Who: Greg x Jasper Where: School When: Monday noon, 01/08 Status: Complete
The last few days had been hard and Greg wasn't used to things being hard. Not really. Life had been pretty easy for him his whole life except for his brother getting hurt in Iraq and that had at least been a relatively normal kind of a scary situation. What happened with Jules was terrifying and fucked up and it followed right on the heels of the terrifying and fucked up fog nonsense so Greg was having a bit of a crisis. He'd woken up a few times, not quite from a nightmare but immediately thinking something was in his room, staring at him in the dark. What if that white horror of a creature had gotten through before Jules closed the portal or whatever the hell that gate thing had been? What if it was here? It was easier to dismiss it as paranoia when he was wide awake and it was daylight out but even then he kept thinking about what could have happened if Jules hadn't managed to stop. He could still see it in his mind's eye, that horrible grin, the unnatural way it moved from tree to tree, lurking, creeping closer.
Greg still remembered just how badly he'd wanted a gun in that very moment and ever since then he'd been wracking his brain thinking about how to get one. He could ask Spence, but he doubted his brother would be eager to help with that - even if Greg told him what was going on. Greg wasn't allowed to legally own a firearm for another eight months and that just felt like such bullshit. Sure, he was only seventeen but he was responsible as shit! It wasn't fair. The thought of owning a gun was both reassuring and terrifying and he'd gone over the safety precautions too, how he could store it in his car without it being too accessible and yet accessible enough for him to reach it in time if something happened.
He didn't let it show, just how worried he was, how tired and frazzled he constantly felt now. He'd cracked jokes in the car on the way to school, greeted everyone with his usual cheer in the hallways and it was a little weird how easy that all came to him when his brain was working overtime in the background. During lunch he spotted Jasper Lucas in the hallway and hurried after him. He might not have if he didn't know he and Jules were back together but the shunning of Jasper Lucas was apparently postponed since he and Jules seemed pretty happy when they arrived together at school that morning. Or as happy as teenagers could look that early on a Monday morning at least.
Greg made sure not to catch up with Jasper until there were fewer people around and then he stepped up next to him and nudged him lightly in the arm. "You got time to talk?" he asked and why did he feel like he looked guilty of a crime already? It wasn't like Jasper had a gun in his locker, ready to be sold... Or did he? Jesus, Greg really didn't know the guy at all, so what if he did? Okay, no, that was crazy, he was being crazy and paranoid and it wasn't like he couldn't tell Jasper he didn't want to buy a gun right now, he was just... making an inquiry. If anyone in school knew how to get illegal shit, it would be Jasper Lucas.
Going back to school had sucked, but Jasper had expected that at least. The end of vacation was always hard for lots of reasons, and the events of this winter break had made it all seem even more pointless. Why was he struggling over learning algebra when the whole damn world could end at any second? When there was something wrong with his brain because of the scratch on his shoulder? When he’d helped dispose of a quote-unquote murder weapon? When Jules could apparently do crazy shit with her hands? Fuck. He got through the morning in a half-daze, struggling to focus on all the shit he was supposed to focus on. Jasper kept noticing empty seats, kids who weren’t back, who might not ever be back.
He’d been zoning out while he was walking after the lunch bell, headed for the side door he always slipped out of to have a smoke when he got a break. Jasper wasn’t expecting anyone to stop him, much less the person who actually did. His body gave a little jerk and he looked over at Greg Wheeler with slightly wide eyes ... then frowned vaguely. For a second he couldn’t fathom why Greg was talking to him at all, but then he recalled what the guy had done for Jules and Jasper’s expression smoothed a bit. “Yeah, sure,” he said, assuming Wheeler wanted to check up on Jules or something. “What’s up?”
A more socially anxious person might have been discouraged by Jasper's little face journey but Greg tended to be pretty oblivious to subtle cues like that. It was just as well because he was nervous enough to have this conversation. He could really get into trouble for it and he knew it, even just talking about it was likely to get him in hot water so he had to trust Jasper to be discreet. It would be easier to talk about all this if he knew for sure Jules had told Jasper what had happened - then he'd understand. Right now he could only really reference the fog bullshit and a hand gun probably wouldn't have done shit against those behemoths out there.
"You're the most likely person in school to know anything about this," he prefaced once they were outside and he had to wonder how people could keep up this habit of smoking during the coldest winter months. It was biting out and the wind just made it worse. He pulled the sleeves of his jacket down over his fingers, promising himself he'd keep this brief. "But you gotta promise me not to breathe a word about it to anyone, can you do that?"
Outside, Jasper took his pack of cigarettes out of his inner coat pocket and shook one loose to tuck between his lips. The way Greg started off made him think that maybe this didn’t have anything to do with Jules. He was not only the most likely one in school to know about what had happened to her, he was the only one. Or ought to be, anyway. Besides Wheeler the Hero, of course. Jasper got his smoke lit before he answered, blowing the first lungful up and away from Greg as he eyed him. “I can keep a secret, dude,” he said a bit flatly. “What are you on about?” Was Greg Wheeler about to ask him for drugs? Jasper was already internally amused at the idea. Surely he had other sources already.
How Jules could date this guy was a constant enigma to Greg, Jasper just had zero charm. He was always so dry and aloof, like he was trying too hard to be cool. Greg was trying to like the guy, he really was, but Jasper didn't make it easy. He huffed hot air into the freezing day, puffing up his cheeks for a few seconds as he tried to find the right words for this. Telling Jasper he was the dodgiest person he knew was probably not a great idea, but who knew, maybe Jasper would like it. It wasn't a chance he could take here though so he bit back on that and got straight to the point. "Do you know where a guy could get his hands on a gun?" he asked instead. "If he's under eighteen." Just eight more months but he'd seen first hand just how horribly wrong things could go in a heartbeat so waiting just felt worse and worse.
There were people Jasper felt like he could be himself around, but Greg Wheeler wasn’t one of them. Saved Jules or not, Greg belonged on the outside of Jasper’s wall with the rest of the rich jock boys who would never understand him. He’d let Jules in, but even that had taken a while, and he definitely wasn’t going to be hooking up with Greg Wheeler until they fell in love. Jasper wasn’t going to start shit with him though, he deserved that much. His brows lifted at the question, surprise crossing his face again. He’d definitely suspected drugs, not that. “Actually I do, yeah,” he answered, lifting his smoke again, one blue eye squinted at Greg. “It’s not cheap, though. And, well ... depends on how big, what kind of gun. What are you looking for?” He knew his dad and uncles could get their hands on most anything, but whether they’d actually do it for Jasper or have a spare lying around was a different story.
Money really wasn't an issue here, having an illegal firearm and getting it from Jasper Lucas was a far bigger problem than money would ever be for Greg. "I'm looking for something small but powerful. Glock, Beretta, there are a few types I could get down with." Just like that he'd dropped the third person bullshit but he didn't think Jasper hadn't seen through that anyway. "Things have just been crazy lately, I'd feel safer if I had a gun in the truck." On some level he knew that safety was an illusion, his dad had taught him and Spencer to shoot at an early age and their mom had lectured them about gun safety and how guns actually caused more deaths than they prevented and blah blah blah. Greg was willing to bet she hadn't had a weird-ass white monster creeping toward her from a fucking portal so she wasn't really in a position to lecture him.
So a handgun. Those were the easiest to get a hold of, Jasper was pretty sure. He’d considered carrying one himself more than once, but he was of the mind that the things in this town that really posed a threat couldn’t be stopped with bullets. Still, Amelia was very attached to her rifle, maybe Jasper could talk Gavin into giving him a pistol -- or two. He nodded a bit at Greg’s words, his expression thoughtful and any pretense of Cool dropped. The guy needed a favor, Jasper was pretty sure he could come through, so whatever. “Pretty sure I can get you something good, or a few options to pick from,” he told Greg. “It might take a few days, I dunno what my dad has on hand, but I’ll try.” He paused to take another drag, then wet his lips. “Jules told me what happened. I appreciate what you did for her.”
"Oh thank god!" Greg blurted out as soon as Jasper spoke the magic words and he knew he didn't need to keep it a secret. "See? What if that fucking portal hadn't closed? That thing wasn't on its way to invite us to a party, I can tell you that much. Shit, it was fucked up." He shuddered, in part from the memory, in part from the cold. "All smiling and crying at the same time, it was so creepy. I really, really wished I'd had a gun, we just got lucky she could, you know, make it stop." He stopped rambling, finally, realizing he was rambling at Jasper Lucas of all people but it wasn't like a lot of people knew about what had happened. "But yeah, I'd really appreciate it. I don't plan on getting caught with it or doing anything stupid but I won't rat you out if something goes wrong."
In spite of the subject matter, Jasper couldn’t help but huff a laugh at Greg’s sudden outburst. He was an animated guy all the time, everybody knew that, but Jasper had never seen him riled up in a bad way before. A scared way. Thinking that Jules had friends who would be willing to shoot at some crazy other-dimension monster on her behalf -- his own too, of course, but still -- made him feel kind of good. Like she had more people around to take care of her when Jasper couldn’t. Maybe some of the Overlook assholes weren’t all bad. It also made him wonder if Jules had told Greg anything about their fight, and he felt his neck heat up a bit with embarrassment. “Yeah it sounded fucked up,” he murmured, tossing a glance around to make sure there wasn’t anybody walking by or anything. “I know you’re probably not, but I’m glad you were there. Who the fuck knows what would’ve happened to her if you hadn’t been like ... getting her out of the car, you know? So I’ll try to cut you a deal, man. It’ll be risky to carry, just so you know. Besides your age, no registration, serial number scratched off. So keep it hidden.”
"Oh no shit, man, I'm glad I was there," Greg exclaimed, forgetting for a second that he'd meant to be a little more chill but being chill about stuff like that was impossible anyway. "Like I keep thinking about if she'd just been alone, you know? She seemed so out of it, shock or whatever. What if she was just too stunned to do anything and that thing... I mean. Fuck." He remembered again to pipe down and so he shook himself for some semblance of getting himself together and maybe warm up a little but it felt kind of futile. "I'm just gonna keep it in the car. Nobody uses that car but me so, you know, it should be safe." As much as anything illegal was really safe, carrying an unregistered gun was probably way worse than having a little weed but compared to the thought of being eaten alive - or worse - by an actual other-dimensional monster, getting busted for a crime seemed like peanuts. "Thanks, man," he muttered. "No pressure or anything but the sooner the better."
Jasper finished off his cigarette as he nodded. He hated to think about Jules in that accident, dazed and hurt, all because of him. He knew she said it wasn’t his fault, but he was still sure that if he hadn’t been such a bastard, she wouldn’t have crashed her car and the thing with her hands wouldn’t have woken up. Not at that exact moment, anyway. But who the fuck knew anything anymore. Maybe Greg had the right idea, and Jasper needed to carry a gun around too. Fuck. He flicked the filter away into the snow and hunched his shoulders a little. “I’ll see what I can do,” he told Greg. Figuring that their conversation was over and they both wanted out of the cold, Jasper turned to open the door again. There was still lunch to get through, and Jules was likely wondering where he was. He and Greg Wheeler might never be friends, but he could at least try to do the guy a favor.
Greg was more than happy to go back inside because damn it was cold. The conversation had gone better than he'd hoped but that probably had a lot to do with the fact Jules had told Jasper about what happened. So there was gratitude there and understanding that Greg couldn't really have counted on otherwise. "Thanks, man," he said and yes, he was a little curious about what had happened with Jasper and Jules since she'd been so sure they were broken up but fuck, people did that all the time. They were okay now so it didn't feel weird asking him for a favor. He knew just as well as Jasper that they weren't going to be best buds or anything so he didn't linger, just gave Jasper a nod of appreciation before heading inside, relieved to find they weren't heading the same way.