Chapter 10

I ran into my class with just seconds to spare, plopped into the closest empty seat and started taking out my books. I ignored the person that came to sit beside me when all of a sudden a Starbucks slid into my field of vision.

"You are trying to bribe me aren't you??" I graciously accepted the coffee. With such a long day at work and after running into Logan outside of the store, I was running on empty and didn't bother to stop and grab something to eat.

"Well, I figured you might want another and it was on my way." Jasper smiled, as he got ready for class to start.

"I don't suppose this is a coincidence, you being in another one of my classes?" I watched his face for a reaction and I was willing to bet if he could, he'd be blushing. I took a long swig of my drink and immediately felt the caffeine perk me up a bit.

Jasper looked around the classroom and then slowly turned to look at me and spoke so quietly that I had to lean towards him, his sweet scent enveloping me with every breath that I took as I waited for him to respond. "Would it be so terrible of me to admit that I easily hacked into the school's computers and got your schedule and then changed mine so we were in the same classes?" When he finished he was looking at me, his face scrunched up as if he was waiting to be reprimanded by his mother. It was beyond adorable.

I leaned back and laughed. I wasn't sure whether this should bother me or flatter me. I decided to go with flatter. Yes, definitely flattered. "No, Jasper, I think it's great that we'll be in the same classes. Now we both know someone in every class and we can swap notes, study together and whatnot. This might actually be one of the best ideas ever!" The more I thought about it, the more excited I became at what he had done. I had dreaded going into classes where I didn't know anyone and would stick out like a sore thumb. Plus, I really didn't want to make the effort to make new friends, no matter how hard Jake pushed me to do so. This couldn't be working out any better.

"You know, you didn't have to admit you did that." I was surprised he was so immediately forthright when I had asked him the question.

"Why not? It's not such a big deal is it? With both our situations being what they are, I thought you wouldn't mind. Plus, what is the benefit of trying to hide it? I don't believe in lying or hiding the truth Bella." He looked at me as if he were stating the total obvious. It was a refreshing change to hear Jasper say those words. Edward was always one to hide the truth from me, especially if he thought it would hurt me. I appreciated Jasper being so blunt.

Hey, wait a minute. "Our situations? What do you mean?" I have a situation? What is he talking about? Yea, I've got problems, but I wondered if that was what he meant.

Jasper leaned toward me and whispered. "Look, the prof is here so we'll have to finish this conversation later. Do you want to go out after class? You haven't eaten anything in a while so let's go someplace where you can eat."

I was taken by surprise by his last comment. "How do you know I'm hungry?"

"I can sense your hunger." He replied as if it were no big deal.

Wow, he can sense my hunger? I didn't realize he could read that deep into emotions. Yes, I thought he could feel happy, sad, anger, etc., but something as obscure as hunger, I'd better watch myself around him since I barely had control of my emotions on the best of days. I'd be putting him through the wringer if we spent a lot of time together. "Actually, I'm starved. I had a crazy day at work and didn't get a chance to eat during my break or stop and grab something on the way here so, yes, I'd love to get a bite." Jasper's eyebrows raised as he waited for my statement to sink in. My eyes shot open to the size of saucers. GOD, open mouth, insert foot. Nice work Bella. I felt my cheeks go red, something that was becoming a habit around Jasper. "Sorry, again, poor choice of words. You want to keep me company while I eat?"

"I would be very pleased to accompany you while you had your late dinner Bella Swan." He smiled at me as he flipped open his laptop.

The professor started the lecture and I found myself having a hard time concentrating. I was excited at the prospect of having Jasper in all of my classes. I had been dreading being alone and attempting to make small talk with strangers and now Jasper had solved that problem for me. Yikes, Jake is going to freak! I was so not looking forward to telling Jake about what Jasper had done. Should I keep it from him? No, definitely not. Jake and I don't have secrets and I wouldn't want to start now, especially over Jasper. After my last conversation with Jake on the matter, I had better not rock the boat and start keeping things from him. Besides, Jake seemed to have some sort of freaky sixth sense and always seemed to know what I was doing. Sometimes that really pissed me off. How did he do that? He always seemed one step ahead of me. Perhaps that was because he knows me better than anyone, sometimes even myself. And now, for the first time since arriving at Dartmouth, I was going out. I couldn't wait. I was actually excited to see something other than school, the gym, the library, my apartment or work. The only places I had been since I arrived.

All of a sudden my MSN messenger popped up and I had a message from Jasper.

"Are you okay?" He typed.

"Yes, why?" I typed as I looked at him and frowned.

He quickly typed back. "Well, let's see, in the past minute you just went from being really excited, to feeling completely guilty, then a burst of anger and then relaxing and becoming really excited again. I've never experienced someone go through so many emotions in the span of 60 seconds. What's up?"

I laughed. Poor Jasper was in for a roller coaster ride if he was going to be spending any time with me. What had he gotten himself into?

I quickly responded. "Sorry, that's just me working through my emotions and my mind doing its usual a mile a minute processing. I'd like to say I'd control it so it doesn't affect you, but I know that's not possible."

I watched his reaction as he read my message. He looked up at me, rolled his eyes and gave me a full-blown smile. My breath actually caught in my throat. I don't think I had ever seen Jasper fully smile at me before. His entire face changed and I could almost say that I wouldn't have recognized him if someone showed me a picture of him with that expression. His eyes had lit up like there was a tiny bulb behind them. His forehead actually moved back and made his eyes seem even wider and his face more open. His perfect white teeth sat behind two plump lush lips that had pulled back into the most perfect even smile. God, he is incredibly gorgeous! My knees would have gone weak had I been standing. My heart sped up as I continued to take in the sight of this perfect man smiling at me. He looked at me curiously as I realized that he could hear that my heart beat had changed.

I turned back to the lecture and tried to focus on the matter at hand, class. Right, I was here to learn. Focus Bella, focus. For some reason my eyes kept drifting toward Jasper and what he was doing. I watched as his long elegant fingers quickly danced along the keyboard of his laptop. It was a symphony of movement and I found myself lost in thought as I slowly became entranced by his every move. As he continued to type, he exhaled a long slow breath and I was captured again by his sweet smell, which immediately began to dazzle me. I needed to slap myself and stop staring. I noticed Jasper glance sideways at me and I nearly died on the spot. Please GOD tell me I am not giving off inappropriate feelings as I tried to focus on the class.

Class seemed to crawl along and I could barely concentrate on the matter at hand. At this rate, I was going to have to borrow Jasper's notes. Once it finally ended, we quickly gathered our things and headed out the door. We decided to go to a little pub that was just on the outskirts of campus. I had heard from a few of the customers that came into the store that it was the place to hang out at night and it had great food.

When we arrived at the pub there was a band setting up and the place was starting to get pretty busy. Jasper was able to find us a table at the back and we sat down immediately. What total luck! The waitress was at our table immediately. I was impressed by the quick service until I realized that she had ulterior motives for being so prompt, she must have seen Jasper and I come in as she was shamelessly flirting with him. I tried not to giggle as I watched him squirm in his seat. When the waitress finally tore her attention away from Jasper, I ordered way more than I knew I would ever eat but the last thing I had put in my mouth was well over 12 hours ago. Well, except for the Starbucks that Jasper had so thoughtfully bought for me.

Once we, well, I, got the ordering out of the way and the waitress had brought us our beers (Jasper ordered one as well so as to not look conspicuous), we sat back and began to listen to the band start their first set. They were really good and were really livening up the place.

Jasper and I had spent the time since we arrived at the pub in comfortable silence, but I really wanted to finish the conversation we had started earlier so, I decided to dive right in. "So, what exactly did you mean earlier when you mentioned our 'situations'?" I had been dying to know what Jasper had read into our last meeting and couldn't wait to hear what he had to say.

Jasper cleared his throat and slowly looked around the pub. I had already noticed in the few conversations that I had had with Jasper since we became reacquainted that he really seemed to think about what he was going to say before he actually spoke. I had never noticed this before. We had never sat down and had one on one conversations in the past. Even during the whole James fiasco, he remained on the outskirts and let Alice do the majority of the talking and caring for me.

"Well, as I see it, you are here, not necessarily on your own accord, to move forward and start living again, to make new relationships, to learn to trust again, to open up and allow someone in. Although it might not be blatantly apparent, I am also here for the same reasons. I want a relationship, I want to open up to someone and I want to be trusted. I had no idea how I was going to accomplish this goal as I am loath to bring a complete stranger into my life. So, it makes sense that, since we have similar goals, we help each other out, stick together and be supportive to one another and, if you will allow it, I'd like for us to become close friends Bella. I really would." Jasper finished speaking and began to play with the sweat on his beer glass. He never once looked at me while he was speaking because really, he could feel my response before I even said it. While I processed what he just said, I could feel my face breaking into the goofiest smile. He looked up at me and gave me the biggest smile back.

"Jasper, I would love nothing more than to be those things for you and I would love it for you to be that for me as well. And, as you said so perfectly, I really don't want to put any effort into getting to know anyone here either. I just want to do my time, so to speak, and get out of here." I raised my glass to his and offered a toast. "Here is to new friendships!" He clinked his glass to mine and we both took a swig of the drink. I almost spit my drink out as I watched the expression on his face. I almost thought that mouthful of beer was going to come right back up at the table.

"Oh, Jasper." I laughed. "You didn't have to drink it!"

Just as he was about to respond, he sat straight up as something behind my shoulder caught his attention. If I didn't know better, I could have sworn that I heard Jasper start to growl. I was about to turn around when I was suddenly verbally accosted from behind. "Bella Swan, if I didn't know any better I would swear you were on a date." I recognized the nasal voice immediately and knew that Needy Stevie had approached our table. I rolled my eyes at Jasper and turned around.

"Hello Steve, I'm surprised to see you here." I thought this place was supposed to be the "in" place to be. "This is Jasper. Jasper, this is Steve. We work together." I certainly did not feel the need to straighten Steven out on his misreading of my friendship with Jasper. I turned back to Jasper and made a funny face. Jasper glared at Steve and tried not to laugh out loud at my antics.

"Nice to meet you, Steve." Jasper made no effort to reach out and offer his hand to shake.

"Yes, it is very nice to meet you Jasper." Needy drawled. "Any friend of Bella's is certainly a friend of mine."

I made a fake gagging motion to Jasper who, again, tried to stifle his laughter.

"Would you mind if I joined you?" Needy asked as he started to pull a chair from another table in order to sit at ours.

My eyes must have popped three times their normal size as I looked at Jasper trying to quickly figure out how to get rid of him.

"Actually Steve, I was just about to update Bella on some very personal matters of mine which I would not be comfortable discussing in front of a complete stranger. Perhaps another time?" If I didn't know better, I would swear that Jasper was attempting to dazzle Steve. I had no idea that dazzling worked on the same sex and, I have to say, I was enjoying watching the show.

"Oh, okay. I'm sorry to have intruded. It was nice to meet you Jasper. See you at work Bella." Needy responded in a flat monotone voice.

As he turned and walked away, I couldn't hold in my laughter. "Jasper, that was outright nasty, but I absolutely am in your debt for doing that for me." I held my sides as I laughed harder than I remember having laughed in some time.

"So, what's the story with Steve?" Jasper asked. "I don't even know the guy and your feelings of annoyance hit me so hard that I almost wanted to stand up and deck the guy!" He laughed.

"He's just an annoying guy that I work with." I responded.

"He's obsessed with you. I could feel it immediately. He was jealous when he saw me here with you. I'd watch myself with him if I were you, I don't like him at all. Gives me the creeps." He said as he looked over my shoulder to see where Needy went.

"Really? The creeps? Gee Jasper, I didn't know you could be so affected by such a nerdy little human." I teased him. He looked at me and smiled as he realized I was making fun of him.

I spent the next fifteen minutes entertaining Jasper with my wonderful Needy stories. The waitress arrived with my food and again made eyes at Jasper. I had ordered a chicken breast sandwich with fries and a side order of onion rings. I immediately dug in while Jasper tried his best to give the waitress the hint that he wasn't interested. I couldn't remember the last time I was this hungry or the last time that I had really looked forward to eating. For so long food was just a means to survive, I didn't care what I ate or what it tasted like. I just did it because I had too. I took my first bite of the sandwich and starting moaning. I think I must have shoved a couple of handfuls of fries into my mouth and was about to pop in an onion ring when it dawned on me that I was being a complete and utter pig right in front of Jasper.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry. I haven't eaten since breakfast and I am dying. I didn't mean to turn into a total glutton right in front of you." I put my sandwich down and wiped my mouth. I was so embarrassed.

"Please Bella, continue. I love watching you eat. Keep going." He said as he waved a hand toward my food.

I was about to take another bite of my sandwich when I noticed Jasper glance over my shoulder again and his eyes narrowed into little slits. I couldn't be sure but I thought his nostrils flared slightly and he became visibly tense. Another growl started to emanate from him. "What's going on? Is Needy on his way back over?" I asked him as I was about to turn around.

"Well, well, Miss Bella. Imagine running into you here, and, on what appears to be a date no less."

The deep rich tones of his voice washed over me and I knew immediately who it was. I sat straight up in my chair and slowly turned around to find myself staring straight at the belt buckle of Logan Connors. My eyes took in the tall drink of a man in front of me and I found myself at a loss for words.

"Well Bella, are you going to introduce me to your date?" Logan looked at Jasper and extended his hand, "Hi, I'm Logan Connors. Nice to meet you...?" He waited for Jasper to respond.

Jasper continued to look at me before meeting Logan's gaze. "Earth to Bella, are you going to introduce me to your friend?" Logan asked as Jasper stood up and shook Logan's hand as he nodded his head as a hello. Jasper sat back down without saying a word, still waiting for any sort of reaction from me.

"Why is it that when a female is enjoying a night out with a male, it's automatically a frigging date?" I snapped at him. Logan's eyes widened at my outburst. Wow, that was totally rude. "I'm sorry, this is Jasper. Jasper is a good friend of mine from back home. This isn't a date. We're just friends." Okay, I'm officially rambling and officially psychotic.

I quickly noticed Jasper's expression go from one of confusion to one of almost hurt. I immediately felt bad, but wasn't quite sure why. This wasn't a date, I wasn't lying.

"Well, it certainly was nice to see you out and about Bella. I do hope to see you again soon. I won't keep you from your friend." Logan glanced back and forth between Jasper and I before he turned and walked toward the bar. I couldn't help myself, I totally checked out his ass while he departed. I turned toward Jasper and saw him looking at me with an expression that reflected well, nothing.

"You certainly seem quite popular Bella." Jasper said as he went back to tracing circles on the table with the sweat from his drink.

"Yeah, well, popularity is over rated." I said as I went back to my dinner.