Goodbye Edward & Hello Jacob

III - Welcome Back

Bella's Point of View:

It's February 13th. The day before Valentines' and here I am about to attempt to repair the relationships I've allowed to dwindle.

As I pull into my regular parking spot, I instantly spot my friends. Angela, Jessica, Mike, Tyler, and Eric. The very same friends that I have been ignoring. I grab my school bag from the passenger seat and make my way towards them. Angela is the first to notice me but before I can decipher the look of shock on her face, she immediately pulls me into a tight embrace; As to say 'Welcome Back.' No one says a word for a good two minutes, they just start hugging me one by one, that is, until Mike says "Yay, she's no longer a zombie trying to eat our brains." Jessica slaps his arm, the guys laugh, while a worried Angela looks towards me... smirking.

"You're an idiot. I've missed you"

Mike looks towards me with a smirk. Now seeing that I'm not offended, Angela links her arm into mine and as a group of friends, as nothing happened, we walk towards the entrance of the place we don't want to be.

⥈

School is finally over. I make my way down the stairs and towards my truck. Before I reach it...

"Hey, Bella!" I turned around to see Mike and Tyler approaching. Tyler fist pumps Mike and walks away but not before giving me a goodbye wave. "Hey, Mike. What's up?" He looks at me and begins to rub his head. He does this when he's nervous. He did this when he tried asking me to prom.

"Do you wanna hang out this weekend?"

I look behind him to see if any of our other friends are approaching, hoping that its a friend hangout. "Um, like just the two of us or the entire group...?" "Well, I was thinking just the two of us. Ya know, some bonding time. If the others want to come you can invite them." Now he's looking at his feet. He is staring so intensively at the ground that I look towards the ground.

"Sure." I hope he doesn't think anything of this. Especially since I am nowhere near over... him

"Okay awesome. See you on Saturday. Text me to let me know what you want to do.

I pull out my cell to see if there is a response from Jake about my invite to hang out. Nothing I wouldn't blame him, I've been ignoring him for the past 6 months. He has every right to ignore me, however unfortunately for him, I'm not going to allow him. I pull out of the school parking lot with a mission on my mind. I start to take the road that would lead me to the reservation and I think about how I am going to approach him.

As I am driving down the road. My mind starts to wander. A lot of things happened while I was in my 6 months of limbo. Jacob has cut his hair- according to Charlie and Harry Clearwater is dead. One overrides the other in order of importance. Harry was my father's friend--and now that I think about it, I wasn't there to comfort him. The more I think about it, the more I understand Charlie's reasoning for thinking that I would be better in Florida.

Before I can think about my mental absence, I realize that the road to turn into getting to Billy's is within 50 feet. I slowly but firmly press on the brakes and turn into the road.

Billy's house will be visible soon. I can't help but wonder what Jacob will say. He's been ignoring my texts all day. I pull into Billy's dirt driveway in preparation for what I'm going to say to Jake. As I shut off the engine and open the door, Billy comes out and say to me, "How can I help you, Bella?"

I start walking towards the porch addressing Billy. "I need to see him"

"He's not in." He looks straight into my eyes while lying. "I'm sorry but I need to see him." With that, I walk past him making my ways towards his bedroom. "Bella" I hear Billy call my name as I open the painted pale white door. He's here...sleeping. He reminds me of a married man that works a nine to five job. He looks completely exhausted. He also cut his hair shorter. Much shorter. The luscious black hair that was once longer than my own is now a couple of inches longer than a buzz cut. I don't recognize this Jake. "Woo woo!"

I look up towards the window, on the side of Jacob's bed, to see a few of the guys from the reservation. They are all shirtless while wearing jeans that were cut into shorts. Jacob dislikes them. At least that was the emotion I got from him when I asked about the guys running around half-naked. So, What are they doing here? I look down again at Jacob and realize something. They must be the reason for Jacob's change.

I walk out of Jacob's room with a new mission. Confronting Sam and his gang. They did something to Jacob and I want to know what. Did they make him join a gang? I exit the house and power walks towards the group of half-naked guys.

"What did you do?"

What did you do? What did you do to him?" I ask while shoving Sam. I hear one of the guys tell me to take it easy. As if I'm going to listen. "He didn't want this!"

"What did we do? Huh? What did he do?" I now have, I believe Paul, in my face. He looks like he was about to have a face spasm.

"Both of you calm down."

"Nothing. He tells me nothing because he's scared of you."

The group of boys around Sam starts to laugh. I see nothing humorous about what I just said. Before I know it, I slap the guy I believe to be named Paul. There was nothing funny about my comment. He turns to face me and starts huffing and puffing. For a split second, I thought he was going to blow my house down. I hear one of the younger boys of the group say "too late now"

Sam tells me to get back and tries to tell Paul to calm down. Before I comprehend it, Paul turns into a big wolf. A REALLY BIG WOLF.

Holy Shit.