Always Him (Always #1)

Chapter Twelve

When Jasper arrived, I couldn't help but act like a lovesick teenager. The grin on my face the moment I saw his car pull up was so wide, I thought my face might split in half; I bounded out of my room and down the front steps of the house. I jumped into his arms the moment he was out of the car. He stumbled back a step at my sudden weight, but he righted himself quickly enough and held me tight.

    "We need to talk." He whispered in my ear, low enough that my parents wouldn't hear as they got closer to the car. "About a few different things." Indeed, we did.

    "When we get home," I promised.

    Jasper managed to walk to the house, past my parents, all while I was still in his arms, legs wrapped tightly around his waist. My parents were all smiles as I grinned at them when they followed us into the house. My mother had that look; I squinted my face and shook my head once. She'd only nudged my father, whispering something in his ear, which he barked out a laugh. It was nice to see them happy again, and it'd been a long time. It felt nice to be happy again myself.

    Jasper let me down carefully in the living room. He spun in a circle, much like he did when he had arrived at my apartment the first time, taking in his surroundings. The pictures on the wall were all of our greatest moments growing up. Blaine and Jasper's graduation. My graduation. My acceptance into college. Blaine's acceptance into his dream design job. Pool parties, bike rides, amusement parks, baseball games. Those were my favorite, the baseball games. It was supposed to be a boy's only thing, but I'd wanted to play so badly. All it took was my puppy dog eyes, and the coach looked down in defeat, smiling still, and put a bat into my hands. I out swung every boy on that team, scored the most runs. I was good.

    "Still can't believe he wouldn't let you have the number seven." Jasper laughed, eyeing the baseball picture from when we were eight and nine, respectively.

    "'Pudge' was his player. I liked him also, but Blaine picked first. I didn't mind the number two. I prefer even numbers anyway." I stretched slightly, "Also, I was better than him. So, to let him have the number, I felt made up for it in some way."

    He nodded in agreement. "Maybe it made up for it a tiny bit." He pinched his fingers small, and I couldn't help but laugh with him. I was genuinely laughing again, and it felt good to do it so freely, not feel guilty for doing so. "We were both proud of you, you know. We were proud and made sure the other guys knew that we knew you; you were with us." I did know that. Blaine and Jasper together had the other boys skittering into a corner far from me. Not because I was a girl, I saw the admiration they had for my skill, but for the boys always flanking me. I was untouchable in that sense. Mess with me, mess with them. It was best not to mess with them.

    "Dinner time!" my dad clapped his hands; he'd ordered pizza and pasta. "The best pizza Rosenwood has to offer."

    "Delicious." I offered.

    We all sat around the table, stuffing our faces. Laughter rang freely through the room. It felt good to see everyone laughing. Memories came up, and we all managed to smile and laugh genuinely about them. There were no more tears to be shed at this dinner table. Talking about Blaine in this sense, we all needed to do it. Together. No more trying to handle it individually. It was a family effort; I saw that now, they did too. Regret for not doing it earlier crammed its way into my bones. I'd deal with that later, after my talk with Jasper. That was more important.

    After we ate, my mother dropped a game of Uno on the table. She eyed Jasper and me intently; we both smirked; we were notorious for cheating during this game. No rules stopped us from playing how we wanted.

    "If I get six draw fours on me again from either of you, I'll go full mom on you guys! Do you hear me? You know, I will." All too well, we knew that.