[Jasper's POV - at the park after the second day of school]

"Well, well. Look who finally decided to show up? We haven't seen you all day! Have you finally grown tired of our company?" Jessy yells loudly across the open grass field which I'm currently crossing. It might be my imagination, but I feel like her loud voice is echoing off of the surrounding trees. Yelling such a ridiculous question across the park? She's something else.

"I'd never grow tired of you two," I laugh with a playful wink. "Did you miss me, babe?"

Jessy and Otto have been enjoying the warm summer sun in the park since school ended. I only meet up with them now.

"Of course I didn't. Otto kept on asking where you were," Jessy says haughtily as she sticks her nose in the air, a light tinge of blush on her cheeks. When I look over to Otto she is giggling silently at her best friend's antics. "But you were with that madman all day, so I told her it simply wasn't worth it."

"Madman?" I echo in surprise. "Who?"

"Oh! Don't you act dumb with me! You know very well who I'm talking about! Mister I-wish-we-met-earlier-so-we-could-have-been-best-friends-forever!" Jessy exclaims in one long breath. She sounds like a complaining child, which is very unlike her.

"Wait... Are you talking about Alex?" I ask. "And what exactly are you accusing him of?"

"Have you heard the advice he gave Otto?" she asks seriously. "He told her to fight Thomas head on."

"Jessy please, stop yelling my business all over the park," Otto complains embarrassedly from the place where she is sitting on the grass. Her voice is much more quiet. Honestly, it's a normal volume, but in comparison to Jessy, it simply seems quiet.

"Hmm, I'm not surprised," I say with a shrug. "After what happened yesterday. Plus Alex really doesn't seem to be intimidated by Thomas."

Jessy sucks in a breath.

"Don't tell me-! You agree with him?" she bristles exasperatedly.

"Calm down, Jessy," I shush her and she snaps her mouth shut. "I don't know anything about fighting head on, but I do think that Thomas crossed a line yesterday. Cornering you with your back against a tree truly isn't ok."

"Wait-! He cornered you against a tree?! You didn't tell me that," Jessy snaps as she turns her attention towards Otto.

"I did tell you that Thomas cornered me. Why is it different when my back is against a tree?" Otto says with a small shrug and then turns her attention to me. "How do you even know that?"

"Alex told me," I say. "He told me you were being bullied, bordering on sexual harassment. And when I asked him if he was exaggerating, he told me you were shivering from head to toe."

"Thomas didn't sexually harass me," Otto says, sounding slightly confused. "He was holding me by the wrist and had me forced against a tree because I had tried to walk away from him. But nothing more than that."

"Then why does Alex say that you were shivering from head to toe?" I ask. I didn't think Alex was lying. Otherwise he's psychotically good at it. Otto seems to go through the event in her mind until she seems to remember something and then turns bright red.

"That was because I thought the two of them were going to fight," she mumbles in embarrassment. "I'd never seen anything like it."

"Alex and Thomas were going to fight?" I mumble incredulously.

"No! Uhm… Well, honestly… Thomas wouldn't have instigated a fight, but he would have defended himself," Otto corrects me as she searches for words. "I'm not so sure what Alex would have done."

Jessy lets out a long sigh.

"Honestly, I think you should cut Alex some slack," Jessy suddenly cuts in. Her words surprise me. She usually isn't very welcoming of newcomers. Certainly when it involves Otto. "If the guy really did find you in that position, and even describes it as sexual harassment, it means he was ready to defend you."

"Perhaps…" Otto mumbles, clearly not agreeing.

Jessy's phone buzzes, and the screen lights up with a message.

"Shit, I have to go. My mom sent me a text to be home before dinner," she curses and then turns to Otto. "I'll call you this evening, ok? I want to sift through your thoughts a little more, because I can tell something is clearly still bothering you."

Otto nods absentmindedly as Jessy quickly grabs all of her stuff and shoves it into her backpack. But right before she leaves she squeezes Otto in a tight hug. I open my arms for a hug too, but instead she sticks out her tongue towards me and leaves. I watch her go until she is completely out of sight. Now that she's gone, a silence settles around me and Otto.

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"Are you ok?" I ask as I sit down next to her on the grass. Before she answers, she releases a long sigh.

"Yes? … Maybe not… I don't know…" she says as she evades my eyes. "I can't believe he told you. I guess the whole school knows now?"

"Not really... He was actually really discreet. Wouldn't even have told me. But it was obvious that something had happened between the two of you. So I dragged it out of him," I say with a shrug. "It sounds like you took quite the fright?"

"Yeah," she mumbles, "I just hadn't expected him to show up..."

"Which one? Thomas or Alex?" Otto looks up at me with a raised eyebrow as if she wants to ask "Really?" but answers anyway.

"Both, I guess, but Alex the least… I mean. Sure, I know Thomas can come and bother me any second of the day. It's still unpleasant, but I guess I got used to it."

"But?" I nudge her on to continue when it seems she's about to trail off.

"It's just all so strange," she confesses softly. "When Thomas cornered me yesterday, he said that a little bird had told him that I had met a good-looking guy."

"Tsk, I can guess who the little bird was," I say as I click my tongue in dislike. "What did he want?"

"Nothing, really," Otto says as she goes through the event in her mind, "No empty threats, no cross-examination, no bad talking. He just wanted to know his name... I wasn't going to tell him, though. But then Alex showed up, and I panicked."

I watch as she loses herself in thought again.

"Oh, sweetie! Don't let it bother you," I say as I capture her in a big bear hug. "At this rate you won't be able to sleep. Don't worry so much! Alex can take care of himself!"

Otto looks uncertain.

"He actually said so himself," I laugh. Otto gives me a small smile.

"You know what? Let's move your thoughts," I say overly cheerfully. "Let's go see a movie together. You know, for a change of pace? My treat."

For an instant, it looks like she won't react at all, but then notices that I'm waiting for an answer.

"Oh, don't start Jasper. You know we can't," she says, bordering on annoyed.

I blink in surprise. "Why?"

"Well... for starters, Jessy went home just now," she says.

"Actually, I-"

"Thought to go without Jessy?" she cuts me off. "No, Jasper. We both know how well that went last time."

I hate to admit it, but she's right. The last time that Otto and I had dared to go see a movie, just the two of us, Jessy went absolute bat-shit. Instead of trying to match-make us, like she does with any other boy that Otto becomes close with, she started accusing us of already being a couple and never telling her. And when we kept denying to be a couple, she started to monopolise Otto for herself, and to purposely ostracise me, saying we'll leave her behind if she let us. It had taken more than half a year to fix the balance between the three of us. Although it never truly became the same ever again, because Jessy or Otto never-ever spend time alone with me anymore. I should have known my offer would be rejected.

"Not to mention that I have to get going home too," Otto says as she places her hand on mine, gives it a gentle squeeze and looks at me with an apologetic smile. "Thank you. I know you offered it to cheer me up."

Well, at least she's smiling again.

"Won't you be late for dinner too?" she asks while packing her things.

"Nope, already finished," I say as I lazily stretch out on the grass. "You know we eat early at home."

"Oh, right. Well, see you tomorrow!" Otto says with a cheerful wave as she leaves.

"See you-... Wait! You're forgetting your backpack!" I call after her as I spot another backpack at the base of the tree we're sitting by.

"No, I'm not," she yells back from a distance, lifting her backpack as proof. "Isn't it yours?"

"No, I didn't bring mine," I yell back. "Is it Jessy's?"

"No, it's the wrong color..." Otto's brows furrow in confusion. "Then whose is it?"

"It doesn't matter," I say as I rummage through the pack, looking for clues of its owner. "Looks like it's from a student at our school! I'll bring it to the lost and found tomorrow."

"Ok!" Otto yells back one last time, waves happily and leaves.

I watch her as she speed walks out of the park, unable to pull my eyes away from her. I sigh as she finally vanishes from my view and let myself fall back.

"That's mine," a voice says from right next to me and I jump up in fright.

[To be continued in the next chapter]