The Consequences {Jacob Black}

Chapter CXXI

We all got out of the car to let Dad at. I was moments away from telling Jake that he needed to get the passenger door of the car fixed when Dad looked at me. "Could we talk?" he asked. He said it quietly, staring at Jake like he thought that Jake might say no. Jake just slammed the door closed and started walking to the house. "Maybe just...you and me?" Dad asked then. Jake growled quietly under his breath.

"Stop it," I warned him. "Just go take a run. I'll stay in the house and you'll be nearby," I suggested.

"Last time I left you in a house that smelled like vampires -"

"I went to Italy. Are you going to bring that up every time that I ask to be left alone?" I said, my hands on my hips. He nodded with a slight smile on his face. "I'm here with my dad. I'm not going to let anything bad happen. The second someone that I don't recognize shows up, I'll scream for you. Okay?"

He leaned down until he was face to face with me. "You call me if something seems off, Annie. I mean, even just a little off. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Jake; I understand," I said with sarcastic obedience.

"I'm being serious."

"Oh I know you are. Get going, Jake; I'll just stay here and party with my dad. You know, once upon a time I used to live in this house." I tweaked one lip up and dropped my voice to a whisper like there was something that I needed to hide from my dad.

"You're not funny," he said. I shoved him away from me and my Dad. "Fine, fine; I'm going."

He walked away from me and my dad, taking backwards glances every once in a while to make sure that nothing had attacked me and Dad while we were standing there. "We should get inside before he comes back," I whispered. Jake turned around and flared at me before he bounded off into the forest.

The house was filthy, nothing like how I left it months ago. I guess that was the problem with moving out. I wasn't here to make sure that Dad was well taken care of, that nothing was out of control. Before I did anything else, I grabbed the bucket of cleaning supplies that was collecting cobwebs underneath the sink. "What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked, pulling the Pledge out of the bucket.

"Remember when I said that I wanted to be on a need to know?" I nodded, still working on a stain on the kitchen table. "What happened between you and your sister is something that I need to know." I sighed and straightened for a moment but quickly went back to the table.

"There's a lot of background story," I said, thinking of the first year that Bella was here and what had actually happened there. "I mean, it's not like I can just list what happened between us," I explained.

"Fine, start talking," he said. He plopped himself into his favorite kitchen chair. There was a brief moment of silence while I debated what to do. I could continue cleaning, which really needed to be done, or I could sit my ass down on the counter and clean. If I was cleaning, I would have an excuse not to look him in the eye while I explained everything. Yeah, cleaning was happening. Hell, I would clean the chimney if I had to.

"Bella and Edward met and she was instantly in love with him. There was just something about him that she loved. I couldn't tell you what or why, because I never understood it. When she stormed out of here that year, when she said all those things to you, it was because there was a vampire hunting her. She didn't want to lead them here, or so she claims, so she took off. I guess they threatened Mom or something. I real don't know the details, but I know that what happened to Bella wasn't just some fall down the stairs," I began, moving from the table to the kitchen counter, switching cleaners as I went.

"I wasn't really involved until Edward left her," I continued. I wanted to check my dad's face and see how he was handling all of this, but the reality was that I wouldn't be able to look at him and finish this. "He left her because he loved her, or at least that's what he told her when he came back. I started bringing Bella around because of Jake. The boy could make a grumpy old man happy. I thought that he might be able to help her, that he might be able to make her happy again. I guess I really had no one to blame but myself. Jake had always had a crush on her. It was only normal when he started falling in love with her. I didn't say anything," I whispered, the pain of the months that Jake thought that he was in love with Bella.