Forever True

I was at his bedside in an instant, and he grinned at me. I felt my eyes sting slightly. So much for composure.

“Oh, Jake, you look great!” I told him, and he looked genuinely happy.

“I feel a lot better. The old bloodsucker’s a great doctor,” he said, and I glanced at Carlisle, expecting him to be annoyed, but he just nodded to Jacob in thanks. “I take it you met the rest of the Cullens? You smell like them.”

“I do?” I didn’t smell anything. “I mean, yeah, I did meet them. They seem really nice.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he said, and I glanced back to make sure he wasn’t ticking Carlisle off only to discover he had left the room. “They’re okay.”

I pushed his hair back carefully and it was soft under my fingertips. “I met Bella, too, and Edward.”

“What’d you think?” he asked.

“Edward was a lot nicer than you made him out to be,” I scolded playfully. “And Bella was really nice, if a little shy.”

“Yeah, she gets that way,” he said fondly. “And Edward’s not so bad.” I could tell it took him a lot to admit that.

“He actually helped me a lot.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I was at the beach, upset, you know--”

“About what?” he asked.

“You, stupid,” I said, and he smiled.

“You’re sweet, you know that?” Jacob said, strangely enough. Being injured made Jacob really speak his true thoughts, I suppose.

“I try,” I said, feeling my cheeks getting hot.

“I’m sorry, continue.”

“Well I was at the beach, and Edward found me there, and, I don’t know, just said the right stuff. He was really cool to me.”

“That’s weird. Usually he’s kinda standoffish.”

“Huh,” I said, and looked at Jacob close. Sure, I had just met some of the most beautiful people in the universe, but Jake… Jake outshined them all.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Seriously, Le, what?”

“It’s nothing,” I said.

“Don’t make me beat you up,” he said playfully.

“You’re just cute, that’s all.”

“Cute? Come on, Le. How about something a little more epic than ‘cute?’”

“Handsome. Debonair. Dashing. Hunky dory. You happy now?”

“Except for the hunky dory part, yeah,” he said. “Did you… Did you do something with your hair?”

“Yeah Jake, Edward talked me into going to the salon,” I said sarcastically. “Why do you ask?”

“You just… you look really pretty, that’s all.”

“You’re just saying that cause I called you hunky dory,” I teased, bad at taking direct compliments. It was a curse. I had always been so bashful about it.

“No, no, seriously. Your eyes are like this really dark blue, it’s cool.”

“Thanks.” The redness was back in my cheeks again.

“Hey Le?”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry I made you cry.”

“No, Jake, it’s--”

“No, I mean, you were crying earlier and I couldn’t even do anything about it. All I could do was lay around and look helpless.”

“Not your fault. How’d it happen, anyway?”

He thought a minute. “Well there’s this chick Victoria who’s a real pain in the ass, and she brought all these newborn vampire slime to kill Bella or whatever, so we had to take care of them all. And one of the new ones- they’re really nuts, Le, really aggressive- got to me before I could react. It was just one of those freak things, you know?”

“Be careful, Jake. Seriously. I don’t think my heart can take anymore.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Shut up. Stop apologizing.”

I really wanted to kiss him. Bad. I almost did it, but then realized what I was doing and pulled back, staring at the closed closet door.

“What’s a matter, Le?”

“Nothing.”

“Will you stop saying that?” he asked, annoyed.

The words burst out of me before I could stop them. “I love you, Jake.”

When I had the courage to glance up, Jake wasn’t looking at me. He was staring behind me, at the far wall, with a look on his face like he’d been slapped.

“SAM!” he shouted out of nowhere, and Sam was in the room in a second. I stumbled out quickly, humiliated. What the hell had just happened?

Alice had met me in the hallway. “It happened, didn’t it?” she asked, her golden eyes wide.

“What?” I asked, confused.

“You told Jacob that you loved him, didn’t you?” she asked, and she looked thrilled, even though I was sure I looked like I had just escaped from drowning or something. Was this some kind of sick joke? Did Pixie have a sick sense of humor?

“Yeah, I did. And he called for Sam,” I tried to walk past her, but somehow she and her tiny little arms stopped me.

“Don’t you see, Leona? Jacob imprinted!”

“What?”

“He imprinted!” she practically sang.

I just stared blankly at her. “On who?”

“On you!”

And I hit the floor.