Who: Jasper and Amelia and Gavin When: after school/evening, Friday, Jan 12th Where: home Status: complete
It had been an all right day at school. Jasper had had a few more ups and downs as far as mood went in the few days since he’d gone to Jules’s house, but none of it seemed as extreme. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on his part and he was just getting used to how it felt. Weirdly, he always felt better in the company of others. Like being in class lifted him up. Which didn’t make any sense at all, but could he really expect anything at all to make any damn sense anymore? Fuck.
He was feeling okay as he made his way home. The opening night of the play was tonight, but he’d opted out of going the first night. Jasper would still go if Jules wanted to, but he didn’t want to be there to see people get flowers with all the families hanging around and all that. He didn’t give that much of a shit about Sebastian McCarthy. After everything that week, he was tired anyway, so he just wanted to go home and hang out. Smoke a bowl, maybe order a pizza for him and Amelia, find a movie, that kind of thing.
Jasper hoped she was home as he parked the car and headed up the porch steps to let himself into the house. “Hey hey, boys, hey,” he greeted the dogs with head-rubs and scratches, then lifted his head. “Amelia? You here?” he called.
Amelia had slept late but once she did wake up she was feeling pretty good. She took the dogs out for a long walk, feeling a bit stir crazy herself, then cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom since she was the only one without school or a job so it only felt fair she contribute. She was getting better at it too, mostly from watching youtube videos and getting a couple of pointers from Gavin. The first time she'd cleaned she'd used way too much soap and made it all entirely too difficult. It hadn't seemed like something a person could fuck up - cleaning of all things - but apparently there was a trick to it. She was reading an article on her phone with the TV on in the background when Jasper came home and she knew he was there before the door even opened because Rude jumped to his feet and ran to the door, his stubby tail wagging. Max followed a few seconds later, not as eager to leave her side but obviously feeling obligated to join in.
"I'm in here," Amelia shouted back when Jasper called for her. "Look at the kitchen!" She felt silly suddenly, yelling like that, so she put her phone down and got up, walking out to meet him and pulling him into a hug once his boots were off. He didn't always come straight home after school so she was happy to see him, especially since he sounded like he was in a good mood and hadn't skulked straight to his bedroom without a hello.
Jasper had intended to go to the kitchen anyway, but then Amelia was there hugging him, so that delayed that plan. He chuckled and gave her a squeeze and a smooch on the head, then pulled back to take his coat off and hang it up. “So how was your day?” he asked as he started to shuffle toward the kitchen. Jasper let out a low whistle and reached for the fridge handle -- the whole place looked cleaner than it had in years. “Busy with scrubbing, I guess? It looks great, I hardly recognize it.”
"The better this place looks the more we'll get for it when we sell it," Amelia said with a little wink. She'd been reading a lot about what moving entailed and it was plenty obvious this house needed all the help it could get. "And I was bored, oh my god. I need to... I don't know. Get a job." But that wasn't really something she wanted to get into right now what with everyone telling her she wasn't ready. "How are you? How's school? I'm sure you must envy me being home all day but seriously, it's not fun for long."
Jasper hadn’t been aware they were that close to selling, but honestly he didn’t think his dad was going to actually deep-clean the kitchen before that time came. So it was probably good that Amelia had taken the initiative. It would be one less thing for them to worry about. Jasper opened the fridge -- also cleaned, maybe for the first time in its life -- and pulled out a soda bottle. “I’m fine, school’s okay,” he answered her questions. He wasn’t really fine, but he felt okay at the moment and he didn’t want to worry her with all the other bullshit. “I mean, I’d want a job too if I were you,” he offered with a faint smile. Jasper grabbed another soda and held it out to Amelia with a quirked brow. “Speakin’ of, I might be getting one soon with Ruby’s dad.”
Amelia accepted the drink and swallowed the resentment that welled up with his words. It was good news, it was a job! But it also meant he'd have money to move out and she needed to be okay with that. They would still move to a house with a spare bedroom - in case he ever needed to come back - she'd make sure of it. "You're gonna be a filthy mechanic," she teased as she opened her bottle. "What do they call it again? Grease monkey?" That didn't sound right but maybe it was, she felt like she'd heard the phrase thrown around Aaron when she was little. "Like uncle Aaron."
Jasper laughed a bit and nodded. “Grease monkey, yeah,” he confirmed. “I’ll try not to get it everywhere. And yup, same shop and everything. He’s the one who taught me most of what I know anyway. I’m hoping to learn more.” He wanted to know everything he could about mechanics, and then maybe he could do the tests to get his certifications or something and become like, a man with a trade. That sounded nice, like an actual future. Maybe a lame one to some people, but the world needed mechanics as much as it needed doctors. He shut the fridge and gestured in the vague direction of the living room. “You wanna chill and find a movie or something? I was thinking about pizza tonight, I dunno when Dad’s off.”
"He said he'd be home early," Amelia said, leaning down to pet Max . "We can leave him some pizza, I'm hungry so I'm not waiting for him." She gave Jasper a little grin before heading for the living room. It had been a productive day so she felt completely justified in relaxing with her brother. It was a treat to have him home and if he was sticking around she was taking advantage of it. The couch was clear, she'd folded the duvet and pillows their dad slept with and shoved them aside earlier and yet again felt a little guilty about him sleeping out here. It was his decision though, she needed to remember she didn't have a say there at all. "How is Jules doing?" she asked as they settled there. Now that they were all in on Edward's death it felt like a more weighted question but she didn't need to go into detail on why she was concerned about Jasper's girlfriend.
If Amelia was hungry now, that meant he should probably go ahead and order, so Jasper pulled his phone out while she cleared off the couch. He kind of wanted Gavin to take his time getting home so he could hang out with his sister alone longer, but whatever, it was what it was. He flopped down and took a swig from his drink, then gave a low hum. “She’s, ah ... she’s okay, I think,” Jasper said, pursing his lips to one side. He hadn’t told Amelia about the portal-hands thing, and he knew Jules wouldn’t want him to, but it was hard to dance around. “Still stressed and kinda scared, but slowly getting better. Kinda ... worried about me, though.” Jasper glanced at Amelia out of the corner of his eye. “Have you noticed anything weird about me lately?”
Of course she had but she worried that if she told him, his mood would shift. That was the big one with him lately; his mood. "Have you felt weird lately?" she asked in an effort to dodge the question before deciding maybe that wasn't the way to go. "You've been moody, I figured it was just 'cause you were hurt." She watched the dogs settle in on their doggy beds, then pulled her feet up on the couch and curled up a little, resting her elbow on the back of the couch and facing Jasper. It was a little hard to admit to herself that Jules probably knew Jasper better than she did, she always felt a bit selfish about her brother now that she had him back in her life but she really didn't know him well when she thought about it.
Between school and hanging out, Jasper definitely saw his girlfriend more than his sister. Which probably sucked of him, but he was trying to balance a personal life with family and obligations, and sometimes there just weren’t enough hours in a day. He felt immediately guilty that things had been bad enough that Amelia noticed. He’d tried not to snap at her after the first time, but ... fuck. Jasper rubbed a hand over his hair and to the back of his neck and sighed. “Yeah,” he answered. Why try to lie about it? It obviously wasn’t something he could hide well. “Just kinda ... all over the place, lots of extremes, you know? Like ... the other day I got so pissed at Jules, for no good reason, and I like, hurt her a little. I don’t do that, you know? And then a couple days after that I was feeling so good, almost like I was high on some shit I know I didn’t take, and then it all ... crashed. In like fifteen-twenty minutes, all I could do was sleep. Fucked up.”
Amelia looked at him, a sinking feeling in her stomach. "You hurt her?" she asked quietly and that sounded bad. So bad. It felt like she was getting her wires crossed, men who hurt on one side, her brother on the other and the two should never, ever be related in any way. "Jasper, what did you do?" He said he didn't do that and it wasn't like him but one time was one time too many and even if he said it like it hadn't been a lot... It made her worry. Maybe it was shitty to focus on just that when there were so many other things obviously going on but it was hard to focus on anything else when that one thing made her insides feel like they were filling with wasps.
Hot shame flashed through Jasper and he felt his cheeks flush. It had just been a detail as he’d been talking, but of course Amelia would latch onto that and be concerned. She was a sweet, caring person. And if any man in her life grabbed Amelia’s arm like he’d grabbed Jules, Jasper would bust out all his fucking teeth. He didn’t want to minimize it, because he knew it had been a super shitty thing to do, but at the same time he felt defensive because it hadn’t really been him ... had it? Was there some genetic disposition to abuse women? Was that legacy inside him? He squeezed the back of his own neck and closed his eyes for a moment. “We were arguing, and I wasn’t feeling like myself, it was a stupid fight, and she ... called me crazy or something and so I called her a stupid bitch and she slapped me. I grabbed her arm and like ... walked her to the door. Roughly.” Jasper felt a little sick; maybe Amelia would hate him now. “She’s okay though,” he muttered. “She understands it wasn’t really me.”
That wasn't as bad as Amelia had feared and she relaxed a little before leaning over and pulling Jasper into a side-hug. "She slapped you," she muttered. "And you didn't hit her back." It was as much to reassure him as it was her, that kind of lashing out was understandable and Jules had no right to hit him in the first place, even if he called her a stupid bitch. "I would have hurt her too." With that out of the way she could start worrying about him and that wasn't much better. "What do you think is wrong?" she asked as she pulled back again, keeping her hand on his back, not wanting to completely break that physical contact.
That was definitely reassuring, and it meant enough to put a lump in Jasper’s throat. He didn’t really blame Jules for slapping him, he’d earned that much and had been refusing to de-escalate anything, he was just glad he’d kept control enough not to punch her. Or worse. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat. “I don’t know,” he told his sister, his voice not completely steady. Jasper glanced at her and then back at the coffee table in front of them. “Think I might be, like, infected with something? From the scratch? It healed really really fast, and that’s when all this up and down shit started.”
Amelia felt a chill go through her as pieces of memories rushed through her mind. Infection and disease meant death and she couldn't lose Jasper or she would go completely insane. She steadied herself, reminded herself that on this side they had doctors and medicine that they hadn't had wherever she'd been. Maggie would be alive if she'd gotten sick here. "You need to see someone," she told him, clenching his shirt in her fist without really thinking about it. "Someone who can fix it." She wasn't supposed to know how already bogged down their dad was financially but she did, but if Jasper needed a doctor she'd rob a damn bank if she had to.
When Jasper said ‘infected,’ he wasn’t really thinking about germs or antibiotics or anything like that, he just didn’t have any other word for what he was afraid of. He’d been tainted somehow? Absorbed something from another dimension that was fucking up his brain? He didn’t know, but he didn’t think any doctor at Mercy could fix it. “I don’t know who to see,” he said, desperate frustration in his voice now. “Who even knows about this fucking shit? Those fog beasts came, killed a bunch of people, wrecked the town, hurt a bunch of us and just disa-fucking-ppeared, how do you fix that?” Jasper made himself stop because he was getting loud, and he closed his eyes again to try and push it all down. He was really scared, but he didn’t want to take it out on Amelia.
Amelia didn't know how anyone could fix that so she didn't try to waste words on coming up with ideas. Instead she hugged him again, fiercely this time, pressing her face against the back of his shoulder. This family had already lost her once, they couldn't lose Jasper too, it wasn't fair and she was nearly overwhelmed with the helplessness that rushed over her. She couldn't help but be a little mad at herself too for not noticing something was wrong, like an idiot child who wasn't privy to the going-ons of the family.
He hadn’t wanted to get upset, he knew Amelia was just concerned for his wellbeing and wanting to help him, but god, it was starting to feel overwhelming. So much bad shit kept happening and it didn’t seem to be stopping and he was too aware that what he was going through might be completely new, and no one would know how to help him. And Jules ... poor Jules had enough bullshit on her plate without him adding to it. All of that was too hard to express, especially in that moment, so Jasper just moved his arm around Amelia’s back to hold onto her in return. He let them stay like that for a stretch of minutes, trying to take comfort in his sister’s embrace. It was pretty comforting, and Jasper gradually started to feel better. He patted her back. “It’ll be okay,” he murmured. “We’ll figure it out.”
Amelia did not feel better. She just felt sad and scared and tired now, still clinging to him as she wracked her brain trying to think of a solution. She wanted to call Ms. Lettie and ask her for advice but supposed she should wait until her next appointment. "You need to tell dad," she said quietly. It was all upside down. Jasper was always the one she went to when something was wrong. First Jasper, then Gavin and now Jasper was the one in trouble and she had no idea how to even begin to tackle that. Gavin knew witches, that was all she knew, maybe he'd know what to do being an adult and all.
Jasper winced and scowled a bit, but he knew that she was ultimately right. If things kept getting worse, he wouldn’t be able to hide anything from Gavin anyway. He didn’t know if his dad could help or not, but it was best if he knew what was going on. Jasper knew that his vague hope that the problem would just go away on its own was in vain. That just didn’t happen. “Yeah ... I will,” he murmured. Jasper wasn’t sure when, but he would. “Soon.” He turned his head to bump it gently against Amelia’s, really wanting to steer them away from this thing that neither of them could do anything about. “Worrying about it’s not gonna do us any good though, so let’s just ... what kinda pizza do you want?”
Amelia let go of him a bit reluctantly and leaned back, idly fidgeting with the sleeve of his t-shirt. "Order whatever you want, I'm not picky," she said and while there were definitely things she liked more than others, she was feeling listless now. Worrying might not do them any good but it wasn't something she could switch on and off at will and she suddenly felt so tired and lost. She reached for her soda and drank some, hoping the sugar and the fizz might help a bit, at least with that tired part.
She looked so unhappy, but there wasn’t anything Jasper could do about that. At least he didn’t think so. Not right then. He could feed her though, so Jasper pulled his phone out and dialed up the pizza place after a moment’s thought on what to order. Amelia liked pineapple, so he went with that and beef on a large, and got them some cheese sticks to go with it, and extra dipping sauce. Once that was done and dinner was impending, he nudged his sister with his elbow and smiled. “You wanna pick what we watch?” he offered.
Amelia shook her head. The thought of going through the list of things available and actually picking something suddenly felt so insurmountable. She just wanted to curl up next to him and relax. Maybe she'd outdone herself with the cleaning but she was starting to feel so tired. "You pick something," she told him. "I'll watch anything right now." She put her glass down and shifted her position, plopping her feet on Jasper's lap and pulling a pillow under her head.
Jasper felt a little guilty for dragging the room down or whatever, because Amelia definitely seemed more subdued than she had when he’d gotten home. He felt pretty good himself, though, more settled and peaceful. He didn’t mind her feet in his lap, though he did pinch at her toes playfully for a second as he started to search out something to watch. Pizza would come soon and they could eat and hopefully enjoy the rest of their evening together. Amelia was passed out cold within thirty minutes though, not even waking up when the pizza guy knocked and Jasper moved her feet so he could get up to answer the door. He didn’t wake her since she seemed to need the rest, just got himself a plate of food and plopped into the recliner to eat and keep watching his show about car remodels.
Amelia was still sleeping when Gavin came home a couple of hours later. He didn't intend to stay home long but he wanted to talk to Jasper and get something to eat before he went back. Fridays were busy at the bar and they were fully staffed but he still felt obliged to spend some time there too. He headed straight for the living room, completely missing all the work his daughter had put into cleaning the kitchen. The TV was on and it was sweet to see both his kids hanging out together. "Hey," he murmured, shrugging his coat off and taking a seat on the arm of the couch, watching Amelia sleep for a moment. It was a comfortable couch, it wasn't weird to pass out on it. "You uh, busy with that?" He gestured at the TV and almost hoped Jasper wasn't in the mood to talk yet. Gavin sure as shit wasn't but he'd made a promise.
Jasper was aware of his dad coming home because of the door and the dogs and all, but he didn’t pay it much mind until Gavin came into the room and sat down. Was he even supposed to be home yet? It was Friday night. The question made Jasper even more confused and he raised an eyebrow at his dad. “I mean ... I’m watching it,” he said, like that should be obvious. Since he was watching it and all. “But I’m not like, busy. What’s up?” It was apparent already that Gavin wanted something, or he just would’ve gone on about his business or kicked Jasper out of his chair to take over the TV.
Gavin wanted to dismiss it and just watch whatever it was Jasper was watching. For a long time he didn't even know what to say and he licked his lips as he patted his pocket for his pack of cigarettes. He thought better of it, with Amelia sleeping there, dropping his hands back in his lap. "Have you been... feeling okay?" It was clear he didn't think so, it wasn't a small talk niceties kind of question, his worry was written all over his face. He didn't want to tell Jasper Jules had come to see him, not yet anyway, hopefully they could just talk without him bringing other people into the mix.
It took Gavin so long to answer, Jasper was starting to wonder if he actually would or not. He looked constipated and fretful, and that worried Jasper a bit. Granted, Gavin looked that way a lot, but there was obviously something on his mind. The question he finally asked shouldn’t have been surprising, considering everything, but it still was. Jasper’s expression clouded a bit and he frowned. Gavin didn’t even have to bring Jules into it, Jasper was already hearing her telling him he should tell his dad about the moodswings. Had she jumped the gun on that? Fuck. “Why?” he asked instead of answering the question directly. His eyes ticked to Amelia, but she was still asleep. At least she looked like it.
Gavin wasn't sure what he was expecting here, he and Jasper rarely had some heart to heart thing going on, the closest they'd gotten to that was when Jasper saw the black eyed children but that had been different. It was hard to try to put this into words without bringing Jules into it and he cleared his throat, glancing at Amelia too. "You've been moody," he muttered. "And uh, dad got hurt too and he's been... he's been acting weird, ma says. Mood swings, worse than usual. Sometimes happier than normal. Paranoid." He didn't have all the details and he honestly didn't know if this was just Joseph being Joseph. "So... How have you been?"
That was new information about Joseph. It was stuff he’d been telling himself he was going to ask about, find out about, but something had been holding him back. That denial that wanted to keep saying he was fine, it was normal moodiness or PTSD like Logan suggested or something. But Joseph ever being happy did sound weird, that was undeniable. Jasper thought about moving them to another room to have this conversation because of Amelia, but if it had to be talked about it, maybe she should hear it too. If she was any sort of awake. Jasper sighed and picked up the remote to turn the TV down. “I’ve been like, half-shitty,” he said, looking at Gavin again. “Mood swings, this crazy sort of up and down some days. I was really feeling good at school the other day and then I went home with Jules and it just all crashed down. We couldn’t even fuck, I just wanted to sleep all of the sudden. She thought I was on something, but I wasn’t. Been really angry a few times, like ... way beyond normal. So I dunno.”
Thankfully Jules hadn't mentioned the fucking part, it was a lot easier to hear that from Jasper but it did feel like pertinent information, it certainly didn't sound like it was normal for Jasper - or most eighteen year old boys, especially a Lucas. Maybe that was biased thinking, Gavin didn't want to think about it too much. He was at a loss at how to approach the topic of getting help, looking down at his hands for a moment before looking at Amelia again. His 'seat' wasn't very comfortable so he ended up moving, nudging Amelia's feet aside and patting her calf. "Amelia, you wanna wake up for a bit? It's only eight," he murmured softly and frowned again when her reply was just a grumbled and barely awake 'no'. At least he got a proper seat now and he idly patted his daughter's foot, clearing his throat again. "We might- it might be time to talk to someone."
It was a little weird that Amelia was so sleepy, but Jasper didn’t think much about it. Maybe she’d just had a late night or cleaning the kitchen had taken it out of her or something. She was safe and snug, so it didn’t matter, he guessed. Jasper refocused on Gavin, the furrow in his brow deepening. “Fuckin’ ... talk to who?” he asked incredulously. It wasn’t his dad’s fault, but Jasper couldn’t think of a single soul who could help with this, if it was actually connected to the injury he’d sustained from the fog beast. “You think I’m crazy too? Logan was saying it might be like ... PTSD or something. But Jules thinks it’s from the scratch somehow. And if it’s happening to grandpa too, I bet she’s right.”
"I don't think you're crazy... I was thinking about reaching out to one of the witches," Gavin muttered and he still hated the idea; after everything that had happened, it was the very last thing he wanted to do and it felt a bit like spitting in his brother's face. Hell, both their faces, would this be the third that fucked Gavin over like it had both Aaron and Caden? "I mean if it's something medicine can't deal with then I don't know who else is qualified." Or maybe they should be seeing a doctor first, it wasn't the first time Gavin felt completely at a loss and probably wouldn't be the last, unfortunately.
Witches. That seemed like the solution to everything, but what had witches actually done for them? Nothing that Jasper could recall. The little hex bags he’d gotten from Belladonna hadn’t seemed to help anything, they hadn’t found any real help when Amelia had gone missing, nobody could help Jules with her dreams or any of that bullshit. They probably couldn’t do anything about her hands either. None of them had stopped the fog or the monsters who’d torn up the town and killed a bunch of people. “I dunno either,” Jasper muttered sourly, looking back at the TV so he didn’t have to see that lost look on his dad’s face. He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a second, annoyance building that they were having to have this conversation at all. “What brought this up, anyway? I don’t remember bein’ like, pissy with you.”
Gavin wanted to keep Jules's name out of it but it was such a direct question and of course Jasper had to fucking ask it. He hummed quietly, glancing at Amelia as if she might have any answers but she just slept which didn't help him at all. "Uhm," he started. "Your girlfriend. She's worried about you." If Jasper was going to hold that against her then he was in the wrong so what the hell could Gavin do about that? "She came to the bar."
The only surprising part of any of that to Jasper was the last bit. “She came to the bar,” he echoed, his tone half impressed and half resigned. Jasper rubbed his hand over his face before he let his head fall back against the recliner cushion. Jules must have been really worried to go that far, he knew she really wasn’t comfortable with his family, his dad especially. To be fair, Jasper didn’t associate comfort of any kind with his father. “She told me I should talk to you,” he murmured. “Guess she decided to get to it first.” He didn’t know how to feel about that, he wasn’t mad exactly, but there was something bothersome about it.
Maybe Jules hadn't trusted that Jasper actually would and Gavin couldn't blame her. His son wasn't much good at asking for help, the whole family was shit at communicating on a good day and there hadn't been a whole lot of good days in a while. "Damn women, always fretting," he muttered good-naturedly. It felt nice to be cared for, like he did with Charlie, but more often than not he didn't feel like he deserved it. He wondered if Jasper was the same. "So what do you say, should I reach out to someone?"
Talking definitely didn’t come easy, even with Jules, and she was the one he talked to the most. Well, there was Logan ... but Jasper definitely didn’t want to think about him right now. There was enough heavy shit on his mind. Logan was his best friend, that was the end of it. The ghost of a faint smile crossed his lips at his dad’s little joke, then he blew out some hair and rubbed at the back of his neck again. “Sure, I mean ... I guess, if you actually have somebody in mind,” he muttered. Jasper was doubtful anybody they actually knew could help, but what could looking into it hurt? People seemed to be worried about him, so ... maybe it would make Jules feel better.
"Reagan Kelly," Gavin said quietly, his reluctance to make the call surfacing in the tone of his voice. "And if she can't help I... I might just call Ollie, see who else she knows." He knew Jasper would hate that, so would Amelia and he glanced over at his sleeping daughter, half expecting her to sit up give him a death glare that said 'don't'. "Last resort," he added. "She knew some powerful people back in the day and... she didn't tell me all their names." This had to be different. She no longer lived in Point Pleasant and this was possibly her son's life on the line. She couldn't be so far removed from them that she'd let her kids get hurt.
A knee-jerk wave of aggravation rolled through Jasper at even the mention of his mom’s name. Like she would actually help them. Like she would lift a finger to do anything positive. “Oh, so she’ll answer the phone for you?” Jasper asked with incredulity. He snorted and shook his head. It wasn’t that he’d been reaching out to his mother much to try and talk to her, but she still hadn’t answered the few messages he’d left her. She’d still moved without telling them shit, she’d abandoned them. She was apparently having another baby, a half-sibling they would never know. “Fuck that,” he muttered. He would rather let whatever this was kill him than ask her for help. Jasper was sure his father wouldn’t see it that way, but whatever.
Gavin silently berated himself for mentioning Ollie despite knowing better, he couldn't have expected any other reaction when Ollie had caused so much pain. "Yeah let's... hope it doesn't come to that," he said awkwardly. Of course Jasper had no idea that going to Reagan Kelly was just as hard for him, possibly even harder. Ollie was a bitch but she was a relatively harmless one, especially now that she was so far away. Gavin knew she'd pick up the phone for him. Eventually, at least. They had always had a complicated love-hate relationship but that meant there was still love there, no matter how fucked up it was. History held a lot of power over people. "The girl next door got hurt too but... you don't get along, do you."
“She tried to break me and Jules up with some stupid bullshit, so no, we don’t,” Jasper said, his tone flat and annoyed. He couldn’t help it when Gavin brought up the two most bothersome females in Jasper’s life. He hated his mother much more than Elodie, for various complex reasons, but he still wasn’t a fan of the neighbor girl. Fuck her forever, fuck Olivia forever, fuck everybody but Jules. And Amelia. And Ruby, he guessed. Fine, just fuck those two. “I’m not gonna fuckin’ talk to her, if that’s what you’re suggesting. You’re the one who like, hero-carried her into the hospital, you go talk to her if you’re curious.”
Gavin quirked a brow at that information but didn't comment. He really didn't pay much attention to what was going on in his son's life and this felt like a stark reminder of that and how he really should try to keep up. "Your sister isn't a fan either," he muttered instead of bringing attention to it, then reached out to steal a slice of the pizza closest to Amelia. "I'll start with Kelly and we'll figure out where to go from there. I don't think we need to involve our neighbor. Do you... know anyone you think could help?"
Jasper couldn’t help but roll his eyes -- though to be fair, he didn’t try very hard to stop it. “Oh yeah, I just remembered I know like, some hardcore powerful witches from my math class ... no, Dad, I don’t fuckin’ know anybody,” he said testily. He and Gavin had mended a few fences and bonded over their trauma over Amelia and all that, but his dad could still be insufferably stupid sometimes, like most parents of teenagers. Jasper thought briefly of the people Jules was involved with, but they all sounded clueless about their own confusing clusterfuck, so he doubted there was any help there. “The only place I ever went for help was Belladonna, so,” he added in a mutter.
It all came back to Reagan Kelly, didn't it. Gavin shouldn't have been surprised to hear that's where Jasper went for help but he was beginning to wonder if there really were other witches in town or if it was just Reagan and her sadistic husband. Maybe they were evil after all and everything that kept going wrong did so because of their dark magic. "Guess we're stuck with Kelly then," he said, not letting the lashing out get to him. He'd had worse from Jasper in the past. "Did she help you? When you went to see her?" It was a fair question. Gavin had seen Reagan's work and he knew she was powerful but was she really helping? Going to her again felt like such a leap of faith and those should come easily to a catholic but Gavin didn't feel like such a good catholic lately.
Jasper didn’t want to talk about any of this all of the sudden, he just wanted to go to his room and be alone. He was miffed at Jules for going to his dad without talking to him first, or even warning him that she had after the fact. He was irrationally annoyed at Gavin for all this new concern and the questions, and he was jealous of his sister for getting to sleep through it all. “I bought a few hex bags from her a while ago, that’s it,” he answered, giving another shrug. “I dunno if they did shit or not. They sure as fuck haven’t helped with all this.” Jasper made a vague gesture at himself and around them. Maybe those problems were bigger than hex bags could handle, but who could even tell, fuck. Having them had made him feel a little better for a while, but not anymore.
The hex bags had helped for a while but Gavin didn't know if those hex bags had been from Reagan Kelly or someone else. What if she was just... evil. What if everything she did was only escalating the problems in their lives? Or maybe all this was just a continuous escalation from the evil he and Caden had done. That didn't really explain the other people but who knew how these things rippled outward. Maybe most of the people who got hurt in the fog were fine and it was just them, just this family curse continuing to haunt them. He stared at his half eaten pizza slice as his thoughts churned around in his head, useless and circular. "I don't know what else to do," he muttered. "She's the only witch I know."
He looked kind of zoned out and like he wasn’t really talking to Jasper at all. Jasper eyed his dad warily for a second, then shrugged again. “Then try,” he said, not sure what other sort of answer he was looking for. Jasper bit his tongue on telling Gavin not to get his hopes up. Underneath his annoyance at the line of questioning, he knew it was coming from a good place. He was worried about himself too, he just hated to admit it. And he’d mostly been feeling pretty good these past few days, so maybe it was going away.
The other thing Gavin could think to do was call Ollie. She'd always been vague about who she knew, reluctant to give names, but he could push this time, make her understand how serious it was. It just felt like betraying his kids, even if he was doing it to try to help Jasper. One thing was certain and that was that he wasn't going to get answers from Jasper, maybe not anyone else either. "Okay," he muttered. "I'll do what I can. You let me know if... if you feel weird, if something's off, something changes."
Jasper didn’t think there was any help to be found, and if there was, they probably didn’t know the right people to give it. But who the fuck really knew. Jasper didn’t feel like there was any control over it, so it would just play out how it played out. “Okay, cool,” he said. Since that seemed to be that, Jasper picked up the remote to turn the TV volume up again. Jasper resettled his head against the back of the recliner with his eyes on the screen once more. He had mixed emotions about all of this, but he didn’t even want to think about anything right then, much less feel it. Escape and repression were better.