The next day I woke up groggy, not having as much sleep as I normally would, but I still made myself get up and ready for school. When I got downstairs my Dad and Shanna were in the kitchen in silence; none of us were morning people so we stayed out of each others way, mumbling good morning to each other. I made myself a bowl of cereal and sat down to eat it.

Charlie was the first to leave, grumbling a good-bye before shutting the front door behind him and driving off.

I was finishing off my breakfast when I thought back to last night. Shanna had gone over to the 'cult' and spoken to them, more than that, they seemed to recognise her and bowed their heads to show respect. I looked up at Shanna, I was about to ask her about it, but thought twice when I saw the zombie look on her face. I wouldn't be able to get anything coherent, that wasn't laced with growling, from her while she was like this.

I ate the last spoon of cereal, washed my bowl up, picked up my bag and waited for Shanna to finish. When she had, we got into the truck and drove off to school in silence. Shanna spent the whole journey looking out her window, and only turned to me when we had parked.

She gave a big yawn and grinned at me, "What do we have first?"

"Woken up a bit then? I would have thought you were mad at me if I didn't know you better."

She smiled at me, "Good thing you know better. What's first thing today?"

I rolled my eyes at her, "Math, shouldn't be too bad. Though I don't know why you signed us up for so many classes. We don't have a single free period."

"What would you do with a free period anyway?"

I shrugged, "Clean the house for an hour?"

Shanna laughed, "Exactly, might as well be taking full advantage of the education system."

I sighed as we walked down the hall and into the classroom. The teacher, I'd already forgotten her name, explained the activity for ten minutes and told us to work through the questions for the rest of the lesson. Me and Shanna finished twenty minutes before everyone else, so spent the rest of the hour passing little doodles to each other. When the bell rang we were dismissed, so we went to our next classes. The rest of the lessons passed in a similar manner.

At lunch we sat with Jasper and his family. The conversation was kept relaxed and funny, even Rosalie was talking. She didn't look particularly happy about it, but she still joined in. It bought a smile to my face, everything she was doing only showed just how much she cared for Jasper and her family. Though I couldn't decide whether cold, curt sentences were better than cold, curt silence.

Though I did think about the fact that she didn't have to do what she was doing; she could have ignored us, made us leave, or left herself. The fact that she was willing to even try to talk to us meant a lot to me.

Me and Shanna left lunch a little earlier to get to our next class. I was a little reluctant to leave Jasper's side before I had to, but I wanted to ask Shanna about the wolves.

We walked into the classroom, luckily it was empty. We sat in the back corner, I faced Shanna, "So... What was going on yesterday?"

She tilted her head slightly, "What do you mean?"

I raised an eyebrow, "I mean you going over to the werewolf cult."

She shrugged, "I was just saying hi."

I narrowed my eyes at her, "They bowed their heads when you went over; it was like they knew you."

Shanna's eyes glossed over for a few seconds, before she shrugged, "I guess I might as well tell you, it would probably be better for you to know more about the wolves."

She touched her index finger to her chin, pondering. I heard the classroom door open, and went to glare and possibly yell, at those interrupting our conversation. However, I heard Shanna's voice in my mind continuing the conversation. I scolded myself for almost acting rashly.

-Okay, so as you know, I have an affinity with the elements, nature, animals; that sort of thing. I think there is a Quileute story about a woman with those kinds of powers. She was seen as a sort of Goddess type person, and gifted the tribe with the ability to protect themselves by turning into wolves.

-So, they think that you're that woman?

-They think I'm some sort of reincarnation, or descendant or something. They treat me with the same respect as they treated her, it took me years to get the elders to stop bowing when I walked in.

-Are you the reincarnation of her?

-No clue, but I don't think it's really that important. I was telling them to back off from Jake and the others, they were laying it on pretty thick, mainly on Jake.

-Why do they act like that around him? Why do they keep staring? Is it because he's going to be a wolf?

Shanna shook her head.

-They would be doing the same thing with the others if that was the case. It's because his ancestor was the the first werewolf and alpha of the pack. That would make the alpha position Jake's birthright. With vampires back in town, their werewolf genes are activated. Jake will definitely go wolf, and when he does, he will have to make a choice on whether he wants to be the alpha or not. It's surprising that Jake isn't closer to turning wolf, but I think that might be the gentler side of him holding it back. When he gets a huge growth spurt, he'll be really close to phasing.

It was a lot of information to take in. Jake an alpha, and the Quileute youths having to phase into wolves. I thought on it more and my mouth fell open as a realisation hit me.

-Does that mean Embry...

I thought about the growth spurt he'd had, he'd grown so much.

Shanna nodded.

-Embry is close to phasing, he's gone through the growth spurt, and his temperature will continue to increase. Wolves run at a much hotter temperature than humans. It could be to do with the coldness of vampires, but I'm not too sure.

-Do you know how long until he will phase?

-At a guess I would say around a week, two max, for Embry. Maybe a couple of months for the others.

-Others? You mean Quil?

-Yeah, he's a wolf to B. I think he might phase before Jake, but not too much sooner. It's hard to tell, but around that time, we'll probably be told to stay away from them.

-Why?

-Because phasing is caused by a big emotional burst, usually anger, until they can control it. The first shift is unexpected, so they could get angry, and then turn into a wolf, most likely attacking the person who is around them. They wouldn't understand what was happening and attack the one's they love. It's a very difficult time for them, their emotions become stronger, and they become more instinctual.

I thought on it as more students began to walk into the class, followed by the teacher. I turned to the front of the room.

-We can talk about it when we get back to the house if you want?

I nodded and we focused on what the teacher was saying. The rest of the classes, seemed to pass quickly, but that could have been because I wasn't really paying attention. I was too busy thinking about Jake, Quil, and Embry. They were going to be in for a tough time and they didn't even know it.

We wouldn't even be able to be there to help them. Not all the time anyway, I still planned to see them, and judging by how Shanna had phrased it, "told to stay away", that she was planning to as well.

When we finished our classes, I met Shanna by the truck. I looked up at the sky and made a face at the grey sky and light drizzle. As per usual, Shanna was lying on the hood of the truck with her eyes closed, her clothes slowly soaking up the rain.

I nudged her when I got to the truck, shaking the keys at her.

"Let's go."

She sat up, opened her eyes slowly, and yawned. "Okay, think you can drop me home? I need to pick up a few things."

I nodded, "Of course, where are you living?"

"I'll direct you there, it's not too far."

We got into the truck and headed off, Shanna directed me towards her house, it took about 15 minutes to reach it. We got out the truck and I looked up at the house. It was white brick with a red trim and door.

"Nice place."

Shanna smiled, "Yeah, it's pretty nice. A nice elderly lady is sub-letting it to me. She made it pretty cheap."

Shanna opened the door and walked in, I followed after her, looking around the house with curiosity.

Straight ahead was an open door to the kitchen, to the right of the front door were stairs, and to the left was a cream-coloured door. I took a sneak peak at the room. It was a living room. It was average size, with white walls, dark wooden floors and light grey sofas.

It was pretty normal, it looked like a staged room. I didn't know what I expected, Shanna hadn't been staying here for very long, and she didn't really have many personal items, so the house would look pretty bare. I went to explore the rest of the downstairs. There was a small dining room next to the living room with a small wooden table and two chairs, everything else matched the living room. I then went into the kitchen, it was sweet and quaint. The walls were a very pale shade of grey, the floor tiled with big white, ceramic squares, and the cupboards matched the small dining table in the other room.

None of the rooms felt like they had been lived in, least of all by Shanna. It was a nice, cute house that would have given off a similar feeling to a little cottage if it had looked like someone lived here. But it felt a bit cold and empty the way it was now.

I heard Shanna descend the stairs, so I walked out the kitchen to meet her at the bottom step.

She had another rucksack slung over her shoulder, "I've got everything, let's head off."

We headed back out the door and drove back to Charlie's

Charlie's car wasn't in the driveway, but when I walked into I saw that there was a pile of badly folded bedsheets in a messy pile on the sofa.

I chuckled as I walked over to them, there was a note placed on top in Charlie's messy script.

'Hi Bells, I have to pull an all-nighter at the station tonight, but I have the next two days off. There's some money on the table, you and Silvers can order a pizza for tonight.

Love you

P.s. I tried to help with the laundry but too many of those sheets were not made to be folded.'

I laughed again, folded the note, and put it into my pocket.

I then began re-folding the sheets whilst calling to Shanna who had disappeared upstairs, "Charlie left us some money for pizza. What d'you want?"

I heard her reply, "I don't mind, maybe something with pepperoni?"

"Sounds good, I'll order it in a minute."

I finished the folding and rang for pizzas, Charlie had given us enough money for two pizzas, so I ordered extra pepperoni and sweetcorn for Shanna, and chicken with red peppers for me.

When I put the phone down, Shanna came down stairs with fluffy pajamas on, and a towel wrapped around her hair.

I grinned, "Pizza pamper night?"

"Yup, I've got fluffy jammies for you as well, they're on the bed."

I almost ran upstairs to shower and change.

When I came back down the pizzas had arrived and Shanna had gotten two plates and loaded them both up with each pizza.

She looked up at me and grinned, "What film do you wanna watch?"

I shrugged and sat next to her on the sofa, getting comfy. "You choose."

We ended up watching a mixture of romcoms, thrillers, and animated films for children.

We barely spoke for the evening, but it was nice and relaxing. We ended up falling asleep curled up on the sofa.

The next few days passed in a similar manner, I'd occasionally see Charlie in the mornings, go to school with Shanna, and sit with Jasper and his family at lunch; then in the evenings I'd relax with Shanna and maybe see Charlie come in and go to bed.

It was the weekend, Charlie was away working again, and Shanna was still sleeping. I looked at the clock, 12.27. I sighed, the TV was on but I didn't have the attention span to keep watching. When my boredom peaked, I had decided to wake Shanna up, but before I could move from the sofa; my phone buzzed.

The message was from Jasper, I felt my face heat up as I read the message.

Hi Bella, I was wondering if you were doing anything today. I was hoping you might want to meet up? Maybe get some food? Just me and you?

My heartbeat sped up and I felt my stomach turn with nervousness.

I ran upstairs to my room and jumped on Shanna.

She gasped, jumping up, and looking around. When she saw it was me, her eyes narrowed, and she lay back down in bed turning over. She pulled the duvet over her head.

I lay down next to her, on top of the duvet and decided to just talk to her anyway. "Jasper messaged me, I think he's asking me out. Well, he asked if I wanted to go out for food, but I think it's a date."

There was no response from Shanna.

"What should I reply?"

Shanna shifted and removed the duvet covering her face.

She turned to me and closed her eyes. "Obviously yes."

I nudged her, "I obviously want to meet him but I'm nervous, I don't know how to write the message."

"Write yes? You overthink way too much."

"Like you're any better."

She didn't respond.

I poked her, "What do I type?"

Shanna yawned, "'Sure, that sounds great. When do you want to meet?'"

I nodded and sent it, a few moments later my phone buzzed, Great! How about I come by yours and pick you up in about an hour?

I replied, Okay, see you then

I grinned to myself, "I'm going on a date with Jasper."

Shanna still didn't reply.

I poked her again, "Come on be excited for me."

Shanna opened one droopy eye, "I am excited, I'm just sleepy as well."

I gave her a droll look.

"Fine, I'm getting up. I'll help you get ready, just let me wake up first."

I smiled and thought about my date with Jasper..

After about five minutes, Shanna rolled out of bed and walked to the closet.

She yawned as she pulled out some clothes for me to wear.

She put them on the end of the bed.

"Okay, do you want fancy, casual, or fancy casual. I don't really know any other kind of style."

"I don't know, I'm not sure where we're going or how he's going to dress. What do you think?"

Shanna thought for a second, "I think part casual, and part revealing."

I laughed, "That wasn't one of your options."

She waved her hand at me dismissively, "Okay, so here are some choices."

I looked at the clothes she had put on the bed; there were three different outfits.

The first was a plain black tank top and dark blue jeans. The second, was a green plaid shirt, a black crop top that went to just above my belly button and black jeans.

And the third was a lacy black top, and a black skater skirt.

I immediately reached for the first outfit, but Shanna stopped me before my hand touched the fabric.

"I don't think so Bells. I put that out so that there was a third option, but you're not going that casual, it's a date."

She rolled her eyes at me, "I may be clueless about most things to do with dates and romance crap, but I've seen enough movies to know that you don't choose the plain outfit."

I rolled my eyes, "Well, you know I'm not gonna wear the skirt, I don't even know where that came from, or the tops, so I guess option two."

She smiled, "I snuck it in the first day you were here, thought it would be worth a shot. Option two is the best, a mixture between hot and casual."

I sighed, "But it's a crop top."

Shanna looked at me steadily for a few seconds, before putting her hand on my shoulder, "Bells, Jasper isn't going to care about your scars. That I can promise you, your scars only show how strong you are, they reflect your badass bitch personality. Wear them with pride, most people wouldn't be able to survive and remain strong if they had to go what you went through. Be proud of who you are and what you've accomplished."

I nodded, but the frown didn't leave my face, Shanna gave me a small smile, "I thought you might feel uncomfortable in it. The shirt covers your back, and the crop top goes low enough to cover the scars on your stomach."

I smiled and jumped up to hug her.

"Thanks Shanna."

"Anytime, now go get ready."

She pushed the clothes into my arms and shooed me towards the bathroom.

When I was dressed, I looked myself in the mirror, I was mainly checking whether any of my scars were showing, they weren't but I still attempted to pull the top down, hoping it would stretch to cover more of my stomach.

After about five minutes of this I gave up and went downstairs.

Shanna was waiting for me, laid out on the sofa, draped in blankets.

She looked up as I entered. "You look good Bells, Jasper's gonna lose it."

She chuckled, "I love seeing vampires at a loss for words. They can be so damn smug around humans."

I raised an eyebrow, "How many vampires do you know?"

She grinned, "Enough."

I rolled my eyes at her cryptic answers, and didn't bother entertaining her more by trying to ask again. She was way too annoying for her own good.

I checked the time, there were about 20 minutes more until Jasper arrived.

I sat down and began tapping my leg with impatience.

I heard Shanna sigh, "Bells relax, you eat together all the time. Be your usual self, if anyone should be scared it's the vampire infatuated with a human. Hmmm... Something doesn't sound right about that sentence."

I laughed, "I know what you meant. It just feels different to how it normally is, like something might happen."

She smiled, "Looks like you're getting a sixth sense of your own."

I groaned, "Does that mean something's going to happen?"

Shanna shrugged, I narrowed my eyes at her.

She put her hands up in surrender, "I swear, I don't know."

"Fine, I believe you. Are you sure I look alright?"

She raised an eyebrow at me, "Of course, I chose the outfit. Jasper's gonna lose it."

I felt my face heat up, Shanna laughed at my uncomfortable expression, "You don't see how much you affect him, but I sure as hell can, I'm sure his family can to."

I gave a small smile; knowing that I affected Jasper as much as he affected me, made my chest warm with happiness, and caused the butterflies in my stomach to calm down ever so slightly.

I looked back at Shanna, her eyes were glazed over. She was mid vision, I felt the worry well up inside me; was something bad going to happen?

Shanna took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, as she adjusted to being back in the present.

"What did you see?" I asked, worry causing my voice to shake slightly, as I continually imagined increasingly worse scenarios.

Shanna shook her head, "No need to worry Bells, it wasn't anything serious, just mundane stuff. Jasper's gonna be here like ten minutes early, the shop doesn't have any lemonade left, and it's gonna be sunny soon."

I laughed at her annoyed expression, but suppressed it when Shanna glared at me, "Sorry, it's just funny to know that your visions annoy you just as much as you annoy me."

She rolled her eyes at me, "That's fair, but it's so disorienting to have visions like that, especially when it's about dumb stuff."

I covered my mouth to hide a laugh, it didn't work. Shanna made a face at me and lay back down on the sofa.

I pulled my phone out to check the time, according to Shanna's vision, Jasper should be arriving in a few minutes. I took some deep breaths to calm myself down, but it only seemed to make me more nervous.

I felt calm seep into me, and I knew it was from Shanna, "Thanks."

"No worries, I just don't want you to have a heart attack before going out with Jasper."

I threw a cushion at her.

"Hey, I've been helpful today, I didn't deserve that."

"Maybe not now, but I'm sure you'll do something to deserve it."

She opened her mouth to refute me, but thought twice, "I can't argue with that."

I laughed at her, as I heard the smooth sounds of a ridiculously expensive car stop outside the house, I felt the calm seeping into me increase, and smiled at Shanna.

After a few moments, there was a quiet knock on the door, I smiled and jumped up to answer the door.

Jasper was looking as hot as ever. He was wearing a light blue button up shirt, back jeans and brown boots. He stared at me in silence for a moment, looking me up and down, his mouth was moving as if he was saying something, but no sound came from his mouth.

Shanna laughed from the sofa, the sound of her laughter seemed to break Jasper's trance. He looked at me bashfully, and ran a hand through his golden locks,

"Sorry, I... You..."

I had to admit that I liked seeing Jasper this flustered, but before I could say anything, Shanna started a new round of laughter, her breathing uneven as she attempted to catch her breath.

I turned to glare at her but she was to busy laughing to notice. I turned back to Jasper to apologise, but saw a big smirk on his face.

"You look gorgeous Darlin', being laughed at is a small price to pay for seeing you. I'm a little early, I hope that's okay?"

My heartbeat sped up, and my face flushed red, only serving as a catalyst for Shanna's gasping laughter.

Jasper smiled, "Shall we?"

I nodded, "See you later Shanna."

She didn't reply, but the sounds of her laughter continued until I shut the door, and walked towards Jasper's car.

He opened the passenger door for me, and I hopped inside, melting into the ultra comfortable seat.

Jasper walked around to the other side, jumped in, and drove off.

After about 5 minutes of driving in comfortable silence, I spoke, "So, where are we going?"

Jasper smiled, "It's a little place in Port Angeles, Esme recommended it, I'm not too great at restaurants."

"I'm sure it'll be great."

"It's an Italian restaurant, Esme said they serve the biggest selection of pastas."

I laughed, "It sounds good, I trust Esme's judgement."

"But you don't trust mine?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "Now don't go getting all upset, I just know that you would probably eat a rock with the same enthusiasm as fancy restaurant food."

Jasper chuckled, "You've got me there, I really don't appreciate fine dining."

The rest of the journey consisted of the same sort of chat, I asked after his family, he asked after mine, and we discussed school work.

By the time we reached the restaurant we were deep into a conversation about war tactics.

Jasper parked the car and turned to me to continue the conversation, "But that tactic would only work as well in theory, there are way to many factors for it to be as effective as when written in a book."

I shook my head, "No way, putting it into practice is difficult, but if you have smaller teams of around six people, and you have a strong command and communication, then it wouldn't be too difficult, and it's effective against varying attacks with minimal adaption. It has to be one of the best counter-attack tactics for smaller armies."

"Maybe in more recent years with the growth in technology, but during the Civil war if the Confederate army employed that technique, it would have failed miserably."

I nodded in agreement, "Yes, of course. But we're not talking about the Civil War in particular, just the feasibility of this tactic succeeding. The Civil war isn't too great of an example. While tactics are very important, I don't really think that there was a tactic that could have won the Confederate army the war."

Jasper frowned at me.

"It was a huge debate and war over the worth of another human. Those fighting for the rights of those people, knew with every part of their being that what they were doing was right. No matter what, no one would have stopped fighting for freedom. Full conviction is a very powerful thing. It makes someone continue to fight over and over, never giving up. I think that can end up being stronger than any specific tactic because then it becomes a battle of wills. If there is any slight doubt that what you're fighting for isn't worth it, then you've already lost. Stamina has a huge part to play."

Jasper was nodding with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I agree with that, but when in the heat of war, with the planning, training, and pure terror, I think many people lose sight of what is actually being fought for. You would run on fear, and survival instinct. It would often depend purely on where you live for what you fight for. Many people in the confederate army didn't truly believe in what they were fighting for, you were brainwashed from young, enlisted as a youth, and handed a gun. You fought beside the people you lived with, you never really thought about the war as a whole, you would consider you and a fellow comrade getting out alive as a victory... Or so I've heard. I read a book about it."

Jasper awkwardly rounded off his speech. I smothered a grin at his lame attempt at a cover up. He had clearly fought in the war, and by what he said, I could assume that he fought in the Confederate army.

Jasper changed the subject, "As amazing as your knowledge is, and how interesting it is to talk to you about war tactics, I think we should probably go in to eat. You must be starving."

As if on cue, my stomach grumbled loudly.

Jasper laughed, got out, walked around the car, and opened the door for me, "Shall we?"

I smiled and stepped out, we walked towards the front doors, on the way Jasper's hand brushed against mine.

The moment of contact felt like an electric shock, but wasn't as surprising as when I felt him lightly grip my hand, our fingers intertwining. I blushed bright red, and looked up at him. He was looking straight ahead with a grin on his face.

We walked into the restaurant and waited on the side to be seated. Most of the people in the building turned to eye Jasper up from the moment he walked in.

I couldn't blame them, he looked incredible, but as the perky, blond waitress bounced up to us with a sultry smile on her lips, looking Jasper up and down, I wished for fewer people to find him attractive.

The waitress attempted to ignore my presence as she lead us to our table.

"Here is your table Sir."

As we sat down she handed the menus to Jasper, doing her best to push her boobs up and entice him. Jasper completely ignored her, choosing to only look at me. The waitress made a face and tried again.

"I hope you and your sister like the table Sir. I'm Kim and I'll be your server, Let me know if you want anything from me."

I almost gagged at her emphasis on 'anything'.

Jasper spoke without looking away, "She's not my sister, she's my girlfriend, and we'll have a Coke and a water."

Kim shot a look at me before nodding and walking away, clearly annoyed at my presence.

I remained staring at Jasper. He called me his girlfriend. Am I his girlfriend? Are we dating? The thoughts and questions swirled continuously through my head.

Jasper seemed to sense my thoughts and smiled bashfully, "Sorry I said that, she wasn't leaving and she was clearly..."

He stopped.

I nodded, "It's fine, it must happen all the time."

Jasper frowned, "Every now and then. It's pretty annoying... But I just blurted that out, sorry."

I shook my head, "Don't worry about it, I didn't think anything of it."

Jasper fidgeted, "I think I said it because it was on my mind."

I frowned in confusion and tilted my head slightly, "What do you mean?"

Jasper smiled at me, looking into my eyes, "I mean, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to be my girlfriend, I really like you, and it would be nice to go out with you, and hold your hand and stuff... but if you don't want to I understand, I just thought-"

I interrupted his stream on nonsense, "You want me to be your girlfriend?"

He nodded, "But if you don't-"

I cut him off again, "I do want to."

A big, dazzling smile lit up Jasper's face, "Great, that's great."

There was a moment of awkward silence.

I laughed at his awkwardness, I never expected to see an uncertain Jasper.

He stuck his tongue out at me, "Stop laughing at me, I'm not very good at this sort of stuff."

I chuckled again, "It's just so strange seeing you get this awkward and flustered."

"Well, it's strange for me as well. You're the only one who's ever made me into a stammering mess."

"Really?"

He nodded, "I've never done anything like this. I was hoping to make it somewhat more romantic, but I guess I couldn't stop myself from blurting it out"

"I would have thought you'd have had a lot of girlfriends, with a pretty face like yours."

He laughed, "I've actually never had a girlfriend."

I laughed, "Wait, really?"

"Is that so surprising?"

I nodded, "Well, yeah. Have you met you?"

"I think you're thinking too highly of me."

There were a few moments of silence.

I could feel that my face was bright red. Should I have agreed so quickly? It felt so right, and natural to say yes. Especially with how nervous he was.

I smiled, not sure what to say.

"So you're my girlfriend." He stated.

"Yup, that seems to be the case." I laughed, "We're both so good at this, right?"

"Yeah, definitely." He chuckled.

"So you're really into your history then?"

He cleared his throat and nodded, "It's a little hobby of mine I guess, what about you? You really know a lot about history and war tactics. It's pretty impressive."

"It's pretty interesting, me and Shanna used to do lots of different classes and courses over the years. We did fighting tactics as a part of one of the courses. It was really interesting so I found out more about them."

We continued to talk about different eras, I doubted Jasper realised how in depth he was going, if I didn't know that he had probably lived through what he was talking about, I would have assumed he was a historian.

We were interrupted by the waitress coming back with our drinks.

She tried to flirt again, she addressed Jasper, "Have you decided what you would like to eat?"

Jasper just looked at me, I hadn't even looked at the menu. Jasper smiled and ordered for us.

"We'll have the spinach lasagne, and a spaghetti Bolognese." He handed her the menus without looking at her. She scrunched her nose in frustration, before walking off to sort our order.

"I think you hurt her feelings."

He blinked, "Who?"

I grinned, "The waitress."

"Oh, yeah. I was a little distracted. I don't want to be cruel, but I'm not going to humour her, and I can't stop looking at you."

I blushed again, and covered my face with my hands.

"Too much?"

I looked up at him and smiled, "I'm just not used to this, I don't really know how to act or react."

He smiled gently, and reached over the table to pull my hand away from my face. "Be yourself, remember I like who that is."

My brain went blank, before He likes me, played on repeat in my head. He likes me? Why does he like me? I'm his girlfriend, his girlfriend!

He looked at me, "You look like you're screaming in your head."

"Huh?"

"You always get this look on your face when your shocked, or unsure. You look really calm on the outside, but I can tell you're freaking out on the inside."

I shot him a small smile, "Sorry, it's a lot to take in."

"Don't be sorry, it's cute. I like trying to figure out what's going on in your head. You can be so difficult to read."

I smiled, "That's the idea, I'm super mysterious, dark and brooding."

He laughed, "I like it, but I definitely want to try and get behind the walls you've built up."

I smiled, "Right back at you, I may have built up walls, but you seem to have a whole army to protect you."

"Rough pasts cause you to find ways to protect yourself."

The conversation didn't seem so fun anymore, I looked down.

Jasper leaned back, "So, how long have you and Shanna known each other. It kinda feels like you guys are twins."

I smiled, "We've pretty much known each other from the moment we were born. Our parents were friends, she moved around a lot, but often ended up living in the same place."

We continued to talk about our families, hobbies, and interests. I barely noticed when the waitress bought our food, I inhaled it, as Jasper managed to make it look like he was eating.

We held hands over the table while we were talking. Al my nerves had gone, it felt so natural to talk to Jasper.

The waitress came over with the bill, she had a smug smile on her face as she put the folder on the table.

I rolled my eyes, it was obvious that she had slipped some sort of note for Jasper in.

I smiled as a cruel thought crossed my mind, Jasper pulled out some notes and put them on the table without touching the bill. I had other plans, I reached forward and picked up the bill opening the folder to read it.

A small note with the waitresses name and number fell out.

She started to turn red as I picked up the note and read it. I looked up at her and smiled.

"I think you accidentally dropped this in the bill. Wouldn't want anyone to think that you're trying to hit on my boyfriend."

Pure embarrassment was on her face as she snatched the note from me and rushed away into the kitchen.

Jasper looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

I looked at him innocently, "What's wrong?"

He smiled, "Nothing, I just really like you calling me your boyfriend, you also seemed to channel Shanna."

I laughed, "She tends to rub off on me sometimes." I was pretty shocked with myself as well, I had a sudden burst of confidence, which now began to fade.

"Do you think I should apologise?"

Jasper shook his head, "She's the one who tried to hit on your boyfriend."

He winked at me, and I melted under his gaze.

We got back into his car and drove off, we continued to chat on the way back to Forks.

When we pulled up outside the house, Jasper got out to walk me to the door.

I got nervous again when we reached the door. It was already dark, we had managed to stay out for hours.

Jasper just smiled, brushed my hair behind my ear and leaned in. His lips only brushed against mine for a few seconds, but the electricity that passed between us continued after he had already said 'bye' and driven away.

I walked into the house and leaned against the door with a huge smile on my face.

I hadn't felt like this before, but it all felt right. It was enough to momentarily block out my fears, I floated on a cloud as I went upstairs to get ready for bed.

I felt like a piece of my soul had been returned to me. I had to do my best not to let it go.