Warning: Cursing and abuse are mentioned/displayed in this chapter. If you are currently being abused or in an unsafe relationship of any kind please reach out to someone, anyone. Even me. No one deserves to be harmed in any way. Please, reach out.
Jasper's POV:
I was staring out my window when I heard Edward walk up behind me, the image of Margaret from today in class leaving my thoughts as he did. I sighed knowing he was going to comment on my thoughts of her as she had been filling them since the first day of class. I'm sure that my constant worrying over the human was beginning to annoy him. Or perhaps he came to tell me that Alice slipped up and he heard what she was really thinking.
"No, I'm not annoyed at your thoughts Jasper you should know that. And I'm sorry to disappoint Jazz, Alice continues to sing Korean Pop songs in her mind every time I ask her about Margaret. But I did hear a few things that other students were thinking about Margaret today." (Ed)
"Hmmm similar to what I overheard the first day?" (Jas)
"Worse, it seems that many of the students here call her worse than flinching freak to her face let alone behind her back. Though if she acts as she does with everyone as she did with you, can you blame them?" (Ed)
I felt a surge of annoyance pass over me at his comment before I remember I hadn't told him the whole story regarding the first day of class. I think of the bruises that I saw on her neck and the way she reacted when I went to shake her hand, and even the way she flinches if I move too suddenly around her. I watch as his eyes widen in a sudden understanding, having gone through that all with Rose after she was freshly turned. He glances towards the door as if to ask whether I told any of the others but I haven't, not yet anyway.
"That would explain part of it perhaps, especially if she was worried about someone else trying to interfere and getting hurt. Or perhaps she cares about the person and doesn't want them to get into trouble." (Ed)
A sick feeling washed over me with the thought of her protecting whoever was hurting her but I stayed silent as I nodded in agreement with him. I knew that sometimes humans did stupid things when it came to people they cared about, even if those people were vile human beings. We heard Carlisle come home, I asked Edward not to say anything to anyone yet as I wanted to wait until I was sure what the bruises were from.
I watched as Edward offered me a solemn nod before disappearing from my room. I felt an unneeded sigh leave my lips as I started to stare out the window again. All I know for sure is that Margaret Allie Brandon is an emotional mystery and I can only hope to figure it out soon, as she's all I can think of. She's all I seem to care about anymore.
Margaret's POV:
I had made it through the weekend without an altercation with Randy. It had been a rather peaceful two days with Randy out of the house. I had only seen him once as he passed by me in the kitchen as I did dishes and he left to go to the tailgate party one of his buddies was throwing. I was as free as I could ever hope to be while living in this house, and drew and sketched til my heart's content. Monday has passed by uneventfully at school, Jasper giving his usual 'good morning' to me as I sat down at the desk space we shared.
I had managed to respond to him with a 'good morning' of my own that time. The first time I had done so rather than give him a nod of my head. He had seemed happy when I did and his own happiness seemed to give me a brief moment of my own. Tuesday went much the same way as Monday, until I was met once again by Randy's anger that night.
That night was where my luck ran out and I was reacquainted with his fist. The bruises on my back and stomach were back in full force and every move I made seemed to increase the pain that would rush through me like fire. I might have made it a few more days before his fury erupted but a slip of a plate sealed my fate for the week it seemed.
***************Tuesday Night*********************
I watched in shocked horror as the plate fell out of my hands as he shoved me towards the sink in the kitchen. It seemed to fall as if in slow motion but I still couldn't catch it before it shattered on the ground. As it shattered I heard my heart stop for a moment before it started going again in full force. Randy turned me around to face him and I saw how red his face was and how angry his eyes were as he shook my shoulders. The smell of beer on his breath hitting me in the face as he started to yell.
"You stupid fucking bitch!! This is the thanks I get for giving you a roof over your head and fucking food to eat??? I'll teach you to break another dish in my house you bitch!" (Ran)
I felt his fist collide with my stomach, winding me and knocking me to the ground. I thought maybe that would be the end of it but it was wishful thinking on my part. I heard him take his belt off and then felt it hit my back at full force. He laughed between each strike and only stopped when he got to twelve, his lucky number.
He spit on me before telling me to clean up the kitchen, slamming his bedroom door after he went in. I forced myself to stand and even managed to clean the kitchen as the tears ran down my face. I made it to my own room and shut the door gently behind me before I laid down on the bed. My back was throbbing and my stomach was already sporting his personalized bruise with the skull ring he always wore. Surely there was more to life than this, and if not, then surely my time was almost up as I don't think I can take much more.
******************************************
I had cried myself to sleep that night and when I woke up in the next morning I found that every move I made sent waves of pain up my back. I had managed to avoid talking to the other students almost completely and was starting to work on the first presentation that I had to do with Jasper. Though I would rather just write a paper then have to stand in front of everyone and present with Jasper.
Jasper, and his siblings for that matter, confuse me. He said that he and Rosalie are twins and that I could see. But if the rest are all adopted, their features are very similar for that to be true. I had met Alice in art class back on the second day of class, when she was assigned to the same table as I was. She was nice enough, and there was even a part of her that reminded me of Granny Cynthia.
It was the way she moved almost like a dancer and smiled, even her laugh had tones that seemed similar in it. Her height made an even closer comparison in my mind as Granny Cynthia wasn't very tall when she was alive either, a fate I had avoided thanks to my father's side whoever they were. In a different world I could see myself being great friends with Alice, but again I couldn't let myself care about her or get too close. Because like with Jasper the thought of seeing how she would die made my heart ache in a way that I didn't fully understand yet.
But it was with her that I began to notice just how similar Jasper and all his siblings were to one another. They have the same pale white skin tone and the same golden color eyes, and even though I try to ignore them as I do everyone else, there's something that makes me want to get to know them. Something in me that almost seems to make me want to be able to trust them. Jasper and Alice specifically. It's almost as if I'm connected to them both somehow but I don't understand how.
Then there is the problem of Jasper and his insatiable curiosity when it comes to me it seems. He still asks a few questions every once and a while that forces me to lie or blink away tears as I think of my mom. He had asked about my parents once and I told him I was a foster kid. I didn't talk about Randy at all, and when he asked about my foster parents I just ignored the question. Though the more that Jasper talked to me the more I found myself almost trusting him.
The curls in his dirty blond hair, and the dimples in his cheeks when he smiled at me. Even the slight southern twang in his voice when he spoke made me want to smile when I heard it, despite my effort not to. I knew he had seen the scars as there was only so much I could do to hide them but he didn't say anything about them like other students had in the past. Scarface was a popular name for me from others, but he only ever called me Margaret.
I felt a slight moan leave my mouth again as the bruise on my stomach seemed to radiate pain throughout my body as I laid on the hard mattress in my room. I had been thinking about Jasper's dimpled smile to avoid the pain, but I also know I'm risking dreaming of how he dies doing that. I'm caring for him more than I should now and I feel that it's too late to reverse that at this point but I'm almost willing to risk it just to dream about him.
I look at the calendar on the wall, Friday September 12th, which means I still have another weekend to get through and just over 3 months before I can escape here. I feel another moan leave my mouth as a few tears fall down my face and onto my pillow. I've always just wanted out, but now as the image of freedom swirls in my closed eyes Jasper is joining the image and I've yet to figure out how I feel about that.