Chapter 11 – Small Victories
EPOV
"Well, Edward, I'd say since you didn't kill her, your first day at school was a huge success!" Emmet pounded me on the back and gave me a huge smile. "Way to be, bro!" He settled himself on the couch and started looking for a football game to watch.
It looked like despite Emmet's props, Alice was still put out with me.
"How could you not tell me she had a boyfriend?" Alice had been silently berating me since Spanish at every opportunity she could. Jasper entered the room, took in Alice's emotions and mine and turned on me.
"Ok, Edward, what did you do to piss off Alice?" Alice skipped over to her husband and stuck her tiny tongue out at me.
"Alice is under the impression that I am to report every detail of Bella's life to her, despite the fact that she is PSYCHIC!" I was irritated that Alice was still complaining to me about something she should have been able to see herself.
"She's all fuzzy." Alice frowned. "Anytime I try to see her outside of school she gets fuzzy, and it's making me mad!" Alice stamped her tiny foot. "My visions used to be perfect before we met her. I still see her and I being friends, but anything other than that is blurry, and it's giving me a headache. Vampires don't get headaches!"
Carlisle was up in his study, but we all heard him respond to our conversation in the living room.
"It would seem like this girl becomes more and more of a mystery to us." He appeared at the top of the stairs to address us more directly. "Alice, are any of your other visions affected?" Alice's eyes glazed over several times.
"It doesn't seem like it. Emmett will lose to Jazz at Madden today. Rose's part for the Jeep arrives tomorrow. We should invest in RIM next quarter." Her eyes unclouded and she looked up at Carlisle. "Everything seems fine unless I try to see into Bella's future. I can't even tell if she's going to the dance or not." Alice stuck her bottom lip out and pouted. Jasper reached over and kissed her stupid, pouty lip.
"Perhaps for the time being, the most prudent solution is for you to stop looking for Bella until we know more." Carlisle smiled at us all and returned to his study. I followed him up the stairs to seek some solitude in my room.
While Emmett may have considered the day a huge success, I wasn't so positive about the whole experience. The smell issue wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Of course the desensitization I had been putting myself through helped. But the most important change was that Bella smelled like dog again today. I assume it's because she had been driving that VW Rabbit instead of her monster truck. That tiny change made it considerably easier for me to converse with her in class. Of course that in itself seemed to draw attention. I was making mistakes everywhere. Neither Alice nor I usually chatted up our fellow classmates, so I immediately caught the shock in everyone's thoughts when I tried to participate in their conversation.
My biggest mistake was touching her. Well I'm actually delighted I had the opportunity to feel her smooth skin as I helped her off the floor, but it was a mistake nonetheless. Firstly, I shouldn't allow myself such luxuries like touching her. What right did I have as a monster to be allowed to feel delicate features such as hers? Secondly, she may have been more observant that I initially gave her credit for. When I pulled her up our eyes met, and she looked bewildered and then very much shocked. While I couldn't read her mind, I was still fairly astute at reading body language. I recalled the first time that she met me my eyes were black. Today, after extensive hunting to prepare myself for school, they would have been their usual topaz colour. I couldn't be positive that she remembered, but the look on her face was etched into my mind. I'm almost sure she noticed the difference. I would have to be more careful tomorrow.
BPOV
I was pretty happy when I came home from school to find a handsome young Quileute sitting on my front porch. The school on the rez gets out about forty-five minutes before ours does.
"Jake! What are you doing here?" I smiled as he picked me up and swung me around. Then he pulled me into one of his bear hugs.
"I came to see my two favourite girls." He set me down and winked at me.
"Ha ha. You're so funny." I smacked him on the arm. "Don't worry, I was very gentle on her."
"Sure, sure. You know you love my sense of humour. In reality I come bearing homework and groceries!" He lifted his backpack in one hand, and two grocery bags in the other. I noticed how the motion made the muscles ripple in his arm. Apparently Jacob noticed me noticing him.
"Bells...are you ogling me?" He raised his eyebrow up at me.
"Nnno." I stammered. I felt the tomato blush creeping up my hairline. Jacob threw his arm around my shoulder and led me into the house.
"Bells, honey, I totally just busted you ogling me." Jacob had a huge grin on his face. We dumped our backpacks in the living room and started to unpack the groceries he brought over. I was still unable to stammer out a more convincing lie, and I was still bright red. "Bells?" I was looking anywhere but at Jacob. He gently pulled my chin up so that he could look me in the eye. He leaned down and gently kissed my cheek, then whispered into my ear. "Bells, honey, don't be embarrassed. I ogle you all the time." Jacob chuckled, and I couldn't help but giggle along with him.
I tried to change to topic.
"So what exactly are all these groceries for? Are you expecting me to feed you? After you bust me ogling you?" I tried to act all tough, but I still had a mild case of the giggles. Jake lifted me onto the counter so my feet were swinging, but I could look him in the eye easier. Then he positioned himself between my legs, and leaned in for a kiss.
"Ahh, so you admit you were ogling me. Anything you want to do about it?" Jacob started kissing me deeper, and my legs impulsively wrapped around his waist. His hand traced up my side and cupped my neck, holding back my hair. I instinctually started fisting his hair to bring his face closer to mine. He tenderly tilted my head back so he could start kissing my neck. He moved slowly along my jaw line to my ear. "Did you like what you saw Bella?" he whispered.
"Mmm hmm." I managed to mumble. I couldn't really form a cohesive thought while Jacob was kissing me like that. I felt his tongue slide along my neck, and then flick my ear.
"Would you like to see more?" he asked.
I answered him by pulling on the bottom of his shirt, and lifting it over his head. Jacob's skin was so beautiful. It was hard to describe the exact colour of it, but the closest I could come up with was a silky russet colour. It looked so dark with my pale hand against it. I traced the contours of his arms that led into his shoulders, then down his chest to his abs. The hard muscles contracted, as I ghosted over them with my fingers.
"You have no idea how good it feels to have you do that." His voice had gotten huskier, deeper. He easily lifted me up and took me to the living room. He sat on the sofa, and positioned me on top of him, straddling his lap. I leaned in and started running my hands along his back. I licked my tongue along Jacob's lips and he opened his mouth, allowing my tongue entrance. He pulled my lower lip into his mouth and sucked gently on it. I felt his hands move up my side again, but this time he hovered over my chest.
"Bells, is this okay?" He paused to ask me. I simply nodded, and continued my assault on him. He gently massaged my left breast with his hand, and glided his thumb over my hardened nipple. I moaned into his mouth when he did that, so then he did the same with the other breast. I felt him stiffen beneath me. And by him, I mean his significantly sized length. Now I didn't have a lot of experience with these things, but it seemed really big, even constricted in his jeans. When he brushed my nipples again, I began rubbing myself against his bulge searching for some friction. He groaned into my neck.
"Oh God, Bells. You doing that is so fucking hot." He reached his hand under my shirt, and peeled back the cup of my bra to caress my breast directly. His hands were so warm against my skin. He flicked my nipples with his thumbs, and I rubbed myself against him in earnest. I could feel significant dampness in my panties. I opened my eyes to look at Jake, and was surprised to see the expression on his face. His eyes were shut tightly, as if he was concentrating very hard on something, and he looked somewhat pained. I immediately stopped what I was doing.
"Jake, what's wrong? Did I hurt you?" Since I had no idea what I was doing, I assumed that I had squished him in some way. I slid off his lap onto the couch next to him.
"Huh. Wah?" Jake's eyes fluttered open, and he looked at me confused. "Bells, that was amazing, why did you think you hurt me, and why did you stop?" Now I was confused.
"Jake, I opened my eyes, and you looked like you were in pain, and you were thinking really hard. I thought I squished you or something." I caressed his face with my hand as he flushed slightly at my comment.
"Firstly, Bells, you're so tiny. You could never squish me, or hurt me, so please never worry about that again. And yeah, er...I was concentrating." He gave me this knowing glance. I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Concentrating on what? I thought we were, you know, making out? I didn't think it needed lots of deep thought?" I was really confused by what Jacob was saying. He sighed and leaned in to kiss my forehead.
"Oh, Bells. I'm a guy. I was concentrating on not...you know...ahh shit, you're going to make me say this aren't you?" He looked at me, but smiled gently. "I was trying not to blow my load." That hung in the air for enough time for me to feel properly abashed for not realising what his knowing glance meant. I immediately went red from head to toe. Then we both started laughing.
Wow, I must be the dumbest girl in existence.
"Jake, I'm so sorry. I had no idea! I thought I hurt you!"
"Bells, please, don't apologize. These last few minutes may have been the best in my life." He stood up off the couch, and tried to discreetly adjust himself. I looked away to attempt to make things a little easier. "Bells, why don't we get started on supper? I brought groceries over because Billy is coming over for dinner to watch the game, and he wanted to contribute since you and Charlie are always hosting us."A light went off in my head, as I remembered the bags that had started this whole incident.
"We can get started on homework once everything is cooking. I don't know about you, but for the first day, my teachers actually assigned us homework! Can you believe it?" Jake was laughing as he headed back to the kitchen, and fished his shirt off the floor. "Best I put this on, so you don't maul me again." He wiggled his eyebrows at me to let me know he was joking.
By the time Charlie and Billy arrived, we had not only finished preparing dinner, but we had also finished our homework. We didn't have any further distractions due to my epic fail in recognizing what poor Jacob was doing for my benefit. I felt that I shouldn't add to his discomfort by trying to get something started again. I vaguely remembered discussions of "blue balls" from health class in Phoenix.
As the four of us sat around for dinner, Charlie started firing away with questions.
"How was the first day at your new school, kiddo?" He asked while spearing a piece of potato onto his fork.
"It was alright." I shrugged. "I found all my classes. Ran into some of the kids I met on the beach. They seemed nice." I smiled at the memory of Angela. She had been in two of my classes, and had made it a point to introduce herself, and remind me of her name twice. She was exceptionally kind, and I had a feeling we would become friends over the school year. She appeared to be quiet and bookish like me.
"Your teachers alright?" He asked.
"They seem fine. I've never really had a problem with teachers before."
"You gonna have some of them over next week?" Charlie offered.
"Who, my teachers?" Why would Charlie ask me if I was having teachers over? Billy laughed.
"I think he meant your new friends, hun." Billy winked at me.
"Why would I do that?" I wasn't exactly the type of girl to invite people over for no reason. This was turning into a confusing line of questioning.
"Your birthday." Charlie answered simply.
Blargh.
If there were two things you should know about me it is the following; I don't like situations where I am the centre of attention, and I don't like receiving gifts. I think the gift thing ties into the centre of attention thing. So maybe it's really just one thing I don't like.
"Blargh." I echoed my mind's sentiment. "No thanks. I'd rather not." I made a face, and took a long drink of my water.
"Now, Bella," Charlie started. "Eighteen is a big deal. You should celebrate it." Jacob took my hand over the table, and started rubbing circles into the back of my hand with his thumb.
"Bells, how about a compromise?" Jacob winked at my dad. I took some offense to them ganging up on me, but patiently waited out Jacob's explanation. "I know you don't like being the centre of attention. So how about instead of a big house party, we have a bonfire down at the Rez? It'll be like the first time you met most of them anyways, so it's comfortable territory?" He smiled at me, then gave me some very convincing puppy dog eyes. I had to admit, Jacob's solution sounded pretty good to me. I'd witnessed firsthand how people can dissolve into little groups at a bonfire, so not everyone would be focused on me all night.
"Well..." I started. "That sounds doable. But no presents!" I added. Maybe I wouldn't even have to tell people it's my birthday. I could just invite them to a bonfire.
Since Jacob's solution for my birthday seemed so amenable I broached the subject of the dance with him while we were doing the dishes.
"Jake, there's this dance at school at everyone's really pumped about..." I began.
"The homecoming." He interjected.
"How did you...?" I asked. He tapped his temple.
"I remember Newton asking you about it at the bonfire. Also, this is a small town. Everyone, including Charlie and Billy, knows about the dance." He motioned his head towards our fathers in the living room. "They gossip like old women you know." Jake winked at me, and splashed some suds my way.
"Haha, mostly I thought they gossiped about you and me. Anyways, I don't really like dances. Scratch that. I've never been to a dance. They seem intimidating. But I thought if you came with me it would be better. Or better yet, if the guys came, then it would feel more like a group thing?" I had started rambling somewhat hoping that Jacob would cut me off soon.
"You've never been to a dance?" Jacob's reaction wasn't as shocked as the Cullens. "I guess I could see that, especially if you've never dated before. But still, you're totally superhot, so I can't believe no one ever asked you." Jacob looked at me somewhat bewildered and shook his head.
"Yeah, well, you know me, super awkward and all." I shrugged my shoulders and concentrated on a scrubbing the fry pan. The self conscious part of me noticed that Jacob still hadn't said he would come to the dance with me.
"So what, am I like pimping out my friends to make you more comfortable?" Jacob turned around and started putting away the dishes he dried.
"Oh my gosh, Jake, no! I'm so sorry, it was such a stupid idea. Never mi..." I started to freak out, but then Jacob cut me off.
"Bella! Chill! I was just joking around! Quil is gonna have a coronary. Not only does he get to go to your school dance, he gets to meet the girls at the bonfire the week before." Jacob grinned at me, and I smacked his arm.
"You jerk! I thought you...oh never mind." I put the fry pan in the drying rack. "So you'll go with me?"
"Of course, you silly girl! Like I could ever say no to you?" He winked at me and pulled me towards the living room. "Now, I assume hot dogs and root beer are satisfactory for your big shindig? If you're nice, I may even bring marshmallows." He plopped onto the couch and pulled me down next to him.
"Marshmallows huh?" Charlie looked at us as we sat down. "This one's a keeper Bells. Marshmallows are delicious."
Chapter End Notes:
Charlie is right. Marshmallows are delcious, especially roasted over a fire.
So what did you think of the awkward end to the makeout session? Remember they are young and inexperienced! Don't hate me for ending the start of a perfectly good makeout. I hope to include many more! In my head, Jacob doesn't have these kinds of problems once he phases (hint, hint).
