what a woman! i.

vingt-huit

Jasper grabs her warm hand and squeezes it with his cold one. She was starting to understand that he is being serious. He wants her to open up and tell her everything. So, she took a deep breath and starts to tell him everything. From the immigration, her unspoken friend, her sister's baby daddy, her anxiety, her sister's abusive words, all the way to what Keith told her the previous week. 

As she finished her sentence, Tate looks at Jasper's distracted eyes. She follows his gaze and finds what he is staring at. The large picture board hanging on her wall held all types of photos. Polaroids, paper-printed, and glossy ones all alike.  The biggest picture on the board was one of the family with a newborn Avery in the middle. 

"You have pictures of all these people, but you do not have one of my family?" Jasper asks quietly. He didn't want to seem like he was pushing her confession away, but he wanted to pull the pictures into a 'lesson'. 

"I have one picture of you, I guess," Tate says, scratching the front of her neck. She didn't understand why he was asking about it. "It's in my dresser."

"May I see it?" 

Tate nods her head and stands up from her bed to walk over to her dresser. She pulls open the top drawer and shuffles through some things before pulling out a picture album. She flips to the first page and carefully slips the picture out. 

"It's the one of when you spent the night at my house. I remember you woke up and wanted to go back to sleep," Jasper says, scooting closer to her to see the picture. Jasper had Avery sleeping on his chest. If Jasper had blood in his face, he would've blushed. In the picture, his hand was brushing her knuckles. It was quite obvious by the way that he was looking at her, he has it baaaad.

●○●

Tate had absolutely nothing to do. So, Jasper and her watched Beetlejuice. It was mainly just Tate explaining the movie to Jasper as he kept scooting closer to her. By the end of the movie, Jasper had his arm behind her and she was explaining the levitating part of the movie. 

The next movie was The Princess Bride. This time, Jasper actually knew the movie. Or some of it, at least. He would ask questions here and there, but Tate was happy enough to answer them. Jasper explains that he had read the book and never seen the film. 

They were at the part where he was revealing his identity to her by falling down the hill. Jasper explains his confusion on why he would do such a thing of harming himself to make a point. Tate has to explain that it was an expression of love. He was not having it.

"But all he did was roll down a hill and yell at her," Jasper says exasperatingly. "It makes no sense!"

"He was reminding her of how he has always loved her! It's poetic," Tate says, sitting up and pointing at the television. Jasper chuckles and grabs Tate's waist, pulling her down into his side. He wraps his arm around her shoulders, pulling her as close to him as possible. He rubs her head and kisses it gently.

"Down, girl, down." Jasper chuckles. 

He didn't notice at first, but Tate's face burnt red when he said those words and did that thing. Tate crosses her arms and slumps back defeatedly. The movie continued on and Jasper kept rubbing her arm, making her feel a sense of comfort. 

"Do you ever think about life after death?" Tate asks randomly. Jasper's eyes widen and he pauses the movie at super speed. He sits up and looks at Tate, but she won't look him in the eye. Jasper grabs her hand and she flinches, he backs away and slowly tries again. He holds her soft hands in his and brings them up to his face. He kisses her knuckles softly, his cold lips sending a tingle through her veins. 

"Tatum Jay Fernsby...you are so wonderful and important to me. You shall never have to worry about life after death whenever I am here. I will not let anything harm you for as long as you live. You will never have to fear death when I'm around."

"Pinky promise?"

"I swear on my life."

"Just do a pinky promise, it's a lot safer."

"Pinky promise, too."