Design For Life

Jasper's Outtake

A/N: Boy, I had a hard time writing this outtake. I rewrote it a few times, but I'm happy with it. It's not very long, but again, I felt it did what it needed to do. 

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JPOV

If you had told me that by the time I was forty I would have been divorced twice, I wouldn't have believed you. I certainly never saw myself ending up the way I had, but looking over at my son, I couldn't complain. Well, not too much anyway.

When I'd met my first wife, Alice, I'd thought we would be together forever. Boy, was I wrong. Something I was extremely grateful for now. She had been sweet and wonderful, if not a bit spoiled when we had first met. I had been living in Seattle attending college and had become friends with her brother, Edward. He'd introduced me to her, and I had fallen hard.

After graduation, I'd moved to Forks so I could be closer to her. The next few years were spent in the honeymoon phase. We'd never argued, never fought. We had been so sucked up in being in love. I should have known that it wouldn't last.

Shortly after Bella had moved to town, Alice had begun to change. She and Rosalie had begun scheming and talking shit about Bella, and Alice had refused to understand why her brother would get mad at her. We'd had more than a few fights when I'd defended Bella or Edward, and she would play the injured party. But I'd stayed with her. Shows what an idiot I was back then.

We'd gotten married a couple of months after Edward and Bella. Something that had pissed Alice off. As far as she was concerned they had gotten married before us just to spite her. I'd rolled my eyes but had kept my mouth shut.

Our wedding had been huge, lavish, and completely unnecessary. I would have preferred the kind of wedding Bella and Edward had had, but Alice had insisted on spending thousands of dollars on it.

Shortly, after our marriage we moved to Seattle so that Alice could work with some designer. I was a small town kind of guy, and I had never really been happy living in Seattle. Alice had loved it. Every weekend had been spent being dragged off to some fancy restaurant, or the hottest clubs. It had gotten old real quick, but I'd sucked it up.

Six years later, we had still been in Seattle. I'd hated the school I taught at, and I'd hated Alice for dragging me from one stupid function to the next. I'd grown tired of living in an overly pricey apartment. I had wanted a house and some kids. Apparently, I had been the only one in our marriage ready for that.

"Look, Jasper," Alice had said, after we'd had yet another argument about kids. "I don't want children. I don't like them. I want to focus on me and my career. Not some snotty little brats."

I'd been floored. She'd never told me she didn't want kids, instead saying the time wasn't right. I'd been furious that she had been lying to me all those years. When I thought things couldn't get any worse, I'd gotten a call from my Aunt Tess. She'd told me that my dad was dying. He had been diagnosed with mouth and throat cancer, and it had been so far gone, there wasn't much the doctors could do for him. The only thing he'd wanted was for me to come home. There was no way I could deny him.

I'd told Alice that we had to leave Seattle. She'd thrown a fit, but had finally relented after I'd pointed out that I'd sacrificed my happiness to live in Seattle. Being back in my hometown had brought back so many wonderful memories, and I'd found myself falling in love with it all over again. We'd moved into my dad's house so that I could help him out when I was home. Alice had hated it. Bitched about it from day one and had no respect for my dying father. There had been a time or two where I had come close to smacking her.

Everything had come to an end, when we'd gone to back to Forks to celebrate Emmett's birthday. I'd overheard Alice telling Emmett that she wouldn't be able to make it to his party because she had a job interview in Seattle. We'd had a huge fight, and I'd finally told her it was over.