Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mention here.

Chapter 2: In the Rain

It was the following day and Jasper fared no better than he had the day before. In fact, he felt a lot worse. Last night, upon returning to their home, he and Rosalie found to their dismay, the human still there. Upon seeing her, Rosalie had gone up to her room in a huff, not caring if their "guest" saw. Jasper on the other hand, was momentarily transfixed by the smell that bombarded his senses, defenseless against the sudden onslaught.

Sweet and tempting.

Those were the words with which he would describe her smell. Maybe it was because she was Edward's or maybe it was really her own uniqueness. Whatever the reason, it was driving him insane. And he was mad at himself for being so weak against such a small, powerless human being.

'And a girl too! What a joke!' his mind reeled at the mere notion.

He could not help himself as his tongue slipped out, licking his lips hungrily as he eyed her from a safe distance. Did she notice him in the little dark corner of the room? 'No,' he thought absentmindedly. Her eyes were solely on Edward. She may not have noticed Rosalie's tirade after all.

He slipped out of the room, catching himself. He looked down at his hands and they were shaking. He could still smell her, taste her. The feeling would not be quenched not matter what he did; it was as if her smell had been seared into him, physically hurting him.

All he could do that night was wait.

"Jazz?" Alice's sweet voice brought him back to the present. They were all sitting at their usual table in the cafeteria, away from the other students as much as possible. The human was with them at Edward's insistence. It only added to Jasper's foul mood and from the way Rosalie looked, she was having a hard time as well. They had not spoken to one other since the day before and Rosalie seemed to be avoiding him now. He turned to look at his wife from his position near the window. Her hand was tentatively resting on his shoulder, her arm fully stretched out just so that she could touch him and he took it and held it with his own. Alice smiled and pulled her hand away; she seemed satisfied by his quiet response...for now.

Jasper went back to his previous posture, hunched over by the window and stared out into the gloom. It was raining again. He checked his watch: 12:45 PM. Fifteen minutes before the bell rang. He could wait a little longer. He could handle a classroom full of students much better than he could now.

A few minutes later, he felt Alice shift in her seat. It was clear to him what that meant. She was tired of waiting for him to find the nerve to talk to her about whatever was bothering him. "What?" he said to her, irritated. His exasperation was showing.

Alice frowned and replied, her voice barely audible, "I don't want to talk to you if you're like that."

Sighing, he turned to face her and gave her a small, apologetic smile, "Sorry. Let me try again. What is it, Alice?"

"I just wanted to know if you were all right. You haven't been yourself lately and you disappeared again yesterday."

Jasper did not know what to say. He had never told Alice where he went and she had never asked. Despite this, he had grown frightened that she would one day. So at beginning of their second year in Forks, he had cut back on his secret trips, making them more and more infrequent as the months rolled along. However, since Edward became attached to this new girl, he had gone back to his old habit. It did not help that they had not hunted in awhile.

"I'm sure you could ask Edward," he responded dryly. He nervously glanced over to Edward as he said so. It was impossible for him not to know. How amazing it would that feeling be if he had that girl's strange ability to block her mind from those prying and trying to get in? Jasper was acutely aware that Edward was being smug just by the barest of shifts in his facial expression. He knew.

"I'd rather get it from you," Alice said. Her voice was laced so sweet it was almost disgusting.

"I was with Rosalie," he told her simply. 'It wasn't a lie,' he tried to convince himself. Edward could search his mind and Rosalie's and even he would find nothing that said otherwise.

This discussion was now over. He did not need to explain himself to her if he didn't want to. There would be another time for it surely but right now, at this very moment, he was too close to snapping. Everything around him just ticked him off. Even his Mary Alice.

Abruptly, he pushed away from the table and stood up. Everyone around the table and some of those sitting nearest them, noticed the sudden and loud movement. The screeching of a chair against the linoleum floor was kind of hard to dismiss. As if it weren't enough, slowly a silence fell across the whole cafeteria; everyone's eyes were on him. Through clenched teeth, he mumbled a quick goodbye to those at his table and walked away.

Jasper hardly even cared anymore. His eyes bore holes into the exit door. By the time he had crossed the length of the room and passed through the doors, the people in the cafeteria were already talking again. Grimacing, he left the little shelter the building could provide and into the rain's cold embrace.

It was well over an hour since he reached the cliff site. He was soak to the bone now. There was nothing much he could do about that. He couldn't go back to school looking like he was nor was it a good idea to go home. No, he would wait the rain out and then slowly make his way back later that evening.

None of his family members had gone after him. He never thought any of them would. It was more likely that they would cover up for him on Alice's behest, make up some story—a quick excuse as to why he wasn't present at school that afternoon. They would and then that would mean he owed all of them a favor. He didn't even want to think about what may happen when he reached home. Esme would probably give him that disappointed look that only a mother could do but say nothing. Carlisle on the other hand...

From where he sat, against the trunk of the same fir tree where he had seen Rosalie, he picked up a rock from the ground and tossed it as hard as he could into the waters below. It went sailing into the air for sometime before gravity pulled it down and it disappeared from his sight.

Still frustrated, Jasper closed his eyes and willed his mind to fall into a sleep-like trance. He wasn't really asleep. That was impossible. His eyes were closed but his body was no more relaxed than had he been fully awake. He was ready to do anything if necessary.

"Jasper..."

He knew she was calling for him but he did not answer, feigning sleep despite knowing that the mere idea was ludicrous. How long had he been sitting underneath that tree? He didn't really know or care. All he knew was that if Rosalie was here to fetch him, classes must be over.

"I'll go back by myself if you don't mind. You didn't have to bother, Rosalie," he whispered.

"Actually, I do mind and I did bother. We've been looking for you everywhere. I slipped away from Emmett and drove myself here and now that I found you, I'm bringing you back." She waited for him to answer but he didn't. His eyes were still shut; his mouth pressed together to form a grim line. Exasperated, she hissed, "Do you realize that it is nearly midnight?!"

Jasper's eyes flew open.

A/n: I really hate it whenever I catch the nickname "Jazz" when referring to Jasper. To be honest, I thought it was a joke at first until I noticed it in Breaking Dawn. I intend to keep that certain nickname to a minimum in here and in any of my further stories if possible.

The next chapter could probably be the last one. Again, depends on what I happen to write. It's all coming to me very suddenly and naturally. I haven't given much thought to what the scenes and dialogue should be like before I started writing. The only thing I "planned" for this chapter was that there was going to be a good amount of dialogue between Rosalie and Jasper. As you can see, that didn't happen at all. Instead, you got some interaction between Alice and Jasper—totally unplanned. And the ending just came all by itself. I don't know if anything I wrote here makes any sense if I'm trying to be perfectly honest. It was almost 6 AM when I said to myself that Chapter 2 was officially done and I wrote this through the night.

Too dramatic? I was self-conscious about that while I was writing this. I tried toning it down but I'm not sure if I did enough. Tell me what you think by leaving a review! Thanks to everyone who took the time to review and put this on their favorites/alerts.