Chapter 7: The First Taste of Misery


There she was, in full armour. Standing at the doorway of my little hut. Holding herself like she owned the fucking world. My mother.

I could feel cold sweat starting to form at the back of my neck, just at the hairline. My heart started beating faster and I was pretty sure I was very close to hyperventilating. You know your family is fucked up when seeing your mother's face causes you to have a panic attack.

Jasper appeared behind me. He was so close that our clothes lightly touched. He bent down and brought his mouth very close to my ear. Dangerously close.

"Do you want me to calm you down?" He breathed out. It was so quietly said that I nearly didn't catch it. Oh, the ways he could 'take the edge off' so to speak... I might've drooled. His voice raised all of the hairs on my body in the most delicious way.

Whoa boy, who was being worried about anything? Certainly not me. My mind went straight to the gutter and images of shirtless Jasper having his beautiful strong hands on my body assaulted my brain. He really was a gifted individual.

"Are you two lovebirds going to invite me in?"

Well fuck. Of course my mom had to go and ruin the vibe. I was back to being a nervous wreck just like that. I swear, it was some fucking voodoo magic!

"Of course, come on in Mrs. Johnson. It's a pleasure to meet you." Jasper said like he hadn't just given me an eargasm. Fucking vampires with their sexy mojo. My brain was so close to being fried to hell with the way I kept bouncing between two very extreme emotions.

Mom pushed past me and stepped into the room. Jasper stayed glued to my side and it made me feel so much better. He was really nailing this whole 'protector' thing. His hand came up to rest on the back of my neck again and this time he was more than welcomed to put his hands there. The way he was massaging my neck gently made me turn into goo. He had fucking magic fingers.

I wonder what they would feel like massaging other parts of my body?

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine. I am so happy that my Ella found someone." My mom said. She was giving us a look and I knew it meant trouble. I just fucking knew.

"Mom, he's just helping me this weekend. He has a girlfriend. Like, a real girlfriend that he will go back to once we leave on Sunday." I said. I needed to at least try and remind my mom that Jasper was not going to be my real boyfriend. I didn't want to handle the shit she would put me through once we were home and Jasper moved on with his life.

"Is that so? Well, that's unfortunate."

She didn't sound disappointed in the slightest. Did she fucking know that Jasper was in a relationship and was she ignoring that? Oh god, was she going to try and push me towards Jasper?!

Now I was all for having a sexy boyfriend who could make me go crazy by simply touching my neck, but not Jasper. It would never work! He was with Alice. He was a vampire. Shit was way too complicated and really, in what universe would Jasper Hale want me anyway?

Oh hello... Jasper's fingers moved upwards to massage my scalp gently. The fucking shivers! I had to bite down on my tongue to keep an embarrassing moan from coming out of my mouth.

He had to be doing this on purpose. Either to distract me from the horrible situation or to make me fall head over heels with him. I was starting to think that my inability to reign in my hormones was really flattering to him. At this point I didn't even care.

Fucking hell. Mom's eyes were gleaming. This was not good. Shit... I had to get Jasper away from her or I'd die from embarrasment! Or possibly witness Jasper murdering my mom... which, you know, I wasn't totally opposed to at this moment. I know, shame on me.

"We should get going... we'll be late for lunch."

I looked up at Jasper, expecting him to back me up and escort me to the dining hall of nightmares. Imagine my horrified surprise when I saw the look on his face. He was tense as fuck and staring down my mom.

Shit... Were they really going to do this now? Was there any way I could stop this? I guess I could run away, but what would that accomplish? It would leave my mom alone with Jasper and there was no fucking way that would end well for me.

"So, Jasper..."

Okay, could we make it illegal for anyone with the last name 'Johnson' to say those words?! I tugged at Jasper's arm nervously, but he was ignoring me. Well, ignoring my attempts to make him move. His devilish fingers were still playing with my scalp.

"Ma'am?"

Please kill me now. Jasper was playing right into my mom's hand. She was a fucking criminal mastermind and she was going to manipulate the shit out of this situation. I had seen her do this before, back when Brody was dragging his feet with Faye. She had all but forced the two together by being a total bitch to both of them. Easy thing to do when being a bitch is your normal setting.

"Do you think my daughter is beautiful?"

Great. This was happening. I groaned and pressed my face against Jasper's shirt. Okay, it was not fair that he smelled so good. He was messing with my misery-wallowing. Oh well, at least his torso was a good place to hide my face.

"You don't have to answer that..." I mumbled. I was just going to let this happen. Jasper clearly wanted to get into it with my mom, so I was fucking powerless. I was just going to stay here and enjoy his hard body.

"Yes, I think Ella is very beautiful."

Why the fuck did my heart skip a beat for that?! I looked at him again and I went so fucking red. He looked down at me with a pair of intense dark amber eyes. Holy shit that look pierced right through me. I could feel my panties getting wet. Like, actually feel it. Thank god I was wearing jeans because there was a good possibility that my panties would not be enough to contain what Jasper did to me. In front of my fucking mother.

This was so fucked up beyond reason.

"Well, that much is obvious. And while my dear Ella is slightly... intellectually challenged, she does have a good head on her shoulders. A good heart too, and that's the most valuable thing about a person, don't you agree?"

Why did my mom have to ruin the moment? She was spouting pure bullshit out of her mouth and she actually thought that Jasper would believe it. Ha! Doubtful. He had the pleasure of knowing me for nearly a week. There was no way in hell he hadn't figured out how fucked up I was.

"Of course. Ella is truly a delight to be around."

Of course I was. I was a fucking riot to be around. Just ask Angela how delightful I was when I had one of my frequent breakdowns.

"So it would not be completely out of the question for you to fall in love with my daughter..."

"Mom!" I screeched. Just fucking kill me now.

It was times like these that I hoped I wasn't so scared of my mom. It would have been the perfect opportunity to get all teen-ragey and shit, but I couldn't muster those feelings front and center. Attitude towards Marilyn Johnson never ended well for anyone... well, except for Granny May, but that old bat was in a league of her own. And even then I wouldn't put it past my mom if she just decided to choke the life out of Granny May one of these days.

"Can we please go now? We are so late..."

000

"Now is the time to turn that southern charm on full blast." I mumbled to Jasper as we walked behind my mom towards the dining hall. I was squeezing Jasper's arm as hard as I could. He of course had no problem with that, considering that under a thin layer of elastic softness, his arm was pretty much made of rock and I was only hurting myself.

"Relax, Ella. How bad can they be?"

Ah, the famous last words. If I hadn't been so focused on myself, I might've taken pity on him and told him to run as fast as his little vampire legs could carry him. He had absolutely no idea what was behind that decorated wooden door. Pure. Fucking. Evil.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now? You did just meet my mother, right?"

He just gave me a tiny smirk. The bastard was enjoying this a little too much...

It took a special kind of crazy to survive the freak show that was my family. It was still a struggle to me and Brody and we had been born and bred into this shitty bloodline. Still, there was nothing I could do about it except grin and bear it. So I did just that.

Mom opened the door with the most dramatic gesture imaginable. I gritted my teeth as she pranced into the room filled with my fucked up relatives. I let out the smallest of sighs when I saw that not everyone had yet arrived. Good. I didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to myself. I had only two missions for this extended weekend. Survive and convince my relatives that Jasper was my legitimate boyfriend.

I was half-expecting my mom to announce us to the audience. She was one for the spotlight. A trait Angela delusionaly claimed I had inherited. What a bunch of crap. We were nothing alike. I was so not a drama queen.

"Darling! It's so good to see you again! How long has it been?!"

God that sound made nasty goosebumps rise all around my body. I took a deep, calming breath before turning my head to the left.

"Aunt Gloria! Wow, you look amazing. You haven't aged a day!" I said in rather high pitched voice. Jasper gave a subtle wince that I happened to notice when I sneaked a look at him. Was my voice that loud? Or was he cringing because of Aunt Gloria? Because that woman could grind anyone's gears. She was at least as poisonous as Ariel.

Fucking Ariel and her stupid wedding...

Aunt Gloria was giving Jasper a leering once-over. I felt sick on his behalf. I wouldn't wish Aunt Gloria upon anyone, let alone my almost favourite blood-drinking demon thingy. She was dressed to the nines, like always. Her dark brown hair was so styled and crisp I was sure it would snap in half and crumble to bits if I reached out and touched it.

I mentally calculated how long it had been since I last saw her face. Maybe three years? And she was looking even tighter around the eyes than back then. Plastic surgery was all the rage among my family members. Mom had touched up on her face twice already, not including her annual botox treatments. Ariel clearly had gone and changed her entire facial structure. Even Granny May still looked different each time I saw her and she was fast approaching 90.

"Who is this divine young man?" Aunt Gloria asked. I wanted to gag. She sounded like every cliche man-eater cougar that was ever put to screen. Jasper wrapped his arm around my waist and squeezed my side.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintances, ma'am. I'm Jasper Hale, Ella's boyfriend."

Whoa, down girl! Talk about swooning. I had to lean on his body to keep myself upright. It was a hard task since I kinda also wanted to jump his bones. Did he have to be so sexy? That southern drawl was doing very bizarre things to me. If he wasn't a vampire and in a committed relationship, I might've liked the feeling.

Aunt Gloria was also swooning, which was so wrong on so many levels, even though she technically was closer to Jasper's age than I was. I shook a mental image of old and wrinkly Jasper out of my mind with a grossed out shudder. Fuck if that wasn't effective in toning down the sexy vibes. For like two minutes.

Jasper bent down and kissed Aunt Gloria's heavily perfumed hand like a proper gentleman before helping me to my seat. Like, he pulled my chair for me and everything. I could feel Ariel's pissed off gaze burning in the back of my head and fuck I loved it! Call me evil, but I was milking this shit for all it was worth.

We were luckily sitting with my parents and Brody and Faye. Small mercies. I really didn't like interacting with my relatives any more than absolutely necessary. Ariel clearly hadn't imagined that I'd bring someone like Jasper with me, so she had placed her least favorite cousins with the usual suspects. I had a feeling that the dinner would not go as smoothly, so I was enjoying this while it lasted.

Ariel's mom, Hannah, gave a brief speech before waiters started bringing in the food. I wasn't paying much attention to any of that. I needed to make an impression. Good thing that for once, mom was on my side.

"Ooh, this is not good. Excuse me, could I get the same salad Jasper has?" I asked sweetly from the waiter serving our table. I kept my voice low enough to make it seem like I wasn't trying to draw attention to us, even though that was totally what I was doing.

"Is there something wrong with your salad, miss?" The waiter, a nervous-looking girl asked.

I took a second to bask in the looks of my relatives before giving a brief nod and offering an embarrassed explanation.

"My boyfriend is super allergic to shrimp, so..."

I wished I could blush at the top of the hat, but I wasn't that good of an actress. I only managed to look sort of bashful. Jasper smirked at me and I was really tempted to stuck my tongue out and possibly give him the finger. But I'm a lady, so I didn't do any of that.

"Oh my, that's so true darling. I didn't even think about that! Of course we can't have you eating anything containing shrimp!" Mom wailed dramatically. It did the job and now everyone's attention was on us. Including the attention of one plastic-looking bitch that was destined to burn in the fiery pits of hell.

"Who does she think she is...?" I heard Ariel's angry mumbling from across the room. I had to bite my cheek to stop the satisfied smirk from taking over my face. I had my back turned to her, but I didn't want to risk anyone else seeing my smug face.

I was given the same chicken salad that Jasper was nibbling at. Poor guy. I wondered just how bad it tasted in his mouth. Me, I was enjoying it the fullest. I wasn't a vegan for ethical reasons. It was strictly for dietary reasons. I was way too self-absorbed to care about the world's animal population. I wasn't particularly proud of it, but it was what it was.

These family meetings were pretty much the only times I was allowed to stuff my face with whatever I wanted without my mom glaring daggers at me. It created a false image that I could eat whatever the hell I wanted without gaining a single pound. Mom was more than happy to spread that false image around.

As we ate our salads in awkward silence, I started to think if there was anything I could say or do to end the awkwardness. I glanced at Jasper who was wrinkling his nose in silent disgust as he shoved more and more food down his throat. What kind of conversation could I start with him when taken into consideration who else was sitting in the hearing distance?

If it had been just Brody and Faye sharing our table, I could just start talking about school and shit like that. But my dad was sitting straight across from me and he did not appreciate my sort of lacking prowess at school. He never said anything because pointing out my flaws was mom's sworn duty. It was his disapproving glares that made me not want to bring that subject up.

Then there was the possibility of getting to know Jasper better. That was not going to fly with my nosy aunts and cousins sitting at the hearing distance. We were supposed to be in love and I was supposed to know everything significant there was to know about Jasper. So that was off the table.

Talking about the thing that connected us, his vampiric tendencies, was way out of the question. I didn't have a death wish and I didn't think Jasper would appreciate me babbling about the fact that he wasn't a human...

Angela had made me a list of safe topics to talk about, but it was safely tucked in one of my many, many notebooks... all of which were at home. I couldn't remember a single thing she had suggested at the moment. But speaking of Angela...

"Angela has nipple hair."

Okay, so not my shiniest moment. What can I say? The silence was killing me. Slowly and embarrassingly. I groaned and buried my head into my arms. Why couldn't I ever think before saying something horrible?

"Dude, not cool!" Brody grimaced. I guess he didn't like to think my best friend's boobs. Go figure. Faye snickered into her hand and tried her best to contain herself. Well, no one can't say I didn't break the ice, so to speak.

Mom rolled her eyes and signaled our waiter. She held out her wine glass.

"No, a bit more... more... you know, just leave the bottle. Thank you dearie." She instructed the waiter and downed her wine in one go. I was so jealous. I would have to wait until the nightfall before I could drink my stress away.

"That was very enlightening. Jasper, I am so sorry for my daughter." My dad said.

Fuck. Did I just make a complete fool out of myself in front of a Cullen? I looked at Jasper and there was nothing I could do to stop the hysteric giggle that came out of my mouth. All of the pressure that was building in me had to come out somehow.

He looked so fucking ridiculous! He was staring right at me with his beautiful mouth hanging open. His eyes were huge and round and he looked just so out of it. I noticed that I derived great pleasure from stumping vampires. It really was deceptively easy to do.

"You look so stupid!" I gasped out as soon as I managed to get my laughing somewhat under the control. I so didn't want to think about how ugly and unattractively red my face must've been. Those sorts of things really soured my mood.

My jab at him seemed to bring him back to this plane of existance. His mouth snapped shut and his deep amber eyes stopped looking so blank.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I really didn't need to know about your best friend's nipple hair, baby."

Okay now he was just messing with me. That 'baby' part came out like a purr made of sex. That made some very interesting things to my lower body. For the second time in the last 20 minutes or so, I felt my panties getting soaked and I was once again thanking my fucking lucky stars that I was sitting and had jeans on. I didn't even want to think about how embarrassing it would've been to have something dripping down my bare legs. That was not something I wanted to experience while surrounded by my parents and other relatives. Ewwww!

"Well, changing the subject, how is your family, Jasper? It feels like it has been ages since I last saw your aunt around the town." Mom said, taking a firm grasp of the situation. I cringed. She was fishing for information, most likely the financial sort.

She was really pushing for this thing to turn into reality. She was looking for anything to latch her talons in. I don't know why she bothered. It wasn't like we were going to end up together like in those sappy romance movies I loved to watch. This was very much real life, despite there being fucking vampires and the such involved. There was no way Jasper would leave his perfect girlfriend for a mess like me.

And I had to remind myself that there was no way in hell I wanted him to do that. Let's not forget that he was a blood-sucking immortal... who had been nothing but an amazing protector and a real gentleman...

Shiiiit. I might've been in trouble.

"It was their anniversary two weeks ago. Carlisle took some time off at work and took her to one of our family islands to celebrate." Jasper said smoothly and so uncaringly.

If the back of my neck had felt warm before, now it felt like there was a fucking inferno going on right behind me. Jasper hadn't been particularly loud or anything. It's just that the women of my family seemed to have the ears of a bat and they heard EVERYTHING. And I do mean everything. If a butterfly farted in the Sahara desert, my Granny May likely heard it.

He was putting on a big show and I appreciated that. I was well aware that the Cullens were filthy rich and apparently they had multiple islands they owned. ISLANDS. Our summer house at the Hamptons didn't seem all that impressive anymore. It wasn't even near the ocean.

"How romantic! Now don't you go buying my daughter an island, young man! We don't want her head getting any more airy." Mom joked. Her high pitched laugh grinded my nerves.

"Well, now you've gone and spoiled her birthday gift! Where can I find a better gift on such a short notice? You just like making my life more challenging, don't you Marilyn?"

Well, Jasper certainly had the charming part down on his fake boyfriend profile. I was starting to feel a bit like an outsider when he started chatting up my parents. Brody and Faye were too wrapped up in each other to be much of use to me, so I just had to grin and look at Jasper adoringly. My old insecurities were starting to rear their ugly head and shit got more and more unbearable by the minute.

My phone rang and I could've kissed someone right then. I sighed in relief and quickly excused myself. I gave Jasper a small fake smile and nearly ran out of the hall. It felt like his eyes were following after me.

I wedged myself into a small alcove near the main exit and nearly cried when I answered my phone.

"You are a Godsent, Ang!"

"Call it a sixth sense or something. I figured things had started to go south right about this time. Was I right? You don't sound so hot."

I loved that girl. I grouched down and played with the red carpet covering the floor.

"I guess it's going as well as could be expected. Jasper is charming the pants off of my mom, so that's great..." I muttered. I hated this feeling I always got whenever I was in the same room as my mom and other people for extended periods of time. Especially when they were supposed to be 'my' people.

"Is he ignoring you? God! You want me to kick his ass? Because I totally will. I have a few theories as to how it would be possible."

"You know it, babe... Mom just has that knack, you know? She draws people in and that leaves me usually with nothing."

If it had been anyone else, I would've tried to act more put together and not like a jealous, spoiled brat. But this was Angela, the one person I trusted above all else. She always had my back, she always understood and she always remembered to tell me she loved me. There was no point in lying to a person who knew absolutely everything about me and my really long list of insecurities.

"That's no excuse, honey. He was supposed to be there for you. That was the deal, remember? He's supposed to be helping you stay sane. Do you want me to come over?"

"Yes." I said simply. I hugged my knees with my free hand and felt so small.

"But I can't, right? Ariel would never let it fly. She would make your life even more miserable."

Oh how right she was. Angela was always right. That little spawn of the devil would do such a big number on it and that would no doubt expose the entire fake boyfriend contract. It wouldn't be that far-fetched to say I would die if that happened. My family was made of people who were kind of like religious nuts. I would most likely suffer some horrible accident. Maybe even at the hands of my own mother.

"I hate this. Remind me again why I'm still doing all of this shit."

She did. She recalled every single argument we've ever had about my situation and all of the reasoning and rebuffals I had used over the years. I knew Angela hated this maybe even more than I did, but she also was a logical person and understood perfectly why I still chose to live this way.

"Thanks, I needed that. Listen, I have to go. Talk to you tonight?"

"Sorry, El. I have a very romantic study date with Eric tonight. I don't know how late we'll be at it. Tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I think I can survive until tomorrow. Bye, Ang."

I ended the phone call and took a few deep breaths. I wiped the sneaky tears away from my cheeks and checked to see if my makeup was still perfect. I blew my nose and marched back into the dining hall with a cheery smile on my face.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry about that. Girl emergency. I hope my mom behaved?" I asked and burrowed myself into Jasper's side. His arm went around me and he pulled me tighter into him. I looked up to see his face looking all sorts of tense. He then looked down at me and gave on of those too charming smiles that made goosebumps rise all around my body.

"Don't worry about it, lil' darling." He said and placed a quick kiss on the tip of my nose.

The power of swooning was dangerous. Fuck I was in trouble.

000

I threw myself to the bed and kicked my high heels far away from me. That was a nightmare. The lunch had been so horrible! The whole event left a bad taste to my mouth and even Jasper's surprise kissing did nothing to lighten up my mood.

Jasper closed the cabin door and sat down on the bed next to me.

"Hey, I'm sorry about what happened earlier." He said in a deliciously low voice.

"What do you mean?" I asked, pretending to be all oblivious. Of course shit had happened, but Jasper wasn't supposed to know that. Had I not put on a good show? I thought it had been an Oscar worthy act on my part.

"You were upset about something. I could feel it."

Fuck... I had totally forgotten that Jasper had superpowers... it wasn't like he hadn't told me about them like two hours ago or anything... This was exactly why I needed to write everything down!

"It was nothing... I just, really don't like family reunions." I tried to gloss over the whole situation. I didn't think Jasper would be too interested in having a heart-to-heart about my problems. They were numerous and going through them would take time. Like, really long time. We would be sitting here until the end of the wedding. Which, you know, wasn't the worst idea ever. In fact, it was really tempting.

"I also heard you on the phone. I didn't mean to, but I overheard everything."

I closed my eyes to desperately try and reign in the all too familiar feeling of me losing control over my fury. He eavesdropped? How did he fucking dare? My conversations with Angela were private! Okay, so I had blundered with the whole nipple hair incident, but that was way different than someone listening in on private conversations!

"Look, I can feel you getting angry at me. I'm sorry. There are things I'm not able to control about myself. I tried to focus on something else, but vampire brains don't work like that. Blocking out my surroundings is very difficult and even after practising it for over a 100 years, I'm still relatively inept at it." He said hurriedly.

"Fuck..." I whined, trying to swallow down my anger. It wasn't his fault. I admittedly knew next to nothing about Jasper, but nothing about him had caused me to not trust him. Well, except the whole 'trying to choke the life out of me' situation, but I'd like to think that happened before we bonded.

I had decided to put that past me, at least until he did something like that again. I had to. I couldn't very well go throwing myself at him while simultaniously fearing that he was going to murder me in my sleep.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked. Goddamn he sounded so sweet! It was so unfair! Why did he have to be a gentleman? I groaned. Might as well. It would do me some good to talk to someone about this before dinner. Besides, I would need Jasper tomorrow when it wasn't socially acceptable to hide in our cabin.

I drew my knees tightly to my knees and pushed myself against the headboard of the bed. Jasper scooted back on the bed so he could sit next to me. Our sides were touching lightly. It felt nice. Safe.

"My mom always makes me feel like I'm worthless piece of shit."

That summed up the root of most of my problems neatly. Jasper let out a shaky little sigh and brought his arm around my shoulders and pulled me tighter against him. Fucking hell that felt good. I guessed he felt what I was feeling. Maybe this whole empath thing could be useful after all.

"Was I overdoing it? I decided to go with the whole 'boyfriend tries to get along with his girlfriend's parents' thing. It wasn't my intention to leave you out of the conversation as well."

He was being so fucking sincere and caring. His scent surrounded me and the stress started melting away from me. For a brief second I wondered if he was using his magic mojo to calm me down, but I disregarded that thought. He clearly wasn't in the business of violating my rights to my own person. He really was nothing like Creepward.

"Angela says I'm too insecure and have no self confidence. I think she's right. So it probably wasn't as much about you as it was about me."

His chin came to rest against the top of my head and despite him being slightly cooler than your average human being, I actually felt all warm and fuzzy. And hey, for once I didn't want to fuck his brains out! So, you know, that's a plus.

"She did seem to put you down awfully lot. Is she always like that?" He asked. I closed my eyes and breathed in deep his sweet scent. It was so yummy and comforting.

"My entire family is like that. You noticed how there were no singles present at the lunch?" I figured it was time he found out why I had blackmailed him into being my date in the first place. Sharing is caring and all that good stuff.

"Now that you mention it, that was rather odd."

"There has never been anyone in my family that hadn't had a significant other by the time they are like 15 or something. Mom and dad started going out when she was eight. Brody started panting after Faye when he was 13. Ariel and Justin have been together since they were in middle school."

"Okay, that's definitely weird..." Jasper said softly and I could almost see him frowning. His thumb started making little circles on my forearm. It felt pleasantly tingly. He was really good at comforting people.

"Yeah, and then there's the little old me. Almost 16 and never had a boyfriend. My mom and dad hate that. They hate me. I'm pretty sure they regret ever having me. You know, they only decided to have another child because it cemented their 'all American family' image." I said, being completely honest. There really wasn't any point in lying to someone who could pick up on your true feelings at the drop of a hat. And it was really therapeutic to talk about these things.

"You can't possibly think that. I'm sure your family loves you."

It was a beautiful sentinent, but so very wrong. I smiled sadly and squeezed my legs tighter.

"Brody does. At least a little. But my mom and my dad? I don't think they are even capable of loving anyone else than each other. They approve of Brody because he has a fiance and he's pretty successful over all, but I don't think they love him either. Brody knows that too."

Jasper was quiet for a long time. I don't know if he was giving me some figurative space or if he was busy trying to figure out what I was telling him. Either way, I let him be quiet and just breathed in his calming scent. He really should think about bottling it and selling to nerve-wracks like me. I would say he'd get filthy rich doing that, but he really didn't need any more money. Maybe as a charity thing? That would work.

"I'm sorry I doubted your motives when you asked me to be your date. I was very wrong and I feel horrible for thinking the worst about you. Can you forgive me?"

That explained so much and it was completely not surprising. Most people couldn't even imagine that a family like mine would exist, let alone be able to wrap their heads around that. Of course he had thought I was some kind of desperate hussy who just wanted to get it on with a rich, sexy vampire.

Well, to be honest, I kind of did want that. Who wouldn't? Jasper was like a walking catnip to me and goddamn I wanted to rub myself all over him. Good thing I could blame all of that on him being a supernatural being who seemed to just ooze sex appeal. Otherwise this whole thing would be even more awkward than it already was.

"Yeah, you're forgiven. Thanks for doing this."

"It's my pleasure, Ella."

And my hormones found their way back again, attacking me full blast. Couldn't this thing be over already?!


Author's Final Notes:

Phew, I was starting to doubt my ability to finish this chapter before the week is over, but I did it. One would think that my lack of social life would give me plenty of time to focus on my writing, but alas, I'm a master at procrastinating. Writing this, and more importantly, publishing this continues to give me a good kick on my ass so I'll close that Netflix tab and do something productive with my free time!

But, let us get into more important things. Thank you all for still tuning in to this hot mess. I truly appreciate it greatly! And thank you to all you lovely people who are willing to spend a little extra time to comment on my 'master piece'. Give yourselves a round of applause!

Okay, we shall see if I manage to keep this staggering pace of publishing up. The next chapter will hopefully be ready for your eyes in a few days... I'll see you all there!