Blood Moon

6

Jacob

"What do you mean she left?" Jake asked, furrowing his brow as I wiped a tear from my cheek. "Lena, are you alright?"

"Bella took off, told my dad that she couldn't be stuck here." I sniffled. "She broke his heart, Jake."

"Oh, Lena." Jake sighed, pulling me into a hug. I cried into his shoulder, trying to figure out why exactly Bella would leave the way she did. "Here, put this jacket on. We're going down to the beach."

"Why?" I cried, taking the jacket from Jake's hands.

"Because my dad is inside the house trying to cheer your dad up, and I know the beach makes you happy." Jake stated, putting a beanie over his head. "Come on."

I let him pull me out of his garage and onto the path that would lead us down to the beach. He didn't try to talk to me again, only frowned when I cried into the sleeves of his jackets.

"You know," I muttered, kicking a pebble across the forest floor. "I was ready to finally have my sister back. I was so excited to actually have a relationship with her. I can't believe she just left us like that."

"Do you think she'll be back?" Jacob asked.

"I don't know." I shook my head, smiling softly as the smell of salt filled my nose. "She and my mom have always been flighty; they can't stay in one place for too long. She had this... this look in her eye. It reminded me of how my mom looks before she decides she wants to move."

Jake didn't respond, he only followed me as I sat on a piece of driftwood on the shore. I sighed as I watched the waves crash against the sand.

"You're going to be okay, Lena." Jake said. "You always find a way."

"I know." I nodded. "I just missed her."

We stayed at the beach for a while before my dad called me, informing me that Bella was in the hospital and that he was on his way to the airport. I told him that I'd stay with Billy and Jake until he came home, and to let me know how Bella was.

"Are you sure you don't want to go see her?" Jake asked after I hung up the phone.

"Positive." I nodded. "She may be my sister, but she left. And after what she said to me and my father... I don't think I'll be able to forgive her."

"Well," Jake sighed. "You know I love you, right?"

"Yeah." I smiled. "I love you too, Jake."

====

I ignored Bella when she came back to Forks. She had apologized to our father for what she said, but made no move to apologize to me. Maybe I was overreacting to the whole ordeal, but something about the way she so easily disregarded me before she left hurt me deeply. Bella was supposed to be someone that never hurt me, but she managed to get to me in such a way that I couldn't even look at her without feeling like my chest was going to explode.

She tried to get me to talk to her the day of prom, but I refused to even glance her way. Dad knew how I got when people hurt me, and told Bella to give me my space. It confused her, but I couldn't be bothered to remind her to apologize to me.

So, despite having Bella back home in time for summer, I spent my break with Billy and Jake. I learned about Jacob's distaste for Sam, mostly because he'd exploded into a heated rant about how wrong it was of Sam to break up with Leah Clearwater just to propose to her cousin Emily Young. I shook my head and reminded Jacob that sometimes relationships don't work out, and that when you meet the one, you know. He didn't seem to like that very much.

His distaste for Sam only worsened when I started hanging out with him, his friend Jared, and his fiance Emily. Jake tried not to take it personally, seeing that I was very social by nature, but I could tell it bothered him that I spoke to Sam.

Sometime in the middle of summer, Jake agreed to take me cliff diving. Only if I promised to keep my trouble magnet of a sister away from him when we went. I agreed, reminding him that I wasn't really on speaking terms with her anyway, and that she'd been spending her time with the Cullen's anyway.

We ran into Sam, Jared, and a new boy I'd never really seen before while we walked across the beach in La Push. Jake refused to speak to any of them, keeping his head down as soon as Sam called my name.

"Hey, Lena!"

"Hey Sam." I greeted with a smile. Jake huffed beside me, grabbing the towel from my hand before continuing up the beach a little bit. Sam stopped in front of me, looking over my shoulder at my best friend.

"How've you been, Lena?" Sam asked,waving his friends over. "Not heading down any more dark alleys, are you?"

"What?" Jake sounded from behind me.

"No, no more alleys for me." I shook my head. "Even if I did, I carry pepper spray now."

"Good." Sam nodded firmly. "I wanted to introduce you to Paul. He's a friend of Jared's and mine."

"Nice to meet you." I waved, feeling the wooden wolf hit my wrist as I did so.

"New bracelet, Lena?" Sam asked, catching my wrist in his larger hand.

"That friend of yours from the book store gave it to me." I scoffed. "He refused to let me pay for it."

"Huh," Sam bit back a smirk. "Looks familiar."

"Right, well." I nodded back at Jake. "My best friend has been impatient recently, so I should get back to him. Nice seeing you Jared, Sam. Nice to meet you, Paul."

"Nice to meet yo-" Paul looked up, trailing off as he caught my eyes.

"Go before I drop dead." Sam snickered. "Jacob's stare is kind of intense."

"He's harmless." I snorted, pulling my wrist from Sam's hand. "Catch you guys later."

"Lena, hurry up!" Jake whined. "I'm going to leave you here."

"You better not." I shook my head, turning towards him. "Billy said you have to babysit me."

"He's asking me to take care of the wrong sister." Jake scoffed, pulling me toward the cliffs we would be jumping from. "Bella's the one that needs to be watched over like a toddler."

"You're telling me." I laughed.