Fun trivia fact: the chapter title was inspired by the 2006 slasher film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which featured Mike Newton's actor Michael Welch as, ironically enough, a guy trying to win the heart of a girl who it turns out has zero interest in him. Maybe there was some typecasting going on…
The group arrived at the theater with more than an hour to spare before their movie was due to start. Fortunately, it was one of those theaters with a room featuring arcade-style games, and Bella was finally able to shake off her admirers as they scattered to take advantage of the various diversions the arcade offered or buy snacks from the concession counter. Bella, who had no interest in any of those things, slipped off into the theater part of the building on the pretext of checking out the posters advertising upcoming releases, and after a moment, Bo joined her.
"Sorry for messing up phase one of your plan. I wasn't expecting your friend to find me so fascinating," she said with a look of rueful self-deprecation.
"Anything new and different is fascinating when you live in Forks. I can't blame her, though; you are a very interesting person, Bo. I'd rather ride with you than Mike any day of the week too."
"Aw, you're sweet…but I really need to work on my gab resistance. You know, when I first met Kenzi, it took her less than a day to talk her way into moving in with me and becoming my partner in a supernatural detective business venture I wasn't even sure I wanted to do. I never thought I'd meet anyone else who could do that, but your friend Jessica might be able to give her a run for her money."
"Jess does have a certain energy that's hard to say no to," Bella agreed, thinking of how similarly overwhelming the gossip queen of Forks High and Bo's perky goth sidekick were, and how Kenzi would undoubtedly resent the comparison. "It's like getting caught up in a tsunami."
"That's a good way of putting it," Bo chuckled. "Still, now that I know what I'm up against, I'll be ready for her next time."
They spent the remaining time until their auditorium opened up plotting their next move, so that when it was time to take their seats they were able to seamlessly arrange everyone according to their plan, with Jessica and Mike sitting next to each other and Eric and Tyler on either side of them. Jacob tried to snag one of the seats beside Bella in the next row, but Kenzi, who had been playing air hockey with him in the arcade, ran interference by steering him to sit with her instead, and Bella, to her great delight, ended up between Bo and Angela.
Afterward, she didn't remember much about the movie; she was pretty sure there were a lot of fight scenes, but she and Bo spent most of it watching the human teenagers in the row in front of them, picking the opportune moments to lean forward and just barely brush their fingers over whatever patches of Mike's or Jessica's bare skin they could reach without being noticed, sending subtle pulses of their power into the pair – carefully timed when their attention was focused on each other, of course, to ensure that their feelings of attraction and desire were directed at the appropriate target.
By the time the credits rolled, the (formerly?) off-again couple were eating out of the same popcorn bucket and leaning into one another, even putting up the armrest between them in order to get closer, and when the lights came up, it took them a moment to unclasp their intertwined fingers and stand up. When the group went out for pizza, they sat together, though Bella couldn't hear much of their conversation since she ended up in the booth across from the one Mike and Jessica shared with Angela, Eric, and Tyler, sitting next to Bo with Jacob and Kenzi on the other side of their table.
Still, whenever she stole glances across the open space between the two tables occupied by her friends, she was pleased to see that Mike and Jessica were still sitting much closer together than was required to fit on their bench…and yet, there was something in Mike's expression that bothered her, a trace of ambivalence that made her wonder whether his apparent renewed interest in Jessica had just been a product of her influence, and was now waning since he was out of her reach. The idea troubled her, because she had been so sure that what she sensed between them was the real thing, something deeper and more lasting than his superficial infatuation with her…but what if she was wrong? If she'd completely misread the situation and taken it upon herself to manipulate two of her friends based on what she had decided was best for them, didn't that make her almost as bad as the fae who saw humans as inferior, as lesser creatures that they could toy with as they saw fit?
The minute that thought crossed her mind, the slice of pizza in her hand suddenly became much less appetizing, and she quickly put it down, feeling slightly nauseous. Her distress must have shown on her face, because Jacob, who had been enthusiastically debating the merits of the movie they'd just seen with Kenzi while Bo watched them with a slightly perplexed air, abruptly broke off their discussion and asked, "You okay, Bella?"
"I'm fine," she answered shortly. "I just need to go to the restroom."
Bo stood up to let her out of their booth, and she hurried off to the ladies' room, where she peered worriedly at her face in the mirror over the row of sinks, as if her outward appearance would somehow give her a clue to the inner workings of her mind, warn her if an unsavory attitude toward humans was somehow taking root in her psyche despite the fact that she was perfectly aware that humans were people too, and didn't want to view them as beneath her…
Unfortunately, what she saw only added to her inner turmoil. Just like the night she had inspected herself in a clothing store's dressing room mirror before heading to that underground fae club with Bo, she was struck by how very different her reflection appeared from her own self-image, though she'd been working on that in the week that had elapsed since her life-changing adventure with Bo. The question was, had she succeeded too well? The girl in the mirror, with her luminous skin and sultry, thickly lashed eyes, didn't stand out exactly the same way the Cullens had the first time Bella saw them amongst all those painfully ordinary kids in the cafeteria, wasn't quite so intimidating or untouchable although she still looked just a little too perfect to be fully human…but was she a monster? Had she, without realizing it, started to think of her human friends as nothing more than prey or playthings?
Quickly turning her back on her disturbingly flawless reflection, Bella hurried out of the restroom – and almost crashed into Mike, who was emerging from the men's room at the same time. "Whoa, sorry, Bella! Are you okay?"
"Fine. How about you, Mike? I mean, are you having fun?"
"Sure," he replied with a shrug, looking rather bemused at her anxious inquiry. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Good," Bella said with perhaps a little too much relief in her voice. "That's good… How'd you like the movie? I noticed you and Jessica seemed to really get into it."
At the mention of Jessica's name, a cloud seemed to pass over his face, bringing a new thoughtfulness to his expression. "Yeah, I guess so."
Hoping she wasn't pushing her luck too much but needing to know just how much damage her meddling had done, Bella pressed on. "What's going on with you two, anyway?" she asked in what she hoped sounded like a tone of casual, friendly concern and nothing more. "First you were dating, then you weren't even though, from an outside observer's perspective, it looked like both of you still had some feelings for each other…"
"Yeah, well, it's not that simple…or maybe the problem's that it's too simple."
He cut himself off there, looking confused and conflicted, so Bella took a step closer, doing her best to project the image of a sympathetic ear. "What does that mean? You can talk to me, Mike. We're friends, aren't we?"
He stared at her for a moment, seemingly waging a fierce internal debate with himself, before speaking again. "The thing is, I've known Jess my whole life, and ever since we were in preschool, our parents joked about how cute we were together. By the time we got to kindergarten, they already assumed we'd end up dating one day. Most of the time I didn't mind – I really do like Jess – but sometimes…"
"Sometimes it must've felt stifling," Bella offered, "like they already had your life planned out before you'd even had a chance to think about what you wanted for yourself. Still, you also said that you do like Jessica…"
"Well, sure. What's not to like? She's really nice and funny and just…easy to be around, you know? In all the years I've lived in Forks, I never met anyone I'd rather be with than her…at least not until you moved in."
Bella's stomach plummeted, and she scrambled to regroup in the face of this unexpected and very unwelcome turn in their conversation. "Why me, though?" she asked after a moment of floundering. "What is it you really like about me, Mike?"
Mike blinked at her, looking taken aback by the question, before swallowing and shuffling his feet awkwardly. "Well, you're…you. I mean, you're not like any other girl around here, you're-"
"Something new and different?" she supplied. She tried not to sound too harsh, though she wasn't quite able to keep a slight scoff out of her voice. "That's not a good reason to be with somebody. Look, Mike, you're a great guy, and I do like you, but I'm not going to be anybody's escape. Being with Jessica might feel predictable, but sometimes the reason things are predictable is that they're right. You two are really good together – much better than you and I would be, honestly."
Mike looked crestfallen for a moment, though his expression soon turned thoughtful. "You know, you're right; being with Jess was easy – maybe that's why I pulled away from her, because it was too easy and I was afraid of getting too serious with her too fast – but we did have some good times together. Maybe I should give it another shot."
"Maybe you should. After all, no one's saying you have to propose to her tomorrow," Bella said with a light laugh. "We're not even seniors yet."
"Good point," Mike agreed with obvious relief – then suddenly pulled her into a hug. She automatically stiffened in response, but it was a purely friendly embrace, his hands never straying anywhere she wasn't comfortable with. "Thanks, Bella. I think I needed to talk to someone to get my head straight about this, but the guys…"
"No problem. Glad I could help," she assured him while awkwardly patting his back with one hand.
"You're a good friend…at least I hope we're still friends after what I said about wanting to be more. I hope I haven't made things weird between us."
"Nope, no weirdness here."
He expressed his gratitude with a final squeeze and then, to her immense relief, let go of her and headed back to his table, where he would presumably continue cozying up to Jessica. Left alone in the alcove outside the restrooms, Bella reflected that she was glad she had been able to help two of her friends find happiness together – and that, while she understood the extraordinary circumstances that had forced Bo to claim Kenzi, that was one area where she was determined not to follow in her sister's footsteps. Aside from the fact that owning another person still struck her as morally repugnant, she didn't think she could deal with all the drama. Humans were too complicated.
###
Not long after that, the last of the pizza was eaten, and the group piled once more into Tyler's van for the drive back to Forks. When they arrived at the Crowleys' house, everyone milled around the front yard for a while, saying their goodbyes and finalizing plans for the weekend before getting into their own cars to go their separate ways. It was during this denouement to the evening's activities that Jacob found an opportunity to pull Bella aside and, knowing he wouldn't get another chance once they were in Bo's car with her and Kenzi, seized it.
"You know, I feel like I've barely gotten to talk to you all night."
A spasm of guilt passed through Bella, who hoped he didn't feel that she had invited him along on this field trip only to ignore him. "I'm sorry, Jake; we can hang out some other time if you'd like. Although it seemed like you and Kenzi were busy dissecting the movie and comparing it to the comic book… It was a comic book it was based on, wasn't it? Not a video game?"
"Yeah, it was a comic. I can't believe Kenzi's read them all…so yeah, I had fun with her. And it looked like you had a lot to talk to that Mike Newton guy about, although I'm guessing you two weren't discussing comics."
"No, we weren't," Bella acknowledged, squirming a little under Jacob's keenly interested stare. "He needed some friendly advice on getting back together with Jessica."
"Really?" Now Jacob's eyes narrowed slightly. "Because from what I saw on the ride to the theater, it looked like he was more interested in getting with you."
Being reminded of how the two boys had competed for her attention all the way to Port Angeles did nothing to soothe Bella's increasingly taut nerves. "That was another thing he needed advice on," she said flatly. "I had to make it clear that he and I were never going to happen, so he shouldn't stay away from Jess because of me."
Jacob brightened considerably at that. "So you don't like him?"
"Not that way. He's a nice guy, and I'm grateful that he was one of the first people who wanted to make friends with me when I moved to Forks, but it always made me a little uncomfortable knowing he had a crush on me. I hope he's over it now."
"Good for you setting him straight. You need someone who has more in common with you…someone who can understand you."
"Common interests are always important in a relationship," Bella agreed, wondering where he was going with this – because the intense way he was looking at her, his dark eyes boring into hers like he was searching for something in them, or maybe it was more like he was trying to draw something out of her with the sheer force of his stare, made her certain he was going somewhere.
"That's especially true if you're different." Jacob's gaze somehow grew even more serious, and Bella's breath caught in her throat as he took a deep breath in preparation for his next words. She had the inexplicable feeling of hurtling blindly toward some great precipice, as if whatever he was about to say would irrevocably shift the very foundations of her reality, and that feeling of foreboding only intensified when he reached out and took hold of her hand, which felt very small in his. "Bella, I-"
Before he could utter whatever fateful words might have been on the tip of his tongue, however, he was cut off by the loud clearing of someone's throat. They jumped, Jacob dropping Bella's hand like a hot potato, and looked around to see Bo standing there with her hands on her hips, a slight frown on her face, and Kenzi right behind her as always.
"Sorry to butt in," she said in a tone that didn't really sound terribly apologetic, "but are you guys ready to go? Everybody else is leaving, and I don't think Tyler wants us camping out on his lawn all night."
"Also, Bobo's gotta get back to her man before withdrawal kicks in," Kenzi added with a sly Cheshire cat grin. "Isn't tonight a new record for how long you and Dyson have been apart since achieving official couple status?"
"I haven't been keeping track."
"Yes, we're ready," Bella broke in, feeling as if she had just been yanked back from the edge of a cliff. "Let's go; I bet Billy's waiting up for Jake." She began striding quickly toward Bo's car, her sister falling into step beside her.
"I hope I didn't put my foot in it just now," Bo murmured in her ear, lowering her voice so Jacob and Kenzi wouldn't hear. "You just looked like you needed rescuing."
"I'm not sure if I did or not," Bella murmured back, "but thanks anyway."
Beating the others to the car, she wasted no time in claiming the front passenger seat, leaving Jacob and Kenzi in the backseat while Bo got behind the wheel. They kept the conversation light throughout the drive to La Push, and Bella was grateful that the other women's presence seemed to serve as a buffer, preventing Jacob from resuming their earlier conversation, which was undoubtedly meant to be private…but even though she tried not to glance into the back of the car any more often than she could help without giving the impression that she was deliberately ignoring the rear seat passengers, Bella felt his eyes on her right up to the moment they pulled up in front of the Blacks' house. As they drove away after letting Jacob out, she was left with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that this wasn't over, that whatever had almost happened between her and Jacob tonight had only been postponed, and that sooner or later she would have to face it…whatever it might be.
###
Bo could tell there was something weighing heavily on her sister's mind, something that obviously had to do with whatever she and Jacob had discussed in Tyler Crowley's front yard – though Bo had no way of knowing for sure, she strongly suspected that Bella had been forced to politely reject an unwanted suitor for the second time that night – but even after Jacob was out of the car, Bella showed no inclination to share her troubles. Every time Bo glanced over at her it was to find her gazing broodingly out into the night, and while Bo wanted badly to say something helpful, offer some useful advice or even just commiserate with her, the right words stubbornly eluded her, so the silence continued unbroken until they reached Bella's house.
"Wow, she was even chattier than usual," Kenzi said sarcastically once she got out. "Like, let somebody else get a word in, why don't ya?"
"Mmm-hmm," Bo replied absently, her mind still full of Bella's romantic problems.
"Oh, so it's gonna be one of those nights. Great," Kenzi muttered, slouching down in her seat and resigning herself to giving Bo her quiet time, hard as it was for her to keep her mouth shut.
Unfortunately for Kenzi, Bo's preoccupation lasted until they pulled up to the Cullens' secluded abode, where Dyson was waiting outside for them. At the sight of him, Bo felt her lips curl into the first smile she'd worn since she saw Jacob take Bella's hand, and her sister's obvious discomfort with the situation; she didn't want to be one of those girls who couldn't go five minutes without seeing their significant other, but she had to admit that she would have enjoyed the evening more if he'd been there, and it was gratifying to see that he had missed her too.
"Hey there," she greeted him as she climbed out of her car and reached out for a hug…but at that moment, Kenzi, who hadn't bothered to change seats after Bella got out, opened the rear door. Dyson's spine went rigid in a way that made Bo think that if he'd been in wolf form, his fur would have bristled, and he walked right past her outstretched arms, going straight to the car and leaning into the open door to smell the interior.
"Dyson?" Bo asked in confusion, her arms dropping back to her sides. "What's wrong?"
After giving the backseat a thorough sniffing, he straightened up and turned to face her with an expression that she found hard to pin down; there was definitely surprise there, even disbelief, and maybe just a hint of wariness as well. Instead of answering her question, however, he responded with one of his own. "Besides Kenzi, who was the last person to sit here?"
###
Upon arriving home, Bella checked in with Charlie and briefly recapped the night's events – leaving out the part about Mike's and Jacob's unwelcome advances – before heading upstairs. While she was satisfied that she had finally closed the book on Mike's hopeless infatuation with her once and for all, she still doubted that things with Jacob would be so neatly resolved, and dealing with the whole mess had left her so emotionally drained that all she wanted was to crawl into bed and hide under the covers. Before she could do that, though, her phone rang. She checked the screen and, seeing that it was Bo, reluctantly answered. "Hello?"
"Hey, Bella. Sorry to call so late, but Kenzi and I just got back to the Cullens' place, and Dyson was there waiting for me, and when he got a whiff of the inside of my car-"
"I'm really tired, Bo," Bella interrupted, "and you're not making any sense. What are you talking about with Dyson smelling something in your car? Did Kenzi leave old fast food wrappers in there again?"
"No, it wasn't stale food that set him off. The backseat still had your friend's scent from him sitting in it, and… Look, Bella, there's no easy way to say this, but Jacob Black isn't what you think. He's fae. Specifically, he's a wolf who hasn't started shifting yet, although Dyson thinks he will soon."
The words hit Bella like an electric shock that sizzled down her spine, leaving her entire body numb; somehow, her fingers managed to keep the phone pressed to her ear, though she wouldn't have been aware of this if not for Bo's worried voice asking if she was still there. As it was, it took almost a full minute for her sister's anxious queries to penetrate the fog that had enveloped her brain, plus another handful of seconds for her to realize that she should say something and actually formulate a response. When she finally got her mouth to cooperate, her voice came out somewhere between a whisper and a croak. "Are you sure?"
"Dyson is," Bo said softly. "And trust me, his nose knows fae."
At that point, Bella sat down hard on her bed, or more accurately, her knees gave way, causing her to collapse; it was just an extremely fortunate coincidence that her bed happened to be behind her. She hardly noticed the impact, though – her brain had gone into overdrive as several things which individually made no sense or seemed like random occurrences with no deeper significance suddenly clicked into place, like the moment when the pieces of a puzzle came together to form a complete picture.
First, there was Jacob's growth spurt, which had been accompanied by a surge of muscle development not typically seen in teenage boys that had interested her more than she cared to admit; if bulking up was his body's way of preparing for his first change, maybe it was the emergence of his fae nature that the succubus in her had reacted to rather than the muscles themselves, instinctively recognizing that he would be a better feeding option than the humans she was surrounded with.
Heck, he actually told me he was a wolf once – in his story about the 'cold ones', he mentioned that the Quileutes are supposedly descended from wolves. Of course, he presented it as just an old tribal legend, and I didn't question it then, but now that I know what I know… Holy crow, Jacob really could be a wolf-shifter! And if he is…
Suddenly, she understood what he'd said about how she needed to find someone who had more in common with her than Mike Newton did, someone who could understand her, in a whole new light. What if he somehow knows that I'm fae too…but how could he?
Then it hit her: Descended from wolves… Fae powers are hereditary! Which means if Jacob's a wolf, Billy must be one too, and Bo said wolf-shifters can smell other fae. Billy and Jake were here the night Bo and Kenzi came over for dinner, so he must have known since then. She wasn't sure how to feel about that; on one hand, it was disturbing to think that someone had known her secret all this time, but on the other, if the Blacks did know, they hadn't done anything about it, hadn't tried to expose, trap, or hurt her or Bo. Billy hadn't even told Charlie what she was, even though they were best friends – then again, maybe it was because they were best friends that Billy hadn't wanted to break the news to Charlie that his daughter wasn't human.
As she pondered who had known what when, a final revelation struck her: Jacob also told me it was his ancestors who negotiated the treaty with the Cullens to keep them off Quileute land, which means Edward knew Ephraim Black was a wolf…and because fae powers are inherited unless you dilute the bloodline by mating with a human, he must have known Jacob would become one too! And he never told me!
This realization sent another jolt through her, though it wasn't one of astonishment this time. She was annoyed and getting pretty close to mad, but she didn't know yet just how mad she should be. "Sorry, my mind wandered off again," she said into the phone, cutting off Bo's latest round of questions about whether she was okay. "This is a lot to process. Listen, can you get Edward, please? I need to ask him something."
Edward must have overheard her from whatever part of the house he was in and raced to take the phone from Bo, because it was only a couple of seconds later that his voice came through the speaker, as velvety-smooth as ever but with a barely perceptible note of underlying tension. "Hello, Bella. Did you have a nice evening?"
As much as she normally appreciated his impeccable manners, she was in no mood for pleasantries tonight. "You got here fast. Were you eavesdropping on me and Bo?"
"I tried not to, but I couldn't help noticing when you said my name. What did you want to speak with me about?"
She thought it over for a moment, trying to decide where to begin, only to end up saying, "Too much to get into over the phone. Will you come over tomorrow? There's a lot we need to discuss face to face."