Now You See Me [Jasper Hale story]

XXIX. Priceless View

I decided to take the fate in my hands, by asking the nice, Italian woman to lend me a map of Volterra city and its surroundings. The woman - Mrs. Donati, as she introduced herself - gave it to me, glad that there was finally someone who showed an interest for her help. She also graced me with her knowledge of the public transportation, leading me to the nearest bus stop. Mrs. Donati pointed up that there was a huge celebration of the Saint Marcus Day taking place in the city centre. I acted as if it was an interesting news that I had had no idea about. The truth was nonetheless, that I was well aware of it, since the Cullens wouldn't stop discussing it back in Alaska, as the primar reason for Edward's departure for Volterra. The egoistic, selfish exhibitionist of a man had been well aware of the fact that there would be crowds of people in Volterra on that very day, and therefore, he would get a great opportunity to show his body to the public.

The crucial question was, where Edward planned to implement the whole theatre, and when. The time was a pretty easy issue to deal with. I hadn't forgotten to check the smart Accuweather back in the hotel, in order to find out when exactly the sun would reach the highest point on the sky, in the Southern part of Italy. According to the metheorological web site, the exact time was assumably 12.03, which meant I had about twenty minutes to get there in time.
Finding the right place was a bit harder. Fortunately, I had Mrs. Donati's map with me, which showed me that there was a castle right in the middle of Volterra's square. And where else would a bunch of Italian lunatic-like vampires dwell in? Pitch, potch, castle wins the lottery!

Bringing the map closer to my eyes, I started searching for the last bus stop, that was supposed to be the closest one to the centre of the old part of the city. The rest of the journay to the castle, I would have to walk. My eyes automatically lowered to my feet, in order to check on which of my dearest shoes I had decided to wear that day. Consequentally, I found out that of all those comfortable babies I had packed, I picked the most uncomfortable, high-heeled ones. Cursing quietly, I wondered what the hell made me pick the shoes I hated most. The answer occured to me sooner than expected - Jasper Hale.

God, damn it! My primar intention in the morning - before the whole argument started and destroyed the day for me - was to impress him. Why? Well, every time I was around him, I had these "I-don't-think-I'm-good-enough-for-you" issues. I managed to get reconciled with the fact, that I wasn't going to be as fast or as strong as him any time soon so far, however, I was unable to accept the possibility that Hale would actually leave me for my not being... uhm... attractive enough. Moreover, considering that I had refused to sleep with him (which I was starting to regret slowly, because only God knew if he would still want to sleep with me, after my having lied to him again), I had to make him long for me every single day. And the easiest way to make a man long for a woman was wearing short skirts, short tops and high-heeled shoes. Easy, simple, efficient.

The tourists on the bus started to cramm themselves towards the doors when the driver stopped the bus. That was why I assumed this was the last bus stop.
Luckily, it soon came out that the distance between the bus stop and the castle was very short. But on the bare two hundred meters, there were two millions of people, who were trying to get themselves as close to the main square as possible. I literally had to make my way through the crowds by pushing people away with my elbows.

"Urgh, excuse me!" I exclaimed, when an old lady with a stick got in my way. She ignored me, for which I started blaming Italian pride and inability to speak English. I managed to avoid her, which, nevertheless, made me bump into someone else. It was a tall woman with sun glasses, as I found out soon. That alone was actually pretty odd, since the crash was incredibly hard; as if bumping into a... wall.
In the very moment, my heart started beating faster and heavier. All I was capable of thinking in that moment was: "Geez, not again!" It was like having a déja-vu, really. The same, cursed event had just happed again and I was sure that I managed to bump into a vampire. Sadly though, this time, it was not an exceptionally hot, intelligent, adorable guy with an infuriating need to change people's moods.