Trigger warnings: Child abuse, Sexual Abuse, Eating Disorder

Chapter 8

The entirety of the following week that Jasper Hale had revealed he was a vampire (god forbid), Lily had seen more of the blond than the entire time she had known him. In more ways than one. He had opened up to her, letting her in on a secret his family had to keep quiet from the rest of the world for their own safety simply to learn more about herself. He had spent every single day at her home, apart from when she was at work, telling her all about himself and what he could do.

He wanted her to know as much as possible, to keep her relatively safe. The knowledge that he had a gift was shocking, though considering what he was it shouldn't have surprised her. It made a lot of sense to Lily now she knew the truth that he was an empath. The time when she had felt a shift in her emotions that she couldn't explain had been him, and whilst she didn't like the idea of someone having that kind of control of her it was oddly comforting knowing he could pull her out of a dark episode if he so chose to.

He told her all of his family too, though only Edward and Alice had gifts like him too. Whilst Alice's gift of seeing the future wasn't a problem to her, she didn't like the idea of Edward's and made the promise to herself to spend as little of her time in his company as she could. She didn't want anybody reading her mind.

As the week progressed Lily had been waiting for when Jasper would ask her to reveal her past, but he never did. Maybe he was allowing her time to digest the notion of what he truly was, to calm and compose herself before he started to delve. If that was the case she appreciated it, though she was sure he could feel her sense of confusion, panic and just the case of her being overwhelmed at the information handed to her.

Lily accepted his being, as crazy as that was but knew at the first sign of him losing control towards her she would leave. She wasn't about to stick around with someone who kept trying to eat her.

Saturday came and her final shift of the week was almost over. The man was back she noticed, doing her best to ignore him. It seemed he had developed some sort of infatuation with the dark haired girl, as he was once again staring. He wasn't being rude or even a creep, he had smiled politely at her even kindly introducing himself, but she still felt off being around him.

Maybe she was being rude, disliking the man based on one comment he had made whislt intoxicated, but she couldn't make herself change her mind. She had tried to, to no avail.

"Thank you, beautiful." he said with a smile as she placed his order down in front of him. He was only with one other man this time around which she was thankful for.

"You're welcome." she muttered, leaving. Ten minutes passed as she saw her admirer motioning for the bill. Making her way over she did what she had to do, about to leave the minute the job was done when she felt a hand grasp her wrist.

"So, what do I have to do to get a date with you beautiful?" he asked. To anyone else his tone might have seened flattering and charming what with the smile and the way his eyes lit up. But Lily wasn't anyone, and she didn't particularly do well around men she didn't know. It reminded her of the first night Jasper was at her house when all she wanted to do was flee.

Well, look how that turned out. They got along great, she reminded herself. Though he did end up being a blood sucking vampire so that didn't really help her. A charming blood sucking vampire. "Oh, thank you but I can't."

"Why?" he asked causing the girl to freeze. Was it custom of men to demand a reason why a girl didn't want to go on a date?

"Uh, I have a boyfriend." she lied, cringing on the inside. She wasn't the best of liars, and he seemed to pick up on it. Brows meeting with a sarcastic look on his face, he glanced to his friend for a moment before scoffing.

"Some how I don't believe you, love."

"Well you should." A deep voice said from behind her. "And I would suggest you let her go before I remove it for you." Standing right behind her, towering over her and making her feel small, was Jasper. Glancing at his face, she didn't need his gift to tell he was extremely angry.

Glancing at the man trying to woo her Lily was surprised to see a flicker of fear enter the man's eyes, though he did a good job of covering it up. Making light of the situation he pretending like it was nothing, though it was clear he was simply trying to reassure Jasper as to not get into a fight with the blond. His hand had retracted the moment Jasper entered their line of sight.

Whilst Lily knew Jasper should be feared, and she had felt it herself, that had only been when he was showing her and actively trying to scare her though not in the sense of him wanting her to actually fear him. This was different, all he had done was let the man know by his tone of voice he wasn't happy. Though Lily suddenly remembered being told humans apparently has an instinct when it came to these things. Flight or fight.

Jasper had stayed mostly silent as she finished her shift, when she grabbed her belongings and they headed outside into the bitter nights air. The man seemed to be dwelling upon something in his mind, Lily mused as she kept glancing up and at the deep frown upon his face.

They walked over to a shiny black car that looked out of place around all the other older models. Like a gentleman he opened the car door for her before getting inside the vehicle himself. Putting on her seatbelt the blue eyed girl watched as he kindly put the heating on.

"Not that I don't appreciate you picking me up Jasper, but... why?" she asked, head tilted as she continued to watch him. His eyes were dark, but not completely black as they seemed to have a hint of the beautiful topaz. So, not fully hungry then Lily thought thankfully. Though thinking on it maybe their colour linked with their moods and not just their hunger. He had been mad back inside, and when he had been at her home he had had golden eyes before they had changed dramatically to black. So, they changed when he got mad too?

"I was wondering," he said, almost like he was trying to control his own voice. "If now you could possible inform me of your secret? About your past rather. I know your secret was you struggle with an eating disorder, but I'd like to know why."

Sighing heavily, Lily nodded her head as she settled back into the passenger seat. She owed him this much. He had placed his trust in her, now she would do the same for him. The question was could she? She was surprised to find the answer came to her quite suddenly - yes she could. More than that, she wanted to. She craved to have that closeness to someone that other people had. She needed to have someone to turn to when things got hard, a friend, companion. Someone she could call up when she had a problem or just needed to rant and they would listen. And here he was, simply offering it to her freely. Lily would have been an idiot to turn him down, vampire or not.

Maybe that made her crazy, but she didn't care. The need for intimacy (in any form platonic or not) was overwhelming. She felt like she could drown in the despair some days, some days she wanted to. So no, she didn't care if that intimacy came for someone who was more dangerous than she could comprehend, because all her instincts told her Jasper would never hurt her, at least not intentionally.

"Drive me home, and we can talk." she told him. Jasper simply inclined his head, acknowledging her, before starting the car. The drive was silent but she didn't mind. It was a relitvely short drive compared to walking so it never become too uncomfortable.

Arriving at her home, Lily glanced up at the dark sky as she exited the expensive sports car. No doubt it was going to rain soon. Hurrying to make her way inside, chuck off her coat and shoes she gestured for her guest to follow her upstairs. If she was going to tell this story she wanted to be comfortable. Settling themselves on the bed, Lily under the covers and Jasper sat on top of them, the girl took a deep breath.

"I give you full permission to use your little gift on me if I become too... consumed in my narration." Jasper smiled slightly at her words, the girl wiggling her fingers as she spoke.

"Alright."

"Okay, so, well, uh, I guess I developed the... eating disorder when I was fourteen." Lily had barely started and she was already struggling for words.

"Why?"

"To stop my father." Jasper frowned upon hearing the words that left her mouth. He had a terrible feeling about what he was about to hear, and part of him wanted to stop her but he knew he couldn't. Hearing what she had gone through was the first time in him being able to help her. He couldn't find tactics to help her recover if he didn't know what he was trying to help her recover from.

"To stop your father doing what?"

"To stop him raping him." Lily didn't whisper but her voice was extremely quiet, thankfully Jasper had excellent hearing otherwise he would had struggled to hear her. If he had a beating heart, it would have stopped. "He had a thing for bigger girls you see, and as a child I had a weight problem. Apparently he found it very attractive. Not that there is anything wrong with that but..."

"But when the attraction is to your own daughter there very much is a problem." Jasper finished her sentence, voice tight. Lily nodded mutely.

"I figured if I lost weight he would leave me alone. It was difficult, because losing weight doesn't happen over night, especially when my father just loved to feed me." Lily scoffed, burrowing further under the duvet as though for protection. Jasper just closed his eyes as though blocking the words that were being said. "He was terribly upset when he noticed I had actually managed to lose weight, and that was only because I managed to throw up whatever it was he made me eat."

"I'm sorry that happened to you."

"Yeah well, I managed to escape the house when I turned eighteen. Though he managed to find me when I was twenty," here Lily laughed but it was cold and Jasper really didn't like it. "He was so mad when he saw how much weight I lost that he just attacked me. Ended up in hospital. And that's what happened for the next two years. Him pressuring me to eat and then attacking me later until I managed to steal enough money from him to get this place and buy a one way ticket away from him."

Jasper really didn't know what to say, and merely kept his focus on keeping the girl beside him calm. He had been expecting something, but certainly not that. You weren't supposed to abuse and lust after your own child.

"He's not around any more, Lily, and even if he turned up he wouldn't get anywhere near you I can promise you that." Jasper told her, and she believed him. There was just something in the shift of his voice that told her she was safe. "You can eat now, you know that right?"

"I know." she replied uncomfortably, and a little petulantly. "It just become a habit now, I don't think I know how to." Understanding her need to not eat had become a defence mechanism, a way to protect herself from that kind of violence kept Jasper silent. He wasn't going anywhere, he was going to be around for a long time, a lot longer than her and if spending the next sixty years or so helping this girl overcome the trauma she had been through was how he was going to spend it then that was fine.

He hadn't done much good in his life, or existence, and he knew helping this one human couldn't atone for all the sins, all the deaths he had caused, but it was a start. And he couldn't find a better way to spend the next few decades than within this girls company.