Always Him (Always #1)

Chapter Seven

It wasn't a far walk to the river. I'd stolen one of Jasper's hoodies as we headed out; the nights were already becoming chilled. He never outpaced me; he stayed by my side, matching my much shorter footsteps, like the gentleman he was. The sun was setting with gorgeous shades of oranges and pinks as we walked side by side; we didn't talk, our eyes on the path ahead, the river to our left. It was peaceful and quiet aside from the calming of the river passing by.

We'd come to a stop at the edge of the river; Jasper knelt down to dip his fingers into the water. He yanked them out with a tiny yelp, shaking them off before walking to me and drying them off on my hoodie; well, it was his hoodie, but I was still the one wearing it at the moment.

"Hey!"

He grinned. "You steal my hoodie; you pay the price."

I shooed his hand away. "It was in my load of laundry; it became fair game at that point."

"Fair enough. It's not even that cold out, Sades. Did we really need the hoodies?"

"I didn't force you to wear one."

He nodded his head in agreement and continued walking. As he walked ahead, I couldn't help but stare at the back of him. He had the hoodie and the jeans; he looked like the perfect boyfriend I'd dreamed of many nights growing up. Jasper as a boyfriend. Could he ever be my boyfriend? The thought made me blush, and when I glanced up, I noticed he was further down the trail than I'd thought, that my little daydream had me falling behind; I had to run to catch back up to him.

"Thought I was going to have to come back for you." He chuckled. "What were you thinking about?"

"I wasn't thinking."

"When you get into deep thought, Sades, you stop walking. You stop whatever it is that you're doing and just think. It doesn't matter if it's a serious topic or a funny one, or where we are, you always stop when you're in thought. Probably safer that way now that I think of it. With you stopping, I just have to come back and make you start walking again. If you continued to walk well," he shrugged with a tiny hiss, "well, I'd probably have to rescue you from a hospital, and I don't like hospitals."

None of us liked hospitals; although Jasper worked in one now, he tended to stay in his engineering cage as he called it; he didn't go near the actual hospital part with the patients. They were full of unnecessary blood smells, loud beeping, crying, screams, and death. I hadn't stepped foot into a hospital since I had no intention of it. "I don't like them either. If I get hurt, just leave me on the ground. Either mother nature will decide to save me, or I'll end up dead. Either way, no hospitals."

Jasper's face twisted in anger when I mentioned my being dead. I hung my head low, ashamed that I had said the words, knowing how we both felt about death, I shouldn't have said that. Death was a sensitive topic, now more than ever for us. Another instance of me speaking without thinking. I needed to get better at that, and I didn't think I ever would; my mouth was too impulsive, it gave away everything I wanted to stay inside. It didn't think for me, just did what it wanted to do.

"Sorry, Jas," I whispered.

Jasper reoriented his face and loosed a sigh. "You're fine. Just don't repeat it; I can't bear the thought of thinking you dead, Sadie. We already lost one of the musketeers; please don't make me sit through losing another."