Page 16 of Into The Green

A few minutes later, there was rustling, drawing our attention. "Ah, speak of the devil," he said, standing and moving out of the way as Jasper sidled in beside me, laying out a pile of leaves and dandelions. He reached for my foot, surprisingly gently, and lifted it from the water to place it on his thigh.

"This is yarrow," he told me, holding up one of the frilly leaves. "It heals wounds. You have some pretty deep gashes here."

"It's those flat feet," Doyle commented.

"This has been a lot of walking... for me anyway... ouch," I yelped as he placed one of the leaves. He winced as he kept pressing it against one of the worst of the cuts. He worked with deft fingers, confident, like he had dressed wounds countless times before and I found myself wondering if that was the case. "What is the dandelion for?" I asked to ease some of the awkwardness.

He reached for one, breaking open the stem and rubbing some of the sticky insides onto a leaf. "Glue."

I watched for another embarrassingly long couple of minutes, being able to do so without him noticing with his head ducked. Then, forcing my eyes up, I noticed Doyle had disappeared.

"Alright," Jasper said, looking up at me. "All done. How do they feel?"

I flexed my feet and felt nothing but a small sting, nothing compared to the unyielding throbbing pain that had been there moments before. "That's a lot better actually," I said, looking up at him with a smile. It must have been the first I had sent in his direction because he actually looked taken aback for a moment.

"Good," he said, rubbing his hands on his pant legs then standing and moving to collect a few things.

"Thank you," I added when he didn't say anything else.

"Don't mention it," he said, not bothering to look my way.

"Yo, wait up," Doyle's voice called from far off, and I looked around but saw him nowhere. Then he stepped out from behind a tree a moment later, winded, a little sweaty, with what looked like a couple pieces of well-worn leather in his hand.

"Do I want to know where you got that?" Jasper asked, shoulders tight as if he might have been concerned.

"No," Doyle confirmed Jasper's worry. "But we needed them." He knelt down in front of me and reached for my foot. He put a strip of leather under my sole and reached for the moccasins that Jasper dropped off beside us. "The leather will protect you a little bit more. But we will try to take it easier today," he said, completely ignoring the dark look Jasper gave him.

--

Jasper

I took the lead, Doyle and Cece following several yards behind me, Cece needing to nurse her feet and Doyle being the kind of guy to keep her company through it. I felt like shit about her feet. I'd sensed pain in her the day before and early in the morning, but I hadn't got the specifics of it. I thought she was sore from all the walking. If I had known her feet were all broken open and raw, I wouldn't have kept such a ridiculous pace. I would have stopped and taken care of them sooner. I might have been on a mission, but I wasn't a complete dick.

I was worried about Jade. It was making me short and surly.

Cece might not have been the easiest of company, but she didn't deserve me being an ass either. I needed to pay closer attention to her. She was obviously completely in the dark about The Green and all the shit that could happen in it, so I was in charge of protecting her, taking care of her.

I was doing a pretty shit job if fucking Doyle noticed her feet and I hadn't.

At least I had managed to let her get a good nights' sleep.

Jolting awake to her blood-curdling scream had my stomach dropping to my feet as I closed the space between us before I was even fully awake. But it was just a nightmare. Fucking banshees getting to her. And perhaps I was an even bigger dick because while it was true that I needed to touch her to ease her nightmares, there was no fucking reason I needed to have her plastered across my body to do so.

The fact of the matter was, I was curious. Through the worry for Jade, the bone-deep urge to not go anywhere near my parents ever again, and the tiredness and frustration, it hadn't exactly escaped me that Cece was a real fucking looker. As in gorgeous. As in, the second she walked through Jade's door looking quite a bit like a drowned rat, I'd wanted to fuck her. She had that tall, lean, dark-haired, golden-eyed, bookish look to her. It was hot. I wasn't unaffected. So when I got the chance to haul her pretty ass onto me, I took it. And by taking it, I felt a rush of unexpected desire from her. I hadn't anticipated that. Everything about her seemed to suggest she hated my fucking guts. But maybe it was a defense mechanism. Because there was no mistaking the vibrations moving through her body.

Then, not being a complete asshole, I washed that and the embarrassment she felt about it away so she could sleep. It was an invasion. But I figured she'd have preferred it to feeling all hot and bothered and knowing I felt it.

Behind me, I heard Doyle and Cece carrying on easy conversation, Cece's frequent laugh carrying on the wind.

It shouldn't have bothered me.

It was none of my business.

But Cece was Jade's friend.

Doyle was Jade's ex.

That, as far as most people were concerned, was wrong.