Chapter Text
They blink at him in unison, their lips parted in disbelief. “What… what did you say?” Edward finally asks, voice strangled. Bella’s eyes were large, and he knew she echoed the sentiment.
“I - I know this is coming out of nowhere but- but I couldn’t hold it anymore,” Jacob stutters, his face hot under their piercing stares. “I just- yesterday, when we were with Nessie and we watched her fly, catch the snowflakes, and I saw your faces, I- I realized there was nowhere I’d rather be. I know that we - this - isn’t normal, and that we’ve had our differences. But… together, I think we can move on and work through it. I want you. B- Both of you.”
“When,” Bella gasps. “When did you realize you felt this way?”
“Six months ago. When Nessie was playing the piano.” He doesn’t dare let his mental block slip. Not now. Not when Edward’s eyes were boring into him, gaze incredulous, face the perfect picture of shock. Snowflakes fall around them, soaking into all three’s hair. It was cold, so cold, but Jaocb was warm. He hasn’t felt a single chill since he was sixteen. The trees around them are layered in white, the sky is a dull gray.
They’re beautiful. Their skin is hypnotizing in the snowfall.
“Jacob…” Bella breathes, eyes crunching up. “Oh, Jacob, this isn’t- we don’t-”
“We can’t,” Edward cuts in. His eyes are cold. A pale gold. “Jacob, truly, I’m sorry, but I don’t feel the same.”
Jacob’s expectations fall and shatter at his feet. He was expecting it, especially from Edward, but it hurt all the same. “I know,” he whispers. “But we can still try, right? I think- if we give it time, then we can come together. I was against it at first too! I used to hate you, man, but- but if we just give it time, and try …” He turns to Bella, and the look on her face makes him pause.
Pity.
Pure, undignified pity.
“Jacob, we can’t. I can’t. I thought you knew- I thought you accepted it.”
“I did too,” Jacob says, voice trembling. “But it never went away. I think it just transformed into something new. I was so blinded by Nessie, my love for her, that I didn’t realize what I was feeling until it was too late. This isn’t just going to go away, Bells.”
“It has to,” Edward said. “We don’t feel the same way, Jacob.”
Jacob stares at Bella.
She only looks back, not opening her mouth to deny the statement.
Oh. Right, of course, how could he have forgotten? She chose Edward. She’ll continue to do so. Jacob knows she still harbors feelings for him, can feel it in his bones. “Then why,” he ignores the burning in his throat as he speaks. “Why did you make me come out here?”
Edward looks at Bella, then nods his head. She sighs, then steps forward, pulling a wrinkled card from her pocket. Jacob takes it with numb fingers, and feels something in him shrivel and die at the sight of the ink adorning it. You have been invited to the joining of Isabella Marie Swan and Edward Anthony Masen Cullen… He doesn’t need to read anything more. “You’re getting married?” He asks, voice flat. His fingers tremble around the paper. They had called it off when Bella realized she was pregnant with Nessie —Edward’s self-control didn’t hold out until wedding night— and hadn’t mentioned it since. They didn’t even let Jacob know and he had been co-parenting with them for three years.
“Yes, we are,” Edward confirms. His eyes soften at the sight of Jacob’s tears. He reaches a hand forward and cusps his shoulder. Jacob never thought it’d be a day when he didn’t crave the man’s touch. “I’m sorry,” he says again. “This love you have for us, we can’t return it. It would confuse Nessie and no one would accept us. Jacob, you understand, don’t you? We can’t do this.”
“I…” He can’t breathe. His world is crashing down around him, again, and why is he always the one in this position? Rejected. Unloved. Tossed aside. He knew he was riding on false hopes when he confessed, but he didn’t think it’d be this brutal; that it would hurt this much. After all, he’s been rejected before.
He guesses it’s worse when it comes from two people, instead of one. How effortlessly cruel they are.
“Jacob, I’ll always love you, but never like this.” Bella twists the knife, tears in her eyes. “It was… it always Edward. It’ll always be him. I’m sorry, but we can’t.”
“You’re our friend, Jacob. Our companion, but this… it’ll never happen.”
”Never?” his voice cracks like glass. Oh, how efficient they are at breaking his heart. And it’s not their fault. Not really. Like his mother said before she died, he loved too much, too hard, too early. He protected his heart last, and everyone else first.
“Never.”
And so, Jacob Black escapes Forks, Washington with something broken that’s not physical, but too painful to be anything but, leaving behind an Imprint, two people his heart foolishly chose, and a pack who won’t realize he’s gone until half a year later.