47. Jasper Ridge

47

Jasper Ridge

I picked up Poppy’s call on the first ring.

“Hey, Wellsy. I’m just on my way back home from Jakson’s now. You okay?”

Silence filtered through on the other end of the line and my heart clenched in my chest.

“Wellsy? Are you okay?”

My fists scrunched and flexed as my pace picked up.

Say something, Wellsy. Tell me you’re okay, please…

“H-hi, Jasper.”

I exhaled as soon as I heard her voice, a weight lifting off my chest so I could finally breathe.

Her voice was muffled and small and scared .

“What’s wrong?” I asked, gripping tightly to the phone, so much so that my knuckled began to turn white.

“N-nothing’s…nothing’s wrong, Jasper,” she replied, but the sound of distant screaming and sm ashing of glass had me stopping dead in my tracks and turning around. As the silence on her end of the phone stretched out longer and longer, the faster my pace became.

“Hey, Wellsy, talk to me,” I coaxed, desperate to keep that girl living and breathing. “What’s going on?”

After a moment, she whispered, “I’m scared, Jasper.”

I didn’t see the street around me anymore. Didn’t hear the waves crashing against the shore, nor the honks of car horns. My vision narrowed, and all I could see at the end of this dark and endless tunnel was her .

I’m gonna reach you, Wellsy. Just hold on, baby. Just hold on.

“I know, Wellsy. I know.”

My heart was racing, pounding up against my ribcage as my lungs constricted. Every gulp of air seemed further than the last. I needed to reach her, I needed…I…

Muffled sobs filtered through the phone. “I don’t want to be here anymore,” she cried, and the sound ripped my heart clean out of my chest. “I don’t—”

“Just hold on, Wellsy. Just for a few more minutes, okay?”

The silence returned, stretching out for what felt like an eternity.

“Okay…” she replied a few moments later.

I clutched onto that phone as I ran like if I dropped it, the whole world would end.

“Don’t hang up,” she hurried to say. “Don’t leave me all alone in here.”

“I won’t,” I reassured her. “I’m here, Wellsy. I’m not going anywhere.”

Every part of me fought to get to that girl.

To my girl.

“Can you tell me what happened, Wellsy? Why you’re scared?”

The line went quiet again, and I felt I’d fore sure scared her off for good that time, until her quiet voice peeked up a moment later.

“I…I can’t tell you.”

My brows tugged together at her words. “Why can’t you tell me?”

“Because,” she sighed, “you’ll see me differently. You won’t see me anymore, just the faults and the problems and the errors .” Her voice broke on that last word. “And I don’t…I don’t want you to see me that way.”

“I won’t ever see you like that,” I rushed to say. “ Prometo . Você é meu corac?o, Wellsy . ” When she didn’t reply, I added, “ Você é meu . For reals, Poppy Maria Isabelle Wells. Estou guardando você para o infinito .”

Just say something, Wellsy.

Tell me you’re still breathing.

“Per l’infinito,” she whispered, and my legs stopped running. I stood there, in the middle of the road, frozen to the concrete. “That’s right, right? Oh my god, if I said it wrong and it means something else, I promise I didn’t mean whatever I said by accident—”

“You learnt Italian?” I rasped in disbelief.

She went quiet before adding, “I wanted to surprise you.”

Poppy Wells learnt Italian. For me.

“I’m surprised,” I replied.

“In a good or bad way?”

I chuckled. “In a good way, Wellsy.”

She sighed in relief. “I just…I just thought it would make you happy.”

There were tears in the corners of my eyes as she said those words—those words that held the power to shatter my heart into a million tiny pieces.

I started running again, refusing to let another second pass where she wasn’t in my arms.

“I’m happy, Wellsy,” I replied, my words coming out as half laugh, half sob. “Thank you.”

She was it for me.

I didn’t need any more proof.

Poppy Wells made my heart beat.

I turned onto her street. Her house came into view.

Carefully treading around the side of her house, I walked up to her window. I held my breath as I neared, a faint yellow glow of light filtered through the blinds.

“You still there, Wellsy?” I asked.

Her voice filled my ears a second later. “I’m here, my Spiderman. ”

I repressed a groan, closing my eyes for the briefest second. Reopening them, I exhaled, getting a grip on myself.

“I’m outside.”

“No, you’re not,” she countered. “You’re on your way home.”

“I am home,” I said. “Open the blinds, Wellsy.”

A second later, the blinds covering her window parted and a pair of sad green eyes stared back at me. Every muscle in my body relaxed at the sight of her unharmed face. Living and breathing. Heart beating. My Wellsy .

The phone fell from her grasp, hitting the floor with a thud. Her gaping lips and wide eyes latched onto me. Poppy took a step forward, her palm raised and faintly grazing the glass, almost as if she were in a daze.

Then, she turned around and sprinted out of her room. Three seconds passed until the lock of the front door unclicked, and those gorgeous, brown curls reappeared.

She was sprinting towards me, tears streaking down her cheeks and sobs echoing in the wind.

My own legs began to move. My body propelling me forwards. To meet her. To reach her.

I opened my arms.

She reached out towards me.

And only when our bodies finally clashed in a mess of limbs and tears, did I let myself breathe.

Her hands wrapped around my neck, fingers tangling themselves in my hair as her face fell into the crook of my neck, fitting perfectly as if my body was molded to match her very soul.

I cupped the back of her head in my hand, gently stroking her hair as my whole body shook. My other arm wrapped around her waist, holding her against me, not once letting go.

“You came,” she sobbed. “You came,” she repeated in disbelief. “You actually came .”

There were tears falling down my cheeks as I replied, hugging onto her as tight as I could, “Of course I came, Wellsy. I won’t ever not come to you.”

We collapsed to the ground beneath our own weight. Mud and grass stained our skin, but neither of us made any attempt to move.

Instead, we just stayed there, holding onto each other like a lifeline, never ever letting go.