Tattoos & Scars [1] | Jasper Hale

-09-

"Hey, blondie," Joanna smirked to herself when she watched as the corner of his lips fell into a line. Clearly, he wasn't all that amused with her joke. He still remained by the stairs, watching her and not daring to move for the fact of safety. Alice Cullen was by his side, gripping his arm softly as she smiled largely at the dark-haired female.

"So, what do you guys wanna do?" Joanna questioned them all, lifting an eyebrow along the way. "What do you guys do, actually?"

She felt a gush of wind behind her and when she twisted her head, she made eye contact with Alice. "It's for us to teach and for you to learn." Her giddy attitude made Joanna frightened for a moment. "But in all honesty, what do you think we could all do?" In actuality, Joanna didn't know, and so she made eye contact with Bella. The brunette, almost as usual, was tucked by Edward's side.

But when they made eye contact, she suggested, "House tour?" That set Esme off and she made her way towards their guest, holding a hand out for her,

"Care to see this place?" She accepted the hand and walked with her up the stairs. Silent footsteps followed them and when Joanna twisted her head, hairs covering her vision slightly, she saw Alice and Jasper following them. Yet, Jasper looked to be struggling with Alice. "That's Alice for you," Esme laughed softly, taking her to the first room which was a study.

Then came a bathroom, three bedrooms, a master bedroom, an ensuite, and another office. It made her gray eyes pop when she realized how many rooms that only the upstairs held. "The garage is actually a lot bigger than it looks," Esme said, walking into a room that looked like it belonged to one of her adoptive children. "This is Jasper's room."

"It's a lot cleaner than mine," Joanna commented, admiring silently how organized his bedroom was. She couldn't locate a single speck of dust even. "Dude," she looked back at Jasper, "how do you keep a room so clean?"

"I'm very neat," Jasper decided to say, finally making Alice loosen her grip on him. "I'm going to head back downstairs. Alice don't." He sent a look towards his sister before looking back at the human and his adoptive mother. "It's best to stay away from me. I suppose Alice didn't inform you, I thought she might've but I was wrong. I'm the newest to the diet of feeding on animal blood - I was on a human blood diet before. I'm still growing to use to this diet and being around humans can be quite difficult."

"My sister says you go to school though," Joanna muttered, staring at him. "Is there a problem with me?"

"No," he answered softly. "I'm just not sure if-"

"You can control yourself." Alice chirped from his side, showing how trustful she was being. "I'm serious, Jazz. I saw it before." Still, Jasper left the room, leaving Alice with a pout covering her lips. "Sometimes, I feel like he doesn't believe me."

Esme walked over, placing a hand on her shoulder. "No, he's just worried about Joanna's safety is all." The woman with caramel hair looked back at the human, smiling in an assuring manner. "Don't worry. He just wants to make sure she's safe, okay?" Joanna followed after them, the three females walking side-by-side as they made their way downstairs. Joanna noticed that Jasper was back in his corner. She also noticed that Rosalie returned, but the blonde made no move to look at the second human in the room.

  A twinge of pain flicked her chest, but in the end, she ignored it. Just as she ignored Jasper when he sent her a look when he felt her pain.

  Taking a seat on the couch, she watched as the family slowly joined in and Carlisle ventured off to find a movie. Coldness crawled on every inch of her body and she was beyond happy when Esme gave her a warm, large, fluffy blanket. Alice was on her left while Edward was on her right. And at the very end, looking at her in question was Jasper Hale. Silently, he wondered what caused her everyday pain.