Troubleshoot
Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.
A/N-sorry. Another plot bunny. Feel free to ignore! ;)
Mockery
No one is staring at you. No one is staring at you. No one is staring at you.
But, because Bella couldn't lie convincingly, even to herself, she had to check.
As she sat waiting for one of the traffic lights in town to turn green, she peeked to the right-in her minivan, Mrs. Weber had turned her whole torso in her direction. Her eyes bored into Bella's, and she flinched back, wondering why she didn't drop her gaze or look ashamed. It was still considered rude to stare, wasn't it? Or didn't that apply to her anymore now that the secret was out?
Then Bella remembered that the windows were so darkly tinted that she realized that Angela's mother probably had no idea who was even in the car, let alone that she had been caught looking. Bella tried to find comfort in the fact that Mrs. Weber wasn't really staring at her, just the car.
Bella sighed in resignation. Her car, she thought dully.
Glancing to the left, she noticed two pedestrians frozen on the sidewalk, missing their chance to cross as they stared. Behind them she recognized Mr. Marshall gawking through the plate-glass window of his little souvenir shop. At least he didn't have his nose pressed up against the glass. Yet.
Damn Edward!
The light turned green and, in her hurry to escape, Bella stomped on the gas pedal without thinking-the normal way she would have punched it to ger her ancient Chevy truck moving.
The engine started snarling like a hunting panther, the car jolted forward so fast that her body slammed into the black leather seat and her stomach flattened against her spine.
Tears of frustration welled in Bella's eyes. "Dammit!" She gasped as she fumbled for the brake. Fighting hard to maintain her composure, she merely tapped the pedal. The car lurched to an absolute standstill this time.
Bella couldn't bear to look around at the reaction. If there had been any doubt as to who was driving this car before, it was gone now. With the toe edge of her shoe, she gently nudged the gas pedal half a millimeter, and the car shot forward again.
By the time Bella reached the gas station she was a bundle of nerves. If she hadn't been running on vapors, then she wouldn't have come into town at all. She was going without a lot of things these days, like Pop Tarts and shoelaces, to avoid spending time in public.
Moving as if in a race, she got the hatch open, the cap off, the card scanned, and the nozzle within the tank in seconds. Of course, there was nothing she could do to make the numbers on the gauge pick up pace. She gritted her teeth, as they ticked by sluggishly, tapping her foot, thinking that they were doing it just to annoy her.
While Bella was trying to avoid having a meltdown in town, Jacob was trying to do the same in La Push.
From across the room, he watched Paul lounging across the whole couch, watching some stupid baseball game on his crappy TV. Paul seemed to be getting great pleasure out of riling him up on purpose. He grinned at Jacob, and then-real slow-he lifted a Dorito from the bag in his lap and wedged it into his big mouth.
"You better have brought those with you."
Crunch. "Nope." Paul said while chewing. "Your sister said to go ahead and help myself to anything in the house I wanted."
"Rachel isn't the one who has to earn the money to pay for things around here." Jacob tried to keep his temper in check, he had a very short fuse these days. "Is she here now?"
It didn't work. Paul heard where this was going and shoved the bag behind his back. The bag crackled as he smashed it into the cushion. The chips crunched into pieces. Paul's hands came up in fists, close to his face like a boxer.
"Bring it, kid. I don't need Rachel to protect me."
Jacob's eyes narrowed, quickly reaching boiling point. "Right. Like you wouldn't go crying to her the first chance you get."
Paul laughed and relaxed into the sofa, dropping his hands. "I'm not going to tattle to a girl. If you got in a lucky hit, that would be just between the two of us. And vice versa, right?"
Jacob felt his fingers twitch at his sides. He was losing it. He didn't know how much more he could take before he exploded. "Nice of you to give me the invitation." He snapped.
Paul just laughed, not taking him seriously. His eyes shifted back to the TV.
Big mistake.
Jacob lunged.
Paul's nose made a very satisfying crunching sound of its own when Jacob's fist connected with it. Paul tried to grab Jacob, but he spun out of his way before he could find a hold, the ruined bag of Doritos in his left hand.
"You broke my nose, idiot!"
"Just between us, right, Paul?" Jacob jeered.
He went to put the chips away. When he turned around, Paul was repositioning his nose before it set crooked. The blood had stopped already, it looked like it had no source as it dribbled down his chin. He cussed, wincing as he pulled at the cartilage.
"You are pain in the ass, Jacob. I swear, I'd rather hang out with Leah."
"Ouch. Wow, I bet Leah's really going to love to hear that you want to spend some quality time with her. It'll just warm the cockles of her heart. Are you going to tell Rach that you want to hang out with the she-wolf?"
"You're going to forget I said that." Paul warned, his lower lip curling.
"Of course. I'm sure it won't slip out." Jacob knew he sounded childish, but he didn't much care. He was enjoying getting under Paul's skin.
"Ugh!" Paul grunted, and then settled back on the couch, wiping the left-over blood on the collar of his t-shirt. "You need to pull your head out of your backside. All you do is mope around, pining for the leech lover. Pathetic!" He smirked before turning his attention back to the fuzzy game on the TV.
Jacob stood there for a second, his fingers itching to wipe the smirk off Lahote's face, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth his while. Back in the day you could count on Paul for a fight pretty much whenever. You didn't have to hit him then-any mild insult would do. It didn't take a lot to flip him out of control.
To Jacob, it felt like he and Paul had switched places. Now he was the one with the short fuse. He was the one who flipped out at the least provocation. Now, when he wanted a good, snarling, ripping, break-the-trees-down match, Paul had to turn all mellow.
Wasn't it bad enough that yet another member of the pack had imprinted-because, really, that made four out of ten now! When would it stop? Stupid myth was supposed to be rare for crying out loud! All this mandatory love-at-first-sight was completely sickening!
Did it have to be his sister? Did it have to be Paul?
When Rachel had come home from Washington State at the end of the summer semester-graduated early, the nerd- Jacob's biggest worry had been how hard it would be keeping the secret around her. He wasn't used to covering things up in his own home. It made him feel sympathetic to those like Embry and Collin, whose parents didn't know they were werewolves. Embry's mom thought he was going through some kind of rebellious stage. He was permanently grounded for constantly sneaking out, but, of course, there wasn't much he could do about that. She'd check his room every night, and every night it would be empty again. She'd yell and Embry would take his ticking off in stoical silence, and then go through it all again the next day. They had tried to persuade Sam to relent and allow Embry to tell his mom the truth, but Sam maintained the secret was too important. Jacob knew that if he was running things, that would be the first thing he would change.
So, he had been all geared up to keep the secret from Rachel, when, two days after she got home, Paul ran into her on the beach. Boom- true love! No secrets necessary when you found your other half, and all that imprinting werewolf garbage.
Rachel got the full story and Jacob got Paul as a brother-in-law someday. Life sucked on so many levels.
Jacob knew Billy wasn't too thrilled about it, either. But his father handled it way better than he did. Of course, he did escape to the Clearwaters' more often than usual these days, although Jacob couldn't see why that was so much better. No Paul, but plenty of Leah.
Jacob threw himself down on his bed. He was tired-he hadn't slept since his last patrol-but he knew he wasn't going to sleep. His head was too crazy, his thoughts bouncing around inside his skull like a disorientated swarm of bees. Noisy. Now and then they stung. Must be hornets, not bees. Bees died after one sting. And the same thoughts were stinging him again and again.
The waiting was driving him insane. Soon Bella would be married. Married to his mortal enemy. Soon she would be gone. Forever out of his reach. They had exchanged their last tearful goodbye, with Jacob avoiding her ever since. It had been almost four weeks, and slowly, bit by bit, his resistance was weakening. He knew soon that he would cave in and go to see her. Not that it would do him much good. What was there left to say? She loved him…but not enough to choose him over the bloodsucker.
Oh, yes, those darn hornets kept right on stinging.
It wasn't bright out- a typically drizzly day in Forks, Washington-but Bella still felt like a spotlight was trained on her, drawing attention to the delicate ring on her left hand. At times like this, sensing the eyes on her back, it felt as if the ring was pulsing like a neon sign: Look at me, look at me, look at me.
It was stupid to be so self-conscious, and she knew that. Besides her mom and dad, did it really matter what people were saying about her engagement? About her new car? About her mysterious acceptance into an Ivy League college? About the shiny black credit card that felt red hot in her back pocket right now?
Oh, God, she could use some of Jacob's dark sense of humor right now. She knew he would find the whole thing highly amusing. Amusing and ironic. It had been four weeks since she had last seen him. Four guilt ridden weeks, where she replayed their maudlin goodbye over and over in her head, wishing she hadn't been forced to rip his heart out when he was already in so much pain from his physical injuries. Of course, those physical injuries had long since healed up by now. Although, he still had to keep up the pretense for Charlie's sake whenever he popped by. Charlie was popping by La Push a lot lately, eager to escape the house whenever Edward or Alice appeared, or whenever the subject of her impending wedding was raised.
"Um, miss?" A man's voice pierced her gloomy thoughts.
Bella turned and then wished she hadn't.
Two men stood beside a fancy SUV with brand new kayaks tied to the top. Neither of them was looking at Bella, their attention was solely focused on the car.
Personally, Bella didn't get what all the fuss was about. But then, she was just proud that she could distinguish the symbols for Toyota, Ford, and Chevy. This car was glossy black, sleek, and pretty, but it was still just a car to her.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but could you tell me what kind of car you're driving?" The tall one asked.
"Um, a Mercedes, right?"
"Yes." The man smiled politely, while his shorter friend rolled his eyes at Bella's vague answer. "I know. But I was wondering, is that…are you driving a Mercedes Guardian?" He said the name with reverence. Bella had the feeling this guy would get along well with Edward, her…. her fiancée (there was really no getting around the truth with the wedding just a few days away). "They aren't supposed to be available in Europe yet." The man went on. "Let alone here."
Bella cringed while his eyes traced the contours of the car-to Bella it didn't look much different from any other Mercedes sedan, but what did she know? - she briefly pondered her issues with words like fiancé, wedding, husband, etc.
She just couldn't put it together in her head. It was all starting to become overwhelming. The urge to jump in the damn Mercedes and drive off into the sunset was becoming more compelling with each passing hour.
Edward would forgive her…eventually…right?
The thought was brief and fleeting. Alice would foresee what she was planning as soon as she made the decision to run. It would be pointless even to try.
"I don't know." Bella said eventually to the man, who was still waiting for an answer.
"Do you mind if I take a picture with it?"
It took Bella a second to process that. "Really? You want to take a picture with the car?"
"Sure-nobody is going to believe me if I don't get proof."
Bella swiftly put away the nozzle and crept into the front seat to hide while the enthusiast dug a huge professional looking camera out of his backpack. He and his friend took turns posing by the hood, and then they went to take pictures of the back end.
"I miss my truck." Bella mumbled. "Oh, I wish I had fought harder to keep you."
Very, very convenient – too convenient- the ancient red Chevy had wheezed its last wheeze just weeks after she and Edward had agreed to their lopsided compromise, one detail was that he be allowed to replace her truck when it passed on. Edward swore it was only to be expected, her truck had lived a long, full life and then expired of natural causes. According to him. And of course, she had no way to verify his story or to try and raise her truck from the dead on her own. Her favorite mechanic –
Bella stopped that thought cold, refusing to let it conclude. Too late. She started missing Jacob all over again. She sighed, listening in to the men's voices outside, muted by the car walls.
"…went at it with a flamethrower in the online video. Didn't even pucker the paint."
"Of course not. You could roll a tank over this beauty. Not much of a market for one over here. Designed for Middle East diplomats, arm dealers, and drug lords mostly."
"Think she's something?" The short one asked in a softer voice. Bella ducked her head, cheeks flaming.
"Her?" The tall one said sarcastically. "She looks like the hired help. Maybe the nanny. Can't imagine what you need missile proof glass and four thousand pounds of body armor for around here."
Body armor. Four thousand pounds of body armor. And missile proof glass? Nice. What had happened to good old fashioned bulletproof?
Well, now it was making so much more sense-if you had a twisted sense of humor. Accept Bella didn't. She didn't find any of this amusing at all.
It wasn't like she hadn't expected Edward to take advantage of their deal, to weight it on his side so that he could give so much more than he would receive. Bella had agreed that he could replace her truck when it needed replacing, not expecting that moment to come so soon, of course. Now she could see that she had been taken for a fool. She had always guessed that Edward's idea of a replacement vehicle would embarrass her, make her the focus of stares and whispers. She had been right about that. But not even in her darkest dreams had she believed that he would go to this extreme.
He considered her so fragilely human, so accident prone, so much a victim of her own dangerous bad luck, that she needed a tank resistant car to keep her safe. Hilarious. Bella was sure Edward and his brothers had enjoyed the joke behind her back.
Well, she didn't! Maybe…. just maybe it was her turn to have the last laugh.
"Hey." The tall man called, cupping his hands to the glass in an effort to peer in. "We're done now! Thanks a lot!"
"Oh, the nanny says you're very welcome!" Bella called back sarcastically, making the man's cheeks burn. She tensed as she started the engine and eased the pedal-ever so gently- down.
"I'll teach you to make a mockery of me, Edward Cullen." Bella seethed, gripping the steering wheel tightly. She decided it was time that the hiatus came to an end. She was going straight to La Push to see if her favorite mechanic could resurrect her beloved truck back to life after all.
A/N-thanks for reading!