Minutes turned into hours which elapsed over days and finally weeks with no response and in that time, Edward gave up on reaching out to his friend. He tried to feel righteous about the situation to preserve his feelings, but he still couldn't take off that necklace and every time he looked down or saw it in a reflection, an overwhelming sense of dread and self-deprecating sorrow would reprimand him for not listening to Carlisle and opening himself up to someone again.
He was ultimately glad that he was left out of the hit with how distracted he was about losing Jacob and it made him feel simple. Edward spent his time in the house or performing chores to fill the gap he would normally spend at the Reservation. The others would come and go to perform their duties for the heist and he would be friendly when he could fake it but tried to hide wherever the others weren't.
Charlie approached him one day while he cleaned the counters and floors. He had been spending more time at their place between shifts. He was pleasant and encouraging from the snippets of conversations Edward heard around the house. The other Cullens warmed up to him slowly and since he was Bella's dad, Alice practically accepted him into their family.
"Hey, I'm going fishing, you wanna tag along?" His invitation came from a place of worry and since he was close with the Black family, Charlie knew the overall points of what had happened - which irritated Edward.
"I've never been fishing."
"That's fine, it's mostly sitting and talking." When he seemed reluctant to accept the activity, Charlie added, "You need a change of scenery."
"Okay."
Charlie waved him out front where they climbed into his civilian car. In the back, he had packed a few poles and his tackle box along with a cooler. It was a quiet drive toward the ocean and even though the driver tried to soothe the tension with music, both men felt too awkward to start a conversation normally.
"At some point, everything will go back to normal," Charlie tried but it only seemed to add to the stress. "He was only trying to protect you, I hope you know. Your dad, he may be stubborn and over-reaches often," he mentioned from personal experience, "but he knows a thing or two about getting on the bad side of local authority. It's probably why he made nice with me when you all moved here."
He side-eyed Edward and continued, "And it's not you Sam has a problem with, well not personally. He's just trying to protect his people the best way he knows how. I've had the displeasure of working with him a few times and he's definitely something. Very nosy and unpleasant but he's more seasoned than most people in my department. I mean, he gets called on arson, larceny, murder, assaults, and suicides. They have been completely abandoned by the government, so in a way, it really is just them out there."
"I'm just trying to move forward now."
"Good, good."
"I just don't know how I got caught up with him. I'm so careful so I don't get attached but something about him was different. You know, I used to think that people were so foolish to get caught up in love - or something like that - and I never had time or stability to really connect like that with other men."
"But now you're older."
"Yes, and I thought just for once that I could have a normal life."
"You still can, there are so many different ways to be normal."
"I'm not interested in figuring that out. I think I'll just follow Carlisle so I can be useful for the next hit."
Charlie silently nodded, his mustache twisted in a slight sullen grimace as they pulled into the parking lot. He was the first out of the car to lead the way to the simple boat he shared with some friends. Once his fishing partner of the morning joined him, he ripped the engine until it started and he directed it to one of his favorite spots.
"So what is your job in the family?"
"Distraction normally like Rosalie. We distract guards, managers, police, anyone we're sent to. We flirt or talk, whatever works. Once we get a target, if we know who it will be, we research what we can on them to find their key."
"Hm," he nodded and cast his line.
After a half-hour, Charlie cracked a beer and offered it to him, then grabbed one for himself.
"Do you do this often?" Edward asked.
"When I have time. When Bella was little, I'd drag her out here but she was never interested in this type of fishing, she prefers catching shellfish."
"What's that like?"
"We borrow some traps from one of my co-workers and set them out. We normally do catch n' release with those though, not enough meat on them this time of year."
Another hour passed before either of them got a bite. Charlie reeled it in and set it on ice before fixing his bait to release the line again. By the end of the day, they caught only three medium sized fish which they brought back to the Cullen house to fry. It was relaxing and Edward found it to be a good release of stress as it cleared his mind of what happened in La Push.
The weeks passed easier and the hit grew closer. They walked through the plan ad infinitum until they all nearly dreamed it and it became a constant topic in the halls. When the day finally came, Esme drove the active members out to the bank while the others watched from Alice's control room. Charlie took a seat beside the hacker.
Alice spotted their car and froze the camera feeds. At that point, she vigilantly watched the security points when suddenly the alarm began to blare. Alice was quick to begin deactivating them but there was a manual aspect to them as well. She hoped that Jasper would be quick on his end so she could begin erasing it from their data. It took all of fifty-seconds but the security system was reset. Alice did her part to cover their tracks.
"You gotta scrub it from the PD system, too," Charlie informed her. "If you leave any crumbs, I'll take care of it tomorrow morning."
Alice logged into the Police Station's database and scanned through the messy lines of calls and security alerts until she found one with the correct time stamp.
"Is this the place?"
Charlie put his glasses on to confirm the shorthand name and category. "Yeah, that's it."
He relaxed back in his seat while she deleted the evidence. She flipped back to the bank where she listened intently to the feed and waited for a message from her family that they were out.
It took a painstaking ten minutes to get out of the bank without a trace but Carlisle sent a text to his daughter that they were on their way back. Immediately a wave of relief washed over all four of them. Rosalie and Edward began getting everything in place for their celebration. He chilled the champagne in the fridge and pulled down the glasses while his sister began cooking the snacks and found something to play in the background.
They spotted the flash of headlights bleed through the curtains and soon enough the four Cullens returned from the heist. Carlisle secured the bank notes in his safe while the others celebrated below.
"You know, I was thinking of getting out of this paper trail stuff," he commented to Esme. "We have to be so careful with how we spend the bills and the government's getting better at tracking lost and stolen bank notes."
"Then we can research that while we're on hiatus," she reminded him.
"Right, yes," he nodded, but there was something distant about his response. Carlisle always acted this way after a job. The high of contributing to their work made him itch for another adrenaline rush. "So, what do you say?" he nudged Charlie.
"About what?" he slyly smiled.
Carlisle stole a peck from him, "Working with us?"
He playfully thought about it and brought his fingers up to his mustache. "Yeah, it was definitely a rush. I'd like to help, but I do need to stay here. Maybe I can do it remotely when you move onto the next location?"
"Deal."
Edward watched the couple and there was a panging sadness in his heart as he sipped from his glass. Alice poked him in the elbow to draw his attention from them. "I'm going to spend some time with the Clearwaters and Bella tomorrow if you'd like to join?"
Edward hymned and hawed to consider how much he really would want to be around Jacob's friends but ultimately nodded. "I haven't seen them in a while, sure."
"Okay. Are you going to leave Washington with the others next month?"
"I'll think about it, but yeah."
She nodded along to his decision. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, once I get out of here, I'll be better."
"Come on," she beckoned him back into her office. Alice set her drink on her console and sat back in her ergonomic chair. "Talk, I know I've kind of ignored you, too, so tell me everything."
"I really don't-"
"Spit it out."
He dramatically sighed, "Fine. He hasn't texted me back in almost a month. This is so high school, it's ridiculous."
"Do you want me to intervene?"
"No."
Edward grabbed his drink and walked back out. He knew that all she would do in the office was goad him into talking about his feelings and he was done pretending to want to feel them anymore. He superficially spoke with the rest of his family as if he didn't already know what their plans or desires were. The Cullens continued to celebrate their work and each began to confirm where they wanted to live for the time being. They eventually turned in for the night but before he left, Charlie pulled him aside.
"I know you care, so don't pretend you don't, but Jake asks about you. If you want to be normal, you might have to be foolish when you don't want to be. A gesture goes a long way for us regular people." He didn't wait for a response from Edward and popped his hunting camouflage hat on his head before leaving.
He took his words into consideration as the next day came around and he found himself as Alice's passenger with Bella to the reservation. They loaded up in the other woman's truck this time and took the long drive to La Push. He shrunk into his seat once they crossed the border until they parked at the Clearwater's house. Bella honked at them to alert her arrival and the siblings hopped into the bed of her truck to take the short ride to the beach where they staked a spot not far from the shore.
"So, what are we thinking, spikeball, soccer or rugby?" Leah offered. "Hey, over here!"
She was beckoning a couple over from the parking lot and as they approached, Edward recognized them from the bonfire. It was her cousin Emily and Sam. He shrunk into himself and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as he hoped he was just imagining him. Their approaching steps woke him from his brief break from reality as the pair greeted each other. Edward politely smiled at them in turn and tried to be as civil as he could, putting on possibly his most submissive or placated demeanor he could muster.
"Hey," Emily directed to the Cullen siblings, "I haven't seen you two in a while."
Alice took the lead in the conversation, "Yeah, just got busy with work and helping our siblings pack up."
"Aw, you're leaving?"
The news seemed to immediately surprise Bella and Leah, so the younger Cullen quickly clarified, "Not me, but some of our family is."
"Are you going anywhere?" she tried to invite Edward into the conversation again.
He carefully read her partner as he explained, "I'm not sure yet. I might go help them get settled."
"We were just thinking about starting a game of spikeball, you two interested?" Leah inquired.
As she got the game set up, Edward turned to his sister. "I don't want to be here. I know he's the one who got Paul and Jacob to fight."
"Just play nice," she encouraged him. "I want to have fun with my girls."
Edward agreed with a single nod and tried his best to just watch them with Bella but throughout the game, Sam glared at him. He busied himself with setting up lunch to forget how much he was being watched and eventually walked along the shore. With every step, however, he felt like he was being tracked and judged.
He closed his eyes and inhaled the ocean air, tuning out the others' laughter in place of the sound of the waves breaking against the rocks. He imagined the water licking the boulders far out in the black sea. The power they held to erode the landmarks for centuries and how freeing it felt to be pushed around by their pull.
Slowly, his daydreaming lingered on his time with Jacob and how much more liberated it felt to be with him. There was a beautiful curiosity he harbored that influenced Edward and gave him a sense of adventure he had never experienced from anyone else, not even Carlisle.
Standing on the rocks, he hoped he would hear Jacob's infectious laughter and if he opened his eyes maybe he would be standing there, ready to coax him into the freezing ocean again, a mischievous grin on his face with his hair pulled back to stay dry. He felt foolish waiting as long as he did to show that he loved him, to prove that he wasn't as shallow as he put himself out to be.
A voice in the back of his head berated Edward for thinking of him and he opened his eyes to find himself standing alone on the shore. He hated how much of an impact that man left on him and felt furious that he was spending time with Sam.
Finally, he walked back to their spot where the group watched Seth and Bella's endless volley. Emily was the first to break away from the audience to grab something to eat. She flashed him a grin and opened some tupperware to serve herself. She seemed so nice compared to her partner that he wondered why she chose him. Was there something wrong with Edward or maybe something in Sam's past with the Black family that made him so protective of the youngest member.
She eventually beckoned him over and slid a paper plate across the blanket. "I shouldn't be the one to say this, but I'm sorry about the bonfire. I could say that fights aren't common, but that'd be a lie. Doesn't mean you aren't welcome, though."
"It kind of does when the person who invited you told you not to come back."
"But you still came back."
"I did."
Emily watched her friends to see if Edward would contribute anymore to the conversation, but when he didn't she decided to comfort him. "You know, the main reason why Bella and your sister haven't been driven off by him is because Leah will not be intimidated."
"Does he bully everyone?"
"He means well."
"Everyone says that, I guess I just don't know how to show I'm not a threat."
"Sam's like a cat, you know, he's nice and normal but you just have to give him time to get used to you."
"He's just protecting his territory."
"Yeah, us, but yes."
"Emily, Soccer!" her cousin called, signaling by pointing to the ball.
She grabbed it from Leah's bag and offered him one more piece of advice. "Just try not to let him bother you."
Edward nodded and watched on as the Clearwater siblings and Emily played over the rocky terrain. At some point Bella and his sister stole away which gave Sam a moment to speak with him while everyone was distracted. He knelt down next to him and feigned making a meal.
"You gonna join us at some point?" he initially asked.
"Yeah, I'm not very athletic, but I do like rugby. And maybe if they switch to a game over juggling I'll play." They awkwardly sat next to each other and just as Sam stood to leave, Edward finally voiced anything to get on his good side. "Hey, sorry about that stuff at the bonfire, man."
"Oh, yeah, no big deal. It happens."
Edward wanted so bad to roll his eyes at him and internally grumbled at Sam's acceptance of his apology. "Yeah, that's what Emily said."
"Where'd your necklace go?" he asked, pointing with his pinky at the missing pendant.
"Um… it didn't feel right wearing it anymore," he simply explained.
"You know I got nothing personal against you."
Edward suspiciously asked, "Really?"
"I just don't want people here who don't appreciate our history or land."
"Well, Jacob told me about his life and he and his sister and Leah were showing me parts of their culture they loved and wanted to share with me and Alice. I know that being with him means assimilating."
"You and you family really aren't welcome here, your just pets to Leah and Jake. He just figured it out sooner than her," he nodded to the eldest Clearwater.
At some point, Emily had picked up the rugby ball and promptly punted it at Sam. She was aware of his territorial tendencies and called him away from Edward before their day at the beach was ruined by whatever she sensed was happening between them. Sam glared at him again, trying so hard to keep his anger in check when he joined the others.
"Come on, Ed," his sister called out. "You played a little."
He begrudgingly went over to them as Leah split them into teams. Seth was placed with the couple while Edward played with his sister's girlfriends.
"Okay, we're doing touch, so just wrap. No tackles," Leah announced. "You guys kick off."
"Can we stiff arm?" her brother asked as he pocketed his jewelry.
"Yeah, but keep it below the collar bones."
They proceeded with the game after her rules and Edward was surprised at how well Bella played. The only person who seemed to catch her breakaways was Seth and even then, he would have to slap her ankle to slow her down. Edward jumped out of the way of Emily's wraps, but still got caught by her footwork at times. He slipped in the rocks and broke out in laughter with her while Leah snuck the ball along the side, passing it back to him once he regained his speed.
Sam suddenly came into view and shouldered a wrap at his side. Seth caught the ball as Bella punted it in the air and sprinted down the makeshift pitch for the first try of the game. He danced and everyone set back up for the kick off. Edward caught the kick before it hit the uneven ground and slipped between Sam and Seth before Emily wrapped him again. They played back and forth while Alice cheered from the sidelines.
It was after the second try, scored by Bella, that he kicked off. Sam caught the ball off the first small bounce and Edward got him in an awkward wrap the older man braced for and nearly ended in a straight tackle.
"That was a tackle," Edward accused him. "We're just doing wraps."
Before anyone could react, Sam was upon him with one handful of his opponent's gray shirt balled in his fist. He punched him in the jaw and loaded up for another. Edward felt dazed at the action and feared the next wouldn't be any less forgiving. He shielded his head with his forearms and tried to wriggle away but when the next strike slipped through his defenses and crunched his nose, rage boiled through his entire being and he headbutted the offender in the face.
Sam reeled back in time for Leah to pull him off and Seth to finally decide who he wanted to help first. Edward laid back exhausted by the emotions and looked up at the searing white sky that beat on his skin. Before he could even catch his breath, Emily began shoving napkins under his nose while his sister poured water on his neck and chin. From his peripheral vision, he could see Bella rolling her eyes and wildly gesturing between the two immature men before throwing her hands up and walking away. They eventually got him to his feet and guided him to the truck.
"He's not going in the car," the driver protested.
"Fine, what about the back!" Seth offered.
The truck jostled and creaked as the five of them loaded up and hauled themselves back to the Clearwater's house. The drive was bumpy but something was preventing his head from making as harsh of an impact against the old metal. He opened his eyes again to the blinding light and saw Leah hunched over him, he assumed his head was in her lap to cushion the blows. She seemed to refuse to meet his gaze so he distracted himself by looking up at the canopies of trees that whizzed by.
It really was a beautiful place to be stuck. He imagined what must have driven Sam to finally include himself in his ploy to drive the Cullens away rather than use one of his friends to do his bidding and he guessed that his use of the word 'assimilation' might have been the biggest contender.
They finally stopped at the home and Edward was once again dragged out of the truck and into the house. Someone forced his head back and up to prevent him from bleeding on the carpet and wood. Confusion and chaos echoed in his head when the Clearwater siblings had to explain him to their parents.
"What the hell happened?" a gruff voice immediately asked.
"He's not coming in here, is he?" a woman voiced her opinion in near unison.
"We were playing rugby," Leah explained. "He's fine, just a bloody nose."
"Just clean him up in the bathroom then."
"Damn, what got to you?" he heard a familiar voice ask.
When Edward tried to look, someone tipped his head back up and pushed him through the house until they came to a halt in a tan and yellow bathroom. They plopped him on the toilet where his sister shoved a twisted square of toilet paper in his nose without warning him. He ripped his head back after she put it in place.
"Dammit Edward," she muttered.
He groaned in response, "Dammit what? You really think I started it?"
"No, just dammit." Alice received a damp paper towel from Bella and started washing the blood from his face.
"Looks like he gave ya a good shiner, too," the other woman commented.
"You think it'll make me more interesting?"
Bella chuckled. "I think you're plenty interesting without it."
Leah joined them in the small room and squeezed past her girlfriends to produce a bag of frozen peas which she put in his hand. "Your nose and just under your eye," she indicated on herself with her finger. "Sorry about him. I really… I was not expecting that."
"Hopefully I didn't bother your parents too much."
"Nah, they're weird. The kitchen has a deer carcass in it right now."
"What?"
"My dad went hunting with some of his friends. Before I forget, Al, the mother unit would like to give your family some frybread." She beckoned her partner back out of the room and to the kitchen.
Once they left, Bella squatted next to him. "What'd you say to him?"
"Nothing that bad."
"Come on, it's just you and me and I know him. Certain things set him off. Messing with his little 'brother', which you did, insulting the Quileute, and being careless."
"Wait, they're related?"
"No, but they're basically brothers."
"Great, amazing. Must have been when he said I knew nothing about the people and didn't seem interested. I told him I was willing to learn."
"And that's how you said it?"
"Not exactly but that was the overall message."
"So that's what happened, huh?" the man Edward was trying to identify in the living room asked from the doorway
He craned his neck around to look at him and when he identified him as Jacob, Edward leaned back against the tank in defeat, trying discreetly to hide his face with the bag of peas.
"You got into it with Sam. Well, I'm interested to see how he looks."
"Not this bad."
"Yeah, well, I want some frybread, so I'm out," Bella excused herself.
They watched her until she disappeared further away from their inevitable conversation. Again, Jacob waited until he was spoken to but his ex-friend refused to give him the satisfaction. Instead they tensely sized one another up as conversations were held out in the living room and throughout the house. The muffled voices soothed them as minor distractions while Edward tried his hardest to just reduce the swelling on his face.
"Do you still have the necklace?"
"Yeah," Edward hiked up his pant leg to show where he had hidden it. The other man finally approached and went to remove it. "Wait, what are you doing?"
"I'm taking it back. You know, this is what I was talking about." There was a deep pain in his voice and expression that Edward had never seen, even at the bonfire. Whatever hope he harbored about reconciling with Sam was gone. "You need to stay away for your safety."
As he turned to leave, Edward informed him, "Sam's right, Leah's just a bigger person than you. She's stronger, smarter, and doesn't let people bully her into submission."
Jacob's eyes glazed over from somber realization to anger at Edward's assumption. "It was fun and all, but now I have to get back to my reality, you should, too."
"Can you at least tell me about Sam?"
"Okay, you really want to know? When he was a teen, the government stripped away more of the Reservation and now he's doing everything he can to preserve what little we have left. Letting people like you on here was a huge mistake and only gives them more power to destroy everything we built." With that final declaration in as controlled of a volume he could muster, he left.
Edward heard another set of footsteps cautiously creak toward him. "Whatever it is you're gonna ask, I'm fine."
"So you don't want some shank?" Bella offered.
"What's that?"
"It's like, the mid thigh. Really good for the scraps, you know."
"Okay." He grabbed a small piece and chewed the fresh meat. "Oh, damn, that's good."
"Better than you'd get from some hoity-toity restaurant wherever you'll end up."
"Can you not right now?"
"No, because he's my best friend and you're just my girlfriend's brother, so I can be honest with you. You're kinda self-absorbed, you know, and short-sighted."
"I'm self-absorbed?"
"Yup. He cares about you, that's why he's willing to let you go."
"Are there even any other gay guys out here?"
"Not that I know of, you have a type?"
Edward ignored her jibe. "Then I'm perfect for him. Why is he letting Sam get so in his way?" He shook his head, "Nevermind, I don't want to be with someone who doesn't stand up for themself."
"Uh-huh, well once I get some meat for my dad then we can head out. But Jake does stand up for himself in his own way. If you can just let everyone get used to you, then maybe he'll look past your little stunt there because right now, he's just trying not to get shunned by the community. Unlike most places you've been, apparently, small town people take a while to warm up to strangers. We all have our own cliques and relationships and a new person kinda messes with that, so just think on that… and don't let Sam push you around."
He covered his face with the frozen peas again and waited until Bella left when he leaned back against the tank of the toilet to gaze up at the bare light fixture. Edward let his mind wander once again to his impending future. He was not so keen to follow his 'parents' around, if Carlisle decided to leave at this point, and even less enticed if they chose Forks as their new headquarters. Once the peas had begun to thoroughly thaw, he returned to the main room.
An older woman he assumed was Leah's mother was busily handing a paper bag to his sister while an older gentleman was hunched over packing away his rifle. Edward slipped into the kitchen where the Clearwater siblings hacked away at a partial carcass, now missing its legs and stomach.
"You've looked better," Seth commented with a slight snicker.
"Felt better."
"You still look better than where Sam'll be sleepin' tonight."
"Really?"
"Oh, Emily won't let him get away with beating up Jakey's boytoy."
"I'm not his boytoy."
"Shame," she mocked in a judging tone.
"Where is he?"
"Went home while you were sulking in the John," Bella informed him from the dining room. "We're almost finished up in here."
Edward stood by as Seth carefully carved the flesh from the thigh, separating the fascia from muscle and veins. His sister stood by the head, gently stroking the animal's face.
"What the hell are you doing?" Edward managed to gawk at her.
"You never get this close to them when they're alive and I always like to pet them," Leah shrugged. "It also kinda feels like it's comforting for the buck, you know?"
"Yeah."
"You wanna try?" she jested, but to her surprise, Edward took her up on the offer and approached the dead deer.
He studied it for a while, still unable to jump the mental obstacle of it being dead when its insides were open for the world to see not even an inch from the head. He knew he was being watched by the others and since Leah had been all over giving the deer pets, he knew it wasn't a joke.
"I promise, it's not gonna bite," she cut in just as her brother finished separating the last of the fat from the muscle.
"I know, just never touched something dead."
"Well, now's the time. It's fresh kill so no creepy crawlies and it was a healthy buck so no brain-eating bacteria."
"That's a thing?"
"Yeah, you ever hear of zombie deer?"
"Not real."
"Oh very real," Seth concurred. "Fancy name's Chronic Wasting Disease. They're basically zombies. It's fuckin' nasty," he shivered in disgust.
"I don't want to think of that."
He reached out and with a gliding stroke, he pet the deer's cheek with the back of his hand. The pelt was soft and cool to the touch. The hairs reminded him of cow hide like the bleached rug his father foolishly bought for their place in Illinois, but this one still had oil from when the animal was still breathing. The eyes were fixed open and he could see into its pure black irises now dull from early decay. He was amazed at the white hairs that surrounded the snout and quickly tapered off around the mouth until sparse black hairs took its place.
"Now don't get weird," Leah jested.
Edward sucked his teeth at her and went to wash his hands. "So, what do you do with the deer after?"
"Part out the bones to the locals. Mom might make something of the bones," she shrugged. "But nothing goes to waste."
"Here's the last of the shank for Charlie," Seth announced and slapped his sister's hand. "Stop touchin' it, you'll get your gross oils all over it. Your turn."
Bella took the bag of meat from him and stuck it in a cooler. "I'll get this back to you asap. Grab Alice and we'll head out." She stole a lingering kiss from Leah, who discreetly whispered something to her and led the way to the front door.
"Ooh," Sue stated, "He got you good."
"Oh yeah he did."
"Probably take a week for that to get better."
"I hope I look tougher than I feel," he joked.
"Yeah, but fix your face, you look like a wounded deer and we know what happened to the last one in this house."
He chuckled lightly, "Come on, Al, we're going home."
Alice hugged her and followed the other guests to the truck. They loaded up again while Bella secured the cooler in the bed. The drive, while quiet on Edward's end, stayed pleasant as they pulled out of the driveway and to the main road. He looked at the familiar roads and old signs that pointed down the rough driveways.
"Hey, can you pull over?"
"What? Why?" Bella asked, almost offended. "Are you gonna vom?"
"What- no?! I just have to do something. You two go back to Forks, I'll find a way home."
"That's stupid," his sister ridiculed him.
"I need to get this stuff home to freeze," her girlfriend noted.
"Fine, text me when you need me to pick you up, okay?"
He nodded and waited for their driver to stop so he could hop out of the cab. They watched him closely as he walked back up the way they came and disappeared down a different street before stranding him in La Push.
Edward felt foolish about it but soon found himself jogging up the nostalgic paths until he arrived at the Black Homestead. His heaving breath steamed with every step closer. He slipped and trod through the gravel and as he came upon the house, he could see Billy in the window as per usual but this time he made limited eye contact with him, instead wheeling out of view. Edward stood in the harsh cold while he wrapped himself tighter in his jacket.
Minutes elasped in the cleansing air, so he walked up the porch and rapped on the door. It immediately opened, however the storm door separated the resident and Edward.
"I'm sorry," he immediately apologized to him. "And I promise what happened between Sam and I is done. It's been resolved."
Jacob shook his head and placed his fist on the metal door. "Edward, go home."
"Can't really, Bella's probably on the highway by now."
"Then call her."
"Not until we talk… more, more than this. You don't have to come out here, but I want to talk."
Jacob grazed his nails against the metal grate and looked over his shoulder before finally opening the barrier outward so Edward had to back away. "You're a real piece of shit you know." He closed the doors and leaned loudly against the storm door. "And you fuckin' suck."
"I deserve that," he honestly assessed.
"You just can't lose can you? Like every other mediocre guy, you just fail up."
"I do."
"And you use your 'charm' like a every guy I knew in high school, pisses me off."
"Yes, yeah."
"You're just impossible," he finished.
Edward only nodded and let the silence fill the air between them. Only after the other man pulled out the necklace did he speak up. "I'm used to getting what I want from charming people. That's how I got Carlisle to adopt me."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I want you to know me. I was born in Chicago. I don't remember my dad but he was a gambler. My mom did what she could to keep me, but when I got sick, she had to surrender me so I could have a chance at surviving. Then Carlisle was assigned to me and I charmed my way into his family. We moved around a lot as kids and the only way I survived that was being charming. Any other kid would have died or ended up like my dad, but I got lucky. I failed up, like you said."
"I took this back because I didn't want you here," he referenced back to the necklace. "And if this is something important, it's yours."
"What, so I leave you alone? That's not happening."
He grabbed his hand and placed the necklace in his palm. "Why?"
"Because I love you and I'm not going to let my ego get in the way."
Jacob pursed his lips.
"But my charm doesn't come naturally, I've always been sporadic." Edward finally took his hands, as silly as he felt being so vulnerable. "And I want to be with you. Wherever you go, even if it's staying here."
Jacob took a hitched breath and stroked the agate with his thumb. "I hate this."
"Then I'll go."
"Stop," he forcefully whispered. "I hate what you make me feel."
"I hate it too."
"But I love it."
Edward felt a pang in his heart and it took every part of him to not preemptively reach out to him. "I didn't come for the necklace."
"I know."
"Then…"
"You suck."
He leaned in and roughly pressed his lips against Edward's. Discreetly, he wrapped the necklace around the other man's wrist and latched it closed. Edward placed his hands at Jacob's lower back to pull him in closer while he momentarily dominated their moment. He pulled back to fully look at him again, only giving him lingering pecks on the lips.
"Where do you want to go first?"