Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or the characters. Thanks a million to my beta, CrystalRaindrop!
Age Chart
Alice: 10, Jazzy: 13, Em: 16, Rose: 15
I'm a house of cards
In a hurricane
A reckless ride
In the pouring rain
She cuts me and the pain
Is all I wanna feel
She'll dance away just like a child
She drives me crazy
Drives me wild
But I'm helpless when she smiles
~ Helpless When She Smiles - The Backstreet Boys
When She Smiles — Chapter Nine
Previously ...
"I love you," she whispered again, and she held onto me even tighBter, as if she was afraid I would disappear.
"I love you, too, baby girl," I breathed.
"Stay with me," she begged me sleepily, and I smiled, kissing her forehead.
"Forever," I promised, and I wish that I had known, in that moment, how fleeting our forever would last.
January 2nd, Monday, 2012 - 1:55 PM — Alice POV
"I fell down," he said, and his voice was so full of conviction that I almost believed him. But then I remembered him climbing through my window last night, blood falling steadily from the gash on his forehead. I remembered hiding the swelling as best as I could this morning before bandaging the gash, and I remembered his cry of pain when, at one point, I pressed the powder brush too hard against the tender skin. "I tripped on the front step," he continued, and I played nervously with my fingers as I waited for him to come back to my side.
"Who bandaged this for you?" my Daddy asked, and I swallowed hard as I waited for Jazzy's reply.
"My mom did," he lied smoothly, and my Daddy nodded.
"All right. Well, be careful — try not to break the scab open again. Your mom did a pretty sloppy job — it needs to be bandaged tightly until it heals, all right?"
Jasper nodded quickly, and then ran to my side, grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet in the same moment. We were already running across the yard when he yelled a grateful, "Thank you, Mr. Cullen!"
My Daddy just smiled and waved as we ran away.
"Where are we going?" I asked, and Jasper grinned. "You'll see," he said quietly, and I felt my heart beat fast and my cheeks flush as he kissed my hand softly.
It had been two months since he'd shared his deepest secret with me, and nothing much had changed.
He still climbed through my window every night, and every morning I took away his pain the only way I knew how. I covered the bruises and the swelling with make-up, and I held him all night, chasing away the nightmares. Sometimes they still came, though, and he would wake up sweating and crying, trying to fight away the imaginary monsters that were, somehow, less frightening than the one waiting for him at home.
The one thing that had changed, though, was the amount of bruises, and cuts, and swelling that I saw covering his pale body each night.
Every night, there were new bruises, new wounds. But Jasper never said much about them — just, 'how will I explain that one?' or 'it looks worse than it is, I promise'. He never spoke a word about how it was his father that hurt him.
He never complained.
He always said 'This pain is nothing compared to the pain of leaving you' or, more recently, 'At leats it's me, and not Rosie' and 'He stopped hurting my mom. She smiles more now'.
Rosalie was Jasper big sister, and Em's girlfriend. She was really pretty. She was two years older than Jasper, and five years older than me — so we didn't play together a lot. She was nice, but she was really quiet, and I couldn't help but wonder sometimes ... if she had ever seen her Daddy hurting my Jazzy.
"Ali?"
I was snapped from my thoughts by Jazzy's soft voice. I smiled and turned to look at him, my heart beating fast as our eyes met. I couldn't speak; my mouth opened again and again, but no sound came out.
Jasper just continued to smile, and the sight of him so happy made my heart race.
"Dance with me, Baby Girl," he breathed, and he held his hand out, fingers scared and skin pale. I accepted his offering immediately; how could I possibly turn him down? I couldn't — and my mind was too fuzzed, in that moment, to warn him that I couldn't dance ... like, at all.
He was smart, though— he figured it out quickly enough.
I giggled as he hopped around in a circle, cradling one foot in his hands. "Ouch, that hurt," he hissed, and my amused giggles stopped very suddenly then, as I recognized the tone he spoke in — his voice was pained, exposing the same anguish he tried to hide night after night.
"I'm so sorry," I breathed, and I clasped both hands together as I tried to hold back tears. They fell, anyway. I knew I was being silly — I hadn't meant to hurt him, and it wasn't the same at all. But still. I didn't like being the cause of his pain. "I'm sorry, Jazzy!"
He glanced up, his gaze concerned. Had he heard the way my voice had broken when I'd spoken to him? When his eyes met mine, though, he quickly moved across the hard ground and took me swiftly into his arms.
"Oh, baby girl — don't cry. Shhh ... I'm fine, see?" he whispered, and he wiggled his foot for me to see. "It doesn't even hurt anymore."
I hiccuped. I was being stupid, wasn't I?
"Promise?"
He smiled, and kissed me on the forehead.
"I promise, Ali."
But I didn't let it go that easily. He knew he could trust me ... didn't he?
" 'Cause when Daddy asks if you're all right, you sometimes lie. To the teachers, too, and to Emmett. You know you don't have to lie to me ... right? I never ... never want to hurt you. I want to be the one to save you."
Jasper nodded solemly, and the smile slipped from his lips. "I know that, baby girl. Your trust is something I'll never doubt. Your dancing skills, however ... "
A giggle slipped unnoticed past my lips; I smiled, and looked up into Jazzy's eyes, a blush covering my cheeks. He just grinned, and then gently pressed his lips to my forehead once more. He knew I liked it when he did that — it made me shiver, but in a good way.
"I've never danced before," I admitted, and why would I? I mean, yeah, I liked dancing around the house, but I'd never danced with anyone else.
"Would you like to learn?"
I cocked my head to the side, confused. "Why?" I asked quietly, and Jasper smiled, his eyes moving away from mine as he shuffled nervously from foot to foot. His blond hair — longer now than it had been in a long time — hung into his sparkling eyes.
"See ... there's a dance, for the middle school kids, in March. And ... Ikindofwantedtoaskyoutogowithme."
I blinked, my eyes glazing over as I tried to make out what Jazzy had said. Too ... fast ... But the word "dance" had registered in my mind quickly, and helped clear up the other words.
Jasper took a deep breath in, and repeated his sentence more slowly this time, blushing like I often did. His cheeks puffed out and his eyes darted up at the sky before finally falling down to meet mine once more.
"Will you go to the school dance with me, baby girl?"
I grinned, and began to bounce up and down.
"Yes! Oh, yes! Do I get to wear a dress? Are you gonna wear a suit, Jazzy? Are — "
Jazzy cut me off, though, by gently pressing his lips to mine. When he pulled away, I clamped a hand over my mouth and my face grew very, very hot. Jasper chuckled airily, and pecked my cheek before leaning back and taking my hand into his. I smiled finally, grinning despite the violent blush that still covered my cheeks.
"Thank you, Ali. You've made me the happiest boy alive."
I giggled, and then I remembered something. I snapped my fingers, forgetting the dance, and even the way Jazzy had kissed me only moments before in the wake of the thoughts that now consumed me. "Oh! Momma is gonna take me to get my hair cut today. I ... " I trailed off then, dropping my eyes from Jazzy's. Would he be mad at me? "I want to get it cut really, really short, like Bella's was when she was sick."
Bella was my best friend — and my big brother Edward's wife. She couldn't see, though — she was blind, and she couldn't go out into the sun or she would get really, really sick, like she had been before. She'd met Edward about four years ago, when I was about six. They were married now, and oh! They had a baby — his name was Teddy, and he was my favorite baby nephew.
"Why would you want to do that, baby girl?" Jasper asked, and his voice was soft.
I shugged, and leaned my head on his shoulder.
"Bella's gonna be able to see soon, and I want to show her how much I love her. I want to get my hair cut just like hers was, because she told me that she thought she wasn't very pretty at that time during her life. I thought ... that if I got my hair cut the same way for when she first sees me ... that maybe I could show her how beautiful I thought she was then, even when she was sick."
Jasper sighed, and I stiffened, thinking the worst. Was he mad? But then I felt his warm breath fan across my cheek, and I felt his smile as he kissed me gently.
"You're so beautiful," he breathed, and his voice was full of awe. "So loving, so caring."
I grinned, blushed, and buried my head in his shoulder. Now that I knew that Jazzy wasn't mad at me, I felt like I was floating.
"So ... " I began, and I smiled as I curled the fabric of Jazzy's shirt in my pale fist. "About this dance ... "
He smiled, and dropped down on one knee. His head bowed, and he held his hand forward, palm up and pale and soft. "Dance with me, my lady?"
I giggled, and clasped his hand tightly in mine.
A prince and his princess.
I love you, Jazzy.
Sorry this took so long to get out! O_O Seriously, this came out sentence by sentence. I have a terminal case of writer's block, and it's proving very hard to get past.
NOTE: I realize that this is short, and it seemed as though nothing was acomplished - and that's because this is the transition chapter from flashes to steady plot-line. A lot of the little things mentioned in this chapter will play a big part a few more chapters in. SO PLEASE DON'T FLAME ME!
See You SOON!
Please Review! ( I accept Anon. reviews, too! So you don't need an account to review. However, Anon. reviewers will NOT receive a sneak peak! )
NEXT CHAPTER:
"Jazzy?" she whispered, and her tiny hand caressed my cheek. I flinched, and choked on a cry of pain. "What ... what happened to you?"
REMEMBER TO REVIEW! IF YOU DO, I WILL SEND YOU AN EXTENDED SNEAK PEAK OF CH. 10!
