A/N: I own nothing.

EPOV

"I love you, Edward."

I froze, the textbook in my hands still hovering above the desk. He couldn't have possibly meant what he just said.

I slowly turned my head in his direction only to find him staring at me intently. "Um… what?" I managed to croak out.

"I love you."

"Y-you're drunk," was the best reply I could come up with.

Instead of responding, he slowly got up off the bed. I'm not sure what I expected him to do, but I was surprised when he walked past me and started digging through his closet. A minute later he pulled out a stuffed bear.

"I love you, Mr. Snuggles," he said as he stared at the bear.

I was still too shocked to properly react to the scene unfolding before me. Jasper finally turned and held out the bear to me.

"Edward, this is Mr. Snuggles. He's my best friend."

And I lost it. I literally fell off the chair laughing. Just when I thought I had calmed myself down, I heard Jasper reassuring the bear that I wasn't laughing at him, and my fits of hysteria started all over again.

All it took was one look at Jasper to sober me up. He was sitting in his bed hugging the bear and he was actually… crying.

"Hey, Jasper, what's wrong?" I asked, getting up off the floor.

"You're laughing at me."

"I'm sorry. You're talking to an inanimate object though."

"He's not a naminat…inamat… he's my best friend."

I thought for a moment. Even though Jasper was most likely letting the alcohol do the talking for him, there had to be a reason that bear was in his closet in the first place.

"He can't be your best friend. He's not even real."

"S'real enough to me," he mumbled, hugging the bear closer to him. I felt a brief pang of something I couldn't really name when I saw him do that. I quickly assured myself that I was definitely NOT jealous of that bear and I most certainly did NOT want that to be me he was hugging instead.

I could see that on some level, Jasper had an emotional connection to the stuffed animal.

"So, um… does Mr. Snuggles have a first name?" I asked cautiously, not wanting to upset him again.

"Alfredo!" he replied cheerfully. I was getting better at stifling my laughs. This conversation was good practice.

"Alfredo… Snuggles?"

"Yup. He likes that name. I like it too. S'like, foreign and shit."

I didn't really have a response to that so I tuned out the conversation he was having with Mr. Snuggles and tried to be at least somewhat productive.

Almost twelve seconds had passed by before Jasper made his presence known once again. I had just opened my history book when a pillow hit me in the back of the head. I turned around to yell at Jasper only to receive another pillow, this time to the face.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked, tossing the pillow back on his bed.

"Wanna talk to you," he mumbled, still holding on to Alfredo.

I sighed and resigned myself to the fact that I would just be entertaining Jasper until he passed out.

"Okay, about what?"

"Who's your best friend?" he asked excitedly.

I struggled with the answer to that. Truth be told, I didn't really have anyone that I would call a friend, let alone a "best" friend. My social life consisted entirely of the people I talked to online, and I guess I didn't really "know" any of them. I decided to change the topic before I started wallowing in my depression.

"So why's Alfredo your best friend?"

Jasper shrugged. "He just is."

"Well what about all those guys on the football team? And Rosalie?"

"They not… they're mean," Jasper responded, frowning.

"What do you mean?"

"S'like, when I'm with them I have to act like who they want me to be. And if I needed something I don't think they would want to help me. I feel alone."

I just stared at him now, unable to form a coherent sentence. If you'd have told me any other time that Jasper Whitlock harbored these kinds of feelings, I would have laughed in your face.

"Dude… you're the quarterback for the football team. You're like the most popular guy in school."

"S'not true. And popular doesn't mean I have friends. Just means they all pretend to like me."

"Well… Emmett seems like a pretty good friend," I pointed out.

"Em wouldna done what he did to me yesterday. But you did it too. Why don't you like me? Nobody likes me," he muttered, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"Hey, that's not true," I told him. I felt a wave of both guilt and sympathy for the seemingly broken man in front of me.

As much as I wanted to point out that he started this fight first, I didn't want to make him feel worse than he already did.

"From now on, I'll be your friend okay?"

"Really?" he asked, his eyes lighting up.

"Yeah. Let's be friends from now on." I couldn't really tell you what I was thinking at this point. It just felt like the right thing to say. And on some level, I hoped I meant it.

This time when he stood up to give me a hug, I didn't back away. The feeling of his arms around me, pulling me close to him was indescribable. I didn't try to fight the feeling as I did when I first got here; instead, I welcomed it. I didn't expect us to pick up from here when he was sober again, so I wanted to enjoy it while it lasted.

When he finally released me he slumped down on his bed and picked up Mr. Snuggles.

"M'sleepy."

"You should sleep then," I told him.

"Are you going to leave?" he asked sadly.

"I have to. But I'll see you at school tomorrow, okay?"

"Kay. Bye Edward. Love you."

I turned around to look at him, only to find that he had already passed out. I gathered up my things and started walking out the door.

Just before I was at the end of the hallway, I looked back at his sleeping form on the bed. At that moment, I almost said it back.

Almost.