"You seem to make a habit of watching me...pervert."
☆
Jasper heads back to Molly's stall, looking around for Thomas, whom he assumed would be there. Molly is packing away the last remaining bits and pieces from the stall into the four by four. "Molly, where's Tom?"
Molly looks up from what she is doing. "He said he had to head back, you were catching up with friends or something?"
Jasper frowns, looking down at the ground. "Are we done?" He looks to an empty box on the floor, picking it up and taking it to the car, then heads to the passenger seat. He had messed up completely, again! He had let his desires decide his fate and usually he wouldn't care, but now he did, because he had someone to care about, and Jasper didn't know how to make it right.
*****
Later that day, Jasper makes his way to the stables to see Thomas already at work scooping up the dirty straw. As usual he was appealing to Jasper's eyes, messy hair, sporting a red bandana, shirtless with baggy khaki shorts and loosely laced brown boots. It was just a reminder how much Jasper had messed up. "You started without me!" Jasper mumbles under his breath.
Thomas ignores the younger, choosing to put more effort in cleaning the stable floor.
Jasper repeats himself, speaking a fraction louder. "I said, you started..."
"I heard you!" Thomas cuts him off, still choosing not to look at him.
Jasper furrows his brows. "Hey!" He waits for Thomas to respond but he doesn't. Jasper now takes a step closer, pushing his shoulder. "Hey I'm talking to you!"
"Get off me!" Thomas shouts back, pushing Jasper so hard with the pole of the shovel in his hand, that Jasper falls back and crashes on his behind. Thomas looks at the younger down on the ground for a second, before carrying on with his chores. Jasper is again quick to get up and uses his shoulder to ram Thomas sideways to the floor, causing him to fall in the pile of dirty straw.
Jasper sits over the older and lifts a fist ready to launch a punch but Thomas is quick and grabs a hold of his wrist, with Jasper now sat astride Thomas, his arm trying to break free from Thomas' grip.
Thomas then uses both his hands to twist Jasper's arm back, which causes Jasper to shout in pain, grabbing at Thomas' hands with his free hand. Thomas is able to sit up a little and pushes Jasper off of him. He now straddles Jasper, managing to force both of Jasper's wrists either side of his head.
Out of breath, Thomas finally speaks. "I came back...earlier, I came back to the cafe."
Jasper also out of breath looks up at Thomas, his eyes widen slightly. "What?"
"I came back." Thomas continues. "I thought I was being childish. I...I thought maybe you just needed time. Time to get used to being around me in public!" Thomas' breathing finally evens out. Jasper can see a sad expression across Thomas' face, but soon the sad face again turns to anger. "I saw you fuck that girl...down that side alley." Thomas gives Jasper's wrists a squeeze before letting go completely and climbing off the younger. He stands up and begins to pace around the stable, hands on hips.
Jasper sits up slightly. "You seem to make a habit of watching me...pervert." Jasper bites back, but regrets it instantly when he sees Thomas' pained face. "I...she was nothing." Jasper says, a little sheepish.
"It didn't look like nothing, you looked like you were having a great time." Thomas looks Jasper up and down.
"It was just sex.... What about you and Zeke when you were camping?" Jasper argues back.
"We just made out! We didn't have sex." Thomas turns to look at Jasper's face.
"What...and you mean to tell me that you wouldn't have gone there with him?" Jasper now gets to standing.
Thomas tries to defend "But I didn't."
"Is that because he stopped it... or you?" Jasper raises an eyebrow to which Thomas cannot reply. He probably would have gone all the way if Zeke hadn't had called time. "And you're a fine one to talk about being all proud in public. You won't even tell your own grandfather!"
Thomas now gets into Jasper's face, they are literally a millimetre apart. "Fuck you Jasper Jones!" He pushes Jasper one last time before leaving the stable and walking away. He's so angry, he cannot wait to see Jasper out of his sight.
Jasper swoops a hand down and grabs the shovel and continues to clean up where Thomas had left off. He was done with this place. Done with the farm, the work and he was completely done with Thomas.
A short time passes and Jasper is nearly finished cleaning the stable. He tips the last load of straw and muck from the wheelbarrow onto the compost heap, which stinks to high heaven in the heat. He suddenly hears the sound of the four by four approaching. Jasper looks up to see his uncle at the wheel looking very stressed. Jasper feels confused, he's sure he's done nothing wrong that he knows of...at least with regards to his uncle.
Jim pulls up next to the stable block. "Where's Thomas?" he asks looking around hurriedly.
"Gone home I guess." Jasper shrugs.
"Just get in the car!" His uncle orders, turning to get in the driver's seat.
"Why, what's the matter?" Jasper asks, making his way to the passenger side.
"You mother called. Your Grandma has taken a turn for the worse, we need to get to hospital."
YOU ARE READING
One Hot Summer (boyxboy)
RomanceROMANCE *Jasper continues to watch the man play around on his own in the river. Splashing thin air and washing himself of his dirt and blood stained hands. Jasper finds himself chuckling at the display, as if the man had an invisible friend. His sm...
