TAH-DAH! I've actually updated. My bad, guys! This one is a bit longer though, so I hope that some how makes up for it.
"Anything else you'd want to do today?" I thought for a second at his invitation and decided against it. We'd gone back and forth about his family and all but eventually silence rolled on until he spoke.
"Nah, I'm good. I need to get home eventually." I laughed lightly, the feeling of guilt sneaking up on me again. I'd told my own mother that I would be doing homework under the careful eye of Jasper's adopted parents. Well, no harm no foul, right?
"Ah, sick of my company already?" He was probably joking but I swear I heard the slightest drip of seriousness in his words.
"No no, just need to actually do work." I shook my head, trying to not be too serious. I had a feeling he paid close attention to every word I muttered and took it to heart a little too deeply right now.
"I see, well...we're here." I took a second to realise he'd already been on the road to taking me home for some time now. He'd known?
"Wow." I mumbled as I started trying to undo the seat-belts. It took him maybe a minute of my struggle before he got out of the car and appeared next to me again. His appearance didn't startle me as much as it drew my attention away from the belts entirely.
"So, think you'll stick around after today?" His voice was easy-going for how close he was to my face right now.
"I might be convinced to do that." I cracked a joke, smiling at him as his fingers easily clicked all of my buckles in one swift motion. His eyes met mine quickly, almost scaring me. He was smooth but quick in all of his motions, like a panther that was just waiting for it's prey's defense to fall...that was an odd image.
"We'll see what I have to do then, Darlin'." He stared at me for a moment longer, a warm feeling was settling in my core and it made my cheeks tingle. I'd almost forgotten the feeling of paranoia that my brain kept pushing at me, it was acting like I'd just jumped into a lion's den without knowing it. I feel like anyone would notice if they'd fallen into a pen at the zoo, how could you miss jumping over the railing?
"Right." I declared awkwardly, shoving myself out of the seat in a hap-hazard tidal wave when I realised I hadn't responded yet. I wasn't used to this feeling from him at all and I didn't know what it was exactly, but...I'd figure it out. I always do. I turned back around to grab my backpack to find a smirking Jasper who held it out to me.
"Thanks." I nodded, snatching the bag from his hand and turning to quickly walk up to my house. He didn't say anything back but I heard him shut the jeep's door behind me with measured force.
It was only when I reached my front door did I actually dare to glance at him over my shoulder, he was just leaning against the car with his arms crossed over his chest and that same stupid smirk on his face. He knew something I didn't and I desperately wanted to know what it was. What did he know?
I sped into the house and closed the door behind me, leaning on it to ground myself. I needed to regroup. Badly. I was getting too curious about him and it was a bit distressing, the more I found out, the more I wanted to know. He was like a fun house that I couldn't figure a way out of.
"Naoma?" My mom's voice called out from somewhere deeper in the house. She was the only one that actually said my full name all the time, everyone else did it when they were mad. Right, okay. Just have to deal with my mother, then I could go upstairs and become a potato in my bed.
"Here!" I walked from the door to where I figured she'd be, tending to the plants inside the lounge.
"How was your study date?" Her back was turned as she trimmed a particularly larger and leafy plant.
"It wasn't a date, it was just studying." As soon as I finished the sentence, I knew I said it too fast...what was wrong with me?
"Right." She peered over her shoulder at me, her eyes scanned my figure until she found whatever she'd been looking for.
"I'm tired. I'm going to go lay down." I nodded to myself and turned to leave but stopped myself at the door frame.
"Thanks for the sandwich, by the way." I pursed my lips at the silence.
"You're welcome, honey." She sounded like she was happy so I took that and ran with it, almost literally running up the stairs to my room.
"You're getting too close!" A shrill voice startled me as I realised what I'd done. I was back in the Cullen's house, and it looked to be sometime in the night with Rosalie and the other Cullens gathered around an expansively large living room. I peered around for Edward but he was no where to be found, thankfully.
"Am I supposed to not get close to my mate?" He sounded mad, much more mad than I'd ever seen Jasper. I was shocked and still as I stared at him, his eyes were red and his teeth bared. Good christ.
"Shes not your mate! Shes human!" Rosalie didn't seem very deterred by him but his brother, Emmett had taken a step closer to her. I was confused still by Rosalie's use of the word 'human', like it was blasphemy of the highest degree when she was one herself.
"She is! Shes interested in me." He seemed so sure of this girl that I was almost jealous.
"Everyone is interested in us!" She threw her arms up in frustration.
"Shes not! She's never been enthralled. Doesn't that tell you some-" He was interrupted in his frenzied defense of this chick by a smaller girl who put her hand on his chest...Alice I think. His sister?
"They're just simply meant to be, Rose. I've seen it." Apparently her seeing of things was something to be respected in this household, because everyone went silent at that.
"This is just too risky to the family. Shes a danger." Rosalie declared with a heavy voice, I glanced around the room as some kind of hefty atmosphere settled over everyone. This family was a trip, like a new whole level of theatrics in family discussions.
"I'll prove she's not. If anything happens, I'll take the fall. Alone." He seemed to have issued a challenge that was serious, as if this discussion could actually get more serious.
"Fine." Rosalie had a mischievous glint in her eyes as she nodded, making me feel like I was on a TV show.
"It's getting early. I need to go." Jasper suddenly disappeared out of the room within the blink of an eye, I stared at the place he' had been in for a second. I'm dreaming.
BEEPBEEPBEEPBEE- I slapped the button on the side of my phone, shutting off the alarm in a startled hurry. It felt real, like I'd been eavesdropping on the Cullens again but it turned...weird. It wasn't a dream, but it had to be. I was just wrong. My feeling was wrong, it had to be. People didn't just disappear suddenly.
I found myself staring out the window during lunch again but this time I wasn't daydreaming, I was waiting for Angela to appear finally. History had been...quiet. Quieter than I was expecting considering the underhanded flirting Jasper had been doing when we were alone. Maybe that was it? He was only interested in me when we were alone? Chemistry wasn't nearly as quiet.
"Enjoy your trip?" Rosalie's voice cut through the silence I'd been holding onto for class. I glanced at her from the corner of my eye before I stared back at the exercises I'd finished up last night.
"It was new." I didn't give much away with that, and I had a feeling that annoyed her. It seemed like she'd been wanting more of a reaction from me than I was willing to give, reminding me of Edward in a way.
"Just so you know, I don't like you." She'd lowered her voice when she sat down and more people began filling the room. It felt like that was supposed to hurt my feelings but all it did was make me want to laugh. I elected to ignore her more, not bothering to think when I responded.
"Not like I didn't know that already." Shit. Shit, shit, shit. This was why I didn't talk to people without being hyper aware. It felt tense after, but she didn't say anything else for the rest of class. It felt like she was...thinking hard about something. I could pull that off as a vibe thing-like regular people vibes. Not...my vibes.
"Mind if I take a seat?" I blinked a couple of times at the sudden burst of cold before I actually took in the taller figure of Jasper Hale leaning over the empty seat across from me. Of course it was was him.
"It's a free country." I shrugged, taking another bite out of the apple I'd almost forgot was in my hand. I wasn't sure if I wanted to give him the time of day or just ignore him to actually consider the dream I'd had. It felt so real but it couldn't be.
"Fought hard for that." He nodded absentmindedly as I peered at him for a moment. That caught my attention. Well that and his general appearance, he'd changed clothes from last time I saw him but, his eyes were a darker gold colour today. I pondered what sort of medical condition could actually allow your eyes to change colour on a daily basis.
"Thinking of going into the military?" I questioned as he sat down, looking just as relaxed as ever with an odd assortment of foods on his tray. An orange, lettuce, and some rice with what looked to be salad dressing. It wasn't the only weird thing about him today but that was starting to feel normal to me, and here I thought I was as weird as Forks could get.
"Uh...no, not again." He let out a small sarcastic snort before leaning back into his chair.
"Again?" I continued to eye him for a second, calculating how old he could be...I mean he looked like he was in his late 20s but he couldn't have been 17 and did a year in service, he'd need parental permission. I'd have heard the rumours by now that he was repeating several grades or that he was the only 25 year old in our high school and so far it was just that all the Cullens were doing exceedingly well in classes. That didn't make a single bit of sense, even by my standards.
"I mean, I heard it was rough from...friends." Jasper was back tracking, that heavy feeling of deception settled back over me as I raised a brow. I was suspicious. He knew I was, holding my eyes for a second before his darted off to the side again. I swear he was the slightest bit panicked before he spoke up and he was lying. But what could he possible lie about? That he was actually much older and he was repeating high school?
"Right." I nodded, thinking more so than actually paying attention to the oddball in front of me. That idea didn't feel far off, actually. I'd understand it if it was true, and it kinda felt right that he was older than 17.
"Hiya, Angela." I could feel her eyes searching over my back and the hesitance that seemed to just fall from her in waves when Jasper came into the picture. Oh, right. She liked him, shit. Okay! No more flirting!
"Hey." She was quiet when I turned my head to spot her over my shoulder, I gave her a smile. I was trying to be comforting but everything was...everything wasn't right. I was still missing something but I was electing to focus on my one true friend instead of letting my thoughts run away again.
"This is Jasper." I motioned to the guy across the table that was suddenly silent, "Jasper, this is Angela." At least I introduced them, right? That was something.
"N-nice to meet you." Angela mumbled to us as she pulled back a chair to take a seat next to me after she'd sat her tray down. I felt eyes on my back again and had a sinking feeling that it wasn't just the Cullen's anymore. Jessica and Lauren were totally going to try and interrogate me after this.
There was no Jasper in my English class after the slightly awkward lunch we'd shared. As soon as Angela sat down, he was even more withdrawn than I'd ever felt before, only answering when spoken to directly. It'd felt like he wanted to run as far away as he could when she appeared and I summed that up to nerves. Maybe despite all the blitz and glamour he portrayed, he was actually shy?
I wonder why he was never shy around me...or was he? I mean the guy had showed up to my house before I'd even met him, that probably threw him for a loop. Especially if he met my mom first, she had quite the eccentric character if you didn't take the time to get to know her. Actually she was just ecc-
I stopped in front of my house, staring at the silver car in the driveway. Who the hell was here? My brain went into over drive as I tried to figure out why there'd be a car parked in front of our house when it dawned on me. Stupid. We were having guests stay here this week, terrific, more people I had to deal with.
It'll be fine, they were just guests. It was probably some older couple from Port Angeles that wanted to get away to some where quiet for their vacation. That was the usual type for our town, though one time we'd had a wedding and the betrothed were in their early 30s.
"Hi!" I shouted into the house as I entered, turning to close the door behind me. The house felt crowded as soon as I stepped in, making me frown. It always felt crowded in here when it was more than just my mom and I.
"Oh, thats my daughter. We're in the kitchen!" I could hear the familiar voice of my mom speaking to someone else before she spoke a little louder for me. I took off my shoes next to the door thanks to the mud caked on the bottoms of them before I headed off to the kitchen with my bag hiked over my shoulder. I needed to catch up on my school work from Friday.
"Naoma..." I glanced around the kitchen to see a man, woman, and a guy that seemed to be a little older than me before I focused back on my mom. "These are the Rowlands and their son, Thomas." She motioned to the family across from her with a smile.
"Its lovely to meet you." I forced a pleasant enough smile onto my face as I bobbed my head up and down at them. I really just wanted to go to my room and be left alone for a little while to recharge my mental batteries before dinner.
They smiled back, but I noticed the son's eyes darting around my person before he settled on my face. He was searching for something, but I had no idea what that was. He was...kinda cute actually. He wasn't very muscular or anything but his face was pleasant enough with round brown eyes and jet black hair that had been brushed over to the side of his face haphazardly. He might do well with a hair cut though.
