Forever Dawn

4. Jake (Nessie's POV)

4. Jake (Nessie's POV)

Jake had surprised me Friday. He'd come home early, just for me. It wasn't like he visited La Push a lot, so it was a big deal to come back. Especially to pick me up from school.

That was the first time that week I'd felt at home.

And Jake was the only reason.

I opened my eyes and stared up at the ceiling. It was a light orange wood with a skylight built in. Dense black clouds greeted me. I flipped over and shut my alarm before it went off. No sense in waking up Jake.

I laid back down on the pillow, and then screamed.

And screamed.

And screamed.

Above me was a dark shape. It stood in pounce mode, and looked like it would drop on me any second. It came down, pinning me on the bed and leaning over to kiss me. I stopped screaming, and submitted. Our lips met, and I pulled away and smiled.

"You could have knocked."

"But why would I do that?" Jake said.

"Because you almost gave me a heart attack." I said.

"But you knew it was me."

"No."

"Who else would sneak into your room at five AM?" he asked in total seriousness.

"The Volturi."

He shut up after that.

He crawled off from on top of me and stood by the door. I got up to go get dressed.

He looked so upset over there, probably upset that he had frightened me. But he had. There was no use pretending he hadn’t.

I don't think I've ever had a more depressing 5AM Tuesday. I was up too early, Jake, JAKE, of all people, had put me in a sour mood, and now I was stuck in this awkward spot with him.

I emerged from my closet in my usual tee shirt and jeans. The tee was ice blue and a gentle V-neck. The kind of shirt that proves my curves exist. The kind of shirt Jake kisses me for wearing.

I kicked myself. Why had I brought up the Volturi? They freaked me out, sure. They wanted to kill me. But they freak Jake out too. And I knew. I knew, I knew, I knew that they scared him. They had wanted to kill me. Badly. And there was no way he would have been able to stop them. I know he hates being powerless. So I should have known better.

I hung out in my room for a while, trying to fall asleep and calm my nerves. But it didn't help. Everyone probably heard our conversation, too, which didn't really help. It was a hard house to keep secrets in.

I went down to breakfast, which was relatively quiet, punctuated only by our compliments to Esme on her cooking.

She looked at us oddly, as if she knew something up. But she didn’t say anything, and I was grateful for that.

We both left for school in a stone silence. Him in his car and me in Rose’s.  The other guys went in their car.

The ride to school was one of the worst eight minutes of my life. And I thought this morning was bad. Everyone was interrogating me.

"What happened this morning?" my mom screamed.

"Nothing! Me and Jake just had an argument. He snuck in my room to wake me up and he scared me, that's all." It sounded lame coming out of my mouth that way.

"Okay." my mom said, still dubious.

I knew she didn’t really believe me.

More questions followed, mostly from Alice, which passed by in a blur. I was relieved when we pulled into the school parking lot.

I was the first one out of the car, dragging a turquoise messenger behind me. I rushed through the front doors and straight to my locker.

Lizzie was just finishing up locking hers.

"Oh, hi." she mumbled.

"Hi," I mumbled back.

"Who was that guy on Friday? I forgot to ask you yesterday."

"Oh. That was Jake, my boyfriend."

"How old is he?" she asked quizzically.

"Eighteen."

"Eighteen?"

"Yea. He's graduating at the end of the year."

"Wow. He doesn't really look eighteen." she said.

How could I tell her that he had stopped aging at sixteen?

She was too suspicious.

"So, how do you like the school so far?"

"Um, it's nice." she said, and she smiled. "The kids here are really nice." I had to notice that she had a very pretty smile.

"Well, see you around." I said.

Then I fell back into my horrid misery.