Who: Jules and Jasper Where: Jasper’s house When: Morning, Wednesday, January 3rd Status: complete
The talk Jules had had with Carson and the others the night before had been exhausting, both physically and mentally. Jules had driven directly home, too tired to even seek out her mom and ask her all the questions in her head about her dad. It was okay, because Margaret had been on the phone yelling at the police about Edward still being missing. Jules hurried upstairs and undressed before running her sore hands underneath hot water in her sink.
When they started to feel a little better, Jules pulled on her pajamas and texted Jasper that she would come by in the morning. She had things to tell him about the dreaming stuff, but she didn’t think she could talk about it over the phone, and she was too tired to even try. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow and didn’t wake again until morning.
It was nine-thirty when her eyes opened and it took her another fifteen minutes to even gather the energy to climb out of bed. Jules took a shower and then got dressed before grabbing her phone and keys to head out. She knew she should have texted Jasper to make sure he was awake, but maybe if she woke him up he would let her slip into bed with him for a while. She parked in front of the house and took a breath. There was so much going on in her head and she wasn’t sure what to compartmentalize and what to just deal with. Thankfully she didn’t hear any other voices in her head. Nic, Neil, and Carson were probably sleeping still. Or maybe they were all really good at putting up those walls now. Jules wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter.
Jules climbed out of the car and slipped her phone into her back pocket before reaching the front door. She knocked, hoping the dogs wouldn’t start going crazy. If Amelia was home, Jules would hate to disturb her too.
Unfortunately, the dogs did start going crazy, because someone knocked on the door, when the whole household was asleep. From his bedroom, Jasper jolted awake and a spike of anger flashed through him immediately. He rolled over in bed and pulled one of his pillows over his head, squeezing his eyes shut again. Who the fuck was there, and why the fuck was it so fucking early?
Meanwhile, in the living room, Gavin hauled himself off the couch, muttering sourly at the dogs to shut up, and answered the door. He stood there in his boxers, squinting at Jules unhappily before he recognized who she was. “Jasper’s in his room,” he muttered, suddenly aware of the state of his undress. He shuffled back to let Jules in, then hastily retreated back toward the living room, leaving her to find her own way to Jasper’s room.
Jules hadn't really expected Jasper's dad to answer the door, certainly not in his boxers, but a quick glance at the driveway and saw Gavin's truck there. She felt kind of bad for waking him up, which she had clearly done, but it was after ten o'clock! Then again, maybe he worked at the bar last night and stuff. Oops. Jules tried not to stare at the tattoos all over his body, or even glance down lower because no, no, no, she couldn’t do that. So she felt intense relief when he let her inside and turned to head back to the living room.
The dogs greeted her and Jules rubbed their heads and scratched behind their ears before she shut the door behind her and padded down the hall to Jasper's bedroom. She hoped he was awake at least, but when she opened the door and slipped inside, the next thing she knew a pillow was flying toward her and Jules caught it in both hands with a breathy oof. Jasper was awake - sort of - but his hair was wild and he was scowling at her. There was a dawning of revelation in his eyes that it was her, and she figured maybe he thought it had been his dad coming in to wake him up. He still looked kind of pissed though. "I thought you might be awake," Jules said, walking over to the bed to hand him his pillow back.
When his bedroom door opened, Jasper’s first instinct was to hurl the pillow and snap at whoever it was to get the fuck out. He’d been assuming that it was his dad or his sister, but it ended up being Jules, so he managed to stop that second part from coming out of his mouth. He remembered now that she’d said she would come over in the morning to talk about some things, and now it was apparently morning. Still squinting at her like she was an intruder, he sat up and scrubbed his hands over his face. “M’awake now,” he muttered, and cleared his throat. “Hey.” Jasper took the pillow back and shoved it behind him again to lean against and look at his girlfriend. He still wasn’t clear on why she was there, just like he hadn’t been the night before when she texted him, only he felt much more impatient now. Jasper was chalking the bad mood up to being awakened by barking dogs, but it was hard to put his finger on it.
"Hi." Jules sat down on the edge of the bed, her knee pulled up underneath her. She was careful not to get her shoes on his blankets or anything. He didn't really look all that awake, but she wasn't sure she had the patience to wait a bit for him to get there, even if the urge was still inside of her to stretch out beside him and go back to sleep. He would probably appreciate it, at least. "I should've texted before I came over, sorry. I just... was at Neil's last night. Well, afternoon? I don't know. Anyway, Carson and Nic were there too, and then Jane showed up. Like, Neil can make lightning with his hands. And it was this whole thing about the fog, and Jane had seen the monster things in our dreams? Like, the same monsters from the fog. Ugh, I don't know if I'm explaining it right. But it's all connected somehow. It's freaking me out."
It was a little strange, but Jasper didn’t want her there at the moment. He wanted to get up and have a cigarette and not speak to anyone for at least a few hours. Maybe go back to sleep for a while. He felt kind of hungover and his head and shoulder ached some and he felt itchy and irritable and like he didn’t want anybody in his face. When Jules started talking, the first part caught Jasper’s attention and he didn’t hear much of what she said after that. “Wait ... what?” he said, squinting and frowning at her groggily. “You were at some dude’s house?” Apparently with other dudes too. That thought sparked some anger deep in Jasper’s chest and his expression started to shift from questioning into something a bit more perturbed. “What the fuck were you doing there?”
Jules stared at Jasper for a moment before she understood his question. Confusion furrowed at her brow and then it smoothed out into mild annoyance. "We were all filming an orgy, Jasper." A soft huff escaped her. "Seriously, just let me finish. It was Neil's apartment, which is super small, by the way. But Nic and Carson were there. I've told you about them. They had some stuff to tell us about the fog and how it connected to our dreams. Do you want me to get you coffee, or something? You look half-asleep still." She didn't want to have to repeat all of this stuff because he was too groggy to digest it the first time. It made her anxious to think about, let alone talk about it, but Jasper was the only one who really knew what was going on.
Jasper did remember everything that was going on with the dreams and the guys who were also having the dreams, but right then it really bothered him to think about. Jules hadn’t gone over to any of their apartments before, as far as he knew ... or had she? She was being sarcastic about the orgy, but what if that was what was really happening? He sighed heavily and scrubbed both of his hands over his face. “No, I don’t want any fucking coffee,” he muttered. He ran his fingers through his hair and scratched roughly at it, then looked at Jules again. His brows rose in a questioning expression, like she wasn’t getting to the point fast enough. “What, then? What was so important you had to go over to some fucktard’s apartment?”
She bristled rather unexpectedly when he called Neil a 'fucktard'. Neil was super uptight and fidgety, but it still sort of felt like they were in this whole creepshow together and Jules didn't think he was a fucktard at all. She mimicked his impatient expression with her own. "I told you. Jane saw those fog monsters in our dream. She had drawn a picture of it before she even saw one. So they think it's connected. And Neil was showing us this lightning he could create in his hands, so they thought maybe we were all... able to do something?" Jules was still confused by that, and it settled uncomfortably inside of her, even as she said it out loud. But she wasn't completely oblivious to Jasper's irritable mood, though she was chalking it up to being woken up so unceremoniously. But he seemed unnecessarily focused on what she was doing at Neil's apartment, of all things. "It's not like we can meet at Joyland, Jasper. This isn't stuff we can talk about around other people. Why are you being so pissy?"
“I’m not,” Jasper snapped, which of course was a pissy response, and the confirmation of his pissiness only served to piss him off even more. Why had she come over to dump all this bullshit on him so early in the morning? He was trying to listen to her through his bad mood, but it was difficult with the irritation burning in his throat like acid. He threw the blankets off of his legs and pivoted to let them down over the side of the bed, reaching to snatch up his cigarettes from the nightstand. He tucked one between his lips and lit it, struggling to make all the connections Jules had obviously had time to make. The monster in the dream was the same one that had come in the fog and hurt him? Fuck. “So is it like ... your fault then?” he asked, looking sharply over at Jules. He’d slept in just his boxers, so his scratch was visible, a thick red line that ran from the middle of his collarbone across and into the front of his upper arm. It had completely closed up, healing enough that it was settling into the kind of scar it would be from now on. “Did you guys like, make it real or whatever? Did you do this?” He gestured at his wound.
That hadn't even been a question Jules had asked herself, so it stunned her to hear it from Jasper's lips, and in such an accusatory tone too. Had they somehow made them real? Brought them into this world from their dreams? Was it their fault that people had gotten hurt, or died? Jules could only blink at Jasper before her gaze drifted briefly to his shoulder. And the scratch that seemed to be healing awfully fast, given how bad it had seemed to be. The possibility that she was responsible for all of that horribleness made her want to vomit. Again. God, that acidity of bile was constantly in her throat these last couple of days. Suddenly she was torn between feeling stung and feeling pissed because of course this wasn't her fault. This wasn't Neil's fault, or Jane's, or anyone's. "Why would you even ask me that?" Jules snapped suddenly. Anger had always been easier to deal with, especially when Jasper was being a dick. "I didn't do that. I didn't ask for any of this to happen. What the fuck is your problem today?"
Her shocked and hurt frozen expression should’ve gotten through to him, but it didn’t. Jasper knew none of them had done anything on purpose, but if their dream bullshit had been what had caused the fog ... that was pretty heavy. Instead of feeling sympathetic when she snapped back at him, Jasper just got more angry. “It was just a fucking question, Jules,” he said sourly, taking a drag off of his cigarette and standing up from the bed. He wanted to go outside and feel the biting cold against his skin, but there were other people in the house and the goddamn dogs too, so Jasper just went to the window and shoved it open. The frigid air that rolled in felt kind of good against his overheated skin, but it didn’t help his mood any. He wanted Jules to go away, he didn’t want to talk to anybody today. It was kind of like what had happened to him the other day, but he didn’t have the self-awareness to wonder if the two incidents were connected somehow. “So ... monster in the dream, monster in the fog, Neil’s got lightning hands, blah blah ... what else did you talk about? What’s the point?”
"You know, you're being a super asshole," Jules told him, moving to stand up as soon as Jasper opened the window. The cold air filled the small room almost immediately and she shoved her hands into her coat. She was reminded of Saturday, when he was kind of a dick to her then too. But then he had apologized on Sunday and they'd had a great day. So what the hell was this crap? Jules hated how dismissive he was being, especially about something she felt was important. As much as she wished she was keeping an even, calm tone, she could hear the anger in her voice as she spoke. "I don't know what the fucking point is, Jasper. We're trying to figure it out. But it's freaking me out and you're making me feel like an idiot for even telling you. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you right now?"
“Nothing!” he snapped defensively, glaring at her a bit. He exhaled a lungful of smoke out the window, leaning his shoulder against the wall next to it. “I just woke up and you’re dumping all this shit on me all at once, I dunno what the fuck do it about it Jules, okay? And you’re off hanging out with a bunch of dudes at once and it makes me uncomfortable, but you don’t give a fuck.” Jasper wasn’t sure why he was so hung up on that aspect of it, but he was. If he had been hanging out with a trio of women in one of their apartments, Jules would’ve hit the roof, he knew that for a fucking fact. The circumstances didn’t matter.
"They're old," Jules hissed. She might have yelled but she didn't want Jasper's dad to hear them fighting. He had looked like he just woke up too and did anyone in this damn house wake up before 10am? Fuck. She wished she could calm down and not be so upset, but it wasn't like she just came over to fuck around and talk about nothing. "And Jane was there too, by the way, if you've forgotten that part. I didn't know it would make you uncomfortable, because I'm not a fucking slut and you know I've talked to them before. I'm so sorry I'm dumping all my blah blah shit on you. I'm so sorry I woke you up so early. I wasn't asking you to tell me what to do. I just needed you to listen. But you're just being a dick, like you were on Saturday and I don't know what the hell is going on with you!” She was sort of yelling now and Jules had to bite her tongue to shut up, her chest heaving angrily. God, he had pissed her off and she was pissed off about that too.
Instead of Jules’s anger getting through to Jasper and making him feel guilty, it just served to make his chest feel tighter and his own anger spiral higher. She had a point about this mood being similar to the one on Saturday, and that had baffled him later. Maybe this terrible mood would have the same effect, but that was impossible for him to see in the moment. He just knew that Jules was there throwing a bunch of shit at him and now she was pissed and he was pissed too, and he just wanted her to leave. He had enough shit on his plate, he couldn’t handle her shit too. “I’m listening!” he insisted, gesturing between them like his very presence meant he was listening to her. “Can you just give me a goddamn minute to wake up? Shit, Jules!” He was getting loud himself, his anger getting the better of him. “Nothing’s going on with me, what the fuck do you want me to say?”
Jules felt an odd combination of fury and bafflement. How could he say nothing was going on when he was being such an uber dick? Her throat was dry and felt full but through all of the bad emotions fighting for dominance inside of her, she was also aware that this was not normal. Jasper had his asshole-ish moments, and back in the summer, he would purposely aggravate her, but this felt wrong. He was weirdly focused on the fact that she had been with Neil and the other two men than any of the important stuff. They've obviously fought before, but Jasper had never been so dismissive of the scary stuff that was going on with Jules. Her body was thrumming with the urge to yell and lash out, just to make him feel as bad as she did at that moment, but Jules curled her fingers into her palm in her coat pockets until it started to hurt. Then she walked over to him, trying not to stare at the scratch marring his skin, already puckering into a scar. She was no doctor, but was that even normal? "I don't know why you're being such an asshole, but it's not because you just woke up. And if it's because I was with three grown men yesterday to talk about our horribly, scary dreams, then you're fucking crazy. If you want me to leave, just say so because I'm getting really pissed off."
Jasper’s brows shot up when she called him crazy, and the aggravation in his chest condensed into true anger. “Don’t you fucking call me that,” he growled through his teeth, his eyes flaring at her. “You don’t fucking even know crazy, you dumb bitch. You know good and well that if I was hanging out with three women you would flip your shit.” Heart pounding sick and hard and rageful in his chest, Jasper stepped up closer to Jules in a quick movement, wanting her to back down. She didn’t, unsurprisingly, which just made Jasper more pissed off. He’d been angry with her before, but he couldn’t remember ever wanting to hurt her before. But with how he currently felt, Jasper could well imagine how satisfying it would be to crack his palm across her face. “Get out then,” he said, low and dangerous.
Jules knew on some level that she would flip her shit if he was hanging out with three women. But her circumstances were different. None of them wanted to be in this situation, this wasn't fun for them. But Jasper's words cut right through the rational part of her that lingered in the heat of the argument. Dumb bitch. Fire flashed through her entire body, her own inner rage surfacing sharply, taking complete control of her entire being. She didn't even flinch when Jasper stepped into her space, trying to intimidate her with his size. Instead, Jules met his furious gaze with one of her own. She didn't even really realize her hand had lifted until it was smacking into the side of his face, stinging her palm. It hurt, but at the same time, it didn't hurt enough. She just wanted to hurt him.
The sharp crack jerked Jasper’s head to the side, his cheek going numb first before the stinging pain set in. His eye watered on that side, but Jasper barely noticed, the absolute rage that immediately bloomed blotted out everything else. His breath hissed in through his teeth, and he looked at Jules again with unbridled fury in his eyes. He grabbed her arm with one hand, yanking her upward a bit, and tucked his cigarette into his lips with the other. Jasper started for the door, dragging Jules along in a grip that was strong enough to hurt his hand. She needed to go. If she didn’t get the fuck out of his sight that instant, he really was going to hurt her. He jerked and pulled her down the hall and shoved her toward the front door. “Get the fuck out,” Jasper shouted, red splotches of rage bloomed out all over his cheeks and neck and chest. “Fuck off!”
Pain shot through her arm when he grabbed it and Jules inhaled sharply, reaching up instinctively to try and pry his hand from her. "Jasper, stop!" she breathed. There was stumbling but she managed to stay on her feet until she shoved her. The silver lining was that he released her, leaving her arm throbbing. It felt so surreal, like she was having a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from. There were tears now but she ignored them as she turned away and yanked open the front door. "Don't fucking call me," she said, trying to scream the words at him, but they caught in emotion, making them sound hoarsely weak. "Ever." Jules shoved open the storm door and moved across the lawn to her car, thankful to still feel her keys in her coat pocket. Her hands were shaking violently as she pulled them out, but she didn't look back. She would rather Jasper be left with that hand mark on his face than the devastation he would see in hers.
Jasper barely heard her over the thundering of his heart and harsh breathing in his ears. He caught a glimpse of half of her face as she stormed out of the door, but it didn’t get through the haze of rage. He stalked forward to slam the door behind Jules, making the windows rattle a little. Then Jasper let out a scream of rage, his fist cocking back and slamming into the drywall at the side of the door. He pounded and pounded, noise he couldn't even recognize still ripping out of his throat, until there was a big hole in the wall and his knuckles were bleeding. Chest heaving, Jasper turned and headed back to his room. He needed clothes, he needed his keys, and he needed to get the fuck out himself. He didn’t know yet where he was going, but he would figure it out.