Still Breathing [Jacob Black]

Chapter Nine

Felicity

Jacob stood in the doorway. He shifted from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable. Paul shrugged, trying to make this situation much more casual than it actually was. "Surprise visitor."

I nodded as I rose to my feet. "Okay, I'll just...go..." I shoved the rest of my sandwich in my mouth, leaving the bag of chips on the couch for Paul and Jacob to have as they...hung out? Whatever it was they planned to do.

Paul snorted. "He's here for you, doll. Sit back down."

Freezing in place, I stared at him, my eyes wide. Once I swallowed the food in my mouth, I asked, "What?"

"I was hoping we could talk?" Jacob said uncertainly.

Paul walked over and stood in front of me. "Take a seat. Let him talk. It'll be fine." His hands landed on my shoulders as he pushed me back down to the couch. "And I'll take these. Have fun, kids!" He snatched up the bag of chips, then strode out of the room—leaving me alone with Jacob Black.

Oh dear.

The room was silent. We weren't even making eye contact, but I could sense him peeking over at me every few seconds. He made no move to come closer.

"So..." he started. But he didn't finish.

And then it was silent again.

I wanted to speak up and at least some kind of smalltalk started, but I couldn't think of anything good to say. So we said nothing.

Until Jacob broke the silence again. "So we should probably talk."

Yeah, that'd probably work better than our current predicament of avoiding eye contact and keeping our mouths closed. "Okay," I said. "Do you want to sit down?" I gestured to the rest of the empty armchair.

He nodded, and moved to sit on the empty seat on the couch next to me, as opposed to the chair I'd pointed him toward. I couldn't think of a polite way to ask him why he'd chosen that spot, plus I kind of liked him closer to me, so I didn't comment on it.

"Bella's not my girlfriend," he blurted, watching my reaction.

I blinked. Why would he feel the need to tell me that? And if he was telling the truth, then why had Bella warned me away from him earlier? "I'm confused," I admitted, then slapped a hand over my mouth. I hadn't meant to say that aloud.

Jacob lifted a hand to rub his chin. "Alright. What's confusing? Maybe I can help."

Right, like I could just lay out everything going on in my head for him. None of this made sense. I barely knew the guy and now here he was, making it my business who he was dating and trying to help me unravel the confusion that resulted from it. "Probably not a good idea."

"Sure it is." He smiled. "I want to be friends. And honesty is the best policy in friendships, yeah?"

My mouth opened—then it closed. Nothing was adding up. This entire day was unbelievable. First, I got served divorce papers at work. Then I got told off by wimpy Bella Swan. Now here was Jacob freaking Black sitting on my couch telling me he and Bella Swan weren't an item and he wanted to be buddies.

What the fuck?

"You make no sense," I said, getting a little angry now. Should I really have been angry at him, though? I wasn't sure about anything at that point.