My apologies for the very, very, very late update!

Something About You

Chapter 7

...

Jasper Whitlock

"Is anything in life ever easy?"

Rosalie stopped from taking out her books. She seemed surprised to find him standing in front of her, but didn't make a move to stop him when he took the open seat to her right.

"I have it on good authority that the answer is 'no'," she replied in measured tones.

Edward hesitated briefly before saying, "Bella's old boyfriend…"

"Jasper Whitlock." Rosalie dropped her eyes away from him. "You probably saw him around school. Long, blond hair. Always walked around with his guitar."

"Holy shit," Edward muttered in reply.

"I take it you've heard."

Of course he had. That sort of news traveled around the city like wildfire. He'd been with his Uncle Carlisle at the time, so it had taken a phone call from his mother, but he'd definitely heard of it — a single gunshot had the school on lockdown until police found Whitlock with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He had known that Whitlock had had a girlfriend at the time, but to know that-

"Rosalie-"

"We've all got issues, you, me and Bella included. Hers are just more, you know?"

"I…I don't know if I can do this," Edward mused aloud. And even as he said it, he felt guiltier than before.

Rosalie gave him scathing glance before turning back to her book and muttering, "Could you ever?"

~oOo~

Bella came around that afternoon, finding him cursing at his laptop for freezing again. The fact that she didn't try to help him out with it, instead perching on the edge of his desk, was enough for him to close the lid and give her his full attention.

"I freaked." She shrugged and pushed her hair back from her face.

"I noticed."

"Not over you, though. Just in general," Bella added. At Edward's careful nod, she pressed her lips hard together and then looked down at where her hands lay in her lap. "I went to a counselor for a while and she said it would be like that sometimes, just getting hit by it all at once. I've been doing better on the whole, though," she finished quickly, looking up at him, evidently startled by the morose note in her voice.

"My therapist told me I was a spoiled, narcissistic asshole," Edward offered. It was the only thing he could think of that made the slightest bit of a connection. "The things you get for three hundred bucks an hour, I tell you."

Bella's face contorted slightly and she dropped her head. He heard her chuckle lowly. "Maybe you were."

"Oh, I was. That's why I kept going to him. He was the first adult besides my Uncle Carlisle that didn't take any shit from me."

"My absolutely free counselor, courtesy of JHS, told me I was handling it better than she expected anyone to," Bella said faintly. "For a while I thought I was just faking it really well."

Edward swiveled in his chair a little so he could face her. "And?"

"I went to his house. He got cremated, so there wasn't a patch of dirt I could yell at and stomp over. I really, really wanted one."

"Did you yell at the urn?"

"I cried."

Edward frowned.

"I sat there and I cried and then his brother came in and he cried and then we both just sat there and talked about how much we missed him." Bella sighed heavily. "Jasper was struggling with depression, and the signs were so obvious in hindsight. Maybe it's selfish of me but...it's just…he never opened up, never gave me a chance to be there for him, you know?"

When Edward didn't answer, she smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I'm just thinking out loud."

"No, no, it's fine," Edward replied. "I'm just… I don't need anything from you, Bella. I'm not…I hope you don't think I need saving either. I'm good to go."

"I know." Bella hesitated for only a fraction of a second before leaning forward and brushing her lips over Edward's cheek. "Maybe that's why I like you so much."