Breathe

Jacob sat in the garage, and he knew that Embry would eventually find him, but for now, he was going to be okay. It seemed that now, the only thing that took his mind off of Sarah was fixing up cars. He'd gotten away from it when she moved to Port Angeles. It was as if her presence caused a whole bunch of mayhem. They'd managed to take care of it, though. The cat was gone. The vampires were gone.

Two months, even though it hadn't been that long, felt like years.

And lately, within the past week, he'd felt like utter shit. It was a feeling worse than the first time that he had ever phased, or when he realized she was really gone.

He couldn't hate her. It was almost impossible for him to even consider it.

Having spent hours in there already, Jacob stepped out into the sunlight, letting it absorb into his skin for a moment. He could hear his dad in the house, clanking dishes into the prehistoric dishwasher. It was one of the very few nice days they had in this part of Washington, and so they had opened all of the windows, and propped the back door open.

Jacob dragged his feet through the grass and into the house. Without a word to his father, Jacob went straight into his bedroom. It had started to feel like there was a weight on his chest that he couldn't do away with. No one that he could talk to. Not even running, and he loved running.

Jacob didn't flinch when his door was thrown open, revealing a dirty, ragged Embry. "Dude, you're coming with me." His friend grabbed his wrist and pulled him off of the bed. "I can't let you do this to yourself anymore."

"Yeah, you can. You just don't want to." Jacob followed him through the front door and to his VW Rabbit, which was parked out in the front. "Where are we going, Embry?"

"Just wait until we get in the car. I'm driving."

They loaded themselves in, the small frame of the car hardly able to contain the two, extremely large, teenage boys. Ten minutes had passed before Jacob asked again, his forehead resting against the window.

"We're going to the beach, Jake. Seeing as how that used to be your favorite place."

*

Jacob stared at the campfire, watching it flicker. He loved fire. It was a beautiful part of the earth that happened naturally. The whole pack surrounded him, laughing at each other's stupid jokes, and eating all of the food that Sam could get off of the grill. Kim, Rachel, and Emily each sat with their respective boyfriends. These were the women that his friends had imprinted on.

He didn't have his.

Jacob knew there was going to be a chance he was never going to imprint again. And because of that, he had no idea what he was going to do. There was no girl who appealed to him the same way as she did. Sarah was the only person that he could ever imagine himself with, after Bella. It didn't even matter that he had imprinted on her. Jacob was in love with Sarah. Any of his pack members could've said it.

He sighed, and stood, moving away from the fire and towards the water. He could see the lighthouse that he'd taken her to on their 'first' date, after she had bitched at him for not speaking. It made him smile. It had been their first kiss.

Jacob walked alongside the water, letting the tides grab at his feet (he'd left his shoes in the car).

*

"Ah, shit," Embry cursed, pulling over to the side of the road. "I'm never letting you fix my car again."

"You don't even need a car, you dumb ass," Jacob said, smiling meekly. "You've got like, four."

"Yeah, well, my check engine light is on. This is your fault."

"No, it's not. Your car was fine. Did you let Quil play with it?"

Embry was quiet for a second, and then mumbled, "maybe."

"There's your sign."

Jacob slid out of the car, and waited for Embry to pop the hood before propping it open. When the smoke poured out, it was carried away by the breeze. After analyzing the problem for a few minutes, Jacob pulled out his cell phone and dialed his father's phone number, hoping he'd know someone who could come get them. None of the other pack members, except Embry, had a cell phone - they all relied on their telepathy to communicate with each other.

The only reason Jacob had one was so that he could talk to Sarah.

"Yeah, Dad? Embry's car broke down, and I can't fix it without my stuff. Can you send someone to get us? No. No. Uh, we're.. like three miles out of Port Angeles. I don't know. We just were." Jacob sighed, and rubbed his forehead. "Yeah. Ok. Thanks."

Jacob climbed back into the car, and looked at his long-time friend. "Why are we out here, Embry?"

Embry avoided his gaze, and fidgeted with the steering wheel. "I don't know."

*

"I win! I so, totally, absolutely win! Don't deny it!" Quil shouted, jumping up from the table and doing a short victory dance. They had just finished a game of Speed, there the object of the game was to get rid of your set of cards first. "Ow! God, Jared, that hurt!"

Jacob turned his attention to the baseball that was now rolling across the floor. "That's what you get for being a bragger!" Jared shouted, resisting the urge to laugh. "And a cheater."

"Hey, I did not cheat. You're just jealous I'm faster than you."

Embry sighed, as did Paul and Sam. Jacob smiled to himself, genuinely enjoying himself. He listened to his brothers bicker back and forth, and started to shuffle the cards. Only until an outside noise distracted him. He looked at the others - none of them had heard it.

Jacob stood up, and made his way outside. The sun had set a while ago, and while his vision was advanced to that of a human, it was still harder to see. He watched as a car pulled up, stopping within thirty or so feet of the house. It was familiar, but he couldn't place it.

The car door opened. Jacob hadn't noticed that the others had followed him outside, and had gathered on the front porch. Not one of them said a single word. Jacob didn't want to believe it. It seemed impossible.

"Sa - Sarah?"

"Everybody, get inside," Sam said, pushing the others toward the door. "Now."

Jacob stepped off of the porch, heart beating as fast as it possible could.

"Before you say anything, Jake," she said, shutting the car door behind her. "I am so sorry. For everything. There are things that happened -"

"What?" He stopped, hardly within arm's reach of her.

"We need to talk."