Ness' Comet

Ch 21: Enough

When I arrived home, I wasn't sure what to do. My father's words stuck with me and I wanted to prod him further about what on Earth he could have meant by them, but decided I'd rather keep him out of my business.

I was about to head upstairs to my room, when I noticed my stomach gave a loud grumble. I clutched my throat suddenly. I hadn't eaten any human food or drank any blood in what felt like ages. I needed to get one of the two (preferably the latter) into my system quickly. I hurried to the kitchen, throwing open the refrigerator. I pulled out a packet of blood that was stored inside for me. I couldn't hunt as easily as the others and it was more convenient for me to have it readily available in the house. I opened the top and chugged it like a juice box, never taking a breath.

I finally needed some oxygen in my lungs, so I paused, gasping for air. It really had been quite a long day.

"Woah, someone's hungry," I heard the familiar playful voice comment.

I turned, pushing my hair out of my face. Unsurprisingly, there stood Jacob, leaning against the kitchen island. I couldn't help but smile.

"I've had a long day," I told him, playfully defensive.

He held his hands up. "I'm not judging."

I rolled my eyes with a chuckle.

"So," he continued. "What's got you so worked up?"

I sighed before giving him a shrug. I figured that maybe this would be a good time to test the waters with Jacob. If I told him about the boy, Jared from school, who wanted to ask me to the Halloween dance, then his reaction might give me an indicator about what I should do. Idiot! I yelled at myself internally. I knew that the right thing to do would have been nothing, but I couldn't help my selfishness at that moment. I had to be given something. Some verbal confirmation from him to tell me once and for all that I was being silly, and this ridiculous, childish crush I had on him was simply something I had to get over.

"Well," I began, hesitant and nearly chickening out. "My friend Lizzie, you know, the one you met the other day?"

He nodded, his expression still cheerful as always.

"She told me that this boy at school is interested in asking me to the school dance that's at the end of the month." I tried to the best of my ability to not allow my tone to give me away.

"That's great!" replied Jacob encouragingly. A horrible feeling twisted in my gut. I was both touched by his supportive reaction, yet I was somehow deeply crushed that he was so gleeful about it. I tried to convince myself that maybe he was pretending, so I wouldn't feel bad, but I knew Jacob too well by this time to think he would ever be ingenuine around me.

I nodded with a smile, trying with much difficulty to hold back tears I knew would fall if I let them. Jacob looked momentarily concerned, but I did a decent job of hiding my true emotions that it didn't appear as though he would say anything.

"Yeah," I answered. "So, we'll see if he asks. Can you believe that I'm going to have to go to a Halloween dance, in costume?" I joked, trying to both change the subject and distract myself.

Jacob laughed hard. "I can't wait to see what you come up with!"

I laughed with him. "Maybe I should go as a werewolf and really be ironic."

"That would be something," Jacob agreed.

"I was thinking about going as a vampire as a private joke to myself, but I didn't think my dad would find that very funny."

Jacob shook his head in amusement. "I'm not so sure how well that would be received either. But I think your mom would find it funny."

I smiled. Right, my mother. Truthfully, I did miss her a lot. The problem was, it was bad enough that I had no privacy because of Edward. I had a lot going on internally at the moment that I didn't much feel like discussing, and Bella was far too perceptive. She would pick up immediately that something was going on with me, if Edward hadn't already told her. I was probably not giving my father very much credit, since he tried very hard to not share my hidden thoughts with other people, including Bella, if it was extremely private. The only reason he might break such a rule is if he felt I was in some kind of danger. However, Edward's definition of danger was not exactly reasonable on occasion. I supposed I should have expected as much considering I was my parents only child, and an anomaly nonetheless.

"Speaking of," I said, sniffling as I washed my hands in the sink but passing it off as an innocent human tick, rather than the aftermath of holding back crying. "Where are the two creators?" I smiled crookedly. "Dad dropped me off and he said he had some errands to run. I assume it has something to do with my mother since it doesn't look like she's here either."

"Yeah, that's about right," said Jacob. He shrugged. "Who knows what they're doing. Sometimes they need to be alone I guess, right?"

I gagged internally. "Ugh, right."

Jacob laughed at me. "Oh come on Ness, you're too mature to be phased by that."

I sighed. "Yeah, you're right. At this point I'm probably lucky that they decide to leave the house to go be alone."

"They've had an interesting couple of weeks," Jacob said. "This whole High School thing is throwing them through a loop. They've had Alice keeping an eye on you." He winked.

I couldn't roll my eyes far enough into the back of my head. "Of course they do." My tone was flat and unamused.

"The good news is that nothing is going to kill you in the near future."

I chuckled sarcastically. "Wow, good to know nothing is going to kill me in the middle of a High School hallway with only 300 kids in the entire building!"

Jacob snorted. "They love you Ness. Cut them some slack."

I conceded. He was right. At least they were trying to give me some space. "Yeah, you're right."

"And Alice, and everyone else loves you too. We all do. Can't blame anyone for being concerned about you."

I knew what he meant by the words, though my heart couldn't help but skip a beat at the mention of his including himself in the people who love me. He was one of those people. Even though it wasn't how I might have wanted it to be, it had to be enough. If it wasn't, I surely would end up miserable.