AN: I own nothing that is recognizable within books.
Warning this is a boy/boy story, don't like don't read. Rated M for future chapters and just to be safe.
This chapter has been beta'd by RockinThatAfroPic! :)
Chapter 9
Jasper POV-
"Crap" I yell out as pain shoots through my ankle after jumping down from the bathroom sink.I'm not sure if it's broken, but regardless I do know I will have one hell of a time trying to get up the stairs.
"Jasper, are you alright?" Edward's soft voice comes from the other side of the closed bathroom door.
His question causes me to pause and stare at my reflection in the mirror.
My wings are so weak they aren't even functional; they are more like a decoration. It reminds me of all those girls who would come to school with fairy wings strapped on their backs even though it wasn't Halloween. I wonder how they would feel if wings were a permanent fixture on their bodies like mine are. Would they feel like a freak or would they still think it was cute? Sometimes I wonder if I should have just let my father cut them off. His own father did it to him and he survived. But, just the thought of my father coming close to me with anything sharp scares me; he probably would have ended up killing me.
"Jasper?" Edward calls again this time softly knocking on the door.
At the sound of his voice my eyes shift towards the doorway. Before I got caught up thinking about my wings, I remember realizing that my ankle was way too sore to support my weight up the stairs.
Shoot.
Maybe I can try crawling? No, I will look like an idiot if I did that.
Perhaps I can hop on one foot? My balance is pretty good… no, who am I kidding? Being clumsy is what put me here in the first place. I don't want to hurt my other leg.
I feel trapped in this bathroom… so helpless. As my anxiety rises, my palms start to sweat and my breathing picks up.
"Jasper? Please say something, you're worrying me" Edward's muffled voice pleads through the door.
"Just a minute" my voice cracks.
I need to have some sort of plan before I open this door. Wait, Edward, maybe he can carry me up the stairs. I mean, he already brought me to the bathroom and didn't seem to have any trouble supporting my weight. But, the trek up the stairs is a lot longer, he'll probably be fine, but will I?
Being encased in his large hairy arms… so close to his face… his sharp teeth…
Just the thought alone gives me the heebie jeebies.
I could stay in the bathroom all night…
No, I need to elevate my ankle.
Suck it up Whitlock!
"Um, my…. my ankle hurts" I say sounding like an idiot.
"Okay, um, can I come in?" Edward asks.
Be brave.
"Yeah" I answer, hopefully sounding a little more confident.
I hear the click of the handle turning and the quiet creak of the hinges as he slowly pushes open the door.
He looks at my ankle and furrows his brow. "Jasper, that looks really bad. It's swelling quite a bit and it's starting to turn purple. We should get you in bed so you can elevate it. I hope you don't mind, but I went in your room and put some frozen peas on your night stand; it should help the swelling go down" He murmurs.
I simply look at him and nod; I'm a little speechless by this act of kindness.
"So, um" he starts, shifting awkwardly from side to side. "Can you put any weight on it?"
"No" I respond. I was going to end it there, but since I'm the one who needed the help I should be the one to ask for it. "Do you think you could carry me to my room? I mean if it's not too much trouble…"
"Yes!" He blurts out a little too eagerly. Noticing his enthusiasm he lowers his eyes and mutters "stupid, stupid, stupid" under his breath.
"I mean yes, are you ready?" he asks as he slowly approaches me.
Taking a deep breath, I nod in response.
One arm goes under my knees while the other gently supports my back and then he carefully lifts me into his arms; the left side of my body pressed against his warm chest.
It's odd for someone so scary to be so tender…
He remains quiet the rest of the way up the stairs and I keep my eyes closed.
"Do they hurt?" Edward finally breaks the silence as he softly sets me on the bed. I must have given him a confused look because he quickly asked. "Do the wings hurt, when they grow?"
My wings… I should have known he would want to talk about them.
"No… not really" I say refusing to look him in the eye. "It feels almost freeing I guess, like ripping a Band-Aid off or something."
"Oh, why do they…. I mean how long are they visible?" I know he was about to ask why they grow and for some reason I am actually tempted to tell him.
"They grow at midnight and I have them till five in the morning. When I use to work at the pizza shack in town I always had to make sure to get home before midnight."
Edward POV-
I couldn't help but stare at the wings. They were so beautiful, why couldn't Jasper see his beauty? I wonder remembering what he had said to himself in the bathroom, he had called his wings ugly.
Gosh, what was I thinking asking him to stay?
If he thinks his wings are ugly then there must not be a word for what I am…
"Can you… I mean they are wings so canyou… um fly?" I ask, regretting it the moment a frown appears on his face.
"No." He says nothing else and my heart aches. Why was I so stupid as to open my mouth?
"Well, um here make sure to keep your foot elevated" I say as I place the frozen peas on his hurt ankle, needing to remember to tell Emily in the morning.
It isn't until I open the door that Jaspers soft voice calls out to me.
"Will you stay? I know you have a million questions." He looks so scared.
Who wouldn't be scared? He was practically alone in a strange place. He's also now hurt, and in the presence of me, who looks so much like something from a horror film.
"Why do you have wings?" I ask after walking back towards him. Trying to look like less of a threat, I sit on the floor beside the bed with my legs crossed awaiting his response.
"I don't really know much about the whole thing. This mutation, or whatever you want to call it, is from my father's side of the family. No matter how many times I would ask, he always kept quiet about the whole thing which isn't surprising, I mean, well you've met him he's not one for talking" Jasper explains and the longer he speaks the softer his voice becomes.
"Supposedly it's something all male Whitlock's are born with, but I'm not sure if that's true because all my information comes from the drunken ramblings of my father. I've never met my grandfather, but my father claims that he held him down and cut his wings off when he was a boy. You know that phrase about history repeating itself? Well I believe it, because my father has tried to cut mine off a few times."
My eyes start to water as Jasper lets down his walls and shares part of his past with me. I knew his father wasn't a great guy, but to threaten to cut your own son, who would do that?
I'm so wrapped up in my thoughts that I don't notice at first when Jasper falls asleep, but soon the sound of his soft snores pulls me out of my thoughts.
He's laying on his side facing me, his wings on perfect display and I would be lying if I said I don't take that opportunity to look at them.
The wings that I had thought looked perfect were not what I first thought. They were slightly deformed as if someone had bound them, to keep them small. I can't help but wonder what Jasper had gone through growing up with a father who had threatened to cut his wings.
I gently cover the sleeping Jasper with a blanket and walk out the door.
Ready to wait a few more hours until Emily wakes so that I can tell her what had happened and make sure that she looks at his ankle.
Jasper POV-
"Goodnight Jasper, I'm so glad you're here." I think I hear Edward whisper through my sleep induced hazebut when I open my eyes all is see is blackness and I know I am alone in my room, with a blanket that Edward must have placed over me.
With a smile on my face I fall back asleep.
AN: Thanks for reading please review! :)