Old soul

MIND OVER MATTER

He could drive. Well, when he kept the speed reasonable, Natalia had to admit it. Like so many things, it seemed to be effortless for him. He barely looked at the road ahead of him, yet the tires never deviated so much as a centimeter from the center of the lane. He drove with one hand on the handles, the other one holding onto Natalia from behind him. Sometimes he gazed into the setting sun, sometimes he gazed in the small mirror just above the handles to make sure Natalia was okay.

They had pulled into her driveway, slowly into the garage when they climbed off. Jasper put his helmet down ontop of the bike and kept hold of the keys as Natalia moved both helmets and put them away in a cupboard. The girl gently took the keys from his hand, leading him out of the garage and onto her driveway. Natalia was going to ask him something, but she stopped dead in her tracks as her stomach growled. She hadn't even realised she was hungry and she realised now that she was ravenous.

Jasper bit back a laugh, pulling Natalia into a hug "I'm sorry, I'm keeping you from dinner."

"I'm fine, really."

"I've never spent much time around anyone who eats food. I forget."

"I want to stay with you." Natalia found it was easier to confess to Jasper in the darkness, knowing as she spoke how her voice would betray her, her hopeless addiction to him. Jasper leant away from her, keeping his arms snaked around her, "Can't I come in?" he asked.

"Would you like to?" she couldn't picture it. Sure, Jasper had been in her house before. But he'd only been in her bedroom - now that she thought about it, her worries sounded stupid.

"Yes, if that's all right." Natalia felt herself moving, but she wasn't really focused on what was going on around her. Within what felt like hours, she was standing infront of the door as Jasper looked down at her, keeping a firm grip on the bottom of her back to keep her steady. Natalia shook her head, mentally cursing herself as she grabbed the keys from her pocket and opened the door.

Jasper followed Natalia through the house, through the hallway to the kitchen. He watched intently from the other side of the worktop as she shrugged her jacket off and started to look through the cupboards. Natalia felt his watchful eyes on the back of her head as she looked for the cutting board. She gave up for a moment, grabbing a punnet of strawberries from the fridge, a bowl and a knife. Natalia started looking for the cutting board again but stopped and turned around to face Jasper, his words had surprised her, "What?"

"Bottom cupboard, under the cutlery draw."

Natalia stared at him as he stood there scratching the back of his neck. Testing both herself for her poor memory and Jasper for goodness knows what, Natalia decided to humour herself. As she opened the cupboard door and laid eyes on the cutting board, she bit her tounge. How the hell had he known where it was.

Jasper didn't give Natalia a minute to think of a question, she had only just about stood up and looked at him as she placed the board down on the island near her other stuff. The boy folded his arms against his chest and leant back against the wall behind him, "Alice had a vision, she wouldn't tell me what it was, but she made me memorise the layout of your kitchen last week." Natalia stared at him, opened mouth before shaking her head and keeping her gaze down to hide her smile, "Now I'm intrigued. Are you sure she didn't tell you Jas?" she stared as his lopsided grin returned, a shake of his head given as an answer to her comment.

As Natalia stood there, cutting her strawberries in half and popping them into a bowl, Jasper stayed where he was, continuing to lean against the wall behind him. His eyes traced every single movement she made, watching as her smile stayed firmly planted on her face. The girl thought over a question she had been wanting to ask Jasper, but the small inkling that she would be intruding on a part of him that he seemed to want to keep buried wouldn't leave her alone. Natalia had no problem with letting what Jasper wanted to stay left in the past, stay in the past, but she couldn't help herself being curious.