Since You've Been Gone. (boyxboy)

Chapter 38: The unlikely pact

"I question what you class as friendship."

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"You've got some nerve." Ed looks up to see Jasper head into the gym's office, but Jasper just looks back unphased by Ed's reaction. "You should be at home begging for forgiveness." 

"A fine one to talk." Jasper utters as he pulls open his locker. "Was she all you ever dreamed of?"

"You…know?" Ed tenses up in his seat. Jasper seemed to be acting too cool for his liking. The man in that moment seemed difficult to judge as he pushed his sweater and bag into the small space before closing it. 

He turns to look at Ed, who looked like a petrified lamb. "Yes I fucking know. I told her everything, she told me everything so now you don't have to run around being the fucking snake that you are." Jasper's words are accompanied by his fingers making 'snake like' motions. He pulls out the chair opposite Ed and stares at him. "She's all yours. I hope you'll be very happy." 

Ed doesn't reply. He would have liked nothing more to say that, yes, he would make her the happiest woman alive, but he knew the truth deep down. The truth that she didn't love him the way he loved her. She didn't want him and probably never would. "Do you want to hit me or something?" He half laughs, probably out of the nervous fear he was feeling. He needed to know if he was going to have that infamous Jasper treatment, so he could at least mentally prepare. 

Jasper clears his throat. "We need to talk about other things first." He could hear Thomas' voice echoing in his mind about keeping his cool and using his words as opposed to his fists. Jasper also knew he wasn't squeaky clean either. Everyone's halo had slipped. 

"What other things?...you mean…."

"You think it's yours right?" Jasper hated to say it. To admit that Ed could be the father to Beth's baby. 

"Why don't you ask Beth?" Ed replies as he sits back in his seat. He dares not say yes as even though he felt it, she hadn't actually said it out loud. 

Jasper emits a snort as he looks down, "keeping you in the dark too huh? Giving you hope, stringing you along. I've already asked her but she's pleading ignorance." He leans across the desk Ed was sitting behind. He looks Ed in the eyes. "I question what you class as a friendship. You fucked my fiancèe." 

Ed dares to look back, meeting Jasper half way. "And what do you class as friendship? Do you sleep with all your friends? Should I be worried?" Jasper's fist is fast to reach out and grab a hold of Ed's t-shirt. He pulls him close, they are nearly nose to nose. Ed visibly swallows, expecting the feel of Jasper's knuckles any moment but instead he is again pushed back. 

"I need to know from Beth if the child is mine before I walk away for good. She won't tell me, she won't tell you, but maybe she won't have a choice if we both confront her." 

Ed can feel his heart racing inside his chest. Jasper seemed to be making some kind of sense. If he got the truth out of her, once and for all,  she wouldn't be able to ignore him. He would have rights and Jasper would be out of the picture. "Ok." He says as he gets up from his seat. He heads to his locker, with Jasper watching his every move. 

"What are you doing?" He questions, arms folded as Ed proceeds to take his phone from his locker.

"What does it look like? I'm calling her."  He begins to tap the screen. 

"And what are you gonna say exactly? '' Jasper gets up and pulls the phone from his hand. 

"Hey!" Ed half heartedly tries to pull his phone back but stops himself when he sees Jasper looking at the screen, emitting a chuckle. 

"Looks like she doesn't reply to your messages. I thought she was a little clingy, but you?..."

"That's private." Ed protests, now having the courage to snatch the phone back. 

Jasper raises an eyebrow at Ed's reaction, before reaching his hand into the pocket of his jeans. "I'll do it."

"What makes you think she wants to talk to you?" It's now Ed's turn to cross his arms, unimpressed. 

"Because, unlike you, I actually know Beth. I know how she ticks. You can't tell her what you want from her, you have to tell her what she wants to hear. And I'm guessing right now, she wants to hear my voice down the line, not yours." 

Ed pushes his tongue into his cheek as he watches Jasper head out of the staffroom door and out of earshot. At that moment, his envy for his past friend was at a peak. Even after all Jasper had done, cheated, lied, made her feel insecure, all he had to do was to make a simple call and she would come running.

"It's done. She will meet us both tonight?" Jasper enters the room with that air of sickening confidence he had about him, pushing his phone back into his pocket in the process. 

"She's gonna meet us both? Really?" Ed is rather surprised to say the least. 

"No, she's gonna meet me… but you're coming too." Jasper says as he heads to his in-tray to pick up his schedule. "She just doesn't know it yet.

Ed squints his eyes at Jasper, but keeps his desires to vent his frustrations at bay. There was a punchbag for that.  Jasper may be all these things to Beth, but one thing he will never be is the father to her child. Ed was sure of it.