High School Sweetheart [Jacob & Edward]

six.

"He's fine." she'd snip every time, trying to get back to whatever assignment they were supposed to be doing.

He seemed to take this as good enough of an answer every time he asked. Although, being so close to him and with the potential knowledge that Bella had, had her stumbling into the office, begging to be moved to a different class. 

Honestly, she thinks she's gotten rid of him until she's stocking the shelves at the bait shop, and in he walks. He doesn't even look like he belongs in the store let alone this part of town. His eyes wander around the shop, but what he's actually looking for saunters out of the back room. 

Jacob doesn't even make eye contact, doesn't even really look at the kid as he waits for him to grab whatever he came for and get out. Edward grabs some random hooks off of the first aisle he sees and places them on the counter before opening his mouth. From the safety mirror, it looks as if he's trying everything in the book just to get her brother's attention. All of it, seemingly, a swing and a miss as Jacob keeps his head down and waits for payment. Bella thinks that maybe this is it, maybe Cullen will finally drop it and stop asking about Jacob. That is until he says something that has Jacob's head tilting up ever so slightly. Bella can't hear whatever it is, but it gets the smallest smile out of Jacob. It's the first time he's cracked anything, even a smirk, since the accident. 

Bella wants to look away, give him some privacy. Though, as soon as she goes to turn her head, Edward grabs for a pen. He grabs for a pen and scribbles something on the back of the receipt Jacob had printed for him before handing the piece of paper back to Jacob. 

Then, he leaves...

and Jacob watches him go. 

He watches him go and he gets that look in his eye, that wonder that Bella thought he'd miss in his mission to find whoever hurt Billy. He looks like a teenager who's got teenager priorities. That's good. Finally, something truly good. Something she'd gawked at a month ago felt like a relief now. 

Though, it's still Cullen, and she still has no clue if they were the ones who hit Billy. She doesn't know anything about cars in general, but Jacob had rolled off the names of the cars as if he'd taken a snapshot in his brain. From the pictures that Bella was able to find from the names Jacob had given her, none of them ever pulled into the school's parking lot. She'd seen the group in different cars. Emmett would show up in a different model of Jeep every now and then, but Edward seemed to stay loyal to his Volvo S60R. They were flashy for a high school parking lot, but they weren't too flashy. 

It didn't mean they didn't drive different vehicles when they weren't pulling up to school but, from what Bella could tell, they weren't currently obvious suspects. Her best way of ruling them out would be to have an excuse to see them outside of school, see what they pull up in when it's a laxer environment. 

"Will you stop glaring at them?" Jessica sighs, nudging Bella. 

"I think it's good Jacob's got a little crush," Angela chimes in, biting an apple slice, "maybe it'll take his mind off of Billy for a little while. 

"Yeah, and maybe you need something too, " Jessica throws in,"like a party on the beach that's happening this weekend." 

She tries to subtly slip it in, but Bella's rolling her eyes before she can finish her sentence. 

"That parties going to be sick." Mike says, goofy smile in place, as his eyes find Jessica.

They were basically asking her to be a fifth wheel essentially. 

"Maybe you can bring Jacob and some of his friends. We can show 'em how to actually have fun." Mike huffs as he finally drags his eyes away from Jessica to beam at Bella.