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Chapter 5 – Suspicions and Roman Perverts

"That would be me," I agreed lightly, nodding at him and offering a delicate smile. Thank God I'm sitting – my knees would've given out. "And you're Jasper Whitlock, I heard so much about you."

Jasper grinned, "Likewise."

"I hope Rose didn't fill you in on all the gory details," I said with, shooting a playful scowl at Rose.

"Afraid so – Rose," he greeted his cousin, tilting his head the tiniest bit and sliding his arm over the back of her chair. She smiled at him – and I mean really (and very genuinely, I might add) smiled.

"Told you he's nothing like everyone expected," Edward said to me, under his breath.

What do you mean? I wanted to say, but I stifled those words as soon as I took a good look at Jasper and I understood exactly what Edward meant. Jasper was the exact opposite of a Abercrombie and Fitch-wearing snob. The exact opposite of Rosalie, I realized startled. Jasper was one of those boys. Parents' Worst Nightmare, leather jacket-wearing devil, some may say. But he was a hot leather jacket-wearing devil, my mind decided.

He was charismatic, I could tell, just by seeing him interact with the other people on our table. He gave Kate, Maria and Tanya the attention they needed and flirted back slightly, laughed with Emmett, made shy and quiet Esme feel at ease and joked back and forth with Alice. Honestly, I frowned a bit a the sight. He was like a puzzle piece, completing the puzzle and connecting everyone with everyone, but something wasn't right, as if the puzzle piece was from another puzzle and didn't fit quite right. I just didn't know what it was yet. Keyword: yet.

"You could've just said that," I told Edward gently. He had to scoot his chair a little bit closer to mine to hear me clearly. The cafeteria was noisier than ever and seemed somehow much more crowded than usual, even though there was just one student more. Perhaps it was because of the buzzing that seemed to zoom 'Jasper' every minute and the crowd around our table was bigger than it usually was.

Edward smiled at my wandering eyes, "It would ruin the surprise," he said softly. His eyes left mine and he glanced at Kate, Maria and Tanya, who were openly ogling at the new meat that just arrived, forgetting Edward for a few seconds, before looking back again. Edward really has beautiful eyes, I thought absently. I knitted my eyebrows as I thought about my own eyes – nothing special. Just brown. "You want to go already? I want to talk to you."

"Jasper will think we're rude," I murmured, but considering the idea.

Edward looked a tad annoyed, "So what? Let's just go, you can talk to him later. You don't want to look like one of those three, right?" He pointed a thumb at the three flirtatious girls at the other end of the table.

I gave him a look and turned to Rose, "We're going, alright? I'll see you later."

"What?" Rosalie said crossly, turning her head slightly, "You didn't even talk to Jasper yet. Bella…"

"I'll talk to him later, okay?" I eyed her cousin and smiled at him.

"Fine," Rose huffed, not giving Jasper a chance to speak, "I'll see you later."

I giggled, planting a kiss on her cheek, "I'll make it up to you, Rose. Promise."

"You better," she mumbled, still not looking completely satisfied. She gave Edward her Evil Glare of Doom, sneering at him. "Have fun with Masen."

"Don't worry. We'll have plenty of fun," Edward said with forced politeness, clenching his hands angrily, but not doing anything. He was Edward Masen after all.

"Edward," I hissed, "Let's just go already."

"That you'd really choose her over me," he muttered, completely un-Edward-like, as we walked away.

"You know I do," I said boldly and quite coldly. I wasn't going to lie to him or anything. If Rose was hanging on the edge of a cliff and Edward was on the other side, I'd choose Rose over him without a second thought. Period. "Now, what did you want to talk about?"

He grabbed my arm and marched me through the corridors, "Not here. We're going to ditch Biology."

I promptly freed myself from his grasp, "Fine, but I can walk for myself, thank you."

"So damn stubborn," he said with a disapproving glance.

"You're sooooooo rich, Edward, why the hell do you still have that… thing?" I asked as his Volvo S60R came into view.

"Says the girl who owns a piece of crap that doesn't run past 30 miles per hour."

"Don't you dare to insult my truck," I defended, pointing a finger at him.

"I'm surprised you didn't name it yet," Edward said, smiling brightly as we entered the… car. It wasn't outrageously ugly or something, but you'd think he'd buy something a lot better than a fucking Volvo when you're so filthy rich.

"What do you suggest?"

"Berta?" he offered with a small smirk.

"Do you any spark of creativity in that head of yours?"

"Lots of sparks," he said in all seriousness, but his eyes were laughing.

An oppressive silence stretched between us for a few minutes and I looked out of the window awkwardly, not knowing exactly what to do. Yeah, hello, he was the one that wanted to talk.

"So," I began, not removing my eyes from the trees and houses rushing by, "You wanted to talk?"

"Hmmhmm," he hummed with a nod, not saying anything.

"Well?" I pressed, impatience coloring my voice.

He ran his hand through his wild auburn hair, his expression serious. I didn't like Edward serious, to be honest. It was sort of creepy – Edward was the flirty, arrogant guy with a smirk on his face the whole time, but fucking funny too. He was just Edward and I did share this strange, unlikely friendship with him.

"What do you seriously think about Whitlock?" he asked finally.

Whitlock already? Not Jasper? Not that I expected him to say Jazzy My Best Friend For Life, but this was very soon. "How do I know? I only said hi to him."

A trace of his trademark smirk crossed his face, "Yeah, maybe I was thinking he would share all his deepest, darkest secrets with you," he grinned, being the Edward I knew again, before the grin disappeared again, "I don't know, Bella, he just didn't give off a good vibe…"

"Really, Edward? He's dressed like James Dean or Steve McQueen or some shit. Of course he doesn't give off a 'good vibe'. Don't make such big deal about it. It's just Rose's cousin coming to Forks and nothing more."

Edward lowered his eyes – keep your eyes on the road, idiot! – and sighed, "You're dressed like that, too," he concluded, nodding at my beloved jacket.

I mock gasped, "Not! I actually have fashion sense."

He laughed, and I mean really, really laughed and I knew the old Edward was back again, "No you don't. You're dressed like a hobo most of the time. You should hear Alice talk about your style. She wants to burn your closet."

"It's called waif-like European," I disagreed, "Like from Paris, loose but fashionable."

"Of course," Edward said, nodding earnestly, like I was a five year old.

"You just don't know how to appreciate it," I decided, folding my arms across my chest. It was true though – Alice was an amazing girl and her fashion sense was great, but very limited and above all, expensive. I was just happy with my jeans shorts, oversized sunglasses, simple sneakers, the too big blouses that somehow fitted just right and, of course, my leather jacket. "As if your sense of style is so great."

"What?" he exclaimed indignantly, "My sense of style excellent, thank you. And even if I hadn't such a outstanding fashion sense, I'd still look as pulchritudinous as I do now."

"Pulchri-what?" I said, confused.

"The pros of Latin class," he informed me, "You don't know how much Latin influenced the English language. Sixty percent, actually."

Oh, right, Edward had been following Latin classes. One of the very few classes he didn't share with me. That's why Spanish was always so quiet (not counting Jessica Stanley's rapid rambling in front of me).

"And the cons?"

"The teacher is reprehensible," he said dolefully, "Even more than Mason."

"Impossible," I chirped, my face darkening at the thought of Mason, "And stop with the big words."

"Reprehensible, from reprehendere, meaning rebuke –"

"Very interesting," I cut him off, flashing him a bright smile, though strongly tempted to tell him to shut the fuck up, "But stop, please."

"Because you asked so nicely," Edward said easily, airily waving his hand – keep that hand on the steering wheel, you asshole. You really want us to die, don't you? "I was just trying to teach you something. Maybe you should also take Latin. You know a lot of sexual terms come from Latin? They were some perverted guys back then. You know vagina actually means 'scabbard'?"

"That's sort of overly perverted, yes. But I'm not taking Latin – I heard about the nominative, accusative, genitive crap."

"Just remember the sexual –"

"I said nooooooooo."

"Okay then, your loss."

AN: There are going to be more Latin references, okay? It's one of my best subjects. And please review guys. I'd love to hear what you think!

Dory