Devotion ~ A Jasper Hale Story

Chapter Five

Adeline's classes that day were uneventful. She talked to Alice in art, listened to Jessica go on about prom during lunch, and struck up small conversations with Jasper, Alice, and Rosalie during history. As she was leaving school that day, she saw Bella already waiting by their truck.

"Hey, Bells, did you end up talking to Edward?"

"Yeah," her sister responds. "But I didn't confront him or anything. He actually talked to me today and seemed... nice?"

"Well that's good, isn't it," Adeline asked. Before she could respond, the girls heard a screeching sound getting louder and louder. They looked over to see Tyler barreling towards them in his van, a panicked look on his face. Bella and Addie had no time to react. Before they knew it, he was about to hit them. The next thing Addie knows, she is looking into a blond boy's golden eyes. She realizes she's being held by Jasper, who has his hand out against the van, which now has two large dents in it. Adeline can see in her peripheral that Edward was holding Bella with his hand stretched out, too. Before either of the girls could take in what had happened, the two boys let them go and disappeared into the crowd that was starting to form. Then, the screaming began.

"Are you okay?"

"Are you hurt?"

"What happened?"

"Somebody call 911!"

The girls look over towards the rest of the Cullen clan, and see disappointment and disapproval etched across their faces. Addie can just barely see concern as well, which she understands is only for her, not her sister.

Charlie barges in through the doors to the hospital room.

"Bells, Addie, are you alright?"

"We're fine, dad," Addie starts.

"Calm down," Bella finishes for her.

"I'm so sorry, guys, I tried to stop," Tyler began to say.

"It's okay, Tyler."

"No, Addie, it sure as hell is not okay. We nearly lost you two. You can kiss your license goodbye," he says as he glares at Tyler.

"I heard the chief's daughters were here."

The girls look over to see a young man, who shared the same golden eyes and pale skin as the rest of the Cullen clan.

"I've got this one, Jackie," he says as he heads over. "You've both got nice knots growing on the backs of your heads, but no signs of anything more serious like a concussion."

"It would've been a lot worse if Edward and Jasper hadn't been there," Bella says. Addie can feel the unease from Dr. Cullen as she says that.

"Your boys?" Charlie asks.

"Yeah," Addie buts in. "We were just really lucky, I guess." She notices the doctor send her a flicker of a smile in return.

As they leave the room, Charlie mentions that he has to finish some paperwork, tells the girls to call Rene, and walks away.

"You call her, Bella, you know you're her favorite."

"Okay, okay," Bella starts, but before the girl could dial her mother's number, she hears arguing down the hall.

"This isn't just about you, it's about all of us-"Addie can hear Rosalie say.

The girls turn the corner and look down the hall. There they see Dr. Cullen, Rosalie, Jasper, and Edward all arguing. Adeline looks at Jasper. Even though he looked anxious as hell, she couldn't help but admire him. Dr. Cullen then took notice of the girls.

"Let's take this in my office."

Rosalie glares at Edward and Bella, her gaze softening more at Jasper, and even more as she looks at Adeline. Addie watched as Bella approaches Edward, both of them stepping away for a moment, leaving Jasper and Adeline in the hall alone.

"Hey," Adeline begins. "Thank you for saving me."

"Anytime, Addie." God I love his accent. "Listen-"

"No, I want to go first."

The boy seemed startled by the interruption, but let her continue.

"I need you to know how grateful I am, really. It was strange, and I know that. As curious as I am to how you both did that, I don't want to start problems for you and your family. And I most certainly don't want Rosalie upset with me, there's no way I could take her in a fight."

Jasper smiled.

"I want to make it clear to you guys that I'm not Bella. She isn't going to give up until she knows how you both did that, so be prepared."

Jasper didn't seem to have expected this reaction from her. He probably thought that she would be hot on his trail, looking for any sort of clue as to how that had happened, but Adeline valued her new friendships too much to risk them over this. No matter how curious she was about whatever the hell had happened, she knew it was something that she shouldn't meddle in. Addie didn't want to give the Cullens a reason to hate her, and she sure as hell wanted to make sure she stayed close to Jasper.

"Please tell your family not to worry about me. I won't pry. You might want to tell Edward to watch out for Bella, though. As mush as I love her..."

Jasper nodded, a small smile flickering across his face.

"Of course, Addie. Thank you for understanding."

With that, Addie walked away and found Bella, who had just finished her conversation with Edward. Judging from Bella's facial expressions and attitude, what Adeline had shared with Jasper was spot on.