38. Poppy Wells

38

Poppy Wells

D runken university students crashed into me as I tried to maneuver my way through the crowd. I expected it to be Jakson on the other side of the phone, so imagine my surprise when a gruff voice appeared on the other side belonging to no one other than Malakai Foster.

I’d never properly met the infamous Malakai Foster before today. Sure, I’d seen him around at the surfing competitions and all, but we’d never talked or anything like that. I think the most I’d gotten from him was a smile and a few words here and there. My scowls probably scared him off. Now that I thought about it, my birthday party was probably the first time we’d ever spoken more than a few words to each other.

Of course, I’d heard everyone gossip about the boy who looked like he was plucked straight from a poem, giving Clark Kent a run for his money, and boy were they right. As a girl who wasn’t exactly small, even I looked like a little mouse compared to him. I could barely see him through the bustling crowd, and I probably would’ve lost him if it wasn’t for the little tug of my elbow he used to keep me close.

When he found me by the door, I hadn’t known what to expect but it certainly wasn’t an unflinchingly calm guy wearing linen pants and a loose shirt with golden brown, slightly circular glasses. I guessed that was just Kai, though.

He nodded for me to follow him, and it only took around five seconds for me to get lost. We trailed through the downstairs hallway as music blasted from the speakers. Kai led me up the stairs, his long strides covering two steps at a time.

As we neared a fairly empty hallway where a singular white door lay, he gestured towards it, running his hand through his messy brown hair. “Just…help him, please, Poppy.”

I nodded as I stepped forward. My fingers hovered over the doorknob for a few seconds before brushing against the cold metal. I shivered but not from the cold.

Get a grip, Poppy. Now wasn’t the time to fall apart.

I looked over my shoulder to ask Kai something before I pressed my lips together again, noting his absence.

“Guess it’s just me and you, Spiderman,” I muttered beneath my breath. “Here goes nothing.”

I pressed down on the handle, jiggling it a little when it didn’t move. Leaning my forehead onto the wood, I exhaled. “Hey, Jasper, can you hear me? It’s Poppy. Could you let me in for a second?”

Shuffling sounds echoed under the doorway, followed by a few clicks before the door etched open an inch by itself. No light flooded through the cracks.

He was sitting alone by himself in the darkness.

I pushed the door open the rest of the way, holding my breath as I stepped inside, unknowing of what I might face.

“Wellsy?” He croaked, catching my gaze. His hunched over frame was shivering, pressed into the side of the bathtub big enough to fit two people comfortably in it. His usually sun kissed skin had paled compared to his flushed cheeks where strands of his hair were pressed up against, coated in droplets of sweat.

He looked at me like a scared little boy, the expression on his face near identical to Oliver’s, almost winding me as I let out a bated breath.

Despite the terrified look in his reddened eyes, he was smiling brokenly at me, little dimples showing at the corners of his lips.

“I knew you would come for me,” he slurred, words merging together in a mumbled mess. “I knew you w-would find m-me.”

I hated how vulnerable he looked right now, clutching his knees to his chest with bloodshot, foggy eyes. Their usual golden-brown glow was riddled with words I couldn’t decipher. How small and scared it made him appear. It made me want to bundle him up in my arms and hold him until he stopped shaking.

No matter how painful it was, I couldn’t tear my eyes from his. I was completely and utterly captivated by the riptide of him, and I was beginning to think I would choose to drown before I untangled myself from him.

Instinctively, I walked over to him and crouched down onto my knees before him. I rested one of my palms on his knees, stroking gently, until three seconds later, he grasped it and clutched it in his hands frantically. His whole body was shaking so violently my own arms started vibrating with him.

I whispered, softly, “Hi, Jasper.”

“Hi, Poppy,” he whispered back, teeth chattering.

Gently stroking in smooth circles with my thumb across his skin, I smiled. “What happened here, Ridge? Where’s my favorite Spiderman gone?”

“H-he got d-drunk and f-freaked out,” he clattered between his teeth, a small droopy smile playing on his lips as he let his head fall between his knees. I’d never seen him so deflated before.

“Why did he do that?” I asked carefully, keeping my voice low. He’d never asked me about the words I kept locked away deep inside my chest before, and I never asked about his because sometimes, the hardest truths were better left unsaid…but for once, I wished they weren’t. I found myself wanting to know about all of his demons so I could help him fight them off.

Maybe— maybe, it wouldn’t be so terrible if he knew about mine, too.

Jasper sighed. “It happened again. I couldn’t breathe and I—I panicked. The room started spinning and I bolted it out of there as fast as I could. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Wellsy. I feel like I’m broken. Do you think I’m broken?”

No. You are so much more than that, Jasper Ridge.

I swallowed down the words, slowly shaking my head. I didn’t know how we ended up this close—close enough that I could feel his warm breaths fan against my neck as goosebumps rose up to meet them. Part of me wanted to wrap my arms around him and never let him go. I’d never been one for hugs growing up the way I had, but I found myself wanting to do all of it with him. Anything if it meant wiping away the sadness in those dulling golden eyes.

He dragged out an exhale as he shook his head. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter anymore. All that does is that you’re here now. You make it all quieten.”

“What?” I croaked, my voice feeling raw and unsteady.

“The noises in my head. They aren’t so loud when you’re around. It’s like you scare them off.”

I smiled softly. “I’ll scare as many of them away as I have to, Jasper.”

He grinned lazily at me as he whispered, “Even coaches? His voice is the loudest of them all.”

My fists automatically clenched as soon as the words left his mouth. If his coach had zero haters, you better believe I was a dead dead woman.

“Especially his,” I reassured him. “Any shit he tells you is wrong, okay? He doesn’t get the right to put this much pressure on you to the point where you’re breaking down nearly every day, Jasper. That isn’t right.”

Trust me, I wanted to say, I know just how it feels to never be good enough, to never be able to live up to their expectations of you.

“You’ve let your own teammates down this season more times than I can count. You’re supposed to be their captain, boy. Act like it,” h e recited, head hung low between his knees, caged in completely. He looked as heartbroken as I felt listening to how his coach treated him. I seriously wanted to rip his coaches head from his—

“You aren’t letting anyone down by allowing yourself to feel, Jasper,” I whispered, shuffling so I sat beside him, leaning my head back against the marbled walls. It only just occurred to me then that I had never actually been inside Jakson’s parent’s bathroom before. I’d seen more of his grand, luxurious home tonight than I had in my entire life. It seriously looked like someone had planted money in a patch of grass and watered it until it grew into this intricately decorated mansion. I knew his parents were rich but I had no idea they were that rich.

Despite being the Calloway Empire’s heir, Jakson Calloway was one of the most small town, ray of sunshine, down to earth guy’s I’d ever met. If you’d have told me he was a heir to a billion dollar empire, I wouldn’t have believed you. There was something so humble, so honest about him that I couldn’t place.

“You don’t understand. I need to be strong for them. They need me to be unbreakable. But I’m breaking, Poppy. I’m breaking and nobody can see it but you.”

I didn’t know what courage suddenly possessed me that had me leaning down and pressing a small kiss to the top of his hair but hearing him utter those words aloud made me realize that maybe Jasper had needed whatever it was between us all along, just like I had. Maybe we weren’t so different after all.

“They need you to be their captain, Jasper. They just need you to be you.”

“I don’t even think I can even be their captain properly anymore,” he muttered under his breath, shaking his head as he glanced up at me. The redness of his glassy eyes made my chest cleave in two. “I can barely keep them in check anymore. I’m losing them, Poppy.”

“What about Jakson and Lia, though?” I asked. “You still have them, Jasper.”

“I did…I do , but have you seen those two? They’re inseparable . He looks at her like she hung the moon, Wellsy. For fuck sake, he literally bought her every single Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams vinyl just because she mentioned once that she adored their music.” He sighed, resting his head back against the wall. “They have each other…they don’t need me anymore.”

“That can’t be true,” I offered.

“They need me to be strong, Poppy. They need me to be the foundation that keeps them upright. I’m drowning myself to keep them above the waves.” He shook his head lightly as he let out a breath. “And besides, I had you . I had this rivalry…” He paused, biting down on his bottom lip. “I didn’t know how much I needed this thing between us until I lost it. Until I lost you.”

I gulped, my heart racing beneath my skin. “I treated you like shit though, Jasper.”

The golden boy tried and failed to smile.

Again, and again, and again.

He shrugged like he didn’t have a care in the world when I knew all too well that he cared way too much. “I was used to it.”

“But you shouldn’t have to be used to it.”

“Neither should you,” he retorted, using my own words against me.

I couldn’t stop myself from letting a little smile escape my lips. He always managed to do that to me.

Tugging at a curl that had fallen loose in front of my face, Jasper captured my attention as he whispered, “I’m sorry for saying what I did. I wasn’t angry at you…you didn’t deserve any of it, and for that, I am truly sorry, Poppy.”

“I’m your Wellsy, aren’t I?” I asked, stroking his hair. He nodded within a second, leaning into my touch. “Yours. No one else’s. Just like how you’re my Spiderman, aren’t you?”

He nodded again, this time slower as if he was unsure. I wanted to take every single thought of doubt in his head and burn them. He was stronger than he realized. Jasper Ridge didn’t give himself enough credit for everything did for the people around him.

“You are. You always will be. No matter how much you drive me to the brink of insanity. Next time, whenever you feel angry, or sad, or anything at all, just talk to me, Jas. I am on your side. For infinity . You have to know that I’d always choose you.”

The words came straight from my heart, surprising me as they left my lips before I even had the chance to think about them.

Jasper looked at me like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to kiss me senseless or start sobbing. Pulling himself up to a sitting up position, he crossed his legs and held out both his hands in front of him, motioning for me to take them. I scrunched my nose as I smiled, slightly confused yet intrigued as I took his palms in mine.

As he interlaced our pinkie fingers together, he spoke, looking directly into my eyes, “I make this promise to you, Poppy Maria Isabelle Wells, that no matter what life throws our way, I will always be in your corner. I will always be there for you, in any and every way you need me to be. I am yours just as much as you are mine. We’ll get you past this mental block together. I promise.”

I let his words sink in, not letting go of our conjoined hands. Something in his eyes told me he needed this, and I was slowly figuring out that I would go to any lengths to protect that boy. Even if it meant ruining myself in the process.

I cleared my throat just as I felt my cheeks burn like someone had lit them on fire.

When did it get so warm in here? Please, dear God, tell me I am not blushing right now.

“Jasper Easton Ridge…” I noted his smile as I got his middle name right. “I make this promise to you that you will always be able to count on me to have your back. You don’t have to tell me what is going on in your life, but just know that I will always be here for you if you ever do need someone to talk to. I’m your Wellsy, after all. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

“For infinity?” He whispered, breathlessly.

I nodded, my cheeks burning. “For infinity.”

Something clicked between us—something solid and raw and real . Maybe everything up until this point had been fake, but I knew in my heart that this wasn’t that. This was as real as two people could ever be to each other. I didn’t want to think about what this meant for us tonight. I just wanted to go home and put on my favorite Marvel movie and fall asleep with popcorn stuck to my pajamas. I didn’t know what courage I seemed to have gained in the last twenty-four hours, but it finally seemed like I was getting my old self back.

That, maybe, Jasper Ridge had actually helped me to mend the brokenness inside my soul.

“What would you say to a marvel marathon?”