A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter out. I took a break for Thanksgiving and to write my first o/s Just the Way you Are. It's a sweet story I wrote for the Many Faces of Jasper contest. Oh, and did I mention it's a slash story? Yes, Jasper & Edward lovin'! *happy dance* LOL Anyway, voting is open through December 6th, so head over to the Jasper's Darlins website to cast your vote at http:/jaspersdarlins (dot) blogspot (dot) com/p/many-faces-of-jasper-voting (dot) html. Read all of the entries at http:/www (dot) fanfiction (dot) net/community/The_Many_Faces_of_Jasper/85910/99/0/1/

Those of you who love Edward's and Jasper's interactions will love this chapter! :)

I do not own Twilight, its characters or any of the other copyrighted material mentioned.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

After I left Alice at the subway station three days ago, my mind has been inundated with thoughts of her - kissing her soft lips, feeling her mouth on my neck, running my hands over her ass, and feeling her lips wrapped around my perpetual erection. I feel like I've been jerking off nonstop and fear my dick is just going to fall off altogether. There's no doubt in my mind that I would love to have sex with her, but something is holding me back. She's special and worth more than a quick fuck before work.

"That fucker Edward must be rubbing off on me," I say to myself.

Speaking of Edward, where the hell has he been lately?

After we ran into him and Angela at the café, he's been M.I.A. I had a feeling he was avoiding me, so I grabbed my keys and walked over to his apartment. After knocking on his door I waited…and waited...and waited.

"I know you're in there, asswipe, so open the door!"

I pounded again on the door and watched as it swung open. Edward stood before me rubbing his eyes.

"What the fuck, Jasper! I was sleeping."

I stepped past him and into his apartment, a little surprised by what I saw. This was the first time I had actually been in his apartment and figured he lived like just about every other guy on the planet, like a functioning slob, but his apartment was neat, clean, and modern.

Maybe he has OCD.

"Do you really live here," I asked looking confused.

Still groggy, Edward croaked out, "Of course. Why?"

"You just seem awfully….neat."

"Well, dickhead, not everyone has to live like an animal."

I chuckled to myself.

"Besides," he continued, "why are you here?" He started to walk into the kitchen so I followed and sat down at the island.

"I haven't been graced with your ugly mug in a few days and wondered if you were still alive."

He smirked and spoke in a terrible southern accent. "Why Jasper, I do declare! You're worried about little old me?"

"Fuck you," I said while laughing.

"And you say that I'm in love with you? Looks like you're catching feelings, my friend. Do you want some coffee?"

"Yeah."

He turned his back to me and started the coffee maker.

"So you really were worried," he asked.

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"After running into you and your…lady friend the other day it seemed like you were avoiding me."

"I just didn't want to hear your shit," he quickly shot back.

I silently laughed to myself.

"What, you thought I was going to tease you because you have a girlfriend?"

He turned around and leaned back on the counter, crossing his arms across his chest.

Is he trying to look menacing because it's not working.

"Yes," he said simply.

I shook my head. "Come on, Edward. What the fuck am I going to say to you? So what if you got caught acting all lovey dovey with your new girlfriend? If you didn't notice, I was out with Alice."

He shrugged.

I decided to fuck with him a little. Becoming very serious, I looked straight at him and said, "Did you think I'd get jealous? That I wouldn't know how to react to seeing you with a woman on your arm?"

Edward looked at me dumbfounded and I struggled with all my might to keep a straight face.

"Jasper. I-I didn't think anything like that."

I held up my hand to stop him and sighed dejectedly.

"No, it's okay. I understand. I-I just didn't think I'd get replaced so easily."

I watched as Edward's face fell and he stepped towards me.

"Jasper, it's not like that. You're my best friend. I wouldn't do that to you."

I froze at the mention of being his best friend.

Shit! This is getting real now. I need to turn this around.

I stood up and walked around the island towards Edward. He looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to run, throw up, or stand his ground. I held out my arms as if I was going to hug him and at the last minute I slapped him across the face. His look of utter shock caused me to double over in laughter.

"You motherfucker," he screamed as he lunged at me.

I quickly stopped laughing and prepared to defend myself. We ended up locking arms, kicking, hitting, and ducking each other's blows. Finally, Edward got in a good smack to my face and we called a truce, but by that time both of us were nearly in tears from laughter.

"You really are an asshole," he said sitting opposite me at the island.

"But we're best friends! Why would you say that to me," I joked.

"Hey, just because you're an asshole doesn't mean we can't be friends."

Rolling my eyes, I responded, "Yeah, yeah."

"I may be a lot of things, Jasper, but I'm fiercely loyal to my friends. So unless you royally fuck up, you're stuck with me."

"Happy happy joy joy," I replied giving him the finger.

"Oh shit! You pulled out a Ren & Stimpy reference?"

"So what? I loved that show when I was a kid. Charlie owned the VHS collection…"

"Who's Charlie," he asked.

I didn't feel like explaining that bittersweet part of my life just yet with Edward, so I quickly changed the subject.

"So how are things going with Angela?"

Edward smiled all dreamy and I sat back in my chair waiting for him to explode with gushy love talk.

"Things are going really well. She invited me to meet her family in a couple weeks."

"Really? Things are that serious, huh?"

"Yeah. She's really something special. She complements me and is so sweet and innocent, but not naïve. One day we were in the Village and my girl told off some asshole in a convenience store who got an attitude with her and thought he was going to talk down to her. I was about to go and kick his ass, but she told me she could handle it. And handle it she did. I doubt he will ever speak to a woman like that again."

I watched as Edward's face literally lit up and his eyes danced while talking about Angela. He really was in love. I hoped that one day I'd feel the same way, but I just didn't know if that would ever become a reality.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

What a day. There I stood in front of a casket being lowered into the ground. In my short time on this earth, I had experienced plenty of pain. The almost daily abuse from my step father made me somewhat immune to physical pain and I had somehow numbed myself to the emotional pain he and my mother inflicted, but this - seeing the only real mother I had ever known take her last breath and the only decent man I'd known fall apart was too much for me to take.

As Renee was slowly lowered into the ground, I looked over at Charlie. I needed his support, but I also wanted to be there for him. He was a wreck. To others he looked sad, but pulled together. To me, he was dying a slow death. Ever since that horrible day at the hospital when he gave Dr. Newton permission to take Renee off life support, he hasn't been the same. He hadn't left the house, rarely slept, and barely spoke to me. I understood he was grieving, but the selfish part of me wanted him to tell me everything was going to be okay.

By some miracle, Charlie and Renee were able to formally adopt me before the accident, but now I seemed to be back in the same predicament: on my own.

"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust," the minister concluded.

Charlie and I slowly walked up to the grave and each of us threw a single rose onto the casket. People started to leave, but Charlie and I stayed right where we were. My heart broke for him. He thought he would finally have the perfect family and now the love of his life was gone. I put my hand on his shoulder and lightly squeezed. I wanted to let him know I was there. He turned his head and looked at me, his eyes full with unshed tears. I choked back a sob at the sight. Even though I had only been with the Swans for a little over six months, Charlie was the strongest man I had ever known and it killed me to see him like this. He nodded and smiled weakly in response to my small show of comfort.

Over the next few weeks, Charlie tried to get back to normal, but he had a pretty hard time. My 15th birthday rolled around and since I was used to people not giving a damn, I didn't expect much. I was completely shocked when I came home from school and found Charlie bringing a lit cake out to me. It was the first time I had seen him moderately happy since Renee's death and I couldn't have been more grateful. We had a "guy's night" complete with pizza and beer – for Charlie of course, I had root beer. After we were stuffed with junk food and birthday cake, Charlie handed me a small box.

"This is for you, son."

I carefully took the box from his hands and opened it. My eyes grew wide.

"This pocket watch was my great, great, great, great grandfather's who fought in the Civil War. It's been passed down from son to son ever since and now I want to pass it on to you."

I carefully pulled the gold pocket watch out of the box and looked at it in awe. It was in pristine condition and I was half afraid I'd break it. Before I knew it, tears started to stream down my face.

I looked up a Charlie and softly said, "No one's ever given me a birthday gift before."

"Really," he questioned.

I just nodded my head, too overcome with the magnitude what I was happening.

"I hope the gift is okay," he said nervously.

"Charlie, this is the best thing in the entire world! Not only are you passing down a family heirloom to someone who isn't even your son, but you're giving me a part of Civil War history, something I absolutely love."

"Jasper, don't ever think you're not my son. Just because you're not my flesh and blood doesn't mean that I don't love you like you are my very own. Renee and I wanted you to have it and had planned to give it to you all along. I just wish that she could have been here to celebrate this day with you."

I nodded my head and looked down.

"I miss her, Charlie."

"Me too, son. Me too."

We both sat in silence for a few minutes before Charlie spoke up again.

"I almost forgot! There's something else I have for you!"

I know my eyes must have lit up because the thought of getting two birthday gifts was almost too much to comprehend. Charlie pulled out the other gift and handed it to me. This one was wrapped, so I tore into it and removed all the paper. As recognition hit me, I couldn't help but smile.

"Since you've pretty much worn out the box set of seasons one and two that I own, I figured you should have your own complete set."

It was the every single season of my favorite cartoon, Ren & Stimpy.

"Thanks, Charlie!"

He pulled me in for a quick hug as I quickly wiped away a few more stray tears.

"Can we watch a few episodes," I asked.

"Sure, son. It's your day!"

I turned to put the video tape in the VCR, but before I did I had one last thing I had to get out.

"Thanks….Dad."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"So what about you," Edward asked.

"What about me?"

He rolled his eyes. "What's going on with you and Alice?"

"I don't know."

I really didn't know how to answer that question. We'd exchanged text messages since our dinner "date" a few days ago, but nothing else.

"Are you going to see her again?"

"I'd like to, I guess."

"What do you mean you guess? Either you do or you don't."

I glared at Edward and gave him a shut the fuck up look, but he didn't seem fazed at all.

"I do, dammit."

"Okay. Then why haven't you asked her out?"

"I've been busy and I know she's busy at work."

"Fool, please! You have not been that busy and you know it."

"Shit, Edward! Lay off!"

He held up his hands in mock surrender. "Fine, but if you like this girl, you need to grow some balls and ask her out. What, do you expect her to ask you out every time?"

"No."

"Then come on! Take out your tampon, put the estrogen pills away, and ask the girl out."

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"But what if I mess this up? I've only let two people get close to me and even then I kept them at a distance. What if I'm incapable of…"

"Okay, stop it," Edward interrupted. "I know you've been through a bunch of shit that I have no clue about. I'm not going to push you to tell me about it, but if you ever want to get past all of your issues, you need to take a chance."

I nodded.

"Alice seems like a sweet girl…"

"She is," I said.

Edward laughed and continued. "So if it will make you feel more comfortable, do you want to do that double date thing? Maybe with me and Angie there, you won't feel so much pressure."

"Yeah, that would work."

"Great! I'll call Angie and you contact Alice. We'll set something up."

"Thanks, man."

"No problem!"

Edward walked out of the room and I heard him talk to Angela on the phone. After a minute of talking to her, he returned and gave me a thumbs up.

I guess there's no turning back now.

I picked up my cell phone and searched my phone book for Alice's number. Taking a deep breath, I pushed the call button and waited…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

I love Edward & Jasper's friendship! :) Let me know what you thought about this chapter!