вυмp ιn тнe nιgнт

TWENTY FOUR

not knowing what to say, jasmine continued to stare at the boy that had grown miraculously in the months since she'd last seen him.

paul had grown several inches, was much bulkier, and just from him saying only two words had made it obvious his voice had dropped. if jasmine hadn't immediately banished the thought from her mind, she would've thought herself attracted to him, now.

and that wasn't particularly a bad thing, but she didn't like the idea of it. she'll admit that she was sort of attracted to him before he'd ghosted her, but seeing him now kind of brought those thoughts and initial feelings back. she didn't like them, because she thought it was almost like emotionally cheating on rosa, but it was alright to be attracted to other people.

just because you're in a relationship doesn't mean you can't window shop or think your friends and other people are hot.

shaking herself out of her unnecessary thoughts, she stands up, internally thanking god that she hadn't stumbled like a baby fawn while doing so, and stared at him. paul was staring right back at her, his dark eyes bright with emotions she didn't exactly want to try and decipher, so jasmine decided to speak up.

"you're here."

he cleared his throat, obviously not all too prepared on what to say. "uh, yeah."

'how articulate of him to say,' the witch internally remarks, hiding her snigger when the boy in front of her winces. she crosses her arms and looks him over, taking in how his shirt seemed to be straining from his muscles, but she didn't focus on that long before her eyes met paul's.

"talk, paul."

his chest sagged slightly, as if relieved she hadn't kicked him out, but jasmine ignored that in favor of continuing to stare at him while waiting for an answer. she hadn't seen him in four fucking months, so she hoped whatever explanation he had would be worth it.

"i never wanted to avoid you, jasmine. i-"

"oh, what a great way to start this off, paul," she cuts him off, eyes flaring in anger, and paul swore her eyes flashed another color for a moment there. jasmine lets out a long breath, but then nods for him to continue, a silent apology in the air between them for cutting him off. he watches her for a moment to see if she wanted to say something else, but when he saw she wouldn't, the boy decided to continue.

"i never wanted to avoid you, but some things just happened to me, and i didn't want to involve you in any of it, so i hid away. i'm sorry, i'm so goddamn sorry, but you need to understand that i wanted to keep you safe and out of my problems."

a scoff leaves her lips, and paul cringes slightly at the look of disbelief on her face. "i'm your friend, paul, i'm fucking supposed to be there for you when you're going through tough shit because i care about you. it doesn't matter if you're doing drugs, or getting involved with bad people, or if your dad is beating you again. you're my friend, and we're supposed to be there if the other needs it because that's what friends fucking do, you bitch."

jasmine watches as he stares at her, having seen the way his face cracked the slightest bit at certain words, but especially as his eyes fell downcast in shame and guilt. her heart ached seeing the look on his face, but in that moment, she chose to ignore her compassionate nature and give it to him like he deserved.

"i let you into my life, into my family, and you left me. i have tried being understanding and patient while waiting for you to come back and explain to me what the hell happened that made you leave, but you never did. you didn't, not until i gave you an ultimatum, and even then you showed up at the last possible moment. and now, you're trying to apologize, but you haven't even once explained the reason for leaving me aside from giving me some shitty ass excuses about protecting me when you fucking know that i have the ability to protect myself."