I

categorized my tubes of paint and erected my easel on the balcony. Carmen had accompanied me to "Mattie's Art and Crafts" which was opposite the diner Jake had taken me to.

I was ready to paint my new master piece, a familiarized absence in my wake. The owl. My visitor. For some reason it brought Jake to mind.

My brush stroked the fibres of the canvas, forming wings that were beginning to take shape. The beep of a car made me jump, creating a streak of nasty gray through one of the unfinished feathers.

I wiped my hands with a grimace, looking down to see who had stupidly interrupted a balcony painter melting like a waxwork.

It was some blonde guy at his prissiest, his hair all windswept to the side to look as though he'd stepped out from a hair gel commercial. He was wearing Khaki knee length shorts and a black t-shirt with the words, 'Wicked'.

One hand was cupped over his eyes as he peered up at me, smiling as if I'd made his day. He hadn't mine.

"Hey there," he called in a distinctive lazy tone that made him sound cocky.

I pretended to paint over the damage.

"I said hey there!"

I waved. Sort of.

He smiled, but it was forced. IHis clear blue of his eyes were visible even from where I was sitting.

"I'm Jasper, Edward's friend. You must be Bella."

"Hi, um...yeah" Edward had talked about me? "I'm just a little busy," I replied, tight lipped.

"So I see. What ya paintin?"

I took a few large gulps of my lemonade before answering. He seemed a talker. The kind that didn't want to stop.

"An owl," I admitted, wiping my mouth.

"An owl? Why an owl?"

I shrugged. "Because I like them."

He stepped back, trampling on a bed of Carlise's newly planted geraniums. Luckily for him he had left an hour ago. His mocking blue eyes squinted.

"Say, aint they a bad omen?"

"No," I replied, practically barking it at him. He looked amused at my outburst. Somehow I felt the need to defend my owl.

He lifted his hands as if to surrender from my verbal attack.

"Okay relax. I just thought they signified some type of danger, that's all."

He clearly enjoyed telling me.

"What do you care?" I snapped, sipping the last of my drink.

"I don't. Just thought you might like to know."

"Well thanks for telling me." I returned to fixing my painting.

I could feel him watching me, gathering visual information.

When I looked at him, he was grinning, flashing me his perfect veneer white teeth. He was probably even a model for catalogues. He fit the criteria, full of himself to the point of noticing his reflection in every shiny surface.

"Is Edward around?"

The name vibrated through me. Why the hell did it always do that?

"I don't know where he is." My immense concentration had removed the stain from my painting.

"Tell him…" His reply was cut short by the sound of a car heading down the driveway and parking up behind him. A black Jaguar. That was all I needed. Edward's ever so inconvenient return.

He stepped out, eyes shaded, dressed head to toe in black, as if he was attending a funeral parlour or a getaway gang of train robbers. But it suited him, like most things out of bounds for me to think so admire.

He kept his back to me while Jasper shifted his eyes in my direction to arouse enough suspicion that they could be talking about me. I wasn't being big headed. It was just written all over Jasper's perspiring face.

I didn't have to spend much time wondering what a pair like them got up to in their spare time. What with their babe magnet cars and good looks, they had to be swarming with girls like the paparazzi.

When I decided it was time to snap out of that conclusion, I threw my brush down and cleaned my worktop, preparing to relocate to my bedroom where I should have begun my stint at painting again in the first place.

"Hey!"

I turned instinctively and caught Edward look up at me for a brief second, before answering his cell phone.

"Wanna come for a ride?" yelled Jasper.

I shook my head and dashed to my room, my easel under my arm.

"Guess that means I'll be staying for dinner then," he yelled louder.

I closed the French doors and rested my head there for a good while, trying to think of an excuse to avoid another dreaded mortuary meal with our new presumptuous guest.