Hey, how's everyone been? Here's a new chapter. Enjoy :)

xXx

Chapter Five

The sun filtered in through the windows, hitting me in the face. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and turned around hoping to catch a bit more sleep. A loud banging on my bedroom door however forced me to awaken and face the day.

"Come in" I called out, my voice rough with sleep. I sat up on the bed rubbing my eyes with the heels of my hand and slapped my face a couple of times hoping to wake up.

Lil peeked round the door smiling as she walked in. I kicked the sheets off and stretched out, hearing my joints pop and sighing contentedly.

"Hey" Lil said as she sat down on the bed next to me.

"Morning, what's up?" I yawned.

"Eww, Jasper, cover your mouth when you do that" Lil whined.

"Why?" I asked running a hand through my hair.

"Your breath reeks, that's why"

I shrugged "That's what you get when you wake me up at…" I paused, leaning over to check the time "10.43"

"So what? It's not even that early"

"Still" I groaned "What do you want?"

"Nothing much, just to see how you are and you know, ask you what you were doing for the day"

I looked suspiciously at her, the suspicion which grew after I saw the fake innocent look she was shooting my way.

"Well, I'm fine"

"Any plans?"

"Why?"

"Just wondering because we're going to Port Angeles today, because we couldn't go yesterday and I was wondering if you wanted to come with us" she said.

"Oh, well umm, I can't, I'm going out with a friend"

"Right, a friend" Lil said slowly.

"Yes Lil, a friend"

"Ok but, like I said yesterday I don't want you to get hurt and I think that it's best if you and you're friend just keep….this, this thing under wraps"

"I hear you Lil, I'll be fine"

She looked at me doubtfully "If you're sure" she stood up to make her way out of the room "Just curious, do you even know what happened?"

I considered lying before opting for the truth "I will eventually"

And if she was surprised, she certainly didn't show it.

"We should do something sometime, just the two of us"

"Yeah, I think so too, we haven't really had a chance to talk or anything"

"I know and we should, I mean you're my only brother, my only sibling. All my life I wanted a brother and now I've got one and I want us to be close" Lil sat on the bed, tears started pooling in her eyes.

"Hey, what's brought this on?" I sat up and put my hands on her shoulders.

"Nothing, I just, Jasper everything's gone wrong and I can't do anything about it, it's gone too far"

"What's gone wrong?" I asked concerned but Lil simply shook her head and buried her head in my chest. I could feel her tears seeping through my shirt but I didn't care, I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close.

After a couple of moments, she stopped crying and was simply hiccupping. She sat up and I wiped her tears.

"Do you feel better?" I asked.

"Yeah" she hiccupped. "I must look like a mess"

"Hold on" I said ruffling her hair "Now you look like a mess"

"Jasper" she squealed but she was laughing and that was what was important.

"Go fix yourself up, okay"

"I'm going, I'm going, thanks"

"Your my little sister, you don't need to thank me"

"Still" she stood up and began walking to the door.

"Lil, anytime you want to talk or something, I'm here"

"I know" she smiled.

"When are your friends coming?"

"Umm, everyone will be here in about half an hour or something"

"Ok" I slumped down on my bed hoping to get a few quick winks before having to get up again.

"Jasper, get up" Lil said reappearing in the doorway.

Groaning, I stood up and began getting my things together. I opened the window to check the weather before getting my clothes out. It wasn't too cold today so I figured a light jacket would be alright.

I brushed my teeth quickly before hopping in the shower. I washed my hair and got out the shower drying myself and wrapping the towel around my waist. I pulled on my boxers and ran the towel through my hair before leaving it to lie across my shoulders.

I grabbed my jeans pulling them on and zipping them up. I heard the brief sound of a knock on the door before it was opened. Assuming it was Lil again, I picked up my shirt preparing to put it on when I heard her voice.

"Aren't you going to say hello Jasper?" Dropping my shirt in surprise, I turned around to come face to face with Alice. Well face to space above Alice's head but nevertheless the idea was the same. She smiled shyly at me, crossing her arms behind her back and looking at the ground.

"Alice? Wha….what are you doing here?" I asked baffled. Lil said her friends were going to be here in a half hour but that didn't mean I expected them to come to my room. I hardly even knew Lil, let alone her friends who I'd only met a few days before.

"I came to say hello" she beamed enthusiastically, stepping further into the room and closing the door behind her.

"Well, uh, hi" I said pathetically, backing up slightly.

She leaned her head to one side and smiled wider "You're really tan you know, I wonder if you'll stay that way after living in Forks?" she mused almost to herself.

I cleared my throat loudly to get her attention.

Her eyes were dazed and when she came to it was almost as though she wasn't even in the room and as though she didn't even see me. Smiling once again, she skipped forward, completely undeterred by the horrified look on my face.

"Umm, Alice I kind of need to get dressed" I said gesturing to the shirt I had dropped earlier in surprise.

"Oh I don't mind waiting for you" she said casually, taking a seat on my bed. After waiting for a few moments, hoping that she was joking and would leave, I bent down and grabbed my shirt, pulling it on roughly.

I couldn't help but feel extremely awkward and embarrassed, I wasn't ashamed of my body by all means, I knew I was in shape because of all the sport I did and how much I worked out but it was because of how intense Alice's stare was on me.

"So what, umm, brings you here?" I asked running a hand through my hair. I didn't think there was much point in combing it, considering how it was pretty much always a curly mess.

"Well, we're going out today, all of us, didn't Rose tell you?" Alice asked almost confused, the smile dropping from her face.

"Oh yeah, she did, I must have forgot"

Alice smiled at me once again "It doesn't matter, are you going to come with us? You didn't yesterday, granted it started raining and everything, so in a way it's good that you didn't come with us because you wouldn't have had a very good time and all but today we're going to Port Angeles and we can go shopping and eat and go to the movies not necessarily in that order but we'll go nonetheless" Alice babbled.

My eyes widened at the speed at which she spoke at, it was kind of hard to keep up with her.

"So will you come?" she smiled eagerly at me and I hated the fact that I would have to disappoint her, but I'd hate disappointing Bella more, I didn't know why, I just would.

"I'm sorry Alice" I said shaking my head sadly "I can't"

"But why Jasper?" she asked in a hurt tone, tears began shining in her eyes.

"I have to umm do some work and stuff" I stuttered out.

"Can't you do that some other day?"

"The library doesn't open on Sunday's and I'm already behind as it is because I'm starting halfway through the year" I lied. I wasn't behind, I was even ahead in some classes, having taken advanced ones in my old school and finishing them, after ithad happened, there was really no point going back to school especially since when I was at home, I could work better and for longer.

"Oh" she looked down frowning for a moment before smiling widely once again "it's okay I guess, we can hang out some other time" she shot forward wrapping her arms around me.

"Yeah" I nodded my head, my arms hanging awkwardly down at my side.

"I'm going to go down now, see you"

"Ok, bye Alice" she smiled at me once more before disappearing through the door way. I could hear her lithe footsteps on the steps before she reached the others downstairs.

Still reeling from the experience, I quickly finished getting dressed and grabbed the things I would need for the day. I went downstairs, avoiding the living room, and entered the kitchen. Not wanting to risk running into Alice once more, I shoved some Pop Tarts into the toaster and grabbed a banana, shovelling that down as I waited for the Pop Tart to finish toasting.

With a pop, they came out, I grabbed them and ran out the door, shouting a quick hi and bye to Lil and her friends in the living room. I looked at my watch checking the time but I figured that Bella wouldn't mind if I was a tiny bit early.

Starting the engine, I began the short drive down to Bella's, parking the car in the still empty driveway. I sat in the car a moment, taking a deep breath to calm my suddenly racing heart. I got out and knocked on her door waiting patiently for her to open it.

The door flung open for me to come face to face with Bella's flushed face.

"Hi" she said panting slightly.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" I asked rocking on the balls of my feet.

"Yeah, let me just get my, umm, coat. Give me a minute" she said rushing back into the house. I nodded my head slowly, turning around and heading back to the car to wait for Bella.

I got out my phone and started going through my texts when I heard the sound of footsteps in front of me, before Bella's shoes came into view. She smiled shyly at me, holding up a picnic basket and like yesterday, I opened the door for her to go in. I got in the car and started the engine, before backing out of the drive.

"So what's in there?" I asked nodding towards the basket in her lap.

"Just some sandwiches, drinks, hummus and carrot sticks and some other things. I wasn't sure what you liked" she said biting her lip.

"Well that's nice and I love hummus" I said winking at her. Bella blushed and faced away from me. I chucked quietly, she was lovely. Too lovely for words.

"Where do I need to go?"

"If you drive to the school, it'll be easy to find from there" she said. I drove to the school and from there Bella navigated me to La Push. It was a nice area, with lots of trees, much like the rest of Forks.

"I need to go see Jake first, his house is down there, the one with the truck in front" she said pointing down a road.

I pulled up in front of a quaint looking house; it had an extremely large tree at the front of it as well as a blue truck. In the distance, I could see a shed that looked home made yet sturdy. The sound of a door shutting interrupted me from my perusing as I saw Bella head towards the front door.

I figured that I should just wait for her in the car considering that she was visiting a family friend and I didn't want to intrude.

The door opened and a boy as tall as me filled the doorway; I figured that he must be Jake. He had russet coloured skin and long black hair that was tied in a ponytail. He dwarfed over Bella, but that didn't stop her from jumping into his arms. I watched as they spoke animatedly for a few moments and I realised that Jake didn't go to our school, but did that mean that he didn't know what happened, which is why Bella and him were still friends, or maybe he did but he didn't care what others were saying about her.

Then again, Bella did say that no one knew her side of the story and had simply past judgement based on what they heard or at least based on what they wanted to hear.

I guess that meant Bella wasn't as guilty as people wanted her to be but it still made no sense as to why everyone would want to despise her, especially if she had done nothing wrong.

Did her parents know what had happened? Maybe they did but most likely they didn't, not many teenagers would want their parents to know that they were being bullied in school plus I was pretty sure that if Bella's dad knew, based on what she's told me, I figured that no one would actually have the guts to continue doing that.

At least I wouldn't, especially if the guy owned a gun, which he most likely did.

I watched as Bella turned to face the car and began pointing in my direction and gesturing at me to come to her. I got out the car and made my way towards them, Jake smiled at me and I nodded my head in response.

"Jasper this is Jake and Jake this is Jasper, he's new in Forks"

"Hey, it's nice to meet you man" Jake said holding out his hand.

"You too" I said shaking his hand.

"Anyway Bells about your truck, the engine's overheated, the air intake is clogged there's a hole in the cylinder and a bunch of other things as well, I'm going to try and fix them but she's getting old, it could be her time"

"Shut up Jake, she's sturdy and plus I still need her, she's not going to die on me just yet"

"Whatever you say, tell Charlie I said hi and my dad said they should get together to go fishing sometime"

"Sure I'll tell him, thanks Jake"

"Any time Bells, see you later Jasper"

"Yeah bye"

We made our way back to the car and I started driving back the way we came.

"Stop" Bella called out. I immediately braked the car "Turn here, we can go to First Beach"

"First Beach? Forks has a beach?"

"Yes it does, it's really nice though, peaceful. We can sit and talk for a bit" she said hesitantly, biting her lip and looking out of the window.

"Yeah sure, so I just turn here"

"Yeah"

I followed the path and pulled up at the beach, it did look very calming. The icy blue sky almost looked like part of the sky where they melted into each other in the distance. The sand was a pure white colour, with slight scatters of stones mixed in with it.

"It's nice" I said as I got out the car and opened the door for Bella.

"I told you so, I used to love coming down here" she said wistfully. "There are trees right over there, I would sit underneath it for hours reading or talking to….." she stopped abruptly. I turned to face her wondering why she had stopped.

"Talking to….." I said hoping she'd continue.

"Jake" she said slowly, sadly "Talking to Jake"

I could tell she was lying to me but I didn't want to force the truth out of her in case she closed up and refused to speak to me.

The sea lapped at the shore. I really wanted to draw it, it was a shame I had forgotten my sketch book though, it was strange because usually I brought it everywhere with me.

"Do you want to take a walk along the beach then?" I asked her.

"Sure" she replied after a moment. We went to the water's edge and began walking from there. We weren't speaking but the silence was nice. Every couple of minutes either Bella or I would make an observation about something as random as to why the sky was blue.

We made it to the tree that Bella said she usually sat at and sat down next to each other. Bella shivered lightly and pulled her jacket tighter around her.

"Here" I said taking off my coat and handing it to her "Put this on"

"What? Jasper, no I'm fine, really" but as she said this, a cold breeze hit her and she shivered loudly.

"Please Bella, put this on"

"But you'll be cold"

"No I won't, I've got an abnormal ability of restaining heat and I've got a jumper on" I said pointing to it.

"Fine" she said relenting "But if you get too cold, tell me and I'll give it back"

"Ok"

We sat in silence for a few moments as I tried to figure out what to say to her next but for some reason, I just couldn't seem to think of anything.

"Do you want a sandwich Jasper?"

"Sure"

I waited patiently as Bella opened the picnic basket and started moving things around inside, before bringing a blanket. We stood up and I helped her to spread it before we sat back down and Bella began bringing out the food.

"Do you want ham and cheese, plain, there's a cucumber one here somewhere" Bella said searching though the basket.

"Ham and cheese is fine" I said taking it from Bella as she held it out to me.

"And drinks, there's Coke, water, Fanta-"

"Bella" I interrupted "Relax, seriously"

"Oh, ok" she sat back, crossing her legs underneath her. I took a bit out of my sandwich. It was really nice, not just ham and cheese but there was some other stuff in it that made it taste really nice.

"This taste's really good"

"Thanks"

"What's in it?"

"Umm, Gruyere cheese, parmesan cheese, nutmeg, ground pepper and some other stuff"

"Well at least you know if the writing thing doesn't work out, you could always become a chef and open a restaurant. I'd eat there"

"You're so nice Jasper"

"Umm..." I didn't know what to say to that "Thanks"

We ate silently for a few moments, but I could feel Bella looking at me every couple of minutes. I was glad that she was getting more comfortable with me, at least enough to talk to me about things.

"Are you and Rosalie twins?" I heard Bella say from beside me. I turned to face her but saw how her eyes were focused on her hands, which she was wringing furiously in her lap. I lay my hand on top of her two to stop her and her eyes shot up to me surprised. Her hands were tiny beneath mine and her skin was soft. I could feel shocks where my hand touched hers but they were nice shocks.

I gently removed my hand from hers and got ready to answer her question.

"No, we're not twins"

She looked at me curiously. "How come you're in the same year then?"

"It's really complicated" more complicated than she knew, I figured I didn't have to tell her everything just the basics "Lil's my half-sister"

"But then how…" her eyes widened as she realised something. "That means…"

"Yeah, my dad cheated on my mum with Lil's mum"

"Oh Jasper, I'm so sorry"

"It's okay, I'm over it, I guess" That was a lie; I didn't think I'd ever get over it.

"When did you find out?" she gasped clasping her hand over her mouth "I mean you don't have to answer or anything, I didn't mean to pry"

I smiled at how cute she was.

"It's alright; you can ask me anything Bella. We found out about two years ago"

"Who's older?"

"I am"

"Really?" she asked almost surprised.

"Yes Bella, my birthday's in September and Lil's is in April"

"My birthday's in September"

"September what?"

"13th, when's yours?"

"11th"

"You guys could pass as twins though"

"Yeah, a lot of people say that"

"You've been living in Texas all this time and Rosalie's been here for ages since she was like 9"

"Is that when she met Emmett and everyone else?"

"Kind of, Dr Cullen and everyone moved here a year after she did"

"What do you mean Dr Cullen and everyone?"

"Has no one told you yet?"

"Told me what?"

"Alice, Emmett and Edward are adopted. They were adopted by Dr Cullen and his wife Esme"

"I never knew"

"I kind of guessed that, it's weird though, it's usually the first thing that Lauren and Jessica tell people about them"

"So they didn't change their surnames"

"No they did, well they hyphenated it like Masen-Cullen for Edward"

"They all live together then?"

"Yeah" she paused "Who do you live with?" I squeezed my eyes shut and rested my head against the tree, this question always led onto harder questions.

"I live with Lil and her mum"

"Just the three of you"

"Yeah"

"How come you don't live with your parents?" she asked looking at me curiously.

I paused, turning to face her.

"My parents are dead Bella"

Cue dramatic music, who saw that coming?