getting old there," Jacob joked, coming to her side.
"Sorry! I'm ready now." She was about to put the book back in its place, but after a second's hesitation she looked at Jacob. "Hey, can I borrow this book? It looks interesting."
Jacob looked at the book. There seemed to be no trace of recognition on him. "Yeah, sure."
After the movies ended and Billy arrived, Jacob drove them to their homes. He dropped off Quil first, as he lived closest, and then headed to Forks.
During the journey, silence enveloped the car, occasionally interrupted solely by the gentle tap of raindrops against the window. Anna would have liked to say it was a comfortable silence, but Jacob's expression seemed extremely conflicted which worried her and at the same time made her anxious, wondering whether or not it would be right to bring up the topic of conversation again.
"Here we are," Jacob said. The lights in her house were off. Her mother would probably be asleep by now.
"Thanks for the ride," she smiled at him. Jacob tried to return the gesture, but it didn't look genuine. Anna bit her lip nervously. She hated seeing him like this. "Hey, you know you can talk to me, right? I know this whole Embry thing can't be easy."
His fists clenched around the steering wheel as he heard the name. "It's just... It bothers me too much. But the worst part is that no one cares. What if it keeps happening with other guys on the reservation? What if it happens to Quil? To me?"
Anna shook her head. "If it happens to you, I'll punch you in the face like I promised Quil." Jacob lifted the corner of his lips a little, but it wasn't enough. "But you don't have to worry about that. You're good. You would never do something like that to your friends."
Jacob sighed. "I want to believe so but... You'd have to see the way Sam looks at me. It creeps me out," he bit his lip. "As if... As if I'm going to join his stupid cult any minute. And I know I don't want that, but why then does he keep looking me like that? He even pays more attention to me than any of the other guys."
She looked at him sadly, wishing she had all the answers to what was tormenting him. "Jake, I promise you it'll be okay. I certainly can't say what happened with Embry, but like I said you're good. And if you have any doubts about that, I'll remind you every day. You may not have Billy's support in this, but you have mine for sure."
The moment Anna uttered those words, Jacob swiftly enveloped her in a tight embrace, leaving her utterly motionless, frozen in astonishment.
He was hugging her?
"Thanks Ann, I really needed to hear that."
His voice, filled with gratitude, washed over her and gradually eased her tense state, encouraging her to rest her head in the crook of his neck. He was warm.
Anna closed her eyes, feeling her stomach knot and flutter simultaneously. "Anytime," she whispered, almost breathless.
It was embarrassing to realize that she could have stayed there for hours. But Jacob cleared his throat, which made her pull away more quickly than she would have liked, feeling her cheeks burn. It was lucky there wasn't too much lighting in the car.
When Anna entered the house, it was safe to say that her heart was about to burst out of her throat.
All because of a simple hug.
A silly grin crept onto her face as she dropped onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling.
Yeah, she liked Jacob Black.
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Hi reader! How are you? 3 We're already getting into the middle of New Moon, my favorite book, I must say.
Thank you very much for your comments! I'm glad to read that you like the story and Anna's character 3 What do you think will happen to her crush on Jacob once... Well, let's say Embry comes on screen? Never a fan of drama but not a fan of everything being easy either. We will see!
P.D: I just love Quil.