The Lies that Bella Swan tells

Chapter 09: Time with Jacob

Ella's POV
It's freezing, but Mike, Tyler, Jessica, Dani, and others suit up for a surf. Eric hangs with them. Bella sulks in her truck while Mika, Angela, and I sit in Tyler's van wrapped in blankets. Eating licorice and talking.

"I keep thinking Eric's going to ask me to prom, then he just... doesn't" Angela says as she sighs sadly and looks longingly at Eric. I frown and say "You could ask him" Angela snaps her head to me and gives her a flustered look "Take control. You're a strong independent, beautiful young woman" I continue and Angela meekly asks "I am?" I nodded and Mika says "Yes! Absolutely!" And hugs Angela making me smile.

"Ella!" I hear a familiar voice call out. I look up to see three Quileute boys approaching the group. I recognized Jacob Black, Sam Uley, and Embry Call. I can't help but smile at Jacob "Guys, this is Jacob" I introduce before teasingly asking "Are you stalking me?" Jake laughs and says "You're on my rez, remember? You surfing?" I scrunched up my nose "Definitely not, but Dani is" Jessica then teasingly chimes in "Keep her company. Her date bailed" Mike, Eric, and Jake snap their heads to Jessica and panicky ask "What date?"

I rolled my eyes at Eric and Mike, but flushed when Jake seemed to be upset about my dating life "She invited Edward" I embarrassingly muttered "To be polite. I'm trying to be friends with Edward, but..... I think I'm failing at that" Jake frowns and slips in next me and wraps his arm around my shoulders "I think it's nice she invited him. No one ever does" Angela pipes up in my defense "Because Cullen's a freak!" Mike says making me frown in disapproval "You got that right" Sam says agreeingly "You know them?" Bella asks as she appears seemingly out of nowhere.

Sam side eyes her and sharply says "The Cullens don't come here."

Jacob shoots Sam a look, shakes his head. Bella and I register this. Then she attempts to pull Jacob aside "You want to go look at tide pools?" She offers an awkwardly flirtatious smile. Jake frowns and shrugs her off "No, thanks. I'm good" Bella is baffled by his lack of interest.....'He's just not that into you....neither is any other boy here' I think before sighing and getting up "I'm gonna take Mika to collect seashells. If we're lucky, maybe we'll see a whale?" "I'll come with!" Jake says as he grins, infatuated.

We head towards the water. Jacob and I wander near the water, looking out to sea for whales. The surfers are out on the waves. I occasionally glance over to check on Mika and make sure that they're okay. I suddenly nudge Jake and ask "So, what did your friend mean about the Cullens not coming here?" He looks flustered and says "Oops. Caught that, huh?" I laugh and say "It wasn't exactly subtle" he chuckles then moves closer to me, lowering his voice for mock-secrecy "I'm not supposed to say anything" I give him a smile and hold his hand "I can keep a secret Jake. I didn't tell my dad about you proposing to me and stealing my first kiss" I say teasingly making him flustered "But you don't have to tell me if it gets you in trouble" I add sincerely.

Jake shakes his head and says "It's just an old scary story. Did you know the Quileutes are supposedly descended from wolves?" "Wolves? Like actual wolves? Like packs and alphas?" I asked genuinely amazed Jacob chuckles at my excitement "That's the legend of my tribe. Well, they're supposedly descended from this, like..." he lowers into a spooky voice "enemy clan..." before going back to his normal voice "But they claimed to be different, so we made a treaty with them" I blinked then asked "Didn't they just move here?" " Or just moved back" he counters.

I nodded "Riiiight. So what was this treaty?" "If they promised to stay off Quileute lands, we wouldn't expose what they really were to the pale-faces... which are the people of Forks" he says with a shrug. Jake suddenly pauses dramatically and I'm about to ask if he's okay when Angela suddenly screams "AAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!"

I jump as Angela runs past, chased by Eric waving a dead crustacean. Dani still in her wetsuit runs after them yelling obscenities at Eric for picking on her friend. Jacob laughs and starts to walk over to Mika "Wait... what were they really?" Jake laughs and turns me "It's just a story, Ella" "And if it's not?" I question. Jake frowns and says "You can talk to my dad. He knows more about it than I do, and he'd tell you more than I can" I nodded and smiled "Thanks for telling me" he smiled back and nods "No problem."

We both walk over to Mika, unaware of the eavesdropping annoyance that is my twin heard everything and began her plotting.