Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

The Road Back

By Mama4Dukes

Chapter 04:

For the rest of the week, Jasper revamped his resume, canceled his gym membership in Dallas, and joined the gym in Forks. Otherwise, he went back to hiding out from the world. Then, on Friday, he realized he needed to give his car an oil change, so he drove down to his father’s gas station to see if he could use one of the lifts.

“Hey, Dad, can I give my car an oil change?” Jasper asked.

“Are you sure you remember how to do one?”

“Of course, I do.”

“Be my guest. Remember, Beamers take synthetic oil.”

Damn. He didn’t know the dealership had changed the oil for him since car repairs within the garage were against the rules of the building he lived at. Jasper pulled his vehicle into one of the open bays. When he got out, it was to see Bella fiddling with a muffler while her husband Edward fed her donut.

“Mmm… delicious,” she moaned. “I love when Mrs. W makes donuts.”

“Hey, hey! What about me? I’m hungry, too,” Jacob Black called out.

“Hold your horses,” Edward said, then moved to Jacob and fed him a donut. He followed it up with a big, fat kiss on the lips.

Jasper scratched the back of his neck, confused, as he shut his car door.

“Hey, Jasper. What brings you here?” Jacob asked.

“I… I need to change the oil.”

“Edward will help you. Bella and I need to finish putting this muffler in for Mrs. Stanley.”

“Uh, I don’t need help. I can do it myself,” Jasper said.

“I’m not doing anything right now anyway. I’m off work,” Edward offered.

“Wait, wait, wait. I need another bite of the donut. I haven’t eaten since lunch, and when I go home, I won’t be permitted to eat bread. My mom has been on a Paleo kick for the last week.”

“Wasn’t she doing the Flexitarian Diet?” Jake asked.

“No, that was two weeks ago. What I’d do to sink my teeth into a warm, crusty baguette. She bit into the donut Edward was holding out for her. “Somehow, biting into a donut doesn’t compare to a baguette. I think I’ll have to persuade Daddy to make his famous steak and cheese subs on Sunday.”

“Call us if you do that. We’re coming over,” Edward said.

“Ooh! That’s a good idea. I’ll do that.” Bella glanced up. “How are you, Jasper? You look befuddled. Is everything okay?”

“I thought you and Edward were married.”

Bella, Edward, and Jake burst out in laughter. “Oh my God! You thought Edward and I were married? We would have murdered each other before the wedding reception ended. Edward is wonderful, but our interests don’t align. Besides, I don’t have the right equipment to keep him happy.”

“But didn’t you date during college?”

“For a few weeks, until he realized I was the wrong sex. It’s all good. We’re still best friends.”

“We sure are.” Edward kissed Bella on the cheek and fed her more of the donut.

“I heard you finally got rid of the snooty girl,” a new voice interrupted. Sam Uley, another buddy from school, joined in the conversation. He greeted Jasper and then plugged a crockpot into the wall. “Leah made pulled pork for us. She knew it was going to be a late night.” He put some buns and paper plates on the side of the crockpot and then took over muffler duty from Bella. “Let me do this. I’m taller.”

“Oh, thank God. Jasper, let me help you with the oil change,” Bella said, approaching him. “Wow! Nice ride! Is that new?”

“No, it’s two years old.”

“Sounds new to me. My truck is almost ten years old, but it runs like a charm.” She tapped his forehead playfully. “Knock on wood.”

“Hey!” Jasper laughed for the first time in ages. Bella could always make him smile, ever since they were kids. The Swans were separated by one house from the Whitlocks. Mr. Dwyer, the math teacher, and baseball coach, lived with his wife in the house between them.

Bella chuckled as she operated the car lift. “Word is you lost your balls between Washington and Texas, at least according to your dad. But, you know, you shouldn’t let anyone tell you what to do. It’s not a good idea. You’ve got to learn to think for yourself.”

Leave it to Bella to bring up his troubles. She always did shoot straight from the hip.

“Hey, everyone,” Rosalie Hale walked into the garage. “Oh my God! Is that Jasper Whitlock?”

“In the flesh,” Jasper replied.

“That’s good. I heard you’re on a hunt for your balls. Did you find them yet?”

“Nah, they’re still lost. I can tell,” Bella replied. “He’s not himself. Jasper is usually chatty, but he’s keeping his mouth shut and acting as if we’re strangers.” She turned to him. “I’ve got bad news. We don’t stock this oil filter. So, someone is going to have to run to the auto parts store.”

“I’ll call Emmett and tell him to stop there on the way here,” Rose said, grabbing her cell phone. “Do we need anything else?”

Bella removed the front wheels and took a look at the brakes. “Nope, everything else is in tip-top shape. We just need to rotate the tires.”

It was surreal to come home and see his friends still working at his father’s shop, but it was also proof that he couldn’t stay in Forks. No one seemed to move on with their lives. Sure, people went away to school, got married, divorced, etc., but life seemed to be stagnant here. Somewhere along the line, people just stopped living. There was no ambition whatsoever. It was too simple.

“What’s wrong?” Bella asked Jasper, who had a pensive expression on his face.

“Nothing, nothing. Let me help you with that tire.”

Jasper decided to stay and help. After the muffler job, they had to install a water pump into another car, put new tires on an SUV, and do a couple of brake jobs. They finished up at around eight pm. His father had left at six pm, asking Bella to lock up. He wondered when his father started trusting Bella more than him.

---

The following evening, Jasper knocked on Edward and Jake’s door. Not wanting to arrive empty-handed, he had a bottle of wine and a case of beer with him. Edward opened the door and welcomed him inside. The couple lived on the reservation in a one-story ranch house in La Push. The home was nicely maintained, and the interior was decorated in a style Alice would call contemporary. She would actually like the design.

There was a smattering of other guests he recognized Leah Clearwater, Tyler Crowley, Rosalie Hale, Lauren Mallory, Emmett Mc Carty, and Sam Uley. He wasn’t sure who was married and who wasn’t. Apparently, Bella was running late. She had to run an errand out of town. Jasper assumed it was to a parts store in either Port Angeles or Sequim.

He wondered what had happened to her. When they parted ways, she had been accepted to an Ivy League school, and the world was at her command. Now she was working at his father’s shop as a mechanic. Jasper felt horrible for her circumstances. If he could lift her out of them, he would.

Jasper greeted everyone and then sat down to chat. “So, when did the two of you get married?” Jasper asked Edward and Jacob.

“Last year. We sent you an invitation. I wanted you to be one of the groomsmen, but you responded with a negative.”

“What? Are you sure? I would have come.”

“Yeah, we’re sure we invited you. In fact, we all invited you to our weddings, but you declined all of them.”

“I… I didn’t know. Wait a sec. So, are you all married?”

Jasper discovered that Tyler and Lauren were the first couples to tie the knot. Tyler worked at the post office while Lauren worked as a hairdresser. She also worked at the diner on Sundays and Mondays. Lauren’s grandparents, who owned the restaurant, needed her there.

Rosalie and Emmett were the next to tie the knot. Rosalie, of course, worked with cars, but Jasper had known for a long time that her dream was to be an auto mechanic. So she spent years at Peter Whitlock’s shop, usually with Bella in tow because she didn’t want to be the only girl there. Emmett was a physical therapist. “I get your father as soon as his shoulder brace and his cast come off,” Emmett said. “It was a bad accident.”

“My kid brother is a putz. Seriously, who buys a truck he can’t afford and crashes it on the same day?” Tyler shook his head. “And driving recklessly through Forks? You just don’t do that, especially when the roads are icy.”

“Leah and Sam just got married last month,” Jake informed him.

“And we definitely invited you, but you declined,” Leah added.

“Using a pink pen on all of them,” Lauren said.

“I swear. I didn’t receive invitations from any of you,” Jasper insisted.

“I bet your ex-girlfriend opened up your mail without saying anything. I don’t know how you put up with her. And tampering with someone’s mail is a federal offense,” Tyler informed him.

“Yes, yes, Tyler. Two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars and/or five years in prison. That’s why I’m nice enough to leave all the bills that come in your name for you to open.” Lauren winked at him jokingly. The couple gave each other a quick kiss on the lips.

Jasper hadn’t realized how selfish and ruthless Alice had been. It appeared she had deliberately sabotaged his friendships by declining wedding invitations, most likely because she didn’t want to return to Forks to attend the weddings. Then again, she did say his friends were not the type he should associate with. At least his friends were honest and didn’t steal. And they were happy. They were all at ease with each other and did their best to make him feel at home. Jasper never felt comfortable with Alice’s set. She’d shush him if he said anything wrong, and she was always concerned about image. Now that he thought about it, Royce King was perfect for her. He was an image-conscious bastard, too.

The group noshed on food and reminisced about high school. They talked about how Edward discovered he was gay while dating Bella. “I mean, here I was dating one of the most beautiful women ever, and I simply wasn’t attracted to her-not in that way, at least. It was funny because she said she felt I was more like a brother to her. And we know that she’s always called Jake her sunshine.”

“This is true. I can’t remember a time when we weren’t best friends,” Jacob stated.

“Bella and I broke up, and we both went back to our individual universities. She was at Yale, and I was at UDub (University of Washington). When I went back to school, I ran into Jake at a party. We hit it off, but neither of us was sure about our feelings for each other. Anyway, to make a long story short, Jake and I turned to Bella for advice separately. She started a group chat between the three of us, and she wrote, ‘For God’s sake, just kiss each other already. I love you both!’ That was senior year, and we’ve been together ever since.”

“I had no idea Bella was such a matchmaker.”

“She has her moments,” Jake said before suddenly answering his phone. “Hey, Bells.” After a brief moment of silence, while he was listening, he stated, “That’s too bad. Alright, we’ll see you next week. Be careful driving back, honey. Love you.”

“Let me guess, Bella can’t make it,” Edward guessed.

“You got it. She’s still stuck in Port Angeles.

“At this hour?” Jasper asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Sam said. “She gets the job done for sure.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she does,” Jasper muttered.

The gathering lasted for a couple more hours before everyone headed for their homes. Jasper was still reeling about Bella being stuck in Port Angeles just so she could finish a job. Talk about dedication!