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Esme was a patient person, but dang, did she have her limits.
It was more anticipation than anything that the newly found impatient air was conjured from. She just couldn't help but feel excited. Her best and oldest friend was coming to the school, and she honestly couldn't wait. Literally. His transfer came as quite a surprise to her originally, though it was a happy surprise. Esme had come to the boarding school about mid-semester the previous year due to some very unfortunate circumstances and had to leave Jasper by himself, who was also involved in the unfortunate circumstance. It was a very reluctant move, but she couldn't argue. She was in no mental state to do that, and her parents were in equal mental distress-- which is why they sent her away in the first place. It was hard enough on her losing a sister, but for a parent to lose their child and have to look at a second daughter they almost lost as well, it made sense sort of. At least, she wanted it to make sense.
Esme had yet to see Jasper since she left a couple of months back for the school. She would have seen him at the current year’s orientation, but she had extended her trip in Spain for a couple of days as per her grandparent’s request. She really couldn’t tell them no. If she had known Jasper was going to orientation, well, it might have been a different story then, but apparently he had wanted to keep his transfer a surprise. She could have kicked him for it, but she was too happy to care.
As soon as she got to the school, she had dumped her things in her room a little chaotically, but decided that while she was waiting for Jaspers text saying to meet him, she could clean up a bit for her roommate’s sake. The last thing she wanted was for Mel to walk into their room and trip over one of her sketchbooks or bags she’d left sitting on the ground, no, she wouldn’t be too pleased with that.
After she shoved her clothes into the dressers and tried as best she could to neatly arrange her art stuff on her desk, she threw on some fresh clothes that didn’t make her feel all gross and uncomfortable for having worn them on such a long plane ride. As if on cue, her phone buzzed, and Esme flipped it open and managed to get to her inbox and open the message. Yeah, the flip phone was old and low-tech, but that’s what was good about it. It was simple. She could never find out how to work those fancy phones.
“Let’s meet by the fountains. I think I can manage to find those at least. Want to grab food?
- Jasper”
Esme grinned from ear to ear, typing back “Yeah, of course! Be down there in a minute!” After slipping her phone into her purse, she quickly wrote a note on a piece of paper and left it on the door for Mel. It read, “Going to meet a friend by the fountains to get dinner. Come join us if you’re free!” Esme defiantly wanted Mel to meet Jasper, she’d already heard so much about him. Mel was actually the only person who knew Esme’s history currently, and Jasper was a big part of that, most especially with the most recent developments of the deaths.
But with that, she ran off in her completely eager mood.
She had only just gotten into eyesight of the fountains before she ran right smack into Jasper, who was very nearly a whole foot taller than her. She nearly fell over, but a hand suddenly gripped her forearm to steady her. “I know most girls fall head over heels for me, but never this literally,” sounded the chuckling voice of the blonde haired boy grinning down at her with his notorious boyish smirk. Esme gave him an exasperated look, but all to quickly it turned into a wide grin, and she threw herself into his arms with a loud, happy laugh. “Come on! That’s the first thing you say to me in months?” She rolled her eyes over dramatically, as he set her down from the large hug. Looking up the face she grew up beside most of her life, a calmness was sent through her that she hadn’t felt for a long time, probably since before the crash. She almost felt like she wanted to cry, but didn’t want to make herself a useless blubbering fool. Jasper grinned back, his own pure joy seeping through. “Well, I was planning on a whole surprise, remember? I had everything planned out; I was going to tap you on the shoulder once I spotted you, you would turn around after letting out a small scream cause I scared you, you would get all huffy, but then you would cry and disregard the fact I scared you cause, well, It’s me. I’m pretty damn great.” Esme poked his side playfully, saying, “yeah, you’re pretty okay.” But he was right. He was pretty damn great; He knew it, she knew it. It was hard not to know it when they grew up so co-dependent on one another. He was like an extra appendage she’d lived without for too long.
Damn it, she felt a tear drop down her cheek.