Jasper Lucas (sinsoftheson) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-01-16 19:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | #september 2017, jasper, jasper x jules, jules |
Who: Jules and Jasper
Where: over the phone
When: late afternoon, Sunday, September 24th
Status: Complete
Jules was not fond of the fog. Or the lack of electricity. It wasn’t just Overlook apparently, since her friends had been texting all morning about the power outage. She couldn’t even drive to Joyland to get a mocha, which had really started her day off on the wrong foot. She hated being stuck inside, especially without anything to do. She gave some thought to driving to a friend’s house, but she wasn’t sure who she even wanted to see. Driving through the fog would be a huge pain in the ass, and she didn’t want to get somewhere only to find herself getting bored in the first twenty minutes.
Her parents weren’t due to be home until the evening, and while Jason was there, he was in his room doing whatever and Jules didn’t really expect to see him out and about, certainly not to socialize with her. She did find herself wondering what Jasper was up to. Was he out driving somewhere? At his mom’s, or a friend’s house? She had been pretty good at resisting the urge to text him the day before after he’d left her house in the morning. He had been pretty pissed about his car windows being shattered, and there hadn’t been a whole lot Jules could do about it. Apparently a ton of cars in town had been vandalised or something, and it sucked but it was what it was. People could be shitheads.
And since almost a full day had gone by without them texting each other, Jules decided she was bored enough to see what he was up to. She sent him a simple text. Just a hey. What are you up to?. Her phone continued to blow up from texts from her friends, but nothing from Jasper. She wrote several more texts after that, after time passed and Jules came to the conclusion that he was just ignoring her. Thankfully she deleted all of them before hitting send. Sending twenty WTF ASSHOLE texts was probably a little crazy and Jasper already thought she was insane.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t stewing about it by the time she drew herself a hot bubble bath after lunch. She told herself that when he decided she was worth his time to text back, she would ignore it, maybe for the rest of the day… but every time a new text came through, Jules checked it immediately, only to scowl when she saw it was her mom, or another friend. Honestly, the later it got, the worse Jules felt. Her eyes kept ticking to her mirror, but nothing weird had happened with it since that one morning. She hadn’t told anyone but Jasper about it, and honestly, Jules had kind of forgotten all about it until now. Now that she was thinking about it again, there was a ball of dread forming in her stomach. It sort of felt like if she kept remembering it, picturing it in her head, it would suddenly happen again. Or something would happen. Something bad.
Jules could feel her heart start to beat a little faster and she set her phone to the side of the tub before sinking down into the bubbles and the water until she submerged herself. She could just shut out everything and refocus and the bad feeling would go away. The mirror was normal. Everything was normal. Except the power outage. And the fog. Beneath the water the sound of her pulse pounding was even louder in her ears.
The longer the day went on, the more paranoid and weird Jasper had felt. He was still trying to chalk it up to what he’d seen the night before, but he couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that it was more than that. That something was really wrong. His dad seemed to be having the same sorts of feelings, and that didn’t help much. After they’d played a few rounds of cards to occupy themselves, Jasper really wanted to get into his dead phone. Gavin didn’t want him in his own car, so they’d sat in Gavin’s instead, letting the engine idle while Jasper’s phone charged.
After a bit, Gavin’s worry had overcome the fact that Amelia had sounded fine on the phone. Jasper’s added to it, and the two of them decided to drive over to pick her up. It was a short drive that took a while because of the fucking fog, but they made it there and back safely, and some knot in Jasper’s stomach loosened a tiny bit to have his baby sister in the house with them. She at least brought a lighter voice, a distraction.
He’d seen all the missed texts from Jules, and that put his mind at ease a tiny bit too. At least she was okay enough to keep texting him, with more and more annoyance in the spaces between her words. Jasper waited until Amelia was settled with his dad, reading something on the couch, then he headed toward the spare room that was going to eventually be his. Jasper closed the door and sat on the floor with his phone in hand, touching the buttons to call Jules. He didn’t want to do this through text, he had to hear her voice.
The sound of her heart beating madly in her ears suddenly sounded different. Rhythmic and buzzy. It took Jules a couple of seconds to realize it was her phone ringing, not pinging like it did with text messages. Jules pushed up from the bath, water splashing up and over the back down to the floor. She grabbed one of her towels hanging from the hooks above her and wiped her face and hands before she picked up her phone to see Jasper's name. Well, Jae anyway. She had been paranoid one of her friends would go through her phone and see Jasper in her contacts and start asking questions. The photo she used for his contact was one of the darkened streets the two of them parked on from time to time to make out or fight during the summer. The photo was illuminated by the street lamps and she could see the front of Jasper's car in the photo. Jules had nearly forgotten about it, since they almost never called each other.
She debated whether or not she ought to answer or just decline the call out of spite. But her internal war lasted only for a few seconds as she swiped to answer. If he was calling, maybe it was important or something. Or he just wanted to yell at her for the texts. Whatever. Jules settled back against the tub again, blinking away water that ran down from her hair back into her face. "Hi," Jules said, because it was nicer than why are you calling me?. She did her best to sound casual instead of breathless or weird. She closed her eyes as to avoid the temptation to look at her mirror. "I was starting to think you lost your phone."
Normally Jasper avoided calling anyone as much as possible, and it was very possible in the modern world. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d called Jules, but it had probably been something short when his hands were occupied with driving or something. It rang so long that he was sure it would go to voicemail, and that made his heart pound harder. What if something had happened to her while he’d been doing other shit? Fuck, he should’ve called her sooner ...
But then she was there, sounding kind of sardonic, and Jasper’s shoulders slumped out of the tense hunch they’d acquired. He took a quiet deep breath, his eyes closing. “Hey,” he greeted, attempting to make his own voice casual. “Nah, it was just dead. I’m at my dad’s and the power’s out, so I had to charge it in the car.” She would probably think it was a weak excuse and give him some shit for it, but Jasper was really okay with that today. He was just glad that she sounded alive and normal. He swallowed and took another breath before he asked, “How are you doing?”
It was a weak excuse and Jules pursed her lips together before deciding to let it go. He was at his dad's house, so at least he was somewhere safe in this shitty weather and not stuck in his car somewhere. She still felt like he should have charged it sooner since she'd texted him that morning, but whatever. Rather than complain, she made a noise in her throat that indicated she was annoyed, but willing to forgive him for it. Jules opened her eyes and stared at her pink painted toes poking out from the bubbles that were starting to dissipate in the water. "I'm fine," she said after a moment of thought. "I mean, no power and I can't go anywhere and I'm feeling kind of stir crazy, but... fine, I guess. How are you doing." And why was he calling her? Jules felt like there had to be a reason, otherwise he would have just texted, right?
He was glad to hear that she was okay, besides the totally normal problems that came with this kind of situation. That was a small relief. She sounded a little echo-y, like she might be in the bathroom or the kitchen or something. Jasper leaned his back against the bedroom door and pulled his knees up, bringing his free hand up to gnaw a bit on his thumbnail. It was a nervous habit that he’d thought he’d broken, but he couldn’t seem to stop it today. “Not ... great,” he answered Jules, his voice low and quiet. “Something --” he cut himself off with a sigh, rubbing at his eye. Jasper gave a tiny chuckle that wasn’t amused at all. “You know how you said I would think you were crazy? Yeah, something ... like that happened to me last night.”
The bad feeling in her stomach seemed to coil into an uncomfortable, rusty ball in her stomach and Jules's gaze ticked to her mirror instinctively. She wanted to sink back down into the water, but she had her phone in her hand so Jules somehow resisted the urge. "What do you mean?" she asked, her tone shifting from mild annoyance at his lack of communication all day to hesitant curiosity. Concern too, but that was harder to express, especially over the phone and especially to Jasper. Her heart was pounding in her chest again, but for different reasons than before, although the discomfort remained. "What happened?"
It occurred to Jasper belatedly that Jules might not believe him. That she might call him crazy, or think he was trying to fuck with her or -- worse -- shrug it off as his imagination or something. He knew what he’d seen and what he’d felt and it hadn’t been his fucking imagination. His expression was pained as he chewed on the side of his thumbnail for another second. It was too late to back out on telling her now.
“I took Mason home after work shut down,” he started a little hesitantly. “And it was really hard to drive, so I just ... parked. Thought the fog would clear off in the morning. I fell asleep. And then sometime in the middle of the night ... there were these ... kids, knocking on my window. Saying they needed a ride. Only it was ... weird. Like, really bad-weird. Felt wrong. And I looked away for a second and then looked back, and I saw their eyes were just ... solid black. It feels so fucking stupid to say, but I was positive they were gonna kill me. Like, I’ve never been that fucking scared.” He gave a soft grunt and rubbed at his face again, some embarrassment joining the mix of shitty emotions he was feeling. “I got the fuck outta there and came to dad’s,” Jasper ended in a mumble.
Jules was silent for a moment as she absorbed everything he had just told her. Honestly if she hadn't had her super bizarre impossible experience with her mirror, she would have rolled her eyes and told him he had dreamed everything, or had smoked a bad batch of pot or something. Even now it was difficult to truly accept it, because kids with black eyes wanting to kill people in the middle of the night seemed so far fetched, but yet so... plausible in Point Pleasant, if one believed all the stories. Jasper's story made her shiver in the hot bath and Jules licked her lips, staring as the remaining bubbles began to pop and disappear in the water. Jasper had believed her when she told him about her mirror and Jules knew that had happened, so her gut told her to believe him too. She took a breath and closed her eyes. "Please tell me you're done sleeping in your car," Jules murmured. "Are you okay? Did you recognize the kids at all?"
He hadn’t really expected much concern from her, so that was kind of nice, but it barely touched that feeling of dread that was still lingering in his chest. It was stupid, everybody he really cared about was accounted for, he was pretty sure. But gut feelings didn’t give a shit about logic. “Dad wants me to move in here. But yeah, I’m okay,” he answered, though he really wasn’t. Jasper just didn’t know how to express to Jules that he felt like the whole world had shifted in a bad way. Like nothing was stable under his feet anymore. “No, never seen them before in my life. And they didn’t even have jackets on; one was like, my sister’s age, the other one younger. Didn’t seem scared or ... even like real kids.” He paused, his voice dropping even further before he added, “They weren’t. I could feel it. They were evil.”
She couldn't really fault his dad for wanting Jasper to move in with him, especially if something like that happened while Jasper was sleeping in his car. But Jules wondered if Jasper wanted to move in with his dad. Every time they talked about it - which wasn't often at all - it seemed like Jasper couldn't stand the guy. But he couldn't stand his mom either, so maybe the lesser of two evils was the only option he had. Jules sighed, sort of aware that he wasn't okay even if he said he was. She had said she was fine after the mirror thing but she wasn't. It fucked her up and made her question her own sanity. Jules had a hard time even looking in a mirror now, which was really fucking tragic considering how often she felt like she needed to check her hair or make up. And now she didn't know the right thing to say to him to make him feel better. Jules couldn't tell him everything would be fine now, because that was so obviously a lie. But in a fucked up way, she felt relieved, because now she didn't feel so alone now that he had experienced something too.
"If that's true, then at least you had enough awareness to get out of there instead of sticking around," Jules said after a moment. Her stomach still hurt, despite the fact that Jasper was okay, at least physically. It was like hearing his own experience somehow made everything feel worse. Like it could happen again. Suddenly she wished she and her stepbrother got along better, and she could go hang out in his room or something. The house felt too big and too empty. "You're going to stay at your dad's now, right? I mean, you're not going anywhere, are you? Obviously you can't like, live out of your car anymore."
Jasper certainly didn’t expect Jules to make him feel better. He wasn’t sure that was possible today, or if they were even capable of doing that for each other. He didn’t know if he’d helped her at all after her thing, but it was a bit of a relief to tell someone else. Gavin believing him, and opening up about his own experience had been one thing, he was Jasper’s father. It was an important thing, yes. Telling a peer, especially Jules, was different. He’d already been through plenty of rejection from his dad, rejection from her would be worse at this point. Jasper wouldn’t have believed her if she said everything would be fine, because he knew better, so he was glad that she didn’t try.
“Yeah, I’m going to stay here,” he answered, a tiny smile flickering across his face. If it had been a normal day, he probably would’ve given her some shit for telling him what to do or caring or whatever, but it wasn’t a normal day. Jasper wasn’t sure if he would have any normal days again. “He’s gonna clean out the spare room and give it to me. And we went and picked up Amelia for the day, so she’s okay too.” Jules probably didn’t give a shit about his little sister, but it came out of his mouth anyway. Oops. Jasper picked at the hem of his jeans where it was starting to fray. He wanted to tell her he’d wanted to hear her voice and make sure she was all right, but that felt ... too vulnerable. They weren’t supposed to say that shit. “You’re sticking close to home too, right?” he asked instead.
It was really the most Jasper had ever really talked about his family, other than to tell Jules he didn't want to talk about them at all. It was also kind of strange because she had almost forgotten he even had a sister. He sounded okay with living with his dad though, so maybe that was a good thing. She was selfishly happy for it, if that meant they wouldn't have to fuck in his car anymore. Although Jules wasn't entirely sure Jasper living with his dad meant their own situation would change. He still might not want to bring her around. It didn't seem like the right time to ask and shockingly, Jules let it go for the time being. She rubbed idly at her eye before dipping her hand beneath the water again. "Yeah, I guess so. Jason is home, at least. But if I want to go anywhere, it'll probably be close to home." She had a couple friends who lived in Overlook, so Jules wouldn't have to drive into town or anything. "It's kind of creepy with all the power out. I've got candles everywhere and that doesn't really help much." Jules paused briefly. "Did you tell your dad what happened? Did he believe you?"
Jasper didn’t know yet how things would change once he officially moved in. The thought of bringing Jules over and having to introduce her to his father filled him with nervous dread. But Gavin was gone a lot with the bar, so maybe it would kind of be like having his own place. Gavin had already said no parties, but one guest wasn’t a party. So Jasper had already strategized to try and bring her over whenever his dad was working. At least he had one of those late-night jobs that made it easier, unlike at Jules’s house. Jasper gave a hum of acknowledgement, glad that Jules wasn’t going to be out wandering around in this. He’d almost wrecked a few times driving in it, and he was positive he was a better driver than she was.
Jasper winced internally a bit at her questions, vividly recalling crawling into his father’s bed and crying like a little bitch. He couldn’t have gotten away with not telling him. But Jules didn’t need to know that part. She would never fuck him again. “Yeah, I told him,” he said with a soft sigh. “He believed me. He’s ... apparently been through some shit of his own. I dunno.” That wasn’t really his story to share, so he wasn’t going to. It was both fucking awful and kind of reassuring. At least none of them were alone with the crazy shit out there. Jasper nibbled on his bottom lip, hesitating, then added, “I believed you before, but now I like ... understand it. And it fucking sucks. Like ... I dunno, fuck. I dunno how to say it.” He sighed.
Jules's brows lifted in her surprise and she tilted her head back, her gaze wandering over the dimly lit ceiling. His dad had experienced weird stuff too? Had her mom? Jason? Her stepdad? It wasn't like they ever talked like a family would. Not about anything important. If she ever told her mom what she saw in the mirror, Margaret Cooper would have Jules's ass sitting in a psychiatrist's office in a heartbeat. She told Jasper instead, because there was the sliver of hope that he might believe her.
Jules sighed. "You don't have to say anything, Jasper. I get it, you know? I'm glad your dad believed you. I believe you too. I just don't know... what to do about it. Like, it happened, to you, and me, and your dad and probably other people too, but... now what? We can't just, like, cocoon ourselves from the real world, but it's not exactly normal out there anymore either." She swallowed and finally sat up in the water and reached into the water to unplug the drain. "I keep having this bad feeling in my stomach that something's wrong, or something's going to happen and it's like... making me anxious and stuff, especially knowing you had some scary ass encounter with demon kids or whatever they were."
“I don’t think it ever was normal,” Jasper muttered. They just had been blind to it. He listened to Jules move around, realizing finally that she’d been in the bathtub when he called. That made him think of the mirror in there, and part of him had to kind of admire that she could hang out around it long enough for a bath. She was a tough bitch, he’d always liked that about her. It also of course made him think about her being naked, but that was just teenage-boy-brain background noise at the moment. They were having maybe the most serious and in-depth conversation they’d ever had. “I’m having the same feeling, though. Like the other shoe’s about to drop or some shit. My dad, he ... told me about some stuff he’s done for like, protection. Witchy shit that he’s sure has worked at least some. I might look into it, you know? I mean, if some of the bad shit is true, then some of the good shit must be true too, right?”
Jules grabbed her towel and juggled the phone around a bit until she got it wrapped tightly around her body. She ignored her wet hair for the moment, shivering as she padded out of her bathroom into her bedroom. Jules headed for the window to peer outside but there was nothing much to see. She could make out some trees, but that was about it. It made her wonder if her mom would actually be coming home tonight or if they would stay in a hotel somewhere until the fog eased up. Her blonde brows furrowed curiously as she turned away from the window. "Witchy stuff... like magic?" She couldn't help but sound a little skeptical. Jules knew all about Point Pleasant's "history" with the witch executions and all that. The town went nuts over it during Halloween. But Jules wasn't entirely sure she believed that any of it was really real. "Your dad does that stuff?"
Jasper couldn’t blame her for sounding that way, he would’ve done the same if he’d been on the other end of that news. He probably would’ve laughed in Gavin’s face over it if he hadn’t just been traumatized by demon kids or whatever they would. But he still felt like he was reeling, so he had to grab hold of something positive and proactive. If that meant getting a few tattoos and some herb-bags or whatever to put around his room and in his car, so be it. It didn’t feel like much, but it was better than nothing. “He doesn’t like do it,” he said, giving another soft sigh. “He’s just got some protective tattoos and apparently my mom had little ... magical herb bags all around the house, or something. That she got from witches.” Jasper pause, even more aware now of how lame that sounded. “I know that sounds retarded. But I dunno what else to try either.”
The idea of witches, actual witches, being in Point Pleasant was absurd, or retarded as Jasper put it. Jules wanted to scoff at the mere idea of it. But that nagging voice in her head reminded her of what she saw in her bathroom mirror. What Jasper experienced too. And his dad, apparently. Jasper had made a good point, she guessed. If the bad shit was real, maybe the good stuff was too. But were witches good? Honestly, she couldn't even believe she was having this conversation. And with Jasper, of all people. What the hell had just happened in the past week? They were fucking without condoms and talking about serious stuff - as serious as demon kids, mirror doppelgangers and witches could be anyway. Jules sat on the edge of her bed, hair dripping cold water down her chest and into the towel. "Well, if your dad thinks they work then you should try it," Jules said. "It's just... such a weird thing to be talking about." Especially for them. Although Jules was recognizing the significance of Jasper calling her and telling her what had happened to him. Maybe because she had told him about her experience first, but it was still a big deal, right? "Honestly it sounds like your dad knows what the fuck he's doing, at least."
He couldn’t help the automatic scoff-chuckle that came with hearing that. The older he got, the more convinced Jasper got that most adults didn’t know what the fuck they were doing the vast majority of the time, and his dad even less so. Jasper didn’t understand him ... but maybe he had a bit of a better insight now. Gavin’s encounter with the thin man or whatever it had been had happened to him young, even younger than Jasper, and he could see now how that kind of thing could fuck a person up for life. Not to mention the shitty hand Gavin had already been dealt with his parents. And becoming a father at fifteen, naturally, because Jasper’s existence had certainly contributed to fucking his dad’s life up. That was a mental rabbit hole he didn’t want to go down, though. “Maybe with this, he does,” he muttered, rubbing at his eye again. Jasper wished Jules was right there with him, lounging around somewhere soft with her sounded good. “Everything’s definitely weird. It all makes my fuckin’ head hurt, y’know?”
Jules knew Jasper's dad wasn't the best, but at least it sounded like the guy was trying to help. That was something, wasn't it? Besides, Jules was willing to like the guy a little better, despite never having met him, because he was making room for Jasper to move in with him. And he believed that Jasper had seen what he'd seen, despite it being so incredibly insane. Jules couldn't even fathom telling her mom what she seen. She sighed and found herself wishing the fog wasn't so bad, because then she might ask Jasper to drive over and hang out for awhile. It sucked having this kind of conversation and being alone. "So what do we do?" Jules murmured before her lips twitched briefly. "Besides never screw around your car at night again."
Jasper wasn’t too sure how to feel about his father in all of this, it was all still too fresh. Perceptions about everything were being rearranged in his head and he didn’t quite have a grasp on it all yet. Living with Gavin could end up being a total dumpster fire disaster, or a blessing in disguise. He would have to figure it out as he went. But one of the knots that constantly lived in his gut had eased some with the promise of a steady place to stay. A protected, safe place, he now knew. His instinct to run to daddy hadn’t been too far off base, Jasper guessed. He quirked his own faint smile. “I dunno ... try to find something that works, I guess. I’ll talk to my mom about the bag-things, and if I can get my hands on some, I’ll hook you up.” He wanted her to be as safe as possible too. “‘Til then ... guess you’re gonna get your wish to see my room,” he added in a murmur, sounding slightly amused.
Hook her up, like these weird magic bags were drugs or something. But honestly, if they could actually help and make her feel safe in her own house, Jules supposed she could suppress her doubts and try it. She bit back a sigh, wishing she could rewind two weeks and go back to just worrying about her math grade and cheerleading. Things were simpler then. Now everything was weird and scary. Jules still felt that gross ball of discomfort in her stomach, but she felt her lips twitch into a small smile. "Yeah, well, I'll help you christen it with a blow job or something. Start some good memories for you there." She probably wouldn't see Jasper again until the fog cleared up, so it was kind of nice to be able to talk to him now that she wasn't annoyed that he had taken so long to get back to her.
Jasper chuckled softly. A blowjob sounded awesome in one sense, but he was weirdly not in the mood to be sexual. His stomach was too unsettled, everything felt too wrong. Otherwise he might’ve been hinting that Jules should send him some pics of her in her towel or whatever she was wearing now. “I’ll need ‘em,” he murmured. “Good memories, not ... well okay, blowjobs too. Just gotta wait ‘til it’s an actual room, he’s been using it as like, office-slash-storage since he moved here.” All Jasper really needed was a bed and somewhere to plug his phone in, but he had a feeling Gavin had more homey ideas about how it would end up. Not that it mattered, because fuck, what did? “Everything ... been okay with you? Nothing else weird?”
Jules wasn't feeling overly sexy herself. The conversation certainly wasn't the right kind of foreplay for that. But were they Jasper and Jules if one of them didn't bring up something sexual? She had no idea. This weird shift in their relationship was as bizarre and foreign to her as creepy mirrors and kids. It might have been just her feeling it, and Jules didn't want to bring it up. Still, her lips twitched again when he asked if there was nothing else weird going on, given where her mind was at in the current moment. "No, I think things are fine right now," Jules said after a moment. "But... you know, I'm glad you're okay and not in your car anymore. Maybe I'll see you at school tomorrow, if we have it."
It probably was weird, whatever was changing between them, but at the moment so much else was even weirder to Jasper, he couldn’t question it too much. It had just felt right to listen to Jules when she came to him about the mirror thing -- because she had, she’d come to him with it. This conversation felt like a natural extension of that. Plus he’d wanted to make sure she knew that he understood where she was coming from, being scared about it, that she knew she wasn’t alone. Jasper wasn’t sure why that was important, but it was. There was also the way he’d felt like he was having emotional earthquakes in his chest when they’d fucked the last time, but analyzing all that could definitely wait. He felt a little flutter when Jules said she was glad he was okay, but Jasper tried to ignore it. “Good,” he mumbled, nibbling on his thumb again. “But yeah, I’ll probably be there.” He kind of hoped school did happen, which was also weird. He just wanted some kind of normalcy to hang onto. Jasper paused, uncertain, then asked, “You want me to let you go?”
Jules knew most kids their age hated school, but Jules lived for it. She had control there, more so than at home. School was easy when she had a lot of friends and attention waiting for her there. It might feel different now, with all of this weird shit happening, but it had to be better than being at home and being unable to talk to anyone. School was a distraction, at least. Jules bit into her lower lip, staring out her window at the fog. She was starting to shiver from being out of the bath and not getting dressed yet. She thought she heard music coming from Jason's room down the hall, so at least there was that. Even so, she didn't really want to get off the phone, but she didn't want things to get awkward if they ran out of things to talk about, because they didn't usually talk. "No, I mean...not if you don't want to..." Jules rolled her eyes at how lame she sounded. Jesus. "I'm just not really used to... this."
Part of Jasper couldn’t help but be a little amused at the two of them. He tried to picture them doing one of those ‘no you hang up first’ exchanges and it made him actually want to laugh, which was refreshing. He smirked faintly, letting a soft huff out through his nose. “Yeah, me either,” he murmured instead of making her define what ‘this’ was. Jasper knew. And for once he had no urges to be mean to Jules or put her on the spot or anything. He just wished they were in the same place so they could maybe lay around and watch TV or something. Another first. “I probably better get off though, before my sister decides to get nosy and comes knocking.” He did kind of want to stay on the phone with her, but Jasper was also aware of impending awkwardness, and he’d had enough weird feelings for one fucking day. “Text you later though?” he added with a tiny bit of hesitance in his tone.
There was both disappointment and relief that came with hanging up the phone. Jules had spent countless hours talking to boyfriends in the past, but Jasper was different, and not... technically her boyfriend. It was just a strange situation and it didn't feel like the right time to start thinking too much about it. She had experienced something scary and strange, and now he had too. He needed to work through it and feel safe again the same was Jules had, though she wasn't sure how safe she felt anymore. "Yeah, definitely," Jules murmured, picking idly at her towel covering her thigh before she took a breath. "I'll talk to you later." Hopefully he would be safe at his dad's house now and things would start to return to normal, whatever that was.
Jasper almost told her something else, to be careful or take care or whatever. But that seemed like too much, especially since Jules probably wasn’t even leaving the house for the rest of the night. It wasn’t his place to tell her anything anyway, right? It wasn’t like they were going out. Not for real. “Yeah,” Jasper said quietly instead. “Bye Jules.” Without waiting for her to reply, he hung up the phone. It wasn’t meant to be abrupt, just simple. He sat there for another moment, tapping the edge of his phone against his other hand, then sighed and moved to get up. Since the power was out, he didn’t really have any excuses not to hang out with his dad and sister. At least the two of them always got along easier with Amelia around. They were gonna have to learn to do it without her, but for now that was enough.
Jules began to say goodbye when she realized he had already hung up. She blinked once in surprise and checked the phone to make sure it had disconnected. Jules didn't think he had meant anything by it. What were they going to do, just keep saying goodbye until one of them hung up? That was probably weird. Sighing, Jules tossed the phone onto her bed before she stood up to finally get dressed. Everything that was weird just felt weirder now. More weird. Whatever it was. Either way, Jules would deal with it... eventually. Just not now.