I grabbed Bella before she could leave. I tugged her to a corner by the cafeteria and asked plainly, "What were you and Edward talking about?"

Bella sighed and glanced around before moving in closer and whispering, "He was being all nice all of a sudden. But then he started saying we shouldn't be friends and all of this shit. I was so confused, he gave me whiplash."

I nodded in understanding. "He tried telling me the same thing." Bella's head shot up to look at me. "When he was being preachy, he kept telling me it wasn't good for me to be friends with them. And I told him I barely knew them! So how could I even be friends with them? But whatever, he was just being really weird about it, I don't know what got into him. He was perfectly fine before that conversation."

"Yeah, to you at least. I'm still in shock he's speaking to me like I'm not plagued."

I laughed. "Well, I told you, and he confirmed! He just had a bad day." She shook her head and made to leave, but I held her back. "I think you should ignore what he said, Bella, really. I don't think they're bad people."

"You just say that because you like Jasper," she retorted.

My face flushed at the accusation. I stuttered out a response. "I do not! I just, I think he's sweet. That's it. Besides, I could say the same about you."

Bella smiled at my denial, and didn't deny my claim. "Maybe you're right."

With that, we split and made our way to our respective classes. I was jittery at the thought of having class with Jasper after what Bella said. I shook my head at the thought, I barely knew the boy - there was no way that was even fathomable.

Making it to Spanish, I took my seat and noted Jasper wasn't there yet. That was… weird? He seemed fine earlier, maybe he felt sick during lunch. I shrugged off the worry and focused on the lecture for today. It was a fun class for once, Mr. Davis decided to teach us ghost stories. Said something about not wanting to teach because he felt bad - maybe there was a bug going around - and put on a video about the supernatural, but in Spanish. It covered all the legends I learned in Spanish from my family and from movies, but I tuned in to hear the part about vampires.

I rested my head in my hand and watched the video a little more intently than before. The video started off by describing how to know someone was a vampire. It detailed how they were pale, had an aversion to sunlight, were cold, all that jazz, but also the usual things we all knew, like their bloodthirst. I yawned at the obvious depiction, thinking we could have just played Dracula and gotten it over with, not that I didn't enjoy a day off.

"Los vampiros son conocidos por atraer a las personas con el romance, convenciéndoles de que los aman. Son muy peligrosos. Ellos atacarán cuando menos lo esperes."

"Hey, teach, this isn't scary anymore, this is just boring, why do we care about vampire romances?" Someone near the front asked and we all laughed, well I laughed, but I sat up straighter. Vampires aren't real, I assured myself. These were just scary stories. I chuckled as I admitted I was getting scared by this dumb video. This was just a fun time.

The bell rang soon after, signalling the end of classes, so I packed up my things and made my way to the parking lot. I saw Bella by her truck and was going to wave to her, when all of a sudden I saw Tyler's van start skidding towards her at full force.

"Bella!" I yelled her name, hoping she'd move. If I tried running I could make it, but I felt arms tug me back. "Let me go!" I struggled against the harsh hold. I threw my head back to see who thought letting Bella get hit by a van was fine , and to my surprise it was Jasper. He was supposed to be sick! "Jasper, what the fuck!"

I heard the collision before I saw it. I ripped myself out of Jasper's arms, and ran over to where the van hit the orange truck. Everyone has started crowding around Bella, asking if she was okay. Someone shouted they had 911 on the phone. I pushed my way through the crowd, telling Tyler to fuck off when he kept apologizing.

I pushed Bella's hair back and studied her face. She was nearly catatonic. "Oh, shit, Bella, can you hear me?"

She nodded mutely, grasping my hand and looking behind her at the woods by the school. I sighed in relief and sat on the asphalt with her. We waited for the ambulance to get to the school, and only when they loaded her in did I realize my mother hadn't come to school. I furrowed my brows at the thought, thinking something must have happened to my mom.

I dialed her number on my cell, anxiety wracking through me with every ring. When it finally clicked I jumped into the conversation. "Mom? Are you okay?"

"Hi, honey, I'm sorry," she began, and I could hear a few cracks in her voice. "I had to do something urgent, so would you be okay with asking someone to take you home? I promise I'll explain later." And with that, she hung up, not even letting me argue.

I sighed angrily, snapping my phone shut. I cursed and hiked up my backpack. Looking around, I saw most people had left the lot after the accident, Tyler being taken to the hospital too for his bleeding head. To my knowledge, most people had headed to the hospital to check on the two of them, not that Bella would like it, I guessed. Guess I had to walk.

As I made my way to the exit of the school, I could hear the smooth engine of the fancy car pulling up beside me. It was the Volvo. I snorted, wondering what was going to happen now. I stopped and the car followed suit. Crouching my knees, I looked into the tinted windows with a raised eyebrow, and the windows lowered. Only Jasper was in the Volvo, which I found strange. He motioned for me to get in, and I weighed my options. Walk home and be sweaty and tired after a long walk, or get in and have the chance to berate him. I would take the latter. I glanced behind me at the long line of cars, seeing Rsoalie's sports car behind the Volvo and waved at them, assuming the rest of the siblings were in there, why? I had no clue. I got in without any complaints.

As I clicked my seat belt in place, Jasper sent the car zooming into the street. And I thought the motorcycle was bad. I gripped my seat tightly, noticing slowly but surely we weren't headed for my house. Great, I was being kidnapped.

"Jasper," I said, my voice strained. "Is there any reason we're not headed for my house?"
"Yes."

"Is there any chance of you telling me that reason?"

"No."

I sighed and rested my head back against the seat. The cool leather was a welcomed relief, but my cheeks were burning from being in this car with Jasper. I was still reeling from being held back by him. The car ride felt endless as the silence carried on. I couldn't take it.

"Jasper, will you at least talk to me?" I turned in my seat to watch him drive. His hands were clutching the steering wheel. I reached a hand over to rest on his arm, careful about pushing his boundaries. "I'm right here, why do you have to drive away from civilization just to talk to me? I don't get it."

He hit the wheel with the palm of his hand. "Just let me get to it, Daniela!"

"Do not yell at me, Jasper," I said evenly.

Jasper had enough shame to look embarrassed by his outburst. "I mean it, though. Just let me get there, what I'm about to do is hard enough."

"I don't take kindly to being yelled at, Jasper, so whatever it is you're going to do better be done calmly. Especially after that stunt you pulled," I told him, still upset because I could've made it to Bella.

"If I'd let you go to Bella, you would've gotten hurt too."

I scoffed. "And how do you know that? What, are you psychic?"
"I'm not. Alice is."

I laughed at his attempt at a joke. "I know Alice has the goth, witch vibe going for her, but she doesn't strike me as a psychic, Jasper." Suddenly, Jasper pulled over. We were still in the middle of the woods. Now I was getting scared. "If you're going to kill me, don't make it so obvious, Jazz, please. Murder in the woods is overplayed."

"Jazz?" Jasper's voice carried over from his driver's seat, his voice like an angel's. I was overwhelmed with care in that moment. How could I be scared of this sweet boy?

I stumbled over my words. "I… I thought it was cute. Jasper is so long sometimes."

"My family calls me that."

I felt embarrassed. "Sorry, if I, you know, crossed a boundary."

"No, you didn't. But I'm about to."

I looked up confused. He wasn't in his seat anymore. I heard a knock on my window and jumped. Jasper himself was at my window. I looked back and forth between his unoccupied seat and the window, wondering if this was another hallucination like last night. Before I could roll down the windows, Jasper opened the door for me. I stepped out cautiously. I was on edge, and Jasper could tell from my scared expression. He took me by the hand and for the first time, I really recoiled from the cold hand. In that moment, I had a flashback to Spanish class.

Vampires have cold hands… thirst for blood… superpowers...

The chill that ran down my spine had nothing to do with the cold. I must have been insane, more than I already was, because I let Jasper take me by the hand deeper into the woods. He didn't let me go for a second, whether it was because he was afraid I'd bolt or because he knew I needed help navigating the terrain, I wasn't sure. I was silent throughout our walk, mulling over the same sentences from the video. The likelihood of Jasper saying he was a vampire was laughable; the more likely scenario was me just hallucinating and having delusions, and attributing it to a new episode. It had to be.

Eventually, after a while of walking and me being convinced we were lost, Jasper stopped. I bumped into his back and stumbled. He caught me easily, hands grabbing me by the shoulder and easing me down onto a log. He didn't sit down instead choosing to pace in front of me. I let him go on for a few minutes, having my own worries to think about, but at some point this had to end.

"Jasper." He stopped pacing, but didn't look at me. "You drove all this way. We walked all this way. You have me here alone. Either you're going to tell me what's eating at you, or I leave here and get lost in the woods trying to find the main road again. Something has to happen."

I saw his shoulders rise and fall slowly. He turned to stare at me, not a fleeting glance like the ones we shared in the cafeteria, no, this was stronger, more tangible. I could reach out and touch him this time. And I did. I grabbed his cold hand and prayed with all I had that this would turn out okay.

"Do you ever wonder what could be?" He began cryptically, running his thumb down my hand.

"Sometimes," I answered honestly.

"I always do. I wonder what could happen every second of every day. What would happen if I lost control, what would happen if something happened to my family, what I'd do. And every scenario scares me.

"Daniela, I need you to answer honestly. Are you scared of me?" We hadn't broken eye contact this whole time. "I need you to tell me."

In that moment, I knew without a doubt what I felt for Jasper. And I was scared to admit it. If I admitted it, what would I do? Jasper was placing his trust in me and I didn't know why. I had no clue what he thought of me. Sure, he deemed me worthy of conversation and a few of his jokes, his grins, his grimaces, his anger. I never saw him act like anything but a human in front of his siblings - he was a statue in front of our classmates. And I felt like the luckiest person in the world to know him. But what did that mean? Did that mean I wasn't scared? Of course I was scared. I was in the middle of nowhere with a boy I barely knew, but felt something for. I was scared I would wake up and have this be an episode. I was scared my mom was in trouble and she wouldn't tell me. I was scared of lots of things. But was I scared of Jasper?

"No," I said. And I knew it was true the second I said it. "I'm not scared of you, Jazz."

He gripped my hand tighter. "What if I said something, would you be scared then?"

"Depends on what you tell me."

And then he was gone. I shot up from my makeshift seat on the log. I called out his name, turning in circles trying to locate him. "Jasper!" I cried. Suddenly, I was scared of being abandoned in this dark forest, the barely there sun disappearing fast. "Jasper, this isn't funny, please!"

I gasped as I felt hands wrap around my waist. "What if I said there was something you didn't know about me?"

"There's lots I don't know about you," I whispered. My voice carried across the wide open space, soft, trembling. "I don't know your favorite color, where you were born in Texas, hell, I don't even know your school schedule."

Jasper laughed roughly behind me. "Only you would consider those things."

"No, those are normal things to think about if you're friends." With some difficulty, I turned in place, Jasper's arms still around me, but I tried not to think too hard about that. "What is it, Jasper? What could you possibly have to tell me?" In the back of my mind, I thought I knew the answer; I needed him to say it.

Jasper wouldn't let go. "I hate myself, Daniela. You wouldn't understand, not in a million years. You don't know what it's like to hate every fiber of your being."

"Yes, I do." I stood up straighter and cradled his face in my hands. "Jasper, there's so much you don't know about me either. There's so much I left behind in Miami, so much I'd rather forget. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't tell the people I care about."

He smiled, just so, a barely there change in his expression. "You care about me?"

"I care about a lot of people here now, surprisingly. You've all got me under your spell."

"And if I said it wasn't a spell? If it was just reality?"
"I wouldn't believe you," I mumbled. "Jazz, I have delusions, I have hallucinations, I'm not normal. I'm fucked." I took a deep breath. "I tried jumping off in Miami. I hated living so, so much. I wanted it to end."

Jasper's grip tightened, it was near bruising. "I would have never met you, Dani." He spoke so quietly, my ears strained to hear him. "I wouldn't have gotten to know you. Know that sweet accent of yours, the way you write, tilted in your seat, the way you tune in and out. I wouldn't know that temper of yours, or the way you believe so deeply even a fuck up like me can be good. It's what makes you so beautiful, ma'am" He let his head fall forward and rested his forehead against mine. "I wouldn't have met you, and I would have regretted being alive."

I swept his hair away from his face, tucking it behind his ear. "Oh, Jasper, you shouldn't say things you don't mean." I smiled sadly.

"I'm not lying. Alice saw you coming, she knew about you, she saw I'd be happy for the first time in years. I wouldn't have seen your smile if you'd died, Dani, the most beautiful smile I've ever seen."

I swayed on the spot. Tentatively, I asked, "What do you mean Alice saw me coming, Jasper?"

He stayed silent, choosing to run a hand up and down my spine instead. "Jazz, please. Say it. Why today?"

"Alice saw what would happen in Spanish, she saw the video. She…" he trailed off.

I grabbed his face tighter. "Jasper, I need to hear it, please," I begged him.

"Son muy peligrosos," he repeated, verbatim what the video had said.

I couldn't hold back the tears in my eyes. "What is dangerous, Jazz?"

"Vampires," he said, his voice not wavering.

My hold went slack. Jasper's grip on me tightened even more and I felt the air rush out of me.

He lowered his head more and turned to the side to whisper in my ear. "Are you scared now?"

With a shuddering breath, I placed my hands on his chest, feeling the cold of his body envelop me. "I'm cracked, I see and imagine things worse than vampires in my best episodes, Jasper." I looked him square in the eyes. "It takes more than vampires to scare me off."

Saying Jasper looked relieved was an understatement. He looked like he would drop to his knees and pray at any moment. He pulled me tighter to his chest, crushing my arms against me. I laughed, feeling like yesterday, a weight lifted off my shoulders. This was unbelievable, this realm of supernatural was unfathomable to me, yet here I was. I let my head rest against his chest with my arms now on his shoulders. We stayed like that for a good while, just contemplating the truths that were spoken. Jasper was the first to break it.

"Daniela?" I hummed and looked up at him, suddenly very sleepy. "I have another secret, relating to the vampire one."

"Well, it can't shock me anymore than that," I said, reaching a hand up to tug on a strand of his hair. "Shoot."

"I can manipulate emotions."

I gaped at him. Blinking once, twice, thrice, I laughed so hard I had to pull away from him. "You're joking, you have to be. Come on," I joked.

He didn't even twitch. My only reaction was feeling this rage build up in me. "Jasper," I warned. "Jasper, what the fuck? Stop! Stop it!" I felt the rage burning my core. "I said stop!" And just like that I felt a wave of sadness rush over me. The tears that had welled up in my eyes earlier started to fall. "What was that for? Are you trying to make me hate you?"

"Yes," he said plainly.

My heart broke and I stepped farther back. "Why?" I shouted. "After all of that, why try to make me hate you?"

"Because I may be happy you accepted me, but you don't know the true depth of what I can do, Daniela. You needed to see for yourself."

"That's bullshit," I spat. "You're just a coward."

"Maybe I am, but I'll be a coward if it means I can keep you safe." I could see the adoration in his face, and it only fueled my sadness.

I rushed over to him again and grabbed him by the forearms. "Then let me in, Jasper. I'm not going anywhere."

His stare was unnervingly calm. "There's so much you still don't know."

"Then give me time, but don't lock me out. I care about you. Please." I didn't need his mood manipulation anymore because I felt an all-encompassing sadness wrack my body. "Please, Jasper," I whimpered, feeling like the wrong word would push him away for good. "You don't know the hell I've been through these past few months. The worst of it, it killed me inside. And yet Forks has been the best of it somehow. You've been some of the best of it, believe me, why don't you believe me?"

"I do. I just don't want to lose you."

"Well, listen up, cowboy," I began, the sadness emptying out thanks to him. "You're going to lose me if you keep this up. And I don't think you want that." I clutched at his body like he would fade away any second. "Just let it happen. If it doesn't work out, okay, but just let us try."

He said nothing for a few minutes, just stared at me, his eyes full of conflict. In that moment, he looked the part of a tormented, damned vampiric soul. I just wanted him to say yes. That was all. I could forgive the mood manipulation, I could forgive the outbursts, I just needed to know he wouldn't lock me out.

Finally, he said, "On one condition."

"Say it."

He gave me a small smile. "Meet my family?"

I stood there, shocked, until I smiled too. "That's it? Just walk into a vampire home? Sounds easy."

"Just wait til you speak to Rosalie." We both laughed, my grip slacking, and he took the opportunity to grab the back of my neck gently and pull my face up with the other. "Say the word, and I'll stop," he whispered.

"That's the last thing I want you to do, cowboy."

"Say less, ma'am."

He pulled me in for a kiss. It was sweet, intoxicating. I thought back to the video and how they said vampires romanced people to attack them. I could never imagine Jasper attacking anyone. Not with the way he was holding me, cradling me to his body. It felt safe, as ironic as it sounded.

We pulled apart for air and I grinned. Jasper didn't need the air, but he knew I did. He reached up to drag a finger down my lips.

"Jazz," I said.

"Hm?"

"I do need to go home at some point. Something happened to my mom and I'd rather not die of shock if something happened to her."

He chuckled. "Alright, fair enough." He stepped back and turned so his back was to me as he crouched. "Get on."

"Is this the part where you show off more supernatural powers?"

"That's right, ma'am. You're going to want to hold on tight."

I help on for dear life, he wasn't joking. I shrieked as he streaked through the trees, little more than a blur to the naked eye. The shrieks turned into raucous laughter as I enjoyed the ride. I was aware this wasn't an episode, but I was afraid it would come crumbling down soon. I wouldn't let it. I was going to enjoy my time with Jasper as much as I could.