A/N: Chapter 36!

Sorry for the wait, I've been having writers block with pretty much every new chapter I need to write for all four stories I write. For now, I seem to be getting my muse back. I wonder how long it'll last.

I'd like to warn you that I hate writing shopping scenes. I mean really hate writing them. I find them so very boring, which is why the shopping scene in this chapter is really bad. It looks rushed and crappy. Sorry about that. I hope you like it regardless.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Also, thank you to Juniper294 for helping me out with this chapter.

Disclaimer: Twilight shit I own: Five books, two DVDs, three posters, New Moon calendar, New Moon soundtrack, three movie companion books, a Robert Pattinson calendar and a Jasper t-shirt. Twilight shit I don't own: Twilight or any of the characters mention in the books.

When I say shit, I don't mean I think it is shit. I love my Twilight…shit. *smiles*

Chapter 36 - The Here, the Now and Dancing With Alice

22nd May 2009

Alice POV

When Rosalie came back out, Bella and I were back looking through the dresses. I wasn't going to lie and say that things were suddenly better, but I could feel a difference in the way we were around each other, and that was a start.

"Did you like the dress?"

Rosalie shook her head, placing the dress back onto the rack. "Not really, it was too… covered up."

Bella laughed. "Too covered up?"

"What? I want to look good for Emmett," Rosalie replied. "Plus I want to wear something that will make him remember that night when he's miles away from me at college."

"I'm sure he'll remember the night, regardless of what you're wearing," I told her, my voice soft and reassuring.

"You're right," she finally agreed, then after a second she added, "And you'll remember the night, too, because you are going."

"Rosalie." Her name left my lips in a tired murmur.

"Come on, Rose, you know once she's made her mind up, very few things will change it," Bella interjected.

I gave her a quick smile. "Exactly, now come on, we still need to buy dresses for the party next month."

After a good hour inside the shop, Bella and Rosalie finally picked out suitable prom dresses. Bella chose a simple knee length, dark green dress, while Rosalie chose a slightly longer midnight blue dress. They both looked amazing, and a part of me wanted to walk out of the shop with a dress of my own. There had been one I liked, but I didn't tell the others, knowing that Rosalie would take it upon herself to try and persuade me to buy it.

Port Angeles didn't have a wide range of shops, and after a series of unsuccessful trips, we finally found one that sold dresses we could wear to Rosalie and Edward's birthday party.

We were in there less than half an hour before I found a dress I liked. It was knee length and dark blue. Luckily they had one that was in my size, as usually the dresses they did have, would go down past my knee and make me look ridiculous.

With the dress draped over my arm, I went looking for Bella and Rosalie. I found them standing together, as Bella held a dress up to her body. The dress was a similar length to mine, although the neckline was different, and this one was a dark purple colour.

"Oh, I love the colour," I mused as I came to stand next to them.

"It suits her, doesn't it?" Rosalie added. After nodding in agreement, I noticed that Rosalie didn't have a dress of her own.

"Didn't you find any you liked?"

She shrugged. "There were a few, but I think I'm going to come back with Mom some other time."

"Okay, well, I'm going to try this one on," I said, signalling to my own dress. After Bella said she wanted to try her own one on, too, we made our way towards the changing rooms.

The shop was small, so we weren't surprised to find that they only had one cubicle to get changed in. Bella let me try my dress on first.

"Watch out for the hidden cameras," Rosalie whispered. Bella giggled whilst I rolled my eyes at them both.

"Don't start that again," I muttered.

Rosalie laughed. "What? You know it must happen somewhere."

I frowned. "Okay, don't tell me that when I'm about to get changed."

She smiled, but pretended to zip her lips. I shook my head before going into the changing room. Even though I knew it wasn't true, I did a quick scan of the room to check there were no camera holes in the ceiling or wall. When I was thoroughly convinced there was nothing there, I quickly removed my clothes and put the dress on.

I studied myself in the mirror, knowing that the dress looked good on me. I smiled, knowing that I really wanted to look good for the party. When I stepped outside, both Rosalie and Bella stopped their conversation and turned to look at me.

"I love that dress!" Rosalie gushed as she looked me up and down. "You two will look so good at the party."

I smiled as Bella said that she hadn't tried her dress on, and that it could easily look awful. I left them to it as Rosalie began telling her reasons why that were complete rubbish.

Neither of them noticed that I'd gone back into the changing room, and when I came back out minutes later in my normal clothes, they were still talking about Bella's dress.

"Right, that's me sorted," I said, getting their attention. They both stopped immediately. Bella stood up and disappeared inside the changing room, while I took her seat on the bench.

As soon as she shut the door behind her, Rosalie scooted a little closer. "So, did you get to talk to Bella earlier?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we're going to try and work this out."

"Good," she said with a smile.

It went silent then and I closed my eyes trying to construct my next sentence. "I spend too much time with Jasper, don't I?"

She faltered over her words before finally saying, "I don't know what to say, I mean you do spend a lot of time with him. But…"

I shook my head. "This is my fault more than anyone else's. I pushed you all away. Maybe if I hadn't have done that, this wouldn't be how it is now between me and Bella."

"You had your reasons," she murmured.

"I wish there was a way of explaining it to you," I said with a sigh. "But I don't even understand it myself."

"What don't you understand?"

"The connection I have with Jasper." I didn't look her in the eye. "I felt it right from the start. I knew something was wrong and I wanted to help him, but now he's the one helping me. It's like it's all been reversed."

Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean, you knew something was wrong? What was wrong?"

My heart jolted as I realised my mistake. I was about to lie and tell her it was nothing, when Bella stepped out of the changing room.

"How do I look?" she asked, she was never the one who enjoyed dressing up, but from the smile on her face, I knew she liked the dress.

I looked her up and down, and then gave her an encouraging smile. "You look great, Bella. You should definitely get the dress."

"I agree," Rosalie chimed before asking Bella to turn around. As Rosalie stood up to further inspect the dress, I hoped that she had forgotten all about what I'd just told her.

After dropping Bella off at her house, Rosalie drove us to Emmett's. She was going to take me back home as well, but she changed her mind, telling me that Emmett was most probably on his Xbox and she would need me to help get him off to drive her back home.

When we knocked on the door, Sarah smiled and said, "Ah, my house is never one to be empty. Come in, girls."

We smiled and said hello as we stepped into the house. Rosalie started up a conversation with her while I went into the main room. I had heard someone talking about the dog before, but it surprised me how small it actually was in real life. I think it was a Jack Russell, but I wasn't completely sure. It was quite cute, really, just not the kind of dog you'd expect when you saw who lived here. It had black fur with random patches of white all over.

But what surprised me more was seeing Emily playing with Frankie. What was she doing here? When she saw me, she gave me a tentative smile before going back to playing.

Rosalie came in a moment later and sat down beside me. "Who's that?" she mouthed, nodding towards Emily, obviously not wanting her to hear.

"Jasper's sister," I whispered back.

"Jasper has a sister?" She sounded surprised, and in that moment, I realised just how little Jasper talked about his family. I nodded again and she went silent. I tried to read her expression, and I wondered whether she was disappointed that she didn't know that about Jasper.

I heard footsteps, and I assumed it was Emmett, but when Jasper appeared, I couldn't help but feel happy that he was here too. He gave me a quick smile, and I found myself hoping that he was as happy to see me as I was.

"Is Emm still playing?" Rosalie asked, sounding tired. After Jasper nodded, she got up and went towards the door, but stopped when she got to Jasper's side.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a little sister?" she asked as she playfully slapped him on the arm. Even though she meant it as a joke, I still saw Jasper's eyes take on a guarded manner.

He still hated to talk about his family with people around him, and it was in moments like these where I really noticed that part of him really hadn't changed at all since first meeting him.

"You never asked." He shrugged his shoulders, and I wasn't sure if it was just my eyes playing tricks on me, but I swear I saw the tension in his shoulders as he did so.

Rosalie looked at Emily briefly before turning back to Jasper and nodding. Neither of them said anything else, and she soon left the room. It was silent for a moment before he moved and sat down in Rosalie's old seat.

"Didn't you feel like playing games today?" I asked, breaking the silence between us.

"To be honest," he began, rubbing the back of his neck as he spoke. "I don't really ever feel like playing. It's not something I can see myself doing for hours on end like Emmett and Edward do."

I smiled quickly, knowing that Jasper thought the same as I did about video games and their uselessness.

"So, how was shopping?"

I pursed my lips, thinking of my conversation with Bella. "It was good and bad at the same time. It was good because I found a dress for the party and bad because I finally talked to Bella."

He raised his eyebrows, signalling for me to carry on.

"I talked to her about you, mostly," I admitted, looking down at my lap. "It's certainly better between us, and we did come to an agreement that we'd try. But I can tell she still doesn't really like the idea of us."

"Us?"

"Yes, us, what we have together," I clarified. He nodded, and he gave me the distinct impression that he already knew that about Bella. Well, I guess I did, too. It went silent again, and I was suddenly reminded about what Rosalie had said regarding the prom and asking Jasper to go with me.

I snuck a quick glance at him from the corner of my eye. He was watching Emily, smiling slightly as he did so. I tried to find the right words to say, but they just wouldn't come to me at all. So I decided to play it safe.

"Jasper," I began, my voice wavering slightly from the silly little nerves floating around inside my chest. "You know the prom…" I allowed my voice to trail away, giving him the time to acknowledge what I had said.

He nodded, and before I continued, I wondered whether he sensed how nervous I was in that moment.

"Are you going?"

"I wasn't really planning to, no," he murmured, almost hesitantly in fact, and I couldn't work out why.

"Oh." That was all I said, looking away, whilst trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice. I know that I failed because there was a part of me that had been excited over the prospect, and to hear that he wasn't going did disappoint me.

"Why? Are you going?"

I thought of the best way to answer him without making it obvious that I wanted to go with him. "I don't know. I don't really want to be the third wheel, you know? So probably not."

I grimaced and looked down at my lap. If he didn't pick up on the disappointment before, then he certainly did now. It went completely silent, and I was ever so tempted to peak a glance at him when he did speak.

When I did, he looked as if he was seriously deep in thought. When he noticed that I was looking, he glanced at me. There was a look in his eye that I couldn't quite place. Nervousness? Confusion? Conflict? I couldn't tell which.

"Alice," he whispered, and I found myself leaning closer, wanting to know what he had to say. He looked away, with the tiniest of blushes on his face. "Do you want to… go to the prom, with me?"

I didn't move at first, or respond in any way. But slowly a smile spread across my face as a happy kind of warmth spread through my chest.

"Yes, Jasper, yes I do."

At my answer, he turned back to look at me, a smile much like my own mirrored onto his face.

13th June 2009

Jasper POV

I didn't know why I asked Alice to the prom. Don't get me wrong, it was not that I didn't want to go with her, quite the opposite, in fact. It was just, the last prom-like experience I went to had been with Maria, and there was a part of me that wanted to keep it that way.

Nonetheless, here I was, putting on my tux, trying to make myself look half decent for Alice. The week before, Alice had gone back to Port Angeles to buy her prom dress, and in an attempt to rekindle the friendship they'd lost, she invited Bella to go with her.

But not only did she find out that Alice and I were going together, she also found out that I was the one who asked her. Alice had text me from inside the changing room telling me that things were going well between them. Apart from when she had asked, and with a mild case of sour grape syndrome, whether of not I saw this as two friends accompanying each other to prom, or whether I was using it as a way in.

I'm not sure how Alice responded, she never told me, but knowing what Bella thought of me, fucked me off big time, and that was putting it lightly. However, regardless of what she thought, I didn't withdraw my invitation. Alice and I both knew that I wasn't looking for a fucking way in, I was doing this to make Alice happy, and right now, that was all I wanted.

We were meeting up at Rosalie's, where the girls were getting ready. I didn't have a clue where Rosalie lived, so Edward picked me up and drove me there. The three of us, Emmett, Edward and myself, I mean, had all arrived ready dressed and prepared to go.

The girls, however, had arrived with a truckload of make up, jewellery and smelly shit because apparently, Rosalie had the best mirrors for this kind of thing. We'd arrived early, for some unknown reason, which meant we had to wait.

But finally Rosalie's mother, who looked a hell of a lot like her daughter, came in and told us that they were all ready. I don't know why, but like in all the cheesy crap teen movies, we all waited at the bottom of the stairs as they came down.

My mouth fell open the moment they came into view. I knew that Rosalie and Bella were beside her, and I knew they probably looked equally as stunning, but all I could see was Alice, all I could think about was how beautiful she looked. Her hair was pinned back around her face, a distinctive contrast from her usual spiky crop.

I could tell that my gaze was affecting her as she they stopped in front of us. She looked down at the ground flushing, not looking up to meet my eye. I took a step towards her, mirroring Edward and Emmett's movements exactly. I held out my arm for her to take, which she did as she slipped her hand securely around my elbow.

"You look absolutely gorgeous," I murmured, knowing that the voice I used to say that wasn't the voice a friend would use. But in that moment, I really couldn't care less. She blushed furiously, and I couldn't help but notice how adorable it looked.

"Thank you, Jasper, you look rather lovely yourself," she replied, her voice was barely a whisper; I knew that no one else would have heard our little exchange. As we walked out together, I couldn't help but smile at her comment she had made.

I wasn't sure who organised the limo, but it was waiting outside for us when we stepped out. We all piled in and it drove us around Forks, so that we could get our moneys worth out of it.

But it pulled up at the school about thirty minutes later. In Texas, the prom had been held in a hired out hall, but Forks, always keeping in line with its small town reputation, was holding it in the school gymnasium.

It was decorated with silly little fairy lights and disco balls, and quite frankly looked very retro. But as we walked further in, I realised that above it all, it looked like home.

We found a table near the edge and sat down. The music was too slow and low key to dance, and there were not enough people here to mingle. Not that I wanted to, the people I wanted to talk to were the ones I'd arrived with.

People started arriving in groups, and slowly the music started to pick up. Emmett and Rosalie were the first to get up and dance, shortly followed by Edward and Bella. I got the impression she didn't want to, but after what she'd said about me, I had very little sympathy for her and was pretty much ignoring her tonight.

So that left me and Alice sitting at the table alone. It was silent between us as we watched the couples dancing and talking between themselves, and from the look in her eyes, I could tell she wanted to get up and dance as well.

"Do you want to dance?" I asked with the hint of nervousness in my voice, which was a totally stupid reaction, it was only Alice after all. She turned to look at me, smiled and nodded. We stood up and went over to where Emmett and Rosalie were dancing.

It was a fast song, and so we danced as a group. Surprisingly, I was having fun, and by the smile on Alice's face, I knew that she was too. But then a slow song came on and we both froze.

Emmett and Rosalie paired up, and as I looked around, I saw that Edward and Bella were now standing closer. Although they weren't swaying to the song, they were merely standing there, with their arms around each other.

I turned back to Alice, and saw her looking at me, her eyes wide. We were right in the middle of the dance floor, and it would be a challenge to get though the crowds and back to our table.

She moved towards me, and I assumed she was getting out the way of other dancers, but she smiled tentatively up at me.

"Do you want to dance?" she asked, just as I had, and she even had the hint of nervousness in her voice. Just as I had.

I swallowed over my suddenly dry throat and nodded, not bothering to respond verbally. God knows what my voice would sound like with all the nerves bouncing around inside my chest.

We stepped towards each other, and half raised our hands, then stopped when we realised that we didn't know what to do. Or, more likely, we didn't know where to put our hands.

We gave each other timid smiles as I reached forward and placed my hands on her waist. I knew how to dance, I knew how you were supposed to dance to slow songs, but now, with Alice, it felt completely new to me.

After the first hurdle, if you called it that, Alice rested her hands on my shoulders and we slowly started swaying to the beat of the song.

I don't know whether it was just me, but it felt as if many eyes in the room were on us. However, the urge to look around was very nearly nonexistent. I didn't want to look away. All I could concentrate on was the here, the now, and dancing with Alice.

A/N: What did you think? Jasper did ask Alice to the prom, and they danced. It was pretty cheesy in parts, but a good cheesy, right?

Please review! If you do, you'll get a teaser, like always. I'd love to get to 435 reviews before I post the next chapter.