"So how did it go?" I asked Dad the next day.
"Well, Bella said that she had plans to go shopping later today and watch a movie with Jessica. And that she wanted to stay here." He shook his head. "I hope this means she is getting better."
"Bella hates shopping, Dad." I stated. But if she was doing anything with anyone that was good. I hope. "Does this mean she is staying with us for now?"
"I think so. Are you going with her? She said she would go tomorrow." He asked.
I shook my head. "Jacob and I have a date planned for tomorrow." A couple days ago, just after our drivers tests, he had officially asked me to be his girlfriend. I had, of course, said yes. Tomorrow we were going to stay at his house and watch a movie instead of going somewhere else as both of us were very nearly broke.
"Great." Dad acknowledged.
The day after our date I was sitting in Jacob's garage playing with a wrench. Jacob was tidying up some of his tools and I kept trying to hide them. Currently I had a small screwdriver up my jacket sleeve, and a socket wrench in my pocket.
"Liana, give them back," Jacob demanded, holding out his hand in my direction.
"What?" I smirked.
"I see the screwdriver in sleeve," he deadpanned.
"Ohh, you mean this." I handed it over to him. "Don't know how that got there."
He grinned. "And the other ones? I know you have them."
"Uh, no?" I stood up and moved away.
He came closer and reached for me. I backed away.
"If you don't have them, then why are you running?" Jacob asked, still grinning. He leaned closer and I looked up at him, my eyes barely level with his chin. He slowly leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. I dropped the wrench in my hand and brought it up to his shoulder. This was only the second time he had kissed me and I was still getting used to the fact that we could, now that we were dating.
"My wrench?" He asked, pulling away.
"Hey! That's not fair! You can't kiss me to get what you want!" I exclaimed, and kicked his leg.
He jumped backwards, laughing, while I chased him and continued mock kicking his legs.
Just then our fun was interrupted by a loud rumbling truck pulling up at his house. I looked at Jake.
"That's Bella. What is she doing here?" I asked, confused. Bella never came down here.
"I don't know. Let's go find out." He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door.
"Bella!" I called. She was standing on the porch and looked our way.
"Hey Liana. Hi Jake." She waved.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Jacob asked.
She walked over to her truck and pulled back the tarp covering the back. Inside lay two beat up motorcycles.
My eyebrows raised to my hairline at the sight of them. What was Bella doing?
"Wow, they sure are in rough shape." Jacob commented but his eyes betrayed his excitement about the machines.
"I saw them and figured that my mechanic friend could fix them up maybe." She said, looking at Jacob.
"It'll take a lot of work." He told her.
"Can you do it?" She challenged.
"Wait, wait, wait. Wait a second." I interrupted, still confused at the entirety of the situation. "Bella, since when have you been interested in motorcycles?"
"Since yesterday." She replied.
"They require a lot of control." Jacob commented. "But they have to be fixed before they can be driven." He had the look on his face that he got whenever there was a particularly interesting mechanical problem for him to fix.
"Does Dad know?" I asked, probing for information. This wasn't like Bella. Not even a week ago she was still depressed. I certainly wasn't an expert, but such a fast mood change couldn't be normal.
"No. And you better not tell him." Bella demanded.
"I just wondered if you had asked him, that's all." I raised my hands in defence.
"I'm an adult. I don't have to ask Charlie about everything, do I?" Bella challenged.
I conceded. This really wasn't like Bella at all. Or had she changed so much from her time with Edward that she only resembled the person that was my sister? Or maybe I never really knew her well at all.
Jacob lifted the motorcycles down and began pushing one two the garage. I grabbed the other one in resignation and Bella helped me push it after him.
Over the next week or so, Bella was a constant presence at Jacob's garage. I was happy that she seemed to be getting over Edward, but it almost looked like she was trying to move on with Jacob and that made me a bit edgy around her. Jacob was completely oblivious to the whole thing as he was just focused on repairing the motorcycles. To him it was bliss-he had always talked and dreamed of repairing motorcycles-and I didn't want to say anything to spoil his fun.
One day Quil and Embry came over.
"Hey guys!" I called from my place beside Jacob. As always, my job was to hand him tools and try not to get in the way too much. Jacob never seemed to mind me being there though. "Where's Nina?"
"She's got a cold," Quil told me. "Grandpa said she was coughing too much to come."
I nodded sympathetically. It was never fun to have a cold and and it was disappointing as it had been a while since I had seen her. Either I was too tired because of Bella, or there was bad weather, or she was visiting some friends and family on the Makah reservation, and now she was sick. There always seemed to be something coming up.
"So do you guys have girlfriends?" Bella asked over the course of the conversation.
"Ha! Quil took his cousin to prom!" Jacob chuckled.
"Because I was sick." Embry stated, rolled his eyes at Jacob, and crossed his arms. "She's my girlfriend."
Bella nodded and made a noise of agreement.
Quil pouted a bit. "And now I'm a fifth wheel to the four of them."
"Aw Quilly doesn't have a girlfriend," Jake mocked.
I smacked him on the shoulder. "Be nice! I'm sure there's a girl out there somewhere for you Quil."
Jacob and Quil rushes at each other and started wrestling.
Embry nodded his head at Bella. "So, I see the truck that I had my heart set on went to you."
She frowned and stuttered. "Well, umm, my dad bought it for me."
Embry smirked. "I see. Ah well, treat her well."
I snorted. Embry had been wanting a truck for forever, but Dad had promised a better price for it and Jacob couldn't refuse. He needed the money for his car and Embry hadn't had his license at the time.
The afternoon disappeared. One thing that irritated me was that Bella exclusively paid attention to Jacob, while Quil, Embry, and I were largely brushed off by her. Jacob seemed not to notice and continued to laugh with her as well as talking to the three of us. When Quil and Embry headed out, I followed them a ways.
"Is it always like that?" Embry asked with narrowed eyes.
"Bella you mean? Yes." I answered tersely. "She may be recovering, but she sure doesn't know how to interact with multiple people at once."
"Or how to not flirt with her sisters boyfriend." Quil mumbled lowly.
I glanced at him sharply. "I thought I was imagining it."
Embry snorted. "No, there was no imagining. She was making moves on him and that dumb lump didn't even notice it. Don't worry though, Jake is as loyal as they come. If he ever recognizes what she's doing, he'll put a stop to it."
Quil voiced his agreement and I nodded. "I hope so."
Embry and then Quil each grabbed me into a hug. "I know so."
The next time I saw Embry was a few days later, but under extremely different circumstances. In fact, one could say that Embry no longer looked like himself.
I was going for a walk on one of the trails near the Blacks house when a mountain of grey fur collided with me. I crashed to the ground and the wolf summersaulted, hit a tree, and yelped.
I sat up groaning. I would probably be a walking bruise tomorrow with how hard I hit the ground. "Paul, watch where you're going!" I scolded.
The large grey wolf shook himself from where collided with the tree and scrambled to his paws. His chest was heaving and he was panting heavily.
I looked a bit closer at the wolf, who whimpered. "Oh dear, you aren't Paul." Paul was a solid grey colour and this wolf was much lighter grey and had black markings. He also had very long fur. I quickly realized that this was a newly phased wolf that had no idea what was going on.
"Okay, Umm, now calm down and I will get help." I said, looking the wolf in the eye. "Do I know you? Nod if I do." I told him.
He nodded and tried backing away but bumped into a tree and yelped again. He looked ready to bolt so I tried to calm him.
"No, no, no. Just stay here. I promise everything will be okay." I slowly approached him with my hand out. He snarled at me so I jumped back.
"No touching, okay," I raised my hands in the air and backed away until there was about ten feet between us. I certainly wasn't interested in being attacked by a newly shifted and panicked werewolf. "Will you lie down please?"
He slowly sat but didn't lie down. I tried to figure out who it could be. "You probably aren't Jacob, so are you Embry?" I guessed. So far my friends had been the only ones that the pack was keeping an eye on so that is where my thoughts jumped to first.
The wolf howled sorrowfully and I took that as a yes. I wasn't overly surprised that it was him. Embry had changed the most out of the three boys, and now he was the first to phase. It gave me hope that Jacob would soon phase and then I would no longer have to lie to him.
Hopefully Sam or one of the others was already phased but if not maybe they would hear Embry's howl and phase right away. Embry soon began looking extra panicked and I guessed that he could hear someones thoughts in his head.
"Embry!" I clapped my hands at him when he stood up. "Just wait until Sam gets here. He will explain so please just listen to him. It will all be confusing at first, but you can trust Sam." I continued in a softer voice.
A few minutes later a voice broke the silence.
"Liana, you should go now."
I jumped and turned to see Paul in human form and Sams huge black wolf form. Boy are they quiet. I nodded.
"Embry, it'll be okay. Just listen to them and stay calm." I backed down the trail a little to go over to Paul but Embry shot up and bounded over to me with a mix of whimpering and snarling.
"What does he want?" I asked Paul in confusion. I couldn't quite tell if he was growling at me or not.
"Just a second," he dashed into the woods and stuck his head out a minute later. "He doesn't trust us and he wants you to stay." He was grinning.
"Alright, I'll stay but I have to get back soon. Jacob might wonder where I am and I don't want him to worry." I told Embry. And so I sat down to wait several yards away from the two visible wolves. Soon Embry didn't look as frantic and then I heard Paul tell me that I could go. They were going to take Embry for a run and see if he could change back.
On my way back to the garage I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Finding a newly phased wolf was the last thing I expected today. It was actually quite exciting. When I arrived at the garage I found Bella and Jacob laughing.
"Hey guys," I announced my arrival.
"Hi Liana," Jacob waved me over to him. "Have a good walk?" He asked.
"Yes. It was... interesting. I saw a bit of wildlife." I said, trying to stifle a laugh. It was mostly true, but I obviously couldn't tell him what actually happened. "What were you guys laughing about?" I changed the subject.
"About our mental ages. Bella thinks that you and I are around thirty, and I think she is around sixty." Jacob told me.
I snickered. "Are you sure you shouldn't be closer to twelve?"
"If I'm twelve then what are you?" He challenged back.
"Fair point," I laughed. Sometimes I could be really silly, but it was the same for all of my friends. I think that that was just how it worked.
Bella had ordered pizza so we ate there with Jacob and then I rode home with her in the truck.
"Did you have a good time today?" I asked Bella. I was trying to be friendly but my voice had a bit of defensiveness in it.
She nodded. "Jake's my best friend. I love spending time with him." The last sentence came out softly, almost as if they were an afterthought and I glanced at her.
"Uh, about that. Bella, I am really glad you are getting better, but please remember that Jacob and I are dating. I don't want you to move on to my boyfriend. I don't want you to get hurt again, but I also don't want you to, well, start liking him that way." I blurted out.
"I, I don't." She stuttered, sounding startled. Maybe it was just my imagination and she didn't like him that way, but I couldn't shake the feeling.
"I didn't mean to be rude, but please remember that." I apologized.
"Yeah, don't worry. I won't," she said stiffly.
The rest of the ride was passed in a somewhat uncomfortable silence and I was glad to escape into the house. I berated myself about making things even more awkward between us. Things had only gone downhill since she had arrived and if I wasn't careful I could end up really blotching up our already tense relationship.