Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

68 - ɢᴜɪᴛᴀʀ

EVERYONE WAS worried about how quickly Renesme was growing. The rate of her growth was genuinely scary and no one, not even Carlisle knew how long she would have.  Athena spent nearly every other day in the Cullen house and every time she went there, the girl that came running to hug her always looked different.

Like, for example, the day where she walked into the house at just gone midday. When she entered the livid room, the young girl came running up to her and they hugged for a moment, Athena not having to get so low down anymore. She caught up with Renesme and Bella, about the Volturi giving her some weird gift - Bella wanted to know whether it was custom for that to happen. It was not. Then, after chatting to Luna for a good hour, she headed up to Jasper's room. As she walked closer to the door, faint music reached her ears. It wasn't crackly and tuned like music from players was. No this sounded raw like she could almost hear the vibrations of the strings on the guitar that someone was playing. Then, as the sound only got louder as she got closer to his bedroom, she found herself listening even more intently. Surprised that he knew how to play the guitar, she gently and carefully opened the door - hoping he would not hear, and slipped inside the gap.

The sight before her was something she could have never imagined yet it sent a twinge through her stomach. The sun had started to fall from the sky just a few minutes ago so the light had a slight browny tinge to it. He looked even more gorgeous than the day she had first laid eyes on him. The focus in his eyes, how intently he watched the moving of his hands along with the threats and thought about his next move or note to play. She could tell that there was such a passion there yet she had never seen it before. She watched for half a minute, completely and utterly mesmerised by him before the soothing music stopped. He looked up, having known she was sphere from the very beginning - sensing her very quick mood changes- and smirked ever so softly. "Don't let me interrupt you," she smiled softly, walking further into the room. "I didn't know you played the guitar."

"I pick it up sometimes for a good few weeks then don't touch it for a while," he shrugged, laying the instrument at his side without much thought for how it lay.

She smiled,  "I'm the same with crocheting."

"That explains the blankets," he chuckled and she shrugged, not bothering to try and defend herself. There were about eight different crocheted blankets around the house, half of them in the living room. Most of them lived in decorative baskets with pillows and books since she didn't technically have a use for them. She just liked making them, the whole process of picking out the yarn and counting out the rows while half watching the television or listening to music.

"Playing the guitar is a very Texan thing," she replied getting a very clear image in her head.

He raised a brow, "It is?"

"Obviously, cowboys always play the guitar," she responded knowingly, wondering why he looked so bewildered by the conversation.

"In what world?"  He couldn't help but laugh then, deep laughs that had her partly loving the conversation but partly hating how it had gone. Honestly, Athena had truly believed what she had read in books or seen in movies about cowboys and now the image she had in her head had become cracked. "I never knew a 'cowboy' that played the guitar," he countered after he stopped laughing.

She turned her body full to face him, legs crossed on the sofa as she looked at him puzzlingly, "So you're telling me all those movies with the cowboy friends having a little sing-song around a campfire in the desert are made up?"

He laughed again,  "Athena-"

Her eyes widened even further, "Even the ones that say based on a true story?"

He nodded, amused as her brow raised even further, "They are definitely made up. Most people wouldn't have had the time for that."

She sighed, laying down on the chair dramatically,  "Oh what a disastrous world we live in!"

He chuckled, placing the instrument down by the side of the seat she now lay across,  comfy sock covered feet strewed across his lap. She always took her shoes off before entering people's bedrooms, feeling that it was rude not to. "How long is this crisis going to take?" he asked softly, struggling not to laugh as she began to rub her furrowed brow.

"A year and three quarters, with an extra day if the final day lands on a Tuesday," she grumbled in response, a soft smile beginning to crack the edge of her olive-toned marble skin.

"What's wrong with Tuesdays?" he chuckled, tracing a patch of freckles on the lower part of her leg.

"Tuesday, twos day. It's two days for the price of one," she replied as if he should have known that information already. "Come on Whitlock, catch up," she teased, finally sitting back up as the moment of dramatised crisis left her system.

"Sorry, I'm not quite yet fluent in Athena world," he apologised in earnest, watching as she struggled not to laugh.

"That's disgraceful," she scoffed jokingly, looking away as the fake utter outrage of the situation flooded to her ears.

"Don't worry," he almost muttered, taking her chin with his finger and using it to turn her head back towards him. He then smirked softly, sending a thickness to her stomach. "I plan to be within a few business days."

She smiled, not being able to control her traction. It was the type of joke she would make and he knew that, he knew that well enough that he knew the exact reaction it would get out of her. "Look at that," she smiled, "Already learning."

She pressed her lips against his very briefly, very softly then pulled away - knowing that he would want more from it. Just like she had suspected, he moved to kiss her lips again but she simply just chuckled teasingly and moved at the very last moment, so it landed on her cheek. He pulled back, scowling jokingly and then began a rain of loving kisses onto her face. Most of them landed on her lips, in between the fits of joyful laughter that they shared after a while.

-

Later, after the sun had reached the very bottom of the horizon, Jasper randomly turned up at her side as she sat on the sofa - watching a movie alone in his room. She looked up at him with a smile, then focused back on the tv expecting that he would just take a seat next to her like usual. But this time he didn't. So she looked back up again, this time slightly concerned by the plotting smirk on his lip."Have you got anything important planned this evening?"

She raised a brow, wondering what had gotten such a reaction out of him. "No, why?"

"Miss Bell, would you accompany me to an event?"

She squinted her eyes, looking up at with such puzzlement. She just couldn't read him right now, it was infuriating really. "What type of event?" she asked slowly, trying to watch every single muscle move in his face.

"A secret one," he smirked, extending his arm for her to take, "Trust me?"

She, after a second's thought about what could be going on, stood and warped her arm around his. "Indubitably."