Impasse
Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.
The Best of Frenemies
"Let me just ring first to check whether Billy is at home."
Leah rolled her eyes impatiently but refrained from commenting. Bella stared at the phone for a long minute. Just do it, Bella, she mumbled to herself.
Billy answered after two rings.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Billy." Bella almost growled. She saw Leah smirking out of the corner of her eye and scowled. She tried to sound more friendly as she continued. "Can I talk to Jacob, please?"
"Jake's not here."
What a shock. Bella's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Do you know where he is?"
"He's out with friends." Billy's voice was careful.
"Oh, yeah, anyone I know?" Bella tried to keep her tone light and casual, but failed miserably.
"No." Billy said slowly. "You won't know them."
Bella was about to mention Sam's name, but one look at Leah's angry expression made her change her mind. She didn't want to give Billy even a hint of warning that she disbelieved what he was saying.
"Well, have him call me when he gets in, alright?"
"Sure, sure. No problem. Click.
"See you soon, Billy Black." Bella muttered sarcastically into the dead phone.
"You know talking to yourself is the first sign of madness." Leah scoffed.
"I am mad. Plenty mad!" Bella fired back at her resentfully. "Billy was so obviously lying."
Leah's mocking expression clouded over as she used the metal loop of her keyring to swing her car keys on her forefinger. "Well, then, lets go and see for ourselves, shall we?"
"Yes, lets." Bella agreed scathingly.
XXXXXXX
Bella eased herself into the passenger seat of Sue Clearwater's white sedan. She had tried to persuade Leah to ditch her mother's car and take her truck instead. She thought the white color would stand out too much. They were supposed to be on a spying mission after all. But Leah wouldn't hear of it. She side-eyed Bella as she succinctly pointed out the old Chevy's many flaws.
"It drives slower than molasses. Not to mention the damn engine is so loud that everyone from here to Hoquiam will hear the wretched thing coming. We're supposed to be going undercover, not announcing our arrival to the whole world."
Bella fumed in her seat and sulked, crossing her arms over her chest as she shot Leah a resentful glare. No one was allowed to diss her truck. No one.
Satisfied she had won the argument, Leah switched on the Sedan's engine and it purred smoothly to life, adding just another insult to Bella's injury.
Bella had packed food and drink supplies, much to Leah's scorn. The other girl was under the impression they would be staking out the Black's house for a couple of hours, but Bella was in for the long haul. She was determined to sit outside all day and all night if she had to. The boy was going to have to come home some time, and when he did, she was going to force him to talk.
As Leah drove to La Push, keeping up a steady stream of sarcastic remarks, Bella's mind remained preoccupied with what she was going to say to Jacob. She was determined to pry the truth out of him one way or another. Before she was expecting it, the forest began to thin, and she knew she would be able to see the first little houses of the reservation.
They soon reached Jacob's house without incident. Leah parked under the cover of some nearby trees as she killed the engine. She rolled down the window. It was stuffy inside the car, there was no breeze outside, and she put her feet up on the dashboard and settled down to wait.
"This is sure going to be fun." She sneered, giving Bella a savage look. "Perhaps we can have a girlie heart to heart while we're waiting."
"Let's not." Bella snapped, leaning forward, and rummaging in her back pack full of supplies. Her fingers closed over the object she was searching for, and with a triumphant grin she pulled it out.
"Jeez, girl, are you serious?" Leah questioned, looking Bella up and down as if she had lost the last of her sanity. "Where did you get those? Or should I say what century?"
Bella's grin turned into a hostile glare. "They're Charlie's. They belonged to his grandfather."
Leah just shook her head in disbelief as she scrutinized the ancient pair of binoculars that Bella was holding. The outer rim was a camouflage color, the rest a metallic black. They were so big and heavy that Bella could barely hold their weight.
"I brought them so I could get a better view of the house."
"Girl, unless your vision is as poor as your attitude, we've got a perfectly good view of the house. We're only parked a few meters away."
Bella ignored Leah's intended barb and lifted the binoculars up to her face. She winced as she felt the strain in her hands and wrists as she tried to hold them steady in front of her eyes. However, they did bring the Black's house into sharper focus, she could see every inch of the peeling paintwork on the front door, as well as the crazed lines on the wood of the front porch.
Adjusting the focus slightly, she scanned the whole outside of the house, licking her lips to moisten them as she zeroed in on Jacob's bedroom window. She saw that it was wide open, the curtains parted and hanging loose with the lack of breeze. She leaned forward, pressing the binoculars harder against her eyes as she tried to get a glimpse inside his room. Unfortunately, she ended up knocking them against the sedan's windscreen.
"Hey, watch what you're doing with those things. You'll chip the glass!" Leah snapped, reaching out to snatch the ridiculously heavy binoculars from Bella's weak grasp. "Give them to me. You're too dangerous to be left alone with them."
"NO!" Bella retorted furiously as she wrestled Leah in order to keep possession of the binoculars.
"Let go!" Leah fumed.
"You let go!" Bella fired back.
They continued to fight, their voices escalating and rising in volume, scaring the birds in the trees they were sheltering under, causing them to take flight, their harsh caws rending the air.
Caught up in the moment and unmindful of discovery, the two girls continued to battle each other, the push and pull so violent that the white sedan rocked to the force of their movement.
Suddenly, a movement flashed in Bella's peripheral vision- she let go of the binoculars, causing Leah to fall backward, hitting her head on the driver's side window. Leah unleashed a string of curses, but Bella just ignored her as she turned and spotted Billy looking directly at them from the front window with a stern expression.
"Great!" Bella cussed. "Now look what you've done? He's seen us. So much for a stakeout. Well done, Leah!"
Leah scowled. "Don't blame me. This is all on you."
Bella scowled back at her, before turning and looking over at Billy. She decided to wind him up a little by waving, and plastering a sarcastic smile on her face.
Billy's eyes narrowed. He let the curtain fall across the glass.
"Well, that went well." Leah snarked. "I should have known you would be useless at subterfuge."
"Oh, give it a rest, will you!" Bella said irritably. "I don't care if Billy has seen us. I'm still prepared to wait as long as it takes until Jake shows up. I am not going to throw in the towel, like you so clearly want to."
"Hey, don't you dare presume that I was ready to give up!" Leah bristled.
There followed another round of bickering as the two girls tried to blame one another for alerting Billy to their presence.
A sharp tap against the passenger door broke both girls apart. They jumped, expecting Billy.
"What are you doing here, Bella?" Jacob said with a hearty sigh. "I told you to wait until I called."
Bella stared at him in blank astonishment.
The Jacob she knew had changed so radically in the last week since she had seen him. The first thing she noticed was his hair – his beautiful hair was all gone, cropped quite short, covering his head with an inky gloss like black satin. The planes of his face seemed to have hardened subtly, tightened…aged. His neck and shoulders were different, too, thicker somehow. His hands, where they gripped the window frame, looked enormous, with the tendons and veins more prominent under the russet skin. One glance at Leah, showed that even she was stunned by all the physical changes.
"Did you hear what I said, Bella?" Jacob asked when she continued to stare at him with her mouth open. "I told you to wait for me to call you."
His words cut through Bella's distraction, bringing her ire back to the fore. She shoved the door of the white Sedan open, unintentionally smacking it right into Jacob.
"Oof!" He muttered.
"Yet another graceful exit, girl." Leah drawled sardonically as she climbed out the other side. "Or was it a deliberate move?"
"Oh, shut up, Leah." Bella muttered as she held onto the opened car door for balance.
Jacob stood before her, his eyes and posture tense.
"Sam!" Leah cried suddenly, her eyes narrowing as they focused on the solitary male figure standing a few feet away, watching. "What the hell are you doing here? Is this why you ditched me, so you could hang out with this dweeb?"
"Hey!" Jacob protested. "I'm not a dweeb!"
"You may not be a dweeb – but you're definitely a traitor!" Bella snapped at him. "Why have you been ghosting me? I called and called but you never answered."
Jacob groaned, glancing over his shoulder at Sam, who was now slowly making his way toward them. Bella focused her severe gaze on Leah's boyfriend. Older than Jacob by several years, his face was serene and sure. He didn't seem the least bit intimidated by the vitriolic glare that Leah was sending in his direction. But then again, he was probably a master at dealing with her pissy attitude.
Bella scrambled to gain control of herself as she faced Jacob, leaving Leah to tear her boyfriend to bits, while she focused on doing the same to Jacob.
"You recovered from mono pretty quickly." She said sardonically.
Jacob sighed heavily, his posture still tense. "You and I both know I didn't have mono, Bells."
"Then why did Billy lie and say you did?" Bella demanded, surprised that he had admitted the cover story was fake so easily. She didn't know whether to be hurt or relieved that he was finally being honest. But hurt won out as she remembered he had still participated in the lie.
Jacob looked behind him, glancing over at Sam, who was standing calmly in front of Leah as he let her wear herself out from all the yelling and cussing. Sam caught Jacob looking and raised his eyebrows, making a brief comment in an unfamiliar, liquid language – Bella could only be positive that it wasn't French or Spanish, but she guessed that it was Quileute. Whatever he said seemed to arouse Jacob's irritation, but certainly shut Leah up. Sam turned and walked into Jacob's house, with Leah following behind like a little lamb.
Confused, Bella stared up at Jacob, craning her neck back more than usual. "Have you grown again?" She asked in dismay.
"Six -six." Jacob shrugged as if it was no big deal. He seemed calmer now, as if whatever Sam had said had made him come to a resolution.
"Jacob, can you please just tell me what's going on?" Bella pleaded, feeling suddenly weary.
They stared at each other and the silence stretched on and on. Bella felt a lump beginning to build in her throat.
"Can we walk?" She asked.
Jacob glanced pointedly down at her cast.
"Alright, I may still have the cast, but I can still hobble." Bella said in defeat.
"Come on, then." Jacob said, offering his arm.
Bella took it, leaning on him heavily as they headed slowly toward the fringe of trees. Bella felt better once they were out of view of the house. As they walked - well Jacob walked, she shuffled - she struggled for the right thing to say, but nothing came. She just got more and more confused…. more resentful…. with all the lies, from Billy, from Jacob being sucked into going along with them, from all the secrets, that Sam seemed so calm, assured and in control. What had he said in Quileute?
Jacob suddenly picked up the pace, pulling Bella along with him, before swinging around to face her, planting himself firmly in front of her.
For a moment, she was distracted by the overt grace of his movement. Jacob had nearly been as klutzy as she had with his never-ending growth spurt. Now that had all changed.
But Jacob didn't give her time to think about it.
"The thing is you already know." He said in a hard, husky voice.
Bella waited. He knew what she wanted.
"Jeez, Bella, I don't know what to say, other than I didn't abandon you. I've been there – just not in the way you wanted me to be." Jacob sounded tired now, and slightly defeated. "Nothing in this world is what I thought – I was way off."
"So, what is it, then? Why did Billy feel the need to lie to me? And why did you let him?"
Jacob studied her face for a long moment, speculating. The ambivalence never completely left his eyes. "I can't tell you." He finally said.
Bella's jaw tightened, and she spoke through her teeth. "I thought we were friends. I guess I was wrong."
"We are." Jacob was getting frustrated now. "Gah, you're so infuriating sometimes. You've already seen. You know."
"What does that mean, Jacob?" Bella was as equally as frustrated. "What have I seen? What do I know?" She said sourly. "And why are you suddenly all buddy, buddy with Sam? He's not exactly in your friendship group."
"And Leah's in yours?" Jacob countered with a quirk of his lips.
"We're the best of frenemies." Bella hissed. "I put up with her. She puts up with me."
"Sounds like the perfect friendship to me." Jacob teased.
Bella glared up at him impatiently. "You're not funny, Jake. Either tell me what the hell is going on…. or…. or…."
"Or what?" Jacob cut in, his dark eyes narrowing.
"Otherwise, I might have to rethink our friendship." Bella finished in a small voice. "I don't like to be taken for a fool, Jacob. And right now, it feels like you're treating me like one. Leah may eventually accept Sam's lame excuses, but I won't."
"I've not been ignoring you on purpose, Bella. I just needed some time to process some things. So did Sam. He's been helping me. I've been helping him. There were so many adjustments to be made, but we're getting there. And, like I said, I have been around, in the only way I could."
"Sam's helping you?" Bella repeated dubiously. "Naturally. What did he say to you in Quileute?"
"You caught that, huh?"
"What did he say, Jacob?" Bella demanded again, a little louder.
"He was just reminding me about the need for secrecy. My dad and the other elders will be mad if I tell you." Jacob seemed to ponder this for a second, a sly smile working its way onto his lips. "But they didn't say anything about showing you. Like I said, you've already seen."
Stupid tears of frustration escaped the corners of Bella's eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her hand, and folded her arms across her chest, annoyed with herself at her lack of control.
"Bells, I'm sorry." Jacob said in anguish. His words came out fast, like a reflex. His hands reached up to twist around the hair that was no longer there, and then fell limply at his sides. He smiled bleakly. "I never wanted to hurt you, honey. I had little choice."
"But you did." Bella whispered. "I've been so worried, Jacob. I didn't know what to do. I was…scared."
Jacob reached out a trembling hand, but Bella cringed away from him.
"Don't touch me."
"Dammit, Bells, that's it. You asked for it. You want to see the truth. Well, here it is." Jacob hissed.
"Jacob!" Bella cried in alarm when his fist slammed against a tree. It wasn't a big tree, slender and only a few feet taller than Jacob, but it still surprised her when the trunk snapped off loudly under his blows.
Jacob stared at the sharp, broken point with shock, then he sprinted away from Bella, until his tall figure was swallowed up by the trees.
"It will be alright, Bella." Sam said, stepping out from the shadows. Leah was tailing him, looking mutinous.
"Why have you dragged me out here, Sam? What is going on?"
"Patience, Lee Lee." Sam replied calmly, ignoring her obstinate glare.
Bella stared at Sam. He was bigger than Jacob, though Jacob was getting close to catching up to him. Sam didn't really count as a boy. His face was older – not in the sense of lines or signs of aging, but in the maturity, the patience of his expression. Bella supposed he would have to be patient, dating someone as perverse as Leah.
"What has happened to Jacob?" Bella demanded. "Where has he gone?"
Before Sam had a chance to respond, a gigantic, russet-brown wolf – so enormous that Bella felt completely dwarfed by it – stepped proudly out of the tree cover. She stared and stared, totally oblivious to the F-bombs that Leah Clearwater was dropping.
It was the same red-brown wolf that she had come upon in her back garden well over a week ago.
"I don't believe it." She whispered in awe.
"Stay where you are, Bella." Sam ordered. "You need to be careful."
"He won't hurt me." Bella breathed. "We're old friends, aren't we, boy." She crooned. Hobbling forward, she reached out eagerly with her hand to touch the gloriously thick, red-brown fur. "I wish Jake was here to see this."
Sam appeared bemused by this statement. "Jacob is here."
Bella glanced around vaguely. "Where?"
Sam stared at her as if she was very slow-witted. "He's right in front of you, Bella."
"You have to be fucking kidding me, Sam." Leah cried in disbelief. "You mean that animal is J – "
Her words were drowned out by a low growl from the red-brown wolf. Bella took a step back, looking up at him, her brow furrowing with worry. What did Sam mean that Jacob was here? Surely, he didn't mean that this beautiful, magnificent, magical beast was –
"No, no, no." Bella mumbled, shaking her head in denial. The wolf had dipped his head so he was more on her level. She stared at him incredulously, taking in his expansive girth, the shiny, silky red-brown fur ruffling in the wind, the perked velvety ears, the dark brown/black eyes, curved but surprisingly familiar, the huge, sharp, canine teeth as the wolf opened its mouth in an approximation of a smile.
Then to everyone's surprise Bella stumbled forward, grabbing hold of the wolf's lower jaw, and trying to wrench it open further. The wolf uttered a surprised whine as she practically shoved her head inside his opened mouth.
"Halloooo, Jacob, are you in there?" Bella yelled as she if she was shouting into an echo cave.
Leah rolled her eyes heavenward as she shared an exasperated glance with Sam. "Yes, she really is that stupid!" She declared irritably.
Sam started laughing
Leah turned to stare at him – her eyes wide and frozen, like she couldn't even blink them. Because Sam had kicked off his shoes, his whole form shimmering. Like Jacob he shot off at a fast sprint, concealing himself within the trees. Then mere moments later another ginormous wolf stepped back into the light, his fur jet black, visibly as big as the reddish-brown wolf, he moved like lightening toward a shocked Leah, ramming the top of his head against her, before place a slobbering kiss on her face with his wet tongue.
A/N-thanks for reading!