I own nothing! Thank you again to those who read my story, it means a ton! And a huge thank you to BluezAvarado for beta-ing this!
JPOV
"How? I came here to be alone; I didn't expect to be bombarded by my little sister."
"You're only older by a year. And when you used to call home, you always talked about this place. I was over there, hanging out with some friends and I saw you. I think we need to talk."
Shit, I knew this was coming. I sighed, guess I should have been more prepared. "Okay…yeah."
"Why didn't you tell me you were still in the fraternity?" She looked straight at me, her hands flying when she said what she needed to say.
"I didn't think it mattered."
"Well, it does. Do you still drink? And don't you dare think about lying to me."
"…For sport, I guess." She huffed and her face turned red.
"Did Emmett tell you?"
"Emmett doesn't have anything to do with this!"
"How did you know then?"
"It doesn't matter! Listen to me!" She yelled, she turned, looking at me and I faced her as well. My little sister was not going to intimidate me over this measly issue. "What can I do to help?"
"Nothing, Rosalie, you don't need to do anything! Honestly, I'm fine." She huffed, leaning away from me. I had always been the stereotypical big brother. When she started kindergarten, I was there watching her walk to class. When I had to leave and go to sixth grade, I was pretty much a wreck. She assured me she would be fine. But now, eight years later, here she was, probably feeling like she was my mom; I knew she had every right to worry. I was messed up. Yeah, I needed help. I knew that, but I wasn't about to ask her for it. I was too prideful for that. She shouldn't have to worry about me like this. "Honestly Rose, don't worry about me."
"Don't worry about you?" Her voice was almost a shriek, and I could tell she was trying to keep it under control, "Yeah, okay, likely… She paused, sighing. She didn't speak for a few seconds, and I could tell she was counting to ten in her mind to calm down. "You're my brother, you need help! How can I not to worry about you? And don't you dare call me Rose. You know I hate that."
"Well, what do you want me to do?" I was getting angry now. I wanted to cool down, and she was ruining that.
"Move to the dorms. Ask to stay off campus."
"I can't ask to stay off campus. One, I'm a freshman, and two, the college will know my problem and they'll kick me out. I know it."
"The college honestly will not kick you out."
"What makes you so sure? And then the administration will know all the frat boys drink."
"I'm sure they know that anyway. You've tried to stop on your own before, it didn't work. Why won't you let me help you? What about mom and dad?"
"Mom and Dad stopped caring a long time ago…" I stopped talking. I didn't have anything else to say.
"You shut them out, Jasper! Answer my question." She was getting frustrated, and I didn't blame her. She deserved answers and even though I was putting out a great front when I saw her, she knew I wasn't fine. I was probably annoying her to death. It wasn't my fault I had this problem, and it wasn't my fault I didn't know how to get rid of it.
"I only drink occasionally, Rosalie." Both she and I knew this wasn't true, but I had homework do and I didn't feel like lying to my sister anymore.
I knew that everything she was saying was true, and I didn't think I could listen to her much more because of it. It was breaking my heart, the walk that was supposed to un-stress me, was making me feel worse. "I'm gonna go now. I love you, and I promise… I'm fine." I kissed her cheek and stood up, looking at her miffed expression. It hurt me to see I was the one she was mad at. "Okay. Bye Jasper."
I had barely gotten inside the door of my house before someone was shoving a red Solo cup into my hand and screaming something about a party getting started.
BPOV:
The restaurant was dead, and my boss told me it was fine if I sat down inside the bar. It wasn't exactly late, but the dinner rush had gone through and everyone seemed to be finishing their meals. The girl that was working at the bar looked over. I looked down; it was one of those awkward eye contact moments everyone hated. She waltzed over and looked at me. She looked like she was sizing me up, but not in a mean way. "You haven't worked here long, have you?" Short and to the point (quite literally, she was very tiny and her hair was short and kind of pointy).
"No, I haven't, I've only been here for about a week."
"I thought so, I hadn't seen you before. Are you a college student?"
"Yep."
"English major?"
"Yes, I am…how did you know?" I let the strand of hair I was twirling fall, I guess my face portrayed my shock because she laughed.
"Lucky guess." She winked and while her guessing I was an English major was unusual, I didn't feel uneasy.
"Are you a college student, too?"
"Mhm," she hummed. "I'm a junior."
"How fun." A couple had just walked in the door and I stood up, greeting them. I showed them to a table upstairs, being very careful not to trip on the wooden staircase. I made my way back down to the bar, where the bartender was chatting it up with a dark haired someone. After a while, he got up and left and she wandered back down to where I was sitting. I was exhausted, and it was only Tuesday. Right now, college life was pretty bleak, and as I worked and went to classes, I began to think about Jasper more and more. I wondered if he had thought about me at all. I was feeling like a sap and I decided to throw myself into a conversation with this coworker of mine.
"What's your name?" I asked her, trying not to sound bored with our conversation.
"Alice," she replied.
"I'm Bella,"
"It's good to meet you Bella, but there's a party of four over there waiting to be seated."
I jumped up, feeling bad that I didn't realize there were people waiting. I apologized, but they didn't seem too angry. I sat them downstairs, hoping their waiter would come faster than I had. Alice invited me out to a party on Friday and I accepted. I wasn't sure what we were doing, but Alice seemed fun and she said I could bring Rosalie if I wanted to. Alice told me she liked to shop a lot, and Rose did too, she was just as talkative as Rosalie was, and I hoped everything would turn out well. When my shift was over, I clocked out and walked home.
RPOV:
Emmett had called me Monday night, asking if I wanted to meet him for dinner on Tuesday. I was half way through annotating my book, and if I worked fast, I hoped I could finish it and whatever else I had to do beforehand. I really wanted to see him, but I hoped he wouldn't tell me about Jasper. I wanted to know, but sometimes ignorance is bliss… I wondered if Bella knew about his problem. Whenever I talked about my brother, she looked at me like she was trying to read my mind, but she never pried, and I thought that was sweet.
Tuesday night rolled around and after I had finished everything I needed to, I started getting ready. I wasn't exactly sure where we were going, so I found a blue dress I had brought from home and decided to wear that. He met me in front of the dorms, and we headed off to dinner.
"You look really pretty," he said, slightly blushing.
"Aw, thank you! You don't look half bad yourself."
We turned onto South Market Street, running into State Street and headed to AW Shucks. I hadn't been there before, but he assured me they had wonderful food. We got seated, and he started the conversation.
"How are you settling in?"
"Good, my classes seem like they drag on forever though. What about you?"
"They're good, but I'm starting to regret the party the guys and me had last night."
"On a Monday?" I asked, wondering how the party went.
"Well, it wasn't really a party but we 'celebrated' the start of classes." He laughed. I didn't find it funny. I guess he noticed, because he stopped laughing. "What's the matter? I'm feeling better; I'm not really hung over anymore." It wasn't him I was worried about.
"Did Jasper drink?"
"Wait, how do you know Jasper?"
"He's my brother."
"He's your brother?"
"That's what I just said. Did he drink?" Emmett turned pale, trying to backtrack and figure out what he had said wrong.
"Um, yeah."
"How much?"
"Nothing that you should worry about…"
"Emmett, he said you guys were best friends. You should always worry about how much he drinks." Emmett turned even paler, his face draining of any color. I didn't want to say anything else; I didn't want Jasper to think we were shit talking him on our date. "I don't want him to know we talked about it, okay? But just watch him because he needs to stop."
"I take it there are things I don't know?"
"Yes, and for now, let's leave it that way." I smiled brightly, drank my tea and swiftly changed the subject. He smiled just as brightly back at me, and I felt happy. We laughed so much that I temporarily forgot about my brother. We finished with dinner around 7:30 and he showed me around downtown; the spectacular houses, and the side cobblestone streets. Emmett had this little boy kind of cuteness even though he was so huge. I didn't worry about being bothered late at night, even if he did wear a light green and white stripped button down.
Thanks for reading, update tomorrow! :D