Jasper's Lucky Bike
By: Moose Voose
A/N: Wow. What a delightful Jasper character! Enjoy! This was a pure pleasure to write. Sorry if this idea is similar to anything you've read. I was bouncing ideas with my sister when she told me of reading an idea very similar to this. It was too cute of an idea, and I was inspired. So, without further ado, enjoy reading about Jasper's lucky bike.
I love this bike.
Jasper appraised his beautiful motorcycle fondly, momentarily distracted from his homework by the light reflecting off of the silver paint. This bike was his only solace, the only subject of his dreams when a certain dark haired girl was absent from them. In his mind, he'd done everything with this bike, gone everywhere. It had been a bribe from his guilty parents that had dragged him hundreds of miles from Houston, Texas to Forks. It had done its job beautifully, and Jasper adored it. There was only one problem.
Jasper had never ridden it.
Well, technically, he had. He knew how to drive it; he'd taken it out on several occasions. But never had he ever driven it to school, gone on a road trip with it, or even just coasted on it when he was sad... There were several reasons for this.
One, it was always raining in Forks. How on earth was he supposed to drive it to school without getting soaked? Everyone always arrived damp to school, but damp was a whole lot different from wet. Jasper was lame enough without being drenched in name of a cool bike. Of course, he could wear his rain-suit-jacket-thing his Mom bought him. But Jasper always felt ridiculous wearing it, and that lead him to number two:
Jasper would look dumb. In a town this small, arriving in a motorcycle painted the image of a bad boy. Which Jasper obviously wasn't. Add the rest of the biker attire, and Jasper would look ridiculous. Add in a normal rain coat, and he just flat out looked like a floozie. Either you were all in, or you were all out. Unfortunately, Jasper was afraid he was better suited for all out.
Three...Jasper just couldn't risk looking like a fool. No matter what, he always seemed to arrive at the same time as Alice Brandon. And should she ever chance a look in his direction, (she hadn't yet) Jasper could not risk her first impression was of him looking dorky.
Jasper felt his lips pull down as he studied his beautiful bike. She was perfect, everything a guy could want...which is what it made it impossible for him to ride it.
So instead of actually claiming and using this work of art, he settled for bittersweet dreams and spending nearly all of his free time staring at it. His thoughts were unified in a single, petulant thought: I want to ride you...
Jasper shook his head, returning to his history essay. It was almost the end of his junior year; he couldn't afford to screw up now. High school was almost over, and he needed to focus.
I love that bike so much...
FIVE MONTHS LATER:
Jasper threw himself across the seat of his car, moaning miserably. Summer was almost over, and he'd have to return to that prison that was known formally as Forks Public High School. During the summer, he'd had a freedom, a luxury, of pretending that he, Jasper Whitlock, was cool. It wasn't hard back in your hometown where bored girls were impressed with how much you'd grown in a three years absence... Jasper had decided to forget the consequences and allow his vanity to be stoked properly.
It really wasn't that hard to entertain Jasper or get his attention. He didn't really care what kind of attention he got, so long as he got it. And yet, thankfully, he had a depth to him that not even the most southern belle could touch.
Girls were fun and all, but there was really only one girl Jasper cared about, and it was tormenting him that he only had one year left to make his move. One year to impress the most charming, beautiful, talented, and stubbornly unobtainable girl Jasper had ever known. It was no wonder, really, that he'd tried so hard to fall in love with the easier won girls back in Texas. All to no avail, of course.
Jasper sat up miserably to look at his bike. After all the years since he'd moved here and seen her for the first time, Jasper had never once gotten anything out of Alice. Jasper Whitlock might as well not even exist...even though he should have some good will, considering he was still the new kid after three years. But of course, that wouldn't really matter to Alice, who had everything she could ever possibly want... Except me...not that we have any conclusive evidence that she'd want me. Who am I kidding? She wouldn't know I existed if I rode to school on my bike wearing a tutu!
Jasper agonized over the thought as he sat up. "She probably wouldn't!" Jasper exclaimed in despair.
Suddenly his eyes were drawn to his beloved bike like usual. You know...it doesn't matter anymore.
The thought hung in the silence as Jasper froze, wondering if the apocalypse was nigh at hand. He couldn't seriously be considering...forgetting everything he'd ever told himself in the name of fun...
"What's the point anymore?" Jasper wondered excitedly as he rushed over to his bike. "Everyone thinks I'm lame anyway, and Alice won't care either way because she'll never acknowledge my existence!" The depressing words gave way to a brilliant hope: "I'm going to ride this bike to school!"
THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL:
Jasper felt like crying tears of joy as he sped out of his driveway, down the road on the way to school for the first day. There was a light drizzle, but with a helmet on his head, it didn't matter. Actually, considering how euphoric he was, nothing mattered. Not the beautiful Alice Brandon and her silent treatment (as he'd pettily termed it), not his new teachers and all their (probably) ridiculous expectations, not even his twin sister's mocking words. Everything fell away as he finally, finally lived out his dream!
He was wearing the biker suit jacket, and he'd discovered somewhat sheepishly that it fit a freshmen much differently than it fit a senior. Jasper thought he looked rather cool. He wondered in his deliriously happy state why it had taken him so long to do this! There was no downside to this! Nobody cared about Jasper anyway, so really, there literally wasn't any backlash!
Jasper arrived in such a state in the school parking lot, carelessly parking his bike. But Jasper couldn't let go of this moment, this dream, yet. This was manifested by Jasper not moving for a long while, shutting his eyes and savoring this beautiful moment...
"Oh my goodness! Your bike is so cool!" Jasper opened his eyes and stared straight into the large hazel eyes of Mary Alice Brandon. Excitable and confident, she stood before him, speaking to him for the first time after all of his useless pining.
Jasper blinked, opening and shutting his mouth. Finally, a voice of reason broke away from the chaos of his mind in a fury. You are a senior, Jasper! Pull it together and speak! Suddenly the voice was wailing loudly at him. Speak or we'll lose her! "Yeah!" Jasper burst out enthusiastically, nodding his head like a bobble head. "She's pretty great." Um...wow. Well, I guess we'll leave the reacting to her. You don't even need me to tell you how stupid that was. Jasper quickly stepped off of his bike, struggling out of the black jacket clumsily. "I got her when I first moved here."
"Didn't you move here your freshman year?" Alice asked quizzically, her eyes shining as she cocked her head.
Jasper fought the urge to gape at her as he felt a rush of bliss. She knows when I moved here! Ah! This bike is amazing! "Yeah. I just...never had the courage to drive it to school before." Jasper wondered at his ability to actually tell her the truth. How...unexpected.
Alice let out a laugh at that, and Jasper felt that much greater about himself. Best. Day. Ever. "How silly of you!" Jasper didn't mind being called silly, not by Alice. So he just shrugged with a grin. "I'm Alice, by the way." She held out a slender, pale hand.
Jasper quickly reached out and grasped it. So soft...I love this woman. Oh boy. "I'm Jasper."
"Oh, you're Rosalie's brother, aren't you?" Alice asked, suddenly excited. "Emmett has been crushing on her forever. Would you two sit with us at lunch?"
If he had to drag Rose there by her hair, he would do it. "Sure!" Never mind that Rosalie loathed Emmett. Jasper suddenly felt a burst of inspiration. "You know... I could take you for a ride on my bike later."
Alice paused, eyes beginning to sparkle. "Can she go fast?" Alice easily adopted Jasper's interpretation of the gender of his bike.
Jasper felt another burst of pride and love for his bike at the question, and at the answer he could deliver: "Oh yeah!"
"Then I would love to!" Alice began to bounce. She paused. "I wonder why I never noticed you before, Jasper."
I've been wondering the same thing for the past three years. Suddenly Jasper glanced at his bike, and he understood. It's the bike...my lucky bike! Jasper inwardly squealed as he suavely said, "I guess it just wasn't time yet." Not without my lucky bike!
WHEN THEY GO FOR A RIDE/DATE THAT NIGHT:
"How long have you liked me, Jasper?"
Jasper literally sprayed his gulp of water, turning to gape at the forward girl beside him. "How do you know I like you at all?" He demanded rudely.
Thankfully, she laughed at that instead of being offended and grossed out. "It's alright, Jasper. I like you, too. I just want to know how long."
She likes me! Jasper fought, with every ounce of his self control, to lie to her. Unfortunately, Jasper did indeed like her. It was debilitating. "I think I saw you a few times during my freshman year...but I really liked you when you came to the high school, when I was a sophomore."
Alice tilted her head, and Jasper inhaled sharply. If I could, if I was crazy enough...I would kiss her right now. Thankfully, the voice of reason cried out in protest: What are you thinking, Whitlock? This is not the time! Hardly romantic timing! No, since you're dense, we'll make a rule: you can't kiss her until you complement her. Jasper reluctantly agreed. It was his voice of reason, after all. It wasn't like it was hard to complement Alice anyway.
"Why didn't you ever speak to me?" Alice pouted.
"Um..." Jasper blinked. "I dunno. I guess I was waiting for you to notice me...speaking of which, why did it take my bike to do it?" Strangely, this garnered a different reaction than when Alice herself had phrased it earlier.
Hesitation. Weird. Alice was peered up at him through her lashes before she fixed her eyes on the breathtaking view before them. "Promise not to think I'm crazy."
"Nah. But I promise to like you anyway," Jasper said immediately.
Alice laughed again at that, and Jasper was suddenly glad he was dorky. Somebody normal and respectable surely couldn't make her laugh like that. "Well, thanks for that," she said with a teasing smile. Then she sobered a bit. "I've kind of always known who I'm going to end up with is."
Jasper stared at her blankly. "So...what, you know what you want and what you want you get?" Jasper attempted to understand.
Alice smiled but shook her head. "No, it's not quite like that..." she looked down at her hands.
"Hey," Jasper said, uncharacteristically serious and empathetic. "I was just kidding. I won't think you're crazy."
Alice peered at him again, almost shyly. What she saw there must have comforted her because she relaxed and continued. "I mean, I've been dreaming about you for years, Jasper."
Jasper blinked. "What?"
Alice winced. "I know, I know, it sounds crazy..."
"No, that's not it." Jasper's mind was reeling. "If I'm the man of your dreams, why did you just talk to me today?"
Alice laughed, a free, relaxed one. "I wasn't sure that you were him, Jazzy. At least, not until today." Jasper didn't mind Alice calling him Jazzy. Actually, Jasper didn't mind much of anything Alice did. "Actually, I'm sort of embarrassed that I never even considered you."
"Well, what changed?" Jasper wondered.
Alice hesitated, then delivered the harsh reality: "Your bike. In my dreams, I knew you rode a motorcycle."
Jasper took it in, absorbing it fully, trying to digest it before he reacted. For once, the voice of reason was unified with the rest of Jasper. You have got to be kidding me! "So you're telling me that if I hadn't been such a chicken, we could have been together years ago?"
Alice shrugged. "I guess."
Jasper clutched at his head. All along, it had been his own fault for being lame and wimpy. If he hadn't been so self conscious, so afraid of looking dumb, he could have had Alice all this time. They only had one year left. "Alice, I feel really dumb."
"Well, don't." Alice's beautiful hazel eyes were soon catching his, her expression backing up her words one hundred percent.
"You don't think I'm dumb?" Jasper repeated doubtfully.
Alice laughed. "You're silly, Jasper. That's very different."
Jasper found himself leaning in, slowly. "Silly sounds better than dumb," Jasper murmured, almost incoherently as her eyes fluttered closed, her lips so near... Wow. I'm really going to kiss her...this is the best moment of my life...
An echo of reason rang in his ears, and his eyes flew open. The complement! "You're really pretty, Alice."
Alice's eyes opened slowly, confused. "Thank you-?"
Jasper then closed the gap, kissing her as he'd dreamed of since he'd seen her, all those months and years ago.
And to think, none of this would have happened if it weren't for this bike. My beautiful, wonderful, amazing, lucky bike.