A Little Thing Called Destiny - Chapter Five
Title: A Little Thing Called Destiny - Chapter Five
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Summary: "So, now that we've bumped into each other a total of two times in less than half an hour, what do you say we introduce ourselves? I'm Jacob." The tale of two people brought together by fate. Pure fluff. AH. AU (Click to start from beginning.)
“Are you sure he’s not dying?” Angela asks. Jessica stops sipping her coke and animatedly points at Angela while she nods her head. She obviously agrees with her.
Bella shakes her head. “No way. I think he would have told me that by now.”
Angela takes a bite of her burger. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, Bella, he could just be afraid of your reaction.”
“Of course I’m sure!” Bella has abandoned her salad by now, angry at her two friends. This was supposed to be a nice lunch to catch up since Jessica is back in town from New York. She’s interning there as a fashion designer.
“Alright, alright. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. Even you said that he’s too good to be true. I mean, what guy really goes through all that trouble to make sure his girlfriend is happy all the time? Not even Ben does that and he’s damn near perfect.”
Bella shrugs. “He just wants us to have fun.” Bella knows what she’s told Angela. She can clearly remember every time she’d called her best friend after her and Jacob’s first couple of dates, confessing that she thought things were going too well with Jacob to be real. Sure, at first she’d thought his “fun” philosophy was suspicious - like maybe he was an axe murderer using the promise of a good time to lure his next victim - but however curious she was about his reasons, Bella was used to it now. It made Jacob who he was and she doubted his reasoning for living life to the fullest was impending death. Even though she herself was skeptical, she wasn’t going to let Angela and Jessica talk negatively about him. He was her boyfriend after all.
Jessica snorts at Bella’s last comment. “Well you should just consider yourself lucky, Bella. The last guy I went out with wanted to have “fun” too. He took me to a thrash concert, drank a shit-ton and puked in my car and then asked me to have a threesome with him and his wife.”
Bella chokes on her lemonade and begins to cough. “Oh my gosh,” she says when she regains her composure.
Jessica only nods. “Yeah, I know. Jacob couldn’t get any more perfect in my eyes. Good thing you’re putting out now. Hold him down, honey.”
Angela laughs. “Bella says they’ve had sex everyday this week. Sometimes more than once.”
“Angela!”
“Wow, Bella,” Jessica says, “next thing you know, he’ll be asking you to spend time with Mommy and Daddy.”
“Actually…” Bella plays with what’s left of her salad, looking down to hide her blush. “I’m meeting his father this weekend.”
“What?” Angela exclaims, slapping Bella’s arm. “Why didn’t I know this?”
“I don’t know. I guess it just slipped my mind to tell you guys. We’re spending the weekend there. He says his dad only lives six hours away.”
“Bella, you don’t know how jealous I am of you. You’ve found your prince charming,” Jessica says.
“Yeah, and in a Food Town!” Angela adds.
“No freaking way! You met him in a supermarket? The cards must really be in your favor.”
“Oh God, Jess, not you too!”
“What? What’d I do? Jessica asks, confused.
Angela explains. “Jacob thinks it was destined for these two to meet that day. They ran into each other three times.”
“And he wasn’t following her?” Jessica asks Angela.
“He wasn’t following me!” Bella laughs.
“Well then I think you should marry him. Whatever you want to call it - fate, destiny, luck - you two have got something special.”
Bella grumbles. She’s tired of all this talk of divine intervention. “It was just a chance encounter.”
(ALTCD)
“Beautiful, you have no idea how excited I am for you to meet my father.”
Bella fidgets with her hands. “I just hope he likes me.”
Jacob wraps his hand around hers and brings it to his lips for a kiss. “He’ll love you.”
Bella returns the smile he gives her and looks out the window. Jacob turns onto exit 80. Bella looks over at Jacob with her eyebrow raised. “Are we going to Forks?”
She can tell Jacob is surprised when he answers. “No, my father lives in La Push. It’s a reservation a little ways past Forks. We have to drive through it a bit to get there.”
“Oh… okay.”
“I’m surprised you know the name; most people don’t even know Forks exists.”
“I used to live here.”
“I thought you grew up in Phoenix.”
“I moved when I was six. I don’t really remember it, but my mother told me this is where my dad lives. I haven’t seen him since I was sixteen. He couldn’t take off work anymore to come visit me and my mom didn’t want me to come here.”
“I’m sorry it’s been that long. Why didn’t you ever come back when you were an adult?”
Bella answers with remorse. She’s twenty five now and lives in Seattle. She could have come and visited her father many times in the past, but she just didn’t. “I don’t know… We call and he just learned to skype, but I know it’s not the same. I feel terrible.”
Jacob squeezes her thigh. “No worries. We can fix it while we’re here.”
“Thank you, Jacob.” She kisses his cheek.
(ALTCD)
“We’re here!” Jacob says as he cuts the engine. Bella looks up and sees a small red house. The front door opens and a man in close resemblance to Jacob comes out in a wheelchair and rolls down the connected ramp. “The old man must have been watching from the window,” Jacob laughs.
They both get out of the car and Jacob leans down to hug the man who holds him tight in return. “I missed you, son.”
“Missed you too, Dad.”
“And who is this lovely woman?” he says, looking at Bella. His smile is charming and Bella sees Jacob in this man’s face through and through.
She walks forward to shake his hand. “I’m Bella.”
Jacob’s father takes her hand. “None of that here.” He pulls her in for a hug. “Any girl that
Jacob speaks so highly of is family. You can call me Billy. All the pretty girls do.”
Bella blushes. “Lovely to meet you, Billy.”
“Hey now, Dad. Don’t go trying to steal my girl! I might have to hurt you.”
“If you didn’t think I could charm her away from you, you wouldn’t have to say anything in the first place.”
Jacob has nothing to say to this and his face is priceless.
Bella laughs and gives Jacob a quick kiss. “You have nothing to worry about.”
“Alright, kids, why don’t we go inside out of the cold.”
“You and Bella go on, Dad. I’m going to get our bags and I’ll meet you inside.”
Billy motions for Bella to follow him into the house. She gives Jacob a quick wave and walks up the porch steps.
“Excuse me, Bella,” Billy says when they’re inside. “I’ve got to check on the lunch I’m making for us.”
“Oh, sure thing.”
“Feel free to look around. Jacob’s room is down that hall, across from the bathroom.”
When he’s gone, Bella looks around the living room. It’s your basic living room - a couple of couches, an end table, a TV - but Bella is drawn to the mantle, or rather, the pictures on it.
She can spot a younger Billy in them. Most of them are of him and a breathtakingly beautiful woman. There’s one of him and two other men in which they seem to be fishing, but the picture is out of focus and she can’t see all of the faces clearly.
Bella looks at some more of the pictures and comes to the conclusion that they’re in chronological order. There’s the woman and Billy again in a hospital room, each of them wearing big smiles with a baby girl in each of their arms. Then the two girls as toddlers and another of the family in a hospital with the addition of baby Jacob.
The rest of them are similar and Bella almost turns away until one really catches her attention. The picture was taken on a beach. There are two children building a sandcastle and they’re both smiling widely.
Bella picks up the picture for closer inspection.
The little boy who she guesses is Jacob looks to be about four. The next child, a little girl about the age of six is wearing pigtails and has a missing front tooth. She’s got her arm around the little boy. They look like best friends.
Bella turns around at the sound of Jacob coming through the door. “Jacob?”
“Uh, yeah?” He drops the bags by the floor and is slipping off his shoes, looking at the floor.
“Jacob, look.” He looks.
“This is me.”