nekare

My apologies, people. I wrote Twilight fic. And even worse, I wrote Jacob/Bella and Bella/A Bunch of Other People fic that's likely to offend half of the fandom. Huh. Good thing I've never cared about that stuff, right? XD Anyway, I wrote this all in one sitting, and I swear, I'd never written something this long in this short a time. o_O But I really wanted to, dunno, be done with it and now I can be freeeee of these books. Or something. *cough*

Title: Five Times Bella Swan Kissed the Wrong Guy
Word Count: 2100
Fandom/Pairing: Twilight, Jacob/Bella, Bella/Others
Warnings: Spoilers for Eclipse.
Author Notes: Finally, a fic to break my dry spell. Betaed by the wonderful pink_faerie81. :)



Five Times Bella Swan Kissed the Wrong Guy

Mike

It’s two weeks after you’ve arrived to Forks that you finally cave and let Mike Newton take you out on a date. You’re not that excited about it, and you’re certainly not fooling yourself to believe Mike could be the right guy for you, but this town is still downright horrible and there’s nothing else to do and if you spend another evening staring out of your window at the rain that is always falling, your might go insane.

Jessica isn’t pleased, but she hides it well, and Angela smiles at you and says she’s never seen Mike so excited before. You don’t quite believe it, but you say nothing. You’re still mystified by the Cullens, so pale and so distant in their lonely table across the cafeteria, but other than Edward, who still stares ahead all through Biology and never quite looks at you in the eye, none of them has given you any attention, and you figure it probably is for the best.

So you go out with Mike, and you watch an incredibly dumb action movie and he holds your hand with his palm greasy from the popcorn and it’s almost nice, listening as he chatters on and on about whatever is happening on the screen.

He kisses you at your door frame, and he smiles at you afterwards and you tell him what a great time you had because that’s what people always say and then you go inside and your father is waiting for you to tell him how it went and you say it was nice and go to bed and dream of nothing but the rain.

A perfect first date, just like in the movies.

The next day in school, Edward Cullen stares at you oddly from his seat next to you, and you frown and wonder what it’s all about for a while but then Mike is walking towards you and you forget all about it because you’re too busy wondering if Mike will tell anyone during lunch that he’s officially your boyfriend now.

It doesn’t last long, and you move on. There’s Will at the end of Junior year and John at the beginning of Senior year and even a kiss with Rachel from your History class because you’re curious and she’s bored and it’s okay but nothing extraordinary and then Ray breaks your heart just before you go to college and years later, once you’re struggling with your own daughter’s silly high school crushes, you see that Cullen boy again, and it’s so strange, but you could’ve sworn he hasn’t changed one bit since you last saw him.

But you’ve always had a vivid imagination, and you’re too busy worrying how you’ll pay your elder son’s college tuition and whether your husband will get you that book you’ve wanted for ages as an anniversary gift. You don’t have time to wonder what could’ve happen if you’d ever said hello to the strange boy that seemed so repulsed by you the first day he met you.

Life is almost good, if a little boring, and you can’t complain.


Jacob

The day is almost warm, and you tilt your face towards the sun, hungry for even the meekest ray of light after months of Forks' ever present rain, and the salty breeze tickles at your nose. Mike keeps on chattering about how pretty the blue flames from the driftwood are, and you agree, even if you’re already tired of the way he continuously seeks your approval. You’ve been to the beaches in La Push every summer since you were a child, but this is the first time your father isn’t here with you to keep you from falling into the ocean.

Jacob is nice, if a little too sweet, and he seems genuinely intrigued by your sad attempts at flirting. Still, it’s easy to get him to tell you the stories you wanted to hear, even if they make your head spin and wonder just what the hell Edward Cullen is. Jacob is pleasant to hear, though, and soon you’re actually interested in everything he has to say. He tells you about wolves, and spirits, and how it’s all nonsense but they’re his people’s stories so they’re important anyway.

You’ve forgotten all about trying to flirt, but Jacob still slides along the wood until he’s right beside you and he keeps smiling in that broad, open way you immediately like. He’s so young, only fifteen, and while he still has baby fat clinging to his cheekbones, the way he talks doesn’t show it, and he’s not easily intimidated by being with an older girl. He makes you laugh, in a way you thought only your mother and her strange ways could.

He suddenly kisses you, and you freeze. He’s warm beside you, and your eyes close when he lifts a hand to your hair. You’ve only just met him, and he’s not the one that you want, but it feels nice, and when he touches his tongue to yours you can’t help but gasp.

You push him away, of course, because you can’t help but think of how cold Edward feels whenever he touches you and you’re mesmerized by his eyes, but Jacob laughs and tells you it’s okay and you keep talking all evening long, and it’s – it’s nice, not having to pretend you like pretty clothes for Jessica or to put up with Mike’s adoration or to try and be more sophisticated than you are for Edward’s sake. Jacob becomes a friend, the best one, and when Edward leaves and your heart gets broken, you’re not alone.

It’s years until Edward’s absence stops hurting, and by then Jacob’s not entirely human after all but you’re not either, because it’s painful to realize you’ve wasted so much time pining your life away. Jacob’s still there, though, has always been, and you’re not entirely sure when you stopped yearning for Edward’s icy kisses and started dreaming about running through the woods on top of a shaggy wolf.

It’s you that kisses Jacob this time, and when he says about fucking time against your lips you laugh and press harder against him. Being with him feels as natural as being his friend once felt. He’s your family, and that’s everything.


Emmett

It’s worth it just to see the look on both Edward and Rosalie’s faces. Plus, you won the bet, because psychic or not, not even Alice could have predicted Rosalie would hit Emmett instead of you.

Edward is… touchy, to say the least, for a couple of days, and he keeps on glaring at Emmett, even when you explain about the bet, but he forgets soon enough, and everything falls back to normal in the Cullen household.

(It’s almost anticlimactic, after so long of yearning for eternity, to realize things are almost as boring as they were when you were human.)


Frank

You’re not as easy to forgive Edward once he comes back as you always thought you would. It’s been so long, and you’ve been so down that it’s hard to imagine things going back to what they were in the span of a few days. You lock yourself in your room once you’re back from Italy – window closed tight – and try and sort yourself out. You’re alive, he’s alive, and things are going to be okay. Breathe, Bella, Breathe.

But they’re not going to be okay, not really, because you’ve betrayed your father’s trust and Jacob won’t talk to you and Rosalie feels guilty and Edward treats you like you’re about to break.

Frank is a Quileute, an estranged acquaintance of Jacob, and he’s sweet and cute and dull and he makes Edward insanely jealous and it makes you glad, the way you can make Edward feel as desperate as you felt while he was gone. You never knew you had such a malicious streak in you before, and you toy with the three males in your life, and it drives both the vampire and the werewolf mad the fact that it’s the mere human you’re spending all you time with.

You do like Frank, the way he always kisses you so softly and the way his dreams are bigger than he is, but you’re aware how you’re always hugging him tighter when you know Edward is watching, and you know it isn’t fair, but it’s a high, the power, and you’re not willing to let it go.

Jacob stops talking to you, and when he imprints on one of your old classmates and he spends all of his time smiling at her you realize how much of a hole he’s left in your life. Edward leaves again, this time for good, and he sends you a too-formal letter telling you how he wishes you the best and how he honestly wants you to be happy and it angers you, how even in writing he’s so passive about everything. This time, once he’s gone, you’re furious at him, and it’s only until you realize he’s not coming back that you become angry at yourself instead, because you were too stubborn to see what you were bringing on yourself.

And when Frank leaves you, like you knew he would, because he can’t take being second best anymore, Edward is still gone and Jacob still won’t talk to you and you’re even more alone than when you started.

You like to believe it isn’t your fault, but you know it is.


Jacob (again)

You go see him before the wedding, because you can’t imagine going through with it without making your peace with Jacob first, and you find him sitting idly on the beach where you met him, using a crutch to draw happy faces in the sand. He’s genuinely surprised when you flop down on the sand next to him, and you tease about his instincts getting rusty from being a human for so long. He only gives you a half smile, and he kicks at the happy faces to erase them, his cheeks a bit red at being found in such an embarrassing state. You ask about the crutches, because you know he doesn’t need them, and he says it’s all your father’s fault.

For a few hours, you manage to forget what is it that you’re here to do, and rest your head against his shoulder and talk about everything and nothing at all, Jacob teasing you all along about how melodramatic those bloodsuckers of yours have made you. You put your hand on his chest, and the beating of his heart feels rhythmic beneath your skin, too fast for a human being. He’s too warm, as always, and that along with his words makes you lethargic, drowsy, and you feel like falling asleep in here and never leaving.

He asks you why you’re so tired when you’re almost asleep, and without thinking you answer how Alice has been parading you all over giving out wedding invitations, and there’s no mistaking the way he tenses and grits his teeth. You groan, hiding your face in his neck, and the way he says it’s okay after you apologize doesn’t quite sound sincere.

Last chance, Bells, he says right before sunset, and when he turns to you and kisses you, you let him, because you haven’t seen him in forever and forever is probably the time you won’t see him in and he’s too warm and too soft and the sound he makes when you drag yourself closer and bury your hands in his hair makes your stomach flutter.

You fall backwards into the sand, and he goes with you, legs twined with yours, and you have sand all over your hair and inside your clothes and you can hardly breathe because Jacob’s saying your name time and time again against your skin and it’s all too much, what you feel for this boy. I won’t beg you to stay, Jacob says against your neck, and you nod because he’s never done that, he’s always just gone along, trusting you’d pick him in the end. Just – Make sure you choose well, he says after a while, and you’re both still lying on the sand, looking up at the sky. He closes his eyes and you turn your head to look at him, the wild boy that’s tricked you into kissing him again and again. When you put your fingers on his neck, you can feel his pulse, erratic and fast, beneath your fingertips. He’s so alive, always has been. You kiss him again, softly this time, and the way he bites your lip makes you gasp.

You stay, and if you ever do look back and wonder what if, well, you’re only human.