THE GAME

IX

      Wayne took his bag and hung it on his shoulders. He went over to Jasper's room, Jasper was busying himself with a video game.
"Hey, Jasper." Wayne called leaning on his door
"Hey, you didn't knock." Jasper accused.
"It wasn't shut and I'm not even inside." Wayne said with a roll of his eyes.
"Ok, bro." Jasper said pausing his game. "So, what's up? You want to talk to me about girls.?" He asked looking at Wayne expectantly.
Wayne rolled his eyes again.
"No!"
"Come on, Wayne... When are we gonna have this bro talk?" Jasper said, pouting
"When you're older." Wayne said plainly.
Jasper huffed and looked away, feigning annoyance.
"I'm going to the park... Wanna come with me?" Wayne asked.
Jasper's face shot up with excitement
"You bet I do!" He said jumping up and grabbing his jacket.
"Come on, let's go.!" He said leaving the room.
Wayne followed him closing the door behind him.
They walked on the pedestrian lane having conversations Jasper wished to have. Jasper didn't stop asking stupid questions and it was really getting on Wayne's nerves and he had to rethink taking him along.
"...You should see her... She's really pretty and she has this kind of capturing smile. She has real black and soft hair and she wears a pretty bow... Her eyes... Uh, those eyes if you look into them for too long, I bet you, you'd drown..." Jasper said dreamily.
Although he was talking of Becca, his 'girlfriend', Wayne could only put the description to look like Sasha in his head. Yeah, Jasper was right. Her eyes could drown. Big and round.
"... Big and round, she so pretty..." He heard Jasper say. Yeah, she was pretty. He mentally scoffed... He'd seen a lot of pretty girls before. She's certainly not the prettiest among them. Coming to think of it, Rexy was prettier than she was, or no... She was prettier than Rexy...
Why did he even care! Why was he even thinking of her! Will was all over her, there was no way he would get a chance with her!
He almost slapped himself. Who said anything about getting a chance with her!? He didn't care about her or who she hung out with!
"..I didn't believe she'd agree to being my girlfriend.."
"Ok, that's enough, Jasper!" Wayne snapped suddenly.
"Ok, mr grumps!" Jasper said looking slightly hurt.
Wayne softened a bit.
"I mean...err.. I'm not so good with conversations like this, you should know that. It makes me start thinking... Out of box." Wayne explained, placing a hand on Jasper's shoulder.
Jasper looked at him and smiled.
"Its ok... We can talk about something else." He said.
"Yeah sure... Anything." Wayne agreed.
Jasper thought a while about the conversation to bring up.
Wayne waited patiently while they heard the faint noises of the people from the park as the approached it. He'd forgotten the last time he'd been to the park... He'd been there just few times that year. When he really needed a time to relief his mind of somethings.
"Have you ever had sex?" Jasper asked all of a sudden.
Wayne felt his eyes pop out in surprise. He looked back at Jasper with a questioning look.
Jasper looked away in embarrassment.
"How do you even know what sex is?!" Wayne asked incredulously. "You're 8." He added.
"Hey, I'll be 9 soon... And keep it down, won't want the ladies to hear that." Jasper said and lifted a flirting brow at an older girl few steps away.
The girl gave him a look of disgust and he Clicked his tongue at her with a sly smile, adding a wink.
She rolled her eyes and looked away.
Jasper raked his fingers through his hair in a boyish pride. "The ladies love that." He told Wayne
Wayne's left eye twitched in doubt.
"So, I was saying..." Jasper remembered. "Have you?"
Wayne looked embarrassed all of a sudden. "Hey, listen kid... I'm not having this conversation with you, now run along!" He ordered pointing into the park.
"Aren't you coming along?" Jasper asked.
"I am.. I'll be over there." Wayne said and Jasper ran into the park, throwing a good bye at him.
Wayne watched him go. What on earth was in that kid's head? He asked himself before walking into the park too.
With his hands in his pocket, he looked around for were to seat, so he would get a good view to watch Jasper from.
He ignored the dreamy looks some girls gave him and he pulled his hood over his head in disgust.
Turns out, he was also a ladies man like Jasper, only... Jasper enjoyed it and he did not. He hated gum bodies and annoying stares and Every girl in Hill's den had given him one of them...
Well, except Sasha.. Sasha didn't seem to be interested in him or even find him attractive. It made him wonder why.
But then, it seemed a lot like she had eyes for Will. Will was handsome and attractive yeah, but not more than he was! Will couldn't compare to him in attraction. But why did she defend him against will that day in the hallway. He wondered why. It was confusing.
He really should stop all of that. What was his business anyway. He didn't care! Never did! Never will!
He looked up and saw her.
Sitting at a bench by the pond. Her attention was on a Brown dog by the side. She was laughing at the display the dog was doing.
Wayne felt a string pull at his heart. He blinked several times and looked away from her.
Great! Fine! He had a crush on her!
'A hug one' his heart admitted.
How could he?! What made that happen?!. It was stupid of him to have a crush on her knowing fully we that Will was still in the picture.
He looked back at her. He felt an amazing urge to go sit with her and play his usual grumpy with her and act like he didn't care. After all, that was a good spot to watch Jasper from.
He breathed in deeply and started towards the bench, his heart beating against his will after every step.
No, he shouldn't meet her. What would she think of it
'Its just a meeting, Wayne.'
Yeah, it's just a meeting... Oh, and he could just remind her of the party the next day and they could talk of their project. Yes... Their project.
Mr Calisso deserved a kiss for pairing them.. He thought and he rethought. Eww!
He stopped mid air when he saw a boy go to sit beside her on the bench. It was Will.
Jealousy rose in his chest like it did two days ago when she said she was going to the dance with him.
Will dropped his arm over Sasha's shoulders although Sasha protested and took it off.. Nicely.. Nicely!.
Wayne watched in anger as Will said things to her and he was sure Will was flirting with her.
He wanted to do a whole lot of things. He wanted to run up to the bench and throw Will into the pond and warn him to stay away from Sasha.
He wanted to just drown him so warning him won't be necessary.
He wanted to go there and interrupt their conversation like he did before.
He wanted to go there and yell at Sasha to choose who she wanted between him and Will..
But any of those actions would be stupid and he would regret them sooner or later.
He glared ice daggers at Will as he winked at Sasha who didn't even break eye contact with him.
Eye contact would lead to drowning into her eyes and drowning into her eyes to losing control and losing control to kissing!! Urgghhhh!
He couldn't even stand the thought.
He turned away abruptly bumping into a smaller figure.
"Watch it." Jasper said.
Wayne glared at him. "Let's go!"
Jasper looked at the bench Wayne had been staring at. The side view of Sasha enabled him to see Will clearly and fully..
He looked up at Wayne in slight pity..
"Don't walk away." He told Wayne "Go tell her how you feel."
Wayne didn't look back at either Jasper or the two..
"Let's go, Jasper." He said again in annoyance.
"Go tell her. That's the reason we're here in the first place, isn't it?" Jasper pressed.
"Its not!" Wayne replied angrily..
Jasper looked at Wayne. "Ok, I don't know what's going on but from what I'm seeing, the story is clear.. You love that girl and seeing her talking to that guy is hurting you." He summarized.
"Wrong! I don't love her. I'm not hurt!" He denied, trying to convince himself as well.
"I saw the way you looked at her. I followed you cause I was curious as to why you came to the park. Those ladies you saw and thought they were staring at you... They were not! They were staring at me."
Wayne spared a glance at him.
"I saw you stop to stare at her. I was surprised tho. I saw you smile and I wondered what you were thinking. I saw your expression change when that guy came over."
"Stop exaggerating!" Wayne snapped.
"Go tell her, Wayne.. There's nothing to lose." Jasper tried
"Every... Why am I even having this conversation with you!" He asked rhetorically
"Come on..."
"I'm outta here, come home when you're ready." Wayne said walking away.
"Not before I tell her about your little crush on her." Jasper said throwing a step towards Sasha's bench, but his leg didn't meet the ground as Wayne lifted him off the ground and carried him off.
"Hey! Let me down! Don't embarrass me in front of the ladies!"