Thirty-five- Jasper

Chapter 35

Jasper

Everyone has gone on their merry way except for Nox and I. Nox sits against the rock, his head in his hands in confusion. He doesn't seem to realize I'm still here.

“You were about to say 'fell in love', weren't you?” I accuse calmly.

“Huh?” He asks, puzzled.

“When you were telling us how Ray saw your secrets, before that, you were going to say 'fell in love.'”

“N-no, I wasn't.” He stutters, giving it away. I look at him in a 'really?' face. My arms crossed, my weight on one leg, the classic, 'I'm not stupid' pose.

“Why do you even care?” He asks, still avoiding giving me a direct answer, then takes a swig of water from a water bottle.

“Because I love her too.” The water spurts from his mouth and he wipes his face with the back of his hand.

“Jasper, you don't love, you only lust.” He states simply.

“Ugh! I'm sick of people telling me that! This is different!” I yell.

“Really? Prove it, tell me why you 'love'-” he does air quotes, “-her.”

“I love her because she's beautiful, because she's kind, um, because...” He interrupts me as I slow down, thinking.

“Well I love her because she's beautiful, because she's kind, too. But I also love her because she's everything I'm not, my missing puzzle piece, she'll keep me from straying, and when I'm near her all the pain from all the torture I endured is wiped from my memory. I love her for her, not the perfect thing she pretends to be. She saw my secrets, and I saw her soul. Did you know she's a secret nerd? She goes home and plays online games constantly, she has about 10 books on her bedside table, all with bookmarks in them. She's incredibly smart. Straight A's.” He advances toward me with each sentence, and I back up. “Yes, she;s gorgeous, like the sun or the stars. Yes, she's kind and warm. But she's also her. That's why I love her.” He pauses. “Now, you can have her, but eventually, she'll realize that whoever you meditated with, is who you belong with. You can't exist without them.”

“Then why do I dream about her every night? Romantic dreams, dreams that make my heart want to burst?” The dream where Ray kisses Nox flashes behind my eyes, but I ignore it.

“I saw that.” He says. “Your dream, where you find Ray and I kissing? Yeah, impure thought, I caught it. Speaking of impure thoughts, you should've heard Air when we all in the water, she was going on and on about all of our abs, it was so funny. But anyway, tell me what Ray looked like in your other dreams...”

“It was weird,” I decided it was no use lying, “she had emerald eyes and reddish hair, really kind and shy.”

“You just completely described Briar-Rose.”

“Bry?!” Now that he mentions it, all the flowers around her, it totally makes sense. “But we're complete opposites! Not in power, but personality.” Now we both sit next to each other in the sand.

“Exactly, so are Ray and I.” He says simply. We sit in silence for a few moments, lost in thoughts, I assume, of Ray. “Hey, I've been sleeping in an abandoned house and I ran out of food, and I pretty sure a mouse tried to eat me in my sleep... could I stay at your place, you know, until tomorrow night?”

Considering the conversation we just had, he must be pretty desperate. “Sure.”

“Thanks man.” He says.

“So, Reformed Evil Guy, that's why you'd never had peanut butter.”

“Yup. Or Oreos.”

“Weird... I think of these things as, like, a common thing, but I guess nothing about either of us is common.”

“No, we're too hot. Oh! You meant the whole powers thing? Yeah.” He jokes. I laugh. “The first reason was accurate too, though.” He adds. We sit there in silence while I move the sand with my mind. Just moving it around in the air. This has become so normal, but every once in a while I'll do something incredibly cool (crushing a Fire Child with a boulder) and get a rush of whoa, I did that. With my head.

“So, I don't love Bry yet. Should I work on that?”

“No,” he laughs, “you don't even have to, it'll just happen. You can stay in love with Ray, eventually you'll realize.”

“Okay.” I say. I'm so preoccupied in my thoughts that when I hear running footsteps fading away I don't even process it, just consider it part of the background noise.

Author's Note

is the dialogue okay? suggestions? hardest criticism please!

Reviews

[Sylvana]

I wonder who the footsteps belonged to~~?
The dialogue sounds like real people having a real teenage conversation, so no worries there. I'm not very good with criticism, sorry! But it was a nice relaxed chapter, there could be a little more detail of the scenery, like the water and all, but only if it fits somewhere...

[Amanda]

Sophie this sucked. jk I loved Nox in this chapter. He was really funny and I feel like he will develop into a more likeable person as the story goes on. My favorite line: Speaking of impure thoughts, you should've heard Air when we all in the water, she was going on and on about all of our abs,

[Kelsy]

The dialogue was good,but for some little aspects that i guess you'll easily adjust.Nice chapters,vividly illustrated.Write on!

[Kelsy]

The dialogue was good,but for some little aspects that i guess you'll easily adjust.Nice chapters,vividly illustrated.Write on!