Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or the characters those rights belong to Stephanie Meyer.

A/N: I usually write in third person but I couldn't find Jasper's voice, therefore I figured to give it a try and rewrite this – it's JPOV, I hope that you like it. This won't be a long story but I want to share it anyways. It's unbetaed and probably really odd, short and whatever. Tell me what you think :')

- Soph

Chapter One

I let my fingers pluck a few notes that floated off in the cool night air. Trying to shut out the muffled screaming from behind me had become a second nature for me by now. The darkness was a security blanket, I had been sitting out here this way for years now. I was atop of my old, ratty truck, guitar in place and back propped against the cool windshield. I probably should have slung a jacket over my t-shirt but I couldn't be bothered. Not today.

There was one thing out of place, though. Something made the hair on my neck stand, I felt as if someone was studying me. Of course, it wasn't my parents because they were busy screaming at each other at the moment. The same shit as usual. Mom had probably downed the entire tequila bottle by now – although I had to admit that it had become a favorite of mine to.

I strummed a couple of notes from 'Bittersweet Symphony' but I really needed Alice's violin to make it fly. It was a favorite of hers and who was I to deny her that? I would make sure that she got to work up enough confidence to speak to that gangly, quiet boy who sulked around the halls as if he had something to be pissed about. The sucker lived in a mansion and his parents were disgustingly in love. Albeit that seeing them stumble out of a bathroom giggling in school junior year might have scarred him… I smirked and tipped my head back fully against the top of the roof.

Soundlessly, I mouthed the lyrics and let one leg slip down horizontal against the hood as another angry cry sliced through the air out to me. Every fucking night.

It's Thursday night and we just reached April, you would think that they had some spring feelings left for each other – everybody else was pairing up. It was like freaking Noah's Arc everywhere else, birds, squirrels and dears, pairing up. The Hales on the other hand, we were destined to be alone even in a marriage… that's not true, mom had her bottles and they kept her company every night… as for dad, he got his company from his… company. I snorted and shook my head minutely.

I wasn't planning on going inside anytime soon, this house was located in the puddle named Forks and at the moment, the roof was being lifted by sheer sound volume. Everybody knew about these screaming match because it had been going on for years and years. They were somewhat infamous. No secrets in this town, the Hales' marriage was more than troubled… nor was Isabella Hale's drinking problem or the fact that Mike Hale enjoyed a younger model than his wife every now and then. However, lately it had been more 'now' and not so much 'then' – most old bitches in this town even came up to me and told me about what a 'poor boy' I was with such unfortunate parents.

When these quarrels take place, I'm rather not in the house and therefore, I flee outside. The last thing I saw was my mother waving a half empty bottle at my father, wobbling slightly as she grasped the kitchen counter, she had makeup all over her face that once upon a time had been somewhat pretty. Dad had been glaring at her from the other side of the room, working up his courage to scream back. Apparently 'that filthy skanky whore' as my mother so eloquently put it, had forgotten a pair of more… intimate items of clothing in the car.

A heavy drop of rain splashed against my forehead but this wasn't unusual either, it wasn't much to do about. This was Forks. Of course it would be raining. When it got too heavy, I climbed into the dinosaur I got for my sixteenth birthday, but the bottom line is that I would rather freeze to death than go inside now. If I hid in my room – that I actually like a lot – mom would storm in with tears and thereby just move the fight in there since dad surely would follow… then they would want me to take sides.

"Just get divorced already…" I muttered the words to no one and moved on to 'Punk Rock Song' by Bad Religion. I was too slow and it sounded hollow without the help from Em and Al.

I have been hoping for a divorce since I was about nine, now at eighteen, it's more a suggestion than a wish.

The chill of the night was starting to bite, it slither down my body in a shiver… I need them to finish in there so I could go to sleep. At least the rain subsided and the clouds started to fade enough for the full moon to slip through. Everything around me looked like a black and white movie, shouldn't those be mute? Because the screaming surely didn't fit in.

I frowned as a light to my right came on, the house next to ours. Apparently it was since recently occupied, Al had been babbling about it for days now but I hardly cared, I just felt bad for the bastards because they wouldn't live in peace next to my house. Em had babbled about the new girl that came with the family, he had brought several magazines for comparison to her body. According to him, she was in possession of one of those voluptuous bodies that was a gift to earth… according to Emmett that is. She had been carrying a box inside and with that box, Emmett's heart went. I just hope for that suckers sake that it was on the way to her room and not knifes for the kitchen.

Emmett knew that I hardly cared if Marilyn Monroe would rise from the dead and move in, but this didn't prevent him from giving the most disturbing details his mind could muster. The 'fuck-me-backwards-stunning' girl was by all probability only half as gorgeous as he described because the time he told me about Lauren Mallory when we were fifteen, he had been far off base. I would never forget the disappointment on his face from the day he saw her for the second time. The poor bastard. I chuckled darkly and started on a song that had been swimming in my mind for days but I couldn't name yet… if it even had a name yet – I'm not sure.

I had been sitting in my own demure of a room when Emmett hurled himself through the door and flopped down in the midnight blue armchair that sat under the dormer window, after that he had flapped his mouth about everything I had missed under my day of suspension, but mostly the new addition to the puddle. A doctor – good luck catching any sleep from now on, a boy our age and of course, miss tight-ass herself.

I would much rather be in my room right now than outside because it's getting fucking cold. I sent a pointed glare towards the house again. My room is tucked away in the corner of our house, as far away as you can get from everybody else. The walls and carpet are deeply black and the details such as the bedspread and the armchair possessed a dark blue. Everything was dark and soulful – Alice had decorated it to fit me… and of course it did. All three of us had scribbled lyrics and poems on the walls in white pen, the sloping roof and even on the furniture. This was how we expressed ourselves, music and poems, when she had painted my room, Alice handed me a set of white pencils and told me to 'go wild'. It got more character for each year that passed since she had pouted until the renovation was approved. Now the effortless and mindless scribbling balanced out all the dark and especially since the text had been doodled everywhere in every angle and way – Emmett had even taken the liberty of writing about the new girl backwards on the windowsill today.

I know every word that has been written in the room as if it's a piece of my soul.

However, as Emmett went on and on about this future Mrs. McCarty, I couldn't help but feel resentful. I knew that I was a sullen piece of shit and by now, my mind was darker than the walls in my room, deeper than the words that clad my walls. Not only is Emmett and his twin Alice my best friends, they are also the only two people who truly knew me… knew about me.

The two of them had even been the ones to figure it out first when we turned fifteen, they had also thoroughly tested the theory against my will. I was thankful, of course… but the only two kisses of my life was delivered by my best friends in a test. Little tadpole Alice with her oversized, expressive eyes and then her brother Emmett with his impressive height and bulging muscles… neither of them had thought more of it once it had been established that I preferred Emmett's scruffy face over Alice's smooth skinned one. The only thing that proved that it had happened was the smug look on Em's face, as if he had won a contest and he even fist pumped the air and then slapped me on the back with the words, "I don't blame you, man. I'm a hot piece of ass."

After this, Alice had gone back to plucking on the guitar – one of the five that hung on my walls – and Emmett turned on the television to watch the latest game on repeat… myself, I had been sitting a bit stunned on my bed where they left me, out of my head confused about the last couple of minutes. Sure, Al had been a bit pissed until I confirmed that she was a great kisser, then she had simply shrugged with a grin and voiced the lyrics of "I Love Rock 'N' Roll".

I flinched, falling off the hood of the car, as my thoughts were shattered into pieces – just as the kitchen window. It was one of my dad's trophies that flew through the glass and it was probably my mom because Mike Hale would never toss those around carelessly. His youth was all he had. I didn't know what to do, my guitar hung from my hand as I stared at the hole she had made, the angry voices were now carrying out clearer than ever. The usual death threats and angry words cut through the last glimmer of piece that I had felt… it died completely as another trophy hit the remaining glass and landed in the damp grass with a muffled thud.

It didn't take a genius to figure out how this night would end… I would be the one person sober enough in the house to clean this up, my dad would be off in minutes and mom would pass out against a wall somewhere.

It didn't take a full minute after the second trophy before dad stomped out through the door, not even giving me a second look, and went across the lawn to his car and then drove off.

I shouldn't be shocked, nor should I be pissed. I knew all of this. But still, I stared agape after the car that tore out of it space by the pavement and quickly broke all the speed limits as it disappeared down the street. I took up my phone and the subtle glow of the display told me that it was after one-thirty in the morning, Friday morning… I could only guess where he was going.

I shuffled towards the door that had slammed shut behind him, I could smell the vomit and booze as soon as I hit the porch. As least the broken window would air it out, I noted bitterly and walked into the hallway, took a left and found my mother slumped against the fridge, bottle clutched against her chest and her eyes drooping. "Honey!" she slurred and waved the bottle halfheartedly at me. "Jay-man…" she rasped and I guessed that the cold air from the window was already affecting her throat. "He left, Jay-man. To fuck that whore from his office." I cringed, even though – again – it shouldn't take me by surprise.

I closed my eyes for a second to collect myself before I crouched by her side, stroking a strand of her long, brown hair from her face. Once, she had been beautiful, now she looked like a broken and worn doll, pale, dry skin that was stretched tightly over her face, deep shadows under her eyes and cracked lips.

She used to be known for her perfect skin, she had shy features, nothing extreme but she had been beautiful, small and pale with a dark contrast of brown hair and eyes. She was born a Swan in the literal fact but now she had turned into the ugly duckling. No matter how much my parents fight, I still got to hear about the fairytale that my parents used to be, the shy, invisible wallflower who was swept away and loved into pieces by the popular jock.

"If only people could see you now," I mumbled and gently pried the bottle from her death grip and carefully sat it on the floor as she gave off a snore.

I heaved a sigh and scooped her up, she had always been tiny but even four years ago when I was a skinny and underdeveloped fourteen year old, I was still able to carry her effortlessly to bed after she passed out somewhere in the house. I took her to their bedroom, tucked her in and tried to shut out the way she spoke in her sleep, this was a personality trait of hers and when I was little, I used to listen to her. I pretended that it was fairytales at first, when I got older, it was a code I tried to break as I fathomed myself an agent… now her drunken rambles were just as pathetic as her broken self. It was echoes of nonsense. Tonight was no different.

I touched my lips to her forehead and snagged the bottle of vodka off her bedside table, knowing well that she had more of them stuffed under her bed and in the table but it was better than nothing, and then left.

Now I only needed to clean up their mess.

«»

I pressed the heels of my palm against my eyes and sighed, I had gotten less than two hours of sleep last night, when I finally passed out on my bed, I had done so in my jeans and t-shirt, not even bothering to get under the covers. It was hard to shut out the shatter of the people around me. My peers had surprisingly little to talk about in school, the voices are buzzing around me as if it's celebrities that's started our school. Whispers are floating through the halls like tidal waves, leaving only that to speak of behind. Their voices rose as they thought the newbies were far away and then fell into whispers once the walked by.

I couldn't be more sick of it.

However, Emmett doesn't seem to be the only one swooning over the new girl. Her as was apparently 'smackable'. Disgusting, poor girl. Although, Alice said something about New Girl's brother being a fine specimen, too, so he would be starring every fantasy of the females by the end of this day.

I could only wish.

We were a pathetically close-knit little group, the three of us. We had been since kindergarten when Alice stalked up to me and hung herself around my neck, saying that I was her 'bestest friend in the whole world' and stared at me with those eyes of hers. She sounded so sure that I couldn't doubt that she was right, even if it was the first time I ever saw her. She came with an additional package of a boy who never walked anywhere, he ran even if it was to move two feet. When he sat, he jumped up and down or drummed. No wonder he got to be as huge as he is now, the man never sat still and finally got to spend his energy on the football field.

Honestly, I don't know what I would do without either of them. Alice was grumbling into her locker, for such an organized person, her locker was surprisingly cluttered and she was now clawing for her pink little pencil, the lucky one she stuck behind her ear. She needed it to 'pull her outfit together'. The London-style, rounded gentleman hat sat on the back of her head, her shirt spiky hair sticking out perfectly carefree – as if. This with her suspender pants, only one strap holding them up, and the striped, black-and-white tank top and pink docs, she truly looked like a cartoon.

I grinned at her as she victoriously thrust the pencil in the air and then stuck it behind her ear. "Remember that you're gorgeous, Al," I told her as she gave me a small frown in question, her shoulders sagged in relief and then she lit up like a Christmas tree.

"I can't believe that you walked here, man." Emmett fell heavily against the locker by us, crossing his arms and sighing heavily, he laughed loud enough to make a scrawny boy who passed stumble and almost drop his books. I didn't blame him, Emmett was one scary bastard. "I could have picked you up, ya' know!"

I groaned by the mention of it. "I'm so tired of that fucking piece of shit…" I grumbled and once again rubbed my hands over my face. I got my mother's faded, red truck at my sixteenth birthday and she in her turn had gotten it from her grandfather. To say that it was in bad shape was a serious understatement. These days, it hardly ran at all, I only got halfway to school this morning before it huffed and took a break. I didn't have the energy to fight the thing and just got up and walked away, leaving the keys in the ignition in hope that someone would steal it. Or try, I doubt that anybody can get that piece of junk moving, it would cling to the ground like a stubborn old man leaving his home.

"Well," Alice mumbled and glanced at my damp hair, I narrowed my eyes at her, daring her to say something. Of course, she did. "If you didn't buy those guitars of yours, you might have enough money to buy a new car… that way you wouldn't show up here looking like a drenched cat." She wrinkled her petite little nose and gave me an onceover. "I mean, what you pay to import those things cost as much as the guitar does to begin with. One is enough, you know."

"Whatever, pinky."

"Fuck off." And there it was. The resemblance to her brother. These were the times you could see that she was Emmett's twin. Alice is short, barely five feet – although she ate just as much as her six-feet-three-inches brother. She was thin as a stick with black and wild hair, short and crazy just as its owner. She had ghostly pale skin, which looked even paler I contrast to the dark eye makeup she wore. Emmett is huge, the hair color is the same but he had waves and dimples and color in his face.

I laughed and shoved her to the side, she tumbled backwards as if she was hit with the force of a car and glared at me.

"Oh, grab my balls and call my mama!" he sounded off, strained. I snapped my head around and looked at him with wide eyes. What?

"Excuse me? I rather not!" Alice huffed and crossed her stick-arms over her chest. Her brows were knitted together but as we followed Emmett's gaze, we got it. Sort of.

It was the new girl who walked down the halls, I could actually see where Em was coming from. She was beautiful, curvy, not too thin with golden waves, her features were perfection. She didn't do anything for Jasper, but then again, he hadn't expected her to. But he would be the first – or second with Emmett close by – to admit that the girl was stunning… which didn't make sense for her to have that expression on her face. She had big and green eyes, framed by thick and long lashes that were black as the night, a mouth formed to perfection and a nose looking as if had been carved by an artist.

If she looked like that… I almost didn't want to know how her brother looked because that could get uncomfortable.

However, I couldn't help but wonder why she would look so insecure… no scratch that, this girl looked down right scared. Her eyes were flickering around and her arms tightly hugged her torso as she walked forward with eyes cast down. Alice gave her white docs an appreciating glance. The new girl had black jeans and a black and white baseball jersey, clearly approved by Alice. I could see her walking next to Al effortlessly without looking out of place as most people did… that was just the thing, Alice – no matter how crazy she looked, she never looked like the odd one. Everybody else did. Although, Al would probably grab the girl's shirt and rip it, or given her a slightly messed up band t-shirt instead.

The poor girl didn't look much better as girls threw bitchy stares her way, these accompanied by crude comments from the males. It was as if they were slicing her open right there, beauty was a crime, that's for sure.

When the poor girl had rounded the corner, the level of sound rose even higher and I felt really bad for her, but I couldn't help but trying to imagine her brother because if he looked half as good as his sister, I wouldn't get through these last months of high school comfortably. None of the guys really did anything for me, but walking around with an obvious hard-on wasn't something any of us enjoyed.

Alice turned to Emmett. "So that's the girl you are crushing on, huh?" she asked, feigning innocence as Emmett stared after the blonde, as she looked back at me, she smirked. "You should have heard him last night! I've never seen him like this." She rolled her eyes at her brother's big ones and I shook my head. I'd heard the story enough times during the afternoon.

The bell finally blared, calling us to class. I wasn't really in the mood for physics, not my strongest subject. I left my friends and then shuffled to the classroom located in the basement of the school, it was cold and murky and as I sank down behind Erik Yorkie – Alice's big crush – and glanced up towards the top of the wall where the small rectangle window was located. Not that it let any sunlight in because this was Forks after all.

Eric turned to me, waggling his eyebrows – yeah, he doesn't know – and said, "Did you see the new girl?" Poor Alice. I bobbed my head once and then turned away, I didn't feel like mustering up the right amount of 'jerk' this morning. Eric was a huge – almost as big as Em – soccer player and spend most of his time at the gym with Em, Alice just happened to tag along now and then… and she was convinced that she was in love with the guy, honestly, I couldn't see it. He wasn't good looking, he reminded me a bit of a Saint Bernard dog, the only thing that was missing was the drool and the barrel. His huge frame and the fact that I sat furthest back in the room prevented me from seeing most of the front of the room.

When the new name, Edward Cullen, rang out, I couldn't see who apparently nodded because the teacher looked right in front of Yorkie and checked off on the list. I tried not to crane my neck and look around Eric. I didn't want to be that guy.

What distracted me was the heavy sign of rain that suddenly echoed through the school and I smirked. The truck was probably filling up with water at this very moment. Mike – dad- would have a fit.

Mr. Banner, the teacher of this damning subject, called my name as I was about to leave the classroom. He handed me a stack of papers, "I expect you to do these this time, Mr. Hale." He was a big man and as he peered down at me, I almost wanted to shrink away because I felt uncomfortable under his stare. His big head, big ego and big expectations were sucking the air out of the room.

I groaned under my breath and glanced towards the door, towards freedom. I nodded and then walked out, Banner seemed done.

I had just walked up the steps from the basement to the first floor as I saw a skinny little freshman walk up behind the new girl with a suggestive smirk, obviously spurred on by his friends. She was trying to get her locker open, a note in her hand which she glared at over and over. I felt sympathy for her, almost all lockers were impossible to open and it took years of experience. Nevertheless, this boy didn't have the intention of helping her. Once he reached her, he crudely slapped her bottom.

I had expected her to yell at him… maybe even punch him since he had it coming.

Was none of the people in the hallway had expected was for her to react with fear.

This girl crumbled, her knees literally seemed to give out as she spun around, her arms covering her throat, her eyes huge and full of fear – more than anybody could have expected… and as if this wasn't enough, even Jasper could hear the frightened sob that rung from her.

However, the boy next to her didn't have time to run – like it looked like he was about to, because before the girl hit the floor, the little leech was held up by the throat, pressed into one of the faded blue lockers by a tall, lean and gloriously furious Edward Cullen.

I felt as if someone had kneed me in the nads.