Chapter 14

"You ready to go now, Bella?" Angela asked. I looked through my locker one last time.

"It's not here…" I mumbled.

"Sorry, what isn't? Can I help?"

"My glove." I laughed softly, surprised at myself. "It's probably down the backseat of the truck." I shut the locker. "Let's go."

We walked down to her Golf- I'd left my truck at home and got a lift that morning- and I realised that I couldn't have left it in my truck so it must be in the Golf. I looked as I got in, but I couldn't see it. It was probably at home.

Port Angeles was quieter than usual- the sky was low, heavy and dark and I suspected that the events in Seattle were cutting down people's trips. There was an icy wind that cut across my face and into my eyes.

"You want to eat or something or shall we have a look around and then eat?" I asked

"Wander for a bit, but then eat, I think." Angela replied.

So we did wonder for a bit, but the tension in the atmosphere due to the scarcity of people was ever present and walking outside was awkward. And the clouds were getting darker by the minute, so we went into a small Chinese.

It was dark and dingy inside, and we immediately regretted going in. But we were already on the edge of town and finding another place to eat would have taken another ten minutes, so we stayed.

"I'm really worried Ben likes someone else." Angela confessed quietly after a waiter took our orders. "If he did, I'm sure he wouldn't say anything, so he wouldn't hurt my feelings. He's so kind, he doesn't even tell me when he doesn't like my plans for a date or something. I have to guess."

"What makes you think he likes someone else?"

"He just… I don't even know. I just have this feeling. Because I'm so happy with him, even after all this time, it just doesn't feel like it belongs to me. And I keep thinking, what if he did want to break up with me? I don't think he could, he's too… nice. And I want him to be happy, I don't want to feel like I'm holding him back."

"So you just have this feeling?" I asked, looking down. "Nothing more." I didn't get any vibes before Edward left me. Maybe there were plenty, but I just didn't notice. I thought he loved me right up to the last moment. I would have betted my life on it. Maybe I didn't know him well enough to be able to tell.

"Well, yes. But I can't help wondering what he would do if he did want to end it."

"Why don't you ask him? Just quietly, after having a nice evening or something, when you're more confident and comfortable."

"I guess I should try. I'm so scared about losing him though, he means so much to me."

"I know what you mean." I murmured, fingering a paper napkin lightly. Angela looked at me and realised what I meant. I could immediately tell that she was sorry to bring something up that was affecting me. The waiter brought us our orders in the silence.

"I'm so sorry, Bella." She whispered.

"It's okay, Angela. I wish I'd had some warning. But I thought he loved me right until- well. I kind of knew he shouldn't have ever been with me. I just wish I knew… what changed. I guess it must have been in Phoenix." I whispered to stop my voice breaking.

"So there was… no warning?"

"I don't think I would have noticed if there was. Maybe I didn't know him as well as I thought I did."

Angela sighed, at a loss of something to say. We ate in silence, not awkwardly, but both contemplating our own and each other's problems.

"If… there isn't anything happening now, and it is all in your imagination, how long do you think you will be with Ben?" I asked. Human relationships were so different to mine.

"I think we could be together for a really long time, and I think maybe Ben knows that. Maybe that's why he feels unsure… We were talking about university applications the other day. I hope we go to the same place, I'd hate to have a long distance relationship with him, I'd always feel like he would meet someone better than me."

"Does he ever say anything that makes you think that?"

"Well, no. But that makes me even more frightened, you see? I just wish I was bold enough to ask him."

The waiter came back and asked if we needed anything. We declined, still picking at our food.

"Do you feel like that about Jacob?" Angela asked. I was a little surprised at her boldness.

"Um, I think he's confident and bold enough to say if he felt differently… but with him, I'm fairly sure there isn't. I don't know why, but I can understand the way he thinks so well sometimes. It's like our minds are closely connected enough to be related, I know him so well."

"Do you think you know him better than Edward?"

"Yes… He was always a mystery to me. I never properly understood why he chose me, I still don't. But Jacob, it's like he was the path meant for me, it makes sense to be with him."

"Are you going out with him now?"

"I think so. We haven't confirmed it, but we don't need to. It's sort of just slipped into being, this relationship. It's natural. I rely on him so much, though. I really need this to work. I need him."

"Do you love him?" Angela asked.

I looked down. In truth, I had no idea. I had no idea what kind of emotion my broken heart was capable of. I just knew that being with Jacob lessened the pain. I loved him as a friend, and he was almost family he was so close to me, but I wasn't in love with him. I didn't know if I could possibly be in love again.

"How far did you go with him?" Angela asked, going a bit pink. I felt myself blushing too.

"We've just kissed." I mumbled, my face blushing deeper. Angela noticed and smiled.

"Anything else?"

"Well," I elaborated, "he did try to- touch me, but it didn't… It felt wrong. I don't know why or how, but it did and I pulled away. But we carried on kissing-"

"How did it end?" Angela asked.

"Um, well, things were getting a bit too heated and he explained that, then got off the bed and-"

"The bed? You were on a bed?"

"Well, yeah-"

"You went on the bed but-"

"No we didn't. But it was quite… passionate." I laughed. "Pudding?" Angela looked at her watch. We both still had work to do.

"Is it all right if we go now?" She asked. I nodded so we got the bill and put on our coats.

A cold wind hit us when we came out of the restaurant. It shot straight through my ears and I shivered violently. I hadn't a scarf or gloves or anything. It was dark already, the glowing moon creeping up its silent path in the sky.

"Where's the car?" I asked. Angela pointed up the street.

"Well, it's by the tourist shops. We could take the shortcut through the estate but it is dark already and with the increased crime rate I think we'd best stay on the lit roads." I nodded. I'd already had an episode on these streets. We walked up slowly, talking about studies. Darkness was pressing down, suddenly it felt a lot heavier. I looked up but heavy clouds had covered the sky. Then I realised.

"Angela? There aren't any streetlamps on this road… Are we going the right way?" She looked around. We were already a few blocks away from the road she'd said we should have taken. We turned around.

There was a weird feeling in the air- it was making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I guessed Angela could feel it too, because we weren't talking, and we began walking faster. I saw her close her hand around her bag instinctively. I took a breath to ask her how long-

"Sorry?" Angela asked.

"What?" I asked, frowning. "I didn't say anything." I looked around at the hollow street.

She looked around, her eyes wide. "I heard your name…" I gasped.

"What do you mean?" A cold shiver dripped down my spine.

"I don't know… but I heard someone say your name. It was just a whisper… maybe I imagined…" But she looked certain, and her eyes danced around the tall bushes lining the roads.

"Let's walk in the centre of the road." I suggested, trying to forget the terrifying fact that someone who knew me could be following us.

Angela grabbed my arm. I jumped inadvertently, she apologized.

"Look, Bella, this is the shortcut we could have taken. We'll be there in only a minute and I don't like the feel of tonight…" She trailed off. I nodded. It was a narrow alleyway that twisted around the various houses between it and the next road.

We started hurrying down it. The garden walls seemed to grow, making me feel claustrophobic and even more frightened. We should have stayed on a lit road. Then Angela gasped. I looked at her. Her face was white.

"I can hear someone following us." She whispered. I could hear it too. And it sounded like more than one person. We stood, frozen, for a moment, and then we both started running at the same time.

At first I couldn't hear the footfalls behind us, my own feet were too loud, my blood pounding in my ears. I was trying to concentrate on staying upright as I ran, keeping Angela in sight.

Then the thump of heavy footfalls became a lot louder and frequent behind us, and I could hear them talking to us, yelling at us, but I was concentrating on running too much to understand them-

"Keep running Bella!" Edward's voice was so loud in my head I thought it was real for a moment. But in a startled glance to Angela, who was still staring straight ahead as she sprinted to get out of the shortcut, which seemed to be a lot longer than what she described, she obviously hadn't heard it. Then my foot caught and I went stumbling to the ground.

"Get up, Bella!" Edward's voice ordered. Angela skidded to a halt and pulled at my arm. But it was too late, and she froze as two people came around the last twist in the path. Before I could move, one man had pinned Angela against the fence, and I felt an agonising pain in my knee. Then, as if my brain had been delayed into slow mode, I heard the sickening crunch that matched the pain.

"BELLA!" Edward's voice shouted. His voice sent a surge of bravery through me, and I looked up into my attacker's face. I had a fraction of a moment to take in the unshaven, bald head before my head snapped instinctively to Angela's voice. My entire self suddenly latched on to the one word I heard her say, my heart hearing the possible meaning before my mind dared to allow it to be woven into thoughts…

"Edward…?" She whispered. Then the man whose foot was grinding into my leg suddenly smashed into the wall of the alley with a loud crack, his head hitting my ankle as it came down, rolling onto his side. His face was blank, his eyes rolled into his head.

In the same instant, Angela was stumbling towards me, her attacker nowhere in sight. She fell down next to me, her eyes popping out of her head. She was clutching her throat in pain. There was silence for a long second before something jumped in front of me, suddenly inches from me. I leaned away in fright.

Then I recognised him.

And my heart had a moment to shudder and twitch and fit before my body went limp. A cold hand caught my head before it fell to the ground. My eyes shut tight against me. I couldn't believe the extent my hallucinations had gone.

"Bella?" A hoarse croak of the velvet that haunted my mind. I turned my head away. My heart was spasming in pain. I couldn't deal with this.

Another gasp alerted me to the fact Angela was with me. My eyelids flew open to look at this piece of reality, but I met a pair of black eyes set in a pale white face, inches from my own. The cold hands pulled me back up to lean me against the alley wall. I searched for Angela. She was staring at the pale face with huge eyes. And I could barely tear my eyes from him.

The pain in my knee of a moment ago gone, I couldn't trust my body to embrace him. How could I- it couldn't be real.

"Bella." The velvet whispered again, and I felt long fingers stroke my face. My eyes glued to his, I couldn't blink for fear that this illusion would be washed away.

"Edward…" I whispered. A word long dried on my lips, it sounded strange and alien. I had sidestepped it in my mind, avoided thoughts and cringed to hear it.

The eyes were raking my eyes, trying to scratch free the thoughts they could never reach.

Okay, I know you hate me, and I'm so sorry this has taken so long to update. It's really inexcusable, I know. But this was quite difficult to write, I could never get it quite right. And it's also not very long, I decided to write a bit more with Angela because it's really not long enough to be worth the wait.

So if I have any readers left, reviews will make me update again. Please tell me what you want to happen. This story says Bella/Jacob but now Edward's back I'm not really sure who she's going to choose. I have the next few chapters planned, but I don't know what she's going to choose, and whether I should change it from Jacob/Bella to Edward/Bella or just Bella so you guys can't guess who she will choose. But I'd appreciate knowing what you guys want to happen, and what you liked in this chapter.