(edited: 16.08.22)
FRESH air was filling my room while I was getting ready to go out with Bella. I looked at my brown wrist watch and noticed the time, so I packed my bag and left my room yelling.
"Bella, let's go! It's already past three PM!"
I walked into the living room and sat down next to Charlie who was watching the news, already dressed into his uniform. He nodded at me and asked "So you're going out?"
"Yeah, Bella wanted to buy some kind of book. Other than that, we're just going to spent some time together."
Charlie nodded "I hope that you know to be careful?"
"I am living with the Chief, who do you think I am?"
He let out a laugh, raising his arms in the air saying "Okay, okay you got me there kid." after a peaceful moment of silence Charlie said "You know... I was worried that going back to school was going to be bad for you. But look at you, you're smiling, laughing, joking and taking care of yourself. I'm proud of you kid, not a lot of people could get through something like this, but you did."
I stilled slightly, realizing that I really had changed around Bella and the Cullens. Everything was really coming along.
"Thank you, Charlie. Your words really mean a lot to me." I responded, smiling at him.
Charlie smiled at me and ruffed my hair saying "I'm just happy to see you being happy as well. Now go see what Bella's doing up there for so long, you should be leaving already."
I nodded and went to check on Bella, just to find her running around the room looking for something "What are you looking for?"
"I think that I lost the car keys! Oh god what now?!" Bella yelled in panic.
"Bella, I was driving on Friday. I have the keys." I reminded, shaking my head at her.
Just like that, Bella stopped running around the room and looked like a deer in highlights asking shyly "You do?"
I rolled my eyes leaving the room and going down stairs only saying "Let's go."
After an hour we got to Port Angeles, it was getting dark outside and I felt a bit annoyed that we didn't just go here in the morning. I parked the car and we got out, the sidewalks were filled with people making me cringe but I only shook my head saying to Bella.
"Well, how about we go eat something? And then we'll go looking for your bookshop?"
Bella seemed to think on it before nodding at me "Sure, let's go."
We walked around until deciding on some small restaurant, where we took a seat by a window. The restaurant was filled with people, making me cringe a bit but I tried to ignore it and asked Bella.
"So, what's up? How was your trip to the beach?"
"It was good, I met Jacob there and he told me to say "hi" to you actually." Bella answered while looking at the menu.
"Oh, that's nice. Anything else going on recently?" I asked in pure curiosity.
She put down her menu "Actually, can I ask you a question?"
"Yeah, sure." I shrugged.
Bella seemed to think for a while before saying "You're like... really close with the Cullens." I nodded at her, feeling a bit confused as she continued "Have you... noticed anything weird about them?"
My heart stopped as I figured out what she was implying, so I left my face blank saying "No, they just don't like people. Just like me, so no, there's nothing too weird about them."
"Are you sure? I mean they all look similar, although they're not related. Edward's skin is cold as ice and he pushed a van with his hand. I just feel that there's something... different about them Thea, don't you feel it too?" Bella asked me, looking at my face carefully.
I only shook my head saying "Bella, it's better not to mess with people's business. It's their life, if Edward wants to, then he'll tell you."
"So you know something!" she snapped looking at me in shock.
I gave her a hard stare saying "I didn't say that, now Bella leave it. You can't just walk into someone's life and demand to know everything about them" she looked down a bit, so I sighed and finished "Trust is earned, not forced Bella."
After that we didn't talk about the Cullens and mainly talked about normal stuff, much to my delight. I really hoped that Bella will stop her little investigation and will wait for Edward to tell her everything, as soon as his family lets him after the bad reception from me...
It still really confused me that they told me everything so quickly, but from what Jasper told me the situation between us is much different than the one between Bella and Edward. Of course I wanted to know what he means by that, but he just asked me to be patient and give him and Carlisle some time to figure it out completely.
As we were eating and talking a group of men stopped by the window, trying to get our attention.
"Hey pretty! Come hang out with us!"
"We'll show you a real fun sweetheart!"
After a few other comments I got up from my chair, feeling pissed off and went to talk to the manager of the restaurant. He quickly apologized and sent someone to get the men away from the restaurant. By the time I was back, Bella was already dressed in her jacket. She looked at me and said.
"Let's get my book and go home."
I nodded at her taking my things and going to pay the bill, before leaving with Bella. We found ourselves on a crowded sidewalk, it was already dark outside which made me feel a bit uneasy.
I looked at Bella "Alright, lead the way."
Bella took out a small piece of paper and started leading us towards the more secluded part of town, where we found a small book shop. While Bella was talking to the store owner, I was walking around looking at different types of books, and after a couple minutes I heard Bella call my name.
"Thea? I'm all set, can we go?"
I nodded at her and said goodbye to the owner, when we were outside I looked at Bella and asked "So, what did you buy?"
She shrugged at me, saying "Just a book about local legends and stuff Jacob told me about."
"Cool, will you let me read that when you're done?" I asked, feeling interested in the local legends.
"Sure." Bella answered with a small smile, then she pointed towards a dark alleyway saying "Hey, look I think it's a short cut."
I frowned to myself saying "I don't know, let just get back the way we came here. I don't want to get lost."
"Come on, we won't get lost. Besides, I just really want to go home." she said, looking at me with puppy eyes.
"Okay, okay but if we get lost then I'm blaming you." I stated, while following Bella.
Halfway through the alleyway, we heard someone laughing and talking loudly behind us. I turned just to see some men stop just at the entry to the alley, just as they noticed us the two of them started walking towards us. I quickly grabbed Bella's arm and started to walk as fast as I could, while trying not to alert the men. With every turn they made the more men we noticed, I tried to stay calm but I could feel Bella trembling underneath my hand.
As we walked into some dark and dirty parking lot, I saw two other men walking towards us clearly wanting to cut us off. I squeezed Bella's hand "Get ready to run when I give you a sign."
"What about you?!" Bella asked in panic.
I stared at her hard saying "Doesn't matter. You get out of here and call Charlie, maybe he'll be able to get someone here quickly. If not, then look for someone on the street."
Before she could answer, one of the men walked over looking really drunk or high "Heeey, we saw you at the restaurant!"
My heart was beating so fast that it almost hurt me, but still I placed myself in front of Bella, not saying anything. Then as one of them went to grab me, I acted quickly and kicked him right in the balls yelling to Bella.
"Now!"
She started to run as the others were too shocked to even stop her, that's when a man behind me grabbed me by the arms saying "You bitch! You're trying to be some kind of hero?!" the other man walked over and started touching my thighs as I struggled and screamed.
"Oh, we'll show you some action Miss superhero."
Finally my struggle paid off, as I was able to bite the man who was touching me on my breasts, he yelled and pulled away ripping the skin on his cheek. I spit out some of the flesh and blood, just to be slapped by the man that I kicked in the balls.
"Crazy bitch! We're going to kill you!"
Just as he was about to punch me in the face, screeching tires were heard. All of them looked up to see a car speeding over to us, the headlights blocked my vision as I noticed that two people got out of the car, that's when I heard a voice that I would never forget.
"LET. HER. GO."
The guy behind loosened his grip and that's when I took my chance hitting the guy holding me with the back of my head. He cursed and freed me in order to touch his probably broken nose, then I followed my instinct and ran towards the car as it stopped a couple feet away from me.
As I threw myself into the hard and cold body of the one and only Jasper Whitlock Hale. I noticed that he was tense as hell, so I looked up just to see that his eyes were black and focused on the men behind me.
"J-Jasper?" I asked, still trembling, but he didn't answer. Instead he looked towards Edward, that I noticed was the other person who got out of the car and growled.
"Take. Her."
Edward didn't say anything as he walked over to us and pulled me away from Jasper, forcefully placing me in the backseat of the car as I screamed Jasper's name over and over again. I didn't even notice Bella's hands on me, preventing me from going outside to Jasper. Once Edward was in the driver's seat, he pulled back away from the parking lot leaving Jasper and the men there.
Through the whole drive to god knows where, I was hysterical as I finally focused on checking Bella for any harm. I didn't even notice the conversation between Edward and Bella, that is until we stopped by the parking lot where our truck was. They both left me in Edward's car to talk outside.
"—wait for Jasper here. Then I'll take you home, while Jasper takes Thea." I heard Edward say to Bella.
"Why did he stay there?! What's going on?!" Bella yelled at Edward in anger.
"I'll tell you when we'll be alone, Jasper won't hurt her." Edward answered, trying to calm Bella down.
After that I stopped trying to listen to their conversation, minutes went by as I was still shaking and tears were running down my cheeks. My whole body burning and yet feeling cold. Dirty. Felt so dirty...
Suddenly the door opened, making me jump but as I saw Bella, I relaxed.
"Jasper, is back. He'll take you with our truck home and–"
"Jasper?" I whispered, before she could finish. Passing her with a soft patt to her shoulder, I ran and threw myself into Jasper's arms. This time he hugged me closely but he was still tense. I took a deep shaky breath, thanking the world that he was alright.
"I'm sorry." Jasper whispered, before picking me up and carrying me to my truck. I heard Edward's car leave just as Jasper finished putting my seatbelt on, I noticed that Jasper was looking away from me and constantly was trying to hide his eyes from me.
Once he got into the driver's seat and started the car, after a few tense moments I asked "What did you do...?" Jasper only tensed further but didn't answer, so I finally snapped at him "Jasper! What did you do?!"
Jasper suddenly drove to the side of the road and turned just to show me his blood red eyes saying "I killed them. I ripped them to pieces. Limb, by limb, with my teeth."
I felt terror consumed me and my heart stopped at his words "What?"
He finally turned away from me, seeming to calm down slightly "Edward and I were keeping an eye on you and Bella, but we lost you when you went into the alleyway. We tried to find you and finally found Bella by her scent, as her blood is incredibly intense..."
"That's when she led us to you. That's when I saw you... among these animals." his hands let go of the wheel leaving a slight dent, from how hard he was squeezing it "Your face was bloody, hair tangled, your shirt ripped showing skin... it was too much for me and then the smell of their blood in the air. I couldn't stop myself, it was either them or you and Bella."
Jasper let out a sigh and finally looked at me "I knew that, if I got into the car with you... I would kill you and her. So instead I killed them, like animals that they were."
I didn't know what to say, so I just looked away and whispered "Take me home."
"Dorothea–" he started saying as I stopped him, flinching as my nightmare replayed in my mind.
"Stop. Please just take me home, I can't think of that right now." I whispered with a heavy heart.
And thankfully Jasper started up the car again, driving me home. Once we got there, he stopped the car in the driveway, I noticed that Bella wasn't home and Charlie was probably still at work. Jasper got out of the car, before rushing to my door, opening them for me.
I took off my seatbelt and got out, I walked over to the front door opening them. Before entering, I turned around to see Jasper standing near my truck looking at the ground, his whole body stiff, I bit my lip and asked softly knowing that he would hear me "Would you like to come in?"
Jasper's head snapped up to look at me so fast, that if he was a human, he would snap his neck. But what I took the most notice of was how softly his red eyes were looking at me, it broke my heart to look at him in such a state.
Minutes passed by until Jasper nodded a bit and slowly walked over and followed me inside, there I took off my boots and walked to my room, feeling Jasper follow me. Once there I took off my jacket that had some blood on it. I looked at Jasper, who stood awkwardly in my small room making him seem even taller and bulkier.
"You can sit down somewhere, while I get rid of the blood." I whispered, looking away.
I took my jacket, some clothes and left for the bathroom, where I put my clothing into the washing machine and washed myself from the blood around my lips and neck.
When I got back to my room, dressed in my pajamas Jasper was standing near the window looking outside. I sat down on my bed, thinking about what to say, but Jasper was the first to speak.
"I'm a monster... and I failed you." his voice was deadly calm, as he continued on looking outside.
I let out a sigh, before whispering "Jasper, you're not a monster."
He let out a humorless laugh "No? Then why do you feel terrified, ever since I told you what I've done?"
"Jasper... it's a hard situation for me, alright? I never... I never imagined dealing with anything alike. So I'm going to be honest." after a deep breath I asked "Did you kill them for me?"
It didn't even take a second for the vampire to answer "Of course I did, Darlin' they—" he cut himself off, probably realizing that it wasn't a good answer.
And it wasn't.
I sighed, shaking my head "That's why I'm scared, Jasper. Look at the hold that I have on you, look at the things that you'd do for me. Think, Jasper. Is there anything that you wouldn't do to protect me?"
"Darlin', no but this was different." he argued, his self loathing taking a seat back for now.
"Maybe... but I'm scared, Jasper." I admitted, looking up at his crimson eyes "I don't want you to become something horrible because you... feel the way you do because of my blood. Perhaps we should take a break from each other... you need to get back from the human blood, or whatever else you do in a situation like this, anyway."
Jasper walked closer and cupped my cheeks with his huge hands saying "I can't walk away from you Dorothea. And if staying with you will make me a monster, then so be it." he brushed my cheek with his cold finger "Because I know that you'll be able to bring me back from the dark."
I looked into his burning eyes, asking quietly "How can you be so sure?"
He smiled at me and said softly "Because, it's not your blood that makes me feel. It's you. I love you Dorothea Elena Summers, I have for a while now."
My heart skipped a beat as tears formed in my eyes as I whispered "Jasper..."
He kissed my forehead and hugged me to his chest "Let me be with you, I know that we can fix it. Please, Thea."
I slowly pulled away, whispering "I love you too..." as happiness bloomed on Jasper's face I nearly stopped my next words "Which is why... I can't be the one who will condemn you."
Jasper looked heartbroken "Dorothea—"
"Please, it'll be better that way. Let us have some space for now..." I said and opened the door of my room for him not looking him in the eyes.
"If... if that's what you want, I'll leave. But that doesn't mean that I'm giving up on you, I'll never give up on you." Jasper promised, before kissing the top of my head and running out of the house.
What do you think will happen next?
Did Thea do the right thing, by pushing Jasper away?
If you have any question or idea please leave a comment ;)