The Little Things

15. Birthdays

It was finally January thirteenth, and we were celebrating my birthday and Jacob's. It was a small party with the Clearwaters, the Atearas, Embry, and Bella. Our dads were there of course and our living room was packed. Bella quickly disappeared upstairs and dad sighed. It hurt a little that she didn't even try to stay. This was the first birthday that she had been here for in a long time and now she didn't seem to care.

I opened my presents first as my birthday was yesterday. Embry handed me a small rectangular box. "This is from Quil and me."

I slowly unwrapped it in case there was a trap. Fortunately for me, there was no trap and inside the box lay a pocket knife.

"Thanks guys! This is great!" I slipped it into my pocket and patted it.

Then Dad handed me another rectangular box. "Is this a knife too?" I asked.

"Just open it and see," he said, nodding to it.

When I opened it up inside lay a cell phone. I had been wanting a new on for a while as my last phone now resided at the bottom of the ocean. It was an accident that occurred shortly before the Cullens left. I didn't have enough money to buy a new one yet, even though I had been saving up.

"Thank you dad!" I leaned over and hugged him.

"Well I figured that if you are going to get your license soon and start driving more then you should have a way to call me," he shrugged but smiled in a way that was completely him.

"Still. Thanks so much." I then opened a few more presents. Jacob's present to me was a pair of earrings. They were little silver trees that had a moon as a background. I found it a little ironic that they had moons on them especially since Jacob didn't know the secret.

"Thank you Jacob, these are gorgeous." I smiled at him. Ever since our date we had endured much teasing and congratulations. Apparently, Embry and Quil had bet on when we would get together, and I was told that Quil won.

Then it was Jacobs turn to open presents. I gave him my gift that was heavily wrapped to mask its shape. When he finally unwrapped it all he didn't look impressed.

"Scissors? Really?" He held them up.

"I thought you could use a haircut," I said, trying to sound innocent.

"Maybe someday," he said. "And by that I mean never."

It's not that I didn't like his hair the way it was, all long and everything, but I just thought that he would look really good with shorter hair.

Then I gave him his real present, which was a watch. He was much happier about that, until Embry made a comment about him maybe being able to get places on time now.

When we were finished with the presents we then had cake. The colours on the large round cake were little circles of brown, blue, green, and a tiny bit of pink. Sue had very kindly made the cake for us and Leah helped decorate it. The cake was delicious, with the chocolate flavour and the moistness being perfect. It was probably just as good if not better than the cakes that Emily made. Then I remembered that Sue was her aunt and had probably helped teach her.

That evening, when everyone was gone I cut a slice of cake and took it up to Bella. She sat staring out her window as she had everyday for the past four months.

"I saved you some cake," I said, placing the plate on her desk.

She barely nodded her head.

"Would you like to do something with me sometime, maybe?" I asked, trying to get her to do something, anything, that wasn't sitting and being depressed.

"Not now," she whispered.

"Well, let me know if you change your mind," I left then to assess the mess left behind from the party. A few balloons lay on the ground, but I figured we could keep them for a while. There were crumbs on the floor so I decided to sweep.

The next day Jacob and I went to get our licenses. His dad came with us to supervise and sign papers. I let Jacob go first and off he went. He was gone for a bit longer than an hour, and by the time he got back I had had plenty of time to become nervous.

"Did it go alright?" I asked as soon as I saw him.

He nodded. "I think so. Don't worry, you'll do great."

"Yeah. I just have to watch all the signs and remember how to parallel park." I nodded, running over everything in my head.

"Liana Swan. You're next," the driver examiner called.

"Go on, it'll be fine. Just stay calm," Jacob kissed me on the cheek before I left. Ever since our date he had kissed me on the cheek whenever either of us had to leave, and I thought it was really cute.

"Okay, are you ready?" The man asked when I got into the drivers seat.

I nodded.

"Alright. Let's start out by driving to the school."

And so I drove. When we got back the man congratulated me and asked for us to wait for a bit. He came over fifteen minutes later with two slips of paper that would serve as our licenses until the plastic ones came in the mail.

"Yes!" Jacob high fived me as soon as we left the building. "I knew we could do it!"

"I'm glad we did it. Now we can legally drive without supervision. Dad will be really happy about that." I snorted. We had often driven Billy's truck or Jacob's car without our parents between our houses. Dad seemed to know but there wasn't really anything for him to do about it.

"I'll get you a key for the Rabbit soon." Jacob said on the way home. We had decided that we would share his car when I needed it but I would still ride my bike as much as I could. I didn't see the need for buying a car of my own when I could use one already available to me. The places I would drive to the most would be between my house and Jacob's anyway.

Jacob dropped me off at home before taking his dad home. When dad got home from work he immediately asked "Did you pass?"

"Yes, and so did Jacob."

"Good. I knew you would." He said, hanging up his coat.

A couple of days later I spent a couple hours at Emily's house. A while back I told Sam that Jacob was noticing their staring and he said they would try to be more subtle. He also asked me to keep an eye out for any signs of him, or anyone else, changing.

The biggest change that I noticed was the muscle that the boys were putting on. They weren't near Sam or Paul's size, but they were gaining quickly. Sam also had the pack working harder as there was a leech that kept passing through, but they hadn't been able to catch it yet.

Paul had laughed like crazy when he heard what Embry called him. I enjoyed spending time with the pack, but I hated lying to my friends and so my visits to Emily's were getting to be few and far between.

After I got home from Emily's house dad stopped me at the door.

"Liana, I've been thinking that it might be a good idea to send Bella to live with your mother. She just hasn't gotten better at all here. Maybe the change of scenery would be good for her." He said quietly.

I thought for a moment. "That sounds fine. I think she would do better away from here. And away from the memories here."

"Yeah," Dad sighed. "She hasn't even been here a year yet."

"I know Dad. But we want her to get better." I reminded him.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow," Dad promised.

It would probably be good for Bella to go to Phoenix and spend some time in the sun. She practically looked like a vampire herself with how pale she was.