Jason Leahy (ego_eris) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-07-07 11:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | #november 2017, jason, jason x jules, jules |
Who: Jason and Jules
Where: Home
When: Early morning, Thursday, Nov. 2
Status: Complete
By the time Jules had left Jasper’s the night before she hadn’t really been in the mood to deal with Jason too. So she had gone home and went directly to her room to take a bath and just chill out for awhile. It was hard to shut her brain off, but somehow she managed, resorting back to checking her social media apps and mindlessly texting a few friends before exhaustion kicked in and she crawled into bed.
The next morning Jules got ready for school, feeling exhausted - what else was new? - and maybe a little annoyed at… well, everything. She didn’t think she was PMSing, but it certainly felt that way. For a very brief moment Jules considered getting into her car and driving somewhere. Maybe to Roque Bluffs where she could just chill and be alone for awhile. Jules knew she couldn’t. She needed to get Jasper’s assignments and she couldn’t miss cheer practice again, especially since there was a pep rally tomorrow. So she left her room and headed downstairs. She found Jason in the kitchen getting his breakfast and Jules’s lips pressed into a thin line as she studied him. “Did you get suspended too?”
Everything hurt. That was somewhat of an exaggeration as the bruising was largely centered on Jason's ribs and stomach, where Jasper had got in his harder shots, but it felt that way whenever he moved or breathed. Unimportant things like that. Still, the school nurse determined that Jason's injuries weren't actually serious enough to require further immediate medical attention, with the warning that if anything worsened when he went home that he should follow up with his doctor.
Amazingly, his father had answered the phone and came to pick Jason up from school. Despite his surprise, he had remained terse, giving the barest version of the fight he could get away with, not wanting to talk about it or to ever have to explain himself to his father; he was convinced that if his father never gave a shit before, he was unlikely to start now. After the third failed attempt, they had mercifully made it home, where he dropped Jason off and left to return to work. With the promise that they would "talk more about this later" and that he was grounded through at least the weekend.
He had iced his bruises as best he could, then soaked his bloody T-shirt in his bathroom sink to hopefully keep it from staining. Then he got some food to hide in his room to hole up for the night. His stepmom knocked on his door when she came home, but he feigned taking a nap. Actual sleep was harder to manage as it was hard to find a comfortable recumbent position. At some point he drifted off, though in fits and bursts when pain shot through and woke him up.
Thursday morning, he woke up to the sound of his alarm and glared at it. His nerves felt scrubbed raw and he had the dull throb of a headache setting in, which he attributed to poor sleep. Irritation from yesterday's fight lingered as well. Most of it was at himself, by this point, because he was supposed to be better than people like Jasper Lucas. Jason had his whole future ahead of him and he was so close to being done with this shitty town that he shouldn't let himself get in his own way. Waking early to try to beat the rest of his family, he moved gingerly around the kitchen to pour himself a bowl of cereal. It was evidently not early enough and he sighed, then bit back a grimace, as Jules joined him.
"Not officially. It was recommended I stay home today and possibly tomorrow." The administration had been lenient on Jason and he knew it. He didn't have much in the way of prior infractions and he was near the top of the class, which evidently came with some amount of favoritism that he hadn't anticipated. Plus, especially yesterday, he had looked like shit so he wasn't sure how convincing he had been in trying to point out his part in the fight. "How long’d they suspend Jasper for?" he asked.
Not officially. Jules rolled her eyes and walked over to the fridge to pull out some juice. "That's pretty convenient," she said, trying not to sound bitter. "Jasper gets suspended for three days and all they do to you is recommend you stay home. That doesn't seem fair if you both took a swing. I mean, what the hell Jason. What were you thinking?" It wasn't fair to get mad, and Jules knew that, but she had felt too guilty about getting upset with Jasper over it, so Jason was the next, simplest target. Based on his face, he had gotten the worst of the beating, but still.
It wasn’t fair, was it? He had definitely got at least one hit in. But at the same time, he wasn’t sure there was anything he could do about it. Or how much he wanted to. Part of him, selfishly, wanted to accept it, since he didn’t know what a suspension at this point would look like to schools he applied to; part of him was galled by it, just on principle. What was he thinking, anyway? The short answer was he hadn’t been. Which was rare for him, but happened. He had been in a bad mood to begin with after going out on Halloween had been fucking weird. But instead of saying any of that, it was easier to be irritated back at her. “It wasn’t my decision and it’s not like this is his first fight, so that might have also had something to do with it,” he retorted. “And I wasn’t thinking he’d jump to punching quite so quickly.”
Of course Jason would use Jasper's reputation against him. Apparently the school had too. She set the juice down on the counter and tried not to snatch the glass from the cabinet. She didn't feel like fighting with Jason, but it just felt like shitty thing on top of shitty thing kept happening and she had no one to lash out at. "He hasn't been in any fights this year, so that shouldn't even matter! And you shouldn't get a free pass just because you're Mister Goody Goody." Jules set the glass down sharply on the island before facing Jason. "His sister hasn't even been missing that long, and he's like, barely functioning. He probably jumped to punching so quickly because he's stressed out and tightly wound because of it. You being you was just the easiest way to let go of that aggression, or whatever. You couldn't just not talk to him? Your dad probably told my mom and now she's going to give me even more shit about dating him. Like I need that."
Fighting with Jules wasn’t anything he really wanted to deal with, which was why his plan had been to avoid her for as long as he could, since he figured she would have sided with Jasper whatever the circumstances had been. Jason rolled his eyes at the comment about him being him, but the rest of it made sense--not that it would have occurred to him without her explanation--and on some level he knew the smart thing would have been to ignore Jasper. But anyone their age trying to tell him what to do always rubbed him the wrong way and he had stopped thinking about Jasper’s situation around that point. Guilt started to creep in, so, of course, Jason couldn’t keep from muttering, “Yeah, inconveniencing your dating life is the really bad outcome here.” He huffed. “I tried to make it clear to Coach What’s-His-Name and the other admins who talked to me that I shoved Jasper first and fought back, so that it wasn’t just Jasper starting shit with me. And to my dad. I don’t know how much any of them care or took that into consideration, but what else can I do about it now?”
"It's not about inconveniencing my dating life," Jules snapped. It was, a little, though there wasn't much dating going on at the moment. But she wouldn't expect Jason to understand the difficulty of dating a guy like Jasper and having a mom like Margaret. He wouldn't understand anything about dating. He wouldn't know what to do with a girl even if she stripped naked and sprawled out on his bed. Maybe some of her anger stemmed from the fact that it would have been nice if not everyone in her family hated Jasper. It wasn't like she and Jason were friends, but she would have felt better to have someone on her side, at least. Even if Jason didn't like Jasper, he probably disliked their parents more. "I guess you can't do anything about it," Jules said. She could tell him to apologize to Jasper, but Jules knew that would be a losing battle. "You're not going to school today, right?"
Jason folded his arms across his chest and immediately bit back a grimace. Even with the consequence of pain, thinking about his movements wasn't anything he was used to. He was still mad at Jasper, since he felt fucking shitty, but beyond that Jason didn't hate him or anything. They hadn't been friends to begin with and that was unlikely to change anytime soon, but they'd fought, Jasper won, and as far as Jason was concerned that was the end of it. He wasn't about to apologize, but it wasn't the sort of thing he'd expect an apology for or hold onto for that long, because what was the point? "No, probably not," he said, then sighed. "Can you bring my assignments home? I can try to convince your mom the fight was all my fault so she doesn't bug you about it or whatever. It's not that much of a stretch." It felt weird to ask Jules for a favor without offering something in return. Their parents would probably punish him however they were going to regardless, so it didn't really matter much to him. He didn't date and he had a hard time imagining his dad caring who he dated, so the interest Jules' mom took in Jules' dating life and the way it was a concern to her was baffling to him.
She was glad to hear he was staying home. Then people could speculate that Perfect Jason Leahy had been suspended too, and it wouldn't make Jasper look like the lone asshole in all of this. Jules took a sip of her juice and arched a delicate blonde brow at his question. She had been more than willing to grab Jasper's homework assignments, since he needed to stay caught up to graduate. But the petty side of her wanted to tell Jason no and to ask one of his friends to do it for him, if he had any of those. But he wasn't being a total dick about everything, and even if he wasn't sorry for what happened, he wasn't throwing Jasper under the bus for it either. "Fine," she muttered. "Don't bother with mom, she won't believe you. Or she won't want to believe you, so I'll just deal with it." She paused and eyed Jason for a moment. "Sorry my boyfriend kicked your ass, though. I can't imagine that was any fun."
“Yeah, I can’t say it’s my favorite thing,” Jason grumbled, frowning. He had abandoned his cereal at the point of getting it in a bowl, so he moved to get the milk from the fridge. “But it’s not like I’m blameless and I know that. So. Thanks. I hope it doesn’t cause too much more trouble for him. Or you.” It wasn’t an apology, but it was true. He didn’t typically feel any compunction about being a thorn in Jules’ side when she was doing something annoying, which was a lot of the time, but that hadn’t been the case for this and, well, Jasper was going through shit, which Jason did know, even if it hadn’t made a difference to him in the heat of the moment yesterday.
At least he wasn't trying to play the victim in all of this. Jules had to appreciate that much. She had to bite back the snappish reply that Jasper getting suspended was causing him trouble, but that much was already obvious. And being a bitch would only mean the two of them started bickering again and Jules was just so not in the mood. She finished off her juice and took the glass to the sink. "We'll see, I guess. I have to get going, though. I'll bring your homework to you after cheer practice. Try not to get too bored at home today." With Jules at school and their parents at work, Jason would have the whole house to himself, which was probably heaven, in all honesty. She sort of wished she could just lock him in a closet somewhere so he couldn't ready or do any of his nerdy things.
Jason poured milk into his cereal and then put the jug back into the fridge. If Jules hadn't agreed, he guessed there were a couple people he could try asking, but he didn't really want to have to figure that out. "Thanks. I'm sure I'll figure out something to do," he said. Normally he liked the occasions when he could have the house to himself, but it kind of felt like being trapped there for today, which detracted from any enjoyment. Plus he'd probably spend a lot of it just figuring out the best way to keep mitigating the bruising. He got out a spoon, still standing, since it was easier than maneuvering onto one of the kitchen stools. "I'll see you later."