Chapter Three


Three weeks into the semester, the gossip train really left the station. The explanation for this arrived on a Tuesday morning in the middle of my English Literature class. I was busy writing notes, so at first I didn't even notice when the door to the classroom opened. It was only when a sudden hush descended that I bothered to glance up.

The girl standing in the doorway looked exactly as I remembered. Tall, blonde and statuesque, she managed to look effortlessly perfect even in the Constance uniform. With her head held high and her violet eyes firmly fixed on the teacher's desk, she walked to the front of the class and softly cleared her throat.

Mr Carson glanced up from the papers he was marking to look for the source of the interruption. His eyes widened when he took in the newcomer, and as she bent down to talk to him, the whispers started to spread across the classroom like ripples on a pond.

"Rosalie…"

"Rosalie Hale…"

"I heard she went to rehab."

"I heard she was in juvie."

"Nah, that's not right, it was a boarding school, and she got expelled…"

"I thought she wigged out and got sent to the psych ward?"

"My mom's friend told me that she got knocked up and her parents sent her away until she had the kid."

"Do you think we should ask?"

"Do you think…?"

Each of the questions were voiced in carrying whispers, and I immediately glanced to Rosalie at the front of the class to see what her reaction would be. To her credit, she carried on as though she couldn't even hear them. She swivelled in her Louboutins and marched to the back of the class. The only vacant desk was the one behind me. She slid into it and began to pull books out of her bag, setting them noiselessly down on the smooth surface. I resisted the urge to turn in my chair to study her as the rest of the class were doing.

Instead, I bent my head forward to get on with my work. As the lesson progressed, the whispers continued, growing steadily more outlandish by the minute. If I had been Rosalie, I would have been dying inside. A pang of sympathy shot through me.

At the end of the class, I stayed behind, taking my time packing up whilst everyone else rushed for the door. Well, everyone but one other student. Rosalie remained seated at her desk, eyes fixed on her clasped hands. I hesitated for a moment, but then took a deep breath and spoke.

"Are you okay?"

She met my gaze. Up close, her unusual eyes were even more striking than they seemed from a distance. She had been gone for sophomore year, but in freshman year Rosalie had been Constance's it-girl. Everyone loved her. Most of them wanted to be her. It had been easy to see why; she was beautiful, and brilliant, and charming.

Opinions seemed to have changed for the year she had been missing.

Rosalie laughed without humor. "If I can make it through the day, I'll be fine." Her voice was exactly as I remembered it, too. Clear and commanding, yet still somehow friendly. Everything about her captivated people's attention.

"That seemed… rough."

"First day back. I wasn't expecting anything less." She shrugged, and her golden curls shimmered as the light caught them. "You're Alice, right?"

I blinked, shocked that she had remembered my name. Very few people bothered. Then again, Rosalie had been best friends with Maria when she was last at Constance, and I'd been Maria's number one victim since the first day of freshman year. "Yeah, that's me."

Rosalie made a sweeping gesture down the right side of her head. "I like what you've done with your hair."

"Oh, the pink?" I tugged on the end of the bright streak. "Drunken whim."

She smiled her radiant smile. "It really suits you."

I smiled back. Rosalie and I had never really spoken during freshman year, and I found myself wondering why that was. Had she always been so nice? Or was it more likely that being churned through the rumor mill had softened her previously hard edges? "What class do you have next?"

"Study hall," Rosalie answered immediately. "What about you?"

"Same."

"Want to walk together?" she asked. I hesitated, confused by the friendliness of the invitation, but she seemed to take my silence as a refusal. Her face fell. "We don't have to. I know that all the staring and gossiping is a bit much. I understand if…"

"I'd love to," I cut across her. Relief shone in her purplish-blue eyes.

We finished up gathering our belongings and headed in the direction of the library. There were several double-takes as we passed small groups of Constance students. Rosalie, if possible, attracted more attention than Edward. She also seemed less comfortable with the negative attention.

"You know," I said to distract her. "You're the first person to ever ask me to walk with them to class."

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah. Everyone just ignores me." I'd hoped to make her feel better, but her frown deepened at my words.

"I wish they'd all just ignore me."

"It'll die down, but in the meantime, let them look. If their lives are that uninteresting that they need to gawp at you, then they aren't worth your time."

Rosalie smiled. "You sound like my cousin."

I was surprised. All I had been doing was paraphrasing the same advice that Edward had given me. I didn't realise it was commonly spouted among the rich. Unless… "Who's your cousin?"

"Oh. Do you know Jasper Whitlock? He's in our year at St Jude's…"

Did I ever. My heart skipped a beat at the mention of his name, though I hated myself for it. I really was pathetic. "I didn't realise you guys were related."

Looking at Rosalie now, it made sense. They were both tall, blond and devastatingly gorgeous. In fact, I could see a vague resemblance in the shapes of their mouths and the curve of their cheekbones.

"Yeah, his mom is my dad's sister."

"Oh, cool."

"Are you friends with him?" Rosalie asked. "I feel like I know nothing about this place after being away for a year."

"Not exactly," I hedged. Edward had seen through my pretences, but I was determined not to betray my secret crush to anyone else. "But I'm friends with Edward."

Rosalie seemed caught between the desire to grin and the desire to roll her eyes. After a moment's consideration, she did both. "I've missed that boy. Kind of."

"You guys are friends?"

"Well, he's Jasper's best friend, but yeah, we hang out." Her brow furrowed. "Or, we used to. I'm not really sure who my friends are around here anymore."

We had reached the library by this point, and Rosalie steered us towards one of the small, empty booths cut into the wall. She dumped her bag on one side of the table and slid onto the bench. I sat down opposite her.

"I can be your friend," I said. "If you want?"

Rosalie smiled. "I'd like that."


We worked in silence for the rest of the study period, and then, when the bell rang, Rosalie walked with me to the front steps. I had just assumed that I would be meeting Edward for lunch today, but I hadn't prepared myself for the possibility that he wouldn't be alone.

Edward was in his usual spot at the top of the steps, but there was another tall figure beside him, facing away towards the main gate. I could only see the back of his expensive black coat, but it was enough. Leaning against the railing looking like some long-forgotten deity of male beauty, was Jasper.

"There you are, Alice! So, the rumors are true," Edward declared, upon catching sight of Rosalie and me as we emerged from the girls' hall. "Rosalie Hale is back in town."

She smiled, holding out her arms. Edward stepped into her embrace without hesitation, seizing her around the waist and lifting her off her feet in a bear hug. Jasper turned to watch their reunion, and caught my eye. He gave me a small smile.

"Hi, Alice," he said.

"Hello, Jasper," I managed to reply. "How are you?"

His smile brightened, but it looked inexplicably forced. "I'm good. You?"

"Also good."

Jasper's cobalt gaze slid to Rosalie, and concern flitted across his expression. "How bad was it?"

Having been released by Edward, Rosalie turned to her cousin with a shrug. "It could've been worse."

"In what way?"

"I could've been shot through the heart." She laughed in an attempt to cover the genuine hurt behind her bravado, but one glance at Jasper's narrowed gaze told me that he saw right through her.

"Rosie."

"Jazz, I'm fine. Don't worry."

He bit the inside of his cheek, considering her. "Have you seen Maria yet? She told me that she would look out for you today."

The smile Rosalie gave him was more of a grimace. "Oh, yeah, I saw her. She blew right past me in the corridor earlier without a word."

Edward's eyebrows rose, but the meaningful glance he shared with me told me that he wasn't surprised by her behaviour. Truthfully, I wasn't either.

Jasper was. Well, maybe not so much surprised as… disappointed. He sighed. "Damn. I thought she'd go a bit easier on you. She told me that she would."

"She says a lot of things, Jasper." Rosalie bit her lip, then brightened. "It doesn't matter, anyway. Alice here has been nice enough to make up for it."

I blushed when I felt all of their gazes on me. I didn't think I'd done anything particularly noteworthy – only behaved like a decent human being. The fact that my behaviour was worthy of praise in this damn school was a sad lookout for the whole lot of us.

"Thanks for looking out for her," Jasper said softly. It sounded like he meant it.

"Oh, come on, you would've done the same."

Except, now that I thought about it, he hadn't. He knew how Maria spoke about me, but I was so far beneath his notice that he hadn't even considered interjecting on my behalf. I wasn't on his radar enough for him to be kind to me until very, very recently.

Jasper seemed to come to this realisation at the same time I did. His eyes shone with regret as he responded, "I will in the future."

I didn't know how to respond. Glancing away, I willed the heat out of my cheeks. I could still feel Jasper's gaze on me when I wasn't looking. It burned like an open flame against my skin.

"Do you guys want to go to lunch?" Edward suggested brightly. "There's a place round the corner that does really good…"

"Forget lunch," Jasper interrupted. "Let's just ditch the rest of the day."

That got my attention. "Ditch school?" It was a foreign concept to me. My mom had worked very hard to earn the money to pay for the small portion of my fees that weren't covered by my scholarship. In return, I went to all my classes and got as close to perfect grades as I could.

Not to brag, but I hadn't gotten anything less than an A since freshman year.

Jasper gave me a small smile, as though he could read my thoughts on my face. "It's only one afternoon, Alice. And I doubt it's going to affect your work."

I dithered. A few weeks ago, if someone had told me that Jasper Whitlock would be asking me to ditch school with him, I'd have busted a gut laughing. It's funny how quickly things can change. Even still, I was about to say no until I glanced at Rosalie.

She still had that bright smile on her face, but the cracks in her dignified mask were beginning to show. I could see how badly she needed to escape.

One day to help take a new friend's mind of a shitty situation? I could do that much.

"Alright," I agreed, and all three of them smiled.


We ended up, in another bizarre turn of events, back in Brooklyn. Not just anywhere, but back in the very same coffee shop I had met the two boys in a couple of weeks before. It was more relaxed this time. We claimed the couches in the far corner; Rosalie and I on one, Edward and Jasper on the other. Jasper sat directly across from me, which meant that I couldn't avoid looking right at him.

Even in that mustard-colored St Jude's shirt, he was so damn pretty that I wanted to cry. I hugged my coffee to my chest and listened to the boys talk. They were having an animated discussion about some party or other – I wasn't following along with all the names they kept dropping, but it gave me an excuse to stare at Jasper without looking like a freak.

"Emmett," Rosalie said suddenly, setting her mug down a little too forcefully and sloshing mocha all over the table. Jasper and Edward both paused in their conversation in order to raise their eyebrows at her.

"What about him?" Edward said carefully.

"He's at the Ostroff Center, right?"

"Yeah," Jasper confirmed. "But, Rosie…"

"I want to go and see him."

The boys exchanged a swift, loaded look. For a few moments, it seemed as though they were having a silent conversation. I watched them carefully; from what I could gather, Edward looked the most staunchly opposed to the idea. Jasper frowned, then shrugged. He turned to give Rosalie an apologetic smile.

"I really don't think that's a good idea," he said, not unkindly.

Rosalie seemed to pick up on the fact that it was Edward that she needed to convince, too, because she dismissed Jasper in favour of his bronze-haired friend instantly.

"Edward, please. I know that he might not want to see me, but…"

"It's not that he won't want to see you, Rose," Edward said heavily. "It's that he's been doing so well. I think seeing you would set him back a bit, and I really don't want that to happen."

I had no idea what the hell was going on, but boy was I intrigued. My gaze kept bouncing between them like I was watching a three-way tennis match.

"Isn't that Emmett's choice, though?" she argued. "I need to talk to him, to apologise. I feel like it's my fault…"

"It's not your fault!" Jasper interjected fiercely. "Don't say that."

"It is," Rosalie argued. Edward looked inclined to agree with her, but he didn't offer an opinion. "I fucked up, and if I hadn't left, he would never have ended up in Ostroff."

"No, but he probably would've ended up in an early grave."

"Jasper," Edward warned. Jasper glanced at his best friend, contrition flashing across his handsome features.

"I'm sorry. I didn't… look, we both know that Emmett was headed down a really bad path long before he met Rosie. She didn't do this."

"She didn't help, either," Edward retorted, and Rosalie winced. I reached over to pat her on the shoulder, feeling useless and completely lost. Edward seemed to catch my comforting gesture in his peripheral vision, because his expression softened as he turned to Rose. "I'm sorry, Rose. I don't want to put this on you, and I know that… look, maybe in a few weeks you could see him? Just not right now. It won't do either of you any good."

Rosalie bit her lip. Was it just me, or did her eyes look a bit too shiny? "Okay," she nodded. "I'll wait. If you think it's best."

"I do."

"Um…" Everyone jumped when I spoke, and three sets of eyes flashed to me. They all seemed chagrined when they realised that I'd been witness to their whole conversation. I tried not to let it get to me that they'd forgotten I was there.

"Sorry, Alice," Jasper, surprisingly, was the first to offer an apology. "We shouldn't have started talking about our stupid past drama. So, um…" His gaze swept the coffee house as he tried to grasp for conversation topics. "Do you come to this place often?"

I burst out laughing. "Seriously? 'Do you come here often?' That's what you're going with?"

He grinned sheepishly. "Lame, huh?"

"I've heard worse. Not that that's anything to aspire to."

"Well, in fairness, I don't know what to say to you. Every time I try to make conversation you jump down my throat about something."

"That's not true!" I protested, leaning forward. "Name one time that's happened."

"Last time we were here," Jasper replied, inclining himself towards me across the table as he warmed to his topic. "I said something about steak and you went off on one."

"You were being a pretentious ass by turning your nose up at street food!"

"See?" he laughed. "You're doing it again. I'm not pretentious, you've just got a chip on your shoulder."

I made a noise like an angry cat. Tossing my hair over one shoulder so that the pink stripe flashed under the overhead lights, I jabbed my finger accusingly at him. "You don't know anything about me, Whitlock."

"Tiny girl, big temper," he said, still grinning. "That's one thing I know about you."

"I'm not that small."

"Please, I could fit you in my pocket."

"Try it and I'd claw your eyes out."

"Like I said, you've got a temper," Jasper replied with another chuckle. "For someone so small, you're kind of terrifying."

"Aw, are you intimidated by women with opinions?" I joked.

Jasper smiled. "You'd be hard pushed to find a guy who isn't. But they make life interesting."

I fell silent at that. It was only then that I realised that we'd been having an argument for the last few minutes without including either of the others. Edward and Rosalie were both watching our exchange with smirks on their faces. If they'd had popcorn, they would've been eating it.

Jasper seemed to come to the same realisation that I did, because he cleared his throat awkwardly and struck up a conversation with Edward. I sat there for a moment, quietly stunned. That had to have been the most words Jasper and I had ever exchanged, and they were… well, they were fun.

Rosalie leaned close to me on the sofa whilst the boys were talking. Her violet eyes sparked with mischief as she murmured into my ear. "Wow, Alice. I don't think I've seen Jasper that entertained in the last two years."

I fought against the triumphant grin that wanted to make itself known on my face.