Friends - Jasper Hale

jasper hale

"Do I smell bad to you?" Bella asked me as we walked across the school parking lot to our truck.
"No of course not," I replied a little confused by her question, " I would've told you if you did."
"Well Edward Cullen seemed to think I reeked when I sat by him in biology today."
"What a fucking dick. Did he tell you that you smelled bad?" I asked with rising anger in my voice. What was it about the Cullens and thinking that they could treat everyone around them like shit? First Jasper and now Edward? I concluded that they must all be horrible egotistical bullies. That's probably the reason why they kept to themselves, because nobody else could tolerate their shitty behavior.
           "No, but he was pretty tense and kept trying to cover his nose during class today. He made it quite obvious that he thought I was the problem." Bella huffed with frustration.
            "Unbelievable. I fucking hate the Cullens," I exclaimed unable to contain the disgust in my voice. "Let's just agree to ignore them as much as possible so they stop making us feel so inferior." Bella hummed in agreement as i drove us out of the parking lot. I literally prayed that I didn't have to see Jasper again tomorrow, but I knew that I was wishing for too much with that request. I'll just have to settle for putting in a bit more effort in hiding how much I disliked Jasper Hale and his stupid family.
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         As I walked into my history class the next morning with the same fake smile on my face, I was determined to not let Jasper's rude indifference get the better of me. It would be pathetic of me to allow a stupid teenage boy to make me feel like crap, so I refused to let him.
However, my plan didn't exactly go as I'd hoped when Jasper decided to talk to me.
         "Hello," he said with a ridiculously handsome grin laid out on his perfect face, "my name's Jasper Hale. I didn't really get the chance to introduce myself yesterday. I just find it pretty difficult to try and talk to other people, so I'm sorry if I offended you in any way." His pathetic excuse for his rudeness seemed to only fuel my anger, but I wasn't going to let him know that he was important enough for me to dislike. I mean, I also had a hard time talking to people but that didn't mean that  I had any right to treat anyone like shit just because I struggled to communicate with them.
         "Oh you're totally fine," I lied trying to keep my tone of voice as cheerful and carefree as I could, " I understand that some people just aren't too talkative. We're cool so don't even stress about it." I hoped that my response would've been enough for him to leave me alone until the bell rang, since I had just outright told him that it was perfectly okay if he didn't talk to me, but I guess he didn't seem to get the hint.
         "So how are you liking Forks so far?" Jasper asked me, unfortunately attempting to make small talk with me.
          "It's actually amazing. I really enjoy being back home with my uncle again," I said truthfully, but I really couldn't wait until this small talk conversation came to an end. There's no way that he actually cared about any of this, so I couldn't understand why he wanted to keep talking to me.
         "That's great, but how are you adjusting to the cold weather since you were so used to the scorching Arizona heat? I know that if I were you I'd be pretty bummed about having to leave such a warm and sunny place only to come where it's constantly cold, rainy, and gloomy." He said with a bit of bitterness in his voice that he tried to play off with a playful smile.
          "I mean I actually hated Arizona. I don't think I'm the type of person who's meant to happy in such a sunny place," I replied, accepting the fact that this conversation wouldn't be ending any time soon, "I was definitely meant to live in a cold and rainy place. The weather's actually one of the many appeals that come with living in Forks."
          "I don't think I've ever heard someone talk about the weather here in such a positive light," he laughed, "I'll make sure to ask you again in a few months to see if you're feelings have changed." Did I really make him laugh? And was he actually joking around with me right now? I could've sworn that he hated me not even 24 hours ago and now he wanted to act all friendly with me? What had changed? Even though I still wanted to punch him across the face for treating me like shit yesterday, I couldn't stop the giddy feeling in my stomach from happening since he actually wanted to talk to me today. I swear to god if this turns into some stupid crush, I'll personally chuck myself off of the highest cliff that I can find.
        "Okay class, I want you all to open your books to where we left off yesterday about the Civil War," Mr. Mendoza instructed, thankfully saving me from having to continue the conversation with the gorgeous bipolar freak sitting beside me. I gave Jasper a forced smile and pretended to pay attention to what Mr. Mendoza was saying unable to stop thinking about the discrete glances that Jasper kept sending my way. What was with him?
My classes seemed to pass by extremely slow today that by lunch time I quickly sent Bella a text to let her know that I'd be in the art room , since I didn't feel like I had the energy to fake an enthusiastic smile or have a friendly conversation with any of our newly found shitty friends. I had actually been working on painting a portrait of my mother over these last few weeks and my art teacher, Mrs. Shayla, told me that I could come in and paint in her classroom whenever I felt like I needed a break from the real world. I took her invitation quite seriously, and figured that I'd spend most of my free time in this tiny room. I loved painting more than life itself. It was the only way that I could express my true emotions without feeling guilty or ashamed of them. I let myself mindlessly fill in the empty spaces of my canvas until it was time to head to my next class. I couldn't wait until the day where I didn't spend most of my time stuck in a high school with gossipy entitled brats.
The rest of the school day was just as long as my morning had been and I couldn't help but feel a nervous knot in my stomach. I don't know what I had to be nervous about. It's not like there was anything interesting going on in my life right now that I had to be worried about. I gathered my things from my locker and immediately put my headphones on. There's no way I could manage walking through the crowded halls and parking lot without a distraction. As I walked over to where Bella was standing, waiting for me by the side of our truck, my nerves only seemed to be getting worse that not even music could stop the shakiness of my hands. I heard a loud screech and a high pitched scream, that I think was mine, after I realized what the intense nerves and anxious feeling was due to. A grey minivan had lost control in the parking lot and was heading full speed towards my cousin.
"BELLA NO!" I screamed as loud as I could as I started running over to her. This couldn't be happening. I couldn't lose her. Not like I lost my mom. How would Charlie feel? He would hate me even more than he does now, even though he pretends that he doesn't. Bella didn't deserve a death like this. I heard a crash before I could make it all the way to her and I immediately fell to my knees. It's like I had the wind knocked out of my lungs. I started shaking uncontrollably as tears blurred my vision. What point was there to life if I didn't have Bella? She was my sister. The other half of my soul. She was the one who picked up all of my broken pieces when my mom died and put me back together. I couldn't lose her. Not like this. I was such a mess in that moment that I didn't realize Bella standing up unharmed in the middle of the two vehicles. I felt two arms pull me up from the ground.
"Darling she's okay," said a soothing voice who I could only identify as Jasper in that moment, since I was too scared to open my eyes, "open you're eyes. Bella's fine." I listened to him and cautiously opened my eyes and as soon as I saw her I felt a relief so intense that it snapped me out of my panicked state and I ran to her as fast as my legs could take me.
"Bella oh my fucking god," I sobbed as I clutched onto her small figure refusing to let go in fear that she might disappear. "Never do that to me again do you understand." I didn't comprehend what she said in return, maybe because the relief I felt was blindly immense that I didn't care about anything or anyone around me apart from the fact that Bella was okay. The ambulance came a few short minutes after the whole disaster, and even though Bella wanted to refuse, I quickly dragged her onto the emergency vehicle before she could say no.
Once we got to the hospital I was basically pried off of Bella in order for them to give her a full check up, and to give me some medication to calm me down.
"Is it normal for you to shake so violently?" Asked the nurse who was trying to insert an IV in me to inject the medication.
"I do have a problem with being shaky when I'm nervous or anxious, but it's only ever been this bad one other time in my life and that was when my mom died in a car accident," I replied immediately feeling a new wave of grief as I imagined Bella in the same situation as my mom. Thankfully, the nurse somehow managed to get the needle in my arm to start pumping the brain numbing liquid into my system, and I immediately started to feel more relaxed. I wished that I could inject myself with this liquid everyday when I started to feel my shaky hands lose a bit of their control, but I knew that I wasn't able to control how I handled my emotions while I was on these type of drugs. And there's no way that I would ever let Charlie see how much I've been struggling lately.
After I was finally calm and relaxed enough to have control over my own body again I was released and allowed to go wait for Charlie and Bella in the waiting room. On my way there, though, I managed to run into the one and only Jasper Hale. I froze in my spot. The memory of Jasper picking me up from the ground and comforting me in my broken state all came crashing down on me.
"Hey darling," Jasper said in a kind and gentle voice, "how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine now," I replied a bit abruptly, ignoring the little pet name he called me, "thanks for helping me out today, but If you don't mind I'd like it if we forgot it ever happened." I was so embarrassed that he of all people was the one who saw me in such a broken state. I can't let Charlie find out about how much Bella's incident affected me today. It would crush him.
"Oh. Of course. Today never happened," he said with a tight lipped smile.
"Perfect. I'll see you tomorrow then in class," I breathed out in a harsher tone than I meant. It wasn't that I was trying to act like a bitch towards him, especially not after he showed me so much kindness in helping me today, but I just couldn't risk harming Charlie.