Ashes [Jasper Hale] [2]

21 ; ophelia

Heaven help a fool who falls in love .

::

Closing your eyes was always the easy part of falling asleep, but when the wind howled against the window, and it sounded as though someone was whispering from the other side of the window, my eyes wouldn't allow themselves to shut.

Sylvester was clutched in my arms, providing me with a bit more heat than the blanket alone did, but not nearly enough to feel like a human should feel.

"Ashley," Jasper whispered, sitting by my bed. Once I started shivering he was out of my bed in a moment, and had me covered with another blanket. "Do you want me to call your father?"

"No," I sniffled, attempting to stop my tears. "I'm fine."

He sighed, standing up. Moments later he was sitting by my side with a purple digital thermometer between his fingers. "Just try," he whispered against my annoyed glance. "For me."

I bit back whatever anger flooded in me at this comment, and sat up as quick as I could, which wasn't really quick. It took a few moments of Jasper looking at me, and me looking away as the thermometer was stuck under my tongue, before it beeped a few times hurriedly.

"One hundred," Jasper spoke, as he saw it perfectly fine in the dark room, and I was about to tell him off. "And three. It's high."

"I'm fine," I stated again.

"Ashley, you're sick. I'm getting your father."

"No!" I panicked quite loudly, before realizing I just yelled at 3 a.m., and take a deep breath. "No, dad can't know you're here. He'll give me hell."

There was a knock on the door, and I looked at Jasper in frozen fear.

"It's Edward and Bella," he said with a grin, kissing the side of my head. "Don't worry."

"Ashley?" Bella asked sleepily. "Edward says you're sick," she explained. "Do you want me to get dad?"

"No," I shook my head again. "I just want a coat and another blanket, and that's it."

"But Charlie can know Bella is here. I'm sure it will be a relief," Jasper joked with a beautiful half smile.

"I'm fine," I insisted.

::

But I guess I wasn't, because I woke up the next morning with Charlie's request to check my fever again-Bella snitched- and it was 103.8 at that point.

So I was getting a day off, which could be fun if I didn't feel like a freaking banshee is outside of my window, waiting to kill me.

"Ash? Rumor has it you're sick and not coming to school today," the door to my room opened, and in front of me stood a trio of idiots. "So we came around to check!" Joseph cheered, jumping on my bed. "Cough in my direction, please."

"Jo!" Mike sighed, "make some room. Tyler and I need to have enough room on the bed too."

Tyler shook his head as Mike squeezed next to the wall, and scooted to sit by my side at the end of the bed. I made as much as room as I could for him, and he placed a hand on my head, patting it slightly, comforting.

"Flu?"

"I think," I shrugged. Joseph pushed up to his elbows, looking at me with his deep brown eyes, calculating.

"Ash, you were looking really good at dinner though," he noted, and Mike sat up dramatically.

"YOU HAD DINNER WITHOUT ME?!"

"Jo!" Tyler smacked him with a pillow he took from under my head.

And all thoughts about what monster are really outside of my window, and what monsters aren't even real, escape my mind as we argue, and later watch the three first movies of Harry Potter after Joseph wins a bet, and I find out that it's easy.

Easy just as much as Iggy, Ariana and Jessie were- only with three boys that didn't know each other a few years ago, at most. Who didn't know me for long.

But it was easy.

And it was home.

And when I checked my fever, it showed 99.7.

So I figured, that maybe Africa would be better than staying here with Jasper, and Mike snored at that moment, him and Tyler laying next to each other at the end of my bed, Joseph laying next to me.

"Jo," I wondered, and he hummed as an answer. "What's going on in the Rez?"

"Haven't been there lately," he admitted. "The whole wolves thing is kind of, intimidating, you know? Leah's cool, and she is completely amazing, look-wise at least, but..." he shrugged. "She's a werewolf, and I'm more of a... Human kind of person, you know?"

I looked at his freckled face, and he turned to me. "Jo, I love you."

"You're dating Hale, and I've got myself a soul-mate," he put a hand between us. "It won't work out."

"But Jo, you just said how you won't date her."

Joseph looked at the ceiling, and he sighed. "They told me about... the cold-ones. They told me about you, and Paul and Jasper. And you were so willing to love them despite running away when you found out. And Leah... she's supposed to be mine. And I'm supposed to be hers," he spoke slowly, quietly, but his words were so certain and on-point. It was as though the words were created for his mouth to speak them at that moment, nothing else. "And right now, I'm not ready. Right now I can barely be her friend. But, destiny is real. Destiny brought you to me, and me to Leah, which brought you back to Jasper. So, I know that someday, I'll be able to see Leah as a friend again, and once I do, I will learn that I love her, and I'll have the love of my life."

"Jo."

"Yeah?"

"You sound like you're in love already," I grinned at my friend.

"I'm in love with a metaphor, of a girl that won't have eyes for anyone but me, of someone that will be with me forever, and is meant for me just as much as I am meant for her, only I have a choice. And I want to think I'll choose her. I'm in love with a metaphor, and I pray to God that the day Leah becomes real to me, I'll forget about the metaphor, and I'll see a beautiful girl that's been waiting for me to stop being selfish."

"What about Africa?" I wondered,and his mouth became a straight line.

"I'm  not giving Africa up. I'm going." He stated, "if it's before I go to her, that's great. If it's after, it's her choice what to do about my decision. Because I'm not giving up on Africa with you and Ty." He grinned at me, grabbing my wrist. "You're my friends. Before anything else and anyone else, you, Tyler and Mike are my friends. No soul-mate will take that away."

I smiled at him. "Jasper doesn't want me to go," I told him. "But I'm not giving that up either."

"Atta girl." Jo laughed, hugging me closer to him.

"Love is such a drag." I sighed as Snape closed the door rather dramatically.

"Never has anyone said anything so correct."

"Well, I'm a genius."

"Sure you are Ash," Tyler sleepily mumbled.