Remember Me (A Twilight fan fiction)

17. Go Ask Alice

Bella had not moved from the time Edward left until a few minutes later when Jacob let himself in.

"Hey, Bells!" he greeted, finding her in front of the refrigerator leaning on her crutches. She appeared to be in a daze. "What's up?"

He made himself at home, plopping his backpack onto the kitchen table, nearly knocking over the coffee can of wilted flowers. She was so quiet standing there that Jacob moved before her and waved his hand in front of her face. "Hello? Anybody home?"

Her eyes slowly began to focus, and when she noticed Jacob there, one of her eyebrows rose, and her right hand swung up of its own accord, effectively popping the boy in the head.

"Ow!" he exclaimed. "What was that for?"

With hands on hips, she turned her gaze away from him. "Vampires, Jacob?"

Jacob's mouth fell agape. "I never said that!"

"No – that's right...you called them the "Cold Ones."

"I didn't say that," he said, denying the whole thing and wishing he had not opened his big fat mouth and reminded her.

"Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, YOU did."

"NO, I didn't!"

"Ugh - whatever!" she exclaimed, frustrated. "Listen, Jacob, we have to talk...."

It had definitely been a good day for Edward.

Tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and humming along to his favorite track as he drove, Edward pulled into the Cullens' oversized garage, pausing as Alice backed out. Her thoughts were troubled, and her face was crumpled into a worried frown.

Babysitting, Edward? Did you really think Bella's father would agree to this?

He had not even had the chance to respond as she smoothly pulled the car out. Alice Cullen had one thing and one thing only on her mind: damage control.

Home early from work, Charlie witnessed the standoff between his daughter and best friend's son. As he listened to them give their brief explanations, he sighed, trying not to allow the tremendous amount of irritation he was feeling suck him in like a vacuum. The whole thing was ridiculous, and Charlie had had just about enough...and to make it worse, he was hungry.

"You told Jacob he was fired? I wasn't paying him," Charlie informed her crossly as Bella sat down at the kitchen table and flipped through her binder.

Jacob, who was standing by the sink, waved. "Yeah. I'm still here."

Ignoring him, Bella replied, "I didn't exactly say that...." – She shot a dirty look to Jacob and looked back to her father- "...and it's for the best, Dad. It's taking up so much of his time...and it IS inconvenient for Billy to drop him off," she reasoned.

"Uh, still here!" Jacob reminded, bothered by the fact that they were carrying on as though he was not even in the same room.

Bella had planned simply to tell her father that she was not a little girl, that her head was just fine, and that she would be spending her free time with Edward, thank you very much...but now standing there before her father/Chief of Police, she did not know what had happened to all her courage...and it did not help with the way she could feel Jacob's dark eyes boring into her back.

She shut her notebook and shook her head. "You know...I don't really need a babysitter."

Charlie rolled his eyes. "We've already been over this."