Burning Up (Jacob Black)

22. That Girl Couldn't Fool Me

 Something was up with Bella. Felt it in my gut.

"JACOB!" I heard my dad's thunder from outside my door. Bella and I jumped a foot in the air like startled cats when we heard it. Christ. Would you keep it down, old man? I can hear you just fine when you're not yelling.

"Does he know I'm here?" Bella whispered. Her eyes were wide with fear, but there was something deeper to her expression. Like she'd seen a ghost. I couldn't put my finger on it. It bothered the hell out of me.

"He suspects," I responded simply. I held her close to me. I had so much more to say.

My dad could throw a tantrum all he wanted; I had to get to the bottom of what was going on with Bella. Just some moments ago we were two lovebirds in a diamond-encrusted bird cage, chirpin' out our love songs. Hell, we were just taking a bath together for Christ's sake! Like a married couple! Although it was my idea... but, I mean, whatever. Idea-schmidea. Same difference. Bella could say "I'm fine" in that dead voice ten times over and I still wouldn't believe it. That anxious face of hers betrayed it all.

Maybe my worst fear had come true. Maybe I'd finally taken things too far too fast. Maybe my eagerness really got the best of me and I was gonna lose my girl 'cause of it. God. I knew this would happen.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bella don her "Fine" expression. I saw right through it. That girl couldn't fool me.

"Shit," she muttered tonelessly as she slipped out of my grasp and walked past me to my bed.

I swiveled around to face her. I was about to speak—give her an irrefutable little speech so she would actually tell me what I'd done wrong—but I was stopped in my tracks. Bella's towel (more accurately, my towel that she'd borrowed; don't ask me why that made me so giddy) fell to the ground as she bent down to pick up her dress.

"Hey...whoa... uh–" I sounded like a goddamn 12-year-old playing spin the bottle for the first time. How embarrassing. Where was the man in me?

"I should go." She told me, now clothed by her dress and facing me.

It felt like an anvil was dropped from inside my body. I fucked up royally. I wanted to speak up, demand for her to tell me the truth all macho-man style.

But all that came out of me was, "Bella, doll, is everything o–"

"Yes. Everything is fine." She cut me right off. Didn't even let me finish my weak plea of a sentence. "I just– I don't wanna get caught, ok? That's all."

Yeah, right. She's fooling a grand total of (I'm checking the scoreboard) nobody. Always been a bad liar, that Bella.

I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted yet again. Can't anyone let me finish a damn thought today?

"Jacob! Damn it, are you in there or what?" My father's voice petulantly called from outside my room. I'll deal with Billy later. I've got bigger fish to fry.

"Bells," I said it real tenderly—on purpose and on accident. I was trying to endear to her to the best of my ability. "Come on. What's going on?"

She just stared back at me. I felt so dumbfounded by this random switch-up of emotions. I guess I knew a lot less about how girls worked than I thought I did. I just stood there, my jaw on the floor like an idiot.

"Do you think I'm deaf, son? Let me in!" Billy sounded like a rabid dog, practically clawing at my door with his paws. I looked over my shoulder to my bedroom door. I had about five seconds to fix this with Bella before I had to face my father's wrath.

Holy Trinity right here. We got the father and the son clearly checked. And here she was, the Holy Ghost, standing all pale in front of me.

I turned back to her and all I was met with was her squeezing out of the screen door. I couldn't believe my eyes. The girl didn't even have shoes on! I let out an exasperated sigh, making sure Billy heard. So much for fixing things.