вυмp ιn тнe nιgнт

TWENTY TWO

jacob black didn't really know what he was doing, knocking on jasmine's door after dinner had ended with her plate of food. she'd walked out because of a call from her girlfriend, who had apparently gotten upset with her recently for taking care of one of her friends, and he didn't know if it was alright for him to try and comfort her if she needed it.

"uh, jasmine? is it alright for me to come in?"

he didn't hear anything from the other side, but the doorknob was clicking and turning less than a minute later, and jacob's eyes soften when they land on his friend, who wasn't looking at him. she moves away from the door, silently allowing him to come in, and he follows her before closing the door behind her.

jacob and jasmine hadn't been friends for very long. sure, their fathers had become fast friends after that first fishing trip marcus had joined in on, but the kids had been awkward when they'd first met each other. when the four men and their families would meet up at the clearwater diner for dinner sometimes, she tended to gravitate more towards leah and jackson, while he stayed near seth, cecilia, and alex, with bella sometimes joining them. sure, they were pretty much the same age, but it took them awhile to warm up to one another.

when they did, they ended up hanging out more, the two of them and bella taking time to organize small study sessions every once in awhile. he'd even met jessica and angela at one point, as he was leaving from jasmine's house while they were arriving for a sleepover.

eventually, hailey had joined their little group, jasmine including her in their hangouts and study times.

that all came crumbling down a bit when bella went comatose after her ass of a boyfriend left her in the woods. the two grew a bit distant with each other, jacob no longer having her support in his grades and familial problems considering he'd actually begged her to try and help bella. he could admit that he and bella weren't the best of friends, considering he had a crush on her and she was enamored with the cullen boy, but he knew the two girls were actual friends.

hailey, when she found out that he'd asked jasmine to help his longtime crush, smacked him and ditched him for two weeks.

snapping out of his inner monologue of his timeline of their friendship, jacob moves to place the plate of food she'd left at the table in front of the girl who was now sitting on the floor by her bed. she slowly began eating what was left on the plate, and the boy fell into a similar seated position next to her. they were close in proximity, but jacob didn't want to push his luck by making accidental physical contact with her. she'd told him before that she didn't like being touched in vulnerable situations.

so, they sat like that for a few minutes, just the sounds of their breathing, her eating, and the scrape of her utensils on the plate, followed by the sound of laughter coming from downstairs. it had brought a small smile to her face when the noises first reached her ears, but she continued to focus on her food.

"wanna talk about it?" he questions softly after she'd finished off what was left, only to be met with silence. she places the fork back on the plate, then leans her head back to look up at her ceiling.

finally, she said, "she's still upset with me. even though i'm not actively trying to help bella, she knows that i'm probably still helping in a small way, and she says i should just leave her to rot if that's what she wants to do. of course, she should know by now that i'm not the kind of friend who does that, so she gave up and said she'd call me later."

he didn't exactly know what to say. he didn't know anything about relationships other than the time embry had dated a girl for a couple weeks, and his only romantic experience was him hopelessly trying to flirt with bella. he had no idea what to say to jasmine, not when she was having girlfriend problems and they were over the girl that he liked.