Metanoia |BxB|

Chapter Three

(Jasper Pictured)

CHLOE:

In the seventeen years that she had spent raising her son, Chloe didn't believe she had gotten the opportunity to truly know him.

He was quiet, reserved, and the total opposite of his sister in every possible way.

Lydia had been easy and predictable. She allowed for Chloe to be a part of her interests and passions so that her mother could stand by her side. Chloe knew her daughter like the back of her hand and could pick up on every tick there could possibly be in order to know exactly when something was wrong or extraordinarily right.

With Jasper, however, everything was different. He liked his space and he liked his distance. He gravitated towards anonymity.

She could count the times she had gotten Jasper to truly smile on her hands, and she couldn't recall a time when Jasper had initiated physical affection in the years since he turned thirteen.

She could say that Jasper's favorite color was Green, but she also knew that she hadn't been sure that was true since Jasper's seventh birthday. She didn't know any of the music that filtered quietly through his speakers and so she couldn't tell you what type of music her own son listened to or whether he had a favorite band or artist or group.

She knew Jasper enjoyed TV, but she couldn't tell you if he actually enjoyed them or if he sat content whenever Lydia would flip the channel to whatever she wanted.

She hadn't ever met any of his friends, although she knew he went out occasionally and so she assumed that he did have some.

She had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, only that he began receiving letters from universities early in high school and would look at the sender before decidedly either tossing the letter in the bin or taking it upstairs with him. The only reason she even knew where her son would be attending University was because he had announced his scholarship and early acceptance.

She did know, however, that Jasper was excited to go away. He grinned whenever he spoke of it, and he talked more whenever it was brought up. She found herself asking anything if only to watch him go off about the campus or the classes or the city.

Now, as she stands back and watches Jasper unpack the boxes they had carried to the West Building, up four floors, down two hallways, and through to room 421, the weight of what she doesn't know begins to set in along with questions she hadn't dwelled on until now.

Who is her son? What would he do here, who would he become? In three months, when she sees him again for the first time, will he be a different person?

Jasper's dorm room is a single due to accommodations. Would that stop him from making friends? Did Jasper already have friends here?

Will he have met his other half by then? There was a name there, on his wrist as if it had no idea that Jasper hated seeing it every day. Would Blair be with Jasper by thanksgiving?

These questions don't seem to filter through to Jasper as he moves from one end of his small room to the other, placing his things down as if he had planned this all out beforehand.

She doesn't put it past Jasper to do just that, and she smiles as he arranges the two picture frames he had brought from home.

Inside one is of all of them, taken during one of their family vacations. She thinks they'd gone abroad that summer.

The other is of him and Lydia at his graduation. They both look so happy and she remembers how she felt when she saw Jasper smile like that.

"You should smile more." she says before moving to help unpack the rest of the boxes.