The Story of Him and Me

Chapter Seven

                For the last week, Jasper and I hadn't talked. Or maybe I hadn't given him the chance to talk to me. We were both busy with our own lives. He was busy with his sport, whilst I was busy with writing novels no one would ever read. The only people I always hung out with were Mary-Kate and Patricia. We talked about anime and K-pop, but mostly they were the ones who did the talking while I did the listening part.

I suddenly missed talking to Jasper, maybe because he was easy to talk to, or maybe he talked about his dreams and aspirations way too much. He loved his sport that he was on, and maybe that would be the only thing he would ever love. I was busy packing my things before going home to school but it was a Friday. Everyone goes home late on a Friday.

No one was loitering in our homeroom, except for me who was dusting up some dirt on the floor. My girl classmates, most of them were girl scouts, were busy forming with the freshmen, sophomore, and junior year girl scouts, whilst my guy classmates were busy with their boy scout formations. Which left me alone. I wasn't tasked to do something today, so I cleaned our homeroom. Miss Chavez would kill us if the room wasn't tidy enough in her eyes.

"Hey, Alice," Jasper greeted. I jumped on my stance, almost tripping all over myself and probably bumping my head in the locker.

"You literally scared the hell out of me!" I shrieked, but it only made him chuckle. He was wearing a plain white shirt, sweat dripping on his chest, making the shirt darker. He was just done with his CAT—Citizen Advancement Training—session, the light sketching the contours of his face.

"It was just a casual greeting," he said. He was still smiling, as if my actions were the most humorous thing he ever saw in his entire life. "And you look like you need someone to escort you home." My heart was suddenly pounding ceaselessly against my chest. That simple statement created unnecessary butterflies on my stomach.

"I'm fine if I go home by myself," I answered. He only shook his head and went inside the room. He took off his shirt, exposing his bare chest. For a sixteen-year-old, his body belonged to a twenty-five-year-old grown man. There were abs lining on his stomach, and he had big buffy arms. I ought to look away immediately, or else he would probably catch me staring at his torso.

I slung my bag on my shoulder, immediately leaving the homeroom as much as possible. "Alice!" Jasper called, his voice exasperated. What did he want from me? I wanted to yell at him to stop being so confusing, but he wasn't doing anything wrong. I was the one who was confusing his actions toward me, assuming that the way he treats me was special. "You left something," he said, his voice out of breath. He was holding my lunch bag.

My cheeks turned to crimson. "Oh." I accepted my lunch bag from his grasp, and accidentally, our fingers brushed. Electricity ran through my veins.

"Let's go home together, Alice," he pleaded, his eyes growing bigger. Imagine Puss-in-Boots from Shrek was pleading in front of you, that was what Jasper's face looked like.

I laughed when he made a face, and smiled at him. "You're impossible, Jasper, you know that?" At this point, I was already giggling at his actions, not ridding the smile etched on my face. He could make me smile, even if he left me coldly last week. We walked side by side, our bodies almost colliding against each other.

There was a comfortable silence looming over us. Words were not needed to fill in the gaps of the atmosphere. His presence was enough to conclude that this day was the greatest, and this moment would forever be in my heart, always. I would never forget how he could easily light me up, like a firework.

We were approaching towards the enormous blue gate. We bid the security guards goodbye, and if I hadn't noticed, their smiles were huge, grinning at us as if there was something going on between Jasper and I. I wished there was.

"So how are you with Cassidy?" I asked, once we were out of the school premises. The kind of silence, the awkward stretchy one, replaced the comfortable silence we shared. His posture had grown stiff over a matter of minutes. His face painted the words I don't want to talk about her.

I didn't pry on about their relationship. Had they broken up? Was that the reason why Jasper was sore when the topic was about her? "I'm sorry," I apologised. "I never meant to invade your privacy. I really understand if you don't want to talk about her."

"It's alright, Alice," he replied. "It's not your fault. We're over, long before the school year started." We were waiting for the jeep. His shoulder was pressed against mine. His height didn't tower over me. He was only a few inches taller than me.

"Did she break your heart?" Like you'll probably do with mine?

"Yeah," he breathed. He didn't look broken when he said it, but his voice was sad. Then why were they texting each other if they were not together anymore? I had no experience with romantic relationships, so maybe, that little hope igniting inside me, he was just texting her because they were just friends.

But nobody, once they were in a relationship with each other, could stay friends. It's either they never loved each other to stay as friends, or they loved each other and wouldn't want to risk of losing each other that was why they stayed as friends.

"I hope you won't break mine," I said ever so quietly under my breath.

"What did you say?" he asked. His eyes were curiously studying my face as he trailed downwards. He was studying my whole being, and suddenly, I felt vulnerable under his gaze.

"Nothing."

The jeep stopped in front of us. He let me go inside first whilst he followed suit. Jasper didn't force me to tell what I said earlier, and I had no plans of admitting them to him either. We were quiet for the whole ride, maybe because we were too transfixed of the future heartbreaks to come.