Now You See Me [Jasper Hale story]

XXII. Terrible Timing

"It's always about timing. If it's too soon, no one understands. If it's too late, everyone's forgotten." ― Anna Wintour

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In the following two days, things settled down a bit. I became less nervous and more relaxed, Bella finally admitted that she liked Jacob, Angela forgave me for not going to the shooting range with her and Eric on Friday, and Hayden had a free Sunday. That was why we spent it hanging in the center, having plenty of coffees at the Lodge, shopping, or chatting on a bench in Kensington Gardens (which were a North American version of London's real Kensington Gardens).
On the way home, the direction of our conversation changed to our love relations. In my case, it was nothing impressive, obviously; Hayden, however, mentioned a man - her patient - who caught her eye about a week ago. No wonder that I was pretty determined to hear her confession. At least one of us was having an interesting love life lately...

"Gosh, Hayden, that's great!" I bit on my donut with chocolate glaze. "What's his name? What does he do?"

"Hush, you little nose parker," Hayden wiped the rests of whipped cream from in the corners of her lips, after her having taken a sip of her strawberry milkshake. "I don't think the conversation we had was somehow enriching, or led to a topic both of us would be satisfied with."

I raised my eyebrow at her. "Were you having fun, while talking to him?"

"Yes," admitted Hayden without hesitation.

"Did you two find a theme which made you laugh, feel comfortable or happy?" I continued asking.

"Yes, but that's irrelevant."

"No, it's not. It actually shows that you two are getting along well."

"Alright, Charlotte, where's your web? Why don't you look for it, while I'll go home and watch Casablanca utterly alone." My aunt furrowed her eyebrows slightly, before she started paying full attention to her milkshake.

"You wouldn't watch Casablanca without me!" I exclaimed in disillusionment. Hayden grinned at my insecurity, wrapping her arm around my waist.

"Sweetie, I'm teasing. Of course I wouldn't watch Casablanca without you," she stated quizzically, making me poke her in the side. "But when you're at university, I'll organize a big party at our home, with punch, caviar appetizers and members of rugby team, without inviting you."

"You're a heartless mother," without a pinch of regret, I took another bite of my donut. "So... will you finally tell me what his name is?"

"Gideon Gao," the woman pronounced slowly, as if measuring the man's full name, to find out if it was good enough.

"My, my, do I smell exoticism in here?"

"Well, Gideon moved to America, to study at Yale. His parents stayed somewhere in South Korea though," explained my aunt. "By the way, Gideon - isn't it strange? In combination with Gao, I mean."

I shrugged. "It's elegant and exotic."

"Ha, elegant!" Hayden repeated far more emphatically, "I'm not looking for an elegant man with an elegant name, dressed in an elegant suit!"

"Are you looking for an exotic one, with exotic name, wearing exotic shirt then?" I asked her, trying to suppress my amusement. It was a rather pointless effort, however, I wasn't going to give up.

My aunt wrinkled her nose, finicky, "Definitely not an exotic shirt."

"So stop doubting the quality of his name and suit, and tell me more about his studies at Yale."

"Fine," she sighed, would-be resignedly; it was clear that she was as amused as I was by then. "For as much as I know, he studied Architectural Engineering. Since his beautiful assistant, who most probably jumped out of a Victoria's Secret poster, brought him keys of his white to the hospital, I assumed he was a hard-working student."

"Oh my god, he has a Jaguar! When are you two getting married?" I covered my mouth with my palm, meanwhile Hayden's narrowed eyes pierced through my skull.

"So young and already so materialistic," she shook her head in pretended disappointment. "Girl, who raised you?"

My lips widened in a huge, innocent smile, as I gave her a short hug, "The best woman of the best women under the Sun. You might know her, her name is Hayden Moreen Heather Callaghan-O'Leary."

She returned my hug, breathing in the smell of my shampoo. It was new and it was supposed to smell like raspberries, mixed with ocean breeze. Since it cost five bucks, I was left to hope that they managed to cram the biggest amount of ocean breeze possible into particularly my shampoo.

"Anyways, the important thing is, that yesterday, after the ward round, he asked me to go on a date with him," pointing out as if it wasn't a big deal, Hayden pulled the keys of our house out of her bag. While I hadn't even noticed when we started approaching our street.

"Why, that's awesome! You clearly feel attracted to Gideon, you should go!"

After that, she grimaced at me, "I feel attracted to Crème brûlée too. It doesn't mean I feel the need to date Crème brûlée."

Breathing in to argue, Hayden's phone stopped me. It started ringing just in time for me to gulp my very meaningful argument. My aunt had to take the call, of course, since it was from the hospital. The years of my living with a doctor taught me, that calls from hospital were saint, irrefusable and more important than anything within the insight of human beings. When the hospital called, everything in Hayden's life had to bow down and back away humbly.
That was why I wasn't surprised, when her happy face expression changed into a serious, unamused one, in bare five seconds. Once Hayden told me she had to leave, because people, who survived a destructive car crash on the highway, were being harded into the hospital, I nodded and accepted the fact.

My aunt gave me ten bucks to order a pizza for dinner, however, I didn't feel like having dinner just yet. After she was gone, I switched the lights off, locked the door, and left to switch on the watering of our grass. Normally, it was Hayden's job, but considering the circumstances...
I noticed that the shrub of roses, which was situated under the living room window, became more bushy than would have been nice. So there, I took one of the few gardening supplies we had - garden pliers - and started cutting the branches. The sun was slowly setting down, and I felt a terribly nagging urge to eat pancakes. Forasmuch as I was unable to cook something as advanced as pancakes, I decided to send a message to one of my friends. Angela was most probably spending the afternoon at Eric's, which eliminated the option to invite her over; Bella was surely with Jacob; Seth was with... nobody. Alright, that was it.

"Hello?"

"God bless you," I blurted out in relief, the moment Seth spoke up, "I need a favor. Do you know how to cook pancakes?"

"Huh, funny! You're my brother barely knows how to switch on the cooker!" A piercing, female voice sounded on the other side of the phone, and I frowned. "By the way, hey Gwyn!"

"Back off, Leah!" Seth's grumpy hiss was soon interrupted by a loud rustle, during which Seth probably tried to get his phone back. "Urgh... my sister took over my phone, would ya believe it? She's annoying! Sorry for that. What did ya say, Gwyn?" I chuckled, repeating my question. Seth huffed, "I've got no idea how to cook pancakes."

"That doesn't matter, because, my dear friend, I got a plan B," I stated, holding the phone between my shoulder and ear, due to my having been unlocking the door. "It involves your coming to our place for dinner, stopping at Chez Chien Creperie in the centre, and buying some pancakes. Doesn't that sound simply stunning?"

"I've already had dinner."

I snorted, "Well, I didn't, but I know how to switch on the cooker."

"What the hell does my inability to switch on the cooker have to do with your being too lazy to cook for yourself?" Clearwater asked matter-of-factly.

"Everything!" I replied defensively, opening the door of our house and switching on the light. "For example the fact, that if your mother and sister weren't at home, you would die of hunger. And before you'd die of hunger, you would certainly call me to cook something for you. While me, being the good friend of yours, wouldn't reject to-"

"Alright, I got it," called out the boy in frustration, "Just to make sure, you won't leave me alone, until I bring you the pancakes, right?"

"Look at you, lovely, smart boy! Girls must be going crazy of you," glad for that Seth couldn't see me, I grinned slyly, making my way towards the kitchen counter. "When are you gonna be here?"

"In quarter an hour. What kind of pancakes do you want?"

"Wheat ones, with Nutella, bananas and pepper-honey streusel, please."

"What is a streusel? It sounds German," Seth started teasing. It was his way of revenge, or he just really had no idea about delicacy of various sorts of goods. "And are you sure that wheat grain is what you want your pancakes to be made of?"

"Yes, my order is correct, waiter. You can go, get the food now," I murmured under my breath, opening the drawer, which I put the letter in two days ago. Before Clearwater managed to say something else, I cut him off: "Have a safe drive, say bye to Lee for me, and be quick, or it will be me, who'll die of hunger!"

After that, I hung up, focusing on opening the letter. Once I palpated the sheet inside, my heart was beating fast and hard against my chest. If the letter adressed to mysterious Victoria Hamilton was going to be half as instructive as the notice from Alice Mary Brandon, then I needed all heavens on my side...

LETTER

The text calmed me down a bit. Whoever Heidi Volturi was, she had obviously had the power to forbid Victoria from Forks. The psycho vampire's bride couldn't change Bella into a vampire either, because she would break The Law. Whatever The Law was, I was starting to like it.
With a smile on my face, I marched over to the door, once the doorbell rang. Seth managed to come a few minutes earlier. I invited him in, taking the pancakes from him. For some reason, he started walking straight to the livning room, while I wondered if it was possible to have a sixth sense for finding a TV in any available sort of terrain. This time though, I hadn't said a single word against his behavior. After all, I was glad to finally get something to eat.

As soon as I finished heating up the pancakes, I joined him on the sofa, handing him his portion. We then ate the dinner (first in my case, second in Seth's case), talking merrily, commenting the football match that was on the TV. Personally, I wasn't even trying to suppress the laughter, when Clearwater accidentally smudged his nose with chocolate.

"Ha-ha. Very funny, Callaghan." Normally, I considered my surname to be beautiful, however, hearing it from him made me feel bad... hurt even. I shifted to look back at the screen, before Seth would notice the acid expression of my face. Clearwater, nonetheless, leaned down a bit, lifting his hand to my face. I turned my head towards him sharply, in order to find out what he was doing. Seth just smiled at me nervously, as the tip of his thumb brushed over my lower lip.

"Y-you had... a rest of Nutella there..." Blurting out nervously, his cheeks flushed with pure, crimson embarrassment.

My eyes anchored in his, while I bit on my lower lip. "Thank you..." I breathed out quietly, "for wiping it away."

"You're welcome," Clearwater replied in a husky tone of voice. Suddenly, I was unable to speculate about anything else, than if his lips were more or less sweet than Jasper's. I felt a urgent need to find out, despite the reasonal part of my brain was shouting at me that it wasn't right to use him like that. Shit, what was happening?!
Before I managed to notice, we were only inches away from each other, our noses almost touching. Both of us knew what was coming, and for some unknown reason, none of us stopped it. Seth gave me a shy look before he took my face in his palms and pulled me closer. Our lips met. But it was nowhere near what I experienced with Hale. No fireworks exploded in my stomach, I was not craving for more. Seth must have felt awkward too, because he pulled away soon. The kiss wasn't passionate, neither it was breath-taking. It was actually very formal and mechanical, and when Seth looked at me again, his eyebrows were furrowed.

"For goodness sake," he forced out quietly. "That was..."

"Awkward?" I suggested.

Clearwater smirked, "Nope, that's not the right word. It was more like..."

"Kissing your sibling." I finished for him and he nodded. For a while, we had been sitting in silence. Fortunately, Seth's phone rang just in the right time. It was his mother, for that, I disappeared to the kitchen, to give them time to talk in privacy. After a few minutes spent in the kitchen (with my trying to persuade myself, that there was nothing wrong about kissing a younger werewolf), I decided to go back to the living room. Seth was a few steps ahead of me though.
The moment he entered the kitchen, I noticed that he was paler than before. His pupils were widened in what I assumed to be fear or confusion.

"Is everything all right?" I asked him suspiciously, but he didn't answer. For that, I frowned, "What did your mom say, Seth?"

"S-she..." he stammered incoherently, "she said that... my dad... h-he is dead."