Heaven Help Us

Friday 13th

   Jaspar Varn's Point Of View

   I opened my eyes. It was still dark. I couldn't get back to sleep so I decided to just get up and get my bag packed for school. It was 6:30am when I came down to make breakfast which consisted of jam on toast. I sat down on the couch and ate in silence. The thought of turning the TV on didn't dare to cross my mind. Gerard said I couldn't so I couldn't. I heard his alarm go off but didn't move an inch. A while later I heard footsteps descending down the stairs tiredly. Gerard walked through the doorway and into the kitchen without noticing me sitting on the couch.

   He was wearing a grey shirt and a pair of red boxers. He looked still asleep with his eyes half shut. I heard him foraging in the cupboards for a cup and the pot full of coffee. He put the kettle on as I took another bite out of my toast nearly getting jam on my shirt. He walked out of the kitchen and stood in front of the coffee table.
   '' You up already? '' he asked tiredly. I just looked at him. He sat down on the other couch and drank his coffee. He stared into space. 
   '' Are you driving me to school today? '' I asked.
   '' Aha, '' he sighed not looking up. Was the floor really that interesting?
   '' Jaspar, '' he said looking up, '' Can you do something for me? ''
   '' Umm, yeah. Of course, '' I answered as if it was obvious. It really was. I would do anything that Gerard or Frank told me to do.
   '' Could you please deliver something somewhere after school? It's not far. It's about 25 minutes away from your school. It's quite important but I will be somewhere else. ''
   '' Yeah. Where is it? ''
   Gerard gave me the address on a piece of paper and went upstairs. He came back down after a while all dressed and sat back down. He handed me a white envelope. I looked at it for a while. It was just a plain letter without a stamp.
   '' Why can't you just send it? '' I asked a bit confused.
   '' Because I don't want to, '' He answered sternly, '' Don't forget about this. ''

   Frank was still asleep when we left. Gerard dropped me off at the front gates and waited until I walked in. I was met by Ryan in the breakfast bar.
   '' Dude! '' he exclaimed, '' What the fuck where you thinking yesterday? ''
   '' Erm... I- ''
   '' Come sit down and we'll talk. Actually... I have an idea of what we could do today. '' Ryan told me all about his awesome plan. He wanted to leave school 'early', and by early he meant as fast as possible. We had art first lesson and then geography second. I didn't really want to miss those as I liked art and the geography teacher was quite cool. Ryan hated our art teacher. It was true that she did a lot more talking than we ever did artwork. We planned to leave at break and so we did.

   We walked down the field across from school.
   '' And where are we going? '' I asked.
   '' Erm... We can go and hang out at this awesome place by the river, '' he suggested.
   '' Okay. I was supposed to go to this place after school. Do you want to come along? ''
   '' Where? ''
   '' Alton Grange, number 46. ''
   Ryan smirked and shook his head.
   '' What? '' I laughed.
   '' Nope, '' he smiled, '' So, you never told me about Way. ''

   By the time we got to the 'awesome place by the river' it was around 1pm. It wasn't far, it was just that we stopped quite a few times and we walked slowly, really slowly. We walked down to the river and sat down on a big tree trunk that lay beside it. Ryan stood up and stopped at the river bank.
   '' You gonna do in? '' I asked.
   '' Hell yeah! '' He laughed and began to take his shoes off. He threw them in my direction so that they don't fall into the river and rolled up his skinnies up to his knees. He stood there for a while thinking it through. He hesitated and put his foot in the water slowly, the other soon following.
   '' Shit, so cold! '' he smiled, '' You know what once happened to me? I was with my cousin and my shoes fell in. They drifted off... ''
   '' And? '' I laughed urging him to finish his little story.
   '' I never got them back! They drifted off and I was too slow to catch them. '' He smirked and looked down at the water. We spent another hour or two sitting, talking and messing in the water then we set off for Alton Grange.