Life was fucking bliss for a while after that. I went to the Clearwaters' house on Mondays. Leah came over on Thursdays and stayed overnight every Saturday. I took whatever shifts work had available that didn't intrude on my Leah time. She was my priority.

I was only hanging out with Jake once or twice a week now. That was what Leah wanted and I wanted to respect her wishes. He didn't know about Leah and me, not exactly. He knew we were friends and that I liked to hang out with her during her time off.

I had told Jake that I wasn't interested in him in any way romantically. I wouldn't let him hold my hand anymore, even when we walked on the wet rocks around the tide pools. I had promised Leah I wouldn't. I'm not sure how much he accepted that we'd always be just friends, not truly. He would still make flirtatious comments but not enough that I had to scold him for it. He did stop trying to hold my hand after a while though.

Then one day, he stood me up!

He wasn't home even though we had made plans. Billy didn't answer the door. Jake's garage was empty. No one would answer my phone calls after that. It was weird. He was still my friend but he was ghosting me.

I missed my friend though.

About once per week, I drove out to La Push to try to talk to him. One time, I swear I saw him with Sam Uley at the edge of the woods. As I was walking towards them, they seemed to disappear before my eyes: there one second and gone the next.

I remembered what Leah said. She had told me how Sam had disappeared from her life a few months ago. Was that what was happening to Jake?

I tried to see Jake again one Friday when I didn't have a shift at work. Jake was home!

I was so relieved. "Jake, where have you been?" I asked as he walked out of the house. He looked at me angrily and started walking towards the woods.

"Why are you ignoring me all the time?" I asked, getting angry now that I was talking to his back.

He just kept walking away.

"Just tell me!" I demanded.

He finally turned around. "We're not friends anymore, Bella. That's all I can say."

He looked totally different. He looked like one of Sam's gang now. "Sam got you, huh?" I asked, stepping back.

"It's not like that. He's a good guy."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, sure." I walked back to my truck. "If you don't want to be friends with me, that's fine, but I'm not going to swallow any bullshit about Sam being a good guy. You're trapped in his gang now, too. Congratulations."

I slammed the door of my truck and drove off in a huff. I didn't want to be sad about losing my only friend, but I was. I was really sad.

That night, Jake crept into my window like a weirdo, like Edward used to do.

He started by apologizing.

"What are you apologizing for, Jake?"

"For saying we're not friends."

"We're clearly not, Jake. You flake on our plans. You never call me back. Friends actually like spending time together."

"I like spending time with you, Bella. You know this."

"Then what's the problem? Sam? Because you're one of his gang now?"

"It's not a gang, it's-" he stopped abruptly.

"It's what, Jake?"

"Remember when we walked on the beach? Before you started seeing -" he stopped again.

"Edward. Yeah, what about it?" He looked surprised. We used to dance around Edward's name but that hadn't been a source of pain for me in a long time.

"Well you wanted to know-"

"About your legends…" I wasn't ready to admit to Jake that I knew Edward was a vampire. I had told Leah and that hadn't gone well at all.

"Yes, that explains that we're not a gang," Jake said cryptically.

"No it doesn't!" I was almost shouting before I remembered I didn't want to draw my dad's attention.

"It does. You're smart. Think about what I told you. You'll figure it out. Come visit when you do."

And with that he left.

He was no help at all!

I thought about the legends as I lay down in bed that night. When I fell asleep, I dreamt of wolves. I woke up with an understanding. Jake was a werewolf like the ones in the Quileute legend.

"Is Leah coming this afternoon?" Dad asked at breakfast that Saturday morning.

"That's the plan," I said, drinking the milk from my cereal bowl.

"Good," he said, already in cop mode this morning. "I don't want you girls going into the woods. There are some wolves who have been attacking humans. We're sending out hunting parties."

I froze. Jake. They were going to shoot Jake! I needed to warn him.

When I got home from the rez that afternoon, I was late for meeting Leah for our sleepover. Leah was getting into her car to leave. "Leah!" I shouted, breathless as I ran toward her. "I'm sorry I was late! Sam wouldn't let me go."

"Sam? What were you doing with Sam?" She asked, looking a little crazed.

"Come in. Please don't leave!" I was begging. I would grovel on my hands and knees for this woman. "I'll tell you everything. It's a crazy story but let's go get comfortable and I'll tell you everything."

She looked concerned and angry and worried and curious. She looked at me. I was dirty and tussled. She was fucking perfect and I was so scared she was going to walk away from me.

"Leah, please, I'm sorry I was late." I held both of her hands in mine. "I didn't want to be late. I swear it. Let me tell you everything." I stroked her cheek with one hand, looking into her eyes, my eyes pleading for mercy. "Please."

She looked sad. "I thought you didn't want to see me today."

"I want to see you every day," I said quickly. It was so true.

"That's what you always say, but you weren't here and I was sad that you didn't want to see me anymore."

"But you waited," I said hopefully.

She nodded. "I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to go home. I didn't want to be sad at home. They'd ask what happened between us and I'd just be sadder."

"Baby, I want you, I'm sorry I was late. Please come in and let me explain."

She stood and hugged me. "Ok. I'm sorry that I was freaking out."

"I'm sorry I was late. Come inside with me."

"Ok."

She let me lead her by the hand.

"Will you come with me to bed?" I was pleading.

She nodded. I held her hand as we walked up stairs. I stripped naked and climbed into bed. She followed my example. We lay facing each other on the pillow. I reached over to touch her waist.

"You know how I've been thinking that Jake has been sucked into Sam's gang and you told me to leave it alone and I wouldn't?"

"Yes. I'm guessing it caught up to you finally? Ignoring my wisdom?" She had a bit of snark creeping into her voice. She definitely had an I-told-you-so tone.

"Sort of," I admitted. "Yesterday I saw Jake for the first time in weeks when I went to La Push."

"And what did he have to say for himself?" Leah had been mad that Jake wasn't being nice to me but I think she was relieved that we weren't hanging out anymore. I think she was still a little jealous about me spending time with him.

"He said that we can't hang out any more. And I was fine with that, I guess. If that's what he says when Sam's not around, I'm fine with that. It's not like we were really friends anymore anyway, not for a while. I was prepared to honor his wishes."

"This doesn't explain why you were late today, babygirl, why you stood me up," she said, clearly still hurt from earlier.

"I didn't stand you up. I was held captive against my will and we'll get there."

She sighed, not sure what to believe. "Continue," she said, her hand on my lower back

"So last night, Jake jumped through my window-"

"He what?" She interrupted, sounding kind of pissed and a little dangerous and definitely hot.

"He climbed into my window-"

"Like that stalker Edward used to do?" She was definitely pissed.

"Yeah, a little different." I clarified. "Jake came to talk, not to watch me sleep. Anyway, Jake reminded me about the legends he told me on the beach before I started dating stalker Edward. Remember I told you about that?"

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes. "He told you that old story of vampires and werewolves. I've heard all the stories before. Everyone on the rez has heard those stories."

"Except the Cullens really are vampires, whether you believe me or not. And Leah, Jake was telling me that Sam's gang are werewolves. And he's joined Sam's gang now. So Jake's a werewolf now." My eyes were wide. Hers were narrowed.

She rubbed her forehead. She didn't believe me, but she wasn't leaving me. For whatever reason, even if she thought I was crazy, she still wanted to be with me. That was a relief.

I continued. "Then this morning, my dad said that some people were being attacked by wolves and he's sending out a hunting party. And if Jake's a werewolf, he could get hurt by the hunting party. I had to warn him."

"You had to warn Jake?"

"Yeah, I had to warn him that they were hunting him," I repeated. "So I talked to Jake on the beach this morning. He wasn't worried about the hunting party. We talked about a lot of things, like we were catching up on the weeks we hadn't seen each other. We talked about all the things neither of us knew how to talk about before, the vampires and the werewolves and all that. It was good, Leah. But then we ran into the rest of the werewolves in the woods."

"Mmmhmm." I couldn't tell if she believed me or not but at least she was getting into the story.

"Well, Paul and Jake both turned into wolves and fought because Paul was mad that Jake was talking to me or something. He seems like a jerk. Since they were fighting, Sam told Jared and Embry to take me to Emily's house. It was close to noon time but they wouldn't let me leave until Sam said I could go. But Sam wasn't there! Emily was nice to me. I didn't know what to say to her. I didn't really talk to any of them."

Leah looked exasperated.

I continued. "But Jared held onto my keys until Sam came back and said I could go. Jared's strong so I couldn't take them by force. I had to promise not to tell anyone. I know this sounds crazy, Leah. I know it does." I said all this looking into her eyes, wanting her to believe me.

"It really does, Bella." She brushed her hand on my face lovingly. "I don't know what you want me to say when you go off into these stories. I hope you're writing all these ideas down though. They'll make excellent children's stories."

"You can call Sam. Ask him if I was there."

"That would verify a very small portion of the story. I believe that you believe it is true. Can we talk about, I don't know, anything else now?"

"Sure," I said crestfallen.

She could see the hurt on my face. It wasn't well hidden. "You want me to believe you?"

I nodded. But I didn't want to talk about it anymore. Part of me hoped that she would never know the truth, that she would live in blissful ignorance forever and never have to deal with the supernatural world the way that I had. The rest of me knew that if she never accepted this huge part of my life story, it would tear us apart.

I pulled myself close to her and kissed her. My hands were exploring her body. I needed her comfort now, even though I felt like she was hurting me by not believing me.

There were tears on my face but I just kept kissing through them.

She was brushing her hand on my cheek, wiping away the tears. She pulled her mouth away from mine. "What's wrong, baby, what's wrong?"

"I can't… I love you, Leah!"

"I love you too. What's wrong?"

"How can you love me if you think I'm crazy?"

"I don't think you're crazy. I think the boys were playing a trick on you. I don't know what the Cullens' were doing. They're definitely creepy and weird. I don't think you're crazy though, baby."

"Should I just not tell you about this stuff anymore?"

"I don't know, honestly. I never know what to say. I don't want to be mean. I want to be supportive. But I'm a sarcastic bitch and I know it. And I'm sorry that I upset you, Bella. It's the last thing I wanted to do. Ok? You're so precious to me. I just want to enjoy my time with you."

"Yeah, but I'm sad now. I feel like I made all this progress with Jake this morning but it's like the universe subtracted it from my relationship with you."

"That's not what I want!" Leah cried out.

"Me either!"

"I know what to do." She said, defiant against the universe.

"You do?" My hopes rose.

Leah nodded. "I'm going to need you to strangle me with your thighs."

I giggled. "It's worth a try."

Things got back on track after that. We had to stop when my dad got home. I hadn't even started supper. Leah and I cooked together quickly.

When we sat down to supper, dad told us about the hunting parties looking for the wolves. "You girls haven't gone into the woods have you? I know you like to take walks sometimes."

"No, dad, not since you told me not to." I said, lying.

Leah was glaring at me. Then she answered, "I was at work until I came here."

Thankfully, Dad didn't notice Leah glaring.

Leah and I did the dishes after supper. She washed. I dried and put everything away. We went back up to my room when we were through. Dad watched some WWII documentaries on TV.

Leah immediately started scolding me once we were in bed. "Bella, you have been in the woods even though your dad told you not to. If there really are wolves attacking people-"

"They're not attacking people, Leah." I had to stand up for Jake. "The wolves are the protectors. It's the vampires that are attacking people. And one of them is looking for me."

"What?"

"One of the vampires is looking for me, Leah." I said, averting my eyes. I didn't mean to bring this up but it just came out.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" Her eyes were full of concern.

"You didn't believe everything else I said. I knew you wouldn't believe that either."

"I'm scared for you, Bella." She pulled me into a tight embrace. "I don't know what is real but I know that there is a real danger if Charlie's out there hunting in the woods. I don't know what's safe for you."

"I always feel safe with you," I said, running my hand through her hair. "It's spring break this week. Do you think we can spend more time together during spring break?"

"I still work second shift most days, but we could do sleepovers on Monday and Thursday." Her face look hopeful.

My face brightened. "Your house on Monday and mine on Thursday?"

"That would be awesome! I think my parents would really like that. They want to get to know you better. They think you're my only friend."

"Sort of true." I teased.

"Sort of not friends," she said, coming close to me and cupping my boobs.

"Sort of girlfriends."

"Gal pals."

"Lovers."

Or lips were joined now.

I loved Sundays with Leah. I was always so at peace on Sunday after sleeping the whole night in Leah's arms. I loved waking up with her. It was my favorite day. I knew I'd get to see her again on Monday. Sunday was like the middle part of a Leah sandwich.

After Monday, I always had to go two days without her until Thursday. That was the worst! But after Thursday, there was only one more day until Saturday. Then It was Leah sandwich time again!

When I woke up this Sunday, her boob was already in my mouth. Fucking awesome.

I ran my hand down her stomach to her thighs. I loved her thighs.

She looked down at me, my mouth still full of her boob. My tongue was playing with her nipple.

"Wanna ride my thigh?" She asked.

I was so excited. I gasped. "Yes. Yes. Yes."

"That's what you're supposed to say when you get on," she said.

I straddled her thigh, rubbing my clit on her. I brought my own thigh and rubbed it on her pussy. We moved together, grinding and rubbing. Her eyes were on me, on the jiggle of my breasts and my movement in her leg. She alternated between kissing me and watching my face as my pleasure grew.