A bell echoed throughout the building, and Jasper stuck to his mindless routine, paying no mind to his peers as he hurried to his locker. He kept close as he opened it, and he checked a small pill container hidden behind a few books. It was empty.
Damn.
He slammed the locker and messaged a contact named Bryce on his phone. “Any available?”
“Twenty.” Bryce texted.
He checked the cash in his wallet as he walked the halls. Students stepped out of his way as he made his way to the parking lot and his car. He gave a few nods to some acquaintances but he didn’t associate with any groups or cliques. As he about closed his car door he heard a commotion near the end of the parking lot. Some asshole is picking a fight with an obvious freshman. A small black teen, Jasper has seen him wander the halls, usually alone.
“Yo!” Jasper hurried over, “leave the kid alone.” He stepped close to a bike that lay sideways by a car, and a tall student had another by the shirt color.
“He hit my car!”
“Let him go.”
“Stay out of it,” he didn’t let his eye contact leave his victim.
“You’re so concerned about a car getting hit? Try hitting me.”
That aggressive language wasn’t like him, but he knew it would get the assailant away from his target. He looked at Jasper and shoved the freshman away. And he didn’t hesitate. Like Sonya gesturing a delicate rhythm of bodies earlier, that fist heading towards Jasper was a dance he just danced. Jasper ducked under the punch, spun, and backhanded him, sending him to the pavement. His legs picked up fast, and he dove for Jasper to try for a tackle. A jab and a step to the side is all it took, and he went down a second time.
After rubbing his face he got up, “Whatever,” and he stepped inside his car and sped off, not even slowing down for the speed bumps at the parking lot entrance.
The bike was gone and the kid got out of dodge as soon as he could, and a few students were recording from a distance.
Whatever is right, Jasper thought, and he walked back to his car and drove out of the parking lot.
Jasper learned about Bryce by mistake while walking his old childhood dog. When cars with black tinted windows kept stopping by at various times of the day, it became obvious what was going on. A man ten years his senior opened the door, he wore a wife beater and even after a couple of years of business, he still only let out a small nod as a greeting when Jasper walked in.
“Twenty of them,” he shook a bottle. “Never met anyone that went through them as much as you. Hope you’re getting tested.”
Jasper didn’t respond but handed him a small wad of cash.
Bryce counted. “Twenty short.”
Jasper shrugged. “A discount for your favorite customer?”
Bryce hopped back onto his couch, lifted the gaming controller, and unpaused. The audio blared and he yelled over it, “Leave one on the shelf.”
Jasper begrudgingly did so and left back to his car. Guilt or fear was nothing he ever felt when buying drugs. If his parents found out they’d probably murder him from their screaming alone, but to him, it was worth it.
At home he parked on the street and opened the garage door, it was empty, and in the corner was a cart with a weed wacker and a manual push mower on it. He preferred a mower with no engine, it saved him money on gas, and better yet, it got him tired faster. He wheeled it down the block and around the corner and got to work. This particular home paid him online, most did, but a few still gave him cash. The clients loved driving home and seeing a clean-cut yard. He shoveled in the winter before school started.
He wheeled everything back home and it looked like his dad got home from work. He tapped the grass off his shoes and took them off before walking in, and grabbed his bookbag by the door.
“Do you even break a sweat anymore?”
Jasper chuckled. “Was only one yard today. So listen, you might be getting a phone call from the school. I swear it was in self-defense.”
His dad looked up from his laptop. “A fight?”
“In the parking lot, it was nothing.”
Alan Shoemaker had an approving look. “I’m glad you said something. Though it wasn’t the school who called me.”
“What?”
“The parents want to thank you, they’re coming over for dinner tomorrow.”
“I’d rather not-”
“They were adamant about it.”
“How did they get your number?”
“We know them, the Walkers, they go to our church.”
He sighed. “Sure, under one condition.”
“What’s that?”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“We have lunch at Norad.”
Mr. Shoemaker laughed. His son always tries to figure it out. “I can’t confirm or deny that I work in Norad.”
“Will I get a deathbed confession?”
“Nope. Tomorrow at six.”
Jasper headed up the stairs. “I’ll get it out of you one day.”
Alan smirked.
He tossed his bookbag between his desk and easel. After a quick change, he began working out on the bench press in the corner of his room. He did this every day until he got tired or his mom called everyone for dinner. An hour after she got home from work, she did call him for dinner. The first thing he always spotted while walking down the stairs every day was her lab coat hanging up by the door.
Before he even sat down she said, “I hear a girl is coming over tomorrow.”
He stopped mid-sit, half an asscheek just touching the chair. “What? It’s some family from church, right?”
“They have a daughter your age,” Corra said.
He sat down all the way. “That’s great.”
“We’ll cook turkey tomorrow if you’re polite and enthusiastic.”
“I’ll wear a suit for turkey,” Jasper said.
The parents sat across from him as usual. Despite having a child in their late 30s, they maintained a healthy lifestyle, Corra Shoemaker with her long dark hair kept her looking younger than most of her 50s counterparts. Alan Shoemaker on the other hand opposes his wife by being bald and maintaining a well-trimmed beard. The two adults looked at each other.
“We just want you to know you can invite friends over,” Corra said.
“I know. But I’m starting to feel that helping that kid out is becoming a punishment.”
The parents left it at that, and the mother and son talked about their days. Mr. Shoemaker can’t comment on his. Instead, he makes jokes, such as spending all day reading a book at a fast food restaurant.
After dinner, he took a shower and went to his easel. A sketch in progress of the woman in his dreams, Sonya. They can’t take photos of one another, but he’s gotten good at drawing her over the last few years. Her hair draped over one shoulder and she wore a thin strapped sundress. He took a photo of the drawing in case he made a mistake, and continued making a few new marks getting it closer to completion.
8 pm. The evenings never go by fast enough for him. Like waiting in line for a movie, except he was waiting to get tired. He laid down and picked up the book at the top of a stack by his bed and he flipped through a few pages. Nathan is a real character in this book. A book he never read before, yet she mentioned him. As he kept reading the character Nathan was quite the charmer, and he understood why she liked him. He should compliment her more.
9 pm. He still wasn’t tired. He grabbed his drawing set it next to him in his bed, and grabbed another book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Then he took one of the Rohypnol pills he bought earlier and went to sleep.
***
“Hola!”
He smirked at her learning Spanish over the past eight hours. “Hola!” he said and continued to say the corniest line.
“Oh ok, Nathan!” she started laughing.
Jasper got a dumbfounded look on his face. “What? I mean it!”
“Your eyes are blue like the sea,” she mimicked him. “You read the book, didn't you? Nathan said that!”
He walked around in the grass, “Maybe.”
“Well, next time when complimenting the woman of your dreams, be a little less corny.”
Now he got nervous with the sketch tucked under his arm. “Would it be corny if I got you a gift?”
She perked up. “Another book?”
“That too.” He pulled the sketch out and held it up in front of him, to check to make sure it looked like her. Close enough. He turned it around.
Whenever something shocks her, something happens to the environment, when Jasper told her he loved her a volcano erupted, this time shooting stars streaked across the night sky.
“I love it.”
“More than Nathan?”
She chuckled. The ground under his feet began to sink, and water filled in, and then it warmed up. Her usual sundress materialized into a swimsuit as she stepped into the hot spring, got waist-deep, and leaned in over him, expecting a kiss, instead, they smiled at each other.
A beam of light spun across the night sky.
“Did anything else happen today?”
“Got into a fight.”
The water splashed as she jolted back. “You? Yeah right, a fight?”
“Yeah.”
Turned out he was serious. Her joking tone turned to concern. “You’re the nicest guy I know.”
“I’m the only guy you know.”
Dumbfounded curiosity rattled her brain. “What happened? Are you ok?”
“Some kid was being harassed by someone older, I stepped in, he swung, he missed, I didn’t. That’s all.”
She stood up, the water reached just above her knees and her hands settled on her waist. “What’s it really like out there?”
Her bare midriff and bikini were incredibly distracting. Jasper stared and after a beat, Sonya materialized a quick dry shirt. Embarrassed, he looked back at her eyes.
“A lot more crowded than here.”
“Is it dangerous?”
He shook his head.
“No more fights,” she was dead serious.
“I’ll try my best.”
“God damn it, Jasper. You’re all I have. You are it. And if you die, I won’t know what happened, I won’t get to say goodbye.”
He nodded. “I’ll avoid fights. That was a one-time thing I promise.” It’s easy for him to forget that she has no idea what his life is really like. Him telling her what’s happening isn’t the same as experiencing it, and mentioning something like a small fight could send her imagination far into the distance, and rightfully so. And even worse in her mind, he could get a girlfriend in real life and there’s nothing she can do to learn about it or stop it. That’s a topic they don’t talk about.
Her shirt evaporated away and she sunk deeper into the hot spring. “Everything you say, I have to believe. Your school, mowing lawns, money, your parents, cars, cellphones, getting into fights.”
He straightened up. “You’re right, I’m sorry, no more fights.”
With a big smile, she backed up and walked waist-deep to the other side to look at the far-off mountains. “I’m relieved.” One mountain in particular stood out, the one thing she couldn’t change had a light on top, the light that had crossed the sky from the lighthouse on top of it.
With her back exposed, Jasper observed the six marks on her back, three on each side of her spine on top of another starting at the shoulder blades. He checked every time. Well, naturally he was going to look, but those six marks reassured him, he didn’t know why.
He followed her to the other side, both wishing they could kiss one another. And he wished more to touch her, with her face and skin and body so close. Instead, they watched the night sky and laughed all night long.
***
The next day as Jasper went out to mow a lawn or two, Alan stood in Jasper’s room, something caught his eye through the cracked open door as he walked by. He stared at the drawing his son did. Not because of the artistic merit and time his son spent on it. But it represented the face of a girl Mr. Shoemaker knew all too well.