"You're not fine but you can't keep letting her control your life." She responded. "Get up!"
"Why?" I asked, still laying face down on the couch.
"Because we are going to La Push." She said as she pulled me to my feet. "And we're going to have fun."
I knew that La Push definitely had the potential to be fun, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to have fun at the moment. I didn't know if I had a choice. I groaned and stood up.
"What exactly are we going to do there?" I asked in defeat, knowing full well that Jessica could literally force me to go. She was definitely stronger than me. I didn't know why she couldn't just let me wallow in self-pity, even though I was pretty sure that doing so would make her a bad friend. Why did I have to have such a good friend?
"I'm going to teach you how to surf." She stated. I was pretty sure that she wouldn't be able to do that. I was bad at all sorts of physical activities and I was pretty sure that surfing would not be an exception.
"But it's like 50 degrees outside." I complained. That was not ideal weather for being at the beach.
"Then you better make sure not to fall off." She replied. I was pretty sure that it wouldn't be good for my feet either. Maybe I could wear water shoes.
"Hello, you're talking to the queen of klutzes." I pointed out as I put my shoes on. I had a feeling that there was nothing that I could do to talk her out of it, but I at least needed to try. "And I don't even have a wetsuit anyway."
"Then we'll get you one at Mike's family's store. I have everything covered." She remarked. It seemed like she had a plan for whatever I said.
"Okay fine let's go." I relented. Jessica took me out the door and we got into her car. She drove the two of us to Newton's Olympic Outfitters. It was the first time that I had actually been inside of there. Mike was inside but that wasn't surprising since it was his family's store.
"Hey, Jess, Alice." Mike greeted. "Can I help you with anything?"
"No we just need to get Alice a wetsuit.' Jessica commented. I suppose we didn't need his help if Jessica knew where they were.
"Isn't it a little cold for surfing?" Mike asked. See? I wasn't the only one who thought that. This was going to go badly.
"That's what I said." I responded. "But she has her mind set on it."
"Well Jess, you know where they are." He replied. It meant that we didn't need any
She took me to the section where they were and to the women's section. "What color do you want?"
"I dunno, I guess black." I said as she handed me a black spandex top and a matching bikini bottom. I thought we were going to get me a whole wetsuit, but apparently she had other ideas. It was a lot like what I wore last time to La Push. I could have just brought that if I had known that was what she wanted me to wear.
"I think I wanna get blue." She told me. I came out wearing the clothes and she also went to change. It would probably be easiest just to wear them under our clothes and give the tags to the cashier to pay for them. That was what we ended up doing.
After we were done at the sports store, we drove to La Push. It was just like the last time that I had been to the beach. The weather was exactly the same, maybe slightly colder. We rented a pair of boards. I noticed hers was slightly longer than mine but I wasn't quite sure why. I didn't really know anything about surfing, so I had no idea.
"Okay you need to start by paddling toward the waves." She instructed. She guided me through all of the steps and we went through a couple of small waves. As we were walking along the shore, a wave crashed down on us. We couldn't help but shiver and giggle a little. The water was kind of cold. It probably wasn't the best idea to do that, but I also had to admit that I was having a good time.
"Alice Swan, I didn't know that you knew how to surf." A male voice said. We both turned to see Jacob and his two friends whose names I seem to have forgotten. It was also possible that they weren't the same friends as before. He could have made some new friends that looked pretty similar to his old ones. It didn't know why they all had the same hairstyle.
"Well Jess was teaching me." I explained. I then shivered a little. "That was fun but now we're kind of cold."
"Yeah we should probably shower to warm up." Jessica added. That sounded like a good idea, even though I wasn't completely sure if it would be effective.
"You know you could all shower together." One of Jacob's friends said. Both of us and Jacob glared at him. That really wasn't something that you were supposed to say out loud, even though now I was a little bit curious what Jessica looked like without clothes on.
"I don't know if you remember my friends Quil Atera and Embry Call." Jake remarked. I was pretty sure that he hadn't told me their last names last time. "They're usually better trained than this."
"You know Jess that might be a bad idea." I remarked playfully. It was kind of fun to see if I could make them squirm. "It would help us generate extra warmth."
"Yeah we should totally do that." She agreed. The looks on the faces of the guys were priceless. The two of couldn't help but laugh as their mouths hung open. It also made me pretty sure that none of them were gay. I wasn't interested in them even if I wasn't gay. "But yeah we should probably head to the bathhouse and no spying on us."
We both walked to the bathhouse and stripped off our wetsuits. At the same time, through under different heads, we turned on the hot water and it began to run. I couldn't help but look over Jessica's body a little as we were showering. She was definitely hot. Not as hot as Bella but hot nonetheless. I made sure to look away before she noticed that I was looking at her. I remember that she mentioned at prom that she might like to try dating women but I wouldn't be able to do that. Not now. I still had hope that Bella would come back.
We both finished with our showers and dried off before putting our clothes back on. Well we had taken our suits off and put our other clothes back on. Much to our surprise, the guys were waiting outside. I couldn't help but wonder what they were doing out there. Had they really been waiting there the whole time? Were there any secret windows that I didn't know about?
"You know I didn't place you guys as the spy on girls in the shower type." Jessica joked. At least I was pretty sure that she was joking because she didn't seem to be very angry about it.
"We just wanted to see if you wanted a tour of the reservation." Quil remarked with a blush on his face. We had definitely gotten them flustered.
"Yeah. We could show you all around." Jake added. He was cute. Not really in a guy that you're attractive way, but in the sort of younger brother way. That was how I tended to think of him. "I mean you still owe me a rain check Ali and I intend to make you fulfill it."
"What do you say?" I asked Jessica. I could tell that they really wanted to hang out with us and I didn't really know my way around the reservation. "Should we throw them a bone?"
"I guess it would be okay." Jessica remarked. I wondered if she was interested in dating either of them. That could have been why she was joking earlier. "So where to boys?"
"Well I can show you where I live since you never came over." Jacob offered. I supposed that would be a pretty safe place to go. I couldn't help but wonder how they felt about outsiders on the reservation. I did know that there wasn't a casino on the reservation, so at least they didn't have that stereotype going for them. They may have still had their own sorts of tribal laws. Another thing I couldn't help but wonder was if Jacob knew that the Cullens were vampires.
Jess and I got back in her car and we followed them down the road to Jacob's place. I had to say what I saw had a much more Native American feel to it than the beach. There was more dirt definitely. Well maybe that meant that it looked more like a farm. It pretty much was a farm. I didn't know that they had farms in Washington. I wondered if it would difficult to grow crops when it rained as much as it did here. Plants could also have problems with having too much water. I didn't know if it was as bad as not having enough water, but it still wasn't good for them. I was pretty sure it was like drowning.
"So this is where you live?" Jessica asked skeptically. Those weren't all that uncommon on farms. I was a little curious about it myself. "What's with the barn?"
"That's my garage. It's where I fix up old cars." Jacob explained. I couldn't help but wonder if they had any plans to open a shop. He could probably make some good money by helping the locals, but maybe he didn't want to do that. "I worked on Alice's truck there."
"So you're the reason she has that rust bucket." She stated. I was pretty sure that she wasn't a fan of my truck. The biggest issue was that I didn't really have a way to replace it. Most of the dealers were pretty far away and I was pretty sure that Charlie didn't have the time to take me to one.
I couldn't help but laugh as the two of them quarreled. It was rather humorous to say the least and Quil and Embry seemed to pick up on it as well. Eventually Embry and Quil headed home because it was getting dark.
"You two are welcome to stay for dinner if you want." Jacob offered. I supposed that I could take him up on his offer. I also couldn't help but wonder how many times Charlie had been over. "We're having deer."
"I guess I could try it once." Jess replied. I had never had deer before. I did wonder what the meet tasted like, even though I couldn't say that I was a fan of how that was obtained. At least I was pretty sure the Natives were only hunting for food and not for sport, which I was pretty sure was supposed to be better. I just knew that I wouldn't want to go hunting at any point. I couldn't shoot an animal.
"And I might as well too since she's my ride." I said. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to say no to it. Maybe deer meat was good.
We headed into the house and Billy was there to greet us. He was still in his wheelchair and he was still taller than me in it.
"Alice, it's so nice to see you." Billy said. "And I see you have a friend with you."
"I'm Jessica." She said as he held out her hand to him. He hesitated a little before shaking it. He looked like he was thinking about something. What had he been thinking about? I wished that I could read minds like Elena sometimes. "So can we eat now?"
"Yes of course." Billy replied as he rolled to the kitchen and we walked in behind him and sat down at the table as Jacob served us.
I had never had deer before but I had to say that it was actually kind of good. Though, it was definitely different from the way that Bella ate deer. I had actually never really asked what kind of animals they ate. I couldn't help but wonder if she had a favorite kind of animal blood, but seemed like such a weird question.
"So Jacob, Sam called again wanting to talk to you today." Billy stated. I didn't know who Sam was, but he seemed interested in Jacob.
"What Sam Uley, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Shirtless, I can only imagine what he wanted to talk to you about." Jessica replied sarcastically.
"He has a girlfriend." Jacob pointed out. I still didn't know who he was. "And I've already told him that I'm not interested."
"Wasn't Sam one of the guys that were jumping off the cliff earlier?" Jessica asked. When did she see that? I didn't see anyone jumping off cliffs. Also what did Jacob tell him that he wasn't interested in? Jumping off of cliffs with him or something else?
"Yeah it's a huge rush of adrenaline." Jacob described. Okay, so that wasn't it. "Most of us go from lower but Sam and his gang like to show off."
"Why would anyone want to jump off a cliff on a day like today?" I asked. "Wouldn't the waves cause some problems."
"Our tribe happens to be pretty good swimmers." Billy explained. Well I was pretty sure that he couldn't swim that well. "And Sam's group is even better."
"Am I the only one who finds a group of guys who run around shirtless all day a little bit strange?" Jessica asked. It seem like it was pretty weird.
"It helps them get better in touch with their tribal roots." Billy stated. How exactly?
"What does that mean?" I asked the man in the wheelchair before taking another bite.
"I'm not really at a liberty to tell outsiders tribal secrets." Billy responded. So that meant that they weren't going to tell me. I couldn't help but sigh because I hated not knowing things. Actually, maybe I could check that book that I got in the spring. I wondered if anything useful would be in there.
"Well all I know is I wouldn't want to be surrounded by guys all the time." Jessica remarked. 'I hope this doesn't offend you but I've discovered that guys aren't really worth it because a lot of them think with their groins."
I blushed a little at that statement.
"We aren't a very judging society." Billy replied. I had heard that Natives were actually pretty good when it came to LGBT issues.
"So do you have a girlfriend?" Jacob questioned. I couldn't help but wonder why he wanted to know about it.
"No not that the moment but I figure that's okay because you don't have one either if I'm correct." She countered. At that point, I couldn't help but laugh.
"You two fight just like you're brother and sister." I pointed out, giggling a little.
"We do not." They both said at the same time which only made me laugh more. Billy looked a little uneasy for some reason.
Jessica then got up from her seat after she was finished and I did as well.
"Well thanks for the dinner, Mr. Black." She said as she began to walk away. Billy frowned a little. Okay does he really not like Jessica because he's acting really strange around her or he was acting like he knows something that the rest of us don't?
Jessica drove me home and I grabbed my wet wetsuit and walked outside. She decided to walk with me to my door. I couldn't believe that I had had such a good time.
"Thanks for making me do this." I said with a smile. "I had a lot of fun."
"Don't mention it.' She replied. "I just thought that you needed to have some fun. We can go shopping tomorrow if you want."
"I would like that." I said before I walked into my house, feeling good for the first time since Bella had left.
So it's beginning to look like Alice and Jessica might have a relationship. How is that going to go? Please don't forget to review.