Chapter 39 #2
“Okay.” I nodded, but I froze a moment later. Did Jasper just say something? I whirled around when I saw Jordan join us in the kitchen.
“Sorry, June. I was sure my son wouldn’t be here today. He just came by for a change of clothes. He won’t bother you.”
I nodded. Sure.
“I’m going to take care of something while you’re here with Jasper. I’ll be back in an hour,” he added.
“No problem. I’d be happy to stay here with Jasper,” I reassured him.
Jordan said goodbye, and as soon as I heard the front door close, James came into the kitchen for a glass of milk, as if what had just happened was just like any other day.
I stayed in the chair, frozen and unsure of what to do.
His cologne was everywhere, and the vibe in the room seemed hostile.
“Jordan left,” announced James, unwrapping a lollipop.
“What do you want?” I scowled when I noticed him leering at me.
“I’m eating. What the fuck do you want, White?”
“Shh! Do you not know any other words?” I exclaimed, motioning toward Jasper. And please get the hell out.
I couldn’t concentrate anymore. I felt his presence all around me even when I wasn’t looking at or talking to him.
Suddenly, I lifted my head and met his gaze.
“How am I bothering you? Just keep helping him with his homework. Go on,” he challenged as he leaned against the kitchen counter, scrolling on his phone.
I watched him snicker, intent on sucking on the little red ball between his lips.
“We’re almost done, can we go on the couch?” I asked, feigning a bare minimum of manners that he didn’t deserve.
James shrugged nonchalantly and went back to looking at his phone. Jasper and I left the kitchen and went into the living room.
“Do you like living with your dad and brother?” I asked, remembering the redhead in the photo.
Jasper nodded listlessly, turned on the TV, and went back to staring at the floor.
I shouldn’t have pried, but my curiosity got the best of me.
“Or maybe, it was better before?”
Jasper didn’t answer, but he tensed. It was clear that the subject hurt him.
But why show me the picture?
He must have others. Why’d he choose that particular one with other people? And why Brian and Amelia?
Maybe he wanted to make fun of his brother, and I was overthinking it.
After flipping through channels, Jasper chose Rick and Morty.
“Isn’t that for adults?” I tried not to be too overbearing, but I was my mother’s daughter.
“Let him watch what he wants,” James ordered, glaring at me before sprawling next to me on the couch.
“So?” he asked, seeing that I was clearly irritated.
A strong scent of cherry tickled the tip of my nose.
“Move over,” I muttered nervously.
“It’s my couch. If I want to make myself comfortable, I will.”
“You’re—”
“I’m?” he pressed, stretching out his legs more.
I wanted to eviscerate him, but I controlled myself for Jasper’s sake. “Okay. Suit yourself.”
“See? When you do what I tell you, we understand each other, White,” he laughed, fully aware of the limits imposed on me while in his house next to a kid.
I didn’t even waste my energy glaring at him because otherwise I’d be distracted by the sight of his full red lips.
It was hard to admit it, but his presence turned me on.
“I better get home.”
I hesitated, but Jasper, with his own sense of timing, handed me a game controller right then.
“Okay, one game and I’ll go. Tomorrow we’ll work on English.”
“You’re not doing shit tomorrow. Don’t come back here,” interjected James.
“Will you stop cursing in front of your brother? You’re insufferable!”
“I’m insufferable? You’re the pain in the ass who comes to my house to tell me what to do!”
I took a deep breath, even though it would take a thousand of those to calm myself with a guy like that.
“Sure, Hunter! Because you think I’m—”
Exhausted by our behavior, Jasper covered his ears and got up to hide in his room.
“Dumbass.”
“Moron.”
We’d let Jasper go, and from what I could tell, he couldn’t stand fighting or listening to people yell at each other.
“Your brother’s so sweet.”
When I turned around, he was staring at me.
“Why are you still here, White?”
“Why do you always have to—”
“I asked you a question. Can you answer me?”
I noticed the heat of his skin when he put his arm on the back of the couch.
Again with the mocking.
“I should’ve gone to William’s but he hasn’t texted or even called me back.” There was no reason to get into the details. James didn’t give a damn.
“You’re stubborn, eh. I told you drop it, but you just can’t let things go.”
I ignored him. “Why do you always sleep at Will’s?”
“Mind your own fucking business.”
“You’re a fucking broken record. I’m saying bye to Jasper and leaving.”
I got up, went upstairs, and stopped in front of what appeared to be Jasper’s room.
I knocked, but there were no signs of life.
“May I?”
The door was left ajar, and I could make out a figure sitting at the computer.
“What subject do you want to work on tomorrow?” I asked. He didn’t turn to around to look at me, let alone answer me.
“Okay, I’m heading out,” I added without moving a step farther. “Jasper?” He didn’t turn around when I called his name, but I kept going anyway.
“I didn’t mean to say . . . yeah, anyway, when I said my mom made me come and that I didn’t want to be here . . .”
He put on his headphones, leaving me no way to explain. He totally cut me out, and it threw me off-center. I’d done a lot to bother him that day, I could try another time.
“Got it. See you tomorrow.”
Maybe I kind of deserved that. I shouldn’t’ve been so cavalier about those kinds of things or fought with James in front of him. I definitely didn’t want to hurt or offend Jasper, but I wasn’t known for my sensitivity, and James seemed like the total opposite of me.
I went back down the hallway. It wasn’t hard. I should’ve walked down the stairs and left.
Or . . .
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
James leaned on the doorjamb with his arms crossed.
“Are you afraid I’ll go in your room, Hunter?”
“Try me.”
Down the hallway I noticed two semi-open boxes and a series of frames without pictures on the wall. I loved Sherlock Holmes, but in this case it didn’t take him telling me it was elementary to understand that something strange was going on.
“Did you guys just move here?”
“No.”
“What happened to your mom?”
James’s eyes became two narrow slits. “Do you really want to hear me tell you to mind your own fucking business or will you actually do it of your own free will for fucking once?”
He was so close that his cherry aroma flooded my mouth.
“You don’t seem like you’re related at all,” I commented, pointing at Jasper’s room.
“What do you mean, Snow White?”
“Jasper’s so sensitive . . .”
James was clearly irritated by how I was acting, and he had no intention of hiding it.
“If it wasn’t for my dad, you wouldn’t even be here at my house.”
We were too close, so I took a step back so I could breathe.
“Look, for the sake of peace, let’s not be too hard on each other.”
“Why?”
“Because we have to do an assignment together.”
James frowned. “What the fuck are you talking about, White?”
“The vice principal assigned it when you didn’t show up at his office.” I saw him put a hand to his temple to push back a rebellious lock of hair.
“I can’t believe this. Well?”
“I’ll take care of it under the condition that—”
He raised his eyebrow, a sign that I had his undivided attention.
“—you stop harassing me at school.”
His neck tensed. James sneered, as if my suggestion wouldn’t be enough.
“Since when do you think you’re smarter than me?”
I decided to see things from a favorable point of view for me—he was just a spoiled idiot who was looking to get slapped. I was mature enough to not do that to him. Even if he’d deserved every slap. Every single one.
“I think you have to accept my proposal if you don’t want a bad grade. The umpteenth, probably,” I challenged him, my head held high.
“Are you a blackmailer, White?”
“It works a lot when my mom does it. Who knows if it works on meatheads like you.”
He surrounded me by putting both of his fists on the wall behind me. “Okay, princess. I’ll accept the truce, but you have to stay away from me too. Can you do that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t ever come back to my house, and maybe I’ll mind my fucking business and not tell William that Hood’s into you. And about how you like it.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I hissed.
“Do you think I was born yesterday?”
“Look, I don’t care about Brian, I just want things between me and Will to work out.”
“You have no idea how in over your head you are, White, no idea.”
“You’re talking about your best friend. I know that you care about him, so why would you say that?”
“If I say something like that, believe it,” he barked seriously. I felt trapped. I was short of breath, but I certainly wouldn’t show him.
“Are you that scared that I’ll find out what you’re hiding, Hunter? You’ll do everything to have a clear conscience, right?”
James lifted a corner of his mouth. “I just want to protect Will. But you’re at my house, and I’ll make you regret ever coming.”
“My mom made me, you moron. I’d never come here of my own free will.”
“Oh no?”
I elbowed his stomach without thinking about it. That required an amount of strength that he didn’t expect, but made him back away enough for me to wriggle out. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him feel his stomach, but I didn’t care. I proceeded down the hallway. Suddenly I stopped myself.
“What do you want from me, James?” I said with my back turned toward him. I sensed it. He wanted something. It would’ve been enough for him to ignore me, but he never did. Ever.
“I want you to get out. Now.”
His denial made my blood boil. It bored a little hole in my chest.
“Get out,” he repeated roughly. There wasn’t any other way to enter his world, maybe because his wall was so high that it was impossible to climb over. And I didn’t have the strength to do it.