[Alex's POV]
The next day at school, Alex had kept an eye out for Otto. But once she finally did walk through the school gate, she met his eyes and looked away pointedly. Honestly, Alex had expected as much. She wasn't exactly jumping for joy when he had offered his help yesterday.
"What did you do?" Jasper asked. His question startled Alex. He hadn't noticed that Jasper had been watching him.
"Nothing!" he said defensively and then doubted. "Well, not really."
Jasper raised a questioning brow at him. Alex felt reluctant to answer. Wasn't this an extremely personal topic? Well, maybe not so much to himself, but to Otto. Then again, Jasper was her close friend. They had been so for years. Maybe he should tell him?
"Does the name Thomas mean anything to you?" he asked. Jasper instantly looked worried, but he tried to hide it under a mildly interested and calm expression.
"It does, but how do you know it?"
"I'm not sure I'm supposed to tell you," Alex said doubtfully.
"Let me guess; you saw Otto and Thomas somewhere together," Jasper said, sounding annoyed.
"That's a mild way to put it, but yes. Is it a commonly know thing then?" Alex asked, his curiosity sparked. Jasper chuckled before answering.
"No, it is not. However, about seventy per cent of our class knows."
"You make me feel so special," Alex sneered. "So you're telling me that you knew Otto was being bullied, bordering on sexually harassed, and did nothing about it?"
"S-sexually harassed?!" Jasper squeaked out the word in surprise, still trying to be mindful of the people around them. "Aren't you exaggerating?"
Alex lightly shook his head.
"She was positively shaking by the time Thomas left. Tears in her eyes and everything."
"What the hell did you catch them doing?!" Jasper asked, nearly screaming the question, his calm mask completely fallen off.
" 'What' you ask? I don't know," Alex said as he thought it over once more. "It looked like they were talking, except for the fact that he was holding her wrist and she was pushed against a tree. At first, I thought they were really close, but then-"
"Did you catch what they were talking about?" Jasper interrupted.
"What they were talking about?" Alex echoed the question as he thought about the one thing he had been pushing out of his mind since it had happened. "Me. They were talking about me."
Jasper sighed.
"I was afraid you'd say that. Poor Otto," Jasper said. "This explains why she was so affected too."
"What's happening here?" Alex asked. The longer they talked about it, the more confusing it got. This time, Jasper looked reluctant to answer. He was clearly wondering if Jessy and Otto would skin him alive if he talked.
"I guess you deserve to know. Since you are the one in danger," he mumbled.
"Me? How am I the one in danger?" Alex asked incredulously.
"Thomas and Otto used to be REALLY close friends. Everyone thought they would become a couple, but when he finally confessed to her, she turned him down. Thomas has been acting like a crazy-jealous-wannabe-boyfriend ever since, isolating Otto from anyone who gets too close." Jasper explained. "Who knows what he'll do when he actually feels threatened?"
"Good to know," Alex said as he let the new information seep in.
"You don't seem very concerned. He has a black belt in judo, you know?"
"As long as he doesn't have a gun, I'll be fine," Alex said calmly. He wasn't the least bit concerned.
"Oh, ho, ho! Look who's feeling confident?" Jasper laughed. "I don't think Thomas will think that highly of you, though."
"That's fine. The advantage will be mine that way."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Jasper's POV]
"That's strange... it should be here," Jasper mumbled to himself. He'd followed coordinates that Alex had send him in reply to the "I'm bored" message that Jasper had send him.
The set of coordinates had lead Jasper to the corner of a grass plain surrounded by trees. They specifically pointed towards a large oak tree, which appeared to be straight in the middle of the park. A fun facts that Jasper hadn't noticed until Alex had send him the coordinates.
"ALEX?!" Jasper called out, starting to wonder if Alex was there at all and startled when the foliage of the big oak tree started to rustle noisily. He could see something large move within the leaves too, but he couldn't get a clear view of what it was.
"Here I am," a familiar voice said as the large something turned into an up-side-down face dangling from one of the lowest branches of the oak. And even though Jasper had been watching it, he still nearly jumped out of his skin when an actual face appeared.
"Alex?!" Jasper asked exasperated.
"Pffft! You should see your face right now," Alex laughed.
Jasper swallowed his heart back down and frowned as he felt like the dupe of a joke, but felt the corner of his mouth twitch up as he watched Alex come down from the tree with what was supposed to be an elegant tumble, but turned into a stumbled due to his laughter.
"What were you doing up there?" Jasper asked as he glanced up at the top of the tree.
"Me?" Alex asked as he momentarily looked up to were Jasper was looking, a thoughtful expression colouring his face. "Usually, I'd say that I was reading, but I'd be lying if I told you that today. My mind kept wandering."
"Worries?"
"Ah, well, I wouldn't call them worries, exactly," Alex mumbled, clearly still gathering his thoughts. "I keep seeing Otto's crying face in my mind... I made her cry, Jasper. She must really hate me now."
"Is this about the time you found her with Thomas?" Jasper asked. Alex nodded. "You don't need to take full credit for that, you know. I talked with her and she was already pretty shaken up by her encounter with Thomas."
Alex stared of in the distance, clearly still thinking about it.
"I'd never seen a girl cry before," he said and then added in a more determined kind of way: "And I never want to see another girl cry in front of me ever again."
When their eyes met, Jasper could see that he meant what he'd said. He never wanted to see a girl cry again? What was he going to do? Steal all the tears in the world? What a strange thing to say. As if there was anything he could do about it?
"It's not a big deal though," Jasper said and Alex's brow wrinkled in confusion. "Certainly not with Otto. She used to cry all the time. Scraped knee? Bam! Tears! Take the piece of candy she wanted? Bam! Tears! Watching a sad movie on tv? Bam! Tears!"
His recollection of Otto's crying moments had Alex snickering.
"You don't seem to have much experience with girls," Jasper said. Alex laughed awkwardly, as if Jasper had mentioned something he was ashamed of.
"That's because I don't have any experience with girls. In the small village I grew up in, there was a little local school. Maximum twelve students per class, and mine was all boys."
"Damn," Jasper said as he thought about a life like that. "Moving here must have been quite the shock for you?"
Alex laughed. "You can say that again."
They stood there for a moment in amicable silence and watched the light of the setting sun play through the leaves.
"So you climb trees, huh?" Jasper hurriedly said as he felt that the scene was too peaceful. Peace and quiet in a public place never failed to make him feel nervous. Alex raised a brow at him in surprise but nodded.
"Do you think you could teach me?" Jasper asked gleefully. He could practically feel the grin split his face.
"I could, but not right now. The sun has nearly set and coming out of a tree in the dark is not something a beginner should be doing."
"Whut?! You wound me bro! Why would you label me as a beginner? I climbed trees before!"
"So you're telling me that you'd be able to get into the tree on your own?" Alex asked, an eyebrow cocked in disbelief.
"Well, if I had a chair or a ladder I could," Jasper mumbled as he avoided Alex's eyes.
"Of course you can," Alex said in a final kind of way. It made Jasper realise he was putting up a poor fight. That had to be changed. So he put on his best kicked-puppy-face and directed it at Alex, who looked genuinely surprised to see that expression pointed at him.
"Please~?" Jasper begged with folded hands in front of his face.
"But I just told you that-" Alex started to say, but Jasper didn't let him finish.
"PLEASE!!" he begged more loudly. Alex frowned at him. "I promise we'll be in and out in a jiffy! I just want to see the sun set!"
Alex frowned at him a moment longer, as if he was sizing Jasper up.
"You know what?" he said after a long moment. "If you can get onto the first branch of this oak within ten minutes, I'll climb with you to the top to watch the sunset. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until some other time."
Jasper looked at the oak tree Alex had jumped out of earlier. The lowest branch that looked strong enough to hold his weight still hung two meters high.
"That's unfair," Jasper complained.
"It would clear you of the noob-grade," Alex said seriously. "Like I said, climbing trees in the dark is not something a beginner should be doing."
"Ok! Fine!" Jasper said gruffly and stood up. Ten minutes wasn't long enough to go and grab a stool or ladder nearby. So he tried jumping for the first branch and managed to hold onto it with his both hands, but couldn't lift his legs high enough to wrap around it too.
"However much I like to see you struggling, time's up," Alex chuckled and got up while Jasper let go of the branch. "But to reward your effort, I'll show you how you're supposed to get into the tree."
Alex got into position underneath the same branch as Jasper had, but the paused to say: "First of all, there are more easy ways to get into a tree than the method you chose, and this isn't exactly my most favourite method, but I'll do it this way because it is what you were trying to do."
Jasper watched intently as Alex jumped and grabbed the lowest branch firmly with both hands, the same way he had done it himself, but then Alex swung his whole body forward and used the momentum of the swing to hoist his upper body onto the branch he was holding onto. And just like that, Alex had made it into the tree.
Jasper stood there, dumbstruck. He knew that he didn't have the upper-body strength to pull that off, and he worked out regularly.
"I'll be in your care, teacher," Jasper said and bowed in a ninety degree angle, mimicking some of his favourite anime's. Alex snorted, sitting up on the branch he had climbed on, but he was clearly familiar with the gesture.
"You have much to learn, my Padawan," he chuckled as he jumped out of the tree. "Now get your ass home and go to sleep at a decent hour. Tomorrow is a school day."