What Hurts the Most

I wasn't allowed to leave the house. Jake had to freaking condemn me to his room. No one was allowed in, except for Jake, and no one was allowed out, except for Jake.

I was lying in his bed, throwing a baseball up at the ceiling and catching it when it fell back down. I finally stopped when I missed the catch and the ball landed on my head. I began to lie up as I rubbed my new throbbing bump. I didn't mind being in his room; it smelled like him. The only part I did mind was being B-O-R-E-D.

I sat myself on the edge of his bed, swinging my legs back and forth. Back and forth. Back and freaking forth! I rolled off of his bed, disgusted. When was Jacob going to come back? As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Ah, FINALLY! It swung open to reveal him with two boxes of lunchables. I guess that made it a little, tiny bit better.

"Hungry?" he asked cheerfully, throwing me one of the boxes. I caught it and glared at him.

"Just cuz I'm bored," I mumbled, tearing the side open. Jake jumped onto the bed and did the same.

"Sorry," he laughed. Didn't sound like he was sorry. "But I don't want you going anywhere. You might get lost, kidnapped, etc, etc."

"That's why YOU take me somewhere! Sheesh!" I yelled with my mouth full, throwing my arms up in the air. "I am so boooooored!"

"You know I can't exactly take you with me," he pointed out.

For the past two days, he had been talking to the other wolves, trying to get them to protect me and keep a look out. Not much success there.

"Well, take me somewhere else then! Like to the lake!" I suggested, throwing my peanut butter cup at him. He cut it mid-air. "Show-off." I mumbled.

He grinned.

"Fine, if you're really that bored, I could-"

"Hell yeah!" I cut him off, flinging myself off the bed and jumping in the air.

I continued bouncing up and down spastically, so happy that he had decided to finally get me out of here and into some fresh air. This was the most exercise I've had in two days, I better sit down. But before I could, Jake tackled me to the ground, crushing me like a shoe over a bug. He rolled me onto my back and smiled at me, resting his head on my collarbone. The way he was looking at me, it was like I was the only thing that existed in his life, the only thing worth living for. It made me blush and butterflies began to scramble in my stomach.

"What're you thinking about?" he asked with a grin.

"You," I told him honestly.

He took his arm and began stroking the top of my head. He was so warm, so comfortable, so familiar. He was so...right. I hated to intervene in this beautiful moment, but I wanted to get OUT.

"Uh, Jake?" I asked.

"Ahm?"

"Three things," I began. "One, can we go to the lake now? Two, I am boiling down here. Three, your crushing my lungs and I can't breathe."

He chuckled and looked rather disappointed, but pushed himself off of me. As I stood up, I felt extremely flustered. Jake held out his hand to me.

"Come, on, let's go."

We walked out the door, hand in hand, and began our journey to the beach. I didn't have a swimsuit, but Jake let me borrow some old sweatpants and a white tank top. Of course, naturally, they were colossal on me, but I would have to make due. Once the beach was in view, I let go of his hand and skipped ahead, only to have him run up behind me and grab me around the waist. He spun me around in a circle.

"Do I need to get a leash for you?" he chuckled, leaning close to my ear and still spinning.

"Why me?" I asked. "You're the dog."

"Hardy har har." He said, faking a laugh. Even though I couldn't see him, I could tell he had rolled his eyes.

"If you do get me one," I began. "Could it be one of those animal ones? Like you see on the little kids at the zoo or Disney World?"

He finally stopped spinning me and set me down gently on the sand, right in the area where the water would rise up and touch my toes and then go back down after a second. He hadn't let go of me. He continued to hold me in his arms. There was nowhere else I would rather be right now, than right here with the irresistible man of my dreams.

"If you want," he said with a chuckle. "What animal would you want?"

I was thoughtful for a second, then turned around and put my hands on his shoulders.

"A wolf."

He smiled down at me like he did back in his room, and then suddenly picked me up bridal-style, and ran into the lake, diving in when it got deep enough with me still attached. The water was freezing. Jake let go of me, and we both swam to the surface for air. The huge clothes were soaked and heavy, it was hard to stay afloat. My head kept dipping back down into the water, and some of it was entering into my mouth. I panicked a little bit, and began coughing and sputtering. Jake, seeing that I was in danger, yanked me towards himself protectively.

"Th-cough, thanks," I managed to cough out, grinning.

Against his warm body, I couldn't feel any of the cold water, so I snuggled up close to him. I looked out across the water, and saw that a medium sized wave was coming. Jake looked down and smiled at me.

"Ready?" he asked.

"For what?" I demanded, once again a little panicked.

I found out what. When the wave came to us, he picked me up once again and dove through the wave, swimming down into the water. Then he let go. I opened my eyes and searched for him, thinking that he was going to tackle me at any second. He wasn't anywhere in sight; well, the water was too blurry to see anything, so I couldn't tell. I whipped my head around urgently, and my arms began to spasm as I desperately tried to return to this surface. Something as cold as ice wrapped itself around my leg and sent a jolt of chills through me like electricity. That's when I really started to panic. The something tugged and pulled me down, farther and farther, and the water continued to get colder and colder, and darker and darker. My lungs began to burn, and I didn't know what to do. I kicked at the thing, but it did no good. It was as if it was latched permanently to my leg. Now my lungs began screaming at me, screaming for oxygen. My mind was a hurricane of thoughts; is this drowning? Am I going to die? What happened to Jake? If I wasn't underwater, you could tell I was crying right now. Black spots began clearing over my eyes, overcoming my vision. No! I screamed at myself. I am NOT going to die like this! I tried, feebly, to kick it away again. I grew weaker and weaker by the second and my vision was gone. It was so cold and dark. So cold. Jake. Jake. Jake.

And then everything was warm again