The next morning I woke with an uncomfortable feeling, a certainty I was being watched. I took some time to stare out both windows and close the blinds but even as I made my way down the stairs I was completely preoccupied with what Paul had told me and what the hell he'd meant by it. Were they just afraid I'd have a big mouth? Or was it something to do with their enemies? Was it a threat or were they really worried about me? And for that matter—

"Genevieve Olivia Swan!"

Crap.

"Good morning?" I had just made my way into the kitchen. Isabella and my dad were already sitting there eating breakfast, my dad glaring up at me and my sister looking sheepish. "What'd I miss?"

"I thought I'd asked you to stay out of the forest." My dad thundered, waving his hand between the two of us.

I pretended to be confused. Just because Bella threw herself under the bus doesn't mean I have to follow. "That was months ago. I figured that was over."

"Yeah?" Dad raised an eyebrow, not amused. "And how did that turn out?"

Jeez, how much did she tell him? "Not so well. Very badly. I don't know."

"And you didn't tell me where you were going?" Dad crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, considering me. "You didn't check your phone?"

"Oh..."

"Yeah?"

"I forgot."

"You forgot."

"Yes?" I winced. "I am sorry. Really."

Dad shook his head at this, leaning back over his plate of toast with a frustrated sigh. "As if I didn't already have enough to worry about with you two."

Bella finally chimed in here. "We didn't mean for you to worry." Our dad just shook his head. "And it was my idea."

There was a tense silence as I grabbed some cereal and joined them at the table. I stirred the broken bits of fruit loops around aimlessly, not really hungry, just trying to stall as I came up with a good way to ask my next question.

"I didn't see the cruiser when we got back..." I started slowly.

"We forgot the truck." Bella interrupted.

"Ah." I considered this for a moment. "Yeah, you are right to be a little angry with us."

"A little-!" Dad choked into his glass of orange juice. "Ha. You're grounded."

"Oh." I scowled into my breakfast, even as I realized there wasn't really anywhere fun I wanted to go. "Both of us?"

"Yes." He said firmly, frowning at me for a moment as I continued pouting. "It's the only way I'll know you're safe at this point."

"Ha ha." I replied sarcastically. Bella was now also refusing to meet his eyes, her face turned down out of guilt.

"You two can go get her truck and that's it outside of work. Understand?" We both nodded, though Bella squirmed a little in her chair.

"We'll be more careful, ok, dad?" I said, trying to distract him from my sister's weird expression. We were nodding: how can she not even nod a lie convincingly?

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Genny careful. I believe that." Dad half stood in order to give me a one armed hug and then a quick peck on the forehead as he got up. "Do be careful though, ok, hon?"

"Yep." I agreed, flustered.

Dad walked over to Isabella and gave her a tight hug as well. "Both of you. I need my girls." Shaking his head, he grabbed his coat from his chair and walked out of the room.

I watched him until he got out the front door, turning to my sister as I heard the click of the lock. "What exactly did you tell him?"

"Just what he said. Nothing about the... animals."

I shuddered as she said that, wishing yet again I could convince myself that certain memories were really just nightmares. "What about Paul?"

"I just said some friends from LaPush helped us out. He was more concerned about the animal attacks, honestly." Bella grabbed the dishes she and dad had been eating off of and moved to the sink.

I had no response so I just went back to eating my powdered mess of a breakfast. There was the clink of her dishwashing behind me as I stared out the window, not really thinking about anything, just wanting to have something to keep me busy so I wouldn't have to think. Of all the days to have off from work...

The dishwashing stopped and Isabella's tone was almost defensive when she spoke again.

"I'm going up to see Jacob. You coming?"

"We're grounded."

"Jacob won't tell."

Why does she want me? "You don't have a car." I said, grouchily taking another bite of what was pretty much pure sugar at this point.

"You can drive."

"I don't want to go."

"Gen, you're lying."

In response to this rather true accusation I got up and walked out, heading to the living room. There had to be something good on tv right? A game? A romantic movie? Anything?

Bella let me stew and flip channels for about ten minutes and then she came in and plopped next to me on the chair. Then she frowned at me until I acknowledged her.

"What."

"Why won't you just go talk to Jacob?"

I gave up, muting the tv so that we could talk. "I've tried to talk to Jacob. He isn't forgiving me for breaking things off or whatever I did. I can't force it, it'll just make things worse."

"I thought we agreed this was more than that." Bella said tightly. "That Jacob isn't like that."

"I thought we agreed that you were going to spill your beans." I countered. "And yet here I am, as clueless as ever."

Isabella frowned at me for a long moment, drawing herself up on the couch so that she was slightly above my slouched figure. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what she was squaring herself up to face and then my mouth nearly dropped open as she started talking.

"It started that first day at school, in biology..." She whispered. "He caught my scent and he..."

But I remembered her first day, the first time I had a concrete reason to dislike Cullen. "He hated you for it."

She shrugged, not wanting to stop I guess. "We started talking..."

She told me everything, I think. What she knew about his family and how they'd gotten together. That they were vampires, but not: only drinking animal blood. How Dick had saved us both, first from the car crash and the ice and then from the vampire James. She tried to avoid the parts about Edward but it slipped through anyway, enough that I got a bit more about what had happened that trip to Port Angeles and learned that he had been apparently reading my mind the entire time. That was uncomfortable. She told me about Victoria, her fears that the redhead vampire might still come for us. The last thing she told me was about the Volturi, the protectors of the vampire secret: the ones who might take issue with two puny humans knowing their secret. When Isabella finished talking I slumped further onto the couch and stared at the ceiling, taking it all in and not much happier then I had been before I knew.

"So where is he now?"

"I don't know. He... he finally got sick of me and left." I could tell she wasn't going to be up for much more and scowled as I tried to pick at any other questions I desperately needed answered. "It was bound to happen."

"I guess." I closed my eyes, yet again going over the past year with my sister. What had he said to me? All I could remember was an apology when I accused him of stealing her from us. That wasn't so bad, right? But apparently he'd been in my head too? How was I supposed to remember what I'd thought?

"So are you coming now?"

I didn't bother to look down from the ceiling. "Where?"

"To LaPush. To see Jacob." Bella's voice was weird, like she was trying to be firm with me but still about to fall apart.

"No."

"Gen, I... I need to see him."

I closed my eyes. I wanted to see him too. I wanted to make him laugh and tease each other and hold his hand and... "Then go. You're the one he's more likely to talk to."

"Gen, it should be the three of us." Her voice was shaking slightly. I gave up and opened my eyes to see her holding herself again, like she was about to split apart at the middle. What am I supposed to do?

"I'm not up for it anyway." I told her. "Just take my car, go see him: once we're feeling better then we'll see."

"Gen."

"Go!"

I unmuted the tv and ignored her as she watched me uncertainly. Finally she got up and I heard her gathering some things and slip on her shoes and she was gone.

Did I make the right choice?

I turned up the volume of some random crime drama and buried myself in the pillows.

It didn't really seem to matter.

...

It was raining when Bella got back but I was ready with my jacket to go fetch her truck. I didn't even let her get out of the car, sprinting over to join her in hopes we'd still get back before our dad realized she'd left without permission.

"You see him?" I asked, climbing into the passenger seat of my own car and trying to sound like I didn't care. "Jake?"

"Yes."

"You sound confused."

"He was confusing." She bit her lip, trying to decide what to tell me as the windshield wipers marked out each second of her pause with a stupid little 'fwip'. "He seems... angry."

"Yeah?" I shrugged, yet again sliding down in my seat so I could just barely see out the window. "That's what he was like when we left." I sighed. "Is he still angry at me, you mean?"

"No, at... at the Cullens." Bella clarified, almost at a loss for words. "He knows... he mentioned... what they are."

"The f***." I swallowed the curse, mind reeling through all the information Bella had given me. "But he's not a... one of them? No red-eyes?"

"No."

"And you don't know anything else he could be?"

"No!"

"S***."

I meant for the conversation to end there; I wasn't sure that Jacob was my business anymore. Isabella didn't seem to notice this.

"He said you were right; that you should stay away from him." I managed to hide the flinch and sharp breath I took when she said this. "And he said that we're wrong to suspect Sam. That Sam is right."

"Well, fine then." I spoke through gritted teeth, not sure what part of me was angry and what part was hurt. "Same thing Paul wants? Let's just forget they exist and focus on..." But I didn't really have an end to this sentence. Pushing Jake and Paul and Sam out of the picture left me with strings I couldn't follow. "Just... Fine. Let's get your truck and move on."

"He was acting really strange..."

"He told us to back off right? So listen to him." My voice was starting to sound a little too bitter and I forced myself to calm down as I continued. "I just don't want to be involved anymore, ok?"

"But you didn't see..."

"It's over."

I refused to talk for the rest of the drive, taking the keys back and driving my own car home without another word. I spent an hour playing basketball and then the rest of the day watching tv with my phone always within grabbing range.

I wasn't going to try.

It didn't mean I wasn't hoping that Jacob could still change his mind.

...

Isabella came upstairs and slept on my floor that night. Every minute she had to think about losing Jacob seemed to hurt her more. She seemed to be regressing back to the comatose mess she'd been back when Edward had first broken up with her: Dad hadn't even needed to ask before I invited Bella to have a 'sleepover' again. It seemed to help her to have me nearby, though my mood grew fouler with every little thing she did to remind me that we weren't really the best of sisters.

Over the next couple weeks, Bella kept trying and I kept trying to convince myself not to care. Jacob texted me an apology, basically repeating what he'd said to Isabella. I didn't bother to reply; I'd made my side clear enough, I'd apologized a thousand times. We had nothing left to say to each other, really. It was after a week that I noticed how hard Bella seemed to have to think whenever she was talking to me. That was about as much as it took for me to kick her out of my room without another word. She'd remembered something or figured something out: I just knew it. But yet again, she was putting something else above me

It was probably a week and a half later that Isabella gave up on trying to get me to come with and headed up to see Jake again. She'd been looking sick to her stomach lately, asking me to check in on 'Charlie' and getting weirdly quiet whenever LaPush came up in normal conversation. She stayed up in LaPush for quite a while, long enough that I knew something had to have happened. I spent the entire time shooting baskets in the driveway and mentally redecorating the front hall. She drove up around sunset, looking nervous when she found me watching her.

"Aren't you still grounded?" I called, bouncing the ball at her as slowly as I could. It still nearly hit her in the face.

"Charlie hasn't been around to notice... He's too occupied with—" She sighed. "Gen, I talked to Jacob."

"Again? How sweet. You two make a lovely couple." I felt my cheeks grow a little hot as she tossed the ball back; my voice had been a lot harsher then I meant. But I was still jealous and still honestly frustrated with her for not telling me whatever she'd figured out so I didn't bother to apologize.

"It's not like tha—"

"Just tell me what happened." She tossed me the ball back and I started tossing it up in the air so that I wouldn't have to look at her as she explained.

Isabella glanced around for any eavesdroppers as she moved closer, her feet crunching on the little gravel that remained on our front drive. "I remembered one of his stories, the ones he told me back before any of it started happening."

"Storytime. How fun." I tossed the ball again. And again. "So?"

"So my guess was right."

"And what was your guess?"

"I..." Bella shifted guiltily. I finally stopped messing with the basketball in order to glare at her. "He asked me not to tell you. Made me swear, actually."

"So?" I repeated. "I already know everything else. What is everyone so scared of?"

"He says... I don't know why he won't just talk to you about this." Bella complained, holding herself tighter as she started to shiver. "He says you made your choice and you made the right one. He's too dangerous, it's better for you not to be involved."

"How am I... how would that make me involved?" I shook my head.

My sister looked at me sadly. "He seems... He doesn't think you'll want him anymore. He already thinks I'm crazy for being his friend."

"And yet you won't just tell me and let me decide."

"He made me swear." Bella said, starting to sound more stubborn. "It's his secret to tell, Gen."

"It's Genevieve." I snapped. "Go inside before you freeze to death."

She nodded, walking away as quickly as she could. I followed her for a couple steps only to sit down on the front porch. It was getting pretty dark, the sky was greying, sunset was over. I closed my eyes, listening for the howls that were happening more and more often and wondering how many times I was going to get upset at Bella for not doing what I wanted before one of us went insane. I shivered, dressed only in a t-shirt and shorts, but I was too stubborn to go inside. Mentally I was telling myself to give him one more chance. That wouldn't be so hard was it? Give him one more chance, just one more and see what happens. He thought I'd made a choice but... could I tell him how much I regretted it? I'd never even told him how I felt about him, much less being brave enough to tell him I still felt that way.

I ground my palms into my eyes and groaned loudly.

Maybe a compromise?

I stood up reluctantly, heading back inside to the living room where I'd left my phone. I typed a short message and then stared at it. Did I want him to know this was a reaction to him chatting with Bella? No, I didn't. I slammed the phone down and went upstairs to shower.

...

I waited two days to send my message. I still worried it was too soon. Then again, looking at the previous message it didn't seem so bad.

3 weeks ago: Jacob:

'I'm sorry.'

Today: Gen:

'Jacob, I miss you.'

Why did those little words feel so heavy, like I was trying to change the world? I threw my phone across the room and went on with my life, trying to forget it.

An hour later the doorbell rang.

I slammed the door open and glared at him, giving him a good look into my eyes, a full look into the depths of my fury with this stupid boy.

His eyes widened.

His hand went to his heart as though he'd been burned.

He took a step backward as his mouth dropped open.

Then Jacob Black fell off my porch.