Stir-Crazy

Laughter filled the air as Jacob and I linked hands.

We had been dating for a month and a half, and I couldn’t be happier.

Jacob was everything I wanted in a guy, plus the werewolf part.

His large hand engulfed mine, but I didn’t care. Instead, I swung out hands back and forth. We erupted into a fit of laughter again.

We were walking home, as it was a beautiful day. La Push seemed to glow in my eyes, the grass seemed greener and the sky was a more vibrant shade of blue.

Or maybe I was just love-sick.

I never thought it would happen. That I would be dating Jacob Black. When I came here, so many months ago, I had just assumed that I would be subjected to a life of misery, rain and Cora.

But look how things turned out. I only thought it happened in movies, but I guess I was wrong.

We neared Jacob’s house, the familiar red exterior jumping out to greet me. I kicked off my shoes at the doorway, and walked inside. Jacob followed suit.

I collapsed on the couch, finding the television remote to change the channel. The television was almost always on, and was permanently stuck on ESPN.

When I came over, I would change that.

Jacob always would complain, claiming that I didn’t know quality sports, but I just chuckled and changed the channel to Lifetime or HBO.

“I’m going to go change,” Jacob said, before abandoning me on the couch and going into his room.

Images of Jacob changing flashed into my mind, but I ignored them like a good girlfriend should. Instead, I forced myself to focus on the weeping girl on the television screen who has just found out that she had cancer.

Jacob returned moments later, returning in cut-offs and a dark green shirt. I mentally growled, realizing that I wouldn’t be able to see his abs today.

Unless...

“Hey, Jacob!”

Both our heads whipped upwards to see Billy smiling and wheeling himself up the wheelchair ramp.

“Hey, Billy,” we chorused, but Billy was too distracted by my soap opera.

“One of these days you’ll learn that the game is much more important,” he shook his head chuckling, before acknowledging me.

“I thought you were going on a fishing trip today?”

“Yeah well, Charlie had to cancel it because there was some murder by old man Winston’s house yesterday.”

“Really?” Jacob looked intrigued now, and I began to have the creeping suspicion that something was wrong.

“Yeah, he said it was really important, so now I’m stuck at home,” Billy sighed, tilting the cowboy hat on his head a little farther. “And it’s such a nice day too...”

Billy mumbled something under his breath about alien abductions, before he retreated to his room. Jacob was still tense, and I could tell quite easily.

“Relax,” I murmured, resting my hand on his forearm. He immediately stiffened under me, but relaxed slightly.

“Something is wrong,” Jacob murmured, his eyes fixed on the television screen. “I can feel it.”

“I know,” I rested my head against chest, “but there are police for that, Jacob. They can handle it.”

“Uhuh.”

His voice seemed far away, and you could tell he wasn’t completely okay. I rubbed my hand soothingly across his arm, and he snapped out of it.

“Yeah, you’re right. There are people that can deal with that.”

We turned our attention to the television, where the girl was saying goodbye to her boyfriend. Movies like that, the dramatic ones that could only show up on the soap opera channels, really got to me.

They were horrible, they gave out false information and made everything seem sappier than it actually was. Nobody’s boyfriend was going to get cancer, get shot and get thrown into a river in the same day. At least, that wouldn’t happen as a daily occurrence.

They made everything seem so out of proportion and fake, yet it was so addicting and you couldn’t stop watching. Somehow, I actually found comfort in the fact that there was someone out there that was having a worse time than me, even if that sounded cruel and sadistic, it was true.

The screen door swung open, startling both of us out of our trance.

“What’s that smell?” Jacob asked suddenly, and the next thing I know, a girl appeared in front of us.

She was gorgeous, with long chestnut tresses that cascaded down her back. Her pale skin seemed to be the color of snow and contrasted magnificently with her hair. She held such an unnatural beauty, it was shocking.

She couldn’t have gotten implants, or any sort of surgery as even expensive procedures couldn’t make you that beautiful. Her skin seemed to sparkle, and her eyes were a liquid shade of gold that added to her immense beauty. She seemed to be an illusion, or a mirage.

“Jacob!” She cried in happiness, not bothering to actually acknoweledge me, but instead bound up to Jacob and wrap her arms around him in an embrace.

He looked surprised, and then almost robotically, his arms curled around her waist.

And I sat there, with my mouth agape and my eyes wide. Did he not realize that his girlfriend was sitting right next to him?!

He had totally forgotten about me for the moment, and instead stared wide eyed at the goddess wrapped around him.

“Bella?!”

And suddenly it all made sense.

Her hair was too gorgeous and too shiny, and I wished that it would be cut off, so she would only have a bald head of stubble. Her skin was too pale, and I wished it was because of a disease, or maybe she could have been an albino.

The dress that exposed her long milky legs needed to wrap around her so tight she would suffocate. I wished that her beauty was because of implants, and that all those implants would pop and that she would be left as a withering prune.

I wished her beautiful eyes were actually contacts, and that they would burn her eyes and make them dry.

I wished that Jacob would see that she was fake, and that he never loved her and come running back to me.

But that would never happen, because Jacob was smiling at the stunning girl in front of him, and it wasn’t me.

He murmured something in her ear, something that was spoken so quietly that I could hardly hear, and I was right next to him.

“I missed you.”