Bleed Until You Heal

3- Friendships

The next day, I spend my whole morning packing up my things and deciding what I'm going to keep here or take to Atlanta with me. It's a major internal battle because I know that whatever I take, I'm going to have to unpack when I get there so I don't want to exhaust myself by bringing so much stuff. With that in mind, I abandon most of my shoe collection and most of my books. I try to take only my favorites and the ones that I haven't read yet.

My mom is gone all day at work but when she came home last night, she had already prepared a nice little speech about Berkeley's art college. It's far away but at least it isn't out of state and at least it isn't Georgia. I'd faked a migraine early into the speech though, and went to my room so that I didn't have to hear the whole thing. I wonder if she realizes that it's too late to enroll into another school anyway. I'm sure the thought has occurred to her but she just won't give this up.

Working up a sweat in the morning, I think that I'm almost done packing everything up, I just have some clothes to pack but those are the clothes that I left out so that I'd have something to wear for the next week or so. Proud of all of the work that I've gotten accomplished, I decide to reward myself with some ice cream on my way to go see how Jasper is doing.

He hasn't texted me at all since he'd told me that he'd talk to me about it today and that's kind of worrying me. I hope that everything is going okay with his family.

I take a shower before leaving because I'm still sweating from moving stuff around in my room this morning and I get dressed in jean shorts and an old t-shirt with sneakers and my hair in a lazy pony tail to keep it out of my face.

I stop by an ice cream shop on my way to Jasper's house and order him a pint of his favorite- Triple Chocolate Meltdown. It's chocolate ice cream with brownie bites and cookie dough mixed into it. I also get a pint of mint chocolate for myself before I'm driving away towards Jasper's house.

'I'm coming over with ice cream' I send him the text before I get back on the road and start heading for his neighborhood, just to make sure that everything is okay with him and his parents.

'Okay, see you soon' he texts me back quickly and then I put my phone away because I'm not a fan of texting and driving. It doesn't take too long to get to his house though, he only lives about fifteen minutes away from me.

When I get there, I notice that both of his parents are home, which is weird because it's a Wednesday and they both work regular nine to five jobs. Grabbing the ice cream, I turn off my car and stuff my keys in my pocket before I get out of the car and head towards the front door to investigate.

Usually, I'd just walk right into the house but given the circumstances- my hands being full of ice cream but also the fact that Jasper hit them with some pretty big news yesterday and I don't want to walk into a deep family conversation or anything- I actually knock on the door and wait for somebody to answer it.

Jasper is quick to come to the door, swinging it open to greet me with his usual half-smile. "Hey."

"Hello," I smile at him, stepping into the house and handing him his chocolate ice cream. "This is for you."

"Thanks. What's the occasion?" He wonders curiously.

"I made a lot of progress this morning with the packing and I wanted a reward," I explain to him and I'm about to move past him to go upstairs into his room when I stop short, getting a better look at Jasper's face, I notice that his left eye is darkened with a bruise. "Oh my God, Jasper, what happened to your eye?"

"It's nothing," He assures me with a lighthearted laugh. "You worry too much, Jo, I just tripped and hit my head on the corner of my dresser when I was packing."