Chapter Thirty

Jasper offers a small smile as if feeling the emotions of all those years ago again. “Yeah, me too. But now look at us, back together again. I guess even fate can’t separate us,” He says, eyes crinkling in a more genuine beam. I don’t miss the eye contact between Adrian and Jasper as he says that though, the tension crackling above my head like thunder.

I try to laugh it off. “I guess not. Why didn’t you ever look up my socials?”

Jasper looks down at his food as he shovels more into his mouth, almost as if he’s avoiding answering my question. After he chews and swallows, he finally seems to think of something reasonable to say. “I didn’t have any. Once we moved, my dad made us live kind of off-grid. He thought it would be a good idea to raise me in the woods after staying in California,” He says humorously.

“That sucks, I couldn’t imagine,” I say sympathetically, placing a hand over my heart. My reaction makes Adrian scoff, but I ignore him completely and keep talking to Jasper. “You have them now though, right?”

“Yeah, of course. Tell me your information and I’ll follow you,” Jasper glances up through the mop of hair that falls in his eyes, following the group of guys that now exit the lunch line. The blonde-haired ring leader make eye contact with me, offering a huge grin at noticing my attention, even though I was only looking to see what caught Jasper’s eye.

Jasper frowns, keeping his eye on the group as they find a table to our right, snickering to each other as they fall into their assigned seats respectively. “Have they given you any trouble?” He asks, voice taking on a protective undertone.

Confused, I furrow my brow and lean over to look past him at the table again. “No, I don’t even know who they are. Why?”

Adrian follows our attention, a frown pulling at his mouth too upon discovering the topic. “They’re just a group of punks,” He butts in, cutting a sharp look to Jasper.

Jasper runs his fingers through his curls to push them away from his eyes, seeming to understand whatever silent message was conveyed by his cousin. “Yeah, they’re just idiots. Don’t talk to them if you can help it and you should be fine. Just let me know if any of them tries anything though,”

I sigh and take a sip of my water, confused by their sudden abrasiveness towards the newcomers. Yeah, they seem like a bunch of fuckboys, but I wouldn’t expect them to give me a hard time. It’s not like that isn’t something I’ve had to deal with before, considering that those types of guys are literally everywhere. “Okay, I will. Anyway, give me your phone,”

Jasper complies, digging the device from the pockets of his joggers and placing it into my outstretched hand. I add my phone number to his contacts first, then go through his social media apps to look myself up on all of them, making sure I follow him back on my own phone. Once I’m sure we have each other followed on everything, I hand him back his phone with a nod of finality.

“There, now you can’t just disappear on me like that again,” I say, offering a smile. “Send me a text so I can have your number too.”

Jasper glances at Adrian as if making sure it’s okay with him that we have that kind of communication. I’m not sure what he sees on my bodyguard’s stoic expression, but he decides to take the risk anyway and sends me a message saying ‘Hey’, anyway.

I save it to my phone before Adrian can ask me to ignore it. I’m not going to give up the opportunity to reconnect with my best friend from grade school, no matter what he tries to say. I already lost him once, and I don’t intend a guy I just met to prevent me from seeing him again.

I smile at Jasper and put my phone away. “There, now we’re officially reconnected,” I don’t try to hide the happiness in my voice, having decided that I don’t really care about Adrian’s opinion of his cousin.

Jasper pauses the fork of food on its way to his mouth, looking down at me as if he’s never seen me happy before. He swallows and glances behind me at Adrian I assume, before he reciprocates my feelings, allowing a beam to take over his face. “Yep, now we’re back together again.”

I can feel Adrian stiffen beside me, though I don’t know why Jasper’s words would bother him so much. I’ll have to explain to him how close I used to be with his cousin to elaborate because I’m beginning to get the feeling that he’s taking our relationship the wrong way.

I turn my attention back to Adrian, offering him a smile as well, and place a hand on his bicep. His muscles really are tense. “I’m kind of cold, can I borrow your coat?” I ask innocently, staring up at him through my lashes. I don’t want him to feel left out, and I plan to remind him of our contract. In public, he is still my boyfriend, even in front of Jasper since he decided not to tell him about our arrangement. Even I won’t tell Jasper if Adrian wants to keep it hidden for now.

Adrian tears his poisonous gaze away from his cousin to look at me, his eyes immediately softening. Even his muscles relax beneath my touch as he raises a hand to stroke my cheek between his thumb and forefinger. He heaves a sigh as if I’m a small child. “I told you that outfit would be too cold for you,” He chastizes, peeling his jacket off to drape over my shoulders.

His scent engulfs me as he places the coat over me, and I jab my arms into the sleeves gratefully. I may have been acting a bit to make him feel better, but the body heat that lingers on the fabric shows me that I really was a little chilly.

“I know, I’ll listen to you next time,” I say sweetly, lying between my teeth. I pull my hair from the collar of the coat and resituate it, combing my finger through the long locks to smooth them out.

Adrian watches the movement closely, even ignoring it as someone comes to sit at an empty seat at the other end of the table. He would have usually run them off like a guard dog, but he seems too occupied admiring how big his clothes look on me. He eventually looks away but moves to wrap an arm around my waist to pull me closer to him.

“I doubt that. Are you done eating yet?” He asks, resuming his observation of the people around us. “We have a class to get to.”

I glance down at my half-eaten tray before nodding and turning back to Jasper. “Yeah, I guess we do need to get going. If there’s anything you want from my plate, you can have it. I see you still eat as much as ever,” I say, poking fun at the large portions of food he plopped onto his tray earlier.

Jasper moves to place my tray on top of his empty one with a boyish grin. “Don’t mind if I do. You can leave your tray too, Cousin,” He says, glancing cooly at Adrian. “I’ll take care of it for you.”

Adrian observes him with a stoic expression before nodding once, making to stand up from the table with me in tow. I don’t know the significance of his reaction, but Jasper presses his lips together in a line before forcing a smile at me while waving goodbye.

“I’ll see you soon, Lydia,” Jasper says, watching us leave.

“See you soon,” I smile back at him, though I’m still confused about the interaction between the cousins. They’re definitely weird, but they both seem to understand what the other one means.

Adrian leads me out of the cafeteria by my lower back and guides me through the thinning crowds of people towards our next class. Judging by his silence, he has no intention to explain himself as far as his attitude towards Jasper, which starts to annoy me. I want to grill him about it now, but as soon as we enter the lecture hall to our next class, the Professor gives us an annoyed look before continuing to speak. It sounds like class just started so we quickly take our seats and remain quiet throughout the long-ass lecture.

By the time the class is over and we’re moving on to the next one, most of the students have finished for the day and begin heading home, making it much easier to talk without feeling like I’m being stared down by every other person we walk past.

Before Adrian can drag me through the doors to our last class of the day, I tug on his sleeve to pause him just outside of the door. He looks around the empty hallway curiously before turning to me, wondering why I stopped him.