A/N: So many death threats… -wince- o.o;
Also, ZOMFG! I HAVE 105 FRICKEN REVIEWS!!! ZOMFG!!!!!! -passes out-
My chest was heaving with loud sobs. My vision was blurred and my cheeks stung from the hot tears flowing down them. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it back to the dorm in one piece. The halls were completely deserted, except for the stupid slut and the unfaithful mutt! The imprinting, it was a lie! All those times he'd said he loved me… ugh; I didn't want to think about it. The hatred I felt toward Asia was indescribable. Even if he hadn't faked the imprinting, then obviously even that wolfy spell wasn't enough to keep Seth with me. I was right, I wasn't good enough for him, and apparently, now he knew it, too.
I was at the door of my dorm now. I was positive Jade and Alice could hear my sobs from the inside of the room, but I heard no movement from the inside to come and try to open the door. But, then again, I couldn't hear anything except for my own cries. I hated Asia; I hated her so much more than any other being on the planet. And I hated myself. I hated myself for not being able to hate the dog that betrayed me. I didn't have it in me to hate Seth. Yes, he deceived me, but I still loved him, and I probably always would. I felt my body go limp as I hit the floor. I was curled into the fetal position when the door in front of me was thrown open and Alice and Jade were standing, staring, with identical masks of horror on their faces. My guess was Alice hadn't seen this coming.
"Dear, God!" Jade cried. Alice bent down and scooped me up into her arms. I positioned my body to face away from the hallway so I could look into the bright, colorful dorm room. Or, I assumed it was colorful. Everything looked black and white through my eyes. The world lost its color, its life, its movement at that moment. It lost all emotion. Just like me.
Alice sat me down on her lap as she sat on my bed. I curled into her, resting my head on her shoulder as I continued to cry. Two hands rubbed my back in calming circles. I was able to differ Alice's ice cold hand from Jade's warm one easily. They were trying to comfort me, but their efforts led to no avail. I'd just watched the man I loved; who I thought would love me unconditionally forever, kissing a girl that seemed to walk straight out of my personal hell. I couldn't be comforted very easily.
"You want to talk about it, Jasmine?" Alice asked, her voice barely above a kind whisper.
I shook my head quickly, still sobbing. "No," I said through tears, wiping my face. "But I will anyway."
"You don't have to talk if you're not ready, honey," Jade assured me.
"No, no, I—" sob "—should tell you." I inhaled deeply, trying to compose myself, but choked on another sob before I could get enough air into my lungs. I broke into a cough attack and Alice patted my back lightly to try and steady me. When I could breathe again, I told them everything. At times, I wondered if they understood what I had been trying to tell them. I'd been crying so hard, I could barely comprehend myself.
"And so now I'm just thinking that all this so called love was a lie!" I ended with that, and a searing pain shot through me. It was so painful that I doubled over, clutching the place where my heart was to try and get it to go away. But the pain became sharper and sharper until it was at the point where I just couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. At first, I thought I was having a heart attack, but then, something else occurred to me.
Was this how it felt when a heart was breaking?
If such a thing were possible, I was sure this was how it would feel. Alice held me close to her, rubbing my back to try and calm me.
"I cannot believe it," Jade gasped. "He's… he's… Ugh, I hate him for doing this to her! How could he?!"
"There has to be some explanation," Alice reasoned. "It's not like Seth would just—"
"An explanation?!" Jade was angry. There was a fire in her eyes I'd never seen before. "An explanation for this?! For the fact that he was kissing a girl that is not the love of his life?! He's a liar! A cheat! Unfaithful, ungrateful, scum!"
"Don't talk about him that way!" I screamed. My cheeks were still wet and the bed sheets (not to mention Alice's shirt) showed the proof of my tears, but I wasn't crying anymore. Now, I was just angry. I looked up and saw that Jade was looking at me with a poor-girl-she's-probably-delusional expression on her face.
"I'm not crazy," I said sternly. "I'm serious. Don't. Talk. About. Him. That. Way."
Without a second thought, I carefully pulled myself out of Alice's arms and positioned myself to sit a few inches away from her. There was only one person I needed to talk to right now; the only person who will know exactly how I felt. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Leah's number. She answered on the first ring.
"Hey, Jasmine!" she greeted me. "I was hoping to hear from you soon. I just got settled in my new dorm and I'm waiting for my roommates to arrive. How's everything over there?"
"Hey, Leah," I whispered. I tried to make my voice sound as happy as I could. But, as usual, Leah could tell something was wrong.
"Jasmine, what's going on?" she asked warily.
"I know how you feel now, Lee," I sighed.
"I'm not sure what you're getting at," she said.
Just then, there was a brief knock on the door. I pulled my knees to my chest and tried to focus on staying in one piece as I told Leah what had happened. I felt like a little girl, tattling on Seth to his big sister, but I scarcely cared. I needed to talk to someone who knew how I felt, someone who could empathize, because all I'd been getting before was sympathy, and while I was grateful that Alice and Jade cared about me, I knew sympathy wasn't what I needed now.
Jade's Point of View
"I'll get it," I whispered to Alice when someone knocked on the door. Jasmine was pouring her story out to Leah, Seth's sister. I couldn't wait to see what Leah would do. I hoped she'd give Seth a good butt kicking. He deserved it. So did Asia, for that matter. I hated them both so much. They hurt her. What kind of cruel person had the will to hurt such a sweet girl? He'd said he loved her. What a liar.
I could see in her eyes that she didn't hate him, and that was why she'd told me not to talk about him that way. I could also see that she still loved him more than her own life, and I could tell how much that hurt her. She was angry at him, she wanted to be able to hate him, but she couldn't. I understood that. I probably wouldn't have the strength to hate him, either. After all those times she told him she loved him… I couldn't believe he would throw that away.
I opened the door slowly and I felt the anger boil inside me when I saw who was at the door.
Seth.
That unfaithful loser had the guts to show his face here? Gosh, I wanted to kill him. I walked out of the dorm and closed the door behind me.
"What do you want?" I demanded. My eyes were narrowed as I looked up at him. His face was coated with sadness. Pure sadness. The kid was a good actor.
"Is Jasmine here?" His voice was desperate. He sounded as if he would go insane if he didn't see her. As if it mattered, he apparently was already insane.
"You disgust me," I sneered in his face. "After all the times she's told you she's loved you… She has been completely devoted to you all this time! And what did you do? You threw that away! How sick are you?!"
"Jade, please, please listen to me," he begged. Tears glistened in his eyes and every movement he made was filled with agony. "That wasn't what it looked like!"
I slapped him hard across his face. He flinched to the side, but it didn't seem to hurt him much. In fact, it probably hurt me more than it hurt him. My hand was red and throbbing from the impact, but I was too angry to care.
"Please, just please. I've heard that line enough times to know when it's a lie. You did this to her! Jasmine could've had a heart attack from how hard she was crying! You hurt her! I'll never forgive you for it, and I really hope she doesn't either!"
"Jade, let me explain!" he cried. His cheeks were wet with almost as many tears as Jasmine's had been. His entire body shook with sobs and the anguish was evident in his face. He looked like he was living Jasmine's pain. The look in his eyes—that was what made me step back, cross my arms across my chest, and prepare to listen. Pain like that couldn't be faked. This was real, and he obviously wasn't lying.
"Asia ran into me in the hall," he said, trying to control himself. "She told me what happened and tried to convince me to break up with Jasmine. She tried telling me that she was better for me." He rolled his tearful eyes. "When she heard Jasmine coming, she did the unthinkable."
I rolled my eyes. "Please, just please," I repeated. "Why is it that I don't believe you?"
His expression became one of pleading again. "I'll get her to admit it! But I need you to let me see Jasmine first. I have to explain, tell her I'm sorry. She needs to know what really happened." He looked away for a moment, and when he looked back, I couldn't look him in the eye. I'd never seen such a pained expression on anyone. It was like there was a light inside of him, but it was going out quickly, and he was hanging by a moment, trying to save it from extinguishing completely. But the anguish… the anguish itself was just too much for me to bear. I turned around and put the key back in the lock. I opened the door and peeked inside.
"Jasmine?" I said. "There's someone here to see you."
Jasmine's Point of View
"Oh, my gosh," Leah gasped. "Jasmine, I'm so sorry. I don't know how he could've done that."
"Leah? Was this how you felt? When Sam…?" I let my voice trail off. I heard her suck in her breath.
"Yeah," she said. I could tell she was trying to hold back tears. "Life's a jerk."
I choked on a sob and couldn't say anything.
Leah was full blown crying now. Hearing her tears made me cry as well.
"Jasmine, I don't think the imprinting was a lie. You can't fake the love that my brother felt toward you. And, as far as I'm concerned, nothing out there is strong enough to break an imprint."
"As far as you know," I retorted. "It could be possible! It could be!" I was sobbing loudly by this time. Alice was rubbing my back in comforting circles, a look of frustration on her face. Of course. Seth was a wolf, she couldn't have seen this coming, she shouldn't have warned me, and she couldn't have stopped this.
"Jasmine?" Jade's sweet voice came from the doorway. "There's someone here to see you."
"Leah, hold on a second." I lowered the phone from my ear and cocked my head to the side. "Who is it?" I asked.
Jade stepped aside and opened the door. My hand flew to my mouth when Seth stepped inside the room. Jade clasped her hands together behind her back and shrugged sheepishly.
"He convinced me," she whispered so low I could barely hear her. I didn't know what to say. I couldn't get rid of the elated feeling in the pit of my stomach that I always felt when I saw Seth. But, then again, I couldn't get rid of the frustration and anger I felt, either. What really got me, though, was that the frustration and anger wasn't with Seth—it was with me. I was frustrated and angry with the fact that I couldn't be frustrated or angry with the person who just betrayed me. But I decided to listen to what he had to say. If he convinced Jade—who always saw easily past deceptions—then there was probably nothing to be angry or frustrated about in the first place.
I looked up from my hands and back to Seth. The expression on his face made my tears start flowing again. It seemed to me that he was feeling my exact pain. I gulped. Of course he was—I was his imprint. My pain was his.
"Hi," I whispered.
"Hi," he said back. He sat down on the corner of my bed, clearly not sure if he should sit by me or not. I scooted closer and closer until my knee was touching his. I picked up my phone again and held it to my ear.
"Leah? I'm gonna have to call you back," I said.
"What?! No! He's there, isn't he?! Let me talk to him!" she screamed in my ear.
"Leah, no," I said sternly. "I can handle this alone. I don't need the Big Bad Wolf to come help me."
"Let her talk to me," Seth said. "I probably deserve the verbal abuse she's about to give me." He reached his hand out and I reluctantly handed him the phone.
"Hello?" he said into the receiver. Soon, I could hear Leah's screaming coming from the phone. She was angry—it didn't take a genius to figure that out.
"AND DON'T BOTHER TRYING TO WIN HER BACK!" Leah's words were loud and clear—so loud and clear that I could hear them. The dial tone was the next thing I heard. When he closed the phone and handed it back to me, his expression was one of shock and hurt.
"She had a lot to say," he said softly. "And I deserved every word."
"Alice?" I turned around to face her. "Jade? Can we get a moment?"
"Sure," Alice said reluctantly. She was looking at Seth with angry, disappointed eyes as she and Jade walked out of the room. "We'll be right down the hall if you need us." And with that, she closed the door, and both of them were gone. I leaned forward to rest my head on Seth's shoulder. I looked up at him through my tears.
"I still love you," I said to him. "But I don't understand how you could do that to me."
"I didn't," he sighed. He put one arm around my waist and pulled me onto his lap. I curled up and laid my head on his chest, biting my lip to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill over. "I swear, I would never hurt you intentionally."
"Then, why?!" I cried. "Why did you kiss her?! Did you not at any moment think of how this would make me feel, Seth? Did you?"
"I didn't do it," he said. I felt his tears on my head, but I didn't look up. "My angel, please, believe me. This wasn't my fault. It was that wretched Asia. She heard you coming and decided to…" His voice trailed off silently and sadly.
"I don't know what to believe," I admitted. "I know you'd never hurt me, but what happened today was just too much. I still love you, and I'll always love you, no matter if you feel the same or not."
"Of course I love you," he said. "Please, Jasmine, please believe me."
"I—I—I," I didn't know what to say to him. I wanted to just throw my arms around him and tell him that I believed every word he said, but the events had left me so shaken. I wasn't thinking straight… at all.
"Oh, God, yes, damn it, it was my fault."
That voice sent shivers up and down my spine. My head snapped up and I saw Asia entering the room, a look of clear annoyance on her face.
"Jade and Little Miss Pixie caught up to me," she said, not moving from her place next to the door. "They said that if Jasmine's sobbing caused her a heart attack, it would be my fault. So, yes, Jasmine, I heard you coming, decided to get you back for punching me. And, well, I guess I'm sorry I almost wrecked your relationship and I'm sorry I almost caused you a heart attack." She opened the door and peaked outside. "Can I go now?" she called to—undoubtedly—Alice.
"Did you apologize?" she asked.
"Ugh, yes, Pixie Chick, I did," Asia groaned.
"You can go, then," Alice said. She and Jade came back into the room as Asia swept out of it. I rested my head on Seth's shoulder again and wrapped my arms tightly around him.
"I'm sorry I didn't believe you," I said. "I wasn't thinking straight. I wasn't sure."
Seth put a finger to my lips. "This wasn't your fault." He leaned down to brush his lips against my forehead. "I don't blame you for anything." He leaned down even farther to whisper in my ear. "Well, I only blame you for stealing my heart."
My hands floated up above me and wrapped around his neck. I pulled myself close to him and regretted every single bad word I'd thought of him. Silently, I begged for his forgiveness.
"I just couldn't bear the thought of losing you to someone else—especially not her." I refused to say her name at this point. I despised her.
"If you think I can ever love someone besides you, you're crazy," he said. He took my face delicately in his hands and planted a sweet, tender kiss on my lips. I took it upon myself to deepen the kiss to the point where Alice—the one who'd always told Jasper to lighten up—had to clear her throat in a parental manner.
"Jasper's starting to rub off on me," she whispered half to herself.
I pulled away from Seth and smiled at him, breathing heavily.
"Jasmine, you know there are people in here, right?" Jade teased.
"No one said you had to watch," I laughed.
"Seth, I think you better get going. Emmett and Jasper are probably wondering where you are."
"Rooming with Emmett?" Jade asked, raising an eyebrow. "I feel sorry for you."
"I feel sorry for myself," Seth grunted. I slowly moved off of him and he stood up. I followed him to the door.
"I'm really… really sorry about that," I said to him for what seemed like the billionth time. "I had no clue."
"Like I said, I don't blame you," he insisted. He pressed his lips to my hair. "Just know that'll never happen again."
I smiled as he caressed my face.
"These next few years are going to be great. Terribly interesting and probably full of much excitement, but great," I said, smiling up at him.
"See you tomorrow, then?" he asked.
"It's a date."
I hugged him one last time before tearing myself away from him and allowing him to leave. I shut the door and plopped face down on my bed.
"God, I love him," I said into a fluffy black pillow.
"We see that," Jade giggled. "Anyway, I'm glad that's done and done. Now we can get on to other matters. For example: what am I going to wear tomorrow?!"
I flipped over soon enough to see Alice's face brighten.
"I can help you with that!" she squealed. As the two of them started rummaging through their luggage and putting clothes in a closet, I rolled over onto my back.
"How fun will my time here be?" I whispered to myself. I could tell Jade hadn't heard me—she kept fawning over the clothing Alice had brought—but Alice flashed me a blinding smile.
Very fun. Her silent answer echoed through my head. And I had to agree. My time here would be very fun.
Author's Note: Can the death threats stop now? Please? I was starting to sleep with a bat next to my bed for protection x.x Haha. But, seriously, if you look next to my bed, there's a metal bat there, I put an extra lock on my window, and I lock the door that leads to the garage every night... seriously... one of my readers lives right down the street from me and knows the combination to get into my hourse through my garage... (stand up, Nayeli, you know who you are xD)
Anyhow, I've decided to take one of my reviewers' suggestions and totally skip the rest of her time here at Harvard. I'm really sorry to all those who were expecting to know what her classes were like and stuff, but the only experience I have with Harvard is from watching Legally Blonde (yeah, I'm a dork, criticize me for it later) and I don't think you guys wanna hear bout Elle Woods. O.O So, yeah, terribly sorry bout that, folks. Please don't be too upset with me! (But you guys can go ahead and be upset with Asia, I don't mind :D) Uh huh, so, yeah… Press that magical little review button and make me happy, please! ;D Also, many of you haven't voted for your favorite story idea for my /next/ story and I'd really appreciate it if you did that, kay? Thanks!