Seattle Nights

Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight series, all I own is the plot and a few original characters.

Chapter Five (written by PuzzlingApprentice – original author.)

(Bella's Point of View)

My eyes went wide at the sight of Ashlyn standing outside the door. Fuck, I had forgotten about breakfast and it must have already reached the time of nine o'clock. I quickly shifted my eyes to Jasper, both relieved and panicked at the fact that his eyes had darkened to the point of their original color being unrecognizable. While it was a relief to see the vibrant red gone simply because it would mean one less question from my friend, it also meant that he was awfully thirsty.

The awkward silence seemed to drag on, both of them obviously waiting for me to break it. I was glancing between the two of them nervously, shifting my weight from foot to foot. Jasper looked amused by my discomfort though seemed like he was about to save me when someone beat him to it.

"Bella!" Ashlyn squeaked, a look of false betrayal on her face. "Just yesterday you propose to me, and now I find you with him?" She made a dramatic sweeping motion in Jasper's direction.

God, this is why I love this girl.

I noticed Jasper's shocked and confused expression as Ashlyn turned to wink at me so that he couldn't see. Thoroughly amused and relieved at her distraction, I followed along with her theatrics.

"It was a mistake, I swear it!" I responded, before falling to my knees in front of her; I was going overboard and I knew. But I didn't care, I was enjoying myself. "Please forgive me, my love!"

"Bella, I don't think I could ever trust you again." She shook her head sadly with a sigh.

"Fine, be that way." I said flippantly, standing back up and turning to walk in to the kitchen. I could feel Jasper's eyes following me and I could hear Ashlyn's feet padding along behind me.

I turned around and watched as Ashlyn walked past me, an amused smirk gracing her delicate features. Jasper moved forward as well and stopped about three feet in front of me.

"What the hell was that about?" He asked lowly so that Ashlyn wouldn't hear him.

I snickered softly, "That was a great friend saving me from an incredibly awkward situation." I sighed, "I forgot she asked me to have breakfast with her this morning. You might want to go hunt, your eyes are pitch black," I paused, wondering if I should let him know the 'big news' I would be forced to discuss with Ashlyn for the next hour, but also wondering why he hadn't questioned the idea of us sleeping together which had obviously been insinuated by my friend's comments.

I ran a tired hand down my face, "You realize that I am going to have to spend the rest of my morning being drilled by Ashlyn about last night." I groaned quietly and Jasper smirked at me, I could tell by the glint in his dark eyes that he knew I was talking about sex.

He leaned down, similarly to how he had last night in that alley, and ran his nose along my jaw until his lips were at my ear, "I'm sure you'll keep her thoroughly entertained, Darlin'."

My breath caught and my eyes flew up to meet his as he pulled back and he winked at me. He turned around and left my apartment. I tried not to think about the fact that I had basically just given him permission to go and drain a few innocent people— wait, not necessarily innocent, I reminded myself. I took a deep breath to steady myself before meeting Ashlyn where she was sitting at my kitchen table.

"Give me a second," I said, gesturing to my body which was still clad in my pajamas. I could hear her snickering behind my back and I couldn't help but to flick her off over my shoulder— that only made her laugh louder. When I finally looked presentable in my skinny jeans and converse, I returned to her at the table. I enjoyed the weekend, being free to dress in jeans as opposed to the dressy trousers I had to wear to work each day.

"Hey, you ready to go?" I asked, wanting to get in public before she could start her questioning rampage in the hopes that she would be forced to keep it PG.

She started to refuse, a large grin on her face, but before she could start in I grabbed her hand and began pulling.

"Hungry!" I complained, making her laugh and also forcing her to give in. I smiled to myself, finally leaving the apartment and leading her to the small café across the street. We sat down quickly at one of the small tables that were situated outside, taking advantage of the beautiful day.

"Hello, ladies. My name is Tyler and I will be serving you today. Do you know what you would like to order?" Having been here a million times, we both ordered quickly. Ashlyn asked for an egg white omelet and a large coffee, while I requested baked oatmeal and a bottle of water. I was still all coffee-ed out from the day before. Finally, we were left alone. My friend turned to me, a wicked smile gracing her features, and I shrunk back in my chair.

"Why didn't you tell me that you had some sexy man-god at your disposal, I would have stopped setting you up with guys months ago!" She just about shouted. For some reason, Ashlyn calling Jasper sexy hit some kind of nerve. I had to force myself not to glare at her. Was I really jealous when I didn't even have any kind of relationship with him? We had never had the brother-sister relationship that Emmett and I had once had, and beyond that, I didn't really know him at all.

"No," I shook my head, forcing out a light laugh. "It's honestly not like that. I just ran into him last night; I knew him back when I lived in Forks and—"

"— and you just so happened to invite him home with you and you guys had some wild sex?" She finished my sentence. That was not what I had been planning to say, and I told her as much.

"Oh, please Bella! Then what did happen? Did you two sleep together or not?" She sounded exasperated that I was even trying to suggest that I hadn't had sex with him the night before, even though I hadn't.

That, however, was a complicated question. While we hadn't slept together in the sense she was talking about, I was pretty sure somewhere throughout the night Jasper had ended up acting as my pillow— the best pillow I had ever been blessed to use.

"Uh, kind of?" I really wasn't sure how to answer her.

Ashlyn raised her eyebrows, wanting more information that I honestly didn't have.

"I slept wonderfully," I supplied dryly, letting her make of that what she would. I knew that she wouldn't take it for what it was— the actual fact that I had finally caught up on a few hours of sleep.

She beamed at me, before finally getting in to some easier questions.

"So what's mystery man's name?" she questioned.

"Jasper," I said simply. Now that he had left the Cullens, I couldn't be sure what his last name was. Originally I had known it to be Hale, but that had belonged to Rosalie and he had just been borrowing it.

"How old is he?"

I was pretty sure he had been changed when he was twenty, but instead I went with the age that I had known Jasper Hale to be.

"He's a year older than me; I met him in high school." I supplied just as breakfast was served, successfully distracting us from the conversation. I was thankful. As I watched Ashlyn begin to devour her omelet the feeling of being watched came back, though it was not nearly as bad as the last time. Previously I had felt like I was being stalked like prey, now I could just feel eyes on me. I sat up straighter and glanced around the street. I had been extremely tired last night and couldn't remember all that Jasper and I had talked about, though I was pretty sure we hadn't talked about much, I remembered something about newborns.

I was pretty sure that even a newborn wouldn't be dumb enough to try something in the daylight at a crowded café, but at the same time, they were known for being uncontrollable. Suddenly, I wished that I had never sent Jasper away to hunt. I wanted him back, I felt so protected when he was around. It was a feeling that I couldn't even explain to myself.

"Oooooh, are you daydreaming about Jasper?" Ashlyn inquired with a light laugh. I knew she was only joking so my only reply was a smile a roll of the eyes.

We were both finished with our meals a few moments later, and after paying our bill we stood up to leave.

"Don't think that this conversation is over, Missy. I still can't believe you cheated on me." She pouted, but I could tell by the tone of her voice that she had gotten it out of her system. She was done prying, and honestly, she had gone easy on me.

We both laughed before hugging our goodbye and walking in different directions. However, a second after she had turned, I had stopped to watch her retreating form. I wasn't sure what I would do if something happened to her, but I was pretty sure that in that moment I felt the same way Charlie used to when dropping me off at a friend's house; the intense need to watch your loved one make it to safety before abandoning them. When she finally made it to her car, she waved and then peeled out.

I sighed, still feeling uncomfortable about Jasper's absence, the slight tug in my abdomen that I had felt last night while trying to sleep, and now the terrible feeling of being watched, though it wasn't nearly as unpleasant as it had been the other day. I made it inside my apartment complex and as I was climbing the stairs to the sixth floor a god awful realization just about slapped me across the face.

The feeling hadn't disappeared upon my entrance to the apartment. My heart rate spiked and adrenaline pumped through my veins, pushing me up the flights of stairs faster in the hopes of out running the danger that was sure to be following me. I, of course, knew that not only would it be impossible to out run the vampire on my tail, but that my physical reaction was only serving to make my scent all the more alluring. I finally made it to the door to my apartment and looked around nervously as I searched for my keys. Eventually I found them located in my back pocket and clumsily tried to dislodge the lock. I busted through the door as soon as I had the chance, my breath leaving me in bursts.

I felt helpless, I felt alone, and I fucking hated it.

Glaring at nothing and feeling a little pathetic for freaking out when I really didn't even know if there was in fact a vampire following me, I slammed the door closed with as much power as I could muster up as I turned away.

I froze in place. The door hadn't banged against the door frame as it should have. I closed my eyes for just a second, taking a deep and calming breath, before turning on my heel to face whatever had stopped my door mid-slam.

All I could see were five unnaturally pale fingers curled around the edge of the thick wooden door. Slowly the owner of those fingers pushed the door open to reveal himself— standing at a height just an inch or so shorter than Jasper though built slightly thicker stood a red-eyed vampire. His short dirty blond hair did little to distract me from the crazy smirk that littered his lips.

"Well howdy there Sweet Pea!" The smirk morphed in to a giant grin.

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A/N: Gee, wonder who that is ;) Please review and tell me what you think of this so far! Again, nothing changed except a few words.