Chapter Text
Bella was always so beautiful.
In the grey light of the overcast Washington afternoon, her pearly skin glowed. Dark eyelashes stood out starkly against her cheeks, momentarily hiding her teary brown eyes.
These days, it seemed like her eyes were always wet when she looked at Jacob. When had easy smiles been replaced by the constant worrying of her lips? The answer, of course, stood with his arm possessively clutching her waist and a scowl that was just this side of a snarl:
Edward fucking Cullen.
“So,” Jacob spat, directing his glare at the leech.
“This is it, then?”
He was trying so hard not to look at Bella, hoping against hope that she would not answer the question he had needed to ask for months now. But his voice broke like the weedy teenager’s he had been not so long ago, and all three of them knew the question was for her.
Bella opened her mouth, and then closed it. This time it was she who could not look at Jacob. This was what it all came down to: Edward or Jacob, her boyfriend or her friend, what was or what could be.
He hated to see her in pain, even as a part of him was pleased that she even cared enough about him to feel conflicted.
She looked up at him through wet lashes and bit her lip and Jacob knew . He fucking knew that she had made her choice the moment she had landed back in the dead-end town of Forks, Washington. Jacob knew what her choice was, and in a moment of clarity realized that he was not even angry.
He would have chosen Edward too.
Jacob closed his eyes, bracing himself for the final blow. And then--
The wind changed.
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A sudden breeze gusted through the parking lot, carrying with it the faint scent of the sea. Bella shivered and Edward instinctively pulled her closer. Across the asphalt, Jacob convulsed as if he had been struck by lightning.
And then a sound tore through the air.
It was nothing like a wolf's howl. It was a single note--so loud that at first Edward did not realize it had come from inside, not outside.
Edward flinched as his bones vibrated and his head ached with the force of the emotions erupting from the young man across from him. Their eyes met: gold and black, confused and terrified and
NopleasenopleasenopleaseRUN
With a gasp, Jacob bolted. Edward heard his clothes tearing as he transformed, sprinting towards the woods as though his life depended on it. The howl and the swarming buzz of his thoughts cut off abruptly as he left Edward’s range.
“Jacob?” Bella cried belatedly, turning from the empty woods to Edward in obvious confusion.
“Why did he suddenly take off? Did something happen? Is everything ok?”
Edward looked down at her without really seeing her. His mind was occupied replaying the last few moments. The sound, his eyes, and that feeling--unidentifiable now that it was gone.
Edward felt like he was missing something, maybe missing everything.
Bella’s psychic silence had never felt so hollow.