First of all, I would just like to say this: Don't judge him yet. You'll all know what I mean once you start reading.

Anyway, thank you to my lovely reviewers, even though fanfic screwed up right after I'd updated! i was all 'GRR!' ;)

Disclaimer: Don't own Twilight :(

The sun was only just rising when I woke up.

It took me several seconds to find the will to drag my eyelids open, and then another few more to register that I was numb from the early morning frost, and then more time to realise I wasn't even at home - or inside, for that matter.

I edged myself to the side slightly with a nudge of my shoulder, which sent a dull throb of pain down my back. I sniffed irritably and slowly curled myself into a foetal position on the…ground, I guessed. I could feel the cold and damp morning dew seeping through my clothes from the grass and I laid there, reluctant to move despite the cold - so I made the connection that I was in fact lying on ground. I'm a true genius, I know.

I was aware that I couldn't feel the cold as much as I normally would; probably from lying on the cold ground all night, my body temperature had dropped. Thinking back, I began to remember the events of the night as I eased my mind out of sleep. As I did this, the groan which was slowly building in the back of my throat grew louder and louder. I'd never been a truly reckless or irresponsible person, but last night really got the better of me.

Yeah, new Bella made new friends.

I heard a chuckling beside me, low and mocking and incredibly familiar. I'd grown used to that laugh, over the last two weeks. I heard it daily. I turned my head and was met by a pair of bright green eyes, staring intently back at me.

Jamie Walker smiled widely, his eyes twinkling in the light of the brightening sky. "Welcome back," he sang teasingly. He raised one, amused eyebrow. "You must have drank enough to get a fully grown man drunk."

I squeezed my eyes shut again and attempted to shake my head - which felt as heavy as a boulder. "You are hilarious," I groaned slowly. Jamie only laughed.

He was about a month younger than me, but with the maturity of someone the age of ten who somehow managed to both drink and drive - preferably not at the same time. He was new at Forks High last month, but I'd never spoken to him until a little while ago. I sat with him at lunch; one of the few sunny days in Forks in which the Cullen's were gone. I hated those days. The only days I was ever away from Jasper, mostly…

After that, I hadn't gotten rid of Jamie for the rest of the day. So in those few remaining hours of the school day I managed to pick up on his most common personality traits: sarcasm and cynicism - I'd become much the same.

I heard the rustling of Jamie's movements beside me, then something blotted out the glimmers of sunlight. I opened a single, cautious eye to see him standing in front of me. His black hair fell over his forehead messily, but in a way that he always did on purpose. He stood with his hands on his hips, grinning menacingly. "Time to get up, Swan," he chuckled.

I let out a short cry of defiance and dropped my head back down. I'm never drinking again, I kept thinking. Ever, ever, ever, ever…

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," Jamie complained light-heartedly. I felt his hands closed around my forearms and he yanked me to my feet in one swift - if not too swift - movement. My head seemed to spin in a dozen different directions at once. I swayed left and right before collapsing forwards again, not entirely unintentionally. Unfortunately to the part of me that just wanted to fall down and sleep, Jamie caught me. He fell back slightly into a crouch before standing up straight again. He swore and pulled me against him as he started dragging me down the street, muttering something about someone as young as me not supposed to be getting a hangover.

"Sleep…" I grumbled lengthily, moaning melodramatic sobs. My feet were mostly being dragged along behind me, unable to keep up with Jamie's quick footsteps. After a while I gave up even attempting to walk, though; instead supporting myself by grabbing fistfuls of Jamie's black jacket - which I had never seen him without.

"All right, Drowsy," Jamie muttered. "The other dwarves are waiting…"

I didn't open my eyes as Jamie bent down and placed his hand across the back of my knees, sweeping me - none too gently - into his arms. I gasped in shock and for a moment my eyes darted open, catching only a glimpse of the trees around us before closing again. "Why…trees…cold…" I managed to say. I was aware that I was only speaking one word from three sentences. I hoped Jamie would understand at least one of them.

"Hey, don't blame me!" Jamie chuckled. "You're the one who passed out on me last night. I was just trying to get you home."

I groaned again and buried my face in his chest, shaking my head as though I could erase everything that happened after the not-so-great Grand Theft Alcohol incident last night. Charlie was going to kill me for this…

"Almost there," Jamie announced with sickening happiness.

"No," I exclaimed in a whisper. "Not home…"

Jamie chuckled again. "No, not home," he explained. "I got a call from your carer." He laughed shortly at that. "He said he had the perfect thing to cure your headache, so I'm taking you to him."

"Carer…?" I grunted.

Another laugh. "Only Forks' favourite manic-depressive," Jamie muttered sarcastically. "Jasper Hale."

And despite myself, I smiled.

Ten minutes later, Jamie knocked loudly on the Cullen's front door - after having dropped me back onto my feet, and then catch me again when I promptly collapsed against him. The knocking made me cringe back painfully, with a mumbled exclamation of hatred as my head started feel it was splitting open. Any noise over the volume of a twig snapping was offensive to me right then.

I briefly wondered what the Cullen's would usually be doing this early in the morning. Hunting, maybe? Or did they sit around the dining room table and have family time? Nothing would surprise me much. Well, nothing remotely within reason.

But theyobviously didn't do a lot, as they'd ordered a half-dead Bella to care for.

I eased my eyes open one at a time, thankful that I was facing away from the merciless sunlight - a dull yellow and orange colour, seeping through the trees. Jamie glanced down at me out the corner of his eye - latched onto his shoulder - and smirked.

"You're looking a lot-" He started to say, but then the door creaked open and he cut himself off.

"Jazz!" I mumbled happily, stumbling in his general direction. I was caught in a pair of strong arms and swung in a semicircle into the manor - I could only tell by the sudden warmth which enclosed around my otherwise frozen body.

"Get him out of here!" Jasper's voice hissed lividly in my ear. I was glad to hear it again, regardless.

"Everything OK?" Jamie called. I noticed the door was closed behind Jasper, with Jamie still outside…in the sunlight.

Stupid, Bella.

"I'm fine, Jay," I assured him, my voice just louder than a whisper as I moved to stand by the door. "Just go home."

"Surely do," he chuckled. "See you later then, Bella."

I waited as his footsteps made there way back across the porch, before I could no longer hear them at all. I breathed out heavily and turned to face Jasper, expecting to be bombarded with questions about Jamie…

But I was instead greeted with a wide smile. Jasper rested his hands on my shoulders and scanned my face in seconds, smiling calmly the whole time. "I missed you, you know" he whispered, as though it was a secret.

I laughed softly. "I missed you, too," I whispered back.

Jasper chuckled quietly and nodded his head in the direction of the kitchen. "You're fan club is waiting." He leaned towards me and lowered his voice to a theatrical whisper. "They're throwing you a rather extreme 'Welcome back/almost your birthday' party."

I frowned and shook my head disbelievingly. "It's been two days since I last saw you all," I pointed out. "And I really don't want a birthday party."

Jasper rolled his eyes and shrugged. "It's mostly Alice - But Esme and Edward couldn't help themselves, either. Your birthday was just an additional excuse. They thought it appropriate to make up for the time we lost." He grinned. "They lost," he corrected himself.

"Jasper!" Alice's high, soprano voice called from the bottom of the stairs. I turned around to see the small vampire with her hands on her hips, frowning deeply at Jasper. "You gave away the surprise!" She complained.

Jasper shook his head. "I'm sure Bella guessed. You take any opportunity for a party."

I smiled, forcing my eyes to stay open. I wanted to just blurt out I was tired like a four-year-old and throw a tantrum, but I wouldn't disappoint them if they'd gone through the trouble of a party.

…At about one in the morning…when I'm hung over…when they disappointed me for months in a row.

But even new Bella hated to disappoint people.

Some things just don't change.

Alice let out a sigh but still smiled at me. "Wait there for a minute," she said brightly. "Be happy, we don't have alcohol." Then she disappeared again.

Jasper sniffed a laugh and rested his chin on my shoulder from behind. "I think someone needs an energy boost," he noted in a whisper.

I grunted in a agreement; shortly before my headache began to simmer away, along with the weight which had made keeping my eyes open a battle.

I blinked once and grinned up at Jasper. "Nice trick, and…" I paused and bit my lower lip nervously. "Wont Charlie be-"

"Taken care of," Jasper interrupted calmly. "He thinks you slept here last night."

"Someone! Hold her down!"

"Bella! Stay still!"

"You think that's possible for her?"

"Shut up, Emmett."

"Harsh, dude!"

I chuckled at the brief exchange of words between Emmett and Edward, with an impossibly wide smile across my face the whole time. In all honesty, my sudden burst of energy and enthusiasm wasn't entirely Jasper's doing. Sure, he was the only reason I was still on my feet - rather than passed out in a heap on the floor - but he wasn't the reason for me jumping up and down around the manor like an escaped mental patient. I wasn't sure where my sudden upbeat attitude had come from - clearly not from Jasper, judging from his reaction to my abrupt elation - but it had already made me forget about my night out with Jamie and the others. I was unimaginably grateful for that, believe me.

I felt a hand press against my lower back and I stumbled slightly. My left foot slipped forward and I fell back, although not very far. I was caught instantly and found myself staring up into the amused face of Edward. "You're going to give yourself a stroke, Bella," he chuckled, setting me back on my feet again.

I sniffed in dismissal of the comment. "Can't I enjoy myself?" I huffed.

And truthfully, I was enjoying myself. I was actually rather glad to be with the Cullen's again, despite everything. But don't go thinking it's because timid Bella can't handle being on her own, or that I could never go on without them. No, that's not it at all. It's simply that I'd gotten used to seeing them before, and it felt like I was falling back into my comfortable routine again. Being with Edward…Alice…all of them, it felt familiar. But I was not foolish enough to think I would ever feel the same family-like devotion to them again. I'd grown up a lot over the last few weeks. I was not that naïve anymore, and I knew they weren't my family.

Not to all of them, anyway.

"Of course you can," Edward replied calmly. He smiled crookedly. My heart didn't leap. "Just do not destroy the furniture."

I forced myself to smile back at him.

The party was as Jasper told me: Extreme. Alice had really outdone herself this time. She had gone for a theme of lilac and dark purple, decorating practically every room she thought I might go in. A banner was hung up across the staircase now, with the words Happy Almost-Birthday, Bella! written across it in italics. Several balloons were scattered across the floor of every downstairs room (with the same words as the banner). I hadn't seen the high-praised cake yet, though. That was what I was most dreading - and Alice couldn't shut up about it.

I tuned out the sound of the stereo, playing random songs I barely even knew, as Edward leant down and lightly kissed me on the lips. I was still not getting used to that…

I pulled away quickly and forced another smile before I turned around. I caught sight of Jasper as he was making his way out the front door. He met my gaze for a moment from across the room, and I could see the sadness in his expression, even deeper in his eyes. I followed after him without thinking.

The sun shone brightly through the treetops, for the third time this week. I wasn't liking this new weather Forks was picking up - I was seeing Jasper less and less as a result of it.

He was sitting down, leaning again a tree, when I spotted him again. His head was leaning back against the trunk and his eyes were shut lightly. He looked completely peaceful. His skin sparkled beautifully in the sunlight, like a million diamonds.

I approached him slowly, careful not to make any noise to disturb him, although he could probably hear me making my way towards him as well as I might hear a rhino charging at me.

What a gorgeous comparison, Bella.

I sat down beside Jasper and hugged my knees to my chest, watching him silently out the corner of my eye. He made no move to show he was aware of my presence, but he started speaking practically the moment I sat down.

"They expect me to go along with them," he said in a whisper. I could see the lilac shade around his eyes more clearly now; glistening slightly. "They think I'm going to go back to just being Alice's husband, and nothing more to you. But I'm not going to. But you already knew that, didn't you?"

I breathed in deeply and nodded absentmindedly. "I knew," I sighed.

A small smile crept onto Jasper's face, but his eyes remained closed. This was so much like that day outside the school…trying to see a blue sky that wasn't there. But now it was.

"I won't leave you, Bella," Jasper assured me. "Not for anything, or anyone."

I smiled and edged closer to him. "Thanks, Jazz."

He gradually opened his eyes to look at me, bright golden and beautiful, and grinned. The sun cast an even brighter light on Jasper as it rose higher in the sky, making him sparkle like a crystal. He leaned towards me and for a moment I was struck with the crazy delusion that he might kiss me, but he stopped a few inches from my face. Oddly, my second thought was how much I wouldn't have minded. After that, about a dozen questions popped into my head at once, none of which I could answer. Some of which I didn't want to answer. I examined my emotions for a moment, finding nothing but confusion.

Jasper frowned suddenly, his head tilting at an angle ever so slightly. "Well aren't we an emotion rollercoaster today?" He observed.

"Huh?" I coughed and shook my head, letting out a short, anxious chuckle. "Sorry. I guess I've made myself tired again," I lied smoothly.

Jasper - being Jasper - just grinned and pushed himself to his feet, pulling me up beside him. "Let's get you home then."

I am home, I thought.

"All right," Is what I said.

BTW, Jamie was not just randomly thrown in for fun (although I wrote him in honour of my little sarcastic friend Matt) He shall return...

ANyways, let me know what you thought!! I love reviews! And i'd like to know what you all thought of Jamie.

(and don't think Bella's letting go of the whole abandonment thing yet..)

Soffie
xxxx