Almost Human | Jasper Hale

Part 2: Chapter 3

Meg had responded to Jasper. Two hours ago. But now she stood at the sink, scrubbing the dirty dinner plates a little too violently as she glanced every so often at her phone.

"Slow down there superwoman. Those are my favorite plates:" Bob adjusted the glasses balancing on the tip of his nose.

Meg broke eye contact with her phone and looked to the plate in her hands and then Bob. She realized what she was doing and set down the sponge, rinsing the plate off one more time before placing it on the counter. "Sorry Grandpa... just expecting a text:"

"From that Jonathan boy right?" Bob wiped under his nose with a handkerchief before stuffing it back into his jean pocket.

"Jasper Grandpa, Jasper... and yes." Meg dried her hands off with the towel hanging off the side of the sink. Bob began rambling on about men being stupid and how if Jasper didn't respond then Bob would give him a piece of his mind. Meg half paid attention to his talking as her green eyes moved back to her cell phone, passing the window as they went.

She paused there for a mere second as she glanced back up at the window where she saw a figure in the distance. "I have to go Grandpa. I'll be back soon, goodnight." Meg picked up a towel and dried her hands off as she leaned in and kissed her Grandfather on the cheek.

"Alright then... goodnight." Bob said with a confused look. As Meg walked towards the back door and could hear bob mumble "Teenagers..."

Meg shook off the joking mumble as she was caught up in chasing down the familiar figure that began backing into the woods. Once she reached the edge of the trees, she saw nothing. She went against all horror movie knowledge and decided to walk further into the woods, just a little more.

The outside lights of her house barely touched the tree branches where she stood. Wind whipped against the trees which was the only sound she heard until something appeared beside her.

She jumped with a gasp before turning to face the being with her hand over her quick beating heart.

"My apologies." Jasper wrapped a gentle hand around her wrist and lowered her arm, his hand moving down to intertwine his fingers with Megs. These would be the kind of mixed signals Jasper would give, leading Meg to believe that they really were more than friends.

"Everything ok? I thought Bella's party was tonight." Meg tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and struggled in the dim moon light to see the outline of his face.

Jasper let go of her hand and retracted. As if he remembered something that made him seem afraid of Meg...or himself. He had yet to answer her question.

"Jasper...you don't look ok. What happened?" Meg asked, attempting to step forward, but stepping back when Jasper seemingly flinched at her movements.

"This was never a good idea." Jasper still dodged Meg's questions, answering them on his own time.

"What do you mean by 'this'?" Meg crossed her arms, beginning to get defensive and fearing the worst. One of her hands reached up to fiddle with the 'J' charm that still hung around her neck.

"Us. All of us. Edward, Bella, you, me."

Meg furrowed her brows. She had a hard time trying to decipher why on earth her and Jasper's friendship would have anything to do with his brother and Bella. She opened her mouth to ask 'what happened' a third time, but barely spoke before Jasper gently raised his hand to motion for her to stop.

"My apologies. I didn't mean that." He paused, eyes trailing from the sticks on the forest floor to her eyes. Her bright green eyes that held concern for him. He couldn't bear to look at them more than a couple of seconds. "There was an accident. Bella got a paper cut and I- I sort of, almost, killed her. It was too much and proved to me that I'm not ready to be here. To be around people."

"But Jasper- she's alright isn't she? It was just an accident you know it was wrong. It's not your fault." Meg's arms dropped to her sides as she glanced suddenly into the woods. "Emmett I know you're there."

Emmett emerged from the shadows with an awkward, misplaced grin on his face. "Sorry. Jasper asked me to come in case-" Jaspers eyes alone told him to shut up. "Nevermind. I'll just go back where I was." Emmett turned and walked back behind the tree he was previously standing at.

"Wait, wait. Jasper what does this mean then? What are you saying?" Meg's voice raised with an upset urgency. Deep down she knew exactly what he was meaning to say. She just didn't want to accept it.

"I'm leaving. We all are. We're moving away."

"Over one small incident?" Meg ran a hand through her hair before resting it on her forehead. She was now the distressed looking one as she stared at the ground, trying hard to ignore the watering from her eyes.

"It wasn't one small incident. I snapped. I said I'm not ready to be around anyone and I'm not! If something happened to Bella or if it would've been you I-" Jasper stopped, collecting his own thoughts as he turned his focus to lightening the tension.

Meg felt a little more content than she did before, her mind too busy with trying to understand everything to even notice what Jasper was doing.

"Are you going to come back?" The last question of hope escaped Meg's lips, but in her heart she knew the answer. The answer that was confirmed when Jasper shook his head, his once elegant golden curls moving solemnly back and forth. He couldn't even bring himself to talk again, his own eyes dampening at the thought of what he had to do.

Meg sighed and reached a hand around the front of her necklace. She began to pull on the chain until she felt Jaspers hand on hers. "Keep it. Please."

After a moment of thought, she lowered her hand from the chain of the necklace and wrapped her arms around Jaspers waist. He rested his chin on the top of her head and moved his fingers lightly through her wavy brown hair.

Meg was the one to break off the hug, beginning to try and repress how upset she was. She's used to hiding her feelings for the sake of other people anyways. She used her shirt sleeves to clean any tears that made their way down her face and bit her bottom lip in an attempt to prevent any more. "You know... I was really hoping we could've been like them. Like Bella and Edward. I never knew if you were ready... but I was." Jasper grew silent as he swayed back and forth on his feet, concentrating to much to decide what to say.

Emmett emerged from his spot again, almost teary eyed as well. He pulled Meg into a hug, lifting her off the ground. She had to admit that big teddy bear gave really good hugs. A little bone crushing, but good. "I'll miss you all you know." She mumbled in a lower voice, knowing the vampires could hear her no matter how silent she was.

"I'll miss you too, human." Emmett was definitely almost crying now as he set Meg back down. He backed up before running off into the woods in the direction of the Cullen's house.

Jasper hesitated to leave. He turned to walk away before pivoting and walking to Meg one more time. He moved her hair behind her ear and leaned close to her face. Meg could feel his lips briefly brush against hers before she turned her face away. Instead, Jasper moved to kiss her on her forehead, pained by her reaction to his advance. A final goodbye. Seconds after, both of the vampires were gone along with the happiest memories Meg had made.

A/N Hello friends. Holy shit there's a lot of reads now. I'm sorry it's so late, school is a bitch and so is COVID. I hope you guys are doing well! Feel free to leave comments about anything you need to talk about! Love always- M