Thank you to HyperPixiexoxo for beta'ing this and also thanks to Charity for helping me make a banner for this story, the link to it is on my profile ;)
A Few Months Later...
Dear new online journal,
I got a laptop for my fifteenth birthday – from Alice. That woman is made of money. I swear. Jasper got me a bath set, saying I should take better care of my hair and skin. I saw a zit a few days a go, so I welcomed it with open arms. Also, one of the cutest boys at my new school asked me out on the second day of school. He's not a freshman like I am. He's a sophomore, which means he's in his second year of high school. His name is Alejandro, but most people call him Andy. It means protector of men, but he seems to enjoy protecting me better. Not that I looked that up or anything...
But still. Jasper's birthday is tomorrow, and Alice says hers is soon too, but I don't know when. Alice is out shopping now for Jasper's party tomorrow. He's spending the night over at one of his old friends because Alice says he's been neglecting his friends ever since she came along. He wasn't happy about it, but he went after hours of Alice's whining. The door just opened and shut. I can hear the rustle of bags downstairs. I can hear Alice calling Sunny and me. I should go now.
Sincerely,
Chery.
P.S.
I apparently don't know how to spell my name right. Cherry.
Alice
"Sunny! Cherry!" I called up the stairs. Two sets of feet pounded down the steps, making an awful lot of noise.
"What'd you buy him?" They asked.
"It's actually none of your business." I said. Sunny had a look on her face that made me think she had the wrong idea. "Sunny, don't be inappropriate." I said.
"I'm not!" She argued. I rolled my eyes and picked up the two shopping bags I had lugged through the door and held out my arms.
"Carry these up the stairs and to Jasper's room. Do NOT look in them." I said. They each grabbed a bag and slowly walked up stairs. I could hear them discussing what could be in each one. I felt my cell phone vibrate in my pocket for the fiftieth time, so I pulled it out and looked at the millions of texts Jasper had sent me.
Hey.
You there?
Alice, are you okay?
Hello? Are you alright? Answer me please!
Are you okay? Is everything okay? Did you get hurt? Why aren't you answering?
Fine
Are you mad at me? Alice?
Fine then, I'm coming home and I figure the door will be locked so I'm using my secret entrance way.
I'm on my way!
The last one was sent at 9:57pm. If he walked home from Peter's house, he'd be back around 10:57. If he got a drive...
I heard a car pull up out front. Shit. "Cherry! Sunny! Get down and shove the bags under the bed!" I screamed.
"Why?" Cherry asked.
"Just do it!" I screamed back. I heard the rustle of bags again and pounding footsteps as they came down the stairs again. "Go sleep somewhere!" I ordered. They looked puzzled for a moment, and then went down the almost never-used door to the basement. I heard the upstairs window creak open and I sat on the couch quickly, and I tried to fix my shorts but ended up sitting on the couch with my legs open wide and a frustrated look on my face. Jasper had come down the stairs by now. "These shorts are a bit tight." I said, straining as I pulled at the hem on the inside of my thigh.
"I see." He said quietly. I left my shorts alone and gave Jasper an odd look. He was staring at the wall above my head, but his eyes kept darting down back to me.
"What." I asked flatly.
"It's nothing I just... I thought – I – um..." He didn't finish. I looked him up and down, trying to see if there was something wrong with him. I didn't find anything, although it was just a quick look. I got up and fixed my shorts for the last time, and walked up to Jasper.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked him, putting my hand on his shoulder. "You're basically twenty; you shouldn't be so... whatever you are." I said. Something I had said made him smile.
"You're right. Tomorrow's my birthday, what did you get me?" He asked.
"You'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out, won't you?" I teased him, and kissed him softly. I pulled away from him and yawned. "Well, I'm tired, and the sooner we fall asleep, the sooner tomorrow will come. Goodnight!" He looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't, so I went upstairs and lied down on our bed and fell asleep. I was just that tired.
I wasn't sure what time Jasper had come up last night, but he was there when I woke up. My mind raced back to the when I used to wake up in the morning for school and my legs were numb. That's what I felt like now. I closed my eyes again and perhaps fell asleep once more.
When I woke up this time, only an hour had passed. Jasper was holding me loosely in his arms.
"Hey..." I muttered. "Hey!" I shouted this time, jerking out of Jasper's arms and rolling right off the bed with a loud thud. Jasper jumped up and ran over to me.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yeah. Hey... Happy birthday!" I said.
"Thank you." He said. He grabbed my hands and picked me up off the floor. He had slept in his clothes, a habit he had taken up ever since we started sleeping in the same bed.
"Are you coming or do I have to come up there?" Sunny's obnoxious voice echoed upstairs.
"Go downstairs; I'll be there in a second, 'k?" I told Jasper. He nodded, kissed my forehead quickly and rushed out of the room and downstairs. Once I was sure he was nowhere near coming back up, I grabbed the two shopping bags out from under the bed and pulled out the other large gift bag thing I had bought at the dollar store. I grabbed the card I bought and signed it, throwing it in the bag with the stuff I bought him. When I was finished, for some reason I felt extremely cheesy.
Once we were all downstairs, Sunny broke out the brunch she and Cherry had prepared. "You people have to like scrambled eggs."
"I hate eggs." I commented.
"That's grand. I won't make eggs on your birthday now will I?" Sunny said, placing the eggs on the table.
"What about pancakes?" Cherry mentioned.
"You would know, Cherry." Jasper said.
"Pancakes is a funny word." Sunny put in. We all turned to look at her. "What?"
"'Pancakes is a funny word,' what kind of a thing is that to say?" I asked.
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes.
We ate everything there was to eat, and then had more food with the cake Sunny, Cherry and I had baked yesterday. I glanced at the hand I had burnt on the stove, my knuckles looked funny, which was where I had gotten burnt.
And then it happened... Pain from the back of my skull shot through to the front of my eyes, making me blind. Wet stuff – I made the correct assumption of it being blood – began to flow from my nose.
"What is this?" I shouted. I heard nothing except the sound of my own voice as if I had been dropped into a cell deep down in the ground where no one could hear me. The pain in my head became increasingly unbearable, and my arms felt heavy as I lifted them to hold my head together before it exploded. Then, all of a sudden, my world burst into light, but the pain did not end. I didn't recognize the place I had been thrown into, and the light began to dim until it seemed to only be a small field, with one tree set out farther than I was going to walk.
Two people entered the scene and I squinted my eyes – which didn't do much to help the pain in my head – to see them. I recognized the girl, it was me. And the other one was a boy, but the sun hit him wrong and I couldn't see him clearly. The girl sat down next to the tree and the boy sat next to her, draping his arm lazily around her shoulders. I heard hushed whispers, making me strain my ears automatically, but recoiling when the action sent my head spinning.
"I love you..."
"I love you too darlin'."
"Then kiss me."
There were no more words, and I felt as if I was intruding on a private moment, even though it was me. Wait.
It was me.
I was suddenly being lifted out of the dream-like state and I realized what I had been thrown into. It had been a vision, the first one I'd had since I met Sunny. I suddenly remembered the pain, and now it felt as if my whole body was burning. I opened my mouth and screamed, when voices that seemed to be floating on wind drifted into my mind.
"Is she okay?"
"What's happening?"
"Alice! Alice! Wake up!" I wasn't sleeping, was I? I could tell most of the voices were frantic and yelling just by what they were saying, but they came to my mind like a soft breeze on a hot summer day. Then the pain took over my body and I was being jerked around.
It was unbearable.
Unbelievable. I forced words out of my mouth.
"H-help!" I coughed hard and long before getting more words out. "Jasper!" I shouted, trying to get a connection to someone, anyone. A warm hand was laid across my forehead.
"Don't worry..." The voice was carried on wind. It sounded like Jasper's. "I'm here, I won't leave..."
Everything went dark.
Jasper
Her thrashing stopped and the only sound was Sunny's light snoring and the continuous beep, beep, beep, of some kind of machinery I didn't know the name of. My breath came out shaky as I tried to calm myself. I held Alice's lifeless hand in mine, stroking circles on the back of it. I had thought that we were done all of this, that we wouldn't have to come back here. I had felt her pain almost as if it was my own, and it was very clear to all of us that she was hurting. If I was very quiet I could hear Alice's soft shallow breaths. Just now, looking at her pale face made me realize just how much I loved her. I briefly wondered what it would be like if she was mine...
Alice Whitlock.
I knew for one that Cherry would be ecstatic. She'd been asking me for months if I was going to ask Alice for her hand in marriage, and she'd threatened to ask Alice if she'd marry me herself. Knowing Cherry, she was probably serious. The only problem was the ring, and how I was to get one. I had no money, and surely enough I wouldn't be able to get a job and make enough money for a ring for another year. I knew that most engagement rings were only around five-hundred dollars, if you went cheap.
I was such a sucker that I wasn't about to go far the average every-day engagement ring for someone like Alice. I would search up the world's most expensive engagement rings because I was positive that they would be beautiful, just like Alice.
"Jasper?" A voice, soft like wind, called my name. I looked down at Alice to see here opening her eyes and searching the room.
"I'm right here.." I whispered. Her eyes found mine and she blinked slowly, nodding.
"Where are we? I want to go home." She mentioned.
"I know, I want to go home to." I said.
"My eyes hurt so bad..." She groaned. "What happened, anyways?"
"Well, we were eating cake and then your nose started to bleed and you started screaming, and so we took you here."
"Oh. Sorry I ruined your birthday." She frowned.
"It's alright as long as you're okay." I said. I couldn't believe how cheesy I sounded. She blushed at my words though, showing the smallest sign of a smile.
"Well, I think I'm alright now, just a little headache." She said.
"Oh, well I think there's some medicine or something here the doctor told me to give you if you woke up, just let me find it.." I grabbed a bottle off the table and popped out two white pills. I held them out to Alice and she just stared at them. "Is there something wrong?"
"I can't swallow pills..." She mumbled. I tried to hide my shock, because everyone I knew had known how to swallow pills since they were twelve.
"Why not?" I asked. She shrugged.
"I don't know, I just can't." She said, staring straight up. Sunny's snoring suddenly stopped, and she woke up. I felt a sudden strong distaste in that thought. I wanted to be alone with Alice for once. I sighed louder than I had intended, and Sunny took notice.
"Is there something wrong, Jasper?" She asked me.
"No." My voice sounded strained too.
"He's just upset because I have a really bad headache and there's nothing he can do about it." Alice put in.
"Take pills." Sunny suggested.
"I can't, thanks for being concerned though." I couldn't tell if she was serious or not. She sounded remotely irritated.
"Why not? All you have to do is put them in your mouth with water and swallow them." Sunny said. She was being rude, and it was irritating me.
"I'm aware of that, thank you." She spat. She was rubbing her temples and squinting her eyes tightly. I stared blankly at the two pills in my hand, wondering what I could do. I absentmindedly crushed one, and then looked up at the glass of water on the table, and it hit me. I crumbled both pills up and dropped them in the water. I then grabbed the water off the table – it was still clear and it didn't look like it had changed at all.
"Here," I said, holding out the water. "Try this."
"What is water going to do?" She wasn't as rude when she spoke to me.
"Just try it." I shoved it towards her some more. She took it hesitantly and sat up slowly then took a huge gulp, suspecting it was water.
She choked on it.
"Hey! Hey!" Sunny yelled, getting up stiffly from the chair she had been seated in. I looked around, looking for something to do. "Don't just sit there, you retard! Get up and help her!" She yelled. Alice stopped choking then, as if she had just done it to get everyone into a frenzy.
"What is that?" She yelled.
"Water." I replied trying to keep the pills a secret.
"That is not water." She replied, clearly upset. Without saying anything, I took the cup from her hand and placed it on the table. She watched me, and then sat there for a minute.
The nurse decided this was the best time to walk in. Alice's glare shifted from me, to Sunny, to the nurse. The nurse was skinny and blonde. The kind you see in movies.
"Are they bothering you?" The nurse asked. Alice hesitated for a second.
"No." She finally answered.
The nurse nodded. "Alright, are you ready to leave?" She asked Alice.
"Yes." Alice lied. She needed pills or something to help her headache. I had nothing at the house for headaches. As if she could read my mind, Alice turned her glare back on me. I kept my mouth shut.
Alice
The car ride home was bumpy. Sunny drove so Jasper could sit in the backseat with me and hold my head steady in his lap. It was better than just a seat belt, but it wouldn't be too great if a police saw us like this.
"Pothole!" Sunny called out. The car bumped up and I groaned in pain.
"Could you go a little slower?" I asked.
"Alice, we're already going fifteen under the speed limit." Sunny said.
"Go slower!" I whined as we went over yet another bump.
"Don't whine, it's unattractive" Sunny commented.
"Shut up, I'm not attempting to attract you." I spat. Jasper laughed a little at that, shaking my head. I ignored the pain it caused.
"I will not shut up. I can talk and look at the road at the -"
"SUNNY WATCH OUT!" Jasper yelled, dropping my head. Sunny swerved the car, causing me to be flung over Jasper (who had is seat belt on) and I broke the side window with my head. I grabbed my head which was now in more pain that it had ever been before, and I couldn't even speak over the pounding in my head. I could tell the car had stopped by the side of the road, and I could hear Sunny's shaky breathing.
"Is everyone alright?" She asked.
"No." Jasper answered.
"What happened?" Sunny was immediately worried again.
"My head!" I choked out. Tears were freely streaming down my face.
"Get home, quick!" Jasper ordered. Sunny started the car again, and she was off like a bullet. Jasper pulled me onto his lap and I took my hands off my head and put them around his neck, my aching head resting on his shoulder. "Look at that, you're bleeding." Jasper said quietly.
"I am?" I asked through my tears.
"Yes." The car suddenly swung to the left to make a sharp turn, and Jasper's grip on me tightened to make sure that I didn't go right out the window this time.
"Sorry!" Sunny said. I groaned. The car came to a skidding stop at the front of Jasper's house. He unbuckled his seat belt with trouble, for he didn't want to drop me. I kept holding on and I focused on breathing. Cherry ran out the door when we arrived.
"I thought hospitals were for fixing people, not for making them worse." She said. Jasper ran right past her without a word. She looked confused for a second then followed.
"Where's the old first aid kit, Cherry?" He asked her, setting me down on the couch.
"Upstairs, it's under my bed." She replied. Jasper ran upstairs and came back down in a matter of thirty seconds.
"Cherry, could you hold up her head?" I felt her hands prop up my head while Jasper wrapped gauze around my head.
"The blood is soaking right through." I heard Sunny say.
"I see that." Jasper said.
"How did she stay conscious?" Cherry asked.
"I don't know. She's awfully stubborn." Jasper said. "Where's that liquid medicine stuff mom used to give you when you hit your head?" He asked Cherry.
"I'll find it." Cherry sighed. Sunny took her place holding up my head and Cherry ran upstairs.
"That gauze is making me sweat." I said hoarsely.
"Is the blood still soaking through?" Jasper asked Sunny.
"No. Tie her up, drug her, and we're done." Jasper grimaced. "What? I was just trying to lighten the mood." Sunny rolled her eyes. I felt someone tying the gauze, and then Cherry came back downstairs with the medicine.
"It says twelve and up."
"Give her double the amount given to twelve-year-olds." Sunny said.
"Is that really a good idea?" Jasper said.
"Yes." Sunny said. Jasper hesitated, I watched.
"Okay." He finally answered.
After about twenty minutes, I was up, walking, and watching TV. The gauze wrapped around my head felt weird with all my hair being pushed up. I knew it would be like hell to brush out after the gauze was taken off. My stomach growled and I frowned. Jasper approached me from behind, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"Hungry?" He whispered into my ear.
"Yes." I answered. I gasped when Jasper bent down and kissed up my neck to below my ear. His teeth grazed my earlobe, and I shivered, involuntarily closing my eyes.
"What would you like?" He whispered.
"What...?" I asked. His hands slid off my waist and he turned me around, kissing me softly on the lips.
"Do you know what you want?" He asked. By now I had lost my reason.
"I know..." I said.
"Do you?" Jasper asked me. He bent down and tried to kiss me softly again, but my arms were up and around his neck before he could protest. I kissed him back this time, crushing my small body against his larger one with force. He held on to my waist and held me up, and we both eventually came crashing down onto the couch. I thought I heard footsteps but I didn't notice.
"HEY! I sit on that couch you know!" Sunny shouted. Jasper pushed me off him and I sat up – on the floor, because Jasper had accidentally pushed me right off the couch, and wiped my mouth off without thinking. Sunny made a face.
"Lunch. Is. Ready." And she walked away. I looked back at Jasper. He was smiling. This made me angry. He had obviously known Sunny had almost had lunch ready, he did come from the kitchen, after all. I glared at him and started to walk away.
"Alice, are you upset or something?" He asked me. I didn't even turn around. I heard him get up so I hurried up. "Hey!" He said, grabbing my shoulder and turning me around. His face was dangerously close to mine, I backed up a bit. His hands cupped my face and he kissed me, acting like a total jerk. At least in my eyes he was. I bit down on his lip – hard. He yanked back and touched his lip.
"What was that for?" He asked.
"Being a jerk."
After lunch, I went up to Jasper's room, where he was lying on the bed. I lied down next to him. When suddenly, I was pulled into another vision. This one didn't hurt.
I was being consumed by my own emotions, which, at the moment, seemed to consist of love and lust. I was lying on the bed that I was in know, and Jasper was hovering above me, kissing up and down my neck and along my jaw line. He brought his lips to mine and kissed me slowly, deliciously, I moaned, my eyes closing slightly.
All of a sudden I was yanked out of the vision, and I was back in the real world. I turned to Jasper. I had come in hear to say I was sorry, but I really didn't want to.
"Listen..." I started. Jasper turned to look at me, and without notice, he crushed his lips to mine. I gasped before realizing that my vision was obviously ready to come true, i just wasn't sure if I was ready for that. He rolled up so he was over top of me. He kept kissing me, but I tried to pull away. He sat up next to me suddenly.
"Jasper..." I said, upset.
"I'm sorry, I don't – I didn't mean to – I'm sorry." He apologized, looking at his hands. I looked at my hands as well, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to pour down my cheeks. Then one silently fell, followed by a few others. I quickly wiped them away, turning away from Jasper.
"Are you crying?" Jasper asked me, his voice overflowing with worry.
"No." I replied, but my voice revealed my lie.
"Why are you crying?" He asked me, turning my face so I would look at him. "Does your head hurt?" He asked me, examining my bandaged head.
"No!" I said with a little too much force. He immediately backed away again, ashamed of himself.
"Why then?" He asked.
"Because I'm so stupid!"
"You're not -"
"Hey!" Sunny shouted as she entered the room. She looked from me to Jasper and back again, then grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the room.
I stared at Jasper as he stared back at me, both of us wondering what was going to happen next. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't going to be easy.
A/N: Review?