We ended up back at Jake's place, both because it was closer and because neither of us felt the need to see Paul and Isabella. Jake said he'd talked to Paul, some mind-reading wolf thing I didn't want to get into, and that the two of them were safe in the middle of LaPush, far away from where Victoria could ever manage to go. Jacob was a little worried about what my dad was going to say but I cared a lot more about getting inside then I did about getting grounded again. Or if I was even still grounded. My dad had been so busy lately it was all a bit of a puzzle what he remembered. When he got the chance to see the two of us he tended to let us do the talking. Even when we watched games together, he seemed to be more concerned with finding out how I was then actually 'chatting'. So I convinced Jake to head up to LaPush and eventually was dumped on his tiny couch as he went to turn on the heat and grab some blankets.

Some dumb B-movie flickering on the Black's ancient tv, I forced myself to be concerned with nothing more than covering every possible inch of skin with blanket. Eventually I had one wrapped around me like a dress, one over my shoulders wrapped around my arms like a poorly done straightjacket, and one tucked around my crossed legs and feet so that I had no hope or desire to move even an inch. It was almost the second I'd perfected this arrangement when Jacob appeared with two mugs of cocoa, trying very hard not to laugh as I frowned helplessly down at myself.

A couple annoyed noises and some finagling later, I'd freed one hand just enough to take the cocoa. I quickly freed the other hand as well, wrapping the warm mug so that I could steal its warmth. When I looked back at Jacob, he was watching me with a puzzled expression.

"What?" I raised my hands as far as they could go in what could barely be considered a shrug, forcing my feeble voice to make a joke. "You jealous of my new fashion?"

He laughed. "I'm trying to see where I should sit. I can't even tell where you end and the couch starts."

"Yes, it's the latest technology in camouflage." I grimaced at the idea of needing camouflage and Jake's happy face flickered for a second. I hadn't realized he might be pretending too and it didn't make me feel any better. "Don't..."

Jacob's face fell completely now. "I know, I know." He sat down on the arm of the couch, staring blankly at the tv as some lady began screaming at whatever giant monstrosity this movie had cooked up. "It was never the plan to get you involved in this again. I messed up."

"What was the plan then?" I stared down at my cocoa, warmer but getting more miserable. "Avoid me for the rest of your life?"

Jake didn't reply. I shook my head and lifted up my cup, simply for something to do. As I leaned forward to blow across the hot liquid, a bit of hair fell across my face and before I could figure out a way to fight the blankets and tie it back again Jake had reached down and tucked it behind my ear for me.

"You called things off first, Gen." He said quietly. "But before that... I guess the plan was to make you happy. To be happy. Finish high school, figure out who I wanted to be." His hands were in his lap now, tightly wrapped around his own mug of hot chocolate. He didn't seem to notice that he'd tipped the cup and it was slowly slopping onto this fingers. "What about you?"

"Hm?" I'd been staring at his hands. "Oh. I don't know. I'd been too terrified of what might go wrong to think about anything actually going right. I mean, what college to go to and things like that? I couldn't even handle the stress of maybe dating you." I looked down again, embarrassed to have been such a coward.

"What did—" Jake started. He was interrupted by the woman on tv again, once again screaming at some stupid monster. Normally I would've been laughing but right now I half expected the giant shark monster to lunge through Jacob's window and eat us as well. As the tv cut off and became static, I looked up to find Jacob by the tv digging through a box of vhs tapes. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down as Jacob tossed out a couple movies and looked at me expectantly. "What do you think? 'Disney', 'Princess Bride', or 'Ghostbusters'?"

More like did I want nightmares about dragons, R.O.U.S.s, or Slimers. I leaned forward, studying my choices. "How about Naked Gun 33 1/3? Or do you have the first one?"

"Um... No, just the second one and Airplane." Jake frowned as he shifted the tapes around the box. "I think Rachel stole a bunch of these... Oh, we have 'Terminator'."

"Fine, let's just watch that." I leaned back against the couch, only remembering at the last minute not to jolt my hot chocolate as I did so.

Jacob spent a couple minutes messing the VCR, rewinding the tape and then fast-forwarding again and then fiddling with the wires. By the time the movie actually started I'd chugged half of my cocoa and tossed some pillows on the floor in front of me for him to sit on. We were silent from then on, watching the action and finishing up our drinks. Jacob sat leaning against the couch in front of me, his head leaning against my blanketed legs. Eventually I found I needed something else to do with my hands and started playing with his hair, biting my lip in thought as I wondered why he'd cut it so short and experimented with making it spike up and lay down. Eventually he snatched my hands from his head and held them against his shoulders, running his thumb across my skin and warming my cold fingers far better than the cocoa had.

Eventually I got bored: I was too wound up with thoughts of monsters and werewolves and Jake and happiness to focus on anything happening on screen. I wanted to talk to Jake but had a feeling it would be a weird conversation with all the gun fire going on in the background. Besides, I still hadn't decided what questions I wanted answered. Or if I wanted them answered. The weight was starting to lift off my shoulders, I was starting to understand that maybe I wasn't doomed to die after all: I was still totally and completely lost in a bizarre new world of the supernatural. Finding it impossible to sit still, I freed one of my hands and pulled out my phone to check for any messages. There was one from Cass about some homework she'd missed, one from my dad telling me I'd have to find my own dinner, one from Paul's cell that I wanted to ignore.

"What's wrong?" Jacob asked, hearing me groan.

I handed him the phone. "Paul's texting me. Or... I guess Jared had his phone. They probably want you anyway."

He glanced at the message and then he groaned too, more resigned then annoyed. "They need me in the woods. They're checking to make sure the redhead doesn't try to circle back for her friend."

"I suppose she's going to be even more pissed at me now." I muttered. I started to shrug off the blankets as Jake stood to turn off the tv. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Bella's on her way with the truck." Jake said, checking the message again. "And don't worry about the bloodsucker's feelings. She's not getting anywhere near you."

"Even when I'm all the way in Forks?" I joked, voice sounding way too miserable for my attempt at humor. "Don't you have your own stuff to worry about, Jacob?"

But he just shook his head. "All I have to worry about is you." He said, completely serious.

"I... What?" But he was walking away, distracted by some thought or other. I scowled and fought my way out of the blankets, getting to my feet just as Jacob returned with a pair of ancient tennis shoes and a knock came from the door.

"An old pair of my sister's." He explained, handing them to me and then wrapping me up in a hug. "I'll see you later, ok, Gen?"

And just like that I was throwing on a too tight pair of shoes and following my sister back to her truck, wondering how much bigger this mess was going to get. If I'd been paying attention, I might have seen some signs of the next big problem but I wasn't looking at Isabella and thoughts of Jake's wolf form would've kept me from noticing the strain on her face even if I did.

How was I supposed to remember my sister's broken heart when there were vampires in the woods?