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Jasper's POV-

Her room was not exactly what I had been expecting to see. Well to be truthful I am not sure what I had thought I would find. Never had I had pictured bright yellow walls covered in posters of bands that I actually listened to. I thought she would be all up in to that annoying pop music girls our age could not seem to get enough of. She did listen to a few of them, but for the most part she shared the same taste of music that I did. Or it could that she just liked the fashion the girls wore or how cute the guys may be. I did not know and honestly I did not really care. I just wanted to get this day over with since it meant one step closer to being finished with this unfair punishment.

She also had a ton of books and not all of them were magazines. Most were books on poetry and I saw that she had what almost seemed to be an unhealthy obsession with Alice in Wonderland. She had every copy I had known to exist and it was quite amusing. I saw her watching me and I had not even realized her to be in the room considering how quiet she was. I quickly made my features as hard and cold as I could, my lips twisting and turning in a sneer as I walked to her bedside. I would have to be as mean as I could possibly be. Maybe if I made her cry then she would tell her parents that having me here was more trouble than whatever sick satisfaction she had been hoping to get out of it.

There were many different ways I could make her cry and I sorted through them in my head. There was always ignoring her and pretending she did not exist unless she asked me for something, but then again she seemed like the annoyingly persistent type. If I was quiet she would most likely talk enough to make up for my lack of holding up the end of a conversation. I took that idea off of my list because there is only so much about fashion and girly crap I can tolerate talking about until I explode in to a million annoyed pieces.

The second choice would to be as mean as possible and in the end this is what I figured I would go with. All I had to do was find her weak spot and dig in as hard as I could. She would be in tears in a matter of seconds once that happened, but what would make her cry? Maybe taking a jab at her money, the fact she's adopted, or her family may work. I would go through them all if given no other choice. I'd have to start with one before moving on to the next one if it did not work. Going after the fact she had money would be my starting point.

"I suppose next week your room will be completely redone?" I asked pretending to actually care until I snorted and crossed my arms over my chest. "Maybe it will be pink with flowers or something like that. I am sure you can afford it having all the money in the world. You know if you refrained from being a spoiled brat for five minutes you may see all the good you could do." I pointed to a dress on her bed. "Did you know that the label is what you are paying for and with the cost of something like that you could feed three starving kids in Africa?"

With the price she paid for clothes I would be able to pay my mother and my rent for six months at the very least. I could keep us full without having to sell drugs or steal anything. I could actually afford to get nice things and give my mom the life my father should be trying to give the both of us if he cared about either of us at all. Maybe I was being such a dick to this girl who had shown me nothing other than kindness because deep down I was jealous of her. Everything that Alice Cullen had was something I wanted for my mom or myself.

Her tiny features scrunched up and I could tell I was upsetting her. I did not expect her to say anything back, but to my surprise she did. Was Alice not scared of me at all? Everyone feared me and yet she seemed almost interested in getting to know the truth about me. What the fuck is this girl's malfunction? Why can't she be normal? "Actually my mom bought me those clothes. I would rather wear regular jeans and stuff, but Esme insisted on getting me some nice things. For the record I donate all my old clothes to Good Will and do a lot of charity work with my brothers. Just because I have money now it doesn't mean that I always did. I know what it is like to live on the worse side of the tracks."

Her comment only served to anger me. "So you are a traitor then? You know what it is like to live like the rest of us, but as soon as you get a chance at something better it makes you think that you are better than us? That's really nice of you to do. Have you always been this selfish or did the idea of money turn you in to a bitch."

Her eyes filled with tears and there was a flash of my father saying horrible things to my mother in my mind. I really was slowly turning in to the bastard. "Why are you treating me like this? Are you telling me that you don't dream every single night of a better life? Are you saying that you would not leave if given the chance? You stand there blaming me for things I had no control over in the first place! If it anyone is a hypocrite then it is you!"

I scoffed and scowled down at her. "How am I a hypocrite? I would never abandon my family the first chance I got and isn't that what you did? I heard in school that your mother was sick and couldn't take care of you so she gave you the option to leave and you took it without a problem. What kind of person does that make you?"

"I never thought you would be one to listen to gossip." She said quietly and I had been thinking she would throw a tantrum or something. Instead her next words had me wondering if Alice and I were not alike more than I knew. "I want to be in my family's life, but the truth of the matter is that they do not want me. They have never wanted me Jasper. I don't even know who my parents are because I have no memories of them. You think you are so unlucky, but the truth is that you are lucky to know that you have a mother who loves you. If my mother ever loved me, my birth mother I mean, then why did she leave her baby daughter in the woods at the age of three to die?"

I was frozen when I heard her story. I had not known that about the tiny Cullen girl and by the look in her eyes I was guessing that not many people knew the truth. Her adopted family must know, but did that mean I was the only outsider she had told? Why would she tell me this? I stood there staring at her as she opened her mouth and began to say more.

Alice's POV:

I watched Jasper's horrible sneer twist into many different emotions as I spoke the words I dreaded. I stared at him, unsure of the expression on my own face. The emotions were already starting to bubble up inside me, and I could feel the tears starting to form at the corners of my eyes. I was trying not to cry, because I knew that's what Jasper wanted me to do. I would not give him that pleasure. I just don't understand why he has to be so cruel.

"What are you talking about?" Jasper spat at me like I was lying to him. His eyes had softened some, but hardly enough for me to not be angry with him for the way he was treating me.

"Look," I said my voice as cold as his. "You have been a real asshole to me since you saw me at the movies. It's not my fault you don't have all the luxuries I'm lucky enough to have. I'm really sorry you don't. I know what it's like. And I want to help you, but all you've done is tried to make me cry. Why should I even try to be nice to you? I'm trying to tell you what the truth is about me, and you just yell at me like I'm a dirty liar! If you aren't interested, leave now." I jabbed a finger towards the door. "There's the door."

Jasper looked shell shocked. He must not have known that I have a bitter side too, I'm not a goody-goody. And I'll be the first to admit that.

What Jasper did next was the exact opposite of what I expected. His hard expression softened so he was just frowning, and he grabbed the chair from my desk, placed it by my bed, and took a seat. He crossed his arms, and stared at me, waiting for me to continue.

"Alright Cullen." He said his voice monotone. "Talk."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, still being cold I see. "Alright, here goes. Just so you understand, I never wanted to leave my parents. I loved them, even if they didn't love me. I was too young to understand that. I worked every single day of my life, since the day I was born, to get my parents to love me. I never got into any trouble I always cleaned up whatever mess I could. At age two, I taught myself to walk. Nobody was ever there for me. The only thing my parents gave me was a bottle when I was crying because I was so hungry. That's why I'm so tiny. I was malnourished during the key growth years, not to mention I was a premature baby because my mother smoked and drank while she was pregnant."

I stopped for a moment to gage Jasper's expression. He looked almost forelorn, like he regretted being so cold to me. And in a totally not selfish way, I hoped he did. I hoped what I'd told him so far made him feel guilty.

"Anyways," I continued. "As I told you before, I don't have many memories of my parents. I was too young. But, I wish I did. I don't even know where my parents are. I don't know if they're alive, or dead. I just don't know anything about them! But I do know that they sure as hell don't miss me." I sighed softly and looked down at my hands. These are the most painful words I'd ever spoken. But they needed to be told, and Jasper needed to understand where I come from and that I'm not just another prissy bitch.

"But what about the story where you just left your sick mother because you didn't want to take care of her?" Jasper asked his voice quieter, and soft, almost like velvet. It surprised me at first, hearing Jasper talk to me like this. It was much more pleasant that the yelling and the cold monotone.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes again. "That's a rumor. I don't know who started it, but that's been floating around the school since the day somebody found out Esme isn't my real mother. It's a total lie. Don't trust everything you hear about me, because right now, I'm telling you the real story. Anything else you hear out of what I've told you, and what I'm going to tell you, is a lie."

Jasper just nodded. His facial features scrunched up, and he looked deep in thought. It was a rather cute look on him, and much better than that scowl.

"So one day," I started, feeling the emotions bubble up inside me. This is always the hardest part… "My mother and father told me we were going to go on a family picnic. They had told me they found this great spot in the woods, and they wanted to make amends for not being around as much. I was so young, I didn't know any better. I was excited and had hope that my parents finally loved me, and we could be a big happy family, the one I'd dreamed about having. My mom put me in the car, and then she got in. My father didn't get in, but when I asked my mother why, she said that he was finishing the picnic lunch, and he was coming up later. I was naïve, and stupidly believed her. She drove the car about five hours away from the only home I'd known. The whole car was quite, and my mother wouldn't even look at me. Finally, she pulled over to the side of the curb. I remember that I'd fallen asleep, and the squeak of the car stopping woke me. My mother pulled me roughly out of my car seat, and then she ran into the woods. When she had run far enough in so nobody would see her, she placed me on the ground, and told me to stay right there and keep our spot safe while she went back to the car and got the picnic blanket. So, I did. I sat on a little rock, and waited for my mother to come back…" I took a deep breath, trying to steady my shaky breathing.

I didn't want to finish the story, because I cried every time I told it. I didn't want Jasper to see me cry. But I guess He would just have to deal with it. He wanted me to before, and now he would get to see me cry. Damn overbearing emotions!

"Alice…" Jasper spoke my name softly, and this time without scoffing. The sound of his voice was sincere, and he sounded close. I looked up, and saw he had moved closer to the bed. His eyes looked pained. Maybe my story was getting to him…

"You, um, don't have to keep going if, um, you don't want to…" He trailed off, his eyes boring into mine. He sounded nervous, like he was trying to comfort me, but didn't know how.

"No, no." I shook my head, gaining control over my emotions. "You need to hear the truth. Anyways, after my mother had left, I stayed in that spot. But soon, night began to fall, and I was hungry. It took about an hour of crying in fear because of the dark, crying because of the hunger, and crying because I knew my mother was never coming back. She had left me alone in the woods, alone so I would die. And it scared me. A three year old should never have to feel that pain." I took a deep breath, and kept my eyes down, focused on my hands. I didn't want to meet Jasper's gaze, I was kind of afraid of what his expression was. "I wandered around the woods all by myself, trying to find a way out. While my mother was running me into the woods, she had covered my eyes. I didn't see which way she had come in. All I wanted was some shelter so I could sleep. I was so weary, I was getting sick. Eventually, I just passed out from the exhaustion from running through the woods, and from famine. Then next thing I knew, I woke up in a hospital, Carlisle and Esme around me bed. I was hooked up to all kinds of tubes and monitors. I was scared. I didn't know these people, yet they were watching me with some much concern like I was their own daughter. I'd never had anybody show me that much compassion and it was nice to have somebody worried about me. I don't want to bore you with the rest of the details, so I'll tell you the short version. Carlisle and Esme looked after me while I was in the hospital. They tried to get ahold of my parents, but they never could. Eventually, they adopted me, and I've been living with them ever since. To this day, I still don't know anything about my parents. I wish I did, and I wish I could do it all over again. Sometimes, I wish I had died out there alone in that forest…"

I finally let the emotions take over, and I started to bawl my eyes out. It was so hard to tell that story, no matter how many time I've told people. I can honestly say I missed my parents. I wanted to see them, and show them the girl I'd grown up to be. I was a straight A student, I helped in all kinds of charities, and I was very mature for my age. I wish I could show them, and make them proud.

"Alice, don't cry…" I heard Jasper's voice whisper to me. I looked up and saw he was inches from my face. His eyes looked very torn, and his expression looked worried. I guess he finally realized that I wasn't who he thought I was. I was mature and not selfish at all. I was the exact opposite of who he thought I was.

"I'm….I'm…sorry…" I stuttered out, trying to control the flow of tears from my eyes. My heart was breaking like it always did, and I felt as though somebody had ripped my heart out. I kept my head down as the tears flowed freely and dripped down and left droplets on my clothing.

"Alice, don't apologize. Look at me!" Jasper said his voice soft. He titled my chin up with one hand so I would meet his eyes, and wiped the tears away with the other. "Please don't cry. I understand now…And I'm so sorry for the way I've treated you…forgive me?" He asked his voice sincere.

I nodded, leaning my head towards Jasper's, he was so close to me, and I could smell him. He smelled like everything. It was amazing. "You're forgiven." I said softly, closing my eyes.

Then, Jasper did something very unexpected. He pressed his lips to mine.

At first I was taken back, but then I decided that this was perfectly okay with me. I pressed my lips back against Jasper's, and brought my good hand up to cup his cheek, and Jasper mimicked my action with both of his hands. His lips were soft against mine, and for some strange reason, it felt right.

Too soon, Jasper ripped his lips off of mine, pushing himself up off my bed, and running towards the door.

"Jasper! Wait!" I called out from the bed.

He paused just as he was about to leave, and looked over at me. His expression was not hard like it was expecting it to be. He was actually smiling a little. "I'm sorry…I'll be back tomorrow…" And then he was gone. Jasper's tone had been much lighter than I'd ever heard it, and I didn't think he realized that he was smiling, or sounded so bubbly. He must like me, because that was one hell of a kiss.

I was sure he'd deny his feelings, but I knew deep down, that he wouldn't deny them forever. I leaned back against the pillows, and sighed. Maybe I could crack open that hard shell of his, and we could become friends…and possible more…

TBC…