It had been about two weeks since I officially became Edweird's girlfriend, when Bella first approached me during lunch with that nervous expression she usually had when she was feeling exceptionally anxious, I knew something was up. When she opened her mouth to speak I felt a shock course through my bones as my jaw dropped. Soon, a sound that was a mixture of a squeak and a scream came out.
That was how we found ourselves here, standing outside the treeline, dressed in jeans, warm jackets and comfy ass hiking boots. Our respective dates were waiting for us to move along and start up the semi-steep incline. I had a backpack with our lunch, a thermos filled with deer's blood in my pack as well for Edward. I happen to know a butcher and he was able to get me quite a bit of fresh animal blood. I had to look up a few recipes that include animal blood in the recipe, there were quite a few of them in order to give him an excuse to actually sell me the blood, something about legalities on it to people who don't know what they're doing with it.
Hiking my pack up higher onto my shoulder I looked over to Bella, she was taking several deep breaths. I could tell she was nervous.
"Come on." I grabbed her arm and started pulling her after me, linking our arms together. "Neither Jake nor I will let you trip or fall." I grinned at her. Getting a shy but grateful smile in return.
"Thanks Jess." she replied softly, accepting the help up over a rather large rock. Before she basically fell into Jacob's arms. Jake and I exchanged amused looks before I hurried ahead of them to catch up with Edward.
'I brought some deer's blood. It should still be good, I kept it warm for you!' I thought enthusiastically, getting an amused look from Edward and a silent thank you.
"Where exactly are we going?" Jake asked, holding hands with Bella, eyeing the surrounding trees with a somewhat untrustworthy glance. I occasionally caught myself staring at his muscles, which had seamless outlines of his thin jacket and... er... cargo shorts. He could have at least tried to dress like he was cold.
"We're going to mine and Edward's favorite meadow clearing, Bella should know it." I raised my brow at her, seeing as I had taken her there once before. Her eyes widened and she got this slight excited glow to her face.
"We're going there?" She asked, nearly breathlessly as she had briefly lost focus and nearly fell.
"Yup!" I grinned widely. "Thought it would be nice to enjoy a little picnic and enjoy some nature while we're at it."
"That explains why Bella asked what my favorite sandwiches are... I thought I was turning into one of those douche boyfriends for a minute." Jacob let out an audible sigh of relief. Besides his light, tribal patterned pack, Jake had adamantly insisted he carried the food.
Funnily enough, once Edward had realized that Jacob was helping us with our loads, insisted he carried the emergency kits Bella and I prepped ahead of time -I noticed the extra clothes for Jake- and the transforming picnic blanket. It took the two of us our entire respective car rides to the trail to prevent the boys from carrying our bags too. I get that to them, our bags must feel like empty pillow cases, but let us be independent damnit!
I kept close to Edward, seeing as today I seemed to be extra clumsy. I can't help but feel a sense of foreboding. That something was gonna happen out of my and Bella's control. I kept my eyes on the treeline and tried to pay attention to my surroundings at the same time but that was difficult.
Stumbling over a tree root, I grabbed onto Edward's arm to catch my balance. "Damn nature and always tripping me." I grumbled, getting an amused glance and near silent chuckle.
Bella kept stopping along the trail, examining some flowers and ferns that are growing along the bottom of the trees. I couldn't help but feel amused as I watched Jake explain what types of plants they were. I didn't even know he knew what exact type of fern that was.
I watched the way they interacted and the way Bella's face would redden everytime Jake would smile, and how his eyes would light up when she would laugh.
Soon enough Bella had enough knowledge to be able to identify plants on her own and had fun pointing them out. She even whipped out a professional camera and started taking pictures of birds and things that caught her fancy.
"Ginger needs to carry all the bags?" Jacob asked, his voice teasing but there was a sense of annoyance in his expression.
I eyed them both and noticed Edward was in fact carrying a bulkier and somewhat heavier looking bag than Jake.
"Feeling weak, Jacob?" Edward was amused, smirking at the younger guy. Bella and I exchanged blank looks.
"Guys, come on." Bella said, taking Jacob's hand.
We walked for a bit longer in silence, Bella's expression was a bit frustrated as she fiddled with her jacket ends. I couldn't help but notice she kept glancing at the treelines by our trail.
"You okay?" I asked her, slowing my pace so I'm with her and not Edward. We had been walking for nearly an hour now, I realized that after checking my watch.
"I have to go..." She mumbled, shifting her shoulders a bit as we trailed a bit behind the boys.
My eyes widened as I soon realized that I too, had to go. "Guys we have to go to the bathroom!" I declared loudly, grabbing Bella's arm. I've been camping enough times with my family to know how to use the bathroom in the wilderness. Just to be safe, my bag has biodegradable toiletries that we will be using.
"Alright, we'll wait here, holler if you need anything." Jacob said with a bit of a smirk.
"Don't fight while we're gone!" I called back to them as I carefully went into the treeline, before helping Bella follow after me.
"We won't!" Jake replied again, and soon their words to each other were a bit muffled by the trees as we traveled a bit further away.
"Let's find a tree." I mumbled, before seeing one without any annoying foliage under it. "There." I took one side and she took the other.
When we finished our business we began to head back towards the boys, but from behind we heard a grunting, growling sound, like something big was sniffing the ground before noticing us. We looked over our shoulders to see a massive bear with thick, brown fur lumbering in our direction, sniffing the ground against then in our direction.
I gripped Bella's wrist tightly and forced her to remain still. I didn't want to seem like a threat to this bear that was now staring at us intensely. It didn't take long for it to stand on its hind legs and roar at us. Shit, it's a grizzly!
Bella let out a scream, and cowered behind me as I choked on my own voice, fear locking my legs in place. We were going to die. Torn apart by this bear.
A brief rustle behind us had a choked whimper escape me as I pushed Bella behind me even further as the bear started to lung for us. Finally my voice rediscovered myself and I let out a scream.
Everything happened in a blur, one second the bear was charging us, the next it was tackled by something much bigger and reddish brown in fur. It was a wolf, one that should not exist in the natural world just from the sheer size of it with long fangs burying into the burly flesh of the bear. Soon, in an equally headache inducing blurr, Edward was on the bear's back after the massive wolf pinned it, snapping its neck with a sharp twist of his arm.
I didn't realize I had collapsed until I felt the dirt and rocks beneath my palm. Edward was quick to come to my side as the wolf sauntered off to the treeline before Jacob took its place and Bella handed him a shirt, shorts and sneakers. My eyes started to wander when a cold hand covered my eyes.
"Would you please dress up faster?" Edward said blankly, preventing me from pulling his hand away.
"Yeah yeah, Bella doesn't like seeing my naked body either, girls are bashful," Jake said in a joking manner and I hear Bella let out a few lines of broken English. With the sound of a zip, Edward removed his hand from my eyes and while Jake was still shirtless, he at least had a pair of pants on. Bella was covering her face with her hands.
With Edward's help, I stood up, brushed off my butt then gave Bella a lopsided grin. "Well... I guess we have some things to discuss huh?" I was almost expecting Bella to get heated and start freaking out, that would be a reasonable response. Instead she -shakily, I might add- walked to me and rested her head on my shoulder with a whimpered "mhm..."
I look down at her then at the boys. "Why don't we talk when we finish the trail."
"Fine by me." Jake shrugged and began to help Bella back to the trail. Edward let me walk as far as I could before offering assistance when my brain seemed to go on a tangent around him.
I looked between the boys, although I already knew everything about their individual supernatural selves. But I knew we needed to explain things to Bella but not all the details, just that Edward isn't a normal man.
The conversation was brief, but it got all the information we needed to exchange out in the open. We continued our hike in silence as Bella concentrated on her feet and I gripped Edward's wrist over the rough parts.
~~~
Bella was still shaking a bit as we returned to the trail. I handed the thermos Edward and he gave me a thankful smile, I nodded a bit, noticing Bella's scraped knee. It didn't bleed too much but I know that a single drop can be overwhelming.
He took sips every now and again as we reached the meadow.
"Finally!" I exclaimed with a cheer, reaching into the pack on my back without removing it to pull out a huge blanket made specifically for picnics. "Let's eat, I'm starved." I layed out the quilted blanket before eagerly plopping down onto it, Bella taking a seat across from me with a look of relief on her face.
"It's almost as though you weren't almost killed by a bear." Jake commented with a bit of a smirk which caused me to roll my eyes.
Edward took a seat next to me and held out the backpack with our food. "Yummy." I hummed excitedly, accepting the beat up old backpack, pulling out my food, while Jake got his and Bella's food from the back pack on his back.
We sat together and ate in silence, I munched on my lunchmeat sandwich while Bella quietly ate her pasta salad. I looked up at Edward who was calmly drinking from his thermos. Bella wasn't all that surprised to find out that Edward was a vampire and I wasn't shocked to find out Jake was a shifter. Originally he tried to say he was a werewolf but when I laughed he got very confused.
"You're not a werewolf, Jacob. Werewolves only transform under the full moon, you can transform at will. You're a shapeshifter, only you can only turn into a wolf." His eyes widened and he nodded in understanding. I would have been more shocked if he said he was a shifter from the beginning.
Jake was munching on a thick sandwich filled with Salami and roast beef, his gaze on the clouds above us. Edward actually sparkled today and I couldn't stop my gaze from trailing his glittering skin. It's a breathtaking sight for sure, like staring at a diamond reflecting light in the sun... as cheesy as that is. It really does look like he's made out of diamonds instead of glitter.
"You're..." I started, but I couldn't finish it out loud. Beautiful.
"Thanks." He smirked a bit, causing me to roll my eyes.
Bella looked between the two of us, "Huh?" She said through a mouthful of food, blushing when she realized a bit of salad landed on her lap as a result.
"Edward can read minds," I say calmly with another bite of my sandwich, smaller so I can tuck it in my cheek to keep talking. "He's mentioned that he can't read yours though... hence why he was interested in you before, it was something he had never encountered."
"Oh... I guess that's... cool," Bella mumbled, cleaning herself up. Once she was done she leaned into Jake, using his free hand as a rest which he took in stride. I Wish I had a camera I could use right now. "Kind of an invasion of privacy though..."
"Tell me about it. I figured it out pretty quickly so every time he was in the same room as me I would play annoying songs in my head over and over to keep him out," I say with a laugh while Edward cringed, taking a long swig of blood like it was beer.
Bella and I mutually sent waves of pity to the other's boyfriend as we swapped embarrassing stories of each boy.