"Be brave enough to heal yourself, even when it hurts."
-Bianca Sparacino
***
Seeing Courtney Swan vulnerable was scary.
It was easier to see her mad, and to see her sarcastic and sassy. Because that is how she normally is, how she is. That is what makes Courtney Swan, Courtney Swan.
Seeing her heal however, was beautiful.
Jasper Hale felt her emotions as he cradled her in his arms. At first, he was overwhelmed. He was expecting anger, and resentment. Instead, he just felt fear.
But as he held her in his cold arms, her breathing slowed, and it turned to happiness. She felt happy around him. after admitting that she knew what he was, that she knew he was dangerous. She still felt safe around him.
And that made him happy.
"Did you know that coconut oil can be used as an emergency blood transplant?"
That was the first thing I said in half an hour. I felt better now, peaceful even. It felt strange.
"Vegan vampires. That would be pretty cool."
Jasper laughed, the precious sound filling up the entire house. And then Alice joined in, and then me. We were all laughing like maniacs, but we were happy. Happy and relieved.
"We're vegetarian."
"Damn, how do you keep that up?"
Alice smirked as we all stood up, not in perfect unison, but what in life ever is?
"A lot of practice."
"You say it like it's learning the cello."
Jasper winced. "It's a little bit harder then that."
The tension in the room grew, so I cleared my throat. "That's what someone who has never played the cello would say."
***
And that is how we ended up playing UNO at one AM.
Bella came in at one point, took one look at Alice cussing out Jasper, and ran up to her room.
She doesn't know yet.
"Je te déteste et j'espère que tu tombes dans un fossé!" Jasper yelled, and I found myself grinning fondly at the Southern vampire. It is hard to embrace the fact that my friends that I consider family are mythical beings I have only heard about in stories.
"Nobody tell Emmett that I know." I grinned, "I wanna freak him out."
Alice giggled, high and musical. "That will be interesting to watch."
"Wait! I have something that I should where to school tomorrow!" I shot upstairs as fast as my puny mortal legs would carry me, before coming back downstairs in a grey crop top, the words: BITE ME etched on the front.
The two were amused.
They had explained to me previously about their theory about me and my sister. They told me that I had some sort of super strength power-thingy.
(At which my response was: "Wait, so I'm equivalent to Super Man?")
It's funny how you aren't aware of any abilities you possess, until you discover them. I now realized that I could always throw a little harder, run a little faster, and lift a little heavier then others at my level my entire life. I even tested the theory, and lifted Alice with one arm. She is pretty little though, I'll see if I can lift Rosalie tomorrow...
"UNO bitches!" I yelled, placing my last card on the ever growing pile.
"Goddamn it-" Alice yelled, standing up and stomping her small foot on the ground. "God fu-"
The sound of the door opening interrupted her rage session. We all froze. No one dared to move. I swear I heard the two beside me stop breathing.
"Bye Court."
And then they were gone.
***
The next morning, Rosalie picked me up from school.
It was an action that surprised both Bella and I equally. Bella jumped when the pink blob drew color into it's surrounding atmosphere. She probably figured out what the Cullen's were. "I'm gonna drive with them." I said, before running outside.
"Courtney!" It was Rosalie who spoke, walking out and slamming the door of her convertible. Upon slider inspection, I realized that she was alone in the car, Alice wasn't with her.
"Hey, Rose-"
I was interrupted when the blonde came up to me and enveloped me in a bone-crushing hug. I was so shocked that for a moment I forgot to hug back.
"What's going on?" I asked, laughing slightly. Rose responded by dragging me into the passenger seat in her car. It smelled like Roses, hence its owner.
My car smells like old Fabreeze.
"I know you know." She said, starting up the car. "And I know what happened yesterday. So I am going to tell you a story."
I nodded, silently gesturing for her to continue.
"Before I turned, I was beautiful."
Wow... good starter.
"I was set to married a man. A man who only loved me because I was beautiful. And one night.... him and a bunch of his... royal buddies or whatever, cornered me one night, and raped me."
I felt my mouth dry out and fall open in shock. That is not what I was expecting her to say. Rosalie... perfect, gorgeous, confident Rosalie was opening up about her pre-vampire past. Okay... that was a sentence I never thought I'd say.
"Rose I-"
"Don't." She held out her hand, making me glue my lips together. "That's not the point. The point is, after Carlisle turned me... I found them and I killed them all."
That escalated quickly.
"I didn't let a drip of their blood touch me. I never slipped up once. And I guess last night just brought together the old memories, and I had to see you."
I didn't know what to say. I mean, what would you say if your best friends older sister just told you that she killed a bunch of guys before she became an immortal vampire? I decided to settle on the safe bet.
"That's pretty badass."
She laughed, the sound sounding almost as beautiful as her brothers. The pink convertible pulled up in the parking lot of my small, slightly pathetic school, and eyes were on the car. The car, and the people inside. I am sure my fellow peers thought I was some sort of witch. I caught Jessica's eye as we parked, and she cocked an eyebrow, a smirk playing at her lips.
"Thank you." I spoke earnestly, turning and placing my and on the space in between Rose and I. She surprised me by placing her own cold hand on mine. "No. Thank you."
***
"Cordie!"
Alice's musical voice was the first thing I heard when I entered the school that morning. She appeared behind me, as if from thin air. I jumped, my heartbeat picking up slightly, but took a deep breath when she fell into pace with my walk.
"Emmett still doesn't know." She giggled to herself. "That will be fun."
I chuckled in response, my eyes still raking over the hallways, although I wasn't one hundred percent sure what I was looking for.
"Are you looking for Jasper?"
"No." The answer came first, and made me realize that I was. I don't know why, but I was.
Alice smirked, nudging me with her shoulder. "Why am I not surprised."
"Shut up." I grumbled, pretty sure that my face was burning an extravagant shade of red. That's a vampire perk, you don't blush like a crazy person every time Alice opens her mouth. The girl herself cackled loudly, basically jumping up and down as I opened my locker.
"I ship you guys so much its not even funny."
"Alice-"
"You should go out! I mean, come on it's not like you aren't-"
"Alice!"
She burst into laughter again, right as we were joined by the Southern Vampire who was a popular topic of discussion today. Jasper ruffled Alice's hair, and smirked, raising his eyebrow in the most attractive way possible as I shut my locker.
"That's a nice shade of red on you." He teased, brushing his finger across my cheek, and probably making my blush deepen.
"Can you guys hear my heartbeat?" I asked, placing my hands on my cheeks to try and calm the monster that is my hormones. The two shared a look.
"Yeah."
"Bye." I slung my bag over my shoulders, and tried to escape, the sound of their interlacing laughter sounding behind me. Alice appeared at my side a moment later, and Jasper followed soon after. He slung one arm around my shoulder, and I instantly felt calmer. "Are you manipulating me?"
"Maybe a little."
"Keep doing it." I sighed in content, leaning into his side, I felt his chest vibrate as e laughed, and I was overwhelmed at the sudden urge to kiss him. I didn't, though. That could have been a disaster.
"Edwards bringing Bella to the house tomorrow." Alice spoke up, her eyes trained on her phone. "You should come too, Court."
"Um..." I weighed all of pro's and con's of Bella and I being in the same room, surrounded by vampires. "Yes... and no."
"And here I was thinking you weren't gonna give us a straight answer." Jasper teased, his low voice sending shivers down my spine. I sighed, trying to banish all of the thoughts swirling around in my head.
"Well... I, I just don't know how that would turn out. Bella and I have never had common friends, and, um, she tends to hurt herself when she gets nervous..."
"Oh come on!" Alice cried, smacking my arm. I yelped, jerking it away and accidentally elbowing Jasper in the stomach. He winced slightly. "I am so sorry." I apologized, while Alice cackled like a mad-woman. Jasper mocked her laugh. "At times like this I wish you had regular human strength."
"Come on! Just come over! Esme will make you food!"
"Done and done." I clapped twice, grinning widely. What? Bella may be a good cook, but I am getting sick and tired of eating steak every night.
"We should have opened with the food." Jasper mumbled as the bell rang, right when we arrived at the door to art class.
"This is where we part." Jazz mock bowed at us, and Alice rolled her eyes. "You're almost as much of a drama queen as Edward."
"Hey, I am nowhere near as dramatic as that guy."
"Whatever, whatever." I waved my hands, "see you, Jazz."
And before I knew what I was doing, I reached over and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.
***
"Please slap me. Slap me and then slap me again."
We were in art class, and my head was bowed on my desk. My heartbeat was beating so fast I am sure it gave Alice a headache. She was still silently laughing at my level of dumbness. "I would hate to mess up such a pretty face."
"I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I actually just did that." I stared at the bandages around my knuckles. I don't know why I had to do that, it just felt like the natural thing to do! And afterward, I paused, and my mouth fell open as I comprehended what just happened, and then I nervously giggled and ran inside the classroom.
"What do I do Alice, what do I do?" I begged, shaking her shoulders as she tried to draw peacefully. If she wanted anything in her life to be peaceful she should not have decided to be my friend.
"I think that you should have waited around long enough to see his reaction." She looked up to give me a coy smirk. "Basically jumped for joy."
"You're joking." I groaned. "Oh, did I just ruin everything?"
"Hey, I'm not joking, Cordie. He literally pumped his fist and jumped in the air. I am dead serious."
"I wish I was dead."
"Just talk to him in English! Then you'll see."
***
English passed in a breeze, and I didn't actually get the chance to speak with Jasper the whole class, Mr. Thomas decided to be a bitch and say that if anyone spoke during his lecture we would get detention. He was staring right at me when he said that.
We did walk to lunch together though, and I was having an internal battle, I am sure that Jasper could sense my emotions, or maybe I like, overrode his system because of how many emotions I am feeling.
"I'm sorry." I finally worked up the nerve to speak when we were right in front of he cafeteria. "You know, for kissing you."
WHAT WAS THAT? Have I been enrolled in a competition for stupidest thing you could ever say to a guy you like? If Edward was hear I would probably over override his system as well because I am doing and thinking the stupidest things a person could think! Why don't I just go jump of a cliff that seems more appealing then staying here.
I began stuttering incoherent nonsense, trying to fix the stupidity of what I just said. Jasper just stared at me while I made a further fool of myself, his eyebrow raised and a look of dim amusement on his pale face. I still didn't know what to say, so I just kept on blabbing. Ugh, I am seriously going to kill myself right now.
"You need to shut up." Jasper said, before stepping forward and closing the gap between us, placing his lips on mine.
A/N: I have decided to post this story on Wattpad, because it was not getting a lot of attention on my Quotev account. I hope you all enjoy! I will be updating on Quotev first, because I prefer to write on that platform. Don't forget to vote and comment! I love reading comments, they make my day!
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