Who: Jules and Greg When: Late morning, Wednesday, January 3rd Where: The road leading up to the Overlook/Mercy Status: Complete
Driving away from Jasper’s had been difficult. Her vision was blurry from crying, her body trembling, her stomach feeling sour and tied up in knots. Her arm ached, her palms were sore. What the fuck was happening. What the fuck had happened? That hadn’t been Jasper. Deep down in her gut, she knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t sort it out. She certainly wouldn’t go back. Couldn’t.
It took her much longer to get to the other side of town than she wanted. She screamed at every red light, gasped every time her car hit black ice and started to slide. But she got to Overlook Point without any incident and Jules hit the accelerator, just daring a cop to see her and pull her over. The road was slick but Jules wasn’t thinking about safety. Her mind kept replaying the look on Jasper’s face. The shit he had said to her. None of it made any sense to her, and it hurt to the point where she was having trouble seeing the road. She kept impatiently wiping away her tears and the snot that had started to run from her nose.
And then fire spread through her palms, causing her to cry out in pain and shock. She took her hands off of the steering wheel instinctively and her car began to drift. Jules had tugged one glove off before she realized it and as soon as she jerked the wheel to the left, she hit a patch of ice. It sent her off the road and down into a narrow ditch, towards the trees that lined the winding road to her home. Jules barely had time to scream before the hood of her car made contact with a tree. The metal crunched, the sound terrible in her ears. Her airbag exploded, crushing her momentarily before everything settled.
There was nothing for a few seconds but the sound of her heart in her ears, thumping loudly, rhythmically. And then her eyes opened. She felt woozy and sore and she slowly brought her hand up. It felt like her car had caught on fire, but she only felt it on her hands. There was some smoke from the hood in front of her, but other than that, there was nothing. No sound but for her breathing. Without thinking about what had just happened, and the fact that she had just totaled her car, Jules brought her other hand up, staring at it dumbly before she tugged the glove off. Her palms were pink, and it felt as though there was something beneath the skin, tearing open her skin from the inside. Nothing was happening of course, but Jules stared at them anyway, waiting.
The fire intensified and instinctively she held her palms up, as if in surrender to the woods that stared back at her. The world in front of her changed, showing her a black and white vision of the woods. She squinted, staring into them. Dark, black trees. The ground gray. It was like someone sucked out all of the color in front of her. Jules’s breathing changed and she wondered if maybe she hit her head. But then there was something moving in the woods, ducking back and forth between the tree trunks. Something pale and thin. Was it dancing towards her? Playing hide and seek? Jules inhaled sharply and could only sit there, watching it as it moved closer to her.
Greg was driving up that same road just minutes after Jules crashed with a backseat full of groceries. He didn't mind running that kind of errands when the state of the roads was like it was because his mom was - affectionately put - a coward on the ice. He had his driving playlist blasting on the speakers, singing along to a cheery tune when he spotted Jules's car. At first it was just 'a car in peril' but just a split second later he recognized who it was and that initial reflex to help only grew stronger. He confidently steered his jeep to a safe spot and hopped out, rushing toward the car. Some small part of him was excited because this was totally what he wanted to do with his life as an EMT and firefighter but mostly he was just worried because it was Jules and she was in trouble.
He slipped a little as he arrived at her car, grabbing onto the driver's side door and tapping on the window even as he looked the car over. The smoke coming from her engine was white so the car was probably not about to catch fire or anything but he still wanted to get her out of there as fast as possible after making sure she was okay.
Jules very vaguely heard someone tap at her window. It wasn't the dancing thing in the woods, because she was still watching it as it slipped behind a thick tree trunk. When its head peeked out from behind its hiding spot, she saw a sharply wide, sinister smile, reaching unnaturally high towards its faded gray eyes at the top of its head. It was as if whatever it was had rolled its eyes into the back of its skull and she was looking at milky whites.
It was so strange and Jules tilted her head curiously at it. Tap, tap, tap. Jules? Jules. She blinked suddenly at the sound, her palms still up in front of her. Very slowly she turned her head to look at him, puffy eyes red and dilated. It took her a moment to realize it was Greg standing there, staring in at her. "Do you see that?" she asked, not really recognizing that he may not be able to hear her well through the window. It didn't matter. She wasn't thinking about the logistics, only wanting confirmation that she wasn't crazy.
She had hit her head, was Greg's first thought. He couldn't hear her well but he got the gist, frowning curiously at her before turning his head to look. Initially he was just humoring her but when he did look... He wished he hadn't. He saw it too, the faded colors of the woods and that was weird enough. Then something moved behind one of those trees and Greg's heart skipped a beat before thrumming up at double speed. That wasn't a person, it wasn't an animal, he didn't know what the fuck it was but it scared him. He checked Jules's car door and found it unlocked so he opened it hastily and looked her over as quickly as he could. She didn't look hurt, the airbag had popped and she just looked dazed and like she'd been crying. How long had she been here? "We need to go," he said quickly, glancing back at the weirdness in front of the car to make sure they were still in the clear. "Now." Was this related to the damn fog bullshit? He hadn't survived that just to get eaten out here in bright daylight by some freakish creature that was barely bigger than him.
Greg saw it too. She wasn't insane! She wasn't a dumb bitch at all. Jules barked out a crazed sort of laugh before she looked back at the woods in front of her. The dancing man, creature, thing, was getting closer, ducking back and forth behind the trees, closer and closer. It seemed to get getting taller too. Bigger. The world around her felt surreal, just like Jasper's house had. Like she was dreaming. This was all so terrible that none of it was probably happening. She would wake up any second, then she would call Jasper to tell him about her insane dream where she'd hit him and he bruised her and they broke up. Then they would both laugh at his silly that was. Jules began to laugh, and she heard the thing in the woods laughing with her. It matched her beat for beat, the same pitch, and tone. Her laughter trailed off into sobs, and the thing - the laughing thing ducking behind another tree just in front of her car began to cry with her. Long, white fingers curled around the front of the tree trunk. "I don't think it's real," she said. "I'm dreaming."
"No," Greg told her firmly and the entire premise of being a firefighter in training was swept up in a tornado of panic. They needed to run, there was a thing between the trees and it was getting closer. "You are not dreaming." This whole situation made him wish he was old enough to carry a gun because he knew how to shoot one but he was only eighteen and fuck. "Jules," he said a bit more insistently when she didn't react as fast as he wanted her to, patting down the airbag to deflate it so he could reach over her and loosen the seat belt. If circumstances were normal he wouldn't be moving her just yet but circumstances were decidedly not normal right now and he'd just have to risk it. "We need to go." He sounded so calm, it was good to know he actually had what it took to be calm under duress but that was kind of a pointless skill if he died before he even made it into EMT training.
Go? Go where? Jules was still sobbing even as Greg started to pull her out of the car. Her head hurt and she had no idea what was happening. Her skin felt itchy from the airbag powder and her hands were burning again. Jules gripped Greg's shirt, her eyes locked on the smiling creature that finally looked around the tree trunk at her. Its eyes were completely gone now, like they had vanished completely and its smile was so wide it was taking up the entire space of its head. But it was sobbing too, even while it was smiling. The noise hurt her ears. Jules got out of the car with some help from Greg, her knees feeling weak. But then she pushed him away from her and turned back to the colorless woods. Her hands were on fire, the pain licking up her wrists to her elbows. She felt the same strange sensation, like tiny hands were inside her palms, pushing out. And then she released a loud scream, anguished and impatient. This whole fucking day! She hated every second of it. The woods in front of them lit up like a firefly in the dead of night before the color returned to the trees. Well, as much color as there would be in January. The white smiling thing was gone too. Everything looked normal again, but it didn't feel that way. Jules stared for a second before lowering her hands to her sides. Then she looked over at Greg and wiped the snot from beneath her nose. "Did you see that?" she asked again.
Greg had been on the verge of throwing Jules over his shoulder to get her to his truck but then everything changed - as if she was the one changing it - and he stared at the spot where things had been gray and terrifying before and now they were just normal. "Did I see that?" he blurted out, slightly exasperated. "Yeah I saw that. What was it? What did you do?" Was Jules a witch too? Was everyone a witch but him? He was definitely going to start carrying a gun now, he'd just need a permit since he was still under twenty-one, it wouldn't be hard to get one. He didn't like the idea but having a gun when out and about just didn't seem like a bad idea. In the car - on his person if he had to get out of the car off the side of the road for some reason. It would have made him feel a little less panicked in this case. "Is it gone?" he added hesitantly because that urge to get the hell out of there was still strong.
He was asking way too many questions and Jules didn't really have any good answers. Or bad answers. Her hands were still aching now, but at least the burning had stopped. "I don't know what it was," Jules said, still watching the woods, just in case it changed again. "I don't know if I did that. I guess maybe I did. My hands hurt, and it felt like... something was in them, trying to get out." She showed them to Greg, even though there was nothing to see. Jules sniffed loudly, wiped her nose again and then turned away, stumbling forward to the edge of the woods where she promptly threw up. The risk of it had been there for so many days now that it made sense it would finally happen. Jules felt woozy again and she was only then realizing she wasn't dreaming. Her car was totaled, Jasper was a dick who hated her now and Greg Wheeler had just seen her puke everywhere. This was just the worst day.
Greg had been around enough drunken people that puking didn't really bother him. It was just a thing people did when they were sick for whatever reason and Jules was stressed and had just been in a crash. It could be a sign she had a concussion so he was absolutely taking her to the hospital to get checked out, just in case. He was itching with more questions but the whole 'get Jules to safety' was a little more pressing. "Okay," he said, drawing out the word a little as he stepped up closer to her and lightly touched her back. "We still need to go, in case that thing comes back. My truck's just up there, do you need anything from your car? Got your purse in there? Something else?" He glanced inside the car to see if there was anything obvious there he should grab but nothing stood out to him. They'd have to call her mom, maybe the cops just to let them know about the car, but right now his priority was to get her out of the cold and into his truck.
"My purse," Jules said, still double over, just to make sure it was all out. Her words sounded slurred, even to her and she lifted the back of her hand to her mouth, trying to fight back a fresh set of tears. Greg didn't need that. And she just wanted Jasper. Jules squeezed her eyes shut tight and then slowly straightened. Her stomach rolled again but she didn't feel like she was going to vomit anymore. So she supposed that was something. After Greg grabbed her purse for her, Jules took it and walked with him slowly to his truck. "My mom's going to be so mad at me," she murmured. It didn't occur to her that they would be going to the hospital. She was just picturing driving up to her house in Greg's car, and her mom freaking out. Jules so didn't want to deal with that right now.
"No she won't," Greg told her. "She'll just be glad you're okay." He didn't really know that, but if Jules's mom was mad about something like this - so clearly an accident - then she really was a bitch. "You should call her, let her know we're going to the hospital," he told her as he opened the passenger door for her, ready to help her in if needed. There was always the chance she wasn't done throwing up and he decided to empty out one of the bags in the back seat - just so she'd have something to throw up in. "You might have concussion again, or you might just be stressed. Better safe than sorry, right?" He gave her a little smile, then glanced over at where her car was, half expecting the woods to all open up again and that horrible thing to come barging out after them.
Jules climbed up into the truck, looking confused for a moment. "The hospital?" Concussion? Jules frowned, because she didn't want to go to the hospital. But she didn't really want to go home either. Maybe she could just curl up in Greg's truck and live there forever. But she couldn't. Instead Jules pulled out her phone to call her mom while Greg got into the truck. It was a quick call, and her mom was going to meet her there. At the hospital. Because she puked and that's bad, apparently. God, she was so tired. What was wrong with her. Jules figured her mom would see her car when she drove out of Overlook. Hopefully her mom would call the cops too because Jules set her phone down and closed her eyes. She wanted to rewind the whole day. Wait until Jasper was awake and feeling okay so he wouldn't yell at her. Maybe she should have just let him sleep. Maybe that thing in the woods had been her imagination. Stress. But no, Greg saw it too. As soon as she thought about it, she opened her eyes to look at him. "I think I did that. With the woods. I don't know what that thing was, but I think my hands did it. I don't know how. They've been aching for a few days now. It got worse right before the woods changed color. That's why I crashed my car."
"Do you think it was real? Like real real? Or just some illusion?" Greg asked and if he'd rest easier if he knew it had just been a projected image and that thing that was heading for them, all creepy smiling and crying, couldn't actually have hurt them. "Do you think you're a witch too?" Jules probably didn't have the answers and he realized belatedly that asking her these questions probably wasn't very productive when she was in shock and possibly had a concussion. "I've never seen anything like it... Do your hands still hurt?" Maybe she had just hurt them in the crash and was confused, he wanted to have a look at them but he was now driving down a slippery road and that was always stressful, no matter how good the vehicle.
Illusion. Jules hadn't considered that. She hoped maybe that was a legit option for whatever that was. If it had been real, that was far less scary. "I'm not a witch," she muttered before looking down at her palms. Even the pinkish tint was fading. They looked normal. "My hands have been hurting for days. But it got worse before I hit the tree." Maybe her hands were punishing her for slapping Jasper. It was a silly thought and she snorted softly to herself. He had deserved it though, calling her names. The mild amusement faded quickly and Jules wished she could just shut her eyes and go to sleep. "Then I kind of, lifted them up? And the woods changed. It was kind of weird." Jules sighed and scooted over to rest her head against Greg's shoulder. "I don't want to talk about it anymore. But don't tell anyone what you saw, okay? They'll think we're crazy."
Greg wanted to tell Phee, maybe she knew something he didn't - it was likely too because she was a witch and he was just a vanilla type human. This wasn't the first time Jules Cooper swore him to secrecy and he hadn't let her down the last time either so he wouldn't now. "Bash wouldn't think you're crazy," he reminded her. "But it's up to you who you tell. I'm locking this away in the secret box." He tried very hard to keep his shoulder still for her and while he didn't often feel nervous about driving, right now it felt like more responsibility than it normally did. Jules did not need to be in two car accidents in one day, that was for sure. "Maybe it's a supernatural type of crazy but you should still ask the doctor about your hands, you know. Just in case."
Jules didn't want to tell anyone. Jasper would have been the first person she called, but he didn't care anymore, so she didn't know what to do. Though... she remembered Jane mentioning letting them know if something weird happened. Maybe she would reach out to Carson with her brain, as long as she hadn't damaged it when the airbag deployed. Her body was starting to feel a bit sore from the impact, now that she wasn't focused on her hands. Her eyes closed, but Jules listened to Greg's voice. She had always liked the sound of it, except when he was being loud and obnoxious. It had sort of a soothing timbre to it. "Maybe I will. Unless the doctor is a crazy scientist who'll wanna chop my hands off an do experiments on them," she murmured.
"Okay, morbid," Greg said, eyes widening a little at the thought. He had no idea brain had a somewhat good reason for going there, unaware of AIR and the conversation she'd had with the people who had been experimented on there. To him it just sounded like nightmare fuel. "I won't let him," he promised. "I'll be with you and make sure they leave your hands on." Distance was a funny thing. Everything felt like it was so close in Point Pleasant, except when it really mattered. Mercy felt like thousands of miles away and he put on cruise control, just to get rid of that temptation to step on it and go too fast. This wasn't an emergency, she was just dazed and concussed - he hoped.
"Okay, thanks," she murmured absently, still wondering if it was her hands that did that thing in the woods, or if it was just the timing. But Greg said he would keep creepy doctors away from her and that made her feel a little better. Jules was aware on some level that she probably sounded drunk. But she kind of felt drunk. Dizzy. Maybe she had hit her head without even realizing it. And her car! Would her mom buy her a new one? Would she have to get rides everywhere now? Jules whimpered before she began to cry again. "You're a good boyfriend, Greg," Jules sobbed. And she knew he wasn't hers, but she couldn't work out in her mind who he belonged to. It didn't matter. He was taking care of her and not being a jerk, and whoever his girlfriend was was super lucky. It just made Jules cry harder.
"I try?" Greg said back, unsure how to take that. He wasn't her boyfriend and he hoped she wasn't so out of it that she actually thought he was. Maybe it was just an overall compliment, though it would have made more sense - given the situation - to say he was a good friend. "You're not about to fall asleep, are you?" he asked. "Are you in any pain? Other than your hands?" Yeah he definitely would have wanted to not drag her out of the car right away and he might have let her stay put for a bit if there hadn't been a grinning monstrosity coming their way. He was going to have nightmares about that, he was sure, even if he was calm right now. That was just his initial reaction to scary things - stay calm, get shit done.
Was she in any pain? Of course she was! Jules sniffled loudly and wiped her nose with the back of her coat again. With the weird adrenaline that had taken over from crashing her car, and then the thing in the woods, and her hands... Jules was starting to feel the aches and pains caused by the wreck. And that didn't include how horrible she felt already from her fight with Jasper. Her arm where he had grabbed her throbbed in time with the beat of her heart, but Jules didn't know if it was legit pain or just psychosomatic, or whatever they called that thing where physical sensation was only in one's head. Was that even a thing? "I won't fall asleep," she promised, even if she wanted to. God, she really wanted to. "Sorry for pulling you into my weird shit," Jules muttered. "You're just like, there at the wrong time, I guess."
"Nah, man," Greg protested softly. "I was there at the right time. I wouldn't have wanted you to be there all alone, fuck that noise." She probably would have been okay, it wasn't like someone would have found her dead there hours later or anything but she would have been alone and in shock - who knew what could have happened. Maybe that freaky looking thing would have gotten to her. Greg didn't even want to think about that, it made his muscles tight with discomfort just thinking about that creature, that creepy face, that fucking smile. "Does this have something to do with the road thing? From the bus crash?" he asked then because that was the only other time he'd really seen Jules acting weird about things. "Do you think that thing we saw is your dream-monster?" It was a little worrying that they'd seen it here and not in the same place as he'd taken Jules on Halloween. If it was fixed to a location it could be avoided.
That felt like a lot of questions and Jules tried to connect them all in her head. Did it have something to do with the road? Probably, since that was where they had been in their dreams. But what she and Greg had seen in the woods back there? Jules shook her head slowly. "No, the dream-monster was in the fog," she murmured before straightening again and leaning back against the seat. "That was something else. But I don't think... I don't know if it has to do with the road. I have to ask." Jules paused for a brief moment before looking over at him. "There's so much bullshit here, Greg. I can't wait to get out."
Greg's stomach clenched uncomfortably. The horrible thing they'd just seen had been bad enough but the stuff in the fog was worse. He hadn't seen it very closely but he'd seen its shadow and the video from Sebastian's drone and yeah, it was way worse. "Just a few more months and you'll go off to college," he told her, even if that didn't seem like a way out at the moment. Whatever that was it seemed connected to her - what if it followed her out of Point Pleasant? But he needed to be supportive and positive right now, Jules was in bad shape. "Until then you just holler and I'll be there to help you out, okay? I got your back."
At least someone did. Jasper used to have her back, now she wasn't sure. Jules breathed in deeply and nodded before trying to exhale in a way that would keep her from crying again. She didn't want to think about Jasper, or her car, or her hands, or that thing, or the fog. She didn't want to think about anything. Maybe if she whined enough at the hospital they would give her something for pain and she could take it home and drink some alcohol with it the way her mom always did. "Thanks, Greg," she murmured. "If anything weird happens to you, I'll you help you too. I mean, if no one better can help you, anyway." Because she was a fucking mess and he probably had people in his life who were stable and smart and all that crap. Like, normal people.
"Hey," Greg said, drawing the word out as he frowned a little. "None of that. Having each others' backs is like a group effort. There's no such thing as a best person for the job, it's all time and place. I mean, I bet you'd rather Jasper had found you than me but I'm here now and that's better than nobody." Maybe a witch might have been better too, able to make that monster go away, maybe Jasper wouldn't have known what to do at all, maybe maybe maybe. All Greg knew was that it was a good thing someone showed up and he really wasn't the worst person out of everyone available.
It would have been comical, how quickly she felt her expression crumble as the tears resurfaced. It wasn't Greg's fault. He didn't know what had happened with Jasper. Jules didn't even really know what had happened. It had escalated so fast, and he hadn't really been Jasper. Even when they first started hooking up he had never been that mean to her. Jules pressed her palms hard against her eyes, like that might stop all the crying from even happening. It wasn't terribly successful, but Jules was too tired to care much. "Jasper and I broke up, I think," Jules said, though her words were a bit choked up from the crying. "But I don't want to talk about it or anything, okay?"
Greg winced hard and then Jules was crying again and he might have facepalmed but he was driving. Crap. "Shit, I'm sorry," he mumbled through his teeth and that thing she'd said about him being a good boyfriend suddenly made more sense now. Double crap! Maybe that was why she'd crashed, emotions running high triggering something weird and magical and driving her off the road. "I thought you guys were okay, did he do something?" Sure, she'd said she didn't want to talk about it but Greg felt like he needed to know. No way was he going to be nice to Jasper if he'd been a bastard to Jules.
"I don't want to talk about it!" Jules wailed. Hadn't she just said that? Because talking about it made it real or something and she was still hoping that maybe she would wake up in bed and find this had all been some stupid, weird, scary dream... that co-starred Greg Wheeler. "He was just... he was..." Jules sniffled loudly, dropping her hands to the seat. "Mean. Angry. I don't know why. He was being crazy about stuff. And he said I was a dumb bitch, and I'm not dumb," she added, hating that she sounded so damn whiny but it was hard to talk and cry at the same time and god, she just wanted her bed. "I mean, maybe I'm a bitch sometimes, but I'm not dumb. And then I left. And that's like.. it." She didn't want to say she slapped Jasper. Or that he shoved her to get her to leave. It was all bad, and not things she wanted to tell Greg, of all people. "Just... don't tell anyone, okay?" Add that to the long list of secrets she'd asked Greg to keep for her.
Greg cringed away a little when Jules got loud and it seemed like everything he said was the Wrong Thing today. Maybe he was better off keeping his mouth shut, that wouldn't be the first time. There was a lot more to the story though, he could feel it in his bones. Like a reason why the hell Jasper had been stupid enough to call his girlfriend a dumb bitch. Even at his worst moments Greg had never sunk that low. Of course this was Jasper Lucas they were talking about and while he'd mellowed out after getting together with Jules maybe he'd remained a total asshole underneath that facade. "I won't tell a soul," he promised even if he had half a mind to go give Jasper a piece of his mind right now. "What a fucking tool, I'm sorry Jules."
Despite how upset she was with him, Jules still felt the urge to defend Jasper. He wasn't a tool. She had just woken him up too early, and dumped a bunch of crazy stuff on him, and... no. She had woken him up early before. And he knew this crazy stuff scared her. Jasper hadn't been the Jasper that Jules knew. She didn't know what his problem was, but it didn't matter now. He couldn't talk to her that way. He couldn't grab her, or shove her. Screw that. Jules sniffed again and straightened a bit in the seat, her arms crossing against her chest. Angry was always easy for her. "It's whatever, you know? But my head fucking hurts, and my car is fucked and this day sucks."
At least they were close to the hospital now so Greg hoped he didn't have time to say something stupid and make make this worse - again. "Your car might be fixable," he offered feebly and while her head would eventually stop hurting, he did agree this day sucked for her. "You can always ride to school with me and the McCarthys until you have it up and running again, you know, if it takes a while." If she needed a new car. Would her mom even get her a new car? Greg did not envy Jules right now, first her stepdad had gone missing, now her car was busted and apparently her boyfriend was a piece of shit ex. That was a lot to deal with all at once.
Jules didn't know if her car was fixable. She was sure her mom would try to go that route first, but while Jules needed a car to get to school, she wouldn't put it past her mom to deny her one if only to punish her for dating Jasper or something. "Thanks, Greg," Jules murmured. She was trying to stay angry, trying to focus on hating everything than how much all of this stuff hurt. She was starting to feel overwhelmed. With the dreams, and her hands, and Edward and Jasper. What if he was still so angry with her that he picked up the phone after she left to call the Sheriff about her stepdad? Jules didn't think he would really do that, but she hadn't thought he would ever be as furious with her as he had been that morning. God, she just wanted to go to the bus station, get one, and just go. Nearly every emotion she felt seemed to seep out of her, leaving her exhausted and numb. Jules closed her eyes. "You're okay though, right?" she asked him. "I mean, no weird stuff? Other than what just happened. No scary stuff?"
"Nothing directly no," Greg muttered. "It all seems to happen to people around me but I'm like this vanilla standard variety human with no supernatural links." He couldn't say it was disappointing, he just wished all his frends were the same. "Could do without fog monsters and tree monsters cropping up all over the place though, shit. Have you ever seen anything like it before?" It was probably not the right thing to ask and he realized that as soon as the words were out so he sucked his teeth and winced a little. "We don't have to talk about that. Let's just get you looked at and call your mom." He hoped bringing up her mother wasn't another bad thing to talk about, something that would make her start crying again. Talking to her right now felt like marching through a hall full of traps.
"I miss being vanilla," Jules muttered. She was grateful that he didn't dwell on asking her about her own weird ass experiences. He knew enough and Jules didn't want to jump into everything else that was going on. Her head was really throbbing now and she wanted some pain killers and her bed. Hopefully the hospital would just say she was fine and send her home. "I called my mom when you were getting my purse," Jules said. "She'll be there soon. But you don't have to wait with me or anything. You probably had like, stuff to do when you found me."
"Just groceries waiting to put away," Greg told her. "They'll keep." There were some frozen goods that probably wouldn't survive but whatever, he could go buy some more before he went home. Everything else could wait. "I'll wait with you until your mom shows up, I promised to protect you from the doctors, right?" He cracked a small smile at her before focusing on the road again. "You okay to walk? Or should I stop right outside the entrance?" It'd be better if he could park and take her from there, that way he didn't have to worry about the car or leave her alone at all. He could handle a ticket but not someone towing the car away, that'd suck big time.
"I can walk," Jules said. She had forgotten about the doctors and what she said. Her fingers curled instinctively into her palms, but they looked normal and she had no plans on telling any doctor they had been hurting when she wrecked her car. All she could do was say she hadn't been paying attention. Texting, or something. More lies. Jules was getting really good at lying. "My mom shouldn't be too far behind us, so you won't have to wait too long." Jules brushed some loose hair out of her face before looking over at Greg. "Thanks, Greg. For stopping... and like, not freaking out too bad about what we saw. And then bringing me to the hospital and stuff. You're a good friend."
"That's like mediocre friendship stuff," Greg protested as he looked around for a parking spot. "I'd have been a really shitty friend if I just left you there. Not a friend at all, not even a decent person. But I'll take the good friend thing - and good boyfriend thing." He backed up into an available space and cut the engine, hurrying to get out of the car. It just felt right to go around and be there when Jules got out, in case she was unsteady on her feet. Plus it was slippery in places and while he was wearing good boots, she might not be. "Do your hands hurt now?" he asked a little worriedly, feeling exposed now that they weren't inside the car anymore. The last thing they needed was for her to summon something again, right there in the hospital parking lot.
"Only in Point Pleasant is saving a friend from a wrecked car while being watched by some bizarre woodland monster seen as mediocre," Jules said with a soft snort. And she realized how blasé she sounded about it. Monsters? Oh, no big deal. What was her life anymore? Jules climbed down out of the truck, her knees a little weak but otherwise steady. It was cold and she wished she had her gloves. Jules slipped them into her coat pocket and shook her head. "Just a little sore, but they don't hurt the way they did before." Mindful of the slick spots in the parking lot, Jules began to walk with him towards the entrance of the hospital. Jules felt the sudden urge to cry again but she fought it back, feeling her chin tremble only for a moment before she managed to compose herself. Instead Jules managed a quick, but faint smile, trying to sound lighter than she felt. "I might need a ride to school on Monday though. That would be epic friendship stuff."
"I can do epic level friend stuff," Greg told her with a little chuckle. He was hovering and he knew it, ready to catch her if she slipped while trying not to be overly obvious about it. It wasn't like she could see his hand behind her back if she didn't turn to look so he just hoped she was too focused on not falling to actually do that. "And if you need to talk or anything, you know I live really close to you. So if you need a ride before then or just want to talk about what happened? DM me." He thought maybe he might want to talk to her about what happened too, once some time had passed and they'd had some time to process but at the same time he wished he could just forget all about it. Waking up right about now would be nice, finding out it had just been a really weird dream.
Jules didn't know if Greg meant talk about what happened with Jasper, or talk about what they saw in the woods, but it didn't matter. It was still sweet of him to offer, given the only real thing they had in common was Sebastian. Well, some of their other friends too, but it wasn't like they hung out with each other alone. "Thanks, Greg," she murmured again, stepping up onto the hospital sidewalk. She wasn't bleeding from the head or anything, so it would probably take forever for her to even see a doctor. Unless her mom came in and started to raise hell about it, which was a very real possibility. She paused just outside the doors and turned to Greg to hug him. It was probably unnecessary, but she was grateful for his help and really, she just wanted some physical affection in the midst of all the shitty stuff that had happened, and was happening.
Greg did the only thing that made sense in the situation and hugged her back, giving her the firm bearhug that she probably needed. Not too firm, she was so tiny he felt like she'd break if he put too much strength into it but that was probably crazy talk. "So, if I run into Jasper, how mean should I be to him?" he asked when he let go, giving her a wry half-smile. "On the scale of shunning to punching, I mean." He rubbed her arm gently as he glanced inside. From what he could see of the ER there were already a few people waiting so there was no way he was leaving her just yet.
The hug helped immensely and Jules squeezed her eyes shut tight until it was over. Then she lowered her heels back to the ground and released a short laugh at his question about Jasper. Shaking her head, she wiped her eyes again. "I don't know. I mean... no punching. He was... you know one of those fog monsters got him." She motioned to her shoulder. She tried to ignore the fact that Jasper had sort of accused her of being responsible for it. "I mean, it seems to be healing okay, but still, maybe just stick with to shunning." It was cold, so she turned to walk inside the ER, already hating it there and wishing she could be home in bed. "You really don't have to wait here if you don't want to," she told Greg. "You've already done a lot."
"I don't wanna leave," Greg told her because saying he wanted to stay wasn't exactly true. Nobody wanted to hang out at the ER, it wasn't exactly a happening place in a good way. There weren't a whole lot of people there but he could all but smell the germs in the air and automatically reached out for the sanitizer dispenser when he heard someone coughing in there. At least there was no line in admittance when they arrived so they could get seated pretty quickly. Greg steered Jules to a seat as far away from the coughing woman as he could find and checked his phone out of habit once he was settled. "I'll skedaddle when your mom gets here, deal?"
"Skedaddle," Jules said, laughing softly. "I think the last person I ever heard say that word was my grandma. But yeah, deal." She sat down and put her purse in her lap, itching to reach in and find her phone to see if Jasper had called or texted. Jules stubbornly resisted. Even if he had tried to reach her, she wouldn't respond. Let him suffer for a while. Her eyelids felt heavy again and she rested her head on Greg's shoulder, thinking it might be okay to doze a bit until her mom got there. Jules wasn't sure how long it had actually taken, but it felt like only minutes before she heard someone say her name and when she opened her eyes, her mom was looking down at she and Greg. She didn't look pissed, so that was good. But she did look tired and Jules felt a surge of guilt. Her mom was still worried about Edward, and now Jules had been in a car accident and she had to deal with that too.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm okay. Um, they're supposed to call me back in a few minutes. I think it's probably just like, a concussion. Maybe not even that." She glanced at Greg. "Greg saw me, and he pulled over to help." Margaret offered a tired smile to Greg and Jules couldn't help but think she was probably relieved it wasn't Jasper sitting there.
"Thank you, Greg. Are you going to be okay driving home? Do you need any gas money for bringing Jules here?"
Greg rubbed Jules's back briefly before he got up, shaking his head at Margaret. "I'm good, Mrs. Cooper," he told her and maybe he should have been insulted at the question but he was mostly just amused. Did he need gas money? Parents were so fucking weird. Jasper probably would have needed it - he thought with the scorn reserved for a friend's ex - but Greg was never short on cash. "I didn't call the cops or anything, I don't think we have to - the car's in a bad shape but it's not blocking traffic or leaking oil or anything so it should be enough to get a tow truck and call the insurance company." He still felt kind of shitty leaving Jules behind, even if her mom was there now, like he had to keep that silly promise to keep her hands safe. Would Jules tell her mom what happened? He doubted it. "Do you need anything else before I leave, Jules?" he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets and lingering longer than he probably should.
"I saw the car on my way down," Margaret explained, already appearing distracted as she began to look around. "I'll get it taken care of as soon as Jules is looked at. But thank you for helping her." Jules watched her mom turn and head towards the woman who was manning the front desk area and as soon as the two women began talking, Jules smiled faintly at Greg. "I'll be fine. Um... if something else happens, I'll text you." She waved her hands so he would know what she was talking about. "But really, I'm feeling okay. Hopefully I won't be here too long and then I can just go home." She had no intention of telling her mom what happened with her hands and the woods, although she had been wanting to ask about her dad for a while now. But it felt like the wrong time, especially with her stepdad gone. Jules stood up to hug him again, briefly this time as not to give her mom any ideas. "Maybe like, text me when you get home so I know you made it safe and everything?" Maybe she worried a little that the thing they saw in the woods would be waiting for him or something and it scared her to think that way.
"I will," Greg promised her and patted her arm. "Just, you know, keep an eye on it," he said quietly and nodded toward her hands. "Them. The thing. If they start hurting, maybe don't aim them." This really wasn't a conversation they could have in a crowded room so he piped down and patted her arm again. "I'll text you and you let me know if you need a ride anywhere until the car gets fixed." He turned to leave, then stopped halfway around and faced her again. "Sorry you had a shitty day." Then he did turn, giving Margaret an awkward little smile and a nod as he headed out. It felt weird leaving by himself and he decided on the spot that if the frozen goods in the car didn't survive the wait then he'd buy more later. No way was he going to a grocery store now.