Contrary to Shakespeare's belief, being woken up by what seemed like an awful lot of stones hurled at your windows was neither romantic nor particularly welcome. I flung the doors to my balcony open, fearlessly throwing myself into Juliet's role. "Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" I certainly had the fainting heroine part down pat, my silk dressing gown fluttering to the floor.
Standing out on my balcony, the white tiles were chilling my feet. It was odd, I thought, the hairs on my neck not standing up, even though this was how any good horror movie started. Any minute now, and a monster would –. I held that thought as the bush below my balcony rustled, the trellis shaking under a figure trying to climb it.
Bless.
"Jasper?" His figure was distinctive, slicked hair and fleece jacket as he cursed the overgrowth that was the ivy on my trellis.
Jaspers beautiful face looked up at me, cheeks colouring in the dim moonlight. "I – Alice." His voice was urgent, and I could make out the look of panic in his face even from two floors away. "I – we – need to go. Now."
I smiled, confused. "I don't understand. Why?"
His hand reached out to me, voice pleading. Something was wrong, and I didn't know what it was. It was scary and unnerving. Mainly scary. I didn't like uncertainties.
"Alice." He was still pleading, frame now solid and shoulders squared. There was also something else. The moonlight wasn't sufficient for me to see his face, in all it's pale glory, his sharp cheekbones and deep eyes. I niftily climbed down the trellis, ignoring his gasps of protests and worries.
"Jasper." I clung to him as he helped me down. Seeing as he was a beanpole, and I was not, I clung to him, relishing his warmth. It was his chin I saw first, when I looked up. And then his lips, and then his cheeks.
The moonlight shone off his face, my eyes adjusting to the dim light. Now, it wasn't so hard to see why he was scared. I gasped, reaching out to touched his mangled face.
He turned away. "It doesn't hurt."
Like hell. "And I'm Julie-freaking-et."
He smiled a little, then grimaced as if it hurt him to smile. I wasn't surprised that it did. He held out his hand again, and I took it without thinking. He was scared, as I had been, but here, hand in hand, I wasn't scared any longer. He had that kind of effect on people.
And so, without questions, without knowing why, I went with him.
We climbed into his car and peeled down the street. It was a beauty – fast and sleek, and black. And expensive. Jasper had clearly benefited from the my little stock market hunches. I smiled a little, despite the situation. Turning on the radio, my head beat along to the doof doof that bled through the speakers of Jasper's Aston Martin.
After what seemed like hours and hours, the car rolled to a halt. It was light now, but I was bone tired. "You need to sleep." Jasper looked at me, his face still a bloody mess.
I just looked at him, hopping out the car without a word and opening the boot. Triumphantly pulling out the first aid kit, I bounced back into the car and shut the door behind me. "Now –"
"I'm fine." He was still insisting.
"Well," I tilted my head. "We could do this the easy way, or the hard way."
Jasper was looking cautiously at me. "What's the hard way?"
My grin widened, as I leaned forward. "Guess." My voice was guttural, and so soft he had to lean forward to hear me.
"I'm not sure I want to." Our eyes were locked in a ferocious battle, as the James and the world faded away.
In that instant, I could read him. I could feel his fear, the feeling dark and consuming. I could feel his morose, the feeling small but consuming. But most of all, there was a lighting in his golden brown eyes, one that shone through the others, like a beacon at the end of a dark tunnel. It was hope. For the first time I had known him, Jasper felt hope.
I broke our eye contact first, leaning away from his warm presence. "I'll be gentle," I promised, soaking a pad of cotton wool in antiseptic.
"I know." He didn't hiss as the cold pad pressed gently against his dried up wound. He just stared at me, like I could disappear, like I was his centre of gravity. I avoided his gaze, afraid of being caught up in the moment again. Jasper and I, had a strange relationship. I didn't know what he was to me. He wasn't a friend, nor was he a stranger. He was just...Jasper, and seeing as I was his best friend's girlfriend, that was all he could ever be.
Jasper was being a very good patient, and I said so. His lips lifted a little, though they had been pressed together so tightly they had turned white. As I packed away, flinging the kit to the back of the car somewhere, Jasper put his hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him and my heart wrenched.
Even injured, he was beautiful. Reaching out to lightly trace his cuts, I smiled sadly. They would scar.
"I've had worse." Jasper didn't need to remind me, but he did anyway, just to comfort me.
"I know." I reassured him.
"It doesn't hurt." He told me gently, as he pulled off his jacket. Now, I know he was just trying to reassure me. The jacket was now in my lap. "Sleep."
I didn't want to, but my eyes were closing voluntarily, as I snuggled into the still warm fleece jacket.
Within moments, my eyes closed, and never opened, golden eyes invading my dreams.
When my eyes opened again, the moment would be less serene.
The car was revving again, Jasper still looking composed. The sweat beading down his forehead and erratic steering gave him away.
"Jasper? What's happening?" I was bleary, my words sticking to the roof of my mouth. I didn't need ESP to know that something was clearly not right.
"Alice. Go back to sleep. It's fine." His words were short, his jaw clenching and unclenching with each syllable.
"Jasper?" There was no reply. "Jazz? Please." I laid my hand on his arm, and he stiffened before relaxing. Everything was on edge. "Jazz?" My voice was small - but not because I was scared. I was worried - what had got him on edge like this?
He said nothing for a long while, just drove and drove until we were lost.
"Jazz? Jazz?" His phone had been ringing incessantly for the past hour, but he hadn't made any more to switch it off, and I didn't know if it was important or not, so I didn't do anything. It was James. But this time, as we rolled to a stop, Jasper turned to me.
"Do you trust me?"
I just stared at him. "You know I do."
He looked at me. "Then you know this is for the best."
I held my breath. "I trust you," was all that came out. It seemed to be enough, fate tilting in the opposite direction of the future I had envisigned last night.
He answered the phone, grunting a few yeses and no, but mainly listening to his more dominant friend. When he had hung up without so much as a goodbye, he turned to me. "I tried." The engine revved and we zoomed off again.
I just looked at him, knowing that I would be asked again and again. "I know." It was what he had needed to hear, as he rolled up to a gas station. I hopped out, looking back at him. "Thank you Jazz." He only smiled a little, as I reached for my silk dressing gown. It was a hot morning, only promising to get hotter. California was like that. He caught my hand.
"For what it's worth, I told him not to."
I nodded. "I know." But James was James, and once he wanted something, nothing stood in his way. I stared at his face a bit longer, taking in his haunted eyes and wounded cheeks. If I could have frozen time, I would have. "Bye Jazz." I could tell that it would be a long time before I saw him again. And by then, he would be even more scarred, if not psychically then emotionally. As much as I didn't want that future to happen, it would.
He watched me click the car door closed, and wave him goodbye, speeding off. Sitting at the side of the dusty road, I waited and waited, and within a hour, James had me in his old, ratty pick up truck and was driving me home. "Your parents wondered where you were."
Right. My adoptive parents. "Oh." It didn't need to be said that while they loved each other, their love was limited, and didn't quite extend to me. I was just plain old Alice, and while I was grateful, it was nice to belong. With James, I had a sort-of family. It wasn't perfect, but it would do.
"I told them not to worry." I smiled a little. He got all serious now, taking his eyes of the road to look at me. "What was that, with Jazz?"
I just looked at him. "I don't know - you tell me." This game was boring, but necessary for self preservation. I knew what they had fought about - control. Power. The same old thing. In a city like Compton, turf was power, and while Jazz was the best fighter in the gang, James was the leader.
James smiled at me, almost predatory. "Alice." He liked me using my skill, a little too much. Sometimes, it scared me. This was one of those times. "Jazz and I just had a little fight. That's what brothers do." A shiver ran up and down my spine. "He thought something, and I thought something else."
My eyes watered from staring so hard. I could see it in James' eyes. It was about me. "What about?" Small words, loaded question.
"I think you can guess." He back to normal now, more playful, inner predator tucked away. "So, when we get back, care for a little flutter?"
I held my tongue, questions about what he had done with the last bundle we had won swirling around my head. "I'm tired, James." His left eyebrow lifted, as he sped up a little. I liked my cars fast, but under the heavy shifting of gears and the grinding of the motor, the fear I had when Jazz wasn't around gripped me. "James, slow down please." He didn't like no for an answer, and it showed. "James, please."
His eyes were on the road now, veins visible. "You know what I want to hear."
"I...I...Okay, I'll do it." He had a temper, that was his excuse. But, I knew that everything was going to be okay the minute I uttered those words.
He turned to face me again, his speed still the contending with the speed of light. "There. That's wasn't so hard, was it?"
I looked away form his piercing gaze, my eyes focused in front.
The things about the future, was that it was ever changing.
And in that moment, my carefully planned future disappeared. It shifted, and my life changed. My life, and all the possibilities flashed before my eyes as we collided with another van, the pick up flipping over and groaning on it's back.
"James -" I coughed, the smoke choking me. "James?" I could see him, struggling to get out. I tried to call out to him once more, to ask for help, but he had gone. And in the most uncomfortable position to sleep in - upside down - black greeted me.
My name was Alice. I just an ordinary girl, with an extra ordinary talent.
And when I woke up in the hospital, alone and recovering, I didn't know who I was, only that I wanted Jasper. I didn't know who he was, only what he looked like. And I knew just how to find him.