Purple Sky by A. Teller (unputdownable books .TXT) 📕

“One chicken leg, crispy, potatoes, baked, and green beans, green,” he said, setting the plates in front of us. I laughed at his vivid descriptions.

Jake knew I couldn’t eat cooked chicken, but it wasn’t all chicken. Alice injected it with my favorite: donated O negative. Meat, raw or cooked, was like eating road kill set on fire. Disgusting… Blood make Jake queasy, so he never mentioned what was really in the chicken leg. We started eating and laughing, as usual, about stories of Jacob’s pack and my family. He told me about him as a baby, and about my mom. How they spent the summers together and how they came to be best friends. I laughed at the stories so hard my stomach slightly hurt.

“I can't believe its been another year...” I muttered to myself. A small amount of denial sank in my heart like the little lead balls you see in the nail polish bottles.

“What?” he asked. I’d forgotten Jacob’s super hearing.

“I just…wish it could've lasted. You know, my age. I had such a short childhood. My mom said that when I reached maturity, the Volturi would come back and decide again if I live. It hasn't happened yet, but...I mean, may want me to go with them back to Voltaire, and…”

“Nessie,” Jake interrupted sternly. “You’ll be fine. I’ll stay with you until the end. Or beyond…” He paused before continuing. The pause felt like a century. “Alice will see when they decide. We’ll have warning, so don’t worry.”

I smiled, but my thoughts still raced. Jake could see faint traces of my distress, and perked up suddenly. As though he forgot something.

“Hey! This is my surprise, and you will love it. Got it?” he demanded.

“Oh, darn it,” I said sarcastically, regaining my smile.

He handed me a small box, wrapped in green paper and a silver bow. I opened the box, and gasped in awe. A small, sparkling emerald dazzled me. I looked at it for what seemed light hours, but was only a few seconds. Jake lifted the necklace and showed it off a little more.

“Jacob,” I gasped. “Jake, it’s beautiful!” I cried.

“It was my mom’s. She’d want you to take it.”

He wrapped the gorgeous gem around my neck as I still sat there, breathless.

“Jake, I…I don’t know what to say.”

“Yes you do.”

“Thank you doesn‘t even cut it.”

I hugged him, and his warm temperature filled me with this fuzzy feeling. A feeling that we were no longer friends, but something else. Something more precious. More bonded. I retreated to my seat, and Jake ran back to the kitchen. He poked his head around the corner and waved his finger.

“One sec,” he called.

I suddenly smelled it. My second favorite thing to consume in the entire world: chocolate! The smell gave me goose bumps. It felt like I suddenly was jumping up and down in my seat, waiting anxiously for the chocolate to reveal itself. Jake finally walked around the corner, carrying two, little chocolate truffles, carefully wrapped in silver cupcake paper and both on a fancy, silver plate. He sat the chocolates in the middle of the table. By this time, the other plates were gone. I picked my favorite carefully. I smelled the two candies deeply, trying to figure out what was inside them.

“Hmm…Caramel and…um…”

“Nougat,” he answered. “You’re getting good at that.”

“What is nougat, anyway?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s good,” he said, taking the little, chocolate covered nougat piece.

I picked up the caramel candy and bit off a small piece. The caramel whipped across my bottom lip, and I licked it away, blushing a little.

“You do that a lot,” he commented.

“What?”

“You get embarrassed. Why?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to seem weird, I guess.”

“You live in a family of vampires, you’re a half vampire, half human, and your best friends are werewolves. Weird doesn’t cover it.” I punched him lightly and continued. He just laughed it off.

“But I am. I’m not a human, I’m not a vampire. I can’t be trusted around kids my own age because I inherited my mother’s temper, and I could hurt someone. I can’t go to school. I don’t know what it’s like to be a “normal” teen. Jacob, you’ve been to school. You had friends to go with you and you have a six pack.”

He laughed quietly, kind of embarrassed. Yeah, but I had the last 13 years. You’ve only had ten years, and only four have been adulthood. But that’s not your fault Nessie. I mean, as soon as you start school, you’ll start gaining that freakish amount of graduation tassels in no time.”

I glanced at the ground, and smiled. By now, we were both sitting on the couch. I finished my chocolate, and stared at the dark sky outside. Jake leaned closer and lifted my chin to see my face.

“Jake…” I whispered, smiling friendly. But his face was more intense. It confused me, but also made me happy. He leaned closer, smiling his special smile. Suddenly, I laughed so hard. He tickled my ribs, and I laughed so hard I fell off the couch!

“Jacob!” I shrieked while picking myself off the ground. “You’re such a goof!”

“But you have to like me,” he said, eyebrows raised.

I punched him lightly in the arm, and he still gasped quietly. I guess I didn’t know my own strength. I suddenly smelled a quick, familiar smell. Dad…

“What’s going on?” my father asked. He and my mother returned, with my Aunt Alice and the others trailing close behind.

Jacob hugged me and smelled my hair a little. I smiled when he did. I mean, don’t people have to smell you if they hug you? It’s inevitable, unless you hold your breath, which seems kinda rude. Jacob waved goodbye as he left on his motorcycle.

“Nessie…” my mother said. I turned to find a waiting crowd. All of my family was smiling with that, “Our Little Girl is Growing Up” kind of smile. My father and mother had that frustrated kind of scowl. Except Emmett was smiling in his own way. His “I Know Something You Don’t Know” smile. I boiled inside.

“What?” I asked him. They all turned to my uncle, who received a small slap on the chest by my Aunt Rose.

“Nothing. Nothing at all…” Emmett commented, a small smile creeping up.

“I know, I know. Jake was just being a good friend.” I said. It was in Jake’s defense of course, since I could hear my father’s teeth grinding.

“Yeah, a really good friend,” Emmett commented walking up the stairs. Aunt Rose followed, pushing him a little. I shrugged it off, but my mom came to my side.

“Renesmee, we really need to talk. But, um, Edward?”

My father came forward, kissed my forehead, and went outside. I was confused. What did we need to talk about now?

My mother walked to the couch, sat down, and patted the cushion next to her, motioning for me to sit with her. I sat down, still confused.

“Honey, you’re getting older, and Jacob is going to look…different to you. I know you’ve seen Jacob as a brother," she said. Her eyes flashed with a type of familiar, but her expression was unchanged. "...and your father and I are happy with that. Soon, you’re going to see Jake as…much more. He’ll look more…enhanced, in your eyes.”

“I know mom. I’m already seeing Jacob in a different light. He makes me nervous, and that’s never happened around him before. But it felt like…”

“Butterflies?” she asked.

“Yeah, but like butterflies flying in circles. Like my stomach is a rollercoaster and all the butterflies in the world suddenly want tickets.” I sighed a little, grinning. That crazy rollercoaster was the only thing that reminded me that Jake was more than a brother now.

“I know, but…listen. I want to be honest with you. We don't want you to think you have no other options but Jake."

"Options?..." I paused.

"We're going to Bellingham next year. We'll be moving there to...start fresh. You'll be starting high school with us."

I felt like a stone had just hit me in the chest. Leaving Forks? Already? I thought...

My mother looked at the silver clock on the wall. Midnight. I was another year older.

...

I took a shower, laid my head on the soft, silver pillows, and drifted to sleep. I wondered about my future that night, having dreams of Jacob and being in high school. In one dream, I couldn't find any of my classes. I woke with a start, and it was still dark outside. I tried once again to sleep, only to be tangled up in a dream about werewolves attacking the students at a pep rally. I drank human blood in my dreams.

Then, a sudden burst of light outside my room pierced the bottom of the door. I sat upright, shaken awake.

“Alice?” I said, still a little sleepy.

My bed had a wooden frame, and my pillows were cream and silver. My covers were smoky purple, and so were my curtains. My room was my escape, and it had all the fixes. A vanity, with a million lights, a desk and chair, a HUGE walk-in closet, and a window that I could see out of that showed the whole forest. My room had the same theme: fantasy. I guess that’s what my life was all about. Fantasy. But I couldn’t imagine anything else more dazzling.

I wore a cream colored sweater with a black undershirt and dark blue jeans. I brushed my hair, which had grown even longer overnight, and Alice insisted on styling it. She braided my hair on both sides of my head, and pulled them together in the back. My russet hair seemed to always get in the way of whatever I was doing, so I hoped that this style would work. I walked to the mirror with my eyes closed (at Alice’s command) and opened them.

“Don’t grow too fast, okay?” she said softly. Although I looked taller and more...filled out...I seemed about the same. Chocolate colored eyes, red and brown in my hair. She walked towards the door with her hand extended.

“Aunt Rose?” I asked.

“You look beautiful! It’s crazy how much you change on schedule,” she answered happily. I blushed a little, and I remembered: it was technically my birthday today. My real birth date. I ran back upstairs and grabbed the necklace Jake gave me. I clipped it on and walked back down. My mother smiled, but my father stared at the necklace. It would take a few minutes for the Jake smell to get away from the necklace, which was what I thought my father had a problem with. Suddenly, there it was. That burning sensation in the back of my throat. The thirst. My throat burned with dryness, and it felt like I had swallowed sand paper that was set on fire. My throat let out a small hiss, and my mom came to my side. Emmett was on his heels, waiting for it.

“Sorry, I’m a little dry,” I said, obviously embarrassed.

“Well, let’s test out your new strength,” Emmett said on cue.

I learned that Alice, Jasper, Carlisle and Esme had already hunted last night. Everyone else was waiting, wanting to protect and keep tabs on me. That’s why I loved it when Jacob