Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

40- ʟɪʙʀᴀʀʏ

DAYS PASSED with little news or events of importance. The situation in Seattle hadn't developed to be any bigger of a problem, which was good. One of the only things that were different to her usual routine - spending time with all of her favourite people and spending much needed time alone - was the sudden appearance of Jake at her front door. She of course invited him in immediately and asked what was wrong. Turned out, like most of the time, his foul mood was about Bella Swan and all that had happened when Edward left. She felt sorry for Jake then, sorry that Bella had essentially used him for her own happiness then 'dumped' him when Edward came back. But then she found out that he had been ignoring her calls of apologies, never calling her back after his dad took a message. She frowned then understood why he could do such a thing, he was trying to protect himself from further pain. So she gave him all the advice she could think of, 'The most dangerous thing is love. You need to be careful.' and things like that. And she felt somewhat happy with the ending of that conversation, thinking that she had helped Jake in whatever way he sought out to be helped.

The following day, at school, Athena floated through the cafeteria as she headed to the library. Today, for some unknown reason, the room was so loud and crowded that it got somewhat overwhelming and made it difficult to focus on her book. So she stood halfway through her apple, threw it in the bin from a decent distance away then walked through the room, slowing her quick speed as she passed Alice, Edward and Jasper - who all sat at the mortal table that Bella's friends always sat at.

"I've decided to throw a party," Alice spoke excitedly, the words drowned out by the music baring in her ears. It was a new artist that she loved to absolute pieces, someone known as Taylor Swift.

"After all how many times are we going to graduate high school," Jasper added with a hidden, amused smirk. Athena chuckled as she walked past, face buried in a book so any morals who were watching thought she was just laughing at the book - not something that a guy, six feet away had set at a very low level. Jasper was not an outspoken person, it did surprise her that he was even talking to the Mortals. Just as she was about to walk from the room, she turned and looked back having sensed someone staring at her. She found Jasper, head slightly tilted and eyes fill with wonderment that greatly juxtaposed the fake smile on his face - the one that always came with pretending everything was okay.

She chose not to dwell on it for too long and disappeared from everyone's view, quickly walking down the winding corridor that lead to the library that almost no one stayed in at lunch. It was always quiet and smelled incredible, nothing like the changing rooms in the school. It, like all the other school libraries before it, because her safe haven. She moved to the back of the room, hidden in a corner near the collection of the classics that continued many of her own novels. Call her shallow if you will but Athena just liked to see what type of people were reading her books and how popular they were. Some found it difficult to stay on the shelves whereas others collected a thin layer of dust for a time before they were picked.

As she set up her things, getting ready to pour her soul into the annotation and first read of a new book that had been sat in her bag for two days - she was just waiting for the right mood and soundtrack to go along with it- a figure sat down in the chair next to her. One that had been concerned for why she seemed so.. off... today. "What's wrong?" he asked, pulling her away from the world that lived between the pages of the untouched novel.

She looked up and frowned, wondering how he had gotten through the mask and many walls she had built around her emotions for today. "Wrong? Nothing's wrong. Why?"

He did not seem and was not convinced by her sudden outburst of questions. For someone who could read people easy and literally read minds, she struggled greatly to hide some emotions from others sighs. Though he could appreciate it was a little more difficult with his gift. "Your emotions and you just seem... off," he replied, trailing off when he noticed the sudden dislike of eye contact with her. Her gaze found the floor and the overly faded carpet, that could honestly be older than she was- physically not mentally.

She sighed deeply, wondering why she had been in such a foul state of mind recently. It seemed that every day came with another reason to be upset and she didn't know how to stop it or if it would ever stop like she hoped it would. "It's my mothers birthday, or would have been," she replied softly, pausing for second in between phrases as the librarian strolled past.

He raised a brow, "I thought you only had the picture?"

She nodded and opened her journal, picking out a pen that created a nice distracting sound when it scratched through the paper. She did not look away from his general direction once whilst getting it, finding that action rather rude in any respect. "The picture lead me to this website and there was a full article of seven hundred words about my family, mainly my mother," she smiled softly, remembering the words of the article that she had reread hundreds and hundreds of times, making sure it was perfect in her memory.

"Your mother?"

"Yeah. It's nothing important, doesn't really amount to anything. She was just like the main woman in the village, everyone came to her for advice and lessons and things. That's why they took her portrait, I have no idea why I was in it too though," she explained, drawing little circles with her pen as she spoke.

He smiled at the sudden happiness that radiated off her when she talked about her mother. He had suspected that it would be sad but that not being the case didn't worry him at all. After all, she had had ages to come to terms with missing her parents - even if she didn't know who they were. Then, he asked, "Anything about you?"

She smiled brightly, catching his gaze as she responded, "My eyes were deep brown like the bark on trees." At this comment Jasper grew a smirk that she could not distinguish, it confused her greatly. "What?" she asked, chuckling lightly to relive some of the confusion that flooded through her mind.

"My eyes were brown too, light brown specifically,," he explained, ridding every confusing thought from her brain as ones of happiness replaced it. She had always pictured his human self with brown eyes, she didn't know why, but getting a confirmation that they were that colour bought her more joy than they thought it would. Though she had to admit, the sparking gold eyes that now sat ignorant of her were much prettier to look at.

She smiled as a filler for the silence that the ending of that conversation had bought. "So what's this about a party?" she asked with a different type of smile as someone picked one of her books up off the shelf, smiling to themselves as they read the blurb that covered the back. She stopped drawing them, letting the pen rest in her hand.

He sighed, failing to notice her sudden focus change. "Alice is throwing a graduation party for all the mortals in our house," he paused, trying not to sound so utterly annoyed by the premise of the party. "Apparently it'll be fun."

"I think it will. I haven't been to a part in ages, Lucifer," she responded, looking back on the last party she had been to. It was in New York, the place she had been before Scotland and honestly, it was quite an interesting affair. Though the person throwing it had awful music taste.

"Not really your scene?" he laughed, knowing full well she disliked most parties greatly and had had enough of huge affairs like that years ago. 

"Funny," she added sarcastically then went to jot something down in her journal, this time pulling away from his gaze. Now Jasper had the chance to see what she was writing but then he found himself focusing on something else. The silver on her right ring finger, the Cullen crest blaring outwards for all to see. He automatically smiled and sank back in his chair, still staring at the jewellery. A stare that she discreetly caught. "I thought it was time it went back on my finger," she shrugged, trying to keep calm despite the amount of work she was doing on keeping her emotional walls up. "Plus it's far too pretty to be kept on a necklace."