The Troubled Ones | ✔

Chapter 11. Ditch or Bust

[a/n]: hahah this chapter name sucks but i honestly cant come up with a better one so it wil have to suffice.

Chapter 11. Ditch or Bust

A needle and thread were all the tools I was using, but the fact that I never was a professional knitter or a doctor, for that matter, made our predicament much worse. Jasper is sitting on my floor with his back against the side of my bed and I am practically straddling my legs over his own. With my cheeks flaming red, I nervously stitch his wounds on his bare chest while he rests the back of his head against the side of my mattress restlessly.

"Jasper, I am going to injure you even more!" I whisper rather loudly.

"No, you aren't." he murmurs back.

"Why are you even trusting me to do this medical procedure? You should be at the hospital where a real doctor could treat your wounds.." I sigh and pull the needle slowly through his wound and he tenses.

"I can't go there; they'll have to investigate why I have these wounds and.. that just... it can't happen, okay?" he explains vaguely.

I stop sewing his wounds when a thought occurs to me.

"Did Nathan do this to you?" I gasp.

"Nathan? No." he replies.

"As I left today with my friend, I heard Nathan's voice in the apartment on one of the top floors." I inform him and continue stitching him up.

"Nathan doesn't live here, so he was probably just visiting someone." Jasper guesses.

"Well, then.. who did this to you, Jasper?" I inquire.

He swallows visibly and keeps silent, refusing to answer my question. I pull the needle with the thread in it again, but accidentally pull with force behind it and Jasper lets out a small, rough scream with a grunt of pain as his fists clench tightly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I quickly apologize.

"Aria?" My father knocks on the door.

I stifle a gasp and slap a hand over Jasper's mouth, even though he wasn't talking. My eyes scan the room for a diversion, but nothing comes to mind. Knowing that like most every father, mine wouldn't be too pleased to know that there is a stranger in my room; a stranger that is a boy, nonetheless, but he would immediately get the wrong idea.

"Dad, don't come in!" I quickly shout to my father.

"Why? I have to speak with you about Gav-"

"Not right now!" I stall.

Jasper's blue eyes shift to his bare, cut chest that is halfway through stitches and then to my own eyes. My hand stays clamped over his mouth and I bite the inside of my cheek, wondering what a good lie would be.

"Aria, I'm coming in, we need to discuss this situation with the Peters. Your mother and I are worried about you and how you must feel-"

"Look, I'm naked! I'll talk to you in the morning!" I shout again, feeling blood rush to my face when I feel Jasper's quiet snort of laughter under my hand.

"What? Why on earth are you-"

"I'm getting in the shower, just, please, leave me alone!" I huff.

"Okay, okay, we'll talk in the morning." Dad says and I hear his footsteps move away from my door.

I drop my hand from Jasper's mouth and let out a sigh of relief while Jasper shows a small smirk on his face with a glint of amusement in his eyes. Rolling my eyes at him, I pick up the needle again and pull the thread through his chest wound.