House of Jara CHAPTER 26
"Hello Jerome," Rufus uttered as he stepped up behind Jerome causing him to jump out of his skin as they stood behind the bike shed.
"I can't do this Rufus, not again."
"You're useless anyway, they all hate you," Jerome shook his head. "They don't hate you?"
"It was just a plan, I can't be your mole," Jerome explained hoping above hope that he would be able to get out of his deal.
"You will be my mole or something might just happen to little Poppy, you wouldn't want that would you?" Rufus said, laughing at Jerome's angry expression.
"You leave her out of this! She has done nothing wrong!"
"I won't lay a finger on her if you do as I say," Rufus explained suddenly being serious.
"Fine, what do I have to do?" Jerome sighed as he looked in the direction he had just had a conversation with his little sister.
"Just keep me in the loop with their progress and once you have the mask you must give it to me no matter what your little friends say to you, you want to protect your sister don't you?"
"What if they catch me before we find the mask?" Jerome questioned hoping for a loop hole.
"You will have to find a way to steal it from them!"
"Just out of curiosity, what do you plan to do with the mask?" Jerome asked (He may seem too relaxed around Rufus but he's a smart kid and he knows that Rufus needs him)
"It will turn me into a God in the afterlife and I will live for all of eternity," Rufus explained happily as Jerome looked at him as if he had just broken out of a mental hospital.
"Um, I should go, I need to get to class before Mara does or she will be suspicious," Jerome immediately left and was quite lucky, he got to class with only a couple of minutes to spare when Mara walked in with Fabian and Jerome narrowed his eyes in curiosity as it looked like they were having a disagreement.
"See he's here and he's safe so let's just drop it, ok?" Mara whispered to Fabian as she sat next to Jerome; Nina and Fabian at the desk in front of them and Alfie and Amber on the desk to their left. "Hey, you alright?" Jerome greeted his girlfriend.
"Yeah you?"
"Yeah I'm good, what were you and Rutter talking about?
"It was nothing, just an equation we disagree on," Mara lied; she knew Jerome would hate it if people thought he needed babysitting. Jerome believed her and they carried on with their day, they had drama that day but Jerome couldn't take part because he was in too much pain so he just told Mr Winkler that he had a sport injury when visiting his father, seeing as no one knew his father was in prison. Throughout the next two weeks Jerome had texted new information to Rufus any time he heard any, no one suspected anything which made him feel terrible; he almost wanted to get caught just so he wouldn't have to do it anymore but he didn't have a choice Poppy's life was at stake.
"Who have you been texting all day?" Mara asked.
"Oh, just Poppy," Jerome smiled through his lie.
"Ah; what about?" Mara asked casually as she typed away on her laptop, completing her homework.
"What's with all the questions?" Jerome replied harshly, he stood up from her bed and walked towards the door.
"I was only making conversation," Mara told him confused, she put her laptop aside.
"Since when do we have to make conversation?" Jerome questioned accusingly, Mara followed him out of the door.
"Jerome?" she called after him as he walked through the door to the landing. "What was that all about?" she whispered to herself as Patricia entered where Jerome had exited.
"What's up with the weasel?"
"Don't call him that!" Mara snapped at her friend.
"Fine, what's up with Jerome?"
"I have no idea, one minute we're talking then the next he's walking out yelling at me."
"Hmm weird," Patricia expressed as she jumped onto her bed and picked up a magazine; Mara went straight back to her homework, trying to keep her mind away from Jerome. He on the other hand was pacing the living room as his room was filled with Alfie and Amber; he was trying to figure out how to escape his deal with the devil. He could explain the whole situation to Sibuna or he could just stop but both of those solutions could possibly put Poppy in danger. He decided he just had to keep doing it for Poppy's sake.
"Jerome, why are you pacing?" Trudy asked from the kitchen as she cooked dinner.
"I'm just trying to figure something out," Jerome told Trudy in a dismissive way.
"What is it dearie? Maybe I can help."
"Say someone had made a deal with someone bad because they threatened somebody you love, how would you get out of it without hurting that said loved one?" Jerome questioned.
"This is hypothetical, isn't it? No one is threatening you are they?" Trudy asked, Jerome shook his head so Trudy continued. "You just need to think of the best way to keep your loved one out of harm's way, think of the best solution to get out of the deal and keep the person safe, Jerome why are you asking me this?" Trudy explained kind of worried about the reason behind the question.
"I'm writing a… book? But I don't want anyone else to know," Jerome lied; Trudy was satisfied with the answer so he sighed and leant on the counter. Mara had heard every word of their conversation as she found herself eavesdropping accidently. She was beginning to get suspicious, noticing all the weird behaviour in the two weeks after they got him away from Rufus. 'What is he up to?' she thought to herself as she walked into the room, not giving away the fact that she had just been eavesdropping.
"Hey Mara, I'm sorry about earlier; I don't know what got into me," Jerome said, he was looking a lot better than he had upstairs.
"Its fine, I got my homework done quicker without you anyway," Mara replied cheekily as she held onto his hand.
"Will you two tell the others dinner's nearly ready and then come and set the table please," Trudy asked, the two love birds did as they were told. Jerome was still slightly on edge as he thought about his Rufus situation as he knew people already had a hard time trusting him and he knew as soon as they all found out he would lose everyone forever.
"Jerome, can I talk to you for a minute?" Mara asked her boyfriend after everyone was sat at the table, that way she knew no one would over hear them.