An hour later I was riding down the dark road in Bella's clunky truck, squashed between my sister and the door and refusing to turn to look at the tall, handsome werewolf who was driving us home from LaPush. I'd had the same expression for most of that hour; narrowed eyebrows, chewing on my lip, eyes unfocused as I tried to decided what I was actually feeling. What was I supposed to make of it all? And the look on Jacob's face; that bitter acceptance. Was that my future? Was that what this 'imprinting' meant? I couldn't even be mad that he hadn't told me before: I wasn't sure I wanted to know it even now.

I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms tighter around me, wishing I was still alone with Jacob and could ask him about it. He seemed to think he'd told me everything—the mind reading, the danger, the imprinting and the lack of aging—but I couldn't get past how little choice there was in any of it. As the dark road and dark trees rushed past my window, I tried to take all the puzzle pieces and finally fit them together; what Isabella said of Edward and how she couldn't even try to get over it. How I'd broken things off with Jake and then gone after him again after he'd turned. Everything was sort of fuzzy, my reasons and what I'd said and why I'd been so overwhelmed. Ha.

If that was overwhelmed, what was I now?

As my eyes began to water I felt Jacob looking at me. I refused to meet his gaze but he must have caught sight of my sister because he started asking her if she needed to go to the hospital.

"Don't worry about me."

I gave a rather angry snort which was followed by a rather tense silence. Finally, Jacob's voice gently just said, "Gen."

"What? She jumped off a cliff and refuses the hospital and I'm supposed to be proud of how tough and independent she is?" I set my jaw, finding that if I kept listing my complaints against my sister, some of my own guilt-which was both more entertaining and far greater-might slip out. "But... I just want to go home."

Again neither of them responded and I finally turned to see that they'd now borrowed some of my expression, Bella biting her lip and Jake's eyebrows furrowed in thought. I started to turn away and then found myself fighting against shock as my sister leaned her head against my shoulder and gave my arm a rather awkward hug.

"I'm sorry, Gen."

"Yeah?"

"I know I'm impossible and—"

"Yeah?" I interrupted.

"But I think I can..." Bella paused to consider. "With you and Jake... and Charlie and Paul and..."

"Yeah?"

I think I can try to be happy." This simple sentence sounded like someone admitting defeat, but it was a step, right? To finally have my sister after almost a year of her moving in with us? It took me a minute, but eventually I nodded.

"Ok."

So that was taken care of. I finally met Jacob's eye and wished I hadn't; I was still in far too bad of a mood for one of his ridiculous grins and that always seemed to be his first reaction to me these days. And I still wasn't sure I wanted to be caught in that trap of wishing Bella wasn't here so I could be alone with him.

"So we're okay?" Jake asked, pulling into our driveway as he glanced between my sister and me.

I nodded distractedly and reached for the door, meaning to say some snide comment as soon as I was out of the car. I'd managed to open it a crack, just felt the icy wind slip in, and then Jacob was swearing and reaching hurriedly across the two Swan sisters to slam the door closed.

"The frick?" I reached across Bella—who was probably wishing she'd chosen a different spot—and grabbed Jacob's arm as he tried to start the truck up again, still swearing. "What are you doing?"

"Vampire." He spit the word and I recoiled, seeing his shape blurring slightly as he fought against the transformation. "Have to get you away." He sounded strained and it took every bit of self control to put my hand back on his arm.

"Jake, Jake, it's ok. Just wait a second." My voice trembled as I searched for any sign of the vampire but Bella was quicker.

"Stop!"

The brakes squealed as Isabella reached for the door , crawling over me in her hurry to get out of the car. I was too stunned to stop her as she shoved aside my arm and Jacob gave her an incredulous look.

"What!?"

"It's not Victoria!" Bella cried, fighting to get the lock undone as I squirmed out from under her. We were now blocking the middle of the street but neither of them seemed to care.

"What the hell does that matter?" I yelled at her.

Isabella shook her head, yanking the door open and falling out into the street. Jake and I just stared at her, his arm reaching around my waist, ready to yank me out the other door if he saw anything coming. She turned at smiled up at us, excited. "That's Carlisle's car; it's the Cullens! I know it."

I stared at her, feeling Jacob start to shake again. I grabbed his arm tightly, trying to find a way to calm him down and to think of something to say at the same time.

"What the hell does that matter?" I finally repeated, angry and terrified.

Jacob dropped his hold on me and I turned to see him jumping out of the truck as well, hands clenched into fists as he slammed the door and walked around to glare down at Bella. His face was screwed up in concentration. "There is a vampire in your house." He snapped at her.

"There's no danger. It's fine, Jake." She insisted, seeming to hate every moment she spent her convincing us. So much for letting them go. I swore again.

"There is a vampire in your house and you want to go find it?"

"Of course." She looked at him as though it was the oddest question she'd ever been asked. Jacob looked like he wanted to clock her across the face. I still felt ready to throw up with the sudden fear of the word 'vampire'.

"Isabella?" I called, breaking up their staredown.

She blinked up at me. "Gen?"

"You're the worst."

Bella flinched rather violently at my words. She turned to Jacob for support but his eyes were anything but sympathetic. She shook her head slowly, trying to argue several times but never quite able to say the words, probably already hearing our condemnation. Only she would have even thought to try-defend vampires to the werewolf and the girl who's already been bitten? I was so tired of realizing again and again how much of an idiot she was.

Jake finally cut her off. "I'm taking Gen somewhere without freaking bloodsuckers-"

"Jake, it's okay-" She tried again.

"No." Jake slammed the passenger door shut and I could see him saying some last goodbye before he stormed around the truck and jumped up. "Where do you want to go?"

I shrugged. Jacob looked sadly down at the numb look on my face, reaching out to crush me against his side as he turned the key and started off. He glanced back once, and then scowled and turned back to the road. "Jacob?"

"I hoped she might have changed her mind." Jake muttered.

I tried to make a dismissive laugh and instead found myself ready to burst into tears. F***. This f***ing day. I opened my mouth to condemn her, to complain and rage. Instead: "I'd hoped she was finally getting better. I guess we're both idiots."

"I'm sorry." He said softly, seeming to want me to tell him more, wanting to help. But I didn't want to cry in front of him so I pulled away from him and switched on the radio to my dad's favorite oldies station. Jacob smiled ruefully as I moved into the passenger seat and buckled my seat belt. "You hungry?"

"Yeah." I wound my hands around the strap of the seatbelt across my chest. "Jake, what did you say to her? After you closed the door?"

"That I hoped she didn't die." He grumbled. "Sorry. was that..."

I found myself chewing the inside of my cheek, vampires smiling and snarling in my memory. "Last spring... she almost died then and she still kept picking Cullen-the Cullens. I don't know." I took a shaky breath. "Yeah, let's go eat. Somewhere with people. "

"What, you can't actually survive on only hot chocolate and marshmallows?" Jake joked.

I smiled, finding that his humor was actually exactly what I needed. "Hey, I have to take a break from my diet once in awhile."

"Great." Jake took a U-turn and we started towards a nicer burger place we'd gone to as kids with our dads. "Um... Do you have any money? I don't carry my wallet in case of... you know." He waved his hand awkwardly and I found another problem.

"You're also not wearing a shirt, Mr. Black." I fought back a nervous laugh and then turned to dig around in the small space behind our seats. "Here. Luckily I have a thing for giant sweatshirts."

"Isn't this one of mine?" Jake paused at a stoplight to pull it on and didn't see my wince-the sweatshirt had been Paul's. "Money?"

I yanked open the glove compartment and dug through the insurance papers and maps my dad had stuffed there to where I'd tossed my wallet that morning in order to avoid carrying my purse. "We're good."

"Awesome."

He took off again and I caught sight of the restaurant at the end of the next block, parking lot almost empty as usual. I slammed on the beltbuckle as Jacob swung into the driveway and jumped out of the car as soon as he'd stopped the car. As I reached back to grab my purse I froze, realizing I should have let him check for any danger first, but he was already out of the car and waiting for me by the trunk by the time I realized this.

As we walked to the restaurant I checked his expression, looking for a sign of the bitterness or resignation I'd seen when he was talking about the wolves. He caught me looking but didn't say anything, just opened the door for me and followed me to the booth in the back corner of the restaurant that the overly smiley host led us to.

As I sat down, I pulled out my phone out of habit. I was about to shove it back into my pocket and apologize when I caught the number. "Oh."

"What's up?" Jake didn't even glance up from the menu.

"Some wrong number's been calling me all day. They texted me and- it's Bella?" I scowled as I read the message and then handed the phone to Jacob.

"'It's Bella.'" He read, his expression deadpan. "'Alice saw me jump and wanted to check up on me. Everything's fine.'" He raised an eyebrow as he noticed the second text. "'This is Alice's phone.' Who is Alice?"

"Future seeing Cullen?" I said unhelpfully. I picked up my own menu and quickly found a personal pizza I liked. When I looked up Jake had my phone to his ear. "Um... Who...?"

"I have to let Sam know they're back." He glanced up as one of the waitresses walked by. "Um, actually I'll be right back. Get me a water?"

"Yeah." I said, feeling irritable and not quite sure why.

Jacob frowned right back at me. "I'll be right back." He repeated and then I watched him hurry out the door, stopping outside the front window so that I could still see his tense pose as he started talking.

"Genevieve Swan?"

"Sh**." I jumped about a foot in the air as I looked up at the waitress who had just appeared. "Oh, hey." I had no idea who she was-one of the sophomores or freshmen who'd joined the team this last year? Or one of their sisters? "How're you doing?" I asked finally.

"I'm good." She looked from me to the front door and Jacob with a very curious look on her face. "He's not from school." She commented.

Gosh darn it all.

"Um, no. Nope he's uh... a friend from the rez." Please believe me. Please don't tell the entire town. Oh, my friends will kill me for not telling them first. Please please please.

"A friend?" She said doubtfully.

As if on cue Jacob came back inside and caught us looking at him, his face breaking out into a gorgeous, bashful grin. The waitress giggled. I began to plan her murder.

"Hey." Jake slid back into his seat and flipped open his menu, glancing up and waiting for her cue to go ahead. She took a moment to look him up and down and then snuck a glance at me. At the sight of my expression her eyes widened in panic and she took our order in record speed, practically racing away. All I could think was that there were probably three other kids from school who worked here. As if I needed even more pressure about what this mess with me and Jacob even was.

"How's work been?" Jake asked suddenly.

I didn't look up from fidgeting with my purse. "Um... Ok. Coffee house is busy, kids I coach are mental. Not many stories this year, though." I looked up to find him leaning forward, arms folded and resting on the table. "There's not much to talk about outside of... you know..." I repeated the awkward wave he'd made in the car and smiled as he pretended to glare at me.

"I guess this isn't the best place to talk about all that stuff." He agreed.

"Crap." I said, trying to sound like I was joking instead of panicking. "We won't have anything to talk about." I found myself nervously tucking a strand of loose hair behind my ears, only to have it come free again.

Jacob nodded, considering this as his eyes flickered across my face. "We could always go through the typical first date questions." He suggested. He winced as I began to turn red. "Or... or... um, here."

I watched skeptically as Jacob unraveled one of the napkin/silverware rolls and ripped it open, dumping the silverware onto the table and then shoving it aside. He grabbed one of the crayons the restaurant had left out for any little kids who came by and began scrawling messily across the paper napkin.

I leaned closer without really thinking about it, letting out a laugh when I saw the tic-tac-toe board. "Real mature, Jacob."

"Just for that, I'm going first." He pulled the paper back toward him, pretending to pout as he scrawled an 'X' carefully in the middle square. "Alright, here."

I took the paper and snatched the crayon from his hand, trying not to think about whether I wanted to take his hand instead. I began to roughly scribble an 'O' in a random corner, changed my mind and went for a middle row. Before I could finish the letter Jake reached out and grabbed my hand, laughing.

"You're gonna rip it." He accused.

"I would never!" I threw my head up haughtily and then went back to drawing, dragging the napkin when he didn't let go of my hand.

"What-no!" Jacob grabbed the napkin with his other hand, laughing as we wrestled over paper. "Gen... you're gonna..."

"It's fine." I was laughing. "If your wolfy strength didn't do it, I should be ok, right?"

"I was careful!"

"I can be careful." I retorted. We both paused, his grip on my hand shifting slightly so that he held my fingers instead of my wrist. I looked up and he only had to hold my eyes for an instant before I relented. "Sometimes." He raised an eyebrow and gave me a challenging grin, leaning in as he prepared his next skeptical quip.

The next moment he was pulling back so that the waitress could give us our waters and I found myself glaring at the girl again as she gave the hand Jake was still holding a significant look. It didn't cross my mind that I'd disliked her for assuming we were on a date and was now irritated at her for interrupting us: I just knew that this freshman waitress was my new mortal enemy.

As she left I stole my hand back from the werewolf and finally drew my mark, leaving more of a dot then an 'O' just to make Jake happy. Jake made a huge show of precisely drawing his 'X' until I reached out to jar his hand and we began playfully scrabbling for control of the paper again.

This went on for several 'cat's' games until the food came and I suddenly found myself with nothing to say again. I poked at my pizza, wanting to ask him about imprinting again, wanting to ask if he thought Isabella and his friends were okay with us sitting her goofing off. When I looked up, Jacob had already finished half his burger and was trying to steal my breadsticks.

"So it affects appetite? Or were you always a huge pig and I just forgot." I gave up on the pizza for a moment and stole one of his fries.

"Yeah, all of us together could probably devour this entire restaurant." Jacob said with a shrug. "Emily scolds us for it sometimes."

"Sam's... imprint?" I checked. Jacob nodded and I trailed off in thought again. Absentmindedly, I began to nibble on a piece of pepperoni, letting Jacob just talk as I yet again tried to pin down how I felt about all this. I'd managed to eat half the slice and Jacob had finished off his burger and most of his fries before I actually started listening.

"You should get my dad to tell you the old stories, the legends. He's much better at it then I am and he'd probably like telling you." Jake was saying easily. I found myself fidgeting again, nervous or uncomfortable I couldn't tell. I noticed Jacob absently trying to find another fry without looking away from me, not seeming to notice he'd finished the rest off during those two sentences.

"Here." I interrupted finally. I tossed two slices of pizza onto his plate and he grinned happily, ruffling his too short hair before he began to devour them. "So Billy knows about... um... us?"

"Yeah... " Jacob frowned at some memory but then he was smiling again and finishing off the second piece of pizza. "He did make a lot of jokes about you though."

"Jokes?" I tried to picture this. "Billy?"

"Mostly just making fun of me for... I think it would be the same if we'd started dating before." Jake's eyes flashed up to see how I took that and then he scratched the back of his neck, his dark skin tinting red as his expression turned sheepish. "I mean... that's where I thought we were... I know you don't want to talk about this."

I paused, a little surprised. "I... I guess..."

"Why did you break things off?" Jacob said.

Sh**.

I looked down at my wrist, pulling back the long sleeves and the bracelet so that I could itch the long white scar. "Just feeling overwhelmed. And..." No, I am not admitting I was scared. "Unsure." That seemed a bit better.

"Unsure." Jacob nodded and I felt a lump forming in my throat. "I'm guessing the... " He mouthed the next word. "wolf...stuff didn't make that any better."

Carefully he reached across and pulled my hand toward him, turning my arm so that he could see the scar. For a second he gritted his teeth, and then he regained control and covered the mark with his other hand. I closed my eyes, letting the warmth of his skin soak into the cold of the vampire bite.

"That was almost a year ago." I smiled. "Almost a year since you punched Tyler off my porch."

Jake smiled for a second, but the bitter look was back. "And I had no idea what you were going through. And the only person you had was dating one of those..." He sighed. "Oh, Bella."

I nodded, figuring could always wait on the whole story of how alone I'd been. "I thought you liked her." I admitted. I hurried into another thought before he could react. "I just, I want to go back to where you and I weren't part of..." I sighed, the joke feeling old. "You know."

"Genevieve..." Jacob started.

I managed a tired smile. "Yeah?"

"This isn't my—this isn't how I meant for things to happen." Jacob said. "I meant... I meant to sit on that stupid couch with you and fight over popcorn and play cards with you and save you from your stupid car and... and... Genevieve, I'm sorry."

We stared at each other in silence for a minute, the year playing over in my head. How little I'd wanted him... And now he was the only one who could possibly understand. But we had no choice...

I pulled my wrist back and quickly pulled my sleeve over the scar, tossing the last piece of pizza onto his plate.

"Finish that off while I go pay, would you?"

I didn't even wait for him at the cash register, making my way outside as soon as I saw him heading over. I felt the need to prove I could do it alone, I could step out into the open without my new bodyguard. But the thirty seconds in the dark night without him felt like a lifetime and I started to picture the red eyes and fangs again at every small noise.

"Where to next?" Jacob asked as he came outside.

I pulled out my phone, finding a text from Alice saying that she'd left. Had she seen that I was considering calling her? Would I have actually done that?

"We can go back to my place." I told him. "See how Isabella's doing with her withdrawal."

"Yeah." Jacob agreed. "Or we could go across the street and stargaze in that park."

I shook my head, not sure I could handle it after the many scares of the day. He accepted that without a question, throwing an arm around my shoulders as we started walking toward the car. We didn't say much on the drive home, the only sound the rattling of Isabella's junky truck. I watched the streetlights and wondered what else might be hiding in all the dark houses we past. Our house was just as dark when we pulled into the driveway and I couldn't quite make myself get out of the car.

"Want me to walk you up?" He asked. He looked as though he was expecting a rejection and I wasn't how much of his question was romantic and how much was just gallantry for the eighteen year old girl still afraid of the dark. I shrugged in response. He would have to get out of the car anyway, right?

I walked ahead of him up the front path and slowly made my way up the stairs before stopping. I turned to look down at him, leaning against the railing. "That was nice." I said lamely.

"Yeah." Jacob agreed, stopping at the bottom of the stairs to smile back up at me. "Decent first date."

I hesitated. "Would you have done it the same before? You know, with how you meant for things to happen?" I found myself tucking the hair behind my ear again.

His face broke out into the old grin, the one that used to make me think of a puppy, the one that was the old innocent Jake I'd grown up with. "I'd be a bit ahead of schedule, actually. I thought it would be years before I got you to go out with me." He laughed. "I think dad thought so too."

"You sure you weren't just scared of me?" I teased, leaning forward over the rail.

Jacob nodded in mock thoughtfulness. "I suppose memories of some of your threats did pop up."

"My threats?" I considered for a moment. "Of what? Blackmail?"

"I think you also threatened to kidnap me when I had blackmail on you." He pointed out.

"Alright. I was a terrifying child."

"And teen."

"Shut up." I grumbled, standing up quickly and dragging my arm along the wooden railing as I did so. "Sh**!"

"You ok?" The tall werewolf took one step and he was beside me. "Splinter?" He asked sympathetically.

"Oh, so you see well in the dark too. Awesome. Ow." He had already pulled the splinter out and I glared up at him, leaning closer as I tried to see his expression in the dark. "That's not fair."

"What?"

"And I'm still wondering." I said. "With what you would have done... " I let myself lean in a little closer, finding that I was suddenly much closer to figuring out how I felt. Last year I'd felt safe. Now it was... "All that dumb stuff... would we be here?"

Jacob's breath brushed across my face as he whispered softly. "I... I hope so."

I thought of the past year and of my sister and of the idiotic things I'd wanted back then. If I hadn't been attacked, we wouldn't have been here. I would've been with Tyler or Paul or some other idiot. And we would have already made out and I'd be inside torturing Isabella or my dad with my hyper freak out. But maybe, someday... I did like the idea we might be meant to be.

Jacob seemed to be waiting for me to say goodbye or something. But I didn't want to tell him what I was thinking and I wasn't sure I could figure this out if he left. And he didn't seem to be able to leave. And that was it, that one mar on my happiness: did he have any choice here?

"Gen?"

He brushed his lips against mine, barely touching before I pulled back.

"Are you sure...?" I muttered. I managed a joke, finding that sentence a little too revealing. "I mean, I am very scary."

"How many times do I have to kiss you before you realize I like you?" Jake joked.

I narrowed my eyes, tempted to get annoyed and explain just how much more complicated than that it was. I fought it off with a dry comment. "I guess that was our third kiss."

"And we only just had our first date? Shocking." He turned away, and my gaze followed his, catching the hint of a howl in the distance. "I need to go." Jacob groaned.

"Alright." I grumbled. I grabbed him by the collar of his borrowed sweatshirt and pressed my lips against his. His lips were warm as they moved hungrily with mine and his hands snarled in my hair as he pulled me as closer as he could. I didn't want to stop, didn't care if someone could find us or if that someone would be human or vampire. I just wanted to kiss Jacob Black and not worry about what the hell that was going to mean.

Then another howl, closer and more insistent, and he was leaving.

I watched him run off, not quite sure what I'd just done. All I could think was that even with that werewolf I might not feel completely safe...

But I was definitely happy.