Anyone Else But You

Chapter 6 - The Bra Incident

Arctic Monkeys – Mardy Bum

Maddie was still reeling when she got home, she couldn’t process the fact that her and Jasper would be spending more time than ever together. She really needed to sort out this whole thing that was going on between the two of them, once was enough but it had been three times now. She’d even had to put up with Ali moaning all the way home about how it should have been her if anyone who should have been partnered with Jasper. She might not be in a relationship with him anymore but she didn’t want anybody else getting close to him either.

After Ali veered off towards her own home, Maddie was left to think about what had happened between herself and Jasper in the nurse’s office. As she meandered along she began to consider what being partnered with Jasper for the project meant for her. It was already upsetting Ali and there was already something weird going on between her and Jasper.

Without realising or comprehending her thoughts she’d made it to her house and was standing in front of the steps, staring at the keys in her hand. A sudden movement to her left caught her eye, she glanced round and saw Jasper watching her from his front step. When he saw her looking at him, he smiled and waved his hand once. Maddie walked over to the wall separating their houses and sighed as Jasper walked over to join her.

“How’s your jaw? Any better?” She looked up from the keys in her hands and smiled at him.

“Well it’s not aching anymore, it’s still a little tender when I touch it though.” Jasper smiled softly as he looked at Maddie, after a few seconds she couldn’t take the intensity of his glare anymore and looked back down at the keys she was playing with.

“I’m glad we got given ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, it’s one of my favourite Shakespeare plays.” Maddie looked back up at Jasper as he looked at something over her shoulder. “It’s probably one of the earliest romantic comedies, Austen based Pride and Prejudice on it.” She raised her eyebrows, who knew Jasper was such a big literature buff.

“Really I didn’t know that, I didn’t know you’d read Jane Austen either.” She smiled as she thought about what was one of her favourite books.

“What? Just because I’m a boy I can’t read Austen, she’s a great author.”

“I didn’t mention anything about being surprised that you’d read Pride and Prejudice’ because you’re a boy. Not many people read the classics now, it’s all Twilight and Harry Potter; it’s nice to know that someone else has read a book that wasn’t written in the last 20 years.” Jasper smiled as he looked into her eyes again, they really were a beautiful shade of dark blue; she’d never seen anything like it before.

“So when do you want to meet up to talk about our project?”

“Um, I don’t know. I’m free most nights.” Maddie yawned as she covered her mouth with the back of her hand. Jasper looked at his watch before replying.

“Well I’m working tonight so I can’t do it until after ten and it doesn’t look like you’ll make it that late. So how about tomorrow at like four.” He shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head to the side waiting for her answer.