THE WRAITH / J. HALE

11 / Jasper Gets The Cold Hard Truth

CHAPTER ELEVEN
JASPER GETS THE COLD HARD TRUTH

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JASPER HALE HAD NEVER BEEN CONFUSED ABOUT HIS FEELINGS. Being an Empath helped him out in that department — emotions were his thing. He could recognise them, he could change them. That was his specialty. That's what Maria liked so much about him. It was his strength.

And for decades, he thrived on it. He knew who to trust, who to look out for. He knew who had his back and who didn't. He could start fights, and he could end them, all without lifting a finger. He knew that Maria never loved him. And he knew that Alice Cullen — the mysterious girl who cornered him in a diner one afternoon in 1950 — was telling him the truth when she said she could see the future, and that he was meant to join her family and their coven.

He knew that Carlisle and Esme, the appointed parents of the clan, trusted Alice's judgement, and thus trusted him. He knew that Emmett was happy to have another brother, but Rosalie was hesitant on letting in the outsider. He knew that Edward was too worried about his own problems to worry about Jasper. But the other girl. Sabine. She was different.

It's not that he couldn't feel her emotions, it was that she was feeling too many. Happiness, excitement, but also hesitance and slight fear. Maybe she was unsure of him too, or maybe she just didn't like him. It took him a while to get a reign on her head, but by then it was just as normal as everyone else's. He brushed it off.

Although there was always that slight difference in her that he felt he needed to acknowledge. Maybe it was him, but he felt weird whenever someone referred to them as siblings. Of course, none of them were really related (bar her and Edward), but he still felt a sort of unease at the idea. Sometimes he forgot they were supposed to pose that way, until he overheard someone else gossiping about the Freaky Cullen Siblings.

He got used to it. Every new place, every high school graduation, it was the same. The new kids show up, freak everyone out for four years (sometimes longer if they liked the place), and then move away to somewhere new. Nothing was ever different, and he got used to the feeling. Just like he got used to everyone else's.

But then they moved to Forks, and Edward got all weird around Bella Swan. And then consequently, Sabine got weird around him. Jasper had no idea what he'd done, but she would flinch when he got too close, and she would side eye Alice whenever he made a joke with her. Did she not like him anymore? Had he upset her? He didn't know.

Which was arguably worse because that was his thing. His whole schtick was that he could feel what others were feeling, but whenever he tried to check in on Sabine, she was...calm? Relaxed? Completely fine?

He knew she wasn't. Because on occasion she'd slip up — like when they were in the hospital after Bella almost got hit by that van, and he was teasing her about being sad. It confused him, and when it came to other people's feelings, Jasper was never confused.

But then Bella came to play baseball with them. And the nomads showed up, and all of a sudden Jasper couldn't focus on anything else but Sabine. He knew she had a mask, one she kept up most of the time, and he knew it would come as a shock whenever she'd take it down, but he didn't know it would effect him like that. Like he didn't have any other purpose but to take her in. And then it was gone, like that, and he was left with the lingering feeling of bliss that he couldn't recognise.