Chapter Song:
Finally Falling by Victoria Justice and Avan Jogia
"Suddenly I can see
What I didn't before
And I don't care
What they say anymore
Cause I'm falling, falling
Finally falling, falling".
A/N: Enjoy! Hope you like it (: Just so you know, there's a few POV changes this chapter. Sorry for the confusion! So sorry for the delay!
Disclaimer: I only own the plot.
Recap: EmPOV: I decided it was time to kick this up one notch. "Are you in love with him?"
EmPOV:
I watched amused when her face turned bright red as she stuttered and tripped over her words in her hurry to get everything out.
"Excuse me miss, can I help you?"
She quickly strode up to the counter, looking relieved that she didn't have to answer my question. I noticed her collect herself before she ordered 2 bags of m&m's, Reese's pieces, Sour Patch Kids, a medium coke and large popcorn.
When she finished ordering what everybody else wanted, she turned to look at me making sure she didn't meet my eyes. "Do you want anything?" She mumbled, staring at my chest to avoid looking at me.
I couldn't help the smirk that threatened to overtake my face as I walked up to the counter next to her. "I'll have a large sprite and medium popcorn, please."
"Okay. You're total will be 20 Euros." He said, looking at both of us as if trying to figure out who was paying.
Bella pulled out her wallet and started to get out her money but I simply handed the man my own money and gave Bella a bewildered look when she turned to look at me questioningly. "The girl isn't supposed to pay Bella."
"That's why I was paying." She said, smirking proudly at me.
I gasped, before bringing my hand to my chest in mock hurt and looking at her with shock. "I'm hurt Bells. We all know I'm completely manly."
"If you say so Emmy-bear." She said, giggling at the horrified look on my face.
I glared at her before grabbing the food and storming off, muttering about her complete mockery of my name. I heard her giggling as she followed me, and I decided it was my turn to get back at her. I slowed down, so I was now walking alongside Bella and turned to face her with a wicked grin on my face. "So, are you in love with Jasper?"
However, this time instead of becoming flustered, she surprised me when she fixed me with a collected look. "Of course not, he's my best friend." She said coolly, before walking straight into the theater without looking back at me.
Just as the theater doors were about to shut on my baffled face, she stuck her head back out the door. "You coming?"
I shook my head to clear out the confusion before following her into the crowded theater. We walked into the darkened theater just as the last preview ended and I looked for Rosalie knowing Bella was scanning the theater for Jasper's bright blond head.
When we finally spotted them, I noticed Jasper greeted Bella with a smile so big, it threatened to crack his face in half. I pretended to sit down in the one empty seat beside Jasper only to feel him smacking the back of my head and telling me to get out of Bella's seat.
"I don't see her name on it." I said smugly, just trying to get a reaction out of him.
I watched confused as he swiftly pulled something out of his pocket before turning to the chair. After a few seconds, he pointed proudly to the chair. I followed his finger to see the word Bella scrawled on the chair in Jasper's unmistakable handwriting.
"How rude." I said, jokingly before walking over to sit next to Rosalie as the sounds of their laughter echoed throughout the theater.
JPOV:
After standing in a gigantic line all alone to buy the tickets, it was finally my turn at the ticket counter. I quickly bought 6 tickets to Hunger Games before marching into the theater, trying to find the others. I found Rose, Alice and Edward but Bella and Emmett were nowhere in sight.
I sat down right next to Alice and made sure there was an empty seat in between me and Rosalie. "Hey, where are the other two?" I whispered to Alice.
"There still buying food. Why, already miss Bella?" She asked back teasingly.
I stuck my tongue out at her, choosing to ignore the question. I heard her laughing at my clear display of maturity but at the moment I was striving to pretend she didn't exist. Luckily, I was saved by the sight of Emmett and Bella walking up to us.
I grinned widely at Bella, happy that she came at the perfect moment. Emmett chose to sit down in the empty seat right next to me and I smacked the back of his head.
"Get out of Bella's seat moron."
"I don't see her name on it." He said smugly as he crossed his arms over his chest.
I resisted the urge to smirk at him as I pulled a Sharpie out of my pocket and turned to face the chair. After I was done, I pointed proudly to the chair that now had Bella scrawled across it. He stared at her name on the chair before rolling his eyes and walking away.
"How rude." He muttered as everyone laughed at him.
Bella looked at me amused as she moved to sit in what was now officially her chair. "Was that really necessary?" She asked, leaning in to whisper in my ear.
"Yes." I said, smirking at her slightly.
She laughed at me before settling back into her chair as the movie started. I wasn't really paying any attention to the movie, instead I chose to try and steal Bella's popcorn sneakily. It worked for about 45 minutes before she noticed my thieving hand sneaking into her bucket of popcorn.
"Back off my popcorn, thief!" She smacked my hand. Hard. "I told you to get your own." She said with absolutely no sympathy for smacking my hand as hard as she possibly could.
"Damn Bella. Do you think you could tone down the violence? That hurt!" I exclaimed as I rubbed my hand, trying to get it to stop stinging.
She rolled her eyes before looking at me with a smirk. "I told you that I don't share my popcorn." She said much to Emmett's amusement.
He started laughing so hard that the people in the rows behind us started shushing him. He eventually got his laughter under control right when the security guards walked into the theater angrily.
I shot her a look of fake annoyance before settling back into my seat. Even though Bella seemed to care about me stealing her food, from then on she tilted her bucket of popcorn towards me and settled for smiling and rolling her eyes every time I stole some.
Though the movie was supposed to be really good, I wasn't really paying any attention to it. I was way too preoccupied with my thoughts at the moment. For the past two weeks at least, I had been pretty much ignoring her. I think it started after she told me her story, or maybe it was before. I'm not even sure anymore. I don't even know why I was ignoring her; all I know is that every time I'm around her I feel so confused. This seemed like the only rational conclusion.
Today had actually been one of the only days recently where we've had a good time together and I hadn't left Bella with some lame excuse that I knew she saw right through. I tried not to think about it too much because I knew it made me a horrible person. I knew I would have to at least give her some kind of reason before it was too late and she thought I hated her.
I was so preoccupied thinking about what to do that I didn't even notice the movie end until Bella waved her hand in front of my face repeatedly. "Jazz! Anyone in there?"
I smiled at her sheepishly. "Yea, sorry. Come on, let's go." I held her hand and all of us slowly made our way out of the theater behind the crowd of a hundred people.
"What'd you think of the movie J?"
"Uhm... it was good?" I answered, sounding like I was asking a question when I raised my voice at the end.
"Did you really not watch the movie?" She asked, looking at me with a shocked look on her face.
"I was thinking about something." I said, avoiding her eyes.
I could tell that she wanted to ask me what I was thinking about but I knew she wouldn't ask me in front of everyone. She squeezed my hand to indicate that she wanted to know and she looked at me with worry etched onto her features.
I smiled widely at her to show her that I was okay and then we walked a little faster to catch up to the other four. "Finally! I swear you two walk slower than two old women." Emmett exclaimed the minute we came into view of them.
Bella laughed loudly and I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him, instead choosing to glare at him. "We were admiring the scenery." I said defensively.
He cocked an eyebrow at me before looking around the lobby of the movie theater. "I'm pretty sure there's absolutely nothing interesting about the 'scenery'." He said, using air quotes around the word scenery to further prove his point.
"Yea, well you know what?" I started, trailing off.
"What Jasper?"
This time I couldn't help myself and I did stick my tongue out at him causing everyone around us to start laughing. Emmett smiled smugly, knowing he had won the argument this time.
"Okay okay; we're slow, I get it."
"Glad you understand dude." Edward said, jumping in before Emmett could say something dumb again.
"Before you idiots start arguing about something again, do you wanna go get dinner?" Rosalie cut in, fixing us with a mostly unamused look.
I, on the other hand, looked at her with fake hurt. "Did you just call me an idiot?"
"I'm glad you understand English." She deadpanned causing everyone around me to laugh.
I pouted and stood quietly as they figured out where we were going to eat dinner. I really wanted to interrupt and suggest fast food, but I refused to lose to Rosalie by saying anything. Instead I just stared at Bella, hoping that once again our brains would be functioning on the same wavelength.
"McDonalds!" Bella cheered excitedly; I couldn't help my excited whoop of acknowledgement at her idea and the others turned to stare at me curiously.
"I like fast food." I said, shrugging my shoulders.
Eventually it was decided that McDonald's was a fantastic option and we all walked out to the parking lot. On the way there, I noticed some European dude around our age checking Bella out. I growled quietly under my breath and wrapped my arm securely around her waist, pulling her closer to me. I pressed a kiss to the side of her head, all the while glaring at the random person.
When he finally got the hint, I couldn't help the smug smile that spread eagerly across my face. However, all the smugness drained from my body when Emmett and Edward looked at me knowingly.
"Hey Jazz, are you okay?" Emmett asked with fake concern. "You seemed kind of mad back there."
At his question, Bella turned to look at me with concern and I gritted my teeth as I answered his question. "I'm fine Em." I said, fixing him with a glare that made it clear I wasn't happy anymore.
I turned back around, making the side of my face once again visible to Bella. I felt her finger trace my frown and my clenched jaw and I felt tingles spread throughout my body. Tingles? What the hell am I even talking about now? This is exactly why I've been avoiding her. I turned to look at her and noticed that she had her own small frown on her face and her eyebrows were narrowed in annoyance.
"What B?" I asked, failing to keep the anger out of my voice.
A look of hurt flashed through her eyes and her hand immediately fell from my face as she turned so she wasn't facing me anymore. Shit.
My hand tightened around her waist and I knew I would need to fix this.
We got out front and I suddenly realized that in the middle of my thinking, Bella had moved out of my grasp. Now, she stood almost 5 feet from me and the tension between us was almost palpable.
As we walked to her car, I couldn't help but notice how she made sure to walk out of arm's reach from me. Her eyes refused to meet mine, even when I sighed deeply trying to elicit her attention. We got into her car, and as she peeled out of the parking lot I made the decision to at least try and talk to her. My fingers clenched tightly on the seat in response to her speeding and I knew she caught the action out of the corner of her eye when she slowed down to a much more reasonable speed. I sighed in relief at the change in speed but when I turned and clearly saw the hurt on her face I knew I had to fix this.
I took one of Bella's hands in mine and smiled at the feeling it created. "I'm sorry B."
She sighed before looking over and smiling at me, "It's okay Jas, what were you thinking about back there?"
I blanked out and I couldn't stop the panic that spread through me. What the hell was I supposed to say to that? I couldn't exactly say, 'When you're around, I feel different and when you touched me I felt tingles. So how's the weather?' That would almost definitely get me killed right here.
"I was thinking about James." I blurted out and almost slapped myself when I saw the pained look appear on Bella's face.
She gripped the steering wheel tighter as she took a deep breath to compose herself. "W- why were you… why… why were you thinking about James?" She stuttered out.
I internally smacked myself; this was almost as bad as just telling her what I was really thinking about. I pried her hand off the steering wheel and rubbed circles into her hand with my thumb, trying to calm her down. "Nothing B, I was just angry at him. That's all, nothing you need to worry about."
When she turned to fix me with a steely glare, I knew that was definitely not the right thing to say. "If it involves James, it immediately requires worrying Jasper." I could see the pain and fear hidden behind her anger and I was honestly considering jumping in front of the car and letting her run over me.
"I'm sorry Bella, that's not what I meant." I said, immediately backtracking. "I just meant that I wasn't thinking anything important about him. They were mostly just different ways I could kill him." I said jokingly, trying to change the topic.
When I saw her lips turn up in a smile, I knew I had finally said the right thing at the right time. She giggled quietly and drove with a beautiful smile on her face. "How'd that go J?"
"Oh it was pretty creative." I said, waggling my eyebrows at her when she turned to look at me.
She shook her head at me in mock shame before continuing to drive. "Thanks J."
I turned to look at her completely confused, was she not here when I almost made her cry? "Why the hell are you thanking me Bella?"
She rolled her eyes and looked at me, as if the answer was completely obvious. When all she got in response was my bewildered look, she finally decided to answer my question. "For telling me the truth and for making me feel better."
Even though her words were supposed to be reassuring and grateful, they felt like a punch to the gut. I was most definitely not being truthful to her, and I had only made her feel better after almost making her cry. "There's something wrong with you Bella. I almost made you cry; unless you like crying, there is absolutely nothing you should be thanking me for."
"But Jas, you really did help." She protested.
I clenched my eyes shut and let my head fall back on the seat as my hands automatically fisted themselves. "Just don't thank me Bella, please. I don't deserve it."
She sharply pulled the car of to the side of the road and my eyes flew open when I heard the angry honks behind us at Bella's reckless driving. It was a good thing I opened my eyes, because the minute the car was parked Bella tried slapping me across the face.
I grabbed both of her hands in my hand and turned to look at her, my eyes wide in shock. "Why exactly are you trying to slap me?"
She stopped struggling to get her hands out of mine, so I let them go, shooting her a warning look. "Because you're stupid." She said bluntly, offering no explanation whatsoever.
I crooked my eyebrow at her willing her to explain. When all I got in response was her raising her eyebrow back at me, I sighed loudly. "Why am I stupid?"
"You think you don't deserve it when I thank you. Of course you deserve it you idiot!" She yelled, her voice steadily reaching higher octaves as she got angrier.
"No I don't!" I yelled back, causing her to look at me shocked. "I don't do anything that would ever merit thanks from you. All I do is say and do stupid shit that makes you sad or I act like a complete asshole towards you. Not once have I done something that you would need to thank me for." By the time I was done, my body vibrated with my anger at myself.
Her previous shocked look had faded into one of anger by the time I had finished my rant. I took a deep breath, feeling the anger leave my body. My eyes fell closed of their own accord and I leant my head against the headrest once more. I felt warm fingers caressing my cheek and I opened one eye to see what Bella was doing.
She had a sad look on my face and she stared at me perplexedly, as if she was trying to figure something out. My other eye opened too, and I tilted my head so I could see Bella clearly.
"You are so completely wrong." Her soft voice cut through the silence as she stared at my chest. When she felt my eyes on her, she looked up ever so slightly until her eyes locked with mine.
"Obviously some things you do are going to end up bothering me or somehow remind me of James. But how the hell are you supposed to know that? Everything you have done would have been completely fine with me before everything went down with James. You treat me the way you're used to treating me, it's not like there's a book on how to deal with me Jas. You're doing a pretty awesome job all on your own."
I knew that on some level she was right, but I couldn't help feeling like I should know her better than that. "That may be true B, but I should know you better than that. I should be able to tell what would make you angry or sad, and when I'm being an asshole. I should-"I was cut off by Bella closing my mouth and looking at me annoyed.
"You know me better than anyone else I know Jasper. I know it may seem like a big deal when you make me angry or sad, but you've done a much better job than anyone else has. You treat me so well, that sometimes you make me forget about him. Since you, I've been sleeping so much better. I mean sure I still get nightmares, but with you I get over them so much quicker. You make me feel safe and protected, and that makes everything so much easier."
At the end of her speech, I felt the traitorous sting of tears in my eyes and I shut my eyes as I took deep breaths to compose myself. I finally opened my eyes and shot Bella a huge smile. "Thank you Bella. I love you."
In response, her own smile grew and spread over her face. "Sure thing Jas. I'm in lo-." She started saying before she abruptly snapped her mouth shut.
After a few seconds of silence she started talking again. "Love you too Jasper."
All I could think after that was What was she going to say to me?
A/N: Hmm, I wonder what she was going to say. Haha please R&R. I love hearing what you guys think.
Estimated Posting Date: 6/1