Noticed on the rewatch that Frank did not let go of Bill’s hand at any point. He’s cleaning a deadly wound and the scene ends with their hands still joined
Pretty sure they hold hands every time they are together after that
“Why didn’t you just end it with her like I told you?” Leah yells. “You need to stop before this gets any worse for you!”
Jacob and Leah have a monthly ritual to sneak off school grounds during lunch hours to pick up Chinese food from their favorite hole-in-the wall joint and sneakily eat it away from prying eyes. By chance, while they were eating their contraband lo mein under the bleachers, they overheard the conversation between Edward and Bella.
Leah immediately told him to break it off before Bella interrupted them in the hallway. When she found out he didn’t, she barged into his home to scream at him about it while he packed for the ski trip.
“Or did you forget the whole purpose of this stupid idea?” Leah continues.
“I didn’t forget,” Jacob snaps, angrily shoveling clothes into his duffle bag. “I tried to end things, but she didn’t want to.”
“It’s part of our contract.” Jacob sighs, sitting on his bed. He covers his face with his hands, defeated. “It doesn’t matter anymore. We’ll wrap up and be done with each other after the trip.”
That was as far as he was willing to go for Bella. He wouldn’t be able to take anymore after that.
“Wait. So you’re giving up?”
Jacob’s head snaps up. “Yes, Leah! I never had a shot in the first place! Isn’t that what you wanted to hear? Aren’t you happy now?”
Leah stomps over to Jacob, grasping his hair and pulling until his scalp stings. “Why would this make me happy, you idiot?” she shouts. “Do you think I like seeing you this way? I hate it! This is why I didn’t want you to do this in the first place!”
“Lee…”
“I hate it, Jacob,” Leah repeats in a whisper, releasing his hair. She plops on the bed next to him and rests her head on his shoulder. “We all know you’ll probably never get over this girl, so I guess I have to help you out.”
Jacob blinks. “Help me out?”
Leah sighs, counting off with her fingers. “Let’s look at the facts here. Bella came up with this fake relationship idea. You established the no kissing rule and you tried to end it. But now she’s the one who’s insisting on continuing even though there’s clearly no point anymore.” She pauses. “Do you realize what that means?”
“No?”
“She better not make me regret this,” she mutters under her breath. She sits up, punching Jacob’s shoulder. “You think this whole thing is unrequited? She obviously fell for you, and she’s the one who thinks you don’t like her.”
Jacob stares at her, dumbfounded. Bella… fell for him?
Leah stands, dusting off her jeans. “I’ll let you chew on that for the night. Just be careful, okay?”
Jacob nods, lost in thought. He mechanically packs his bag for the next hour and spends the rest of the evening lounging in his bed, just trying to figure out what he’ll do now.
He’s supposed to let Bella go after the ski trip. It wouldn’t be the clean break he was hoping for when he first agreed to this deal, but now… things changed. If Bella really liked him…
They could be– ...together?
“Am I really doing this?” he mutters to himself.
He leans over, pulling the shoebox from under his bed. It’s worn with age, but when Jacob lifts the lid, the letter hidden inside looks just as new as the day he wrote it.
Dear Bella–
Jacob closes the lid. It only takes a second to decide:
“I’m doing this.”
He’s too keyed up to get a restful night’s sleep, but the next morning he jumps out of his bed and walks around with a spring in his step. Billy eyes him curiously, but Jacob doesn’t offer any answers as he shovels cereal in his mouth and runs out of the door.
He swings by the Clearwater’s and picks up Leah, who clutches a travel mug in her hand and demands that he not speak to her until she finishes her coffee.
Jacob obliges, humming a tune to himself on the way to school.
The coach bus is already in the parking lot by the time they arrive. He stows away their bags and follows after Leah, grinning when he spots Bella waving at him.
“Hey, Bells,” Jacob says, sliding in the cushioned seat next to her.
“I brought snacks!” Bella replies, holding her bag open for him to see. “I picked the warmest of sodas, just for you!”
Jacob chuckles, shuffling through the bag. He pauses when he sees a familiar metal tin. “Is that-”
“Snickerdoodles? Of course!” Bella says with a smirk. “There’s even honeydew slices if you look deep enough.”
Both of his favorites.
“How did you remember…?”
Bella rolls her eyes. “Jacob, we’ve been together for 3 months. I know you like the back of my hand.”
He doesn’t know what to say to that, but it makes him feel pleased as punch. It carries through with him during the long drive to the ski lodge.
When they arrive, somehow, of all people, Jessica is put in charge of room assignments. She simply throws the room keys on the lobby table and allows everyone to scramble for their desired rooms.
Jacob snatches one up for himself and Leah, and they quickly head to their room to get settled.
“Should I assume you’ll be with Bella all day?”
“I’m surprised, Leah. I didn’t think you were a fan of me and Bella, but you’re really coming through,” Jacob says.
“I’m not a fan of Bella hurting you,” Leah corrects. “But if she makes you happy then… I can be polite.”
Jacob snorts. “Only polite?”
“Don’t push me.”
Jacob playfully shoves her before he hurries into the hallway where Bella is waiting for him. She tugs on the sleeves of her lilac ski suit with a grimace.
“I look like Barney,” Bella complains.
Jacob pats his own red ski suit. “I look like a teletubby.”
“Yeah, you’re Po and I’m Tinky Winky,” Bella says. She bites her lip, looking at her boots. “Jake, I don’t know how to ski.”
“Me either!”
Bella looks up with wide eyes. “You… don’t?”
“Nah. They say to put your feet like a pizza wedge and then I stop paying attention,” Jacob confesses with a grin. “We can go sledding though!”
A slow smile spreads on Bella’s face. “I can do that,” she whispers.
They spend hours in the snow, until Bella is pink cheeked and her hair is covered in snowflakes. Jacob loves every second of it, grasping her hands to keep them warm and curling an arm around her shoulders whenever she begins to shiver.
They take another trip down the snowy hill, Bella screaming her head off while Jacob howls with laughter. When they reach the bottom of the hill, Bella rolls onto her back, and the vapors from her laughter are visible in the air.
Jacob can’t help but stare. She looks beautiful.
“Jake, I think I need a human minute,” Bella pants. Her eyes swivel toward Jacob. “This is super fun, but I’m really tired.”
As she speaks, Jacob catches a glimpse of Embry and Quil in their wolf form, weaving through the nearby trees.
“We can head back inside,” he suggests distractedly.
“No, you stay. Hang out with your friends,” Bella says, sitting up. “I’ll hang out with mine and catch up with you later. Deal?”
Jacob purses his lips, torn between wanting to stay with Bella and wanting to get all his energy out in the snow with his pack.
“Okay,” Jacob sighs. “I’ll see you later.”
Bella giggles, jumping up to give him a brief hug before she runs back to the lodge. To Jacob’s shock, she doesn’t trip once.
When he phases and runs around with the pack in the snow, his mind is on Bella the entire time. He’s teased mercilessly for the rest of the evening.
Jacob eats dinner with the pack, and afterwards they disperse to do their own thing around the lodge. He finds himself in a small, private movie theater watching Spirited Away with a cup of hot cocoa in his hands.
He glances up when the door opens, and he instantly lights up.
Bella is standing in the doorway, laughing over her shoulder at her two friends. They’re all dressed in fuzzy robes, hair wet and plastered to their skin. Angela nudges Bella when she doesn’t notice Jacob, and her eyes instantly meet his.
“Hi, Jake,” she whispers.
Jacob straightens. “Bella.”
Jessica weaves her arm around Angela’s, tugging her backwards. “We’ll, uh, head to the room, Bella.”
Bella nods absently, letting the door slip shut behind her. The room is bathed in darkness again, and the light from the projector reflects on Bella’s skin.
“Come sit,” Jacob says.
Bella shuffles closer, taking the seat next to him. “Hi,” she whispers. “All by yourself in here?”
Jacob chuckles. “Yeah. But now I’m in good company,” he murmurs. He pulls Bella closer by her shoulders. “I missed you.”
A blush crops up on Bella’s cheeks as she looks up at him. “I missed you, too. Did you have fun with your friends?”
Jacob hums. “Yeah, but they’re not you. I wanted to spend more time with you. And talk to you.”
“Well, you have me now.”
It’s now or never, Jacob thinks. He laughs, tugging on his hair to release some nerves.
“I want to tell you something. But once I say it… I don’t want this to ruin our friendship, but I think I should say it out loud anyway. Just so you know.”
Bella nods slowly. “Okay…”
Jacob takes a deep breath. “All those notes, everything we’ve ever done– it was never fake for me. That was all real,” he confesses in a quiet tone. “That’s how I really feel about you.”
Bella leans back with even wider eyes, and Jacob removes his arm from her shoulders. He laughs again, too nervous to do anything else, and more words bubble past his lips without his permission.
“I’ve really liked you, Bella. As more than just a friend. For a long… long time. Maybe even more than like at this point.”
He swallows heavily, meeting her doe eyes with a grimace and completely out of steam.
Bella leans closer, eyes darting all over his face. “Is that true?” she asks in a quavering voice.
“Yes, Bella,” he replies. “There’s no one like you.”
“Jacob,” Bella whispers, bringing a hand up to his cheek. “Jacob, let me kiss you.”
“Oh, thank god,” Jacob says in a rush, leaning forward to do exactly as he’s told.
When his lips press against hers, it’s like… magic. A warmth travels through his skin all the way down to his bones, and he almost melts from the force of it. Bella is light and sweet with her kisses, and he pulls her closer for a second, third, fourth… until he loses count entirely.
“I like you, too, Jacob,” Bella says in between kisses. “So, so much.”
Holy crap, Jacob screams to himself. Leah was right.
Jacob forgets all sense of time as they continue to kiss and move closer to each other. He gets lost in the scent of the faint traces of her strawberry shampoo and the softness of her lips. He wonders how he ever deprived himself of this all this time.
He would never make that mistake ever again.
Bella pulls away with a gasp, taking in large gulps of air. She presses her hands against Jacob’s chest, staring down at him with dark, hungry eyes.
Jacob blinks, realizing his hands are tangled in her robe, and Bella has somehow made her way into his lap. Her robe has already fallen off both shoulders, revealing the white bikini she’s wearing underneath, He untangles his fingers, one by one, and flounders with his hands, unsure where to put them.
“Bella-”
She leans down again, captivating him with a kiss that almost makes him lose all sense. Almost.
He snaps right back to reality when Bella reaches backward to mess with the knot keeping her swimsuit in place.
“Bella, wait,” Jacob murmurs against her lips, breathless. “Stop taking your bikini off.”
Bella sits back, dropping her hands to her lap, looking completely naive and adorable as she quirks her head to the side. “You wanna do that part?”
Jacob has to bite back a groan. He can’t believe this is happening. “Bella…”
“Then what about-” Her hands travel south, and he’s quick to grab her wrist to stop her.
“No, Bella,” he hisses.
“But Jake-”
“Not- Not here.”
Bella glances at the rolling movie credits behind her, seeming to just remember where they were, and turns back to Jacob with sparkling eyes.
“Okay,” she chirps.
He averts his eyes as she rearranges her robe, and they make their way out of the theater and down the long corridors until they reach his room. The fireplace is lit, but Leah is nowhere to be found. He leaves a sock on the door, just in case.
As soon as he shuts the door, Bella is on him again. All of his cares fall to the wayside as they attack each other with fervent kisses and slowly make their way toward his bed. Clothes fly across the room until they’re skin on skin.
Bella, his Bella, is sprawled in his bed, and he admires the pretty flush that spread from her cheeks all the way down to her neck.
“You’re so beautiful,” he breathes.
Bella covers her face in embarrassment. “Jake…”
“Bella, look at me.” He waits until she does. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Bella whispers, staring up at him with earnest eyes. “Please, Jake. I trust you. I want you.”
He swears she’ll be the death of him.
“Tell me if you need me to stop.”
She doesn’t.
He whispers sweet nothings into her ear as the room is filled with the sounds of the crackling fireplace and their heavy breathing. She clings to him with nails that dig crescent moons into his shoulders, but he doesn’t care; he never wants to let her go either.
It’s the way her pink face contorts, the way her eyes slowly, methodically lose their focus, and the way she calls his name with urgency that is Jacob’s undoing.
The world falls away in a snap, until it’s just Bella and nothing and everything all at once.
Delicate fingers carding through his hair slowly bring him back to down reality. When he finds the strength to lift his head, Bella gives him a soft smile that he readily returns.
Her fingers trace his cheek. “That was...”
“Perfect,” he finishes.
They kiss once more.
He rolls on his side and pulls Bella with him. Bella sighs, curling closer, and he runs soothing circles over her bare back.
Only seconds later, he hears rapid, obnoxious knocking on the door.
“You have five more minutes before I’m coming to sleep in my bed,” Leah yells.
Bella squeaks, clutching the sheets to her chest. Jacob admires the sultry image she makes until he can’t resist kissing her again, tugging the sheets away.
“But Leah,” Bella whispers, pink faced again.
“Ignore her.”
“I can hear you!”
Bella’s eyes widen as a darker blush consumes her face. She pushes him back and Jacob groans in protest.
“Oh, come on,” Jacob complains toward the door. This is so not how he wanted their night to end.
He pats around for his sweatpants and tosses Bella her robe. He has to hold back laughter when she trips over the sheets trying to get out of bed.
“Laugh it up,” Bella grumbles, adjusting her robe and balling up her discarded swimsuit in her hands.
Jacob walks over to grasp her face and give her a slow, languid kiss.
“Sorry,” he murmurs against her lips.
Bella pulls back, and buries her face in his chest, but not before he catches a glimpse of her cheeks turning rosier. He wonders how many shades of pink he can make her turn.
“Not forgiven,” she mutters in a petulant voice. “You’ll have to grovel.”
“Oh?”
The insistent knocking returns. Jacob growls and Bella jumps back. He’s going to clobber Leah as soon as she walks in.
“I’ll see you on the bus tomorrow,” Bella says hurriedly.
She pulls the door open, blushing and avoiding Leah’s eyes as she hurries down the hallway. She stumbles over the tie of her robe with an ‘eep’ that makes Leah snort.
and if were being real i feel like drag path perfectly encapsulates what i was talking about earlier with the lore and the city walls mv. i feel like drag path is an epilogue to that video. yes ive pushed you away but ive left you signs that i need help and if you just work with me one more time we can make it to tomorrow. it shows that the story doesnt just end with 'welp guess clancy died and torchbearer fucked off to find a new friend" it circles back to torchbearer coming back for him to pull him out of that cycle even if its not permanent. please i cant take the multiple clancy theory anymore
Nothing better than having old ladies bet on what type of swimming costume you have and then getting to witness the one who won, after they all waited for you to arrive
