So the last meeting with Alice wasn't what I hoped for. Honestly, I expected her to be angry with me. I just didn't expect for her to go storming out like she did.
"Jasper! Are you listening me?"
I rolled my eyes as I parked Emmett's jeep in front of the small station for the Forks Police department. "Yeah, Kel, I heard you. Fuck I think the whole town hear you."
"Well, if you would stop ignoring me and I wouldn't have to yell."
"What do you want Kelly Anne?"
"I want my boyfriend to stop chasing his ex's tail and come home," she said in a voice that I'm pretty sure she wanted to sound cute, but if anything it was more like nails on a chalk board.
"I'm not chasing anything," I sighed exasperated. It's not like Alice would give me a chance anyhow. "I told you before the wedding, I'll be home in a week. I haven't seen my friends and family-"
"Yeah, yeah. Bullshit Jasper, you saw your sister here remember? You're just using this as an excuse to see her again and I know it."
"Damn it Kelly, I don't want to fight right now. I have to go meet with Chief Swan now. You think you can stop being a bitch long enough to say goodbye or do I need to hang up on you?"
"Mmm... Jasper, you know how hot I think you are when you're angry..." She purred and I resisted the urge to gag.
"Bye Kel."
"Love you Nerdy B-." I snapped the phone shut to end the call before tossing it to the floor board of the car. I fucking hated that she called me by that name.
~oOo~
Even though I had seen Charlie less than twenty four hours before, I still felt nervous about seeing him. He said he wanted to meet with me regarding a professional matter, which doesn't calm my nerves any. Growing up, Charlie and Carlisle were two important father figures for me and both are the reason why I decided to go through the academy.
"Jasper, hey son. Glad you could make it!" Charlie greeted me warmly with a firm handshake.
"Of course, sir." He laughed and pointed to the chair in front of his desk.
"Don't give me that sir crap," he chided. "Just cause my baby girl got married don't mean I'm old."
"Would think of it... sir," I joked.
He smiled at me as he sat down, pushing a file over at me. "Let's talk shop."
~oOo~
"Wait, so dad offered you a spot in the lab?" Bella asked as she chopped vegetables.
"Yup," I offered, popping a piece of cucumber in my mouth.
"In Seattle though? For how long? Where are you going to stay? Have you told..."
"Whoa, love, calm down. Let Jasper answer your first question before asking him more." Edward interrupted as he hung his coat up in the mud room. "Hey Jazz."
"Hey," I greeted back with a slight laugh. "Sorry about the honeymoon by the way." Edward just shook his head at me before giving Bella a kiss. I looked down at the marble tile. Ed and Bells were never as open about their relationship as Rose and Em are, but they still had their moments that made me feel like I was intruding.
"Alright Jasper, answer my questions." Bella said shooing Edward away.
"Well, he needs help with forensics... I'm just here until my part is done. Based on what I saw, I’d say three weeks tops."
"You staying with the Hale's?" Edward asked as he handed me a beer from the fridge.
"That or with Rosie and Em." I shrugged.
Bella shook her head. "That's stupid Jazz. The Hale's are in Forks. That's like an eight hour commute back and forth."
"I have my bike," I winked at her. "That can cut three maybe four hours off." I knew she hated when we joked about going above the speed limit.
"No. Bike or no bike, that commute is ridiculous."
"She's got a point Jazz." Ed agreed. "And Emmett wouldn't hesitate to pull your ass over."
I shook my head and laughed. "What do ya'll suggest? It's too expensive to get a hotel that whole time. And I need somewhere that I can work at night..."
I watched as Edward and Bella seemed to have some silent conversation before she set the knife down and went to her purse. "Alright, so you need a place to stay, that's quiet and you can use to work from home with for at least a month, yes?" She asked.
"Uh... yeah?" I looked over at Edward who seemed to be thinking something over.
She turned and held a set of keys in front of her. "My lease is up at the end of the month. But it's yours for the time being. I'm still in the process of moving out, but I'll use Ed's key." She put the keys in my pocket before patting my face. "Who knows, maybe this will give you incentive to stay."
"Isabella..." Edward said in a warning tone.
"Oh don't give me that shit Edward. You want him to stay too."
"I do but I'm not going to throw it in his face, Love," Edward smirked at her before taking a long pull off his beer.
"You do realize the he you speak of is right here?" I clarified, making them laugh.
"Welcome home Jazz," Edward said with a smirk as he raised his bottle.
*~*~*~*March 4th, 2004*~*~*~*
"Welcome to our home away from home Ali Cat," I said softly as I carried our bags into the room behind her.
"This place is amazing!" She spun around to look at me, her face glowing with happiness.
I smiled at her as I set the bag down. "So you like it?" I had saved up from the jobs I did over the summer just to get a nice room of our anniversary. The guys didn't understand why I wanted to celebrate the anniversary of Ali Cat and I being best friends, but I knew she would understand.
"Oh my gosh, it's fantastic!" she spun around, taking it all in again before going to the wall of windows with a view of the Pacific Ocean. "It's so beautiful N.B."
I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her. "I'm glad you like it Ali Cat," I said softly before kissing her temple. "I wanted to do something nice for us."
She leaned into me, "Why today?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, it's March... we first had sex in November..." she shrugged a little.
I chuckled softly. "True, but we've been friends longer than that."
She turned to face me, "we met in the summer."
"Well... unofficially you became my best friend in March..." Emmett was right, I sound like a girl.
"Oh... the time you uh... well the first time you held me while we slept?" she gave me a small smile.
I nodded. "Yeah..."
"I guess that is something to celebrate huh?" she winked at me.
I laughed and nodded. "Yes. Plus it gives me a reason to have you all to myself without any interruptions," I waggled my eyebrows at her.
She laughed, "Oh you mean you don't like Emmett barging in like he owns the place?"
"Exactly." I swear one of these days we're gonna get caught.
"We almost got caugh last weekend..." she smiled wickedly.
"Yes, but luckily we didn't. Your brother would have killed me."
"I'll protect you," she reached up and kissed me gently. I cupped the back of her neck as I deepened the kiss, allowing for us to get lost in the moment as our tongues danced together.
I pulled away slightly to see her smile a little before biting her bottom lip. "Isn't it my job to protect you?" I asked.
"You do anyway," she smiled and leaned in to kiss me again.
Yeah, protecting her. At least that's what I thought I would be doing all those years ago when I left. I should have known better. I think the truth is I got scared.
Why else would I throw everything away like I did? Because I'm a fucking moron, that's why.
"It's just two weeks tops Whitlock. You can do this," I said to myself as I carried in the last of my things to Bella's old apartment. I was grateful Bella was letting me stay here for the time being. I honestly don't think I could have stayed sane at Greg and Brianna's place, and as much as I love my sister, I know we would have ended up in fist fight before too long.
I’m not sure why I jumped at the opportunity to stay like I did when Charlie offered it to me. Sure the new Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cullen were happy I was staying here. Hell, I knew Em and Rose were too, but none of that matter to me. The only person's opinion that I cared about probably could care less.
What else should I expect? I left her at prom after promising to always be there. I barely even contacted her in the past five years. She moved on, just like I wanted her to.
I shook my head, trying to get her off my mind. I need a drink.
I looked around the kitchen for something, anything really that might dull the pain a bit and lucked out. Bella had an unopened bottle of Southern Comfort stashed in the back of the fridge. The only time she would drink soda was if it was spiked with this shit when we were younger. Some things never change, I thought as I noticed the Dr. Pepper next to it.
I carried the bottle to the living room where my laptop bag and a box sat. I stared at the box as if it had all the answers to my problems before sitting down and picking it up.
It was just an old shoe box that Alice had decorated with various picture from magazines she liked or thought reminded her of us. "It's our box" she had said when she showed it to me.
And that's just what this box was, ours. Everything in it was related to the relationship we had. Whether it be concert tickets, movie stubs, pictures, hell, even random notes were thrown in here. I brought it back with me, deciding it was hers to keep, if she wanted to destroy the memories in it, then so be it. They were hers to decide what to do with.
I thumbed through the contents in the box, stopping to look at the various pictures, before I came across a dvd. I felt my eyebrow quirk up at it, since it had Alice's neat penmanship on it. He lied, was printed across the front with a smiley face.
I turned my computer on and placed the dvd in the drive, waiting as it loaded up.
There laid Alice, her black hair fanned across my pillow as she stuck her tongue out at the camera. I could hear myself laughing.
“Seriously N.B., turn it off.” Ali laughed trying to cover her face with her hands.
“Come on babe, just a kiss on camera… please,” I whined. She brought her hands down and rolled her eyes. I could see the smile she was fighting to hide.
“Why did you even buy that? I thought you wanted to get a new camera?”
“I did get a new camera. This is better cause I can film our little trips.” She rolled her eyes again in response and licked her lips.
“I don’t know…” she started.
“Just one kiss Ali Cat, and I promise… I’ll turn it off.”
“Fine,” she conceded.
The camera moved a bit before her profile came into view. “N.B.… it’s still on.”
“No it’s not.”
“Yeah, it is.” She looked into the lens. “The red light is on.”
“No, it’s just the stand-by,” I said as my head came into view.
I remembered what I was doing as I watched us on the screen, the memory of how her soft skin felt against my lips, and the way she tasted when I ran my tongue over her skin. I could tell by the way she sucked in her bottom lip that I had just bitten her ear. I could hear her moan softly, her head moving to give me better access to her neck.
"N.B.," she whined, her eyes locked onto the camera lens.
My head moved back up, mere inches from hers. I looked at the lens for a moment and smiled before kissing the corner of her mouth, making her look up at me. "Just relax Ali Cat," I told her softly. "If it is recording I promise I'll erase it."
She glanced at the camera again. Now after all these years I could still see the fear and excitement in her green eyes. She turned back to look at me. "No one sees this." She warned.
I held three fingers my left hand up. "Scouts honor."
I pushed fast forward on the computer as I took a long pull from the whiskey. I fucked up royally. We went from the happiness on this damned disk to her wanting to castrate me on sight.
I deserve it though.
She was looking at the camera again, smiling as she bit her lip. I pushed play and the room was filled with the sound of her soft moans. I watched, entranced with her face. Periodically her eyes would flutter shut as she told me that she liked what I was doing. Just watching this video, listening to her sounds and seeing the way I used to make her happy, both turned me on and made it painful to watch.
"Oh God... Jazz!" she cried out in the video. I quickly shut it off as I took another pull from the whiskey. I knew what happens next, but didn't have the strength to watch it.
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