Chapter 4 Chapter 4

"Hey is there anything to eat I'm starving?" He stops typing as he asks and turns to his mom, what he

wasn't expecting was to find Daniel standing behind her. "Hi," jasper greets him as they walk in "Daniel's here,"

"I can see that," his mom steps aside letting the boys look at each other, Daniel doesn't say anything and Jasper turns to his mom, "thanks mom," he hints for her to leave.

"Oh sure, I'll go make you boys a snack" she walks out shutting the door.

Turning his chair to face Daniel Jasper asks, "wanna sit?" He points to his bed, "Unless you just want to stand there, then you do you."

Daniel walks over sitting on the boy's bed, Jasper stares at him and how quiet he's being. Jasper finally catches the worried look on his face,

"what's wrong?"

Daniel looks at him, clasping his hands together he starts, "I'm going to see my dad today" Daniel says and Jasper's brows immediately furrow

"Why?" Jasper asks

"I can't really tell you, it has to do with his case so..." Daniel feels bad he can't share this with Jasper, but he really can't. Jasper nods understanding, but he has noticed how down Daniel has been ever since his father's trial. He acted like he was ok but Jasper knows he's not.

"Do you want me to go with you?"

"You can't," Daniel gets sadder after every question Jasper asks, "I want you to come with me, but we'd get in trouble if you did." Daniel can tell Jasper's confused, he has to be cryptic there are too many liabilities involved.

"Can you tell me anything at all?" Jasper asks a final question and Daniel figures out the best way to answer it,

"I don't want to see his fucking face," Daniel sighs dropping his head in his palms. The boy's been going through it, and he is still able to be a friend to Jasper so all Jasper could do was be one back. Getting up from his chair Jasper limps over to his bed sitting down next to Daniel.

Everything in Daniel's mind suddenly stops the moment he feels Jasper's hand on his back. Slowly the boy moved his hand up and down sending chills down Daniel's spine. Feeling himself slip away Daniel let's out a breath then immediately pulls himself back, standing off the

bed and away from Jasper's hands. "I should go, the drive's long" he says "Okay," Jasper nods, "good luck"

"Thanks," Jasper watches as he rushes out the door.

Walking into the opened door Jasper's mom asks, "Is he ok?" "I don't think so," Jasper sighs standing up,

"Poor boy, everyone is still so awful to him and his mom."

"I know like they locked up his dad, what more do people want?"

She shrugs walking over to his desk setting down the plate in her hand, "how's your paper coming?"

She touches his hair as Jasper sits back in his desk chair

"It's fine... I'm just worried about Daniel now, he says he has to go see his dad but can't tell me why. Do you think they could force him to do it?"

"Yeah," she nods, "maybe there's something they need to know and he'll only tell Daniel" "He's stuck in the middle of all of this and he doesn't deserve to be,"

"I'm sure Daniel can handle it, honey," Jasper hopes so too.

A few hours later Jasper is passed worried and has gone full-blown terrified, he's texted and called but it's obvious Daniel's phone is off.

"I told you he'd be staring at his phone and somehow not replying to our texts," Jasper hears a whisper from his door and looks over to Savannah and Pete standing there.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"You call me freaking out about Daniel then give zero details, I worry" Savannah walks closer sitting at the end of Jasper's bed, while he's leaned against the headboard, Pete takes the desk chair.

"What's going on man?" Pete asks as they look over at Jasper "Daniel turned his phone off,"

"Probably knew you'd go crazy"

"Pete!" Savanah turns glaring at the boy

Groaning Jasper tosses his phone aside, grabbing a pillow he buries his face in it. With a muffled voice he says, "oh god he's right... I'm just like my mother." No matter how much he hates to admit it Jasper knows it's true, Jonas is more like their dad while he turns into his mom...day by day.

"That doesn't have to be a bad thing... look I know we gave you shit before about Daniel-" "We? That was mostly you" Pete cuts in

"You did it too!" Savannah barks at him then focuses back on Jasper, "what I'm trying to say is you obviously care about Daniel and that's ok. We're not here to judge, we're here to help." Slowly moving the pillow Jasper looks at his friends and Savannah smiles, "how long has it been?"

"Couple hours," Jasper looks over at the clock on his nightstand, "eight hours." "That long?"

Jasper nods, "the prison is like a three-hour drive so,"

"Ok so that means he's had to have his phone on most of those times for GPS, maybe he just really can't talk to you."

"Maybe..." Jasper continues to frown.

"Sav knows a secret!" Pete suddenly blurts out

"Dude!" Savannah turns to him "what the fuck is wrong with you?!" "Just tell him!"

"What secret?" Jasper fixates on Savannah who's eyes scan around his room "Um, I found out that during his father's trial Daniel had to testify,"

"What? Found out from who?"

"Cherish is good for something," Savannah answers, "she was being nosy and found out from her parents... I don't know if it's true"

"But it would make sense, why he's been so different since the trial. He came over earlier and it felt like he was being forced to go,"

"What if he's home by now?" Pete asks then he suggests, "We could take you there to see, maybe you can check if he's ok."