Admin Nel
Admin
staffbringing the magic
Please don't let me make any more characters.
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Post by Admin Nel on Jan 6, 2020 16:29:18 GMT |
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Post by Admin Nel on Jan 12, 2020 23:49:15 GMT
july, 2019.
a few weeks into the holiday.
~“Are you finishing that?” Aoife asks, her eyes on the last half of a waffle on Jasper’s plate.
Jasper shakes his head. “Go ahead, hun.”
Without needing any more prompting, Aoife’s fork is skewering the food over to her plate, and heaping a healthy amount of syrup over it. Uncharacteristically, Jasper hesitates before he starts to speak - it’s not that - well -
It’s been a weird few weeks, and this needs to be handled gently, he can tell. They’ve had their brunch, they’ve done their regular catching up, but they really, really needed to sort things out now.
After taking a big gulp of his coffee, he starts.
“So are you going to tell me what the fuck happened with Max and Toby?”
Aoife’s eyes flash up at him as her chewing pauses - she starts again after a moment, but slower than before.
“It’s rough,” she replies, hand over her mouth as she finishes with her food. She swallows before she continues. “Like, Max is fucked up about it.”
Jasper wishes he could say the same about Toby, but the best he can do is guess considering he hasn’t actually seen his friend since even before the end of term, and he tells Aoife as much.
“I didn’t even realise it was possible,” Jasper adds. “We sleep in the same room for fuck’s sake.”
Aoife gives him a questioning look. “You didn’t try and find him?”
“I was a little busy,” Jasper reminds her, not entirely appreciating her implication. “Could Max not have broken up with him when my other best friend wasn’t going through his own meltdown?” He grimaces as he watches Aoife. “I’m assuming that’s what’s happened?”
And he really has had to assume - never has Jasper been so left in the dark by almost the entirety of his close friendship group, and he doesn’t particularly like it. The closest he’d gotten to an explanation had been Aoife on the Express back to London once term was over, but even that hadn’t revealed much.
He’d caught her in the corridor by accident and called her over.
“Have you seen Toby?” he’d asked, a little breathless from the jog up to catch her before she disappeared into a sea of other excited students ready for summer.
“No,” she’d replied, confused. Then she’d looked at him strangely. “Why would I?”
Jasper had blinked. “What do you mean?” He’d shook his head. “He’s been avoiding me for the better part of a week and I’m starting to get a little…”
He’d trailed off then, as he’d watched Aoife’s face morph from confusion into something akin to sadness.
And he couldn’t deal with this anymore.
“Aoife, what’s happened?” he’d asked, his worry starting to sink into desperation. “I’m so in the dark here.”
“It’s a long story,” Aoife had started with a grimace. “Trust me. I’ll have to explain later, Max is waiting for me. Hext me - we’ll sort out a dinner or something.”
Jasper, sure that his own other best friend was probably sat in his own carriage waiting for him as well, had just nodded. “Sure,” he’d said as he watched her back away. How he’d thought he was going to get this all sorted before summer when they were literally on the train back home, he didn’t know, but he was still uncomfortable knowing that they’d have to finish the school year with so much clearly unresolved.
“Let me know if you manage to talk to him,” she’d called out.
And he hadn’t. He’d sent Toby a few hexts here and there, checking in and just sending him random shit to try and make him laugh, but still there was radio silence. It was odd to say the least - but really it was stomach-churningly worrying if he was being completely honest with his feelings. More than part of him worried it was him - had he said something, done something - was Toby upset with him? That was the last thing he wanted.
And he knew logically, it wasn’t just him. It was clearly everyone, Christian included, who just hadn’t noticed it in his Dominique-related depression - and something must have happened for Aoife to be so cagey - and that evening when Max had come storming into their dorm demanding to talk to Toby, it was after that that they hadn’t been able to find him anywhere -
Well now Aoife is looking at him and Jasper knows that he’s right.
“Yes, she broke up with him,” Aoife confirms. “And the timing was kind of - the problem.”
“Huh?”
Aoife puts down her knife and fork, settling in. “It was after that huge argument Christian and Dominique had - she was - Merlin, she was so pissed off - “
“At Dom? Why?” Jasper has seen how protective Max can get over her team, so it’s not exactly difficult for him to make the jump of who exactly she was pissed at, but still.
“You know why,” Aoife says. “And she was so mad with Dominique and - well,” she pauses, suddenly awkward. “Anyone who was friends with her.”
Jasper takes this in. And then -
“Oh no.”
Aoife winces. “Yep.”
Jasper’s jaw is slack. “She didn’t.”
“She did.”
“But,” Jasper sputters. “Toby is - “
“ - I know, I know,” Aoife says, leaning forward, “I tried to tell her that it might be hasty to break up with him over someone else’s argument, but you know what she’s like when she’s made up her mind.”
“Well fuck,” Jasper says.
“I know.”
“What did she say to him though?” Jasper presses, after another moment. “Because I get being upset about the break up - but he’s completely iced us out?”
“Really?” Aoife asks, eyes wide.
“Really,” Jasper repeats. “I swear, I didn’t see him at all the last few days of term, and as far as I can tell he’s completely Evanesco-ed off the face of the earth. It’s not like him at all.”
Aoife is grimacing again. “You won’t like this.”
“Oh Merlin.”
“Look.” Aoife sits up as she speaks. “Dominique was being really out of order with her - they had this big massive fight and Dominique straight up said she couldn’t give a shit about Christian’s feelings.”
To say Jasper is flabbergasted is an understatement. “Dominique said that?”
“Yes,” Aoife insists. “Max confronted her and called her out and she said that she doesn’t care and has better things to worry about.”
Jasper has known Dom Weasley for a long time (they both have, they’ve all lived together almost every day since they were eleven) so it baffles him to hear that she’d say something like that. Her and Christian - they’ve always been awkward and argumentative around each other, but Jasper always thought that maybe she’d felt - and this year something had started to change and he’d really thought - and even if she didn’t feel the same way as him, and this year was the end of it, she wasn’t really the sort to -
“Something’s been mixed up here,” Jasper says, not able to hide his confusion. “I don’t think Dom would say something like that.”
“Well she did, and Max doesn’t want to associate with that,” Aoife says, jutting up her chin a little. “I can’t really blame her.”
“Dom and Christian,” Jasper starts, attempts, to explain. “They’re weird, and I know it doesn’t look like it makes sense, but I feel like it does, you know?” Aoife doesn’t look convinced, so Jasper continues. “They just push each other’s buttons, and like - I agree, that time was bad and Christian was cut up about it, but neither of them really mean it - I promise.”
“Well Max thinks she did mean it,” Aoife says, sad. “And she thinks it’s bad form to allow people to let their friends be bullied and do nothing about it.”
Jasper’s jaw drops open. “Are you talking about Toby?”
“Jasper - “
“Our Toby?” Jasper asks again. “Toby who spends all his spare time looking after his friends and helping everyone out even when he’s about to collapse from exhaustion? That Toby?”
“I know you don’t get it and that’s fine because you’re friends with him, but Max is allowed to be mad about this,” Aoife says. “She cares about Christian, she’s allowed to be suspect of people who don’t care when he gets hurt.”
“So she...told him this?” Jasper clarifies. “When she broke up with him, she told him she doesn’t think he cares about Christian?”
“Yes, she did,” Aoife says. “And honestly, I can’t say that she doesn’t have a point.”
“Aoife, I love you,” Jasper says, and he’s frowning in a way that’s so unfamiliar it’s off-putting. “But that’s my best friend you’re talking about.”
Aoife swallows. “Sorry.” She pauses, and their eyes meet across the table as she says, “But Max is mine.”
They sit for a while in silence, uncharacteristically both quiet as they process what the hell to say. Eventually Jasper leans back in his chair, tips his head back and quietly lets out a long, “Fuuuuuuck.”
Aoife sighs, “I know.”
“This is going to take a hell of a fix,” Jasper says, still looking up at the ceiling.
“Yes it is.”
After a moment, Jasper tips his head forward again. “Thanks for telling me, hun.”
She shrugs, but has a small smile again when she replies. “No problem.”
“Another coffee?” he asks, and she nods, both of them back on familiar ground again.
"What are you going to do?" she asks, after he's done ordering them both more drinks.
"Who the fuck knows," Jasper says honestly. "But it'll be fine. We'll patch it all up."
Aoife is smiling at him softly. “You’re a good egg, Kirkey.”
“Careful, Dawlish,” Jasper says, flashing her a charming smile. “Any more flirting and I’ll have no choice but to ravish you.”
“Please,” she snorts. “We don’t need any more relationship drama in our common room.”
“Who said anything about a relationship?” he asks, laughing, and she kicks him under the table.