Impudent [Jasper Hale]

seventeen ; waka waka

  Pick yourself up
                                  And dust yourself off
     Get back in the saddle  

►

I could never bring myself to understand the concept of reading, I simply could not. I set down the book, shutting my eyes for a mere moment before re-opening them, letting out a scream.

"What the fuck, Jasper!" I yelled, glad that Charlie was not home. "Where did you even come from?"

The blond vampire was smiling happily, not a care in the world, looking nothing but amused at my reaction.

"I've been here for over an hour."

I stared at silence, looking at his face for any sign of him lying.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Oh," I frowned. My great observation skills are once more put to a test, and once more, they got me a very beautiful, perfect Failed grade. Hooray! "It still doesn't answer my question, how did you get in?"

"The back door was unlocked. Don't  worry, I locked it once I entered," I looked at him suspiciously. Well, I did went outside through the backdoor earlier that day, but it wasn't like me to leave it unlocked. 

Oh wait, it totally was.

"Well." I started, trying to find a reply. "Why did you sit here for an hour? That's freaky."

"You're funny when you're frustrated."

"Let's see how funny I am when my foot is up your ass," I mumbled, intending for him not to hear it, forgetting he's a vampire.

"You know that I can hear you?"

"Oh shut up, Jas!" I whined, grabbing a pillow and leaning back in my bed. And once more, I was frustrated.

"Is that for your homework?" Jasper asked after a moment, curious.

"Yeah, History."

"About?"

"Civil wars."

"Well, I've got some interesting facts to tell you then," Jasper smirked. I raised an eyebrow, confused and amused. He looked so damn proud in himself, and it looked adorable.

I'd never tell him that though.

►

"Whoa, you're like, super old, Jasper," I blurted out after Jasper finished telling me the tale of him being old. Well, he told me of his life as a human. Which were over 100 years ago. So old. "And from Texas. That's so weird."

"What's so weird about Texas?"

"It's Texas. And literally the only person I know from Texas is that really weird girl that dresses up as a cowboy and goes on and on and on about how Texas is better. I don't like her, and she always thought she's better than me."

"I'm not like her."

"Well, you're definitely not a girl."

Jasper looked at me in silence for a second. "You're quite odd compared to most people I've met."

"And you've met tons of people because you're super old."

"Definitely odd."

"Shut up Jas," I whined once more, laughing lightly.

We sat in silence a moment more, Jasper looking at me in curiosity. "So," he finally started. "How are you doing? Is there anything new about Graham?"

My eyes snapped to him, confused. "How do you know?"

"That he's escaped?"

"About me."

His eyebrows furrowed, "well, you told Tyler."

"Tyler." I repeated. "My best friend. Not anyone else."

"I heard you," he explained. "All of us, we heard you telling him."

"And what gives you the right?" I asked him, annoyed. 

Jasper seemed surprised at my reaction, looking at me in silence. I sighed, still annoyed, picking up the book once more.

"Whatever, I need to read this anyway," I explained in annoyance, glaring at the words. "Could you leave? It's hard to concentrate when I am in the presence of a man I want to stab repeatedly in the eye."

Jasper chuckled at that, making my anger soar and hit new records.

"Ashley, I realize you are upset but I over-heard it, see?" he explained, "like I am over-hearing the couple from three houses down talking about how to tell their five years old child that he's got cancer, or how to tell his sister, who is a ninth grader, about her little brother dying. I over-hear stuff, that's part of being a vampire."

"Then go be a vampire somewhere else," I stubbornly said. "This are private matters, and the fact that your brother can read minds is even more fucking annoying." Against my will, I lost some of the anger, and for a moment I was silent, until I realized what is happening. "Jasper Hale, you prick, sto controlling my feelings!"

He smiled, "I apologize."

"I hate you."

"You don't."

"I wish I would," I muttered, setting down the book once more. I looked at Jasper's now bright golden eyes, I thought that black eyes suited him better, but the golden shade was beautiful too. Jasper smiled lightly, quickly coming to sit next to me, his cold radiating.

"May I?" he extended his hand, almost touching mine. I nodded, and he gently took my hand in his, playing with my fingers and brushing them gently with his cold, pale fingers.

He was a walking corpse, and I liked him. Did it mean there was something wrong with me?

It probably did, it had to. 

"I am sorry for what happened to you," he started slowly. "And I am sorry for knowing about it before you were ready to tell me."

"It's okay," I said in a small voice, and Jasper closed his eyes, opening them slowly, his lips lifted ever so slightly, and he turned to me.

"You know that most of the time your blood doesn't bother me as half as it should?"

"Okay then, I wasn't expecting a vampire-related topic chat today," I blurted out, making Jasper chuckle.

"When the feelings coming from you are negative, your blood has no scent, and all there is is just the beating of your heart. But most of the time, you have so many mixed emotions, that I get too confused to even think of your blood. I don't know why, but it's pretty hard for me to concentrate on your blood."

I stayed silent.

Jasper did as well, still holding my hand.

"He's probably in Seattle, or someplace by," I told Jasper. "It took them too long to shut down the airport, and the only flights that had managed to leave were two to Seattle and one to Cuba, but every single one of the tickets to Cuba were pre-ordered, so..."

"Oh," Jasper said. "So he's close by."

"Yes."

"And the police has any clue on where exactly he is?"

"No, and dad says that they probably won't actually bother with him if they don't find him in the next two days."

Jasper moved, quickly standing up.

"Where are you going?" I questioned, surprised.

"I'll go get Emmett, and we'll both go to search for him," he explained as though it was obvious. 

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I-- stay here instead, please. It's okay if they don't catch him just as long as I feel safe. And I'm safe with you, right?"

A moment of hesitation as Jasper looked at me passed slowly, the doubt taking forever to pass, before he gave a small smile.

"Of course you're safe."