by Nicole Thorn
After giving him our number, we thanked him and headed back to the Nelson’s house.
We were standing in the living room, not quite sure what to do next.
Juniper had her hand on her hips. “I don’t like not having steps to take.”
“I’m with ya,” Zander added. “But sadly, that’s where we are for the time being. So I think we should have a movie night. We can pick something and make it a party.”
Jasmine was the only one that seemed happy about that idea. “To the DVDs!” she said, dragging Zander off.
Juniper hung her head. “They’re gonna mess up the whole system…” she walked off in their direction.
I looked at Jasper. “So… what do you wanna do?”
He seemed surprised by the question.
“I can leave you alone, if you’d prefer.” I was already red in the face for almost suggesting we spend a little time together. This was what I got for trying to be a person. I backpedaled. “I think I’m just gonna go get something to eat.”
I walked away before he could say anything.
I opened a cabinet and noticed that it was empty of mugs, all but one. The sink was empty too, so I assumed the dishwasher was full. I wasn’t actually hungry, so I decided I could try and be a little helpful. Maybe I could get on Jasper and Juniper’s good side if I did something useful.
I started putting dishes away, trying to find where they went. It was much harder than it should have been. My fault for thinking I had a shot at doing this in a kitchen that I’d been in all of one time. At least I knew where the silverware went.
I was putting a mug away when I heard Jasper. “Whoa, don’t do that.” His fingers brushed mine as he pulled the mug from my hands.
I was frozen, staring at him. “What did I do?”
He was calm and didn’t look angry with me as he started putting dishes back in the dishwasher. “Nothing. Juniper puts them away. She has a very specific way of doing it and if it gets screwed up… not good.”
My face was red again. “Sorry. I was just trying to help.”
He smiled. “It’s okay. It was very nice of you, but it’s just easier to let Juniper do this. Trust me.” He finished undoing everything I ruined and I felt horrible about it. I never strayed from this pattern of mine. I seem to screw up at every turn.
I crossed my arms and leaned against the sink while Jasper worked quickly. Once everything was back, he closed the dishwasher and looked back.
“Sorry,” I said again.
“Really, it’s okay. You’re a guest here. You don’t have to do chores.”
My eyes went to the ceiling. “You guys are already risking your lives, letting us stay in your home. We should give you something back other than awkward glances and mumbles.”
He smiled again. “Awkward glances and mumbles are my forte, actually.”
“Then I guess we have something in common.”
“Social skills are overrated.” He leaned on the counter beside me, careful not to touch me at all.
“I agree.”
We stood there in silence that wasn’t all that uncomfortable. It was almost pleasant, actually. Not feeling the need to have to talk or behave like a human being.
The silence gave me a moment to accidentally sink back into sad thoughts about this boy’s father. I was still angry. Angry at the man. Angry that these people didn’t know that they were being abused. I can only imagine how long it’s been going on. It explained so much. The little things that they did. How much did they not notice?
I leaned just a little closer to Jasper. “What do you think our odds are for getting out of this movie thing?”
He clicked his tongue. “I don’t know. Jasmine and Zander seem to be quite the team.”
“I’ll fake a heart attack and you can offer to bring me to the hospital.”
He smiled again. “I think they’d only bring the party with us.”
“Damn.”
He took a moment. “Maybe hiding would work.”
“Sure. I can make us a cocoon of rose thorns. We can set up a little picnic. Should be fun.”
He laughed. I made him laugh. Somehow that felt like progress. We went back to silence and that was just fine. We just stood there, probably both thinking about what our evening would turn out like. One movie couldn’t be so bad. I’d have Zander. I liked Jasmine and Juniper. Jasper was nice. I don’t even think I’d hate sitting next to him. He was quiet and I liked quiet. I think I might have just liked him.
9: Past Mistakes
Jasper
I thought I was being quiet when I left my bedroom the next morning. It wasn’t terribly early, but everyone else was still asleep. Might have something to do with the fact that none of us had anywhere to be, so there was no point in rushing. I was brushing my teeth when Kezia poked her head out of her bedroom and looked towards me. I waved, one handed.
She blinked sleepily and ducked back into her room. I assumed that meant she was going back to bed, but when I stepped out of the bathroom, she popped back out again, dressed in one of her oversized sweaters and was fighting a brush through her hair. “Morning,” she said.
“Good morning. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” I responded, opening the door to my bedroom and leaving it open. Kezia visibly hesitated. Much to my surprise, though, she stepped into my room and glanced around. It wasn’t anything special. The walls were mostly bare of pictures, aside from a handful of my sisters and me. There were shelves up with all my smaller projects on them. Some of them were pretty ugly, but I had nowhere else to put them, so they stayed here.
There really wasn’t anything else in the room, aside from furniture. I spent most of my time down in my studio, anyway, so I didn’t think it mattered. I grabbed a pair of socks from the top drawer of my dresser and pulled them on.
“Are you going somewhere?” Kezia asked. She was hovering in the doorway of my room, shuffling her feet. I was impressed that she didn’t attempt making a break for it the first chance she got. She didn’t seem to like being around strangers and that’s pretty much what I was to her.
“Store,” I said.
“You just went,” Kezia protested.
I smirked. “There’s two extra people here. The fact that Juniper hasn’t asked me to go already is kinda odd. Figured I’d get a head start this morning, before everyone got up. Guess I didn’t succeed in that, huh?”
Kezia shrugged. “I was up already. Still getting used to the room, I guess.” She tugged on the hem of her sweater self-consciously. “When I heard you moving around, I decided to see what was going on.” Her eyes darted around again, taking in my messy bed—it was always messy, but I had gotten some sleep last night—and then back to me. “Are you going by yourself?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Jasmine didn’t get in until after one this morning. If I go and wake her up, there’s a good chance she’ll be hungover and I don’t hate my sister enough for that.”
Kezia’s lips pursed, just slightly. The last time I saw that look on her face, it had been when my father was here. I still wasn’t sure why she had been so upset about his presence. Neither were my sisters, but we had all decided to just drop the subject. There was nothing we could say to make them understand he wasn’t a terrible person.
I stood up.
“Well, I can go with you,” Kezia said. Judging by the look on her face, she didn’t know she was going to offer until the offer was out there and couldn’t be taken back. Her cheeks heated a little. I waited for her to recant, but instead, she shuffled back into her bedroom. I left mine and seconds later, she emerged, with her shoes already on.
Huh. I hadn’t noticed that she didn’t take them off downstairs, like we usually did. We walked silently to the front door, where I put my shoes on, grabbed my keys and my wallet and then left. We took my and Jasmine’s SUV, since it had the most space in the back.
Halfway to the store, Kezia hesitantly asked, “Why does Juniper have you do the shopping?”
“Hmm?” I asked, most of my concentration on the road. Jasmine generally drove, but I knew how and I could do so without hurting myself or others. The whispering just got so intense sometimes, that I had to pretend like nothing else was around me, lest I pay too close attention to the whispering and crash.
“Juniper. She lets you do the shopping. I don’t know. It seems odd to me…” She trailed off, clearly looking embarrassed.
“She doesn’t like people,” I said. “Well, I don’t like people either, I suppose, but it’s different with Juni. We were homeschooled,” I explained. “So none of us were really social when we left our father’s house.”
Her face did that pinching thing again. It was kind of cute, but I didn’t tell her so. I’d rather her not try to tuck and roll out of the car. I couldn’t be certain that she would, but she didn’t seem to like emotional stuff, or touchy stuff.
“Jasmine, when we left, started socializing immediately. She wanted to know people and be friends with people. So she started going to bars and clubs. She got beat up twice in the first month after we left Dad’s.” Kezia’s eyes widened. “Jasmine is friendly,” I explained. “Guys thought she was flirting with them and when they showed interest, their girlfriends often got jealous. And my sister would call us, because she suddenly found herself unable to get home.”
Kezia paled. “That’s… awful. Why didn’t she stop going out? I mean, I barely ever go out, but when I do, I have Zander. If someone tried to beat me up, they’d find themselves face to face with two very unhappy demigods.”
I smiled. “Jasmine isn’t easily deterred. In the last three years, she’s gotten beaten up four times, mugged once and drugged once.”
“Drugged?” Kezia squeaked.
I nodded. “It doesn’t work well on us, for whatever reason. Instead of making her an easy target, she just started having visions. Scared the guy so bad that he apparently took off running and got hit by a car, like she had seen in her vision.” I tapped the steering wheel, turning the corner slowly. “But she still goes out, because Jasmine is terrified of being alone.”
“She has you guys,” Kezia whispered.
“It’s not enough,” I said, with a shrug. “She’s gotten better at spotting who she should interact with and who she should stay away from. So, there’s that. As for me… I don’t do well in crowds. There’s too many people and too many traps that I could fall into. I don’t know how to talk to them and they stare at me oddly, like I’ve done something wrong, even when I haven’t said anything.”
“You’re tall and your eyes are interesting,” Kezia said.
“Maybe, but either way, I’d rather not bother,” I said. “It’s difficult to be around so many people, but even then, I can handle it better than Juniper. People aren’t kind and they don’t care about her…quirks. Going into public for Juniper is akin to throwing a puppy into a roomful of cats. It doesn’t know what to do and chances of it getting clawed are dangerously high.”
Kezia was quiet as I pulled my car into a parking space. “Jasmine tried taking Juniper out once. Juniper ended up locking herself in the bathroom, crying and calling me to come pick her up, even though she doesn’t like being in my car. Jasmine felt so bad that she didn’t go out for a week after that.”
“Zander likes to go out too,” Kezia said, as we got out of the car. “He feels guilty for leaving me at home, though, so he doesn’t get to often. Sometimes, I feel bad for that, but maybe now he can go out with Jasmine.”
I chuckled. “Gods help whoever runs into the two of them together.”
Kezia smiled.
I grabbed a cart and Kezia started reading off my list for me. I told her to add whatever she and Zander might need to the list and she insisted on getting her own cart for their things. When I assured her it was no problem, I was met with a thousand-yard stare of doom and backed down. My sisters and I had a lot of money. Enough to sustain us for life, even with us giving some to Dad every month.
But, when a demigod gives you a death glare, you listen, or you get turned into a new kind of flower and that wasn’t worth it. I would make a very ugly flower and it probably wouldn’t smell good either.
We stopped by the pet aisle, so that I could grab some fish food for Nemo. A woman was standing in front of the cat toys, staring at them, but not seeing. Everything she had touched was whispering, like a thousand snakes hissing in my ear. I didn’t even know how distracted I was until Kezia touched my arm tentatively. “Jasper?” she asked, concern dripping from the word.
I blinked at her.
“Are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” I snatched the fish food and pushed my cart out of the aisle, until the whispering had subsided. I paused in front of the ice cream aisle, feeling the need to explain myself to her. I didn’t know her that well, either, but… I don’t know. I was comfortable around her and I felt like she might understand better if she knew why I kept zoning out.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked. She grabbed a tub of strawberry ice cream in the process, trying to make the question seem more casual than it actually was.
“Yeah. The way my visions work is through objects and very rarely people,” I explained. “I know how potent those visions will be, because the objects make noise, but only I can hear it.”
Kezia cocked her head. “What kind of noise?”
“Whispering. Wordless whispering,” I explained and shrugged. “Almost anything that’s been handled by people will whisper, but the stronger the vision, the louder the whispering. It’s not always something bad. I’ve had objects that told stories of immense joy, rather than sorrow of some kind.”
Kezia looked thoughtful, but nodded. “That’s why Jasmine usually comes with you to the grocery store?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s not always easy… resisting. For example, the scroll. There is no way that I could have resisted it. When you brought it into the house, it screamed. I’m just glad it had something useful to say.”
Now she had a pained look on her face. I wondered why. It couldn’t be because of the scroll. They needed to know what happened with it and I was more than willing to help. I knew the risks and I know my limits better than she did. I didn’t point any of this out. Instead, I went to get the next item on the list.
Kezia followed me, quieter now, pushing her own cart. I still wanted to argue about her buying those things, but it would be an act in futility. We were almost to the registers before she said something else. “I’m sorry,” she blurted. “That you’re stuck helping us. I’m sorry that we’ve taken over your house and that we brought you that scroll. I’m just sorry.”
I grinned over my shoulder at her. The expression caught her off guard and she stumbled over her feet, nearly sending her cart into a display of Oreos. “I’m not sorry. I like you guys. It would have sucked if the two of you met untimely ends because of some idiot Furies.”
“That’s very bold of you to say,” Kezia’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “You don’t even know what happened,” she pointed out. “For all you know we’ve been lying this whole time and are currently planning your mutilation, torture and murder.”
I laughed. Couldn’t help it. “Kezia, when we get home, I’d like to show you the plant my sister Jasmine keeps in her bathroom. It’s quickly dying and because you are you, that’s going to upset you and then you’ll feel the need to put it back together. Which will make Jasmine happy and that’ll make Zander happy, which will, in turn, make you happy. I’m not sure you’re capable of mutilation or torture and I know you didn’t murder anyone. As for Zander… Well, I’m sure he had a good reason.”
Kezia blinked. The cashier looked put out with what I was pushing through her lane. She popped her gum loudly as she passed each item over the scanner and generally looked bored out of her mind. Kezia paid for her groceries, just like she threatened she would.
“All right,” she said. “You win.”
“What did I win?” I asked.
She just s
miled and something told me that’s the only answer I would get out of her. “We should stop and get some breakfast.”
“I’m not hungry,” I said.
She looked at me, with that same cute, pinched expression. “I am. Do you mind stopping for something?” She asked. I didn’t see any harm in it, so fifteen minutes later, I was pulling into the drive thru and rolling down my window. Kezia ordered a shocking about of breakfast for herself and Zander. I couldn’t fathom where it would all go. I ordered plain oatmeal for Juniper and enough greasy sandwiches for Jasmine to keep her happy. The girl could pack away a lot of food, even when hungover.
We split the bill and then drove home.
Everyone was just beginning to get up when we started bringing groceries in. Zander decided to help and brought the rest of the bags in. All at the same time. I was worried for the bread when he put those bags on the counter, but had to trust that he didn’t smoosh it to nothing.
Of course, it was then that everyone realized we brought food as well and the horde descended. We were sitting in the living room—which Juniper was okay with as long as we threw away every piece of trash. I flipped through channels, trying to find something worth watching when Kezia appeared in front of me, holding out a breakfast sandwich and a hash brown.
“What’s this?” I asked, though the sinking filling in my stomach told me that I already knew.
“It’s your breakfast,” she said. Her face was very calm, but I saw the almost triumphant look in her eyes. I didn’t understand the look, but I took the food. I couldn’t not eat it. Not when she spent her money on me and everything. It would have been rude and I already felt bad that she bought her own groceries.
As idiotic as that was.
The sandwich was pretty good and I found a show that all the girls seemed to like. It was starting to look like a good day.
Ψ
Juniper came back out into the living room. She had just finished putting all the groceries away and looked pretty content. Today she was wearing khakis and a white t-shirt. Jasmine had taken two aspirin and gone upstairs for another little nap, in the hopes that would take care of her hangover.
