Jasper Lucas (sinsoftheson) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2020-01-18 16:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | #january 2018, jasper, jasper x ruby, ruby |
Who: Ruby and Jasper
When: after school, Thursday, Jan 11th
Where: car mostly
Status: complete
Life was just a never ending parade of bullshit lately, and Jasper knew that was the time to rely on friends. He just didn’t have a lot of them. And the ones he did have had their own problems. But it had been a while since he’d really caught up with Ruby, and the idea struck him in fifth period to find her and see if she wanted to hang out that day. He needed to ask her about talking to her dad about hiring him anyway. If Jasper ever wanted to move out from under his dad’s roof, he needed a job, and a better one than bussing tables or slinging french fries. He wanted to learn a trade, get some good hands-on experience.
Once the final bell rang, Jasper shouldered his backpack and waved his way through the herd in the hallway to get to Ruby’s locker. If she didn’t show up in a couple of minutes he would text her, but it would be better if he could catch her in person. ‘Got stuff to talk to you about’ never went over well without voice inflections.
Things were finally starting to feel normal again, at least in the way that things in Point Pleasant felt normal, like the last major crisis had passed and now they were just waiting for the next. Ruby didn’t trust it, but all she could do was hope for the best and try not to think about the worst. It was getting easier, but there were still things that set her off. She was pretty sure her heart would forever jump when a cop walked into Moxie’s. But she had plenty of things to distract her, too. Clint was awesome for that.
She spotted Jasper as she was walking towards her locker and gave him a wave. They hadn’t had a lot of time to hand out lately and it was good to see him. “Hey,” she said, giving him a smile. “What’s up?”
He worried about Ruby when it came to the Edward thing, just like he worried about Jules. It hadn’t been her stepfather, but she’d been the one to hit him. Jasper completely backed her up on why she’d done it, but he didn’t know if courts would see it that way. So it was good to see her smile when she approached, and he smiled back. “Hey,” he echoed, lifting his hand for a fist bump of greeting. “What are you up to this afternoon? Got time to hang out?” Even if she had somewhere to be, maybe he could give her a ride and they could chat in the car or something.
“Got an hour and some before work, but I’d love some company till then. And after, if you feel like Moxie’s,” Ruby said, returning the fist bump. She wasn’t fond of spending her free time working, but saw it as a fact of life. The more money she saved, the easier it would be to get out of town after graduation. Ruby knew it wouldn’t be permanent, she’d end up back in Point Pleasant eventually, but she was ready for a break from the madness, even if just for a little while. “What’ve you been up to?”
An hour plus meant they could definitely have a little car hangout session, at the very least. Jasper wasn’t inclined to try to hang out with her at work, since he knew how difficult that was. “You want a ride, then? We can drive around for a while. Or if you need to go home to change or somethin’ ...” he offered. Jasper shrugged then, turning to walk with her toward the exit doors. “Same old shit, you know,” he answered. That wasn’t exactly true, but he didn’t want to unload all of his moody bullshit onto Ruby. It was nothing compared to what she was going through. “How’ve you been?” he asked, glancing over at her.
Ruby’s mode of transportation was spotty in the winter and she was always glad for a ride. Sometimes she drove the truck to work, but this morning her father had dropped her off, so she was glad to hitch a ride with Jasper. “Sure,” she said. “I can change when I get there.” Going home to change would just waste time and she’d prefer to hang out. “I’ve been okay,” she said as she shut her locker and fell in step beside him. “Better than before. Still a little on edge, but… It feels like things are settling down.” It was hard to believe they’d gotten away with it and she wondered if she’d ever really feel at ease again. She had moments were things felt better, but she was still on guard, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Jasper nodded a bit -- being on edge seemed perfectly reasonable and normal to him, considering the circumstances. He’d been on edge too ... sometimes. When he wasn’t caught up in one of his bipolar rollercoasters, that was. He’d been paying more attention to his moods, and he was realizing that when he was on an upswing, it felt like the most normal thing in the world, like how he was supposed to truly feel. It was only later that he saw the weirdness. He really ought to warn Ruby, he guessed, so she wasn’t blindsided like Jules had been if it happened around her, but he wanted to wait for some privacy for that. “Think it’s all gonna work out,” he told her, vague but sincere. There were still people milling around as they walked. “But hey, just to get it outta the way ... I wanted to ask you somethin’ ... Do you think your dad would hire me at the shop? I really need a job, and I really wanna do mechanic work. Part time of course, but I wanna start if I can.”
“You wanna be a grease monkey?” Ruby asked, a real, genuine smile sliding into place. Cars were something they’d been able to bond over early on in their friendship. She knew he knew his shit and would be a good fit down at the garage, if that was really what he wanted to do. “Sure, I think he’d hire you. I’d vouch for you, and so would Aaron. But you know we can only do it once. Like, you can’t not show up for work. And he’ll probably start you out on oil changes and tire rotations.” She knew her dad liked Jasper well enough, but that wasn’t to say he’d trust his work ethic. That was something Jasper would have to prove to him. Ruby had faith that Jasper could make it happen if he really wanted it.
Jasper grinned a little at the first part -- he really did want to be a grease monkey. He wasn’t good at school and book work, and he knew he wouldn’t be going to college, so he needed to learn a trade. He’d always been drawn to cars and engines, probably partly because of his uncle, but it was just nice to work with his hands, fixing things. God knew he couldn’t fix anything else in his life. “Really think so?” he asked Ruby with a bright smile. The fact that she would so readily vouch for him made him feel pretty good. “But oh yeah, no. I get that. And like, it’s a way better job than washing dishes and shit, and I really need to move out of my dad’s place, so I’ll totally be reliable.” Even if oil changes and tire rotations were tedious, it was better than what he’d been doing.
Ruby knew there weren’t a lot of people that would vouch for Jasper. He didn’t seem like a reliable person, but he’d always been there for her and she knew he could be a good employee if he really wanted to. It seemed like he had the motivation now, whereas he hadn’t really had it before. A year ago she wouldn’t have been quite so willing. “I think you’d be good at it,” she told him. “But I’m serious-- no showing up high, or drunk. I mean it. My dad has a nose for that kind of shit and he won’t put up with it. Try to be on time, do good work, and he’ll keep you on. Stay a while, get some certifications, and it can be a decent job, if that’s what you want to do. Is it what you want to do?” She’d kind of assumed he’d go work at the Porch once he was old enough, but she understood wanting something different. That was why she was at Moxie’s, not at the garage.
Jasper nodded along to all of that. He’d been high plenty of times at the bullshit jobs he’d worked before, but it was important to be clear-headed when you were doing mechanic work. At least on other people’s cars. It could end up super expensive if you fucked up another person’s ride. And he wanted to make a good impression on Mr. Fox, of course. Most people assumed anybody with the Lucas name wasn’t capable of that, but he was ready to prove them wrong. “Promise I’ll be good, scout’s honor,” he said, giving Ruby a little grin. They were almost to his car now, so he pulled out his keys. “And yeah, I mean, it’s what I wanna do for now. Maybe for a long time, I dunno. The Porch isn’t just my dad’s, so I dunno what the plans are there. I wanna have a skill though, not just sling beer for a bunch of redneck assholes.”
“Scout’s honor only carries weight if you were actually a Boy Scout,” Ruby teased him. “But I’ll take it. Just don’t make me regret it.” They both knew that you only got one chance with these kinds of things, so he better not fuck it up. Ruby couldn’t vouch for him again. “I hate to say it, but I kind of think anyone can be a bartender. Unless you’re making fancy drinks. That takes some kind of skill. But not everyone can fix cars and that’s something you can do anywhere.” She knew there’d been talk of him leaving at one point, so it seemed worth noting. Everywhere he went, there would be cars to fix, if that was what he really wanted to do.
She had him there -- nobody would ever have mistaken Jasper for a Boy Scout. He’d been even more of a terror when he’d been a kid, he would’ve gotten tossed out of a troop really fast. Luckily his family had never been into that kind of shit anyway. “I promise, I won’t let you down,” he told Ruby, giving a low chuckle. “I wanna get out of my dad’s house too bad. Plus yeah, it’s like ... a good skill, it’s a trade, and I’m gonna need that.” Ruby knew that college was out of the question for him, so he was really just waiting to see what Jules’s plans were. Being a mechanic was portable, and the world would always need them. “The bar could go under someday too, and I don’t wanna be like, completely useless, you know?”
“God, can you imagine this town without The Porch? I’m not even a paying customer yet and I know what a loss that would be.” Ruby was sure that if the Lucas’ bar went under something would take its place, but it felt too much like a permanent fixture to her, something that had always been there and always would be. “So how’s Lyra feel about you moving out? She good with it?” Most of the time Amelia felt like an adult to Ruby, but she knew that she’d just gotten her family back, comparatively speaking. It had been a couple of weeks to them, but years away to her, so she might not be thrilled to have her brother out of the house.
Jasper just gave a huff and shook his head at the first part. The Porch was a fixture, he just wasn’t sure it was the good kind. Not even really because of his family, it was more the regulars who were constantly there destroying their livers. Or maybe he just had a biased view of it, because he knew his grandfather was there all the time. At least before Caden had kicked his ass. Jasper made a pained face at Ruby’s question and pursed his lips to one side. “I mean, she doesn't love it,” he admitted. He was aware of that and was sure Amelia would tell Ruby the same if it came up between them. “But she knows I’m not going far and she can come over whenever she wants and all that. It’s just something I need to do, and I think she gets that. Enough not to guilt me about it, anyway.” He had to become independent sometime, and the house was crowded with three grown people and two big dogs and only two bedrooms. He knew Gavin wanted to buy a bigger house, but this would just make things easier faster. He unlocked his car so they could climb in and get going.
“We’ve got to get her driving. Like, on her own. That way she can come visit you whenever she wants,” Ruby grinned, pretty sure that Jasper didn’t want his little sister visiting him all the time. She assumed that having his own place would allow him to spend more time with Jules as well. That was the kind of freedom she looked forward to someday and it was kind of crazy to think it wasn’t all that far off. “So, you and Logan are gonna have your own place. You gonna let us come party sometime?” she teased as she climbed into the car. In the summer there were tons of places around town where they could sneak off to, but who wanted to be outside when it was freezing cold?
“Driving, wow,” Jasper muttered with a bit of amused awe. His sister was old enough to drive, at least on her own timeline. It was so weird, seeing her as a grown young woman and thinking of her as still a kid in so many ways. It was all still settling in, a process made more difficult when life kept throwing stupid bullshit their way. He laughed a bit and glanced over at Ruby as he pulled the car out of the spot and headed out of the parking lot. “Fuck yeah we will, that’s like, half the fun of having your own place, right?” He had to imagine there would be many parties ... and hopefully many nights spent alone with Jules. It also meant many more nights spent alone with Logan, but Jasper was firmly putting that out of his mind. “We’ll need to kick it off with a housewarming party, right off the bat. And you’d better come.” Ruby needed fun.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Ruby grinned. “I’ll even contribute a lawn chair to your living room,” she teased. She imagined they’d be short on furniture, at least for a while, but that didn’t bother her. Ruby was fine with sitting on the floor, if that’s all that was available, but it tickled her to think the party could be a bit of bring your own beer and chair. “Think I could bring Clint?” She asked, raising a brow. She tried to recall if she’d ever seen Clint at a party that wasn’t in Overlook. It might be a bad idea, Jasper and Logan were about as different from Clint as she could possibly get, but she didn’t really want to party without her boyfriend.
Jasper gave a bark of a laugh at the mental picture of all his friends just sitting around in lawn chairs in an empty living room. That was probably close to how it would be, honestly. He didn’t know of anybody in his family who had a lot of furniture to spare. He would even be leaving his bed behind, he was pretty sure. But Jasper was willing to sacrifice comfort for freedom and independence. At least he thought he was, anyway. “I’m gonna put a jar out to collect people’s change to just get a bunch of bean bags,” he mused with a crooked grin. That sounded pretty comfy, actually. “But yeah, I mean ... as long as he’s cool, he can come.” Jasper had never had a direct problem with Clint, so if Ruby thought he would be a good dude to hang out with, why not. “How’s things goin’ with you guys?”
“If he wasn’t cool, I wouldn’t be dating him,” Ruby pointed out with a little laugh. She knew Jasper meant if Clint was cool with him, but that was something they’d never really talked about. Crossing friend groups was complicated, as she was sure Jasper knew from dating Jules. “Things are good. We’re just…doing our thing, you know? My dad’s starting to get that concerned look, but he doesn’t say much, whereas my brother likes to point out how he’ll drop me as soon as one of the cheerleaders becomes available.” Ruby rolled her eyes, preferring to be annoyed with the thought rather than discuss how likely that actually was. She didn't like to think of herself as a novelty that Clint could get bored of, yet she knew it was possible. Every time she stepped into his house she wondered how she fit into that world. The answer was simple: she didn’t.
“Eh, people are full of shit most of the time,” Jasper said with a shrug. He’d been told the same thing about Jules by a few people -- she would get tired and bored of him, and would move back into dating jocks. It hadn’t happened yet, and Jasper was pretty sure it wouldn’t. He couldn’t make any guarantees about Clint, but if the guy had two brain cells to rub together, he would see what a catch he had. “Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. If he does, I can slash his tires for you and you’ll find somebody better. If not, you guys keep doin’ your thing and ignore everybody else.” Jasper wasn’t usually great with advice, but that was how he’d handled his relationship with Jules, and it was working out fine. Or would be, if their lives weren’t so stupidly complicated by magical bullshit. “As long as he’s treatin’ you good, I’m cool with him.”
“You can’t slash his tires for breaking up with me,” Ruby said, but she was smiling. It was the thought that counted, even if it was a violent, illegal one. She knew as well as he did that high school relationships didn’t last, but she didn’t want to think about it. It spoiled the fun and that was the whole point of dating Clint. “He’s good to me,” she told him. “Hasn’t officially asked me to the dance yet, but I assume we’re going. I should probably ask him just to make sure. And see if he’s heard about a party. You planning to get all dressed up for Jules again?”
Jasper snorted a bit, because he absolutely could slash Clint’s tires for dumping Ruby. He supposed he shouldn’t though, not unless it was a really bad breakup or something. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. He definitely didn’t want to discuss the longevity of high school relationships, so that topic stayed firmly out of mind. Ruby’s question brought a faint smile to his face and he nodded a bit. “That’s the plan, yeah,” he said. “As long as we both like ... feel up to it. Shit’s been kinda weird lately.” That was the understatement of the century. “She’d probably enjoy like, doing something normal for a while though, so I’m sure I’ll be there.” Jasper gave Ruby an amused glance. “You got a dress and everything yet? Gonna gussy up for your pet jock?”
“Weirder than our weird?” Ruby asked with a raised brow, vaguely referring to the incident with Jules’s step father. She didn’t even like to talk about it a that point, hoping that ignoring it would make it go away. It wasn’t completely working, but it had certainly helped. “You know me, I’d get all gussied up even if I didn’t have a date,” she grinned. She hadn’t even gone to to the Homecoming dance, but had still gotten dressed up for the party just for the fun of it. “But no, don’t have a dress yet. Figure I’ll take care of that this weekend. Or order something online.” They didn’t have a lot of choices there in town and Ruby wasn’t sure she had the time to drive to Bangor and back. “Maybe I can find Clint a leash to match,” she teased.
Jasper thought of Jules’s weird dreams and the dudes in her head now and the thing with her hands and Greg Wheeler, and his own bizarre mood swings and how fast the scratch from that thing in the fog had healed, and he suddenly felt five kinds of worn out by it all. Did he really want to dump all that on Ruby? Give her more to worry about than she already was? Luckily she made him laugh before he decided, picturing Clint in a sparkly dog collar, only in his imagination he also had the big floppy ears and dog nose like from that Snapchat filter. That didn’t really answer her question though, so he shrugged a bit. “I dunno. Might be nothing. I’ve just had a lot of like, extreme ups and downs lately. So if I cop a weird attitude with you or something, just don’t take it personal, okay?” he offered, glancing over at her.
“I have first hand experience with unexplainable weird behavior, remember?” Ruby said. “I’m sure you can have a pass or two, so long as it doesn’t stick long term.” She didn’t know what he was going through, but she knew that once her own obsessive love spell had passed she’d felt horrible about it. But it had passed. She hadn’t lingered there for days or weeks. The hard part was dealing with the repercussions of things she had said during that time. “This something that’s happened more than once?” It sounded like it and that made it more concerning. She didn’t know how to fight against the bizarre behavior this town sometimes brought on. She kept thinking there might be a witch in town who could help, but she didn’t know how to approach them or what to even ask for.
He had a brief internal debate -- he could shrug it off now and Ruby probably wouldn’t worry about it, or he could drag her into the whole thing, on top of the other shit she had going on. Which wasn’t appealing to him at all, really. It wasn’t like she could really help ... but if he went crazy-angry at her the way he’d done with Jules, Jasper didn’t want her to think he meant any of it either. Fuck. “Yeah,” he said, slow and hesitant. “I mean ... it’s been ups and downs? But they’re like, pretty extreme ups and downs. I dunno, it might just be like, a reaction to everything that’s been goin’ on, I dunno, all the stress or whatever.” He glanced over at her and smiled slightly. “It’ll be a’ight though.”
Extreme ups didn’t sound too bad, but extreme downs? That could be bad. Ruby knew Jasper had a temper and if he wasn’t really himself, could it possibly be worse than normal? She kind of wanted to ask Jules about it, but also knew that was dangerous ground to tread, especially if she hadn’t seen it first hand herself. “Maybe it’ll pass,” she said hopefully, offering him a little smile. “A lot of these things do.” If it didn’t, if she was witness to one of his moods herself, then she could talk to Jules or Logan. “You seem fine right now though. And, I meant to ask you, did you end up getting ink with some kind of magic bound to it? Jules mentioned you were going to and then I forgot to ask you about it. Maybe something like that would help.” Or maybe that was the cause of it. Who knew?
Maybe it would pass. That would be ideal. Jasper just wanted to ignore all of his problems until they eventually went away. Maybe the effects of the monster scratch would wear off or whatever and he would be just fine. That would be ideal. He was fine right then, like Ruby said, and he wasn’t really feeling much worse than he had before, so who knew? “Nah, not yet,” he answered, shooting her another glance. They were getting close to Moxie’s now, and Jasper brought the car to a stop at a red light. “We might go next week, I think he said. I dunno if it’ll help with this, but we’ll see.” He wondered now if the protective symbols would even take on his skin if he’d been infected with something bad. Could they protect him against himself? He didn’t know. “Can’t hurt though, right?” he added with a faint smile. “Cover the bases. Kinda feel like ... I dunno, joining all the religions, just in case one is actually right.”
“Hey, me too,” Ruby said. “If you get it and you feel like it works, let me know. I was kind of wanting to do it myself. Lately I feel like we could use all the help we can get.” Maybe it was just some kind of placebo, but if there was any real magic to it, then she felt like it was worth it, especially if they continued to get bombarded with one crisis after another. They all needed a break, but Ruby wasn’t sure if that was realistic or not. As soon as they got through one thing, another seemed to take its place. “I’m having a hard time picturing you as a Buddhist monk, though,” she said after a minute, hoping to lighten the mood a bit. “And I don’t know how I feel about reincarnation.”
Jasper had nodded that he would let her know. It was kind of amusing to think about in a fucked up way -- him and Jules and Ruby and Amelia and his dad all having the same tattoo. Like a little tribe of victims of the weirdness of this town. He didn’t like to think of himself that way, but goddamn, they’d all been through a lot. He laughed at what Ruby said to break the silence and wrinkled his nose a bit. “I would have to shave my head, so ... no thanks,” he said, reaching up to tug at the ends of his hair that rested against his shoulders. “And as long as I got reincarnated away from here, I think I’d be okay with it.” Jasper slowed the car and pulled into the Moxie’s parking lot to find a spot near the front. “But yeah, I’ll let you know how it goes with the ink. Kinda stoked to get my first one, but I wish it didn’t have to be some kinda protection, you know? Just like ... a fun, stupid tattoo would be nice.”
“We’d all be sad, Goldilocks,” Ruby grinned. Jasper with a shaved head was impossible to picture without putting him in monk robes and damn that was funny. “Maybe we’ll go get something fun just because. Think about what you might get and we’ll see if you can talk me out of a tramp stamp.” Because she wanted a few herself and didn’t mind holding off on the protection one until she knew for sure it was worth it. “Thanks for the ride,” she said as she gathered all her stuff together. “Tell Amelia I said hi and I’ll call her soon. I need to get back on her schedule now that break’s over.” Her hand moved to the handle and she paused, giving him a small, concerned smile. “And keep me in the loop, okay?”
Jasper laughed at the tramp stamp comment. “Why would I wanna do that?” he teased. He’d never gotten the hatred for them, they were just tattoos in a certain place. Women had sexy backs and hips and butts, why not accentuate all of the above? He nodded that he would pass the message along to his sister while Ruby picked up her stuff, then gave her a small smile back. “I will, Rubes. Take care of yourself, okay? Don’t work too hard.” They were casual words, but there was more feeling behind them than other people might’ve seen. Ruby was one of his best friends, and he wanted her to stay safe and happy. Jasper never thought he would be grateful to Clint Nolan for anything, but here they were. “Oh hey, lemme know what your dad says too. I can come by and talk to him whenever.”
“Will do. I’ll text you about it later,” Ruby promised, mentally making a note to talk to her dad when she got home that night. That way she could butter him up a little if he wasn’t into the idea, but she didn’t think it would be a problem. “You take care, too. Seriously. I mean it,” she smiled, then shut the door and hurried in to work. It worried her that things were off with Jasper, but she’d seen that sort of thing come and go before and she hoped that was all it was, a thing that passed and then they could forget about it. That was what they needed right now, not another crisis on their hands. They already had enough of those to go around.