Jules and Bash
"Our dads worked together," she explained. "I guess Ethan's uncle reached out to my mom. Or my mom reached out to him. Ethan is sort of tied to what I can do. He helps me. It's easier with him, and it doesn't hurt." Jules nearly told Sebastian about the doorway near Sweetbriar Bridge. But that was for she and Ethan and it didn't feel right to tell someone else about it. She huffed a soft laugh when Bash called Ethan hot and while she understood he had only good intentions, Jules couldn't really fathom moving on right now. Jasper had only been gone a few months and that wouldn't have been fair to Ethan at all. "He's hot, yeah. And he's awesome. But, I mean, even if I felt like I could go out with someone else, we're pretty tied together now. If things got fucked up, we'd both be screwed. I don't want to do that to him." Jules glanced at their table again. "But you seem to be doing okay with Theo. How's that going?"
"That's really good. Like, I can't even imagine wanting to use an ability that hurt, so I'm glad you found him," Sebastian smiled. "I hope that means you can open other portals though, cause I can't imagine wanting to open the same one." Even if Jasper was still alive there somewhere, they both knew opening the portal to the fog dimension was a bad idea. It had to be tempting, especially if Jules could do it without feeling pain, but the repercussions were just too great. "But yeah, I can see how that would be an issue, even if you were ready. It's a shame though. He seems cool." It could be a while before she was ready to move on though. What did people say--half the time they'd been together? That was still a long time. When she turned the questioning around on him, he smiled, teeth digging into his bottom lip. "It's good. I mean, he's here, which I still can't believe, but, it's like-- like he has all the confidence that I just pretend to have. He was ready to come out, so he just did it. It doesn't make sense to freak out on his behalf, you know?"
They could open other doorways and they had. But that still felt like something secret, between she and Ethan... and the research facility, of course. This wasn't really the time or place to talk about that stuff anyway. But she was glad Bash liked Ethan. Maybe they could become friends too. Jules kind of got the feeling that a lot of Ethan's friends had gone and spread out after their graduation and he had stayed back with his uncle. Jules nodded along to what Bash said about Theo. She knew him from school, obviously. He had sort of been in their own social circle and his mom was the freaking mayor, so he had some clout. He was hot too. Jules and a handful of her own friends had harbored crushes on him at some point in high school. It was wild to see him here with Bash. "You have confidence," Jules told Bash. "About a lot of things, at least. I think maybe Hunter sort of damaged that a little. But you're here with someone who seems to really like you and that's more important than anything else."
Bash's natural inclination was to argue, but he knew that Jules was probably right. He was still popular, even after coming out. People liked him, he was smart, and he was hot. He was good at football. It was dating that he struggled with, but that hadn't always been the case. He'd been overly confident with Hunter, foolishly so, and he didn't want to make the same mistake twice. But Jules was right, Theo did seem to like him. He couldn't imagine him coming tonight if he didn't. "I know," he said. "And I really like him. I just... don't wanna screw this up, you know? I liked what we had, but it also kinda sucked keeping it all a secret. This could be better, but it could also change things." He and Hunter had been fine until he'd come out, and then things had gone downhill without him really realizing it. He didn't want the same thing to happen with Theo, except Theo wasn't Hunter, and that made a world of difference.