Friends - Jasper Hale

partners?

         When I walked into my first period history class this morning I made sure to keep my smile on my face no matter what. I couldn't let people know that I was pathetic and broken. Instead I was going to do exactly what I had told Jasper yesterday and pretend that nothing ever happened.
"Good morning darlin," Jasper said as I sat down beside him. He's gotta stop using that stupid name before people start getting the wrong idea.
"Good morning Jasper," I replied trying not to seem too tense. I was gladly saved from having a short and awkward conversation with him when Mr. Mendoza surprisingly started teaching class on time today.
            "Okay class, I'm gonna cut straight to the chase," Mendoza said with a grin, "in order to meet the state requirements for this advanced history class, I'm forced to make you all get into groups of two and create a 10 minute presentation about the civil war, which you'll then be required to teach and explain to the rest of the class." I physically felt my heart drop at his words. Who the fuck would I partner up with? I don't think that I even knew anyone but Jasper and Mr. Mendoza here.
         "I took it upon myself to save you the the trouble of having to find your own partners and already have u matched up with someone. When I call your names, please go ahead and change seats to sit by your partner. I will give you guys the rest of today to work on your presentation, but you'll have to make sure to make some plans to meet up with your partner in your free time to get this presentation finished on time, since today will be the only day that I'll be giving you class time to work on it." I felt a little more relieved about this whole thing after being told that I wouldn't have to go out of my way to find a partner. I would've ended up begging Mendoza to let me do it on my own if that would've been the case. Nobody would've wanted to do it with me anyways.
             "Okay, so first off we have Jasper and Camila," Mendoza said as he gave us a small smile, "I guess you guys got lucky on not having to move around to sit at a different seat." I, however, felt anything but lucky in that moment. I felt my fake smile drop as I froze in my seat. I wasn't the only one who felt this way about our partnership since Jasper seemed to tense up beside me as well.
             "I'll get the project done on time to present it so don't worry about having to do it with me," Jasper said to me in a harsh whisper. How could he even think that I'd be okay with not doing any of the work? Did he think that I was too stupid to do a 10 minute presentation on the civil war? My face grew hot as I felt the anger basically radiate off of me. Goddamn I fucking hated him much more than I've ever hated anyone else. And what happened to his friendly attitude that he had not even 5 minutes ago. Fucking bipolar asshole.
"Absolutely not," I huffed, "I know that you don't consider me to be your favorite person, and trust me when I say that you're not exactly mine either, but we unfortunately need to do this project together. So you can either talk to Mr. Mendoza about changing partners, or you can put on your big boy pants and cooperate. Goddamn bro, it's not that deep." Jasper looked at me with a shocked expression on his face. I admit that I surprised myself too with my outburst, since I'm usually pretty good at hiding when I'm upset, but he made me so mad to think that he could do whatever he wanted without considering about who he was hurting in the process.
"Fine," he mumbled, "do you want to come to my house after school to work on it then?"
"Sure," I agreed with a forced smile, "I'm glad to see you chose to stop being such a drama queen."
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Fast forward to the end of day where I was stuck waiting in the parking lot for Jasper to show up so he could give me directions to his house. I eventually grew tired of people watching and decided to catch up with The Vampire Diaries on Netflix, so I pulled out my phone and earbuds but before I could even make it past the introduction, I was unfortunately met with Jasper walking up to where I was leaning against my truck.
"Don't tell me you actually like to watch that junk?" Jasper laughed as he caught a glimpse of what I considered to be the best tv show in all of existence. Oh so now he wanted to act all playful with me after expressing just how much he hated me this morning? Whatever. It's not like I could do anything to fix his horribly bipolar personality.
"Of course. Hot vampires make for amazing television ," I said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"So what I'm hearing is you have a thing for vampires?" Jasper asked me with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Not ALL vampires genius," I answered, "only the hot ones who look like they wanna kill me and make out with me at the same time. THAT'S where things get interesting." Jasper's mood immediately changed as I said this and he went from playfully teasing me into being an annoying bitch again like this morning.
"You're ridiculous," he said with no hint of humor in his voice, "let's just hurry up and head to my sisters car so she can drive us to my house to get this meaningless project over with." What a fucking dick.
"You're crazy if you think I'm getting in your sisters car with you when I literally drove to school in my own truck," I scoffed, "I'll just drive behind you guys." There was no way I was getting in some strangers car, especially with what had happened with Bella yesterday. I'm convinced that the incident had only made me more strict about my driving rule.
"Why do you have to be so difficult Camila?" He asked with a tight lipped frown, "If you don't get into our car, then I guess I'm driving with you. My sister drives kinda fast so you'll never be able to keep up."
"Fine," I replied, "but don't get used to driving with me. It's a once in a lifetime thing since I don't want my car to permanently smell like you. You're REALLY lucky that Bella had to stay home today or else it wouldn't be happening at all."
"Yeah I'm definitely lucky," Jasper hummed giving me a playful eye roll as we both climbed into my truck. Again with the switching up? I didn't know how much longer I could take with his random mood swings. They were driving me fucking insane.
"So what is it with you and being so damn bipolar all the time?" I snapped, a bit harsher than I had originally intended, "first you act like you can't stand being next to me and then you start teasing me as if we've been friends for years. I don't understand it." Jasper looked at me with a weird expression on his face that I couldn't quite identify.
"I didn't know I bothered you so much darlin," he replied softly with a little smirk growing on his face, "I don't have the best communication skills, as you've noticed, so sometimes I just don't realize that I'm coming off as rude until it's too late. I promise you that I don't hate you, though. I definitely don't hate you." I ignored the way my heart skipped a beat when he said this and also tried hard to ignore the small blush that was growing on my cheeks. I'm seriously so pathetic for letting the things he says affect me like this.
"Well it's good news that you don't find me insufferable," I joked, "especially since we're stuck being partners for the next few weeks. And I totally get where you're coming from. I'm not the most social butterfly either so I understand not being able to control what you say sometimes."
"Yeah I've noticed that you don't really like to talk to anyone apart from Bella," he laughed, "which I find so weird since everyone seems to love you. You get to enjoy being a lone wolf without any real judgement, while everyone seems to think I'm a weirdo." I knew he was kidding, but I couldn't help but to flinch a little bit when I heard the slight bitterness behind his words.
"Yeah, but I'm sure they only call you a weirdo out of jealousy for not being able to hang out with any of the 'magnificent Cullens'" I said trying to ease a bit of the tension, "I mean, the amount of times that I've heard people call you and your family the hottest ones at our school is insane, so they definitely don't ACTUALLY mean it when they refer to you guys as weirdos. Everyone's just mean and bitter." I could've sworn I saw Jasper's smile grow a little bit more, and It made me give him a genuine smile back. I didn't understand the effect that he had on my emotions, but I honestly didn't even care that I wasn't really able to hide my true feelings around him. It was honestly a little liberating.
"So what I'm hearing is that you think I'm the hottest guy at our school," he smirked. What a cheeky bastard.
"That is actually not at all what I said you asshole," I laughed. "I'm definitely shutting up now before I unknowingly keep feeding your already dangerously high ego." I turned up the the radios volume, where , fortunately for me, a Lizzy McAlpine song was playing. I was too distracted when I had gotten in the car with Jasper that I had forgotten to connect my Bluetooth and was now relying on the random shuffle of songs that the radio channel was spitting out.
He laughed at my actions, "nooo Camila! I like talking to you! How are we supposed to continue our conversation about me being the hottest guy alive now?!?!" He exclaimed dramatically. I tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach when he said that he liked talking to me. I mean, he was just a stupid teenage boy. Why should I care what he thinks about me?
"And that is exactly why you lost talking privileges," I said trying to keep a serious expression on my face, which was almost near impossible with him, "now shut the fuck up and let me enjoy my music."
"You're too cruel to me my darlin," he replied with a fake frown. I could only laugh and roll my eyes at him. Hopefully he doesn't randomly switch up on me again. I happened to really like this version of Jasper. Carefree and funny.
After listening to a few more songs we finally made it made to Jasper's house, and I would lying to myself if I said that I didn't feel extremely nervous while walking through the front door.
"My family can be a bit intense, but they mean well so don't let them scare you away," he whispered lightheartedly. I gave him a small smile and nod, unable to verbally reply since I felt so out of place there already. If only he knew that I was the one who was afraid of scaring them away. I sometimes gave people the impression that I was fake, since I tended to smile and joke around with everyone. And I don't know what it was about the Cullens, but something inside of me made me feel as if I really needed to make a good impression.
"You must be Camila," a short pixie haired brunette exclaimed as Jasper and I walked into his living room. I was immediately engulfed in a hug by her, which I knew to be Alice thanks to Jessica. Normally I hated when people touched me, especially when they gave me hugs, but I strangely didn't really mind Alice giving me one. I hugged her back in order to avoid making this situation more tense and awkward than I felt it was going to be. She was surprisingly very strong for her small and petite size. I felt like, if she really wanted to, she could literally break me in half.
"That's enough Alice," Jasper huffed, clearly annoyed with his sister, "no need to make her uncomfortable."
"No it's fine!" I intervened, "I really don't mind hugs. Its a sign of friendship and I find them to be really sweet." I gave Jasper a small smile, a little relieved with the newly found knowledge that he was trying to make sure I was comfortable.
"I can tell we're going to be great friends," Alice told me with a wide smile. I grinned back at her, not really knowing what to say in return.
"Its nice to meet you Camila," a tall blonde man said coming into the living room to greet us, "my names Carlisle and this is my wife Esme." He gestured to the beautiful woman that was standing behind him giving me a warm smile.
"Hi Camila," Esme greeted, "I hope my son isn't causing you too much of a headache." I loved this woman already even though I had only barely met her. I'm glad to know that it wasn't just me that Jasper treated like shit occasionally. It reassured me that maybe he truly did lack certain communication skills and he didn't actually hate me.
"Alright, well I'll be taking Camila to my room before you guys scare her out the door," Jasper said as he grabbed my hand to lead me up the stairs towards his bedroom. The first thing I noticed was the shocking cold temperature of his touch. It can't be healthy to have hands that are as cold as his. However, I couldn't really ponder on that for too long after I realized that he was holding my hand.
"It was nice meeting you all," I stuttered following Jasper with a wide grin plastered across my face, completely oblivious to the fact that I was a blushing mess.
Jaspers room was actually incredibly clean, which I found very unusual for a teenage boy, but what I found even weirder than his clean room was his lack of a bed. All he had was a small couch and shelves stacked to the brim with books and cds.
"Where the fucks your bed at man?" I asked trying to conceal the disappointment I felt when he let go of my hand.
"I used to share a bunk bed with Edward when we were little and when I got my own room a few years ago, I refused to sleep in it without him," he answered with a shy smile creeping onto his face, "so Esme let us continue to share a room but she agreed to let me keep this one in order to give me and Edward our privacy.
"Well that's fucking adorable," I responded, "me and Bella were exactly the same way, and it wasn't until we moved back to forks that we now have our own room. It is a weird feeling, though, having so much privacy now and not being able to have deep conversations with her in the middle of the night." Jasper laughed at this and it made me feel good to have been the one to make him do it.
"Well darlin," he said, "if you ever need someone to talk to in the middle of the night to have your 'deep conversations' with, feel free to give me a call cause I'd love to hear what you have to say. I like listening to your voice." My knees literally felt like they were going to give out from under me. I was cooked. I didn't know when he started being so bold, but I couldn't say that it bothered me too much.
"Oh of course," I replied as I made my way to the couch trying my hardest to hide the effect that he had on me, "you'll be the first one I call to have deep conversations with now cowboy."
"Cowboy?" He questioned with a faint smile growing on his face.
"Yes." I said seriously, "if you can call me darlin all the time, then it's only fair that I call you something back in return. Cowboy seemed to fit you the best with your southern accent."
"Whatever you say darlin," he said, giving me a small wink. I, once again, ignored the giddy feeling in my stomach and quickly turned our attention to the project that we had to finish. However, me and Jasper kept getting sidetracked with our conversations and only managed to finish the introduction slide by the time I had to go home.
"Well I can't say that hanging out with you today was the worst experience that I've had," I said jokingly as he walked me outside to my truck.
"Be careful with what you say to me darlin or I might start to get the impression that you actually like me," he said giving me his ever famous smirk.
"Oh please Jas," I rolled my eyes at him. My smile never leaving my face, "the day I like you will be the day I find out that Damon Salvatore is actually a real person. Which, in other words, means never."
"Oh how you love to wound my pride Camila," Jasper said to me as he dramatically put his hand over his heart, "I guess I can always count on you to keep me humble."
"Of course you can cowboy," I replied returning the wink that he gave me when we first got to his house. "I'll make sure to humble you even more tomorrow, since we'll unfortunately be forced to spend the whole day together on the field trip."
"I can't wait Camila," Jasper replied as I got in my truck to go home. And I swear that I went to sleep that night with same smile stuck to my face.