Turning Page - A Jasper Hale story

Chapter Five

"Here you go, Chief Swan," Jude smiled at the man, placing his meal before him. He smiled up at her, placing his newspaper down beside him, picking up his knife and fork. 

"Thanks, darlin'," Charlie leaned back in his chair as he began to speak again, "you been down to La Push recently?"

Jude smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "I haven't been down in the past couple weeks with the weather being so awful, but, yeah - I tend to go down every few days or so when I can. Paul usually sends me stupid text messages every couple days too."

She had began to visit the reservation more often if she wasn't working and the weather was mild, taking her school work down to the beach with her. The Cullens had been playing on her mind more often than not. Their sudden reluctance to speak with her causing confusion and hurt. Sam and Paul would often join her at the beach, the three of them helping each other with school work or discussing their days. 

The boys noticed immediately Jude's low mood, eyes shining with concern.

"There's a group of new kids at my school," Jude mentioned, after Edward had not attended school for those three days. Sam and Paul exchanged a knowing glance, before raising their eyebrows to Jude as a gesture to continue. "They were my friends at first, I think..." she mumbled, looking away from the two boys as disappointment clouded her features, "but now they won't speak to me."

Paul placed his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. "You've got Jess, and Ang, and Mike and Eric..." Paul mumbled, secretly sending thankful eyes in Sam's direction - glad that the Cullen's had been smart enough to back off. Smart enough not to risk the treaty. 

"And you guys?" Jude asked, lifting her head from Paul's shoulder to look to look at Sam too. The boy nodded, smiling sweetly.

Chief Swan smiled. 

"Good,' he nodded to himself, happy. "You seen the Uley boy recently?" his eyebrows furrowed slightly as he mentioned Sam.

"Just the last time I was down at the Res, sir," she smiled, "he's a very good friend of mine."

Charlie's eyebrows crumpled even further, if possible. Concern danced in his eyes. He was hoping he wasn't the one to have to tell her, but it looked like nobody else had had the chance to.

"He's sick, Judey, got mono or something," Charlie told her, watching as concern coated her features.

It had started to rain the last time she had seen him, but she insisted that they danced in the rain - pushing each other into the shallows of First Beach in La Push. She began to analyse the memory, thinking over every minute of her last visit with Paul and Sam. He had looked tired - was that a symptom? He had felt very warm too - was a high temperature a symptom? 

Jude's hands began to shake as the weight of her own blame began to sit on her shoulders. 

"Wow, wow, wow," Charlie took her hand in his, thumb stroking the back of his hand, "he'll be fine, Old Quil says it's common on the Res, they know what they're doing."

Jude nodded, resolving to visit Sam's house with a takeout box of his favourite cake after her shift.

***

"I'm sorry Jude, my love," Sam's mother, Allison, crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned against the doorframe of her house. She smiled sympathetically at the girl in front of her before continuing, "he's just too sick right now."

Jude's shoulders slumped, but she nodded nonetheless, accepting that Sam needed rest if he was going to get better.

"Can you at least give him this?" she asked, handing his mother the slice of berry cobbler she had packaged up before leaving work that evening. Allison nodded, taking Jude's cheek into the palm of her hand, stroking her cheek lightly.

"I'll make sure he texts you as soon as he feels better."

***

"I don't know what to tell you Jude," Paul shrugged, concern swimming in his eyes. "He won't speak to anyone, has his mom standing guard at the door. Only people he'll see are the council leaders, but don't bother asking them, they won't tell us anything either." 

The bitterness in his tone was overshadowed by the pain in his eyes. 

"Why is everyone ignoring me at the minute?" Jude asked, shoulders slumping as she sat on Paul's bed. 

"What am I?" Paul asked incredulously, "chopped liver?"

He sat beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling a face and sticking his tongue out at her.

"Apart from you, Pauly," she smirked, knowing he hated the nickname.

"I'd rather be chopped liver than hear you call me that again."

***

Edward came back to school on the fourth day. But Jude made no effort to speak to him. She could take a hint, after all. 

"You're not even going to ask him where he's been?" Angela asked, furrowing her eyebrows - that was very unlike Jude. Jude shook her head, avoiding the eyes of her friends.

Edward and his family avoiding her had caused a pain in her chest, although she wasn't quite sure why - she'd only known them a few days for God's sake. The only interaction she received from the pale bunch was sympathetic glances from Emmett, who looked desperate to comfort her. 

She had made eye contact a few times with the boy that had intrigued her on their first day, but his face was impassive - Jude couldn't work him out, so she stopped trying to.

Jasper was drawn to her emotional turmoil. He wondered why she was so upset, why she was struggling so much with the distance. The way he and his siblings were drawn to her confused him. It wasn't in a bloodlust type of manner - not at all. They all agreed, albeit Rosalie was hesitant, that they felt the desire to be near her whenever she was close.

As Edward sat beside her in homeroom, his still heart wept for the thoughts running through her mind. Of how undesired she felt - just platonically. He wished he had never spoke to her in the first place, to avoid all of this pain for both of them.

As the bell rang, Jude stood and began to follow her friends out of the classroom. The halls outside the classroom were packed but Edward kept his eyes on the back of Jude's head the whole way to Calculus. There were too many voices swirling in his head to narrow into anyone in particular, and so curiosity burned in his stomach.

As she rounded a corner, Edward lost sight of her for a moment and the torment in his mind disappeared - only for seconds.

As he rounded the corner, Jude was on the floor, scrambling to pick up her books and papers. 

Jasper did the same.

As they looked up to each other, in order to apologise, their eyes met.

Jude found herself speechless. She thought he was stunning, and the sweet, lopsided, apologetic smile on his face only cemented her belief.

Jasper was just as stunned. He never took this route to his next class, but something had called him to today. She had called him too. He knew immediately what this meant - this girl, this poor human girl, was his mate.

"Sorry," she mumbled, still admiring his features, "I - I wasn't looking where I was going, I'm so sorry."

Jasper placed his hand on top of hers and shook his head.

"It's alright," he mumbled, "let me get your books for you."