The Eternal Sleep

Jaaaaassspeeeeeerrrrr

Luca munched on a biscuit, feet tossed over the head rest of the couch and his head resting on the edge of the seat. He’d had the house for himself for the rest of the evening and he was going to spend it watching mind melting cartoons, eating unhealthy food and sitting on the couch in a way that was certainly going to hurt his back tomorrow.

By a move of skill and pure luck, he was able to convince Sean and his mother to take a ‘romantic’ date for the evening, to get some time for each other. By his knowledge, they should be back in a couple hours, just enough time for him to uselessly waste doing nothing. His friends from the game had their own work cut out for them.

Jack was finally talking to his father, Olivia was watching her siblings, Rena was in physical therapy and Armando was probably trying to take over the world. That meant that the only thing Luca got to be was bored. He sighed sleepily and stretched, wincing at the sound of his joints cracking. Luca was about to fall into the arms of sleep when the door slammed open.

With a strangled yelp that was far too high pitched for his age, Luca tumbled to the ground in his unsuccessful jump to his feet. The owner responsible for slamming the door was huffing and puffing like an angry tiger. Luca carefully peaked over the couch, ducking in panic when a jacket was tossed at him.

Jasper was pacing the small distance from the door to the kitchen, muttering viciously under his breath. He tossed his shoes near the coat hanger and his bag was lopsided by the entrance to the kitchen. Luca took in the scene for a few seconds, trying to understand what was going on, his sleep fogged mind making his reflexes slow.

He eventually scrubbed his hands roughly through his hair and leaned his hands on the counter, trying to calm his breathing. Luca took that moment to quietly walk up to him, pulling his stepbrother’s jacket over his shoulders. “So… you okay?”

Jasper yelped, tossing the closest thing he hand on hand at him. Luca skillfully grabbed the card aimed at his face, turning it over and reading the name of the college the other attended, “You really think it’s a good idea to be tossing this around?”

“Luca, oh geeze, I forgot you would be home.” Jasper laughed in a relieved tone, running a hand down his face, and walked into the kitchen. Luca gave a cheeky grin in response as Jasper took as glass from the cupboard for water, leaning against the counter tiredly. “What’re you doing home?”

“Me, I’m always home, I still technically don’t have a life.” Luca smirked and pulled on Jasper’s jacket properly, ignoring the huff Jasper gave him for ‘stealing’ it. It was not his fault that Jasper always has the coolest jackets, “The real question is why you’re home, especially in the middle of the week.”

Jasper’s face was immediately guarded, despite that, Luca could clearly feel the anger that seemed to be rolling off his shoulders in waves. “It’s nothing.” He moved to the small kitchen table in the middle, leaning on it and looking as though he was trying to pierce holes into it with just his eyes. The glass of water sitting forgotten on the counter.

“Come on, Jasper.” Luca walked up to him, pushing back the too long sleeves of the jacket and leaning his arms on the table, “I never get to see you miffed, much less, angry.”

“I was not angry.” He sniffed.

“You totally were, now you gonna tell me or what?” Luca prodded him the same way he would Jay when something was bothering him. His plan didn’t work like he expected, usually it would pull a huff or sigh out of Jay, but pushing the matter seemed to make Jasper more frazzled and irritated.

“Look, I’m not talking about it okay?” Jasper rubbed the bridge of his nose, “Can you drop it?”

“No, if something’s bothering you, you should at least tell Sean. You know how he gets when there’s something wrong with you.” Luca was genuinely trying to help. Sean was a worry wart that got in his own way when something seemed to be even slightly off with anyone under his care. He recalled the day Sean wouldn’t relax when he’d gotten up disheveled and answered the door, only looking slightly calmer when Luca subtly allowed him to see the entirety of his room.

“Look, there is nothing wrong with me, so would get off by back?” With Luca’s head off on the clouds, the shout was so unexpected that he flinched. His elbow knocked the glass on the counter, spilling water everywhere. Luca looked at Jasper, a look a horror growing on the usually kind face.

“Jasper?”

“Oh my gosh Luc, I’m so sorry.” Jasper stepped away from him, arms pulled to his front like he was expecting Luca to hit him.

“Jasper, it’s fine-“ Luca didn’t get to finish his sentence. Jasper dodged his out-stretched hand, and speed walked out the kitchen without a word. He could hear hurried footsteps up the stairs and a room door closing. Luca took a few moments to process what just happened. He sighed and grabbed a paper towel, cleaning up the spilled water.

He didn’t mean to flinch at the yelling, if possible, he wanted to erase his reaction. Jasper yelling at him didn’t frighten him in anyway, he would claim that he was more surprised by the similarities of the voice to his father’s. Luca was fascinated by how Jasper could sound just like his father if he wanted. He really wanted to tell Jasper that he wasn’t bothered by the yelling, but it looked like Jasper wouldn’t want visitors anytime soon.

Luca decided that he was going to test just how far he could stretch his luck that evening, hardly waiting half an hour before knocking on Jasper’s door. Unfortunately, he was met by silence for several knocks, giving up and knocking his head on the door instead. “You know you can’t hide in there forever, right?”

“I can try…” Luca silently pumped his fist in response to successfully getting Jasper to talk.

“Jaaaaspeeeer.”

“Go away.”     

“Neveeeer.”

“Oh my gosh, it’s like dealing with mashed potato.” Jasper grunted. He’d opened the door without warning and Luca still pressing his full weight on the door, pitched forward in surprise, forcing Jasper to catch in on instinct. Luca pulled his weight of his brother, looking around at the room he’d only been in a handful of times.

“Would you look at that, the nerd lab hasn’t changed much.” Jasper rolled his eyes and threw himself face-first onto his bed with a loud groan.

“Look who’s talking, “Mr-I-got-eighty-percent-but-that’s-not-good-enough.”

“Ha-ha.” Luca rolled his eyes, sitting on the chair at the desk and fiddling with the dying plant near the edge of it, he couldn’t decide whether it was a cactus or an aloe vera. “To be fair, I wasn’t the one who called my marks low, I’m not bothered by my marks.”

“Fair enough.”

“So, you gonna tell me what’s got you so all over the place?” Luca scrambled to grab the cup of pens that he accidently knocked over, missing it by inches and watching as it clattered to the floor. With a nervous laugh, he glanced at Jasper, but the other male didn’t move his face that was planted in his pillow.

“No…”

“Okay, I tell Sean then.”

“Okay, okay, brat.” Jasper sighed and pushed his head up from the pillow, turning over and spreading out like a starfish, “So basically, you know Matizy, right?”, at Luca’s confirmation, he continued, “There’s this jerk and his goon squad at school.”

Jasper continued off in a rant, getting off the bed and angrily pacing up and down the small room. Several times, Luca had to duck a hand that came to close to his face, migrating to the bed to avoid any mishaps. Jasper was explaining that the jerk, Rick, had always picked fights with people he knew wouldn’t fight back.

Just that morning, the engineering students had to hand in their projects, Rick hadn’t done his own, so he took Jasper’s one from the table when he was preparing the projector. Jasper tried to argue with the teacher that the project was his own, but Rick got his goons to lie for him. Jasper ended up with a fail and extra work to get back the credit he lost.     

That was not all, Rick’s sister, Jessie, wanted to prove a point that Jasper couldn’t mess with them by literally sticking gum in Matizy’s hair. This led to a fight on the compound and Jasper getting send home. Jasper was supposed to call Sean to pick him up, but he got a drop with a friend. Matizy was most likely getting a haircut at the moment.

“What are you working with, toddlers?”

“I said the same thing.” Jasper screeched, dropping himself heavily on the ground. “That only led me to more after school dorm work.”

“Geeze and ages.” Luca couldn’t help chuckling, “Do you at least have any plans for revenge?”

“Yes… no?” he groaned, “I dunno, Rick’s pretty dangerous.”

“I wouldn’t be bothered if you got beat up ‘cause I know that Sean would be all up in there, but Matizy didn’t deserve that, gum in the hair is a new low.”

“My thoughts exactly, if it was me alone, probably would’ve started a bigger fight. Don’t get me wrong, Matizy can handle herself but I don’t want her getting in trouble for something I started.”

“Exactly,” Luca leaned over the bed, poking Jasper with his foot, “So… spray paint?”

“Spray paint?”

“Yea, paint his car or something, if he has one that is.”

“Yea, he has one… you really think that’s a good idea?”

“Have you ever tried getting spray paint out of glass?”

“Fair point… but I don’t think-“ Jasper yelped as Luca grabbed his hand and dragged him unceremoniously to his feet. With a fluid movement, Luca took off the jacket and placed it on Jasper’s shoulders, shoving him out the door. “Wh-what’re you doing?”

“There’s a craft store like ten minutes away from here on foot.” Luca leaned in his own room and grabbed his jacket, shoving Jasper harder to get him moving, “You could probably get that friend to drop you back to school without getting caught.”

“Fine, fine, I’m in.” He huffed, walking to the door. They didn’t get far when they heard the sound of keys and soft laughter, the doorknob turning slowly. Jasper turned to Luca with a look of panic.