Page 25 of The Jester and His Outlaw: Part 2

“I’m looking for a beautiful raven-haired girl with gemstone eyes that says she’s my person. Do you happen to know anyone by that description?”

Fuck a duck, I’m blushing. His words send a shudder through my body that ruffles me straight to my core.

“Why didn’t you say anything back?” I squawk. Jeez, what a hell of a response to such a sweet greeting.Way to go, Charley.What can I say? I’m a little jaded by his non-responses.

But I am clearly overreacting. Something I need to work on if we are going to work. I have to find trust in him and not look so deep into shit. As much as we’ve been privy to each other’s lives, we still barely know the other, let alone how our relationship will work.

“What?” He crinkles his brow, frowning, and whips out his phone. “I responded. I’ll show you right now.”

I cross my arms over my chest, waiting for his proof. Not that he owes it to me. He may have just been busy and not had a chance to look at his phone. He’s always playing that game, even in class, so he got my text and I’m demanding proof. We’ve been through so much, though, so I think I’m justified in asking for it.

When his screen turns on, I see it is open to our conversation. In the text box is his response that he typed out and never sent. At the end of the message is the cursor, blinking.

“Fuck,” he mutters. I huff a laugh because it’s our luck. He wasn’t lying, he just forgot to hit send. “I’m sorry, Outlaw. That was a hell of a message to not respond to.”

“Tell me about it.” As grumpy as I want to be, I can’t be. It’s no one’s fault other than shit luck. I shake it off, and he leans in to kiss my cheek. When I look up, Foxy and her guys are watching us. Riggs doesn’t notice and dives right into his food. He’s not usually much of a talker anyway, so that’s no surprise, but what is odd is that he is eating. He shoves the pointy end of a slice of pizza in his mouth.

Jensen eyes him warily, as if he expects Riggs to pop his head up and say “sike”, then toss his pizza on the floor. He raises a skeptical brow in my direction, and I return it with a shrug. Foxy swats him on the shoulder.

When Riggs starts on his second slice, his hand finds my thigh beneath the table, his touch warm and soothing. I scoot a little closer to him, soaking it up. The urge to glue his hand there hits hard, but I omit the thought altogether. This is what couples do, right? I forget sometimes that our relationship is so new; we don’t have established boundaries or touches but we’ve been through so many peaks and valleys already that sometimes it feels like we’ve been together forever.

Foxy leans into my brother, nudging him. When he looks up from his phone, she nods in my direction. His smile is one of happy recognition, and he tilts his chin.

Riggs is none the wiser about the silent conversation happening around him and is three quarters of the way through his second slice when he drops it suddenly and shifts in his seat. Only I can hear his groan as he rubs his stomach. I can imagine his stomach doesn’t need much to fill it up; he eats so little. I don’t think I ever remember him eating an entire meal. He’s wasted away to nearly nothing, and it’s troublesome, but I’ll take his excitement over pizza as a win.

“Baby steps,” I say quietly so no one else hears and rub his hand to let him know I’m here for him.

“Yeah, Outlaw, baby steps,” he whispers, slightly defeated. He wipes his hand on his napkin, then sips his water.

“So, Jonas cornered you while you were with your parents?” Jensen asks and as soon as the question is out, Riggs and Kai grow tense. I swipe my thumb over the back of Riggs’ hand that is gripping my thigh with a firmness I feel the need to ease as I send daggers Jensen’s way. I guess he’s throwing Riggs right in the deep end and continuing on his tough love journey.

“Uh, yeah. Wanted to apologize for… everything.” I shrug it off, because that’s all I can do. Being an asshole is just Jonas. He can’t help that, it’s his nature.

“That guy is such a fucker,” Foxy adds to the conversation through forkfuls of her salad. I’ve suddenly lost my appetite, so I drop my fork. It’s important to talk to my friends about things that are happening in my life, but Jonas is not something I want to discuss.

“I told him he was an asshole for attacking Riggs.”

“He didn’t attack me, Charley. I attacked him.”

“He was beating you while you were down,” Kai chips in. “That is attacking you, Riggs. He could’ve stopped, and he didn’t.”

“Yeah, well, you were there, and you stopped it. So no need to beat a dead horse. He defended himself,” Riggs says, his tone edging on defensive and annoyed.

Jensen’s face crumples as if he doesn’t agree one bit with that statement. I understand where Riggs is coming from. He doesn’t really want his shortcomings continuously brought up. The bruises are fading, so I’m sure he wants to move on.

“Do you feel safe still, Charley?” Jensen asks. Do I? Yeah. Honestly, I have thought little about Jonas since my party. He had backed off until the other day. Even then, I think he was only talking to me because I was there with my parents.

“Yeah. Guys, really, I’m not worried about Jonas. Until then, he hasn’t said a word to me. Like I said, he’ll move on.” Jensen eyes me and I’m not sure I like what I’m seeing on his face. Skepticism. He also seems uneasy. It doesn’t sit well with me because Jensen is the biggest of us all, sort of like our unspoken leader. Leader of what, I don’t know, but he’s the one who looks out for everyone and has all the answers.

If he seems uncertain, it might mean something. I tuck that away, ready to move on from this Jonas conversation. He’s a part of my past I don’t want to think about.

The others fall into conversation and I say my goodbyes, having to be the first one to return to class. Riggs follows me out of the cafeteria and kisses me, pressing me against the wall, driving heat into me. If this is what we do when we part ways, I won’t complain.

“Do you think Kai would train me?” he asks. “Would you be okay with it if he did?”

I trace the remnants of the bruise fading from Riggs’ bearded cheek. His barely there routine of shaving fell off during his sabbatical from life and now that he’s better, the beard has remained. I like it. It softens his harsh edges.

If he had any formal training, the fight might have ended differently. But also, the time after might have changed as well. Everything happens for a reason, right?

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