Jasper's POV
School again. We were in the parking lot, standing by Edward's Volvo. Just waiting. Alice was standing under an umbrella, it was raining, barely. She coerced Edward to join her underneath. I just stood there. Brown cowboy boots, a new pair of tight fitting jeans, a grey long sleeve undershirt, and a plain darker grey t-shirt. Bella still had my new motorcycle jacket it seemed and I hadn't bought a new one since I burnt my old ones. It's not like we needed them, but the humans found it unnerving when it was cold and we weren't wearing many layers. I didn't really care though. Bella finally pulled into the parking lot, truthfully you could hear her truck a mile away. I guess Charlie decided to give it to her, good for him. She pulled into a spot across the lot and I began walking over to her. I was halfway across the lot when I saw her bend down and look at her tires, weird.
"Nice truck," I said once I was close enough. She stood up and looked at me confused.
"Really?" She didn't seem convinced.
"Sure," I looked at the truck. It wasn't bad, a little old, but it looked sturdy and it obviously ran, so that's always good. "I don't like the color, but other than that, it's good."
"What are you," she began but paused, "What are you doing here?"
"I don't know," I answered honestly, "Can't I say hi?"
"Not to my knowledge," she smiled at me. I quickly ran through all the conversations I'd previously had with Bella and she was right, I had never said hi to her.
"Well you have me there," I smiled back and her smile turned into a smirk. So far so good. I tested her emotions, I got a small glimpse. She was feeling playful, definitely in a good mood.
We just stood there, staring at each other. Waiting for the bell to ring. I heard it first, the skidding of tires on the icy ground. My head shot up, faster than humanly possible. I could see Tyler's van skidding, he was trying to regain control of it. Bella was alerted to the fact now and she turned towards the van. I suddenly prayed that she'd feel fear, shock, something. I hoped that today wouldn't be the day that I found out she was suicidal. That she didn't care if she died. The van got closer, I kept my eyes on it, but I focused on Bella's emotions. It was now heading for us, there was no doubt it would hit us, it was going too fast. I wasn't going to do anything, not unless I felt her fear. I nearly gave up hope that she would react, but I finally felt some fear, but it was overpowered by sadness. I knew I had to step in.
I pulled her to me, held her tightly. "Close your eyes," I whispered to her as she buried her head into my chest, and then I waited. Waited for the van to be right on top of us. When it was close enough I outstretched my leg. The van hit my granite foot and bended around it. Not long later it came to a stop right where my foot connected with it. A foot away from us. Bella was fine, she shouldn't be fine, she should be dead. I didn't hesitated as I broke the glass window of the van. I thought it out fully, Alice needed to see my decision, she did. I could feel the rest of my family moving away from the scene. When they were far enough away I grabbed a sharp piece of glass and ran it down Bella's arm. Slicing it open. She hissed out in pain, it was small, but oh yes she felt that. Pain was radiating through her body. I dropped the piece of glass. I don't know why I did it but I just knew that she shouldn't have come out of this accident unscathed. She would just think her arm went through the window, not that I purposely cut her.
The blood was running down her arm. It didn't bother me. It was like smelling a freshly baked apple pie. Sure I wanted a piece, but I could hold off. There would be more apple pies in my future. She pulled back from me suddenly and looked into my eyes. Terror coursing through her with a small piece of disbelief. I cocked my eyebrow at her, why was she scared? I stepped back and pulled my dark grey t-shirt off and wrapped it around her bleeding wound. Her terror disappeared and was replaced with disbelief and some form of acceptance. I held the shirt to her wound tightly, it was quickly filling up with blood. I held her wound closed, my fingers would leave bruises, but I stemmed the blood flow completely.
"I don't like the smell of blood," she whispered.
I laughed at that, of course she could smell blood. I could smell blood as well.
"Why?" I was keeping the mood light, "It smells good to me, mouthwatering even."
I felt a small wave of disgust from her. I was waiting for her to say, do you want a taste then, but thankfully she never did. If I was offered her blood, well, I'd have to accept, it's only the polite thing to do. The world suddenly decided to come back to us and we were surrounded by a group of people and a cacophony of sounds. I pulled Bella back against my chest and held her tightly. I didn't need her getting overwhelmed right now. The ambulance arrived and they tried to pry Bella from my arms, I wasn't having any of that.
"It's just a cut," I told them as I got into the back of the ambulance, sitting Bella in my lap. "I have the bleeding stemmed, my father, Dr. Carlisle Cullen will be looking at her." I could tell that they wanted to protest, but they didn't.
We arrived at the hospital. I set Bella on her feet and we made our way into emergency. My grip on her arm never loosened. The blood was still stopped, but as soon as I let go it would start flowing again. We were led to a bed. I sat down first and pulled Bella into my lap. I liked having her close, it was comforting knowing that she was in my arms. She seemed to shy away from the bright fluorescents and she buried her head into my chest. I put the hand I wasn't using around her and held her close to me.
"Bella! Bella!" Charlie's frantic cries came as he entered emergency.
"Over here Charlie," I waved him over as soon as he was in sight. I tested his emotions. He was feeling concerned, fearful, dread, panic, and agony. Definitely not a good mix.
"How is she? What happened? Is she okay?" Charlie asked me and I knew I had to answer him quickly, he needed to get rid of most of his negative emotions quickly before they had a bad effect on him.
"She's fine Charlie, just a little shocked. We were standing by her truck when Tyler lost control of his van. I grabbed Bella and thankfully the van stopped about a foot from us, we were very lucky. Bella's arm did go through Tyler's window though. She has a small cut on her arm, it's not that big."
He seemed to calm down instantly, but not completely. He bent down so that he was eye level with Bella.
"Bella," he said softly, "Bells." Bella shifted her head slightly so that she could look at her father, he moved the hair out of her face. "Are you alright?" He asked her.
"I'm fine dad," she answered and Charlie's negative emotions disappeared immediately and were replaced with hope and gratitude.
"Thank you Jasper," he spoke to me as he stood up. "Thank you for looking out for her."
"No problem."
I could hear Carlisle now, he was heading this way.
"He won't let anyone look at her, only you," a nurse was telling him.
"Who?" Carlisle asked her confused.
"Your son," she answered, "There was an accident at the school, Chief Swan's daughter was involved, her arm is bleeding."
"Okay, okay," I could feel Carlisle's concern for Bella. "Well I'm here now, I'll take care of it straight away." Carlisle came through the doors and immediately made his way over to us. "Chief," he said as he clapped Charlie on the shoulder. "Jasper," he nodded at me. "What do we have here?"
He wasn't talking to Bella yet. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet.
"Bella's arm got cut on some glass from Tyler's van," I answered. "I've stemmed the bleeding for now."
"Okay," Carlisle grabbed a stool, put on some gloves and sat down. "Let's have a look." I slowly let go of her arm and the blood began flowing again.
"Oh god," Charlie said as he looked towards the ceiling. It seemed as though he didn't like blood either, just like Bella, I found that hilarious.
"Hold it again," Carlisle instructed me, "Tightly. I'll go and get everything we need to stitch it up."
I grabbed Bella's arm and held it tightly. Charlie cautiously looked back at Bella's arm and had a sigh of relief when he didn't notice any blood.
"Doesn't that bother you Jasper? The blood?" Charlie asked me.
"No," I answered and he looked at me confused, right, I had to elaborate. "I'm used to blood Charlie, I've seen a lot of it in my lifetime."
"Oh," Charlie's face paled, I guess he was thinking about my scars again. "Right."
Carlisle came back and I let go of Bella's arm so he could stitch it up. Bella was good. I only got discomfort from her, no pain, and I don't think she was suppressing it.
"There we go, all done," Carlisle said after he wrapped her arm in a bandage. "Good as new, well, almost." Carlisle turned his attention to me. "Was the glass dirty? Do I need to give Bella a Tetanus shot?"
Bella's grip tightened, she was grabbing my shirt hard. "Yeah," I answered and I felt a small bit of hurt from Bella, where'd that come from? "Tyler's a teenage boy," I explained, "I doubt he kept his windows clean. Better to be safe than sorry." Bella seemed to relax, the hurt disappeared.
"Okay," Carlisle disappeared again.
"Are you alright Jasper? You're not hurt are you?" Charlie turned his concern towards me now that Bella was all stitched up.
"I'm fine Charlie, I swear," he seemed to relax.
Carlisle came back with the needle and I felt some fear from Bella. I so desperately wanted to send her some calm but I had promised myself that I wasn't going to manipulate her emotions. I couldn't, not when she was so emotionally damaged. Worst case scenario, she'd come to rely on it and I couldn't have that. I just held her tightly and her fear lessened a fraction.
"There we go, all done," Carlisle smiled at her. "Let me go and fill out the paperwork. Charlie?"
"Ah, yeah, okay," Charlie reluctantly tore his eyes off Bella and left the room with Carlisle.
Bella slid off my lap and rested back against the raised pillows. She stayed quiet and I stayed where I was sitting.
I could feel Rose's frantic emotions outside the door and then I heard her.
"How is she?" Rose asked Carlisle.
"Give me a minute Charlie," Carlisle said and I could hear him and Rosalie moving away.
"How's Bella? Is she okay?" Rose was concerned.
"Bella's fine, just a few stitches. She will be alright," Carlisle reassured her and Rosalie seemed to calm down. I tuned them out.
I subconsciously reached into my pocked and pulled out a coin. I began playing with it absentmindedly. Flipping it across my knuckles. Back and forth. Back and forth. I wondered how my other siblings reacted by my clear disregard to the rules we followed for our safety. I saved a human girl. I risked our secret just because of Bella. Was she even worth it? Of course she was, I knew that, but did the rest of my family. Rose was concerned, no anger, so I guess she was fine. Alice would be fine, her and Bella were supposed to be best friends after all. Esme wouldn't care, I could tell that she already loved Bella. Carlisle seemed fine with my decision. All that left was Emmett and Edward. I had no idea how Emmett felt about Bella, he did come to Phoenix with me, but he could have just went for the adventure. Emmett liked to keep his feelings guarded when it came to new people, so I didn't know what his deal was with Bella. And Edward? Well I had no idea. He was always unpredictable.
"Stop," Bella said as she rested her hand on top of mine. I had been playing with the coin all this time. "Everything will be alright?" How could she know that? I turned to face her. Something in her eyes just told me that she was right. I don't know how, but she believed this to be true. She grabbed the coin out of my hand and examined it closely. It was a half dollar minted in 1861, it had the Confederate States of America written on it instead of the United States of America. It was my lucky coin. I kept it on me always. It reminded me of my past, my past before Maria. "Figures," Bella said as she handed the coin back to me. What the hell did she mean by that? Damn girl would be the death of me. I suddenly wished that I was a mind reader, though Edward couldn't read her mind so it'd be useless.
I was about to question her when we were joined by Carlisle and Charlie. I quickly re-pocketed the coin.
"Good news, you can go home Bella," Carlisle smiled at her, she frowned.
"Can't I go back to school?" She whispered head cast downwards.
"I think you should take it easy today."
"Is Jasper going to school?" Bella glanced at me.
"No, Jasper needs to rest as well," Carlisle responded smiling at me.
"What?" I asked him confused.
"You hit your head pretty hard Jasper, you need to take it easy." I was still confused, so was Bella. Carlisle lifted Bella's chart and hit me across the head with it, hard. Okay now I was getting angry. "See." No, I didn't see. "You had a hard knock to the head. Now Charlie has to go back to work and seeing as how you both need to take it easy, well you're going to both go to Chief Swan's house and take it easy. Understand?"
"Yes," I mumbled. Bella and I alone in Chief Swan's house, what the hell was I supposed to do for the next six or so hours.
Chief Swan took us home in his cruiser and I promised Bella that Emmett would bring her truck home for her so she didn't have to worry about it. It began raining pretty hard on the ride back and we had to run inside, Charlie stayed inside the cruiser, after warning me to be good. Right. We made it inside and Bella shut the door, thankfully we didn't get that wet. I shook myself, akin to a dog, to get all the water droplets off. This seemed to amuse Bella greatly. I smiled at her.
"What do you do here?" I asked her, we were still in the hallway. Bella shrugged her shoulders in response. "How's your arm?" I asked her and she shrugged again. "Need any painkillers?" She shook her head no. I frowned. Why was she being silent all of a sudden? It didn't make sense. "Okay, well you do what you want, I'm gonna lay down." I collapsed on the couch and closed my eyes. I guess I would be doing nothing eventful today.
I kept my mind focused on Bella. She stood there, shifted from foot to foot for a minute, then she disappeared upstairs. I took note and it seemed that she was sitting on her bed. I heard nothing from her so I shut everything off and sent myself a sleep cocktail, at least I'd be able to make the time go fast now. I don't know how much time passed but I eventually opened my eyes. Feeling refreshed enough to 'wake up'. I looked to my right and Bella was just sitting there, staring at me. Weird.
"What?" I asked her confused, making no move to sit up.
"Why are your eyes gold?" She asked me, she was nervous.
"I don't know, genetics, my special diet, you decide. It's just what they are." Suitable question, no humans had golden eyes. "Any other questions?" She shook her head no. "How long was I asleep?"
"Three hours."
Right, so that would make it lunchtime. "You got anything to eat?"
"Nothing that you can have." I frowned at her. "You're allergic to almost everything." Right.
"Are you going to eat?" I asked her and she shook her head no. "Right, well I'm going back to sleep, wake me up if anything exciting happens."
I turned away from her and faced the back of the couch. I closed my eyes and went to sleep again. Well I didn't actually sleep this time. Bella never moved from the coffee table and I could feel her eyes on me the whole time. I made it an hour before I turned back around and faced her.
"What?" I asked her confused.
"You're beautiful," she blurted out before blushing, she was clearly embarrassed.
Beautiful? "I've never been called beautiful before," I admitted. It was nice.
"It's a good word," she continued, her embarrassment had disappeared now. "You can only be handsome in your looks, whereas you can have a beautiful heart, a beautiful soul, a beautiful mind, not just being beautiful in looks." I waited for her to clarify in which aspect she believed me to be beautiful but she never did. "Why do you sleep?" She asked me, she was confused. I was enjoying being able to read her emotions like a normal person.
"Because I'm bored," I answered her, "It helps fill in the time."
"Oh." Was she thinking something different? "And you sleep?"
"Sure," well it was the closest I could come. "Can we do something?" I pleaded her. "Anything?" We still had a couple of hours before school would be out.
"Sure," she answered. "What do you want to do?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "You choose." She scrunched up her face. "How's your arm?" I asked her as she was thinking. "Any pain?"
"It's fine, no pain, and stop asking," I tested her emotions and she was telling the truth.
"Do you trust me?" I asked her suddenly.
"I don't know."
"Do you trust that I have your best interests at heart?" I rephrased the question.
"Sure."
Please don't let this go wrong. I grabbed her uninjured forearm in my hand. I stared at her. I kept her emotions in the forefront of my mind. I dug my nails into her arm, not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough that she'd feel it. I felt a flash of pain from her but it disappeared. I dug in a little harder and she didn't even flinch. It seemed as though she had a great tolerance for pain. I let her arm go. I wrapped my hand around the spot I had just grabbed and soothed any pain she may have.
"Do you feel pain?" I asked her, she nodded her head. "Do you know how to deal with pain after the initial contact? Make it disappear?" She nodded her head again. I let go of her arm, you couldn't even see where I dug my nails in anymore.
She took a deep breath. "Do you know what happened to me?" She seemed desperate now.
"Some," I replied.
"And you don't care?" She asked me confused.
"No." Why would I? It's not like she asked for this.
"Why not?" She questioned me.
"Why?" I shot back. "Everyone goes through something traumatic in their lives. I know I have." She wasn't convinced. "I," I faltered. "Here," I said as I pulled up my sleeve to show her my scars.
She reached out tentatively and ran her fingers over them, as many as she could reach. I tried to get a read on her emotions, all I could get from her was sadness, nothing else. I pulled my sleeve back down, not wanting to feel her touch anymore.
"Sorry," she apologized automatically.
"Have you thought of anything to do yet?" I asked her and she shook her head no. Great. "Well aren't we the two most interesting people in the world. Go and grab me a book at least. Do you have books?"
"Sure," she disappeared up the stairs.
What the hell was happening? We were stuck at some kind of weird impasse. We weren't friends. We were anything really. And this seemed to unhinge us when we were alone together with no one to act as a buffer. Maybe I should keep my distance from now on, just help her from afar and stay out of her life. I don't know. Why couldn't things just be easy? Why didn't we just click? It was almost like pulling nails when we were alone and I had no idea why. At least I'd be able to read until I could leave. I loved reading and it'd be a good distraction from Bella.