an escape
ASPEN hadn't said two words other than 'I think it recognised me'. Stiles, having made the art deduction that by 'it', she meant the alpha, was fucking scared. Nothing good could come from the fact that the Alpha recognised Aspen. Well, other than the fact that it might have saved her life tonight. How, was the only question on his mind and hers. But as the pair of them individually pondered on any possibilities, they both came up blank.
The brunette was hardly blinking, her eyes fixated straight ahead of her where Jackson appeared to be approaching. She didn't miss the way Stiles let out an irritated grunt, but she also didn't give a shit either. After what's gone down between them, he had no right to be so resentful towards Jackson all the time. Especially considering he easily could've run away tonight, leaving Aspen behind, hell, she even begged him to do so. But he refused to leave her.
"Asp, you alright?" Jackson fretted as he crouched in front of her slightly.
"Yeah, J, I'm alright." she spoke quietly. She also didn't miss the way Stiles tensed up when she smiled at the Whittemore boy.
"Do you need me to take you home?" Jackson offered.
"I have that handled." Stiles intervened, awfully possessive all of a sudden. Aspen pinched her brows at him, not recalling a conversation where they had agreed he would take her home.
"No you don't." she said calmly and through a shaky whisper.
"Listen, I know we're not exactly in a great place right now, but are you seriously not going to let me drive you home?" Stiles replied, turning his frame to face her. "I mean, is he even fit to drive?"
"Stiles." she stopped him. "Thank you for checking I was okay."
"Of course." he said, confused. "Now, come on, I'll take you home."
"I think I should let Jackson give me a ride." she sighed, not meeting his eyes.
It had only been a week.
"This doesn't change what I said last week." she finished. Stiles gulped and pursed his lips. It was foolish of him to think that just because she let him hug her for a moment or two that things were fine.
Without any more words being spoke, Aspen released herself from the blanket she was wrapped in and walked with Jackson to his car, leaving Stiles all by his lonesome.
He knew he had fucked up big time, and seeing her cozy up to Jackson even more was the consequence he was paying.
"You handled that like a champ." said Jackson, wrapping an arm around the brunettes shoulder.
Aspen filled him in on what went down between her and Stiles, every last humiliating detail. His response consisted of "his loss" and "looking for a rebound?". Of course, she declined the latter, seeing as he was still dating the Martin girl, despite both of them knowing that she wasn't the one he had feelings for.
"Thanks, J." she said in a hoarse voice. Jackson opened the car door to his porche, signalling for Aspen to sit in the passengers seat.
"What about Lydia?" Aspen asked, seeing as he had driven her here.
"She's getting a ride home with her mom, seeing as she was super shaken up."
"Jackson?" she spoke once they were buckled up in his porche. He turned his neck to face her, nodding in answer. "I don't want to go home." she added.
"Then where am I taking you, Miss Carter." he teased, smiling at her. She hesitated and let out a huge sigh, brushing away the loose hairs in front of her face. "Actually, I know exactly what you need." he answered for her, pushing his foot on the gas.
"You do?" she sounded skeptical.
"You need an escape for the night." he said, eyes on the road. "How does that sound?" he turned to look at her in the passengers seat as she hesitated to answer. "Or I can... take you to Scott's, or Allison's or something-"
"An escape sounds great."
...
"Do I need to remind you that we're sixteen?" Aspen sassed as Jackson parked his porche outside what looked like a club.
"Do I need to remind you that I'm Jackson Whittemore, and that I know a guy?" he smirked, opening the car door, Aspen followed suit.
"Oh and we probably won't be in school tomorrow, unless you can cope with a massive hangover as well as Mr Harris."
"Are you kidding?"
"You said you wanted an escape, I'm gonna help you get it. And it might just take all night."
Aspen didn't miss the mass amounts of flirting in his tone, and the devilish smirk that he sported when he said it.
But no, no matter how much she wanted to escape her crazy life, hooking up with a guy who had a girlfriend was wrong, and Aspen would never do that.
Before waltzing on into the club, Jackson examined the girl from head to toe with a quizzed expression.
"What? Did I spill something on my sweater or something?" she laughed.
"No." he deadpanned, his chin resting in his fingers. "You're wearing a shirt right?"
"God, what sort of question is that? Of course I'm wearing a shirt." she hissed.
"Good, sweater off." he demanded as if he was her personal stylist, making her scoff. "I'm serious, we're here to drink, dance, and forget, now look the part." he winked, turning on his feet and walking towards the entrance.
Against her better judgement, Aspen found herself listening to him. She removed her red-knitted sweater, leaving her in a black halter-neck crop trop that did wonders for her cleavage.
The pair of underage teenagers waltzed on into the club, and Jackson found himself gulping when he turned around and saw what shirt she had underneath that sweater the whole time.
He couldn't tell whether he was glad he told her to take it off or not.
When he looks at Aspen, a fiery ball of sarcasm, a free-spirit, he wondered why the hell he was still with Lydia. He liked the strawberry blonde, of course he did. He formed a crush on her towards the end of freshman year, but he also found himself forming one on Aspen at the same time. The only reason he acted on his crush with Lydia is because Aspen made it clear her feelings were else where.
And he'd been trying to push all of his feelings for her onto his relationship with Lydia, and for the two months she was away, it seemed to work.
But it wasn't working anymore.
"Wanna get some drinks?" He yelled over the blaring music. She nodded, suddenly sporting a massive grin on her face. The brunette nodded and offered her arm out to him, to which he linked his own in. The pair approached the bar, sitting on two empty bar stools.
He desperately tried not to, trying to be a gentleman after all, but at the end of the day Jackson Whittemore was a teenage boy, at a club, hanging out with a girl he has a thing for, so he found himself trying to pry his own eyes away from glancing at her chest.
And the rest of her.
She was wearing the same black skinny jeans from earlier, accompanied with a black halter-top that hugged her figure perfectly.
He was trying so hard not to be a pervert that he didn't even realise she had been speaking.
"Earth to Jackson?" she snapped her fingers in front of his eye line. "Have you not been listening?"
"Of course I have." he lied.
"Okay, what did I just say."
"Fine, you caught me." he gave in. "Go on, you have my full attention now." he said, as if she didn't have his full attention before.
"I was just slagging off Stiles again, don't worry, I'll stop. We're here to escape." she smiled, holding up an imaginary glass.
"Hey, Trev!" Jackson called the bartender. "Can we get two beers?" he said, turning to the brunette beside him. "You drink beer, right?"
"Yeah, course."
The bartender returned moments later with their drinks, and Jackson proposed a toast, which was more of his opportunity to throw a jab at Stiles, or as he liked to call him, the idiot who just lost the best thing he ever had.
"To Stiles being the biggest idiot in the whole world, and to you, not needing him." he said, holding his bottle up between them. She was hesitant, but after a moment or two, she raised her bottle with him.
"Cheers to that." she smirked, clinking their drinks and talking a glug.
They guzzled down about half their drinks before Aspen insisted they get out on the dance floor. Into it by Chase Atlantic blared through the speakers as she dragged him by the wrist to dance with her.
Aspen was not a drinker, and she was also a huge lightweight. She'd barely eaten all day which meant half a bottle of beer went straight to her head.
"Dance with me, J." she had to yell over the music. If it were anyone else, he probably would've told them to get lost, but seeing as it was her, and she really seemed to be enjoying herself, he complied.
Jackson tried so so hard to keep the dance from getting too intimate: A) whether he liked it or not, he was not single, well, not yet anyway. and B) he didn't think he would be able to control himself around her if things did get heated.
But all of that went straight out the window when the Carter girl grabbed both his hands and placed them on her hips, her bare hips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and danced to the music.
Jackson found himself laughing at the irony as the lyrics said 'I'm into it' over and over again. Because hell, he was really into it.
Her hips swayed in rhythm, and her brown locks swayed behind her back, leaving her shoulders, and most of her chest exposed. Jackson admired her, a lot, the way she was letting go, being the free spirit he saw her as.
"You having a good time?" he said into her ear.
"The best!" she yelled, smiling up at him.
"Hey, Aspen?" said the Whittemore boy.
"Mmhmm?"
"What's something you've always wanted to do, but haven't?"
"Oohhh..." she pondered. "Sex!"
Jackson let out the biggest cackle, but seeing as he knew how blunt she could be, he wasn't surprised with her honesty.
"Ooh, or a tattoo! I've always wanted a tattoo." she added, the pair of them still dancing dangerously intimate.
"Really?" he asked, to which she nodded to confirm. Then, taking her completely by surprise, he knelt down, and picked her up by the knees, and carried her fireman style.
"Jackson!" she gasped. "What are you doing!" she said in between drunken giggles.
"Time for the next destination in Jackson Whittemore's escape tour."
...
"You brought me to a tattoo shop."the brunette deadpanned as she looked out the passenger's window to see a tattoo parlour.
"You said you've always wanted a tattoo, right?"
"I mean, sure, but..."
"No buts." he objected. "Listen Aspen, I saw you back there, okay? You're a lively, feisty ball of pent up rebellion. You're getting this tattoo."
"Fine." she didn't even bother arguing because she was telling the truth, she always wanted a tattoo. "But if I'm doing this, you're getting one too."
"Deal."
Minutes later, Aspen was sat on the leather seat of the tattoo-shop, flicking through a book of possible designs. She could safely say that she had no idea this was how her night was going to go, but she wasn't complaining. She had a shitty day from start to finish, and Jackson was proving successful in turning it around.
"I think you should get this one." said the Whittemore boy, pointing his finger to a drawing of a lion. "Spirit of a lioness, and all that bullshit."
The brunette looked at the design and decided she actually really liked it.
"I like it." she said enthusiastically. "Can I have this one please?" she asked the tattoo artist, pointing to the 'lioness'.
"Good choice." the man replied. He prepped the ink as Aspen sat back in the chair bracing herself. When she heard the sound of it turning on, she was suddenly scared.
"Oh crap, this is scary." she slurred, evidently tipsy from her small dosage of alcohol.
"Need me to hold your hand?" Jackson said, it was meant to be a tease, but Aspen didn't care.
"Yes please."
He chuckled as he pulled up a stool and sat by her, holding her hand. It was then, when he really looked at her, saw her smile, heard her laughs, and helped her do something she'd always wanted to do, that he realised.
He couldn't be with Lydia when he felt this way about someone else.
...
MY MOTHERFUCKING JASPEN HEART IS EXPLODING!
don't worry guys I didn't forget that this is a Stiles fic...
also not me updating twice in one day AGAIN
anywhoooo... comment your thoughts!
ALSO SKFJKSIKFJUD I WAS DOING A PINTEREST DIVE AS I WAS EDITING MY ASPEN BOARD AND FOUND THIS
YOU CANNOT TELL ME THAT DOESNT LOOK EXACTLY LIKE ASPEN AND JACKSON!!
okay end of authors note now 🧘♀️