Speak || A Twilight Fanfic

Chapter 7

Overlooked?

Inferior?

Played?

Gabriella didn't know what she was feeling. When she had woken the day after Christmas she had been saddened. The next few days, her turmoil had grown into confusion. Her mind had not stopped racing since that moment with Paul. Those few minutes had thrown her for a loop, wondering how a stranger had been more thoughtful than her own boyfriend, a boy she had known for the better part of her life.

Then, there were those dreams. Thoughts that spiraled through her head but they felt so real. The emotions that she experienced in those dreams felt real. But there was no way they could be. Jacob was the one she wanted, surely everything else was simply a fluke. A rip in the seams of the fabric of reality.

It didn't matter that they barely talked about anything but Bella or him. Or that without those topics their conversations were short and meaningless. He did care for her, he always had. He had chosen to be with her kept replaying in her head. Words that had become a mantra of appeasement.

Maybe her head was playing tricks on her, but her eyes weren't.

She went down the stairs, the smell of lunch dancing in her nose. Bella was already sitting on the dining table, spaced out and munching on a piece of bread. Yet it was not her sister that caught her attention, not even the fact that she had cooked that day. It was the bracelet that dangled from her wrist. A silver chain with a wood-carved wolf charm.

"Afternoon," Bella muttered. "You're up late."

"I-is that what Jake gave you?" the girl croaked out, tears stinging the back of her eyes. "That bracelet. Was that his Christmas gift?"

"Oh," Bella responded. "Yes. Isn't it beautiful?"

"Uh, yes, It's very pretty," she managed to say. "Can you excuse me for a second?"

Anger. That's what she felt. Anger, envy, and absolute jealousy. And she was ready to let Jake know that he was the one responsible for what she felt. She needed to understand, she needed to hear from his mouth that it was truly her that he had chosen. Maybe just like her dreams of Paul, that gift had only been a fluke.

A knock on the door stopped her in her tracks as she headed back up the stairs to find her phone. Whoever was at her door had just saved Jake from starting the new year single. Instead, she clothed herself with a jacket to hide the pajamas she was wearing and went to the door. She had no idea who would be behind it.

"Paul," she said as she swung the door open. Gabi was sure surprise was evident on her face as she felt her cheeks flush with blood. "Hi. What, um, what're you doing here?"

"Hey. I'm supposed to check up on your sister, make sure everything's alright," Paul responded, his hand scratching the back of his neck. "Sam was the one that found her a couple of months ago in the woods and he asked me to come see how she was doing."

"It seems everyone's Bella's biggest fan today." She couldn't help the roll of her eyes, the anger from that morning still fresh in her veins. "Sorry, that wasn't really directed toward you."

"Well, that was just my excuse to come here," he grinned. "I needed a good enough reason to show up out of nowhere. Don't tell your sister, but I wouldn't come all this way to see her."

"Then, why are you here, Mr. Lahote?" Gabi laughed. "Or do you frequently show up at people's houses unannounced?"

"What do you mean?"

"Let's see, you showed up at my place today and you've gone to Jake's house twice now." His face went frigid as he remembered the first time he went to the Black residence, even worse that she knew about it. "Yes, I know how you told Jacob to stay away from me. Still haven't been able to wrap my head around that."