"He didn't suspect anything?" Emmett incredulously cried.
"Not a thing." Edward responded, shaking his head in confused silence.
"See – I know how to be discreet." Jasper's smug accent contributed.
"You ate him." Edward deadpanned, stopping mid-hunt to give him a disappointed look.
"You didn't even finish." Emmett cackled, running past the two.
"I finished." Jasper growled. He had. He knew he had. The boy was dead as a fucking doornail, it wasn't Jasper's fault it didn't stick. If anything, they should all blame the kid. Afterall, the problem wasn't that he died. No. It was that he was still alive.
Emmett flew to a stop, "Bet you barely lasted a minute."
"That's not fair," Edward disagreed, "the way I heard it, he didn't last 10 seconds." The innuendo was uncharacteristic but the 'making it worse' was entirely typical. Jasper, not for the first time, wished he could tear his head from his shoulders. It wouldn't be a particularly smart nor smooth move, but Jasper thought the pure relief within those moments his mouth was unable to make noise, might make it worth it. Edward smiled at his thoughts, far too perky to be anything but asking for it.
"I didn't fuck him." Jasper snarled, hands flying up in exhaustion.
"Carlisle said eating him would be worse than fucking him." Emmett sagely added.
"When did you ask Carlisle?" Edward paused.
"When you were stalking Beau to see if he figured out the secret." Emmett sighed happily.
Jasper's eyebrows furrowed, "what exactly does he think happened?" He ran through the possibilities: alien experimentation sans probing, very bad at sex teen, a new form of hickey, a very old form of hickey, new wave religion, a cult, lizard people who are still learning human mannerisms but the only reference they have is 80s horror films.
Edward scrambled to explain it delicately. "It's…he thought it was a…well like a –"
"Kink thing?" Jasper finished. Or there was always that.
"Kink thing." Edward agreed.
Jasper huffed. At least the kid wasn't being weird about it after Jasper had told him they weren't together. The brothers continued their hunt. Emmett was in the mood for grizzly.
Beau kicked his feet up on the wall. Charlie wasn't home yet and he had cut class so – there wasn't exactly anywhere he needed to be at the moment. "No - no mom he, like, bit me, and then said we weren't boyfriends."
"Beau, if he bites hard enough to draw blood, that's a commitment. At least a commitment to pay a medical bill but still, a commitment."
Beau thought Renee's priorities were far too similar to his – once you got passed paying rent and general sense of responsibility. It was one thing he had definitely gotten from her: pizazz. Where Renee's pizazz manifested in the fun lighthearted ways, like free tap dancing classes and a fixation on reiki, Beau's pizazz was more a vague sense of surprise. Or coming back from death. That had plenty of pizazz as well.
Beau was a man of too much pizazz, in that sense.
Beau elected not to mention he had died trying to make out with Jasper. Renee never reacted well when he died; there were always so many tears and just, Beau didn't do well with crying. It was so…wet.
Beau frowned. "That's what I thought!"
"You really like this boy, don't you baby?" Renee crooned soft and sad and consoling in all of the ways he wanted.
"He – he makes me feel like every moment is on the edge of my seat. Like anything could happen." A breathless laugh escaped him. He had really thought for a moment, maybe this one. Jasper was the type of guy who made him feel everything at once.
"Baby, you need Cosmo." Renee sighed.
"I consulted Cosmo." Beau whined.
"You need to consult Cosmo again."
"Cosmo was how I got to his house in the first place."
"Then it worked, right? Yes – so what we're going to do is consult Cosmo again and really I just saw this great article on mens where where Justin Timberlake goes into his blonde tips secrets and -"
"Hey Charlie." Beau shifted the weight of his feet from one side to the next. While a definite sense of nervousness was coming through – he mostly looked like he had to pee.
Charlie set his gun down. Beau stared at it uneasily. "Uh - hi Beau. Anything you needed?" Charlie's monotone voice asked.
"No." Shift. Shift.
"Is that my Seattle PD trainee shirt?"
Shift. "Mmmm. Do you think this could pass as vintage?" Shift shift shift. Beau frowned at it.
"I - are you calling me old?" Charlie spluttered.
Beau eyed the gun. Shift.
"No, Renee said it would be trendy." He said in one great rushed word of a sentence.
"Your mom thinks cops are trendy?" Charlie's eyebrow went up.
"For now."
Beau readjusted his shirt for the 12th time that morning. He felt like he was at appropriate levels of nervousness – the sort of anxiety that starts in your head and sinks like a pit into the bottom of your stomach until you have to pee. That level of nervous. It hadn't stopped, if anything it was worse. Pregnant woman UTI levels of having to pee.
Shiftshift.
Maybe he did have a bladder infection.
But that wasn't the current problem.
The current problem was the softly spoken Jasper Hale with his pretty hair and pretty eyes and pretty voice, standing across the parking lot. He did a little hair flip. Wait no, that was definitely the wind.
Beau wished we could be the wind gently caressing Jasper Hale's luscious hair.
He steeled himself, drawing all of his determination like a coat of armor over himself, and fully stepped outside of the truck.
His black ripped skinny jeans that Renee left? Tight.
His dad's vintage police trainee shirt? Aesthetic.
His hair? Well, it was okay, more of a work in progress? There was a sense of effort that you could feel went into it.
He focused all of his intent on feeling good. Feel good, look good, he repeated relentlessly. It all felt a bit like madness in the worst sort of way. It would be the mantra of his win Jasper over through overt hotness plan.
Beau was dressed…differently. Cool, one might say, if they did not know Beau. Being held against their will in an elaborate pyramid scheme to sell women's skinny jeans, one might say if they were Charlie watching Beau leave the house that morning. To be candid, the skinny jeans were Renee's. They even had little shredded bits to the knees and thighs but Renee swore they would look good with combat boots and the oversized vintage shirt.
With his floppy brown hair he looked like a Gun N Roses fan had tried to dress a Chocolate Coated Labrador Retriever – but whatever.
Jasper's eyes caught his and fuck if he wasn't a goner. What a fool.
Jasper smirked, something secret and hidden and just between the two of them, and Beau's heart hurt at the image of it. He was just so handsome. And a bit of a bastard. Even Beau could recognize that, but somehow it just made him want him more. Jasper's grin went full on Charles Manson level smugness.
Beau shivered. Oh shit – he was going to die again.
Jasper nodded to him, come here, he beckoned. And Beau didn't resist. Didn't try to. Didn't want to. Because there was something magnetic about him. Something so easy to want.
Beau thought about what Jasper liked, it was step two of his Cosmo steps, regardless of if the steps themselves were starting to feel a bit indistinguishable and fuzzy the closer Beau got to Jasper's proximity. Jasper – liked lurking mysteriously in parking lots at night? Not a lot to talk about there. Blood play kinks? That wasn't really appropriate for a school parking lot. Beau? The whole point was that Beau didn't know if Jasper actually liked Beau that way.
Like in a like like way.
So Beau had struck out on that. Maybe – well he could ask Jasper what he liked, right? That was normal. Interests, hobbies, normal stuff. Jasper had to have something in common with him.
Beau was literally willing to take anything. Any talking point.
"Well if it isn't Beaumont." Jaspers drawled, slow and smooth and a little bit tingly. Or maybe Beau was just a little bit tingly. Hopeless. Beau was hopeless.
"Beaufort. Just Beau." He rolled his eyes, trying to look very cool and interesting and not like he was going to throw up his poptarts.
Jasper leaned closer to him, inhaling his scent deeply in the exact spot he had bit him yesterday. Beau's knees went weak. Thiswasnottheplan.
"Jasper." Beau cleared his throat. "What do you like?"
Jasper's grin widened even further and Beau was certain, damn certain, that there was some eldritch horror of a tongue and teeth behind his lips. It was too ensnaring to be human. Wow, Beau thought to himself, crushes really made you think the world of someone. Like Jasper wasn't even human any more in his mind. He really had to get control of that.
"Why – you wanna take me on a date, pretty boy?" His words dripped; they were the reddest of cherry wines that Beau had snuck from Renee's cabinets on Christmas every year since he turned 14.
"Beau." He blurted out, and was it dizzy outside? Beau thought it was dizzy outside. What a wild weather phenomenon. Next it would be lovesick outside! And then where would that get Beau? Nowhere good. No. Nowhere good was for sure.
"That's what I said." Jasper flirted, his icy breath beating against his neck and fuck -
"Holyfuckingshit." Beau slurred, eyes feeling hazy.
"Pardon?"
"Yes." Beau decided. "Yes, I would be honored to take you out."
"Who said I would agree?" Jasper teased, his fingers curling around the loops of Beau's jeans.
Beau, he remembered something. Something important, it was at the back of his head tapping like a woodpecker. Or an Edgar Allen Poe style Raven might have been a better comparison judging by how absolutely insane he was starting to feel. 17 was too young to go bonkers. What would Renee say?
PLAY HARD TO GET, the little advice robot he had held hostage in his head, screamed. It sounded similar to his own thoughts, but different. For one, the voice was that of the girl who wanted a squirrel really badly in Willy Wonka. It was a demanding little thing. High pitched. Rude.
Normally, unfortunately, it was correct.
"That's fine." Beau very specifically didn't stutter. "I guess I'll have to look elsewhere for a man," fuck that sounded smooth, self high five, "after all, I am the new kid."
Jasper, however prepared he liked to think himself given his pre-boy-scout level skills, was frozen like a popsicle. Now there was a thought, maybe Beau would let him take a little blood and see if it could be fro-
That wasn't the point. Besides the fact that half of his family was avoiding him, Beau himself, seemed to have become a problem. Because Jasper, however extremely reluctant and not at all willing to admit it, wanted him. It had been a long time since Jasper had wanted anything. Not like this.
It was like the guy knew every step to make Jasper weak. Which he hated. Loathed.
Was Jasper bewitched? Who had advised him in these seduction techniques? Rosalie couldn't have gotten to him. She hated him.
But did she hate him more than Jasper? Whose side was she truly on?
('Hopeless. He's absolutely hopeless.' Edward snorted to himself.
'Maybe he'll last longer this time.' Emmett cheered.
'He won't.' Alice smiled, all fluorescent white teeth and violet red gums.)
Whatever plan was supposed to be happening, this wasn't it. Beau was supposed to crumble. Jasper was supposed to have the upper hand.
Jasper wasn't supposed to be nervous. Jasper didn't do nervous.
"Would be a shame." Jasper bit his lip, looking the boy up and down like he was about to pounce, "I think we could have had fun."
Beau sighed, exhausted and clever and something snickering within the deep brown of his eyes, "didn't we already?"
Jasper pulled on the belt loops, his heartbeat quickened like a caught deers, but he smelled exquisite. Delicious.
Jasper licked his chops like a lion would after a kill, "I could show you more."
"Would you last any longer this time?" The younger man teased. He didn't pull away. The moment felt electric.
"Would you?" He responded, all hard letters and sharp angles.
Beau moaned, so quietly he could barely hear it, but Jasper needed more, "Maybe if I hadn't lost consciousness." Beau whispered into his ear.
"Now I can't promise that." Jasper hushed him, his fingertips growing closer.
('This is indecent.' Edward bemoaned.
'But it's so fucking entertaining.' Emmett cheered.
'This is soft porn.' Rosalie hissed.
Alice gave a startled little yip, falling out of a vision. 'Oh! It's going to get worse.'
'How do you condone this?' Rosalie questioned.
'Beau and I are going to be the best of friends.' She hummed happily.
'She's delusional.' Edward sighed.)
"What can you promise me then?" Beau flirted, his big brown eyes blinking like a barn owl's.
"A good time." Jasper snapped. He could feel Beau back away, his heart beat racing faster, and a thin glistening of sweat started to accumulate on his forehead. Jasper could feel his want, and like a tail eating serpent, he felt it in return.
"I could have a good time anywhere." Beau bit his lip. Jasper watched it bounce back out. Watched the spit coat the red. Watched it and wanted.
"But Beau, do you want anywhere else? I can feel you, you wanting me, needing me, being consumed by me, why don't you just give in? I can make it so good."
For a second, a very long second, one of those seconds where everything changes and the world comes to a stop and the rhythm of the world shifts – Jasper thought he would say yes. Jasper wanted him to say yes.
But he didn't. Beau's head dropped like a possessed man's redemption, his eyes falling to the floor. Determination swelled within his chest. "No." Beau told him, taking a step back. Jasper hadn't even noticed he'd released him. But then he was moving back. Out of reach. Too far.
"No." Jasper returned in surprise.
"If you want me," Beau slithered closer again, his spine arching and chest pressing just for a second until their heads were so close together that their noses nearly touched, "come and get me."
He let go, giving him a once over, pulling the straps to his bag, and leaving. No more witty comments. No more wanting. No more Beau.
"Fuck." Jasper's voice slipped.
"What are you going to do about him?" Edward muttered, eyes not leaving the other man's back as it sauntered towards the school. They watched him slip slightly, his hands flailing out to steady himself. Their eyebrows crawled up incredulously. Beau steadied himself, continuing to prowl away.
Jasper's eyes tracked his ass.
"Oh, Jasper?" Alice skipped up the them both, "he's going to make a fool of himself." She chirped.
Emmett cackled in the background.
Jasper thought he sounded like a traumatized sorority girl in a knife fight with a choking trombone player, in a Denny's parking lot at midnight, where there was an odd amount of sexual tension given the situation at hand.
Edward sighed. It was a very sad sigh.
A 'I'm disappointed in you' sigh.
Fuck you, Edward.
"At least you would be fucking something then." Edward grinned.
Alice continued to skip, billeting straight for Beau with that horrible monstrous smile splitting her face.
"Am I the only one who's worried?" Rosalie's eyebrows scrunched.
Holyfuckingdamn that was smooth. Beau might not have gotten what he wanted, but hell if he didn't get something better.
Jasper Hale wanted him.
Renee was right, skinny jeans were the answer to his prayers.
He would have to go shopping. And buy more Cosmo magazines. He paused, shaking his head. Was Jasper Hale worth that torture? Maybe Renee could just mail him some more of her old stuff.
What was the worst she could send him?
It probably wouldn't kill him.
That was a win in Beau's book.
"Beau!" Alice Cullen chimed. Beau twisted on his ankle.
"Alice."
"I had an idea!" She squealed.
Something about the word 'idea' coming out of the girl's mouth, had a threatening edge to it. There should have been subtitles beneath the word reading (derogatory) after 'idea'
"You're going to love it." She tacked on.
Beau paused, his head slanted at an angle, and then nodded.
Somewhere in the school, Jasper Whitlock shuddered.