Long Live | Jasper Hale [Completed]

|13| Roadtrip Memories

Chapter Thirteen: Roadtrip Memories

"How did you know Jasper was your mate?" Edward asked out of the blue. Alina was so zoned out it scared her. She had spent the last twenty-three minutes contemplating the song Umbrella by Rhianna. It was strange how music has changed and adapted from nice and palatable to hip-hop nonsense. "Like was it a feeling or..."

"Well it was strange, something about him was different." Alina mused, recalling the day she met Jasper. "I was in the middle of feeding when he arrived so I was annoyed until I saw him. After that, everything seemed to fall into place. But I didn't realise it had happened until weeks after."

"How did you realise?"

"I'm not too sure."

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Alina sat infant of the canvas she was painting, trying to mix the right shade of brown. It was infuriating her to no end. No matter how many reds, or blues, or greens she added, she couldn't quite get the colour right.

She was trying to paint her childhood home in Virginia. She had visited a couple months prior to see it had been demolished and the land had been brought by some farmer. Where she used to live was now a ranch for some cows. Somehow, it didn't bother her that it had been brought. She was glad the land was being used by someone who would care for it better than her family did when they resided there. Still, she felt the need to remember it somehow. So here she sat, mixing the brown for the window shutters but never getting it quite right.

"What are you doing, Darlin'?" Jasper asked from the doorway. Alina had noticed him there some while ago but chose to ignore him in favour for the task at hand.

"Failing."

He moved to sit beside her, looking at the pallet she was furiously adding paint too. "At what exactly?"

"Making brown."

"Have you tried adding pink?"

"Why would I add pink?"

"Just a suggestion." Jasper smiled at the girl before nodding his head towards the pink paint bottle. Rolling her eyes, she picked up the bottle like he wanted her too and added in the pink, thinking that it couldn't make it any worse than what she had already. However, when she mixed the colour in, she noticed that it had become the perfect shade.

"How? How did you know that it needed pink?"

Jasper laughed. "I didn't "

PRESENT

"So you know you were in love with Jasper because of paint?' Edward snapped at his sister.

"No, I fell in love with him because he had confidence in me which I didn't." Alina said, looking out of the windshield, refusing to make eye contact with Edward. "He didn't know I needed pink paint. I didn't need pink paint. I added the smallest amount so it wouldn't make a difference. But when I look at the paint after talking to him, I noticed that it was perfect and I had it all along. He could see that in me before I did."

"How does this help me, Alina?"

"You fall in love like a human does sleep; slowly and then all at once."

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"I fell in love like you would fall asleep: slowly and then all at once" -- John Green