Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, any of the characters in Twilight, or anything related to the books and/or movies. If I did, I would be way too busy- doing dirty things with the Cullen boys- to sit down at my laptop and write this story. The scenes that I did borrow from Stephenie Meyer have been revamped to fit my story.

Learning to Live Again

Chapter Eleven: Coming Clean

Neither of us said anything for a good fifteen minutes while we stared at each other from our respective spots in the forest. I was sitting on a large root, leaning against the tree that it had stemmed from while Jasper was standing ten feet across from me in the clearing, hands in his pockets and eyes interested in the floor of the woods.

"Look, one of us has to start, Jasper." I finally broke the silence and smiled when he looked up at me. He didn't smile; his face was still masking confusion and frustration. Welcome to my world, Jazzy.

"I'll go first. At least what I have to say is going to be easily explained. I doubt that you could justify what is going on in your head right now," he stated.

I stood up from my sitting position and walked towards him with fire in my eyes. "I don't have anything to justify, Hale. You enjoyed that kiss just as much as I did!"

He looked back at me with an angry expression that I'm sure matched my own. "I'm not getting into this right now, Bella."

"Then why did you bring me out into the woods, huh?! Did you want to continue what we were doing on the sidewalk? Or were you thirsty?" I knew this would annoy him more, but I didn't care right now. He was able to frustrate and entice me all at one time.

"You know that neither of those were what I had in mind. I just don't want to argue with you right now. Let's just get to the point, so I can answer what you were asking me earlier before you completely lost your marbles," he answered. I was just about to respond, antagonizing him further when he looked at me with quiet desperation. I nodded my head to signal to him that I would now listen and not interrupt. "Thank you," he replied to my silent gesture.

"I know that you learned about us Cold Ones from Jacob. Well, we aren't the only family in Forks with a secret. The Quileute tribe descends from wolves. From what Carlisle and I can figure, our presence here has caused them to start transforming into werewolves like they used to do. Jacob and his friends have formed a rather large pack of werewolves within the last few months."

Wow, he was blunt when he wanted to be. I couldn't help myself and started laughing hysterically. It was all starting to make sense to me. I must've done something horrible in a past life that was now causing my entire world to be shaken upside down every other week.

Jasper, feeling sorry for me, walked forward and threw his arms around my shoulders in a comforting hug.

"Bella, are you okay?" he asked, knowing the answer before he spoke the question. I was once again hanging on by a thread, clutching to Jasper as he was all I had left.

"I just don't know how much more I can grasp. How much more I can handle without losing my mind entirely. Vampires are real, I get it. I loved one even. Then vampire love stomps on heart and flees country. I'm handling it. I'm having strong feelings for vampire love's brother who is married to one of my closest friends. Still unsure of this one. Now the friend that I've had in Forks since I was a little kid making mud pies is a werewolf. Who hates vampires. Not just any vampires, though, the vampires that are my family." I stopped and looked up into his chiseled face. "How am I supposed to react anymore? I don't understand where I fit in with all of this."

"You fit in with us, Bella." He leaned down so that we were eye to eye. "You are a Cullen, whether you're dating one or not. As far as Jacob, I really don't know. It's dangerous to be near him, especially since he knows that you're a part of our family. He's still too young to control himself around you if he were to get angry. I know that your newfound power may be able to help the matter, but it's too uncontrollable right now. I can't let you near him, at least not until we know more about his pack."

I nodded, understanding that Jasper was concerned for my well-being. I would listen to him for now. "What about the other part, Jazz?" I said in a soft voice. "What do we do about that?"

"I have no damn idea," he admitted. We both chuckled, each of us relieved that the other had no clue what was going on or what we should do about it. "Did I do something to make you like me, Bella?"

I smiled up at him. "You were just yourself, Jasper. You were there for me, and we have a lot more in common than I had originally thought. I don't know when this started happening, really. I just know that I cannot control my feelings for you or how I act when I'm with you."

"I can tell," he teased, mentioning our heavy make-out session in front of my house. "But I'm married to Alice, and I know that you still love Edward."

"Don't you feel anything for me at all, Jazz?" I clutched his sides tighter, keeping against me and enjoying that his arms were still draped around my waist.

"Of course, I do, Bella. You're amazing. I just don't know where the line is between friendship and love. I've only ever loved two women in my existence, and they were both vampires. We feel things differently from humans, we take things more seriously. I could never just throw away what I have with Alice for something that could potentially go nowhere. Do you understand?"
"Yes," I answered sadly. "But we both know that there's a way it could go somewhere, Jazz. Alice saw me becoming one of you, but she didn't see why. Maybe I wasn't meant to be with Edward. Maybe I was meant to be with his brother."

"Who are Alice and Edward meant to be with then, Bella?" he questioned me.

"I'm not the one who sees the future, Jasper. I just break things with my mind."

Without knowing what I was doing, I leaned up and kissed him again. Sure enough, the innocent kiss turned into a much more intense one, resembling the one that had happened less than an hour ago. This time, there was no car to stop us.

I moaned against Jasper's mouth, his tongue caressing mine and shoved him back against the tree I had been sitting on earlier. He laughed at my roughness and grabbed my legs, pulling me up his body until I wrapped them around his waist. Jasper turned us so that I was against the tree now, being supported by it as well as him. He clutched my hips harder as his kisses moved from my mouth down my jaw line and to the hollow of my throat, causing me to moan lightly.

I suddenly felt a vibrating coming from between us and while I knew that we were excited, I was also smart enough to deduct that it wasn't coming from Jasper and me. I reached into the front pocket of his jeans, probably lingering longer than I needed to and pulled out his cell phone. Without bothering to answer it, I threw it to the forest floor. How dare someone try and interrupt us while we were like this?!

Jasper chuckled at my action before returning his mouth to my own. I had never felt so lost in my own lust before. Kissing an empath definitely had its advantages. He could feel the lust coming off of me which caused him to feel more of his own lust and then in turn returned it back to me. It was breath-taking.

It was my turn now. I broke away from his lips and moved mine to the strong line of his jaw, nipping gently as I moved down to his neck and raked my blunt teeth along it to his throat where I placed one gentle kiss. My hands had managed to unbutton the top three buttons of Jasper's shirt, allowing me to trace my tongue down to his hard chest. He growled again and decided it was his turn to take control of the situation, pushing his own hands underneath my shirt and making their way up to my breasts.

Edward had never touched me like this before. I was so lost in the feeling of Jasper pressed against me that I didn't hear anyone approaching us. Jasper must have been disoriented from all the lust coming off of us, because he didn't feel them near either.

"Well, I must say that you are not the person I expected to find in an embrace with young Isabella here," a deep voice said from a few yards away. "Such a shame that I am going to have to spoil your fun by killing her."