“Of course I am. Everyone knows it. Watch.” He bounded off the planter and moved out to the main part of the sidewalk where three girls wearing various shades of Hollister shirts were walking past. “Excuse me, ladies. Can I bother you for a moment? My friend and I need your opinion on something.”
Two of the girls gave each other an is-this-guy-for-real look, but the third said, “Sure. Why not?”
“We just need to know, in your very educated opinion, which of us would you consider the jerk in this relationship?”
The girls all looked at her and then back at Jase.
“You,” said Pink Shirt.
“You,” said Blue Shirt.
“Definitely you,” said Green Shirt.
After Jase thanked them and sent them on their way, he came back and hopped up onto the edge of the planter.
“That proves nothing,” Talley said, hoping no one noticed how he was balanced on nothing more than an inch’s width of concrete. Although, to be fair, she didn’t know if that was a Shifter talent or a Jase talent.
“That, Talley my dear, proves everything. I am a jerk, you are ridiculously gracious to put up with me, and any and all disagreements we have had or ever will have are my fault.” He smiled down at her. “If you’re still unsure of those facts, I could poll more people, maybe go door-to-door in the dorms to gather data.”
Knowing Jase, he would do it, too.
A blue bird perched on the crosswalk sign, and Talley watched its little head bop around as if looking for a friendly face in the crowd. “So, Joshua…”
“I really think there is something going on there, Tal. There is just something not right about him. And I promise you, he was implying all sorts of things with that claiming statement.” He met her eyes. “You have to believe me.”
“I do.” And she did. Jase had his faults, even as smitten as she was she could easily list half a dozen without even thinking about it, but tilting at windmills wasn’t one of them. If Jase thought something was up with his roommate, then there probably was.
“What did you get off of him when you hugged him?”
She thought back to that morning and couldn't remember even the briefest taste of an emotion coming through.
“Nothing. I was blocking without meaning to. What do we do now?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping you had some ideas.”
She thought through it, but every idea she came up with sounded like it would end with the two of them being drug in front of the Alphas on charges of treason. There may have been a time when she could have come up with a solution, but her brain was tired of always being on alert and thinking everything through a million different ways before acting. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Jase asked. She must have been silent for too long because he was looking at her like he thought she was going to step off the sidewalk and in front of a bus.
“Nothing,” she said, trying to force something other than apathy into her voice. “Just thinking about what we’re going to do about this Joshua situation.”
Jase’s eyebrows tugged downwards. “No, you weren’t. I know your problem-solving look and that wasn’t it. You looked sad.”
“I’m fine.”
Jase studied her from the corner of his eye and there was something in that look that made her chest tighten. If she looked sad, then there had to be another adjective to describe how Jase looked because it was something beyond how she felt. The word “lost” came to mind.
“Really. It’s nothing.”
“If I were Scout, you would tell me.”
“If Scout was here I would have considerably less reasons to feel sad.”
Jase continued to look at her for a long time. She was starting to worry she had something gross on her face and he was trying to think of how to tell her.
“I’ve got an idea,” he finally said. “Pretend I’m Scout.”
“Jase…”
“No, come on, Tal. This will work.” He pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes, glaring at everyone crossing from the parking garage to the hospital. “All these insipid people annoy me,” he said in the most bored voice he could manage. “Did one of them make you mad? If so, I’ll go punch them in the throat. Hard.”
She thought about mentioning how Scout would punch him in the throat if she could see him.
“You can’t punch life in the throat,” she said instead.
“Life? Life has hurt my Talley?” Jase tossed his head and pushed imaginary hair off his shoulder. “I will not only punch life in the throat, but I will also knee it in the nuts. How dare life mess with my friends.”
Talley laughed, but it sounded as empty as it felt. “She would, you know. Scout would try to punch life in the throat.”
“She would do anything in the world for you.” Jase took a deep breath and licked his lips. “You know I would, too, right? If I could, I would beat the shit out of life for being so hard on you.”
Tears stung in the backs of her eyes, but she beat them back with pure determination. “Life has been pretty rough on you, too. Maybe I should go out and hunt it down to defend your honor.”
“And what exactly would you do once you found life?”
Talley patted the bag she had slung over her shoulder. “I’m thinking a bullet to the kneecap would be in order.”
Jase smiled down at her, and then it was like someone flipped a switch and his expression became completely serious. “Does it bother you that I won’t let you See me?”
The question was so out of left field it took a minute for Talley to understand what he was asking. “It’s no big deal.” It was the same thing she’d been saying for a year now. No big deal. One of the people she cared about most in this world was repulsed by her touch and didn’t trust her enough to not dig into his head and See all his secret thoughts and emotions. Nope, not a big deal at all. “I understand.” At least that part was true.
“I didn’t ask if it was a big deal or if you understood. I asked if it bothered you.”
Why did he have to look at her so intently? She might have been able to blow off the question if he’d been even the tiniest bit distracted, but she knew he would see the truth in her eyes no matter what her mouth said. Her mother always said her eyes gave her away, and over the years, Scout, Jase, and Charlie had all made similar observations.