Chapter 25
<Callie Stevens>
Andrew came in last night to spend Tuesday with me. He's asleep in our guest room, tired out from Henry dragging us around the park and forcing him to play trains for hours on end. He collapsed the minute we got home, which upset Henry, who is now watching TV in the living room. I smile to myself as I grab the car keys and tell my mom I'm heading out, but I'll be back for dinner. She waves as she continues to furiously whisk something in her mixing bowl.
I slip into the front seat of my car and back out of the driveway. I drive through town, a spitting rain dotting my windshield. A few turns and a stoplight later, I've arrived at Harris Teeter. The cold air makes me shiver as I walk into the grocery store and veer towards the freezer section. I grab a couple of pints of maple brown sugar ice cream, Jasper's guilty pleasure. I go through the self-checkout lane and am back in my car before the rain picks up speed. Windshield wipers running furiously, I pull back onto the main road, my muscle memory taking me towards the Coven family farm. Through the rain, the outline of the trees and the dilapidated farmhouse come into view.
My tires crunch over the gravel driveway in front of the house. I kill my engine and grab some takeout spoons and the ice cream. I pull the hood of my rain jacket over my head and step out, locking the car behind me. Jasper looks up, a bottle swinging from hand. He doesn't say a word as I approach. I walk up the steps, the wood creaking underneath my rainboots. I set the ice cream down between us as I take a seat on the top step.
"I brought your favorite." I say, pushing the maple ice cream towards him.
He takes a swig from his almost empty bottle. The distinct smell of alcohol burns my nose, standing out amongst the other smells the rain is trying to wash away. I pick imaginary lint off my jeans as I try to think of what to say next. Jasper continues to drink until the bottle is gone. He sets it on top of a file that's occupying the space next to him.
"I thought you didn't want to be in my life." Jasper rips the lid off a pint of ice cream and takes a bite, his eyes not meeting mine.
"I said I couldn't be in your life in the same capacity." I reply calmly, opening the other pint of ice cream. "My sentence didn't end with a period."
"Apparently no one wants to be in my life in the same capacity. Everyone wants to keep me at a distance, too afraid that I'll mess up the perfect life they have laid out in front of them." Jasper shoves a large bite of ice cream in his mouth.
"No," I say, trying to pick my words carefully. "You hurt me deeply. I'm trying to avoid that kind of pain."
"By avoiding me?" He snorts derisively, his bloodshot eyes finally meeting my gaze. "Don't worry, Callie, you're not the only one doing it."
The way he says my name is sharp and filled with venom. I try to numb the sting with another bite of ice cream.
"No one wants me, not even my own mother." Jasper's voice cracks as he buries his head in his knees.
I watch as his shoulders shake with sobs, the pitiful noise mixing with the pouring rain. My hand reaches out, resting on one of his prominent shoulder blades. He continues to cry, and I draw myself closer to him, my arm resting across his back.
"How can you say no one wants you?" I say in a choked whisper as I rub a slow circle on his lower back. "I want you."
"Not in the way I want you to want me." Jasper sniffles and sits up, his eyes meeting mine. "I don't blame you, though. I've been an ass for the last five years. I've even more of a mess now than I was before I left. I wouldn't want me either. I wouldn't want to touch someone like me with a ten-foot pole."
YOU ARE READING
A Girl Named Callie
Spiritual*sequel to A Boy Named Jasper* ~~~~~ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" (John 5:6) ~~~~~~ Jasper has been in L.A. for almost five years. Not a day w...
