Afterglow

Chapter 2

Charlie had been on my back this week and wouldn't let me go over to Jacob's house. He was upset that I had cut my head open, and I tried to appease him, already feeling guilty enough for lying to him about the true nature of my injury. So, for the entire week, Jake would come to our house to study and hangout.

We were currently sitting at the kitchen table, each of us staring at our textbooks like they were going to spring up and bite us at any second. Charlie was still at work, and we had been studying for the past hour since Jake had gotten here. It was safe to say that we were both bored out of our minds and no longer retaining anything we read. I started daydreaming, imagining myself picking up the textbook and ripping it in half before taking a bite out of it, but was snapped out of it by a loud thump as Jacob bashed his head on the table, groaning. I couldn't help but giggle, and he looked up and rolled his eyes at me.

"C'mon," I stood, piling our books on top of each other, "let's go do something."

"Bella," he was whining at me now, "what's there to do in Forks ?"

I thought about it for a second, and he wasn't really wrong. Other than the few small stores, the diner, and my school, there really wasn't a lot to do. I thought about going on a hike, dragging Jake along with me. I hadn't even thought about going back into the forest since that night in September, but I remembered the beautiful meadow. I knew it probably wasn't the best idea, but it would be nice to replace the memories made there with better memories, ones that didn't make me nauseous when I thought about them. Jake could help me recreate those memories, and it would be fun to try to find the meadow with no trail to guide us.

"What if we went hiking?"

"What?" he was scrunching his nose at me, "Bella, you can barely take two steps without tripping over nothing."

I rolled my eyes, smacking his arm, "That's enough out of you, Black. There's this cool clearing that I found with some friends when I first got here, I wanna go see if I can find it again."

He shook his head at me but he was smiling, and I knew he would join me. I grinned back and went over to the phone, calling the police station to tell Charlie that Jake and I were going for a hike and that, yes , I would be safe, I would take a first aid kit, and I would try not to fall. I ran upstairs and left Jake to call Billy while I got changed into something comfier to hike in. Soon enough, we piled into the truck and were off, driving to the spot I remembered parking the last time I had been there.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Jacob was looking at me like I was crazy when I started walking off into the forest, away from the trailhead, "Bella, there isn't even a trail! You're going to get us lost."

"Oh, ye of little faith," I rolled my eyes at him, "it's only a five mile walk, and I remember where to go, let's get moving."

We walked for a while, Jacob staying close behind me and shooting a hand out to stabilize me every time I tripped. Without fail, every single time, I blushed as he laughed at my clumsiness. He was still cracking jokes about it when I saw the sun shining through a break in the trees ahead of us, and I knew that we had found the meadow. My chest tightened and I forced in a deep breath as we kept walking, the knot in my stomach weighing heavier and heavier the closer we got.

"Bells, you okay?" Jake reached a hand out, resting it on my arm.

I hadn't noticed that I had slowed down considerably, and blinked away the tears that clouded my vision to find that we were standing at the edge of the meadow. My hands shook as I sucked in deep breaths, trying to fight the panic that was building.

"He brought you here, didn't he?" Jacob's voice was soft, but helped calm the panic a bit. He hadn't brought them up before, even though I knew he was curious, but hearing him acknowledge them for the first time almost sent me into a new frantic spiral.