FOREVER | j.hale

9. our way to fall

"Where's Paul?" Marceline asked, looking around Emily's place.

She had stopped by to drop off some clothes he let her borrow. Sam got up, giving the other boys a look. "He's...not here. I can take those for you." Sam offered, holding out his arms. Marceline handed them to him, "Why? What happened?"

"He won't be here for a while."

She didn't even need an explanation, but she knew what he meant. Paul was heartbroken. It had been a month already since she started getting rides from Jasper instead of the Uley pack. She started hanging out with them less. The longer she started dating Jasper, the less she cared to make an effort to see them. But it really wasn't like that, the Cullens just took up too much of her time.

"I get it. Tell him I miss him." She simply stated, hugging Sam. He hugged back, "No promises, pup."

Mars thought Paul was being light when he said being away or getting rejected by your imprint was like death. It really was. The last time she saw him, he looked like he hadn't slept in a century. The light in his deep brown eyes had faded away as they no longer lit up when they saw her. "I'd love to stay, but I don't want to be the reason Paul isn't coming home." She said, "I want him with you guys during this. Whatever he's going through." The others nodded, they knew whatever was going on in Paul's head, they could never begin to understand how it felt to have the love of your life reject you for a cold one.

"I better go, somebody's waiting on me." She said, looking apologetically at Sam, who rolled his eyes and tried to suppress his anger.

"Thank god for the treaty line. I would have killed him with my bare hands if it wasn't a thing." He mumbled, catching the sickly sweet scent of a vampire lingering around.

Marceline giggled, patting his back once more before waving at the rest of the boys and waltzing out the door.

"You're too soft on her." Embry quipped, mouth full of muffins. Sam rolled his eyes, "You wanna try saying no to Marceline?"

Jared laughed, "I'd love to see that." He said, despite Embry's protests. It was especially hard to say no to Marceline, nobody knew why. Just looking into her eyes and seeing her disappointed face was just too challenging.

Many of the wolves felt lied to, they were told that imprintees were the perfect match for an imprinter, but with Paul and Marceline, it was obviously not the case.

"Hey." Jasper stood right by the treaty line, and smiled at her. "Hi." She breathed out, drained from the interaction. It was harder talking to the Uley pack, especially since she knew they were far from approving of her relationship with a vampire.

"So..." She said, grabbing his hand as they walked together. "So..." He echoed, helping her step over a mossy log.

"My dad's birthday is next week, Alice is throwing a party. I mean - you can't really say no cause it's at your house, but... you wanna go?" She asked, hopeful he's say yes. She adjusted her black beret on her head.

Jasper chuckled softly, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face. "Like you said, I can't really say no, but since I wanna make you happy – yes, I am going."

That was all he had to say as Marceline squealed in delight and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply.

"You're gonna love your outfit!" She gushed. "I already picked it out for you." Marceline said, all smiley. Jasper raised a brow, nobody has ever dressed him before. Alice just influenced his style a little bit, she never got the chance to dress him completely before.

"A-are you sure?" He asked, a little uncomfortable, but only because he'd never done anything like that. Marceline laughed, climbing onto a tree with her powers, her feet surrounded by a glowing a pretty lilac hue.

"I thought you liked how I dressed." She scolded playfully. Jasper stared at her in the tree.

"Collette!" His girl looked down at him.

"Have you been up there the whole time, darlin' He asked, face sunburnt. She giggled, "You know I love the trees...and the plants, and the flowers!" She leaned back, letting herself fall off the branch. He loved this woman in front of him. His eyes widened, rushing to catch her or at least break her fall, but nothing fell out of the tree.

"What are you doing, Jasper?" She asked. Collette was on the ground, bare feet and perfectly okay. Jasper let out a sight of relief.

"Jasper!" He froze and shook away the memory.

"Jeez dude, you space out more than I do. And Edward said my mind's like TV static, so that says a lot." She said, jumping onto another tree. She almost fell, but her magic steadied her.

"Wait...you heard that?" He asked. "Yeah. I was tuning in, I have advanced hearing too. Vampires aren't all special, you know." She rolled her eyes playfully, letting her legs hang off the branch as she tried to do sit-ups upside down.

"Is that like a wizard thing?"

"Heightened senses." She said, proudly, "And vision, but it's obviously not as good at vampires. We don't need it to survive like you guys do." She explained. Now that Jasper thought about it, he wondered why there were so little sorcerers, they were too overpowered.

"Shit." She cursed, "I'm almost late for training. Dad's gonna kill me if I don't make it in time again. I gotta go." She said. Marceline let herself down on the grass. She flickered to his lips, and before he could react she had kissed him again. Jasper grabbed a fistful of her hair and deepened the kiss. She forced back a small moan that almost escaped her lips.

"Come by tomorrow morning. Don't be late!" She warned playfully, kissing his cheek again. Jasper laughed, "Of course not, darlin'."

And with that, the two of them parted ways for that night.