flare | JACOB BLACK [2]

~ TWENTY TWO ~

~~

I glanced at Alice from across the parking lot at school. She was talking to Jasper and seemed extremely upset. It was none of my business but, I was curious nonetheless. In the back of my mind, I worried that it had to do with me.

...

At lunch, Alice and Jasper had sat with us. The tension between them was noticeable. They sat not saying a word to each other.

When the bell signaled the end of lunch and we all went our seperate ways, I followed Alice.

"Hey, Alice!" I called out.

She turned with an expressionless face but there was a look of anger in her eyes. "What?"

I furrowed my brows slightly at her rudeness but calmed myself. I was talking to her for Bella's safety, and that mattered more that her attitude. "Have you had any alarming visions lately?"

"No, why?" She asked as she suddenly became interested.

"It's Victoria." Alice's eyes widened. "The pack had seen her not too long ago but, they couldn't catch her."

"I've been watching her thoughts but, since she collided with the wolves I couldn't have seen it. Unless she decides to come after one of us or Bella, I won't see it."

"Oh, well if anything else happens with the pack I'll let you know."

She nodded and with that, we walked to our different classes.

...

In my history class, as we took a break from taking notes to do work, Jasper struck up a conversation.

"We never got the chance to say hello again." He said.

"Hello, Jasper." I said with a small laugh, looking down at my paper.

"Hello, Avery."  He said with a smile.

"How was wherever you were at?" I asked, to continue the conversation.

"It was alright but, it's no Forks." Jasper responded casually. "How was it while we were gone?"

"Good, great actually. Excluding the parts where Bella was endangering herself."

"How was it great?" He was genuinely curious.

I was going to tell him about Jacob and the pack but, I wasn't sure if this was the right time or place to tell him.

"Got closer to some friends."

"Oh," He nodded. "Well it's good to be back in Forks."

...

Jasper and I met up in the hallway after the last dismissal bell rang. We walked out to the parking lot together and talked about our day. It was simple conversation but, in my mind, I worried that even this was too much. I didn't want to destroy anything between Jasper and Alice but, Jasper was everywhere that I was at. I didn't want to completely avoid him because he was still a good friend and I needed that. It seemed as if I could never have it both ways and I hated it. Either I could be happy or Jasper and Alice could be happy, and I cared about Jasper. Of all people who deserve happiness, it's him.