Chapter 4
"Hang on." Caroline held up her hand as we walked home from school. "Damon Black and Alexia Branson? Seriously? Lexi. And Damon."
"Yup." I smirked. I had struggled to wrap my head around it during my walk home yesterday, too. My firsthand experience with either of them was limited, but Lexi Branson was nothing if not a shrinking violet, and Damon was a boisterous shithead.
"Isn't she younger than you?" Matt frowned at Caroline. Damon tormented Matt for years, but when he started dating Caroline the torment took a turn for the specific. Matt still occasionally complained about being called a cradle robber.
"She's the youngest girl in our class." Caroline said, raising her eyebrows at Matt.
"Huh." He nodded, rolling his jaw. "Good to know." I rolled my eyes, hoping at the very least I wasn't putting myself in the middle of some battle between the two of them. When we reached home Matt stopped, giving Caroline a kiss as Jenna and I climbed the stairs to the front porch. "I'll stop by to walk you home later?"
"Yeah." Caroline smiled, squeezing his hand before letting go. It's code, and I don't know why they keep pretending walking is all that happens on those trips back to town. The three of us went inside to find a note on the table from my mother saying that she'd be out in town for most of the evening, though I didn't think she was seeing Jacob again for another day or two. We lounged around the living room, pretending to work on homework but doing more talking than anything else. Caroline sat on the floor, letting Jenna sit behind her and work an elaborate braid into her hair. She dropped her head back into Jenna's lap, looking up at her. "So what do you think of him?"
"Jacob?" Jenna pushed Caroline's head back upright, frowning as she pulled out part of the braid and started over. "He's nice, I guess."
"Is he?" Caroline smirked at me. "He's kind of cute, you know." I just shook my head, watching the blush creep into Jenna's cheeks.
"Maybe." She shrugged. Caroline raised her eyebrows at me, silently asking if she was getting to Jenna. I pressed my lips together, nodding and looking down at the book in my lap to hide the smile I couldn't hold back.
"I bet Elenq thinks he is." Caroline said, and I looked up at her, deadening my expression as much as possible.
"Caroline" I said, cocking my head to the side.
"Well." She laughed. "She would if she'd seen him in that little wrestling uniform, anyway." I gave her a look, and she raised her hands. "Just saying. That might have been most of the reason I bothered going."
"To check out Jacon's ass?" I smirked.
"Maybe his brother's, too." She grinned, shrugging. "And Asa Maynard has nothing to be ashamed of either, for the record. Don't tellatt."
"You're awful." I laughed.
"You should pay more attention to these things." Caroline said, smoothing her hand over her braid as Jenna tied off the end. "You're missing out on a critical portion of your teenage experience."
"I don't think the wrestling team's asses are all that critical to my experience." I said as I shifted in my seat, rolling my eyes before turning my attention back to my book.
"Your loss." Caroline shrugged before turning to Jenna. "Switch. Your turn." The two of them swapped places, and I half listened to them talk idly as I read, most of my attention focused on the book. I couldn't help but wonder how serious Caroline was about thinking Jacob was attractive, though, and how much was just to get Jenna flushed and embarrassed.
Matt stopped by before dark, planting himself beside Caroline on the couch and dropping his arm around her shoulders. She curled up against him, laying her knees across his lap and slipping her arm around his waist without so much as skipping a beat in our conversation.
"What are we talking about?" Matt asked.
"Nothing." I said, biting back a smirk. "You missed out on Caroline confessing her passion for wrestling, though."
"Shut up, Elena." Caroline laughed.
"I thought you went to those because your cousin is the coach, not because you actually liked any of it." Matt said while giving her a look.
"He is, and I do." She said, holding back a smile. "I'm just showing familial support for what he does."
"And the outfits he makes them do it in." I added on. She shot me a glare she couldn't really maintain through the laughter that rolled out of her.
"What?" Matt looked over at me, and it just made us both laugh harder.
"How was hunting?" Caroline changed the subject, taking his hand and weaving their fingers together.
"Fine." He shrugged. "Boring, now that my afternoons are solo." He gave me a pointed look. Our circumstances were shifting a little. With less pressure on me to bring home enough food to stockpile through the winter I had eased up on how often I went out. I still went every day, sometimes twice, but I didn't have to start and end every single day with a trip into the woods to keep us from starving later in the winter.
"I keep telling you that you don't have to do this." she said quietly. Matt just raised his eyebrows at her. His pride ran even deeper than my own, and working together toward the same goal with me and splitting the benefits between us stung a hell of a lot less than taking handouts from the mayor's daughter.
The two of them left shortly afterward, just an hour or so before Mom arrived home. She set a covered plate down on the kitchen table before turning to hang up her coat. Jenna was on it in a second, lifting the corner of the towel draped over it to look underneath. Mom slapped her hand away.
"After dinner." She said. "And I hope you girls don't mind leftovers. I didn't realize I'd be so late." She hummed to herself, turning on the burner under the pot of yesterday's stew sitting on the stove. Jenna slunk back to the living room, sitting down on the edge of my chair and leaning against me.
"It's a pie." She said with a small smile. I leaned back to look at Mom, letting Jenna lift my book from my lap and flip through the pages. She had a smile on her face, something that had only become a regular occurrence since she'd started working with Jacob. I wondered if how late she was had anything to do with the extra visit to the bakery that pie seemed to point to.
The next day I went with her when she went into town. She wanted me to meet Dr. Lawrence and sit in while she talked to him about Jacob. I had no real patience for it. I spent most of the visit staring at the eye chart on the wall behind his desk and wondering what it meant about my eyesight that the last two rows were nothing but a black smudge to me.
"Elena." Dr. Lawrence said, jerking my attention toward him. I sat up a bit straighter, raising my eyebrows. "I just want to commend you on your participation in this. It can't be terribly easy on you, and I hear that you've been an excellent influence on him."
"Um, thanks." I glanced over at Mom and she gave me a proud smile, reaching over to pat the back of my hand. "I don't really do anything."
"Don't sell yourself short." Mom said quietly.
"Do you have any questions? Anything you've seen that you've been wondering about?" The doctor asked, raising his eyebrows. I just shook my head, but I couldn't help wondering if I should have been paying closer attention. The few questions I had Mom already answered for me. Were there things I should have been questioning? The two of them returned to their conversation and I sunk back into thought.
We headed for the bakery when they finished. Mom headed straight upstairs to work with Jacob. I ended up working in the kitchen. Billy stood in the doorway to the storefront, watching me with a faint smile on his face. I'd gotten to the point where the prep for the next day's business was like second nature; I barely needed to glance at the recipes. I had started to move on to helping Damon with some of the easier things they needed for the evening rush.
"I'm guessing you're the jackass that tipped Donovan off to me and Lexi." Damon cocked an eyebrow at me as Billy moved back to the storefront to help a customer.
I don't know what you're talking about." I smirked without looking up from the cookie dough I was spooning out onto a tray.
"Please." Damon scoffed, folding his arms over his chest and leaning against the table beside me. "No one else knows about us."
"Why not? Ashamed?" I raised my eyebrows, glancing over at him. "Lexi might find that interesting."
"No!" Dampn snapped, frowning at me. "It's-fuck you. I'm not explaining shit. Just don't fucking talk about me to Donovan. That guy's a dick."
"I just thought it was a little funny that you'd be all over him about robbing the cradle when you seemed to have your hand pretty firmly embedded in one yourself." I shot him a look and he snorted.
"I've had more than my hand embedded in that cradle." Damon grinned, wagging his eyebrows at me and laughing at the disgust on my face. I shoved him away from me, finishing the tray of cookies before sliding it across the table for him to load into the oven. Billy moved back into the kitchen, pulling out a stool across from me at the table.
"Elena," he said, leaning forward against the table and pulling a bit of cookie dough from the bowl and popping it into his mouth. "Would you like a job?"
"A-what?" I set down my spoon, raising my eyebrows.
"A job, here." hh repeated. A smile crept over his face. "You're already helping, entirely too much I might add, why don't we make it official? Come out here a little more often, take on a little more work, and get paid for your trouble."
"Hold the fuck on." Damon turned around, moving to stand beside me at the table.
"Watch your mouth." Billy pointed at him.
"You don't even pay me!" He snapped, then hooked his thumb toward me. "And you're going to pay her?"
"Your wages have been going into a bank account with your name on it for years; when you actually need something, you'll get them." Billy said before turning back to me, the smile never leaving his face. "I need the help. Don and I can't keep up on our own, and Sam can't keep putting in as much time as he is. Will you come work for me?"
"Okay." I nodded, and Billy grinned. He got up as the bell out in the storefront rang, patting my shoulder on his way past.
"Great!" Damon snapped, looking over at me. "So I get more time with you." He frowned, turning back to his work. Mom came downstairs a few minutes later, crossing the room to me with a smile. She kissed my temple, rubbing her hand over my back.
"Did he ask?" She raised an eyebrow. I nodded. "And?"
"I'm gonna do it." I said.
"Good." She nodded, glancing at Damonbefore leaning closer to me, lowering her voice. "Jacob's asked for you twice. Go upstairs."
"What?" I looked at her, cocking an eyebrow. She just nodded toward the stairs. I slid off my stool, glancing at her as I climbed the stairs to the second floor. Jacob sat on the couch, his hat in his hands, working the fabric between his fingers. He looked up as I approached, flashing a brief smile before I sat down beside him on the couch. I angled toward him. "Looking for me?" His eyes widened briefly before he looked down.
"Just. Um, wondering if you c-came." He said, carefully pulling his hat back on.
"I think I might be here a lot more often now." I said. He looked up at me, raising his eyebrows. "Your dad offered me a job."
"Really?" He asked. A faint smile crossed his face, and I couldn't help but think of Caroline calling him cute.
"Yeah." I brushed my hair away from my face, looking away from him. I could feel his eyes on me, that smile never really fading.
"You should-stay away from the c-cupcakes." He said, smirking and dropping his gaze when I turned back to him.
"Is that an indictment of my frosting skills?" I chuckled, and Jacob shifted to sit back. He scratched under the edge of his hat, grinning at me and shrugging. He looked like himself for a moment. His laugh came easily, and he gave me a look, deftly avoiding a real answer. "Maybe you could teach me."
"Yeah." He looked down at his hands, shaking his head. The smile dropped from his face. "M-maybe."
"Sorry." I bit my lip. "I didn't mean to-" He held up his hand, cutting me off as he pressed his eyes closed, his expression growing pained for the briefest moment.
"Just um. P-promise me something." He said, looking over at me. His chin twitched to one side and he rubbed his hand against it, trying to hide it.
"What?"
"If you're going to um-b-be around," he paused, a smile twitching across his lips. "K-keep pissing Damon off."
"So did he bitch about that to you, too?" I laughed. Jacob nodded, flashing me a genuine smile.
"It's funny when he g-gets-worked up." He hesitated, frowning slightly for a moment before continuing. "It doesn't really um. Work. When I try."
"I promise I will piss your brother off as much as humanly possible." I smirked, touching my hand to my heart. He chuckled, looking down at his hands again. Silence fell between us. Over the past couple of weeks it had started becoming less and less frequent. Jacob seemed to struggle less to speak, but he seemed a little more comfortable around me, and that was proving to be more important. When we had an audience he clammed up again. When it was the two of us he opened up. "Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"You and Lexi." I started, and the look I got in response made me feel like an idiot before I even finished the question. "Were you always just friends?"
"Sh-she, uh. Kissed me once. On a d-dare." He smirked, glancing over at me. "When we were ten. D- does that count?"
"Maybe." I shrugged. "Was it any good?"
"No." He deadpanned without hesitation. I didn't even bother trying to hold back my laughter. I stayed with him longer than usual. The conversation flowed a little easier. It wasn't until Mom interrupted us, quietly telling me we needed to get home to get dinner on the table, that I even realized how much time had passed. We left with the promise I'd return the next day to start work.
I got an early start the next morning, slipping out of bed long before I usually would to head out into the forest. It was dark and cold, the ground coated in a thick frost hard enough that I barely left any footprints in it on my way to the fence. I fished my bow from a nearby tree, my quiver from another further in. The snare line Matt and I had been milking for a few weeks was gone, and I stood looking over the treeline, frowning. He had to have moved it the night before. I continued up toward the ridge, picking off a few birds along the way.
"I've been trying to catch up with you for about half a mile." Matt huffed, cresting the hill as I sat down to pluck my kills. He dropped down onto the tree beside me, setting a brace of small game at his feet.
"What happened to the snares?" I asked, glancing down at what he dropped.
"Had to move them." He said. He fished a knife out of his pocket and cut off the rope that held the game together, divvying it between us. "I caught Jeb Maynard snooping the line yesterday. I'm not losing any more dinners to that lazy fucking hayseed."
"Where did you move it to?" I smirked, watching him work.
"I'll show you on our way out." He said, cocking an eyebrow and glancing over at me. "Unless, you know, you're too busy."
"I might be." I said, ripping the last of the feathers out of the quail in my hands before dropping it and moving on to the crow. "I have a job now." Gale dropped his hands into his lap, shooting me a look that I couldn't help laughing at.
"Don't tell me it's at that damn bakery." He said.
"What's wrong with that damn bakery?" I asked, and Matt's look grew a little more pointed. I knew good and well Damon was what was wrong with that bakery. Their egos were too evenly matched, and their mutual disdain for each other had kept them butting heads long after most of us outgrew playground fights. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, whatever you had to say about him and Lexi got under his skin."
"It does, actually." Matt smirked, wiping his knife against the leg of his pants before getting back to work. "How often?"
"I'm not sure yet. I'm starting today." I said.
"He's just trying to get you to hang around Jacob more, you know." He glanced over at me, raising an eyebrow.
"They do actually need the help." I mirrored the expression right back at him. He just nodded, smirking to himself, and I backhanded his arm before turning my attention to my own share of the game from the snares. Honestly, I agreed with him. But he didn't need to know that.
I went straight to the bakery after school, mostly to avoid having to walk all the way out to the Seam only to turn around and head back to town. Damon was a little ways ahead of me, and I considered calling out and walking with him since we were going to the same place, until I noticed Lexi ahead of him. The shoe shop was across the square from the bakery, and if he wasn't walking with her I seriously doubted getting his attention would earn anything more than an eye roll.
Billy asked me to stop by at least three days during the week, as well as Saturdays after I was finished hunting. The work wasn't much more than I'd already been doing, though I knew he was trying to ease me into things. Damon had no problem dumping grunt work he had no interest in doing on me, and I ended up spending more time at the deep double sinks scraping down and cleaning the trays that came out of the oven than I did just about anything else.
Jacob started venturing downstairs the second day I turned up to work. He had very little to say, but every once in a while I'd catch an amused smirk on his face while he watched me. That look usually preceded some condescending lesson from Damon on what I was doing wrong, though he never really bothered taking the time to tell me how to correct myself.
"You're a shitty teacher, you know that?" I finally snapped at him on Friday.
"I think you're just a shitty student." Damon countered, dragging the pie tin away from me and all but erasing the tears in the dough I'd been trying to lay across the bottom with a few swipes of his hand. Jacob pressed his knuckles against his mouth, trying in vain to hide just how amused he was by the entire scenario.
"I made my first pie two days ago." I cocked an eyebrow, reaching for the bowl of filling. "I bet you sucked at it when you started, too."
"I wouldn't know." Damon smirked. "I made my first pie when I was three. So congratulations on fucking up something I've been able to do since before I could read the recipes for them." Jacob snorted, turning his face away and trying to hide his laughter.
"You think that's funny, Black?" I snapped. He just shook his head, waving me off, but only laughed harder when I tore the top crust as I tried to cover the pie.
"Give me that." Damon snatched the crust from my hands, balling up the top to roll it out again. I swear I caught a genuine smile on his face as he looked over at Jacob and then to me before crimping the edge of the crust.
"Elena, if you're not busy, why don't you come by on Sunday." Billy said from where he was leaning in the doorway to the storefront. I hadn't realized he was there, and it made me feel a little more embarrassed at how atrocious my pie had come along. The fact that the finished product looked even remotely passable was Damon's doing. "We'll be closed and I'm sure Damon isn't going to stick around. You and Jqke can have the kitchen to yourselves. He can teach you a few things." Jacob's brow furrowed, and he tensed up for a moment, glancing at me briefly before looking up at his father.
"You're gonna make her clean the ovens by herself?" Damon laughed. Sundays were the one day a week the ovens were completely shut down and cooled, and that meant the day was usually devoted to cleaning out the soot and grime that couldn't be touched when they were up and running.
"Nope, you're going to get up early and do it before she gets here." Twain said. The smile dropped off of Damon's face instantly as his father turned back to me. "Sound good?"
"Sounds good." I nodded. Jacob took a breath, glancing at me before getting up from the table. He followed Billy out to the storefront, one hand braced against the wall as he went.
"Dad-hang on." Jacob said as he slipped through the door and out of earshot. I watched the doorway for a minute, wishing I could hear more than just a vague murmur of their voices. Was he trying to argue the point? Was it because he didn't want me here or because he was nervous about having to teach me? Damon dropped an empty pie tin in front of me, and the loud clatter of it against the table made me jump. He cackled and I grabbed the tin, thwacking him with it before setting it down to try not fucking up my second pie of the day.
Jenna frowned at me from the porch when I left for the bakery Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoons when the weather was cold were usually spent sitting together by the fire playing cards. It took a promise of a few rounds after dinner to get her to stop fussing at me long enough to let me leave to begin with. She wasn't used to sharing my time with anyone other than Matt and Caroline, and more often than not Caroline made the trip out to the Seam instead of the other way around.
Jacob and Billy were in the kitchen when I arrived at the bakery. I'd long moved beyond knocking, and that seemed to suit them just fine. Jacob flashed me a nervous smile, just barely making eye contact before turning back to the book he was flipping through. The recipe books had been hauled down from the top of the set of shelves by the staircase, stacked on the end of the worktable. I sat down beside Jacob, looking over his shoulder. The books seemed to be mostly handwritten and had very obviously seen a few generations of bakers. The bindings were cracked, pages falling out around what had to have been the most frequently used recipes, where the books were laid open flat the most often.
"I'll be upstairs if you guys need me." Billy said, smiling at me before excusing himself and retreating to the second floor. Jacob's attention was focused on the book in front of him, a faint smile on his face as he flipped through the pages.
"I haven't looked th-through these in-in years." He chewed the inside of his lip, pausing on a page full of illustrations of cake borders. "M-my grandfather illustrated these." He flipped through a few more pages. "His father s-started the writing."
"Really?" I smiled to myself, thinking of the book of plants and herbs my mother and father put together before he died.
"Yeah." Jacob flipped to the first page, pointing to the names signed to the front.
"Lucian and Ephraim Black?" I smirked, raising my eyebrows. "I think I sense a theme with your family's choices in names." Jacob chuckled quietly.
"D-Dad's always said that um. If he had a daughter-he'd n-name her Cordelia." He grinned, flipping the book closed.
"She doesn't even exist and I still feel bad for her." I laughed.
"He had a b-brother named Alliatair." Jacob smirked. He paused as he reached for another book, catching what must have been a confused look on my face. "Forget it. It-it fits."
"So what are you teaching me today, boss?" I asked as Jacpb opened one of the smaller books. He pressed his lips together, holding back a smile, and thumbed through the book for a moment. After settling on a page, he slid the open book in front of me. I looked down at the recipe, closing my eyes and shaking my head. "Cupcakes. Funny."
"I, um-I thought we'd fix that little, um, p-problem of yours." He grinned, laughing quietly when I backhanded his arm. We worked through the recipe together, one that I was sure he had known by heart at one point. This was one of those worn pages, flour practically embedded in the paper, the text lighter than the rest of the book from wear. He struggled with parts of it, though. I'd learned my way around the kitchen just well enough to fill in the gaps and keep him on track. By the time we got toward the end of the recipe he had to pass the book off to me. "Sorry. Eyes d-don't focus for too long." He rubbed his hand over his face.
"It's okay, we're almost done anyway, right?" I looked over the recipe before glancing at the ovens, realizing not only were they stone cold, but also that I had no idea how to get them running. I turned back toward Jacob. "So, um-"
"Oh." He shook his head, getting up from his stool. "This little one." He moved to one side of the wall of ovens, crouching down to a smaller door near the bottom. "It's kind of, uh-self c-contained. We'll use this." I watched as he loaded a few logs into the oven, pushing them far back against the brick. He paused for a moment afterward, his expression blanking for the briefest moment, snapping back when I handed him the long matches that sat on a shelf over the oven doors.
We moved back to the table and he sat down and watched as I spooned the batter into a cupcake tray. While we waited for the oven to heat up I asked him about the bakery, about work, trying to get a feel for what, exactly I was getting myself into. It was also good to just hear him talk. He halted less when he talked about the bakery, his stuttering eased, though it didn't disappear completely. Once the cupcakes were in to bake we went back to flipping through the books, though I spent more time looking at him than I did at the pages. He asked me to read a couple of the recipes to him, his brow furrowing in concentration as he listened.
When the cupcakes were finished and set out to cool, he talked me through a frosting recipe. He didn't give me a single exact measurement, just listed the ingredients and eyeballed whatever I was putting into the mixing bowl. Every so often he would reach into the bowl and scoop out a little with his pinkie to taste before telling me to add a little more of one of the ingredients. After nearly a half hour of fine-tuning he scooped out a larger fingerful, working the taste around in his mouth for a moment before his expression shifted to a satisfied smile.
"I'm g-glad I still have that." He said quietly. I scooped a bit out of the bowl to taste for myself. It was rich and creamy, sweet without the sugary bite of the frosting I was used to.
"I don't know if I can make this look as good as it tastes." I smirked at him. He laughed softly, reaching for the pastry bag. He showed me how to fill it, how to soften the icing with the warmth from my hands, and how to work out the air bubbles before I started piping onto the cupcakes. Even with the coaching my first two were horrendous. "I told you."
"You're just moving t-too slow." He said as he stood up beside me, taking the bag from my hands and demonstrating, though he was slowing the motion way down from what I'd seen him do before. He worked the frosting further down into the bag before twisting it off and handing it back to me. I tried again, trying to imitate what I'd seen him do. Jacob leaned closer, rubbing the palm of his hand with his thumb as he watched. He chewed the inside of his lip, shaking his head briefly before resting one hand on my shoulder, curling the other around my wrist to guide me. I turned my attention to him, not the cupcakes, and he jerked his hand away from me, muttering a stuttering apology as he sat down, his cheeks flushing.
"It's okay." I smiled to myself, watching him for a moment. My shoulder felt hot where he'd been leaning on me, and I looked down at my wrist, biting back a wider smile before continuing. I managed to get the hang of it before the last few. Even though they weren't completely atrocious, they still didn't live up to the few Jacob had done as my examples to follow. He emptied the rest of the bag back into the bowl and passed me a spoon. His shoulders sagged and he leaned forward against the table to rub his hands over his eyes. Exhaustion was quickly overtaking him. I scooped a spoonful of frosting from the bowl and nudged him with my elbow to offer it to him. Peeta just waved me off, rubbing the side of his jaw in attempt to relieve a visible muscle spasm. I turned my attention back to the bowl of frosting in front of me. Billy came downstairs a few moments later.
"You're a much better teacher than your asshole brother." I smirked, nudging Jacob gently with my elbow as he put together a box for me to bring my cupcakes home in.
"These are pretty damn good, Elena." Billy winked at me, taking another bite of the cupcake he'd swiped from the tray as soon as he'd come downstairs. He pointed to the frosting, covering his mouth with the back of his hand before speaking. "And Jake, I'm glad you didn't lose this. But that's no excuse not to figure out how to write it the hell down for me."
"What is he talking about?" I glanced at Jacob. He just shrugged, closing the box before sliding it across the table to me.
"Oh, did he neglect to tell you?"
"D-dad." Jacob rolled his eyes, looking away.
"Tell me." I smiled expectantly, watching that flush creep into Jacob's face again.
"This is his recipe. The frosting." Billy popped the last of the cupcake into his mouth, wiping the crumbs from his fingers onto the leg of his pants. "But he just makes it up as he goes along and has no idea how much of what goes in there. And none of the rest of us can figure out how the hell he does it."
"Really?" I hooked my finger in the nearly empty bowl of frosting, pulling it closer to me and wiping a bit of what still clung to the sides off with my finger to get another taste.
"He's a genius." Billy shrugged, folding his arms across his chest.
"Please st-stop." Jacob pushed his hat back on his head, scratching his fingers into his hair before smoothing it back down. He was avoiding my gaze, and it just made me smile a little wider.
He was at my house the next day when I got home from school, sitting on the couch with my mother, the look on his face a complete contrast to the way I had seen him yesterday. Mom was holding a book open between them. He was scowling at it as if it had personally offended him, rubbing his fingers over his forehead. There was no sign that he even still knew how to smile as warmly as he had before I'd left last night.
"Just try, one more time, please." Mom said, passing the book to him before standing up and walking into the kitchen. She leaned close to me, lowering her voice so he couldn't hear. "I think we're going to cut it short today. Mind taking him home in a bit?"
"That's fine." I said. Jacob shifted, his eyes dropping down to the book in his lap as soon as I looked over at him. "Everything okay?" Mom just sighed, rolling her eyes before moving to the stove, checking on whatever she had on the burner.
I followed Jenna to our bedroom and sat at the end of our bed, my back against the wall, the door open just a crack. I wanted to hear whatever was going on out there to put him in such a foul mood, not to mention get my mother rolling her eyes at him. After a few minutes I heard Mom return to the living room, the couch creaking as she sat back down. She started asking him questions about whatever he'd read, every one of them met with silence or a hesitant, stuttering answer that ended up needing to be corrected.
"We could try something else." Mom said softly. Jacob sighed, and I heard the book thump closed.
"Can-I'd like to..." He paused. "G-go home."
"Okay." Mom said. I turned my attention back to the notebook I'd laid across my lap and hadn't given a single glance to since sitting down. Mom nudged the door open and I waited a moment before looking up at her, hoping she wouldn't realize I'd been listening in. She nodded toward the living room. "Ready?"
"Sure." I set my notebook aside, pinching Jenna's foot as I got up from the bed. She yanked it away and smiled at me as I left the room. Jacob was already by the door, steadying himself with both hands against the wall as he stepped into his shoes. He gave me a brief, tense smile as I stepped up next to him, stepping into my own shoes before pulling on my coat. "Rough day?"
"Yeah." He squeezed out, dropping his gaze to the floor as he put on his coat. I watched him for a moment before opening the door and pushing his wheelchair out. Once I'd gotten it down the stairs I climbed back up them to help him down. Jacon jerked his arm out of my grasp. "I'm fine."
"Okay." I raised my eyebrows, taking a small step back as he moved down the steps, gripping the railing with one hand. He stumbled a bit halfway down, catching himself on the rail in the same instant I got to him, one hand on his back, the other on his arm.
"I s-said I'm fine." He snapped, jerking away from me again.
"Fine then." I muttered. "If you're fine." I moved to stand behind the wheelchair, watching him take the last couple of steps carefully before dropping down into the wheelchair with a sigh. "What's up your ass?"
"Can we j-jus-just go." He kicked down the footrests, slouching down in the chair and folding his arms over his chest.
"Okay." I sighed, and started pushing his chair toward town. We had recently started talking on the walks home. As awkward as it felt talking to the back of his head, walking in silence was even worse. Every once in a while he'd shift in his seat, or I'd hear him draw in a breath as though he had something to say, but nothing ever came of it. Halfway to town I heard footsteps running up behind us.
"Lena!" Matt called out to me, stretching his arm out in a brief wave. I slowed our pace, ignoring the impatient sigh that Jacob didn't even bother hiding. Matt caught up in a few strides, grinning at me. "Heading to town?"
"Yeah." I nodded.
"Hey buddy." Gale clapped Jacob on the shoulder, nudging me out of the way and taking over pushing the wheelchair. "How're you feeling today?"
"He's feeling great." I said, trying not to smile too much and tip Matt off to my sarcasm. Jacob glared at me. I just clapped him on the shoulder, imitating Matt's gesture. "Aren't you, buddy." If he wanted to be a surly asshole, I had no problem having a little fun at his expense. He narrowed his eyes at me before turning away. I looked back to Matt. "Going to see Caroline?"
"Dinner with her parents." He said, shooting me a brief grimace. I just chuckled. He could pretend to hate it all he wanted, but once he'd finally won Caroline's father over he may as well have been part of the family.
"You could have at least changed your pants." I pointed to the side of his pant leg, to the spot where he habitually wiped his hunting knife clean. It was still streaked with dried blood from the morning's hunt.
"Ah, fuck." He frowned down at his leg before sighing and turning his attention to Jacob again. He kept his voice too light and casual, like he was speaking to a child, completely oblivious to Jacob's shoulders tensing up. I had a hard time not laughing at the entire exchange. By the time we made it to the bakery Jacob had started flat out staring me down, making it even harder not to laugh. When we got to the back porch Matt had his arm around Jacob's shoulders before he even stood up from the chair, completely oblivious to the attempts he was making at protesting. I just folded up the chair, carrying it up onto the porch behind them.
"Thanks for your help, Matt." I said, smiling at Jacob and folding my arms over my chest.
"You're welcome." Matt cocked an eyebrow, looking from me to Jacob and back, finally catching on to something being off. Jacob set his jaw, shaking his head at me. Damon yanked open the back door a moment later, his expression shifting the moment he caught sight of Matt.
"The fuck you doing here, Donovan?" He sneered.
"I was walking your brother home." Matt snapped, finally giving up his grip on Jacob. "You're welcome."
"Elena walks my brother home, oil slick." Damon folded his arms over his chest, leaning against the door frame. "The fuck are you doing here?" Jacob just rolled his eyes, squeezing past Damon and disappearing into the bakery. I had just as much patience with the pissing contest gearing up between the two of them.
"Hey." I caught him by the elbow just before he reached the staircase. He turned to me, frowning. "I was just playing with you. You know that, right? He's an idiot." Jacob shook his head, pulling his arm away from me, but he didn't just start straight up the stairs like I expected him to. "You were kind of being a dick." He straightened up, drawing in a breath to say something and hesitating, looking me over.
"I-um." Jacob cut himself off when I looked past him. Billy was standing in the doorway, watching the two of us. Jacob looked over his shoulder, his eyes deadening a little when he turned back to me.
"Sorry." Billy held his hands up, disappearing into the storefront.
"Want some help getting upstairs?" I lowered my voice a little, raising my eyebrows. I hope he understood what I was really asking. Did he want to talk somewhere without an audience. He looked confused for a moment, his face softening when Damon stepped back in the kitchen.
"Please." He said. I nodded. I walked up the stairs beside him, offering my arm if he needed it, and followed him down the hall to his bedroom. He sat down on the edge of his bed, pulling off his hat and tossing it onto the dresser that stood between his and Damon's beds. I sat down beside him, catching a glimpse at the back of his head when he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. That scab was still there. Smaller now, much smaller, but still not gone. It left a patch of bare skin, the hair that had started growing back around it was almost Grey.
"So what's going on." I asked, frowning to myself. "You were fine yesterday."
"Yeah-yesterday." He straightened back up, glancing over at me. He ran his hand through his hair, closing his eyes and blowing out a breath when his fingers brushed over the scab. He dropped his hand into his lap. "It's like-there's only s-so much. Of me. And um. Once I use it up it-it's just gone. And I-I don't know how long it'll t-take to get-get it back."
"So I tired you out, is what you're saying." I said. He looked over at me, stuttering for a moment before just taking a breath and nodding. "You could have just said that. Instead of being a jerk."
"It's embarrassing." He muttered softly.
"Jacob." I said, a little stronger than I meant to. He snapped his attention toward me. "No, it isn't. This was done to you. Your mother is the one that needs to be embarrassed."
"Yeah, b-but-" he dropped his gaze again, picking at a hole along the seam of his pants. "I-I'm the one who has t-to live with it."
I had no idea what to say. Jacob closed his eyes after a moment, rolling his jaw, his lip trembling faintly. I shifted a little closer, reaching out and taking his hand, squeezing it softly. He looked down at our hands, glancing up at me before dropping his gaze back down to the floor. He chewed his lip, squeezing my hand back after a moment.