21

Bella took a few minutes to collect herself before she pushed herself off the floor and opened the door to the bathroom. She startled, though, because she wasn't expecting Edward to be leaning against the wall across from the door, his hands shoved into the pockets on his pajama pants. He tilted his head back, raising an eyebrow.

"Good phone call?" he asked, coolly.

"Not particularly," she replied, biting the inside of her lip. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know you're in love with Alice," he said, smiling.

"I am," she whispered, feeling her cheeks warm, which only had him laughing. "Shut up."

"What? You're so cute when you get embarrassed," he scoffed, reaching for her hand. "Come help me with breakfast."

"Okay."

Bella placed her hand in with his and let him lead her downstairs to the kitchen, where he pushed her into one of the empty chairs and began pulling out the ingredients for homemade waffles. She leaned back in the chair and brought her knees up, wrapping her arms around them.

"How'd you meet Jasper?"

Edward paused and smiled. "His father hired me to work part time in the mailroom of his company. I had just turned sixteen, and needed a job. My parents . . . Anyway, I needed money, and fast. It was easy. I worked five or six hours after school, and on weekends. I'd been there for almost a month when Jasper started. He had gotten into some legal trouble, and his dad was making him work in the mailroom to pay him back for getting him out of said trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

Edward laughed. "Nothing bad, Bella. Jasper's an amazing artist, but he was having a hard time getting his art seen, so he took to tagging buildings. You know, graffiti art. Anyway, he got caught and in order to avoid prosecution, they let his father pay for the damage, so to speak, and he got stuck in the mailroom, with me."

"Was it love at first sight?" she asked.

"No," he snorted. "I hated him."

"You did?"

Edward nodded as he turned and pulled the waffle iron out of the cabinet, placing it on the counter, and plugging it in. He set the temperature, and began mixing his ingredients together.

"He was loud and flamboyant, and so confident, and I just . . . wasn't ready to admit that I was gay. I knew I was attracted to boys, but finding a guy's ass hot was different than wanting to fuck them, at least in my mind. My dad, Bella, was a lot like yours. I mean, he wasn't running a cult, or anything, but he hadn't hidden his feelings about them faggots, as he called us. Nothing I ever did was right. I wasn't smart enough, a good enough athlete, didn't even fuck enough girls for him," Edward muttered, taking a deep breath before looking over at him. "My parents got married when they were teenagers because my mom got pregnant with me, and he never let her forget that he didn't love her. He'd had more affairs that I can count, but she wasn't even allowed to look at another man or he'd make her pay, Bella. She withdrew from everything, including me, and turned to alcohol to deal with her shitty life."

Edward began to pour the waffle batter onto the iron. "Two months after Jasper started working in the mailroom, my mom died in a car accident."

"I'm sorry."

He smiled weakly. "Don't be. She got drunk after finding out that my father had had yet another affair, and she climbed behind the wheel of the car, and well, she's lucky she was the only person she killed that day. But she was my mom, and I loved her, Bella. Despite the fact that she hated me for trapping her with an abusive, cruel man, I fucking loved her.

"Jasper found me in the mailroom early one morning, just crying," he said, frowning. "My world was falling apart and the only place I could think of to go was the mailroom. He knew immediately that something was wrong, and he kept pushing and pushing me to tell him. I don't know, Bella, I just let loose and . . . I cried. I fucking fell to my knees and cried in front the boy I hated."

"What'd he do?"

Edward grinned. "He knelt down next to me, pulled me into his arms, and held me. Just held me. I saw a different side to him that day, you know? We became friends, and I found myself looking forward to seeing him, being around him. He was the only bright part of my entire day. We'd started hanging out outside of the mailroom," he chuckled, shaking his head as he continued to make waffles. "And then one day, about three months later, he didn't come in work. I called and texted him, but he didn't reply. I was confused, Bella, because I needed to see him, you know?"

She nodded.

"By the end of the day, I was worried and scared and fucking pissed because it felt like he was blowing me off, you know? I locked up the mailroom and had just arrived at the bus stop when I saw him." Edward placed a plate of waffles in front of her and sat across from her with his own plate. Though, neither of them started eating. Edward whimpered, "He was slumped against the wall. There was blood coming from the side of his head, and I hurried over to him, pulling him against me, which wasn't smart seeing as he screamed in pain." Edward frowned. "He told me he'd been on his way into work that morning when he was jumped by two guys. They'd beat him, robbed him, called him faggot," he groused, looking up at her. "They'd hurt the love of my life, Bella, and I . . . I was too scared to tell him how I felt, because I needed him so much."

"Did they catch them? The guys who jumped him?"

Edward nodded. "Turns out it was couple of guys who worked at his father's company, in the parking garage. They had gotten fired for taking people's cars for joyrides and they figured they'd take their revenge out on the boss's kid."

"That's good, I guess."

"Jasper was different after that, though. He was quiet and withdrawn. I worried about him all the time, but I didn't know how to help him. I needed him so fucking much, and it felt like he was pulling away from me."

"Well, in my defense," Jasper said, drawing their attention to the entrance to the kitchen, where he was leaning with a smirk on his face, "I had fallen in love with you at first sight, and I didn't think you'd want me after seeing me at my worst."

"I'll always want you," Edward murmured, stretching his hand out toward him.

Jasper grinned and walked over to him, letting Edward pull him onto his lap. He placed a soft kiss on Edward's lips before he looked back at Bella. "Edward was the only part of my life, other than my art, that made sense, Bella. I needed him. I yearned for his kiss, his touch, his . . . everything," he added, smirking when Bella grimaced. "But as much as I wanted him, I was afraid that if I told him how I felt, I'd lose him. Edward was my best friend, my only friend, and I told myself that as long as I had him as a friend, I'd be happy."

"But you weren't, were you?"

Jasper shook his head before sliding into his own chair. "One night, about a month after those jackholes jumped me, Edward and I were closing the mailroom, when he told me he was quitting. I stood there for, like, ever just staring at him. He was leaving me, Bella. Fucking leaving me. I asked him why? And he just said it was time to move on, but there was something in his eyes that told me there was more to the story. So I asked him again: why?"

"I turned away from him," Edward whispered, shifting so that he was facing Jasper, "and I said 'I'm leaving because I can't stand here every day, pretending that I'm not madly, passionately in love with you'."

"And I said, 'you stupid boy'," Jasper murmured, leaning forward and pressing his forehead against Edward's, "'I love you, too.' And I kissed him."

"And kissed me, and kissed me," Edward whispered.

"And you became mine, and I belonged to you," Jasper whispered.

Bella bit her lip as she slipped out of her chair, quietly leaving the room, feeling awkward and out of place, but amazed at how easy they made their love seem. She crept back upstairs, and into the bedroom she and Alice shared. She climbed into the bed behind her, wrapping her arms Alice, pressing her lips against the back of her neck.

"I love you," she whispered as tears filled her eyes.

She felt Alice sigh before she whispered, "I love you, too, beautiful."

Thank you for all the amazing reviews! Be honest? Who swooned a little for Edward and Jasper in this chapter? *raises hand*