Southern Love ↠ Jasper Whitlock

chapter three

Clementine

I woke up to the sound of screaming. Quickly sittin' up, I glanced around the room. As the scream echoed from under the door, I immediately recognized it as Jo's nightmare-screams. Almost every night, Jo woke me to the sounds of her horrified cries. Swinging my feet over the side of the bed, I jumped onto the wooden floor. I padded across the floor, preparing to go to Jo's room and wake her from her nightmare.

"Jo?" I called softly, opening my door and stepping into the hallway.

"Stop!" She screamed, her voice still echoing down the hallway.

"Clemmy, darlin'. What's the matter?" A deep voice asked from behind me, making me jump.

After turning around in alarm, I immediately relaxed when my eyes fell on Mr. Jasper. He was stumbling down the hallway--relatively frantic--as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. Once he removed his hands from his eyes, he looked down at me. As I looked him over, I noticed that he wasn't wearing his uniform. Instead, he was wearing a simple white shirt and loose brown pants. To my amusement, his mop of shoulder-length honey blonde hair was in a messy mop.

Mr. Jasper made his way over to me before kneelin' in front of me. He grabbed ahold of my shoulder, lookin' at me with concerned brown eyes. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"It's okay, Mr. Jasper. It's just Jo," I assured him.

He furrowed his eyebrows. "What about Jo?"

Jo screamed again, causing him to jerk his head in the direction of her room. "She has bad dreams, sometimes," I explained, "They wake me up a lot, but I know she can't help it."

For a moment, he kept his gaze trained on Jo's door. Even in the dim light, I could see the immense concern on his face. I felt his thumb began to rub my shoulder before he moved his gaze back to me. "Why don't you go back to bed, alright? I'm gonna check on your sister," He said softly.

"Will you be able to handle her?" I asked, eyeing him worriedly.

A small smile tugged at his lips. "I can handle your sister just fine, I promise. Now go on to bed. You're young and need your sleep."

I released a sigh before nodding. "Okay, Mr. Jasper."

He gave me a swift kiss on the head before standing up. Placing a gentle hand on my back, he guided me in the direction towards my bedroom. Once I'd arrived at the door, I turned around one last time. He gave me a small wave with his pointer finger, which caused me to giggle. However, my smile disappeared when another scream echoed from Jo's room. Mr. Jasper jerked his head towards her room before hurrying down the hallway.

After closing the door, I placed my ear on the wood. I heard Jo scream one last time before Mr. Jasper hushed her.

"Jo, Jo, it's alright. Calm down, darlin' . . ." Mr. Jasper cooed.

They spoke briefly, but eventually, the volume of their voices grew too low for me to be able to make out their conversation.

The desire to look and listen got the best of me, so I slowly crept back out of my room. Careful not to make loud footsteps, I tiptoed to the doorway and peeked in. The room was dark and I couldn't see much, at first. I only heard their hushed voices and quiet sniffles. Luckily, my hearing was strong enough for me to listen to part of their conversation.