A/N: I was going to submit this to the Slash/Backslash contest, but technically this is an existing story so it's not eligible. (Which just means I'm going to play with different pairings...)

This is a companion to Seven Minutes in Heaven, but it can easily stand on its own. That is, you need not have read SMIH to enjoy this! I'll definitely add at least a few more chapters of Jasper's POV to this in the future. I may even extend this into a full story after SMIH is complete, depending on how much you like it. Oh, and I apologize for any typos. I just wanted to get this out there so I could focus back on SMIH. I hope you like it!


"Liquid courage," Alice said, as she filled the shot glass with cheap whiskey. We couldn't drink the good stuff because her dad would be able to tell. Dr. and Mrs. Cullen weren't completely disapproving of underage drinking, because they knew we'd do it anyway. So long as we didn't overdo it and didn't try to drive or leave their house, both he and Esme turned a blind eye. The Cullen kids drank wine at holiday meals. Emmett had full access to his father's beer since he graduated high school last year. Or at least, he didn't ask, and his dad didn't question. Sometimes, we would climb up on the roof of their house and throw a few back, shooting the shit, and looking out over the town of Forks.

As I slugged the amber liquid back, I thought about my friend Alice and her two brothers.

The Cullen kids weren't like the other kids at school. They were well-adjusted. Confident. They didn't try so hard to be accepted like most high school kids seemed to do. Like I did.

Emmett had been one of the first friends I made at Forks High, after he started dating my sister and then convinced me to join the wrestling team. Alice and I had become fast friends immediately after I complimented her on a pair of shoes one day. I figured in that moment she knew I was gay, but she never, ever brought it up in two years of friendship, until I volunteered the information a few months ago.

After I came out to her, she scolded me for not telling her sooner, because she was itching to set me up with her twin.

It was she who told me that Edward was gay. Even though to make high school tolerable, he really didn't want anyone to know, the fact that I was in the same boat justified her breaking his confidence. She told me that she knew he was gay before he did, and he had come out to her two years ago, the summer after freshman year, then to his family a few months later. I wondered if she knew I was gay as soon as she met me, even before the shoe compliment, and then I realized, of course she did. Alice knew everything. By the glint in her eye, I could tell she was very serious about getting me and Edward together.

When I thought about it, it was obvious. He didn't really scream 'gay,' but there were a lot of signs. He was a little effeminate in his mannerisms, which no one else would notice except me, because I was so acutely aware of him. He didn't dress particularly fashionably, though Alice did what she could. On the other hand, he didn't dress slovenly like most teenage boys. He wore slim fitting jeans that made his ass, not to mention his bulge, look divine, and t-shirts that hugged his torso. He wasn't interested in a lot of the things the boys at Forks seemed to be, but he was still accepted. No one ever seemed to tease him or single him out. He didn't pretend to like rap music. He nearly always had a book with him, usually some piece of English or Russian literature. He didn't have a problem speaking up in class and seemed to genuinely enjoy engaging with his teachers. He neither bragged about, nor hid, his good grades the way a lot of the smart kids did. He was maddeningly cool.

Plus, he was beautiful.

Try as I might, I couldn't keep my mind off him.

It was a testament to Edward's face that I didn't spend all my time ogling his body. His eyes were green and absolutely piercing. You could tell that there was a whole world going on behind those eyes. His nose was perfect, straight, and symmetrical. He had beautiful high cheekbones and the most perfect chiseled jaw line I had ever seen. Even with his godlike features, I spent the most time daydreaming about his lips. His top lip came to a cupid's bow and his bottom lip was rounded, and they looked so soft.

I wanted them on mine.

It was his lips that drew me to him the first time I saw him. It was Rosalie's and my very first day at Forks High. The school year had already started, which was bad enough, but being in such a small town, the two new kids were gawked at like we were alien life forms. Only the Cullen kids, well, Emmett and Alice at least, didn't treat Rosie and me like we were the shiny new toys. Edward just seemed ambivalent.

At first, I didn't realize that Edward was their brother, and Alice's twin no less. Though, I noticed him that very first day when we were walking in toward the main office. When I saw him, he was leaning against a Volvo, with earbuds shoved into his ears and those beautiful lips were mouthing the words to whatever he was listening to. I wanted to watch him until I could tell what song it was, but Rosalie elbowed me in the ribs to stop my gawking. From then on, I tried not to think about him. I tried not to look at him. It was hard enough being the new kid. It was hard enough being an army brat. I didn't need to be the gay kid to top it all off, and being in the vicinity of the beautiful bronze god would give me away.

Of course, sometimes, when I was alone, when I couldn't be found out, I would lust after Edward Cullen.

Long before I knew that he was gay.

So here I was, in a closet, and the boy I secretly lusted after since moving to Forks was running his hands through his hair, looking terrified. I wanted to be the one running my hands through his coppery locks. I could practically feel his apprehension coming off him in waves; it was making me nervous in turn.

He had looked at me so shyly through his eyelashes when he found out I had a crush on him. His beautiful crooked smile positively beamed. The game of Truth or Dare was Alice's idea. She told me beforehand that she was going to ask me if I was gay, so when she did, I simply shrugged and said "yes." Rosie, one of the five living souls who knew of my sexuality before that moment, the others being Alice, my parents, and Grandma Hale, squealed and threw her arms around me.

She knew I was tired of hiding.

Emmett clapped me on the back. I was a little worried that one of my closest friends, a man who I had shared a locker room with, who I had wrestled with, would be completely wigged out. It didn't seem to bother him in the least. I guess it helped that his brother was gay, but somehow I didn't think it made a difference. Emmett was just accepting of other people for who they were. He was unapologetically Emmett, and he never expected anyone else to put on pretenses. Jake, who had also been on the wrestling team with me, just shrugged and gave me a pat on the back. I wasn't as close to him as I was Emmett, but we always got along. I knew he wouldn't go blabbing to everyone he knew that I was queer. I didn't know Bella very well, but she just smiled at me. I could almost see the matchmaking gleam in her eye as her gaze darted back to Edward. Riley, as I figured, had already guessed I was gay based on the way I interacted with Alice.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went.

What I didn't plan on in our little game was Emmett, on his turn, asking me who I had a crush on.

I don't know what gave me the boldness to say it. Maybe it was the "liquid courage," but the name "Edward" spilled from my lips.

I'm pretty sure most everyone in the room knew that Edward was gay. Rosalie didn't know outright, but she suspected it and had been trying to convince me of the same. Jake didn't look that surprised by the admission either, but he did turn to Bella, seemingly for confirmation, and she nodded. She was Edward's best friend, of course she knew.

Alice's boyfriend du jour, however, wasn't privy to the information, and so when Riley said,

"Edward? You're gay?"

Edward's face flushed, but he just smiled at me and nodded. That nod and that smile had given me all the reassurance I needed.

So, when Alice dared him to play Seven Minutes in Heaven with me, I knew he wanted to kiss me. Now that we were together in the closet and he had the opportunity in front of him, he was reluctant. I wondered if he was worried that he would be a bad kisser. He was always so confident though, it didn't seem like that would be the reason. It wasn't as if I had ever kissed a boy before, anyway. There's no way he could be a worse kisser than Lauren Mallory. Even if I had liked girls, the poor thing just had no idea what she was doing.

I had to say something to cut through the tension, so I finally just resigned myself. I couldn't make him kiss me if he wasn't ready, for whatever reason.

"We don't have to do this if you don't want to," I said softly, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice.

And then, this beautiful, neurotic eruption of words came out of his mouth, as he nervously explained in a rush that he admired me and wanted me. The perfect Edward Cullen was confirming his attraction to me. Then, I realized he was suggesting that it was the location most of all that was making him feel uncomfortable. We shouldn't be sharing our first kiss inside a closet, he said, and the longer he spoke, the less right it felt to me, too. I'm sure he didn't really feel comfortable with his brother and sister on the other side of the door. Then again, I had been subjected to Em and Rosie's extreme PDA over the past two years, so that, for some reason, didn't bother me all that much.

Regardless, I latched onto my boldness and grabbed his hand and led him out of the closet.

Alice said something to us as we reentered the room, but I brushed her off. I knew that she was just trying to help, but something in the back of my mind told me that it was important for this not to happen in a closet in the Cullen's basement. It needed to be our moment, not someone else's.

He clutched his soft, warm hand in mine as I led him out into the warm May evening. I didn't really have a destination in mind; I just knew I needed to get away from the prying eyes of my friends and my sister, away from the closet, and away from the Cullen's house, which had the potential to be a playground for bad decisions.

Playground, yes, that would do.

We were approaching the playground at Forks Elementary, and I reasoned that being in the proximity of an elementary school might remind me to keep myself under control. I headed for the swings. What I really wanted to do was jump Edward, rip his clothes off and do all kinds of unholy things to him. Not that I would really know what I was doing. Although, I had learned a thing or two from the collection of Playguys I kept hidden among my Vogues.

My dad checked the internet browser history on the family's computer to monitor my mom's online shopping, and I didn't have a computer of my own, so internet porn wasn't really an option. I'm sure my dad would not appreciate finding youPorn and GayMovieDome in the browser history. I really didn't want to spank it in the family den anyway. My dad wouldn't snoop through my stack of fashion magazines. Once he realized that the fashion magazines continued coming into the house after Rosie left for college, he did what he was good at and avoided it. He blocked it out, and pretended that the stack of periodicals wasn't beside the bed in his son's room.

He was a pro at denial.

We all were, really.

It came with the territory of being a Hale.

No one except Alice, my partner in fashion, knew that I sometimes sketched designs in my spare time. I didn't have the drawing or sewing skills I needed to really go anywhere with it, but I had good ideas and knew what looked good. She and I spent long, secret hours, pouring through fashion magazines and shopping in Port Angeles. I didn't have a lot of money to spend on clothes. I had a job bagging groceries and corralling shopping carts in El Paso, but Forks didn't do a lot of hiring of high school students. My only source of money was doing some odd jobs around the neighborhood. Sometimes my Grandma Hale would send me money so I could buy clothes. She understood me better than anyone else, but I felt bad taking her money and using it on something so frivolous, despite her insistence.

Even though I had a budget, I tried to look good.

I usually succeeded, if I do say so myself.

From my perspective, it was the only thing that would have given my sexuality away.

So long as no one saw Alice and me together, that is.

She had a way of bringing out my inner flamboyancy.

I wondered if Edward had considered that I was gay before. As we sat idly on the playground swings, he asked me how long I knew. I assumed he meant how long I knew I was gay, but I couldn't help but flirt with him a little, so I asked him if he wanted to know how long I knew I was into him.

I could feel his lustful eyes on me.

But, he deserved to know that my coming out hadn't been the same as his. He deserved to know the reason behind why I had tried not to think about him in that way, why I wasn't sure how far I wanted to go with this, why I was still really uneasy with people knowing, and why I wanted to keep my desire in check. All the time I spent with Alice and Emmet, I safely assumed that Dr. and Mrs. Cullen knew of their son's sexuality and were nothing but supportive.

My family was still getting used to the idea.

I knew my mother was a little disappointed when I first told her, but she had grown a lot more accepting of it since we moved. Sometimes, she would even point out attractive men to me, or ask if I found certain celebrities attractive, the same way she would with Rosalie.

My father, on the other hand, still wore his disappointment on his sleeve. I told Edward about how I thought there was something wrong with me when I didn't react the same way all friends seemed to when they were looking at naked chicks, and when I went to talk to my father about it, he didn't exactly discourage me from the idea that I was defective.

Edward looked shocked, then horrified, and then hurt, as if he could feel the pain that still radiated off me when I thought about it.

I tried to justify my father to him. I knew that my dad loved me, but having a gay son was something so foreign to him, he just couldn't process it, let alone fully accept it. He was trying though. Dad didn't leave the room whenever homosexuality became a topic on the news or at the dinner table anymore. Sometimes, when Rosie and I were helping him work on his car, or when he'd join me in shooting hoops in the driveway, he would treat me as just his son. Not his gay son.

It was funny; his mother, my grandmother, was the most accepting of any of my family members. She wasn't shocked at all when I told her that I was gay. The way my father always talked about her, I assumed that she was like him, and hardly knew that the word "gay" meant more than "happy." But, she was immediately accepting and incredibly supportive. I really hated that she lived so far away.

It didn't make up for my father's day to day looks of disappointment.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Edward said, breaking my train of thought.

His words and his empathy were so genuine that my heart melted. I panicked for a moment, at his tenderness and what it meant, so I pushed myself off the swing. I needed to clear my head for a moment. I started walking aimlessly, but it occurred to me that I may have offended him, when I was really just overwhelmed. So, I turned to look at him, and jerked my head for him to follow me.

I walked toward one of the playground structures and climbed up the ladder.

I could feel his presence behind me.

I finally stopped in the lookout tower of the play fort, ducking my head under the low doorway, and sat down. Moments later he joined me, with the most curious expression on his beautiful face. He sat down Indian style in front of me, knees brushing up against mine.

"Jasper?" he asked.

"Yes, Edward," I tried to keep my voice even, despite my heart trying to beat out of my chest.

Then he said the sweetest words I'd ever heard come out of his lips,

"Can I kiss you now?"

"Yes," I said simply.

He leaned into me and I had a brief argument within myself whether or not I should keep my eyes open. They closed on their own. As soon as I felt his lips close to mine, my other senses shut down, wanting all of my attention focused on this feeling.

His lips were as soft as I had imagined, and warm. He tasted so sweet. My tongue didn't enter his mouth, but I let it graze against his lower lip before we parted.

It was perfect.

It wasn't enough.

Before I could make a move, he pounced on me in a move that made my dick instantly hard.

He began to unbutton my shirt while he kissed me thoroughly and lustfully. His tongue danced with mine where our lips joined together, and I lost myself in his taste. Eventually he moved from my lips and began to absolutely worship my chest. I got the feeling that he had thought about what he was doing before this. Then, he brushed his teeth against my nipples, and I think I hissed.

Who knew that nipples were so arousing?

When I let my mind drift from the sensations, I realized that he was basically dry-humping my leg, and that meant I could feel his erection rubbing against me. I wanted to feel it. I wanted to know what he was packing in those jeans. I wanted to touch and press his naked form against me. I wanted to push my dick into his sweet lips, and I wanted to wrap my own around his. I wanted things that I never really thought I'd be able to do from the safety of my closet.

Then, he brushed his tongue around my ear, and it felt so fucking good I had to stop him from going any further or else I was going to embarrass myself by creaming my jeans.

"You have no idea how you've tortured me," I muttered.

I needed to touch him.

I pulled the offending t-shirt from him and gazed at his perfect chest. My own body was covered in scars. I'd earned a lot of impressive ones from helping on my uncle's ranch as a kid during summers, from skateboarding, from all the stupid stunts my friends in Texas pulled with me when we were younger, and from all the stupid stunts Emmett got me into still. The worst one was the wide scar on my back from where Rosalie stabbed me with a flathead screwdriver, just because I called her ugly.

That's how I remembered the incident anyway.

Edward, on the other hand, was glorious.

Godlike.

Marble.

It wasn't just his chest I wanted to ogle.

I placed my hand on his hip and turned him around so I could pull him back against me. I could feel how willing he was as he settled against me and I began to worship his back.

His back tortured me almost as much as his lips.

My dad had tried to get me to try out for the baseball team my first spring in Forks. I played on the JV team my freshman year in El Paso. I loved baseball, but playing officially on a team had killed the fun for me. Not to mention, the polyester uniforms made me cringe. Plus, a side benefit to having my spring free was being able to go to track meets with Alice, to show school spirit, of course. Edward ran the long distance races, and I spent a good portion of those meets watching the expression on his face as he ran. His beautiful chiseled features looked like he was concentrating very hard on something, and yet at the same time, he was somewhere far away and peaceful. When I could pull myself away from his face, I would imagine him running without his Forks team shirt getting in the way. I could picture the way the muscles of his back rippled as he pumped his arms in perfect rhythm with his sinewy legs, propelling him forward.

He had no idea how good he looked from behind.

I needed to kiss his back.

I started at the base of his neck and I could feel him shiver.

I trailed my lips down his beautiful muscles, and when I reached the small of his back, he hissed my name.

I was starting to lose my ability to communicate rationally, so I just said,

"Need... more."

I slipped my hand down the front of his body, under the waistbands of his jeans and boxers and wrapped my hand around his throbbing hard cock. I had never touched a penis other than my own, but somehow it felt familiar, natural, for my hand to be there. It also felt, well, it felt big. We were probably about the same size, but when I thought about going beyond touching, the prospect of putting his dick in my mouth or anywhere else was a little intimidating.

I was hoping I could make him feel good with just my hand.

I needed some type of lubrication, so I did the only thing I could think of and coated my hand in my saliva. It was a boost to my ego when I heard him whimper as I removed my hand to give it a good lick. When I replaced it, he bucked back against me, creating some friction on my own erection. I used my free hand to unzip my jeans, so the zipper wouldn't get in the way of what was essentially me dry humping Edward's back. Well, it was more like his back was dry-humping me. He tilted himself slightly, lowering his own jeans a little, pushing his ass upward in the process, so with the way we were now situated, my dick was quite close to his crack.

It felt so good, and he hadn't even really touched me yet.

I started letting my virginal mind wander as I stroked him, and I thought about what it would be like to plunge my dick into that ass. I really had no idea what it would feel like, but just the idea of it made me soar. A sexual relationship with a man, with Edward, was actually happening. I was getting impossibly close to bursting at the idea, so I started stroking him faster. He started bucking more rhythmically. He must have known what he was doing to me. Then, his body's response changed and I knew that he was going to climax.

He came in spurts that I tried to catch in my waiting hand, reaching my left hand around to coax a few more shudders out of him. Doing so, I leaned forward, and it put my body impossibly close to his. As he bucked back, it was too much, I was too turned on to stop it, and I exploded onto his bare, beautiful back.

After a few moments to come back down to earth, it occurred to me that I had a mess on my hands.

I wondered, briefly, what his cum would taste like, but I didn't think I really wanted to test those waters yet, and what if Edward saw me and thought it was weird? So, I grabbed the handkerchief I always had with me and wiped off my hand and my own spunk off Edward's back. He still hadn't said anything, but was doubled over, panting.

Then, he pressed back against me and he felt so warm and delicious, I didn't want to ever leave this moment. I had to know that he felt close to what I was feeling.

"Say something," I whispered against his skin.

"I don't... fuck... couldn't string together... coherent sentence if I wanted to."

"So you liked it?" I couldn't help the grin from sprawling across my face.

Instead of speaking, he turned back around, straddled my lap, and pressed his lips against mine once more.

My dick was starting to harden again, which seemed impossible, but I could see Edward's doing the same.

His bare chest felt so amazing pressed up against mine. It was as if every nerve in my body was jumping in excitement at the chance to become awoken by Edward Cullen. I couldn't get enough of him. I wanted to explore his entire body. Though I enjoyed the places he was finding on my body that I had never before considered sexual, I took even more pleasure in touching him, making him moan. By the noise he made, I thought he was going to come again when I found a spot behind his ear, and then again when I licked around his collar bones.

All too soon, we started shivering from the increasingly chilling air.

"We should probably go," I said, my voice dripping with reluctance.

"Yeah, I guess," Edward responded, the tone of his voice matching mine.

He moved to put his shirt back on, but as soon as his head popped through it, he started laughing.

I began to panic.

This was the most intense experience I'd ever had in my life, and he was laughing?

"What? What's so funny?"

"Well, first of all, what we just did," he was having trouble getting the words out. "Children play here. We just violated every future game of cowboys and Indians, or whatever, that the kids of Forks will ever play here."

Okay, I could see the humor in that.

"Second, I was freaked out about kissing you inside a closet, and we ended up in a playground fort that has some very distinct closet-like features."

I started to chuckle nervously. I'm not sure why I had chosen to climb up into the fort. Subconsciously, or maybe not so subconsciously, I liked the security of the closet.

"And third," he was gasping for breath now. "There is no way Alice won't be able to tell exactly what just happened between us, because there's nothing that could stop me from walking around with a shit-eating grin on my face for at least the next week. Not to mention I'm probably glowing right now."

His laughter was infectious, and it overcame me, too. He definitely looked freshly fucked and was practically vibrating with flushed excitement. I could only imagine what I looked like.

Eventually, I was able to stop laughing enough to make it down the ladder, and we headed back to the Cullen's under the starry night sky.

I glanced slyly over at my companion as we walked. He looked very lost in thought, and given his nerves from earlier I had a feeling he was worried about how I felt about the evening's events. So, I grabbed his hand as we walked back to his house together. It felt good to hold his hand. That little bit of visible affection made my heart soar. Being out and proud in public was something I often thought about, dreamed about. I didn't know what it would be like, to go out in the world and have people know that I was gay. To see me holding the hand of a man, or kissing a man. To be so honest.

Part of it thrilled me and part of it terrified me, so I tried to focus my thoughts on something less taxing.

Alice.

Alice was definitely going to be excited. I wonder how she'd feel about hearing about her twin brother getting a hand job, but I surely couldn't tell anyone else what happened.

I wasn't sure Rosie, despite her support, would want to her about her brother's hands all over another boy.

I wasn't sure if this changed anything about how I wanted the world to see me right now.

I wasn't sure if this meant that Edward wanted to take whatever this thing between us was, to a different level.

What I was sure of, was that we needed to do that again.