Jasper anxiously stepped out into the main room to see David and Max acting as they had been yesterday morning. The two of them were in the process of eating breakfast and David was also getting ready for school, much like yesterday.
David spotted Jasper and sent him a cheerful smile. Max was preoccupied with his cereal but sent him the usual emotionless glance as he often did when Jasper entered the room.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Neither seemed to be acting any differently. Jasper supposed that it was expected from David, but he expected some slight change in Max. He had been frightened that perhaps their argument stirred him from his sleep.
Surely it wasn't good for a kid to hear their new parents have an argument just days after they move in.
Jasper hadn't known him long enough to get a read on the kid, he could have heard the whole thing or simply slept through it all. Jasper probably wouldn't have known the difference.
He decided that he would not say anything to Max about what happened last night, surely David would be a better judge over whether to tell the kid about the argument.
Max seemed fairly bright; he knew Jasper's viewpoint on Camp Campbell. So, if he had overheard them arguing, he would have discerned that it had nothing to do with him.
He hoped that'd be the case at least, Jasper thought apprehensively. Bloody hell, parenting wais hard. So many difficult decisions came with it, and he never knew if he was making the right ones.
Jasper decided he'd do the same as David, and act as if nothing were out of the originary.
"Good morning, you two," Jasper said in an upbeat tone, hoping that he didn't sound or look as nervous as he felt. "Did you guys have a good sleep?" David smiled even brighter.
"Good morning, Jas!" David replied with his usual morning cheer. Max gave him another sidelong glance.
"Morning, hippy," Max responded, without any attempt at enthusiasm like the two men had done. Clearly, he wasn't excited for his second day of school, much like yesterday.
However, it was certainly better than him giving Jasper an even colder shoulder, considering the possibility of the boy being an unwilling audience of last night's argument.
Jasper made his way over to the coffee machine and began preparing himself his morning coffee. He grabbed the beverage and went to sit down at the dining table.
Max said he knew that Jasper wasn't bad. Max had to know he wanted him here by now. For the moment, all Jasper could do was keep doing his best.
Fifteen years ago...
Jasper had to find the cause of this, find out why Davey was so upset. Ever since they proclaimed they were best friends, things had been great between them.
Davey certainly still lobbed insults at him, but he was never as nasty as he was an hour ago when came in with his arm wrapped in bandages.
He decided to ask Darla about it; she was the one who led Davey's group. She'd know what had happened.
Darla herself, fortunately, happened to be alone when Jasper found her. She was drinking from her bottle as she looked over the campers that were running about.
"Darla," Jasper said, fidgety as he approached her, "can I ask you something?" The counsellor looked down at the camper with a welcoming smile, she capped the bottle in her hand clipped it to her belt.
"What's up, Jasper?" she said jovially. Jasper rubbed his hands in thought, wondering how to ask this.
"What… happened while you guys were out? Davey was hurt, and it looked like he had been crying." Darla cringed at the question, her smile fading.
"While we were out on the hike, he accidentally walked into the pointy end of a fallen branch," she explained, looking off to the side, plainly upset from the event. "It didn't go too deep, thank god, but it went deep enough to hurt and bleed a fair bit. I had to wrap it up in some bandages I luckily brought with me in my backpack."
Jasper winced at the explanation of his friend's injury. Darla continued her story. "Davey had a bit of a slow reaction at first, just staring at it. But after a few seconds, he started sobbing real loud. Poor little guy."
Jasper looked down at the ground in contemplation. That explains why he was so upset, but why did his friend push him away? Jasper had to talk to him.
This week had been pretty much what Jasper had expected from the first few days he'd known Max. Which was mostly that they made small talk throughout the week. Jasper honestly preferred if they had done more together.
When he came home, Max frequently acted as if he were too tired to do much else besides sit and watch TV.
David had decided to start dragging the Max with him and Jasper for their daily late afternoon walks when Jasper got home from work a couple of days ago, which fortunately went with mostly minimal complaints from the normally cantankerous kid.
It was nice to chat with Max on their walks. They also went out grocery shopping together the other day when David forgot some things for dinner, and they watched some trailers for some movies and games the kid might be interested in. Yet again, it was mostly small talk on those occasions.
It probably wasn't too bad for the first week. Hostility from Max this week wasn't especially worrisome in any way, which was nice. Most of the time it came down to him making a sarcastic quip or telling Jasper to go away when he made jokes or said something that Max didn't like.
The boy's rudeness was still unacceptable, but Jasper would like to think it could be a lot worse.
His thoughts were put a stop to by the feeling of someone tapping on his shoulder. David was smiling down at him with Jasper's dinner in hand.
Clearly, Jasper had been doing nothing but staring at the wall for the past ten minutes.
"Lost in thought, Jas?" asked David with a cheeky grin. Jasper gave him small smile and grabbed his dinner from David's hands.
"I'm just thinkin', y'know," Jasper responded in a somewhat tired manner.
"'Bout Max, and all that huh?" he asked, right on the money as usual. Jasper chuckled at this.
"Yeah, Davey. Haven't done much stuff together since the weekend," he admitted, in a somewhat disappointed manner. David hummed and cocked his head as if in great thought.
"Well, your sister called today to see if we could catch up since I've gotten back. We'll be going out for a few hours tomorrow on Saturday," David said, giving Jasper a soft shove with his elbow and waggling his eyebrows.
Jasper raised his head to look up at David with a growing smile. "Oh, will you? I'll have to look after Max while you're away, yeah?" he replied with a knowing grin. David's smile grew.
"That's good to hear, Jas! You two can spend the day doing some nice father and son bonding. I bet it'll be even better than last weekend!" he said enthusiastically. Jasper snorted at David's exuberance, but he was grateful he could have some more one-on-one time with Max.
David and Max had plenty of time this week hanging out without Jasper, due to Jasper's work hours.
During Jasper's time at work, David had taken Max out for an after-school snack at the bakery, watched a new cartoon show together, and even worked together on baking a new recipe David had found on the internet.
Jasper felt like he wasn't spending enough time with Max. He really was trying his best, though he had felt that a first week wouldn't be too bad to go slow with. The next three weeks after he'll have to push more on the issue.
But another day spent with just the two of them presented an excellent opportunity for him and Max. He's gotten a better feel for what the boy was like, so Jasper is confident it will go better than last time.
Fifteen years ago...
Jasper managed to find Davey sitting against a tree at the edge of camp, where he was drawing pictures in the sand with a stick.
"Davey," Jasper began with a tone he hoped communicated sympathy and understanding, "I know what happened." Davey looked up and glared at him.
"So, you went shoving your nose in where it was unwanted?" spat Davey, glaring at Jasper.
"I wasn't snooping, man, I was just finding out what happened. You wouldn't tell me anything," Jasper said with a huff. Davey hurled the stick he was holding several feet away from them.
"Yeah, that is snooping, you stupid hippy," he said in a condescending tone as if educating a three-year-old. "Aren't you supposed to respect my wishes?" Jasper pursed his lips in response.
"Don't be like that, Davey," Jasper said, slightly frustrated. "I know you were crying and-" Davey quickly stood to full height and leaned right into Jasper's face.
"Shut up!" he shouted angrily, angrier than Jasper had ever seen him. Jasper quickly took a step back at the display of fury, spluttering.
"D-Davey, I… uh, I only wanted to say I don't c-care about that. I-I care that you got hurt," he said in a rush, waving his hands back and forth frantically as he spoke.
Davey gave a look of indignation and rolled his eyes. "I don't fucking care about this shit," he ground out as he began walking away at a brisk pace.
Jasper sighed in frustration under his breath and quickly ran up to Davey to keep pace with him. "Wait, Davey, c'mon, dude. I don't want us to fight."
"Then you shouldn't have been a snoop."
"I have to worry because it seems like you don't!" Jasper yelled, trying to make eye contact. He then suddenly came to a standstill so abruptly that Jasper took a few steps before realising Davey had stopped.
"You heard what happened, I cried and made a fucking fool of myself," he replied quietly, looking at the ground with a scowl.
Jasper walked back to where Davey had come to a stop. "Hey, remember when I got upset when I fell in the mud and you told me that I had nothing to worry about."
Davey shook his head at that. "Not the same. I cried really loudly in front of everybody, you didn't. It's way more embarrassing. I… I don't like getting hurt, I looked so weak and pathetic," he said in a sad tone.
It was clear, however, that he was trying to hold back any emotion as he said it. Jasper placed his hand on Davey's shoulder.
"I don't think you're weak or pathetic at all!" Jasper said sincerely. "You wanna talk about it, man?" he asked in a consoling manner, but Davey merely shrugged the hand off his shoulder.
"No, Jas, lay off about it. Christ." Davey then continued walking. It was clear to Jasper, though, that his friend was still upset.
There had to be something he could do to cheer him up. He thought for a second before doing the first thing that came to his head.
"Do you like Star Wars? My favourite movie is Empire Strikes Back! And my favourite character is Han Solo!" he said in a loud voice, almost desperately.
Davey came to another stop and looked at him in astonishment as if Jasper was an alien that had just landed on Earth.
"What the fuck?" he said to himself softly.
Jasper came to a stop in front of him. "Well, I was wondering if you'd seen any of the movies. The new prequel movies are coming out, it'd be radical to go see them with you after we get back home. If you were interested, that is," Jasper clarified.
Davey cocked his head and squinted his eyes at Jasper. There's a pause between them as they simply stared at each other. After several seconds, Davey then wrapped his arms around himself and let out a guffaw.
"Stupid hippy," he muttered with a fond smile, shaking his head as he let his arms drop back to his sides. Jasper grinned, that was certainly a result!
"No, I haven't seen them. Tell me about them?" Davey asked, his unhappiness seeming to drain away, or at the very least he was being distracted from it, which was a good start.
"Sure, Davey!" Jasper said with a smile. His stupid idea worked! Maybe, hopefully. If it hadn't, at least his best bud was talking more normally again, thought Jasper, and he could work from there on keeping Davey's mind off what happened.
Jasper looked up as David hopped off the couch from where they had been watching TV together with Max.
"Heading off now, huh, Davey?" asked Jasper in a neutral tone of voice. David gave him a couple thumbs up.
"Yup. Said I'd meet Katie at ten-thirty. Should take me around about ten minutes to reach the place," David said in his usual eager tone. "I haven't seen her since before I went to camp, so it'll be just swell to catch up."
Jasper tipped his head and gave a smile of affirmation. "Radical. I'll make sure this little troublemaker doesn't get up to mischief," Jasper said while pointing his thumb at Max who was sitting at the edge of the couch watching the screen.
The boy looked up at him as he said this. "You couldn't stop me, hippy man," Max said with unwavering resolve. Jasper let out a good-natured laugh, hoping he didn't sound anxious. He sincerely hoped he wouldn't have to do so. It'd likely ruin all his plans to spend the day with the kid if he had to tell him off, especially without David here to back him up.
David grabbed his phone and wallet off the dining table and headed to the front door. As he opened the door he turned to the other two. "Have fun, I'll be probably around three or four hours."
Jasper hummed in acknowledgement.
Once David closed the door behind him, Jasper turned to Max with a small grin.
"Hey, little man. We never got 'round to watching that series on Netflix we talked about." Max placed the side of his face in his palm.
"You never brought it up again. I assumed you forgot about it," he said in a dull manner.
Jasper cringed slightly. "What? Of course not. I've just been busy with work, little dude," he explained, with a tinge of unease. Should he have brought it up sooner during the week? "I thought it'd be better to save it 'till the weekend, y'know?" Max simply gave a slow nod at this, coupled with a flat stare.
"Right," replied Max with a bored tone of voice. Before things could get any more awkward, Jasper leapt up from his place on the couch and grabbed the remote from the table in front of them.
"Well, my bad, ok? I'll set it up," he announced with confidence. He then switched the TV over to Netflix. After a quick search, he found what he was looking for, and selected 'Clone Wars'.
After a moment of thought, he decided to start on the episode called 'Rookies'. It was a favourite of his from the first season. It was best to start strong rather than with some of the earlier, less interesting episodes so that he could pique Max's interest better.
Once he was done he took a seat on the couch near Max, without invading his personal space, and pressed play.
As they watched the first few minutes, Max seemed mostly disinterested with his head in his hand with half-lidded eyes as the soldiers, stationed at an outpost, who were the main characters of the episode, were introduced. Jasper was hoping Max's lack of interest wouldn't last too long.
Fortunately, after the first few minutes the villains of the episode were introduced, 'commando droids', which were, in Jasper's opinion, one of the cooler droids in the Star Wars universe.
They easily massacred half of the soldiers that had been shown so far in the episode and took over the outpost that the soldiers were stationed at.
As this was happening, Jasper could tell there was a slight change in Max's expression. He could see from the way Max's green eyes widened slightly from their look of boredom, he lifted his head from his hands and his mouth opened slightly, almost as if in a trance.
Jasper smiled fondly. It seemed as if he'd made the right choice, as it seemed to keep Max's interest throughout the episode until near its conclusion.
"So, whaddya think? Pretty off the heazy, huh?" Jasper asked, already pretty sure he knew the answer. Max glanced at him for a moment, before coming up with his response.
"Well, I wouldn't use that phrase to describe it because this is 2017. But yeah, it's alright," he said, trying to keep a level tone, but he had a small smile as he said this. Jasper snorted at his reply.
"Wicked. Wanna watch another ep?" Max's soft smile grew subtly.
"I don't see why not," he replied with a shrug. Jasper smiled cheerfully as he picked the next episode.
Fifteen years ago...
Jasper and Davey finally returned to their tent after an hour of deep conversation during their walk. Davey's sadness had noticeably sapped away over time as they had talked.
As they both sat down on Davey's bed, he turned to Jasper with a warm smile. "Thanks, Jasper. You're a hippy idiot, but you're a cool hippy idiot," he said affectionately. "Thanks for being there. I hardly remember why I was upset, it's stupid." Jasper smiled brightly at this.
"That's all right, Davey. Remember, we're best buds. I was just worried about you; I don't judge you, right?" Jasper said in a soft voice. Davey kicked his feet back and forth and looked down with a smile.
"I know. You're a sap. I should remember that more often." Jasper chuckled in amusement.
"Well, don't forget it, okay?" Davey looked at him, still smiling.
"I won't."
After a few episodes, Jasper decided he might try something that hadn't gone as well last time. He turned towards Max with an eager smile.
"Hey, little man, how 'bout we play a game together, huh?" he asked in with an optimistic tone of voice. Max leaned back onto the couch, letting out an exhale.
"Sure, what've you got?" he asked curiously. Jasper grinned at this, Max wasn't going to fight him on this like he did last weekend. That was a relief.
"How 'bout, 'Fort Crushers'? You beat up heaps of different enemies and fight cool bosses, it's wicked fun!" he replied enthusiastically.
"Okay, let's do that then. Pass me a controller." Jasper turned on the game and set it up and grabbed a couple of controllers. He then walked over to the couch and passed one over to Max and pressed start.
Fifteen years ago...
"Y'know, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm kind of excited about when camp ends," Jasper said thoughtfully. Davey gasped loudly in comical fashion.
"Do my ears deceive me!?" Davey said dramatically. Jasper rolled his eyes and leaned back onto the bed with his arms behind his head.
"Not like that. I still love camp and I'll be sad to see it end, but I can't wait to show you all the stuff I got. We gotta watch all the Star Wars movies, and hey! We can play some of my games together when we get home too." Davey gave an amused smirk.
"I'd like that, Jas. Before I heard you lived so close, I never thought I'd see you again after this is over cuz I don't think I'm coming back to this trash heap again. Unless my parents want to ditch me again," he said as he laid beside Jasper, mimicking his pose.
"Your parents suck. You can come hide from them at my place, Davey, or we can go wanderin' round town."
Davey had a wide smile on his face. "Even better, I'll have something to do when I leave the house to escape those two assholes."
Jasper chuckled. "It'll be great," Jasper said in contentment.
"Fuck. Yes!" Max shouted in delight, as he dealt the killing blow on the boss they were fighting. Jasper laughed at the boy's enthusiasm.
"Radical, little man. Awesome work," he said, congratulating the boy. They had been fighting this boss for the last fifteen minutes. It'd been a difficult battle, but they had finally come out victorious.
It'd been a pleasant couple of hours playing with Max, Jasper should do this more often with him.
He'd been a little nervous about asking due to the reaction he had gotten last time, but it looks like it was just because Max had yet to get used to him.
The front door then suddenly opened to reveal a cheerful David.
"Do my ears deceive me, or are you guys having some good-natured fun? Besides that bad language of course," said David happily.
Max let out a groan. "Don't make it lame, David," he responded, chastising David, who chortled in response.
Jasper spoke up cheerily, "It's been fun. Me and Max had a wicked time. How's Katie?"
Jasper had spoken to his father and sister the day he called his mother. They were disappointed about not seeing Max sooner, but they didn't press the issue, which was a huge relief.
"Yeah, she's good, it's nice to see her again. It's always nice to see your family," mused David.
Especially considering his own family was nowhere near as nice as Jasper's, which was the unspoken thought. It was a sad thought, but at least Jasper's family was welcoming.
"Hey, Davey, wanna join in?" asked Jasper. He only just remembered that they happened to have a third controller. Jasper had bought one after he came back from work one day during this week. A smile came to David's face.
"I'd love to." He then walked over, grabbed a controller, and sat next to Jasper, leaning against him affectionately.
"Radical, let's start a new game, I'm sure we can catch up to where me and Max were together soon enough. That all right, little man?" asked Jasper. Max let out a small sigh.
"Gonna suck having to fight that boss again, but whatever, I don't mind," he responded easily.
Jasper felt fulfilled, he had had a great time with Max and now he and his family are playing games together. Today was an awesome day.