Chapter 545) Senior Prom

“He’s more myself than I am.
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”

~E. Brontë

Brindleton Bay
The Elysium

“GUYS, I need someone to come help me with the zipper!” Iris’s voice sounded down the stairs.

“I got this.” Jasper said, heading for the stairs when Chase grabbed him and pulled him back.

“Not if you wanna see tomorrow, you don’t! BRIAR ROSE, let go of Jackson for a second, he can manage to stand upright on his own without you holding on to stabilize the boy, and I promise you, your mother and I won’t let him leave, so go help your sister!” Chase ordered.

Bri rolled her eyes but obliged.

“Why you acting like that on me now, Chase? It’s a fuckin’ zipper on a dress she is already wearing, cos that’s how that closing zipper thing works, meaning all the good stuff is covered! You’re acting as if I offered to go line up her G-string between her cheeks just right!” Jasper complained.

“Listen to me kid, I do not want to hear the word G-String and either of my daughters’ names in the same sentence from you!” Chase ranted.

“Seriously? You do remember that you used to line the three of us up to give us baths together, right? Naked? All three of us, same tub. Ringing bells up in that noggin yet?”

“I am gonna ring YOUR noggin here in a second! That was back before you realized you had a wiener and what fun things you can do with that! Don’t forget, once upon a time I was 18 too. I remember it vividly and with much shame.” Chase told him dryly.

“Is it the growing up together without being related part or that I have said wiener and they don’t that disqualifies me from zipping up zippers in your household?!” Jasper continued to pour oil into the fire.

“Yes, to all of that! Hands off any zippers in this house unless you are wearing it.” Chase snarled.

“Okay. Next time your little grandson greets me with his wang out because he got bored enough to figure out how to work a button and a zipper, but now can’t keep his pants up and comes at me sobbing, I’ll just tell Chris to find you and pray he makes it without bustin’ his head open. Be a total dick about zippers, got it. But Chase, my man, am I gonna break your spirit when I tell you about how YOUR son and MY sister ended up with your grandson then. You may wanna sit down for that.” Jasper shrugged.

“That’s different, smartass, Connor is my son. Just you wait and see, one day, many years down the line, you and I will pick up this very conversation when you have a daughter or many daughters, and they are old enough to realize boys can also be used for fun things.”

“Can I go to college before I start working on all those daughters you want me to have to prove your pointless point or is this pressing?” Jasper mocked.

“Since you are my bonus son I beg you to wait! Please do go get a degree and maybe get a job and your own money first while you’re at it, cos let me tell you, girls are expensive!”

“Anyone who has ever taken one out could have told you that.” Jasper said, when Stryker called down now.

“Jackson! Need ya up here kid! Hurry please!”

Jackson immediately ran up the stairs.

“Can I go check on Jackson and Stryker or are the stairs lava to me right now? I also needed to grab something from my room right quick, maybe you or Hailey could take my hand and make sure I go in the approved doors.” Jasper addressed Chase, mildly annoyed by Chase’s unusual peacocking.

“Just go, bigmouth! No funny business! Punk ass kid!” Chase grumbled, while Jasper trotted off, blowing kisses back at Chase, who gave him the one finger salute.

“Calm, baby, remember, we helped raise that.” Hailey told him.

“I was trying to forget that part, Patches! I don’t want to claim him. Not anymore. Colton and Maddie can have him back and KEEP him!” Chase grumbled.

“Oh, stop it, Jasper is adorable, I am claiming him for the both of us. Reminds me a lot of you. Or actually Colton when we all were that age. Boy, Colton had such a big mouth too. Don’t need no DNA test to prove Jasper is his genepool. I mean, look at those eyes. Such a handsome young man. No insult to my eyeballs detected. Goes for father and son alike.” Hailey smirked.

“Hush, woman! That is enough out of you about other dudes! Quit drooling over my best friend and his 18-year-old son, you wannabe-cougar! You had your chance, could have picked Colton, but you chose me, no returns now! You are stuck with ME, and we are both stuck with rambunctious daughters whom we love very much so any boy trying to cramp in on our space will have to go through thorough vetting by ME, Patches.” Chase had covered Hailey’s eyes while ‘yelling’ at her, trying not to smile, cos he loved his best friend Colton. And his best friend’s son.
But he was also a dad to two almost 18-year-old girls, one of which Jasper was taking to prom, so Chase felt obligated to give him a hard time. He treaded lightly with Jackson, knowing he had already been through the wringer about it with Connor, plus he was trying to keep an eye on Stryker. But Jasper was fair game and Chase knew the boy could take it.

Chase wasn’t fooling Hailey with his act, who found all of it highly entertaining, so these two squabbled a little over this.

Meanwhile upstairs, Jasper knocked on the guestroom door, Jackson answered, looking concerned.

“Everything all right in here? Did Stryker just need a big hug by a big guy or what’s the tea here?” Jasper asked.

“Do you know when Connor is coming? I can’t reach him! I know Hailey said he’d be here too this weekend.” Jackson’s tone sounded urgent, ignoring Jasper’s attempt to make him laugh.

“Tomorrow, I think, for the family dinner thing, I mean, what is he supposed to be here for now? Watch his sisters go to prom with us, then stare lovingly at his parents and Styker till we get back? Connor’s a busy man, and he knows his mom is gonna torture him with the pictures they are gonna take of us till his eyes are bleeding anyway. All 54 million photos, at least twice, before she shuts down the internet by uploading them all for the rest of the world to see. Hope you’re not on any FBI Most Wanted lists. And if you think I am joking, you will be unpleasantly surprised the minute Iris is in her dress and downstairs, cos we will be lined up like tin cans at a redneck shootout for a photoshoot until we can stand upright anymore. Why do you need Connor? Dude, you’re worrying me.” Jasper’s tone got serious when he realized Jackson was still tense.

“I am worried too. Come in.” Jackson nodded his head towards the room and stepped aside for Jasper to follow him inside.

Jasper entered, shutting the door behind himself, then looked around the guest room. In a chair sat Stryker with his neck held back, looking up at the ceiling, pressing something that looked like a pink washcloth to his face.

“Is he praying to the great flying spaghetti monster?” Jasper joked.

“Nosebleed, can’t get it to stop. Soon as he tilts his head down, it just runs like a broken faucet. I am concerned. That ain’t normal …” Jackson told him.

“Ah, been digging too deep for that gold, huh Stryker, my brother? I know, it’s the blood thinners, my Grandpa Barlow had that same problem. Fear not, I can fix that for ya. No Con-Bear needed for this job. J-Man can handle.” Jasper winked at Stryker, then pat Jackson on the arm on his way out of the room.

Soon after he returned, handing Jackson something.

“Here ya go Nurse Betty.” he snickered.

“What is that?!” Jackson took the oddly shape thing, tightly sealed in plastic, turning the item in his hand.

“If that is a serious question, I am worried about you dating Bri, you adorably prehistoric creature, cos sooner or later you will get exposed to it. That’s a tampon.” Jasper said.

“What the heck you give me that for?!” Jackson exclaimed, shocked.

“Need you to go and help out Bri getting that in real good, so the only puddles tonight are you drooling while staring at her cleavage, since girlfriend made sure there’s a lot of it and you got just the right height for it. HA HA HA. Relax, just kidding, jeezes man, chill. It’s for Stryker. Obviously.” Jasper shook his head, grinning and even Jackson relaxed a little.

“Well, I may not recognize these here doohickeys but am purdy dang sure that’s not the problem Stryker currently has. We’re kinda limited on places where this could go on him, and none of those are bleedin’ to my personal knowledge.” Jackson retorted.

“You stick it up his nose, you lone ranger. Obviously, I am always there for a good prank, but I wouldn’t do that to poor Stryker just to watch you squirm for my personal entertainment. Unwrap that baby and shove it up the leaky part of his sniffer till it’s in there real good, and it will do the rest for ya. It’s plugged, with nowhere else to go, blood will get a chance to coagulate and – voilà – no more leaky Strykie. When those guys claim ‘extra-absorbent’ they’re not kidding. Learned that in the gruesome traumatic personal grooming incident some years back. Here, let me, before you faint cos you had to touch a feminine hygiene product, if it’s okay with Stryker.”

Both Jackson and Stryker shrugged, so Jasper unwrapped his weapon of choice to combat Stryker’s issue and went to work.

Not long after that Stryker seemed fine, despite the string hanging from his nostril, providing great amusement to all, fueling a stream of ‘pulling some strings’ jokes, even by Stryker himself. The actual bleeding had finally seized.

“Okay boys, you had your fun, now I gotta hear about that incident, Jasper. Did you cut yourself shaving and used one of these? But how? And where?” Stryker chuckled.

“Nah, not me. So, I was still living here, sitting over in my room, doing homework like a good boy, I think the girls and I were 14 or 15 then. Suddenly I hear that blood curdling scream from the bathroom next door, the one the girls and I shared. Nobody else was home, just Iris and me, so I burst in like John Wayne thinking she’s being murdered in there, to find a crime scene like CSI, not even joking, blood everywhere, and a totally panicked Iris wrapped in a bath towel with blood all over it. I pull out my phone to call an ambulance, Iris grabs it and sinks it in the toilet, screaming at me that nobody can know, so I tell her the minute she bled out, others might notice that’s she’s kinda dead now.

She didn’t appreciate the joke, a severe beating later she updates me that she cut herself shaving and can’t get it to stop – yah, no shit, hadn’t noticed! So, I pull out the first aid kit to bandage up whatever she broke, and she just gets angrier, slaps the kit out of my hand and starts wailing. Well, turns out she read in one of those teen girly mags that boys like girls shaved in all the strategic places, she wanted to try it, her Ladyshave didn’t deliver, so she upgraded herself to her daddy’s razor. You have to know here that my dad and Chase both have coarse facial hair, so they need some industrial strength weed whacking equipment to arrive at babyface and that was just too much for sensitive girly skin. We’re not talking legs or arm pits here.” Jasper grinned, allowing for a short, dramatic pause.

Jackson and Stryker’s eyes grew wide when it finally sunk in WHERE Iris had cut herself, as he continued telling his story.

“Yeah. So, awkward and well above my paygrade, I obviously couldn’t go down there to take a look at the damage, but I had the most brilliant idea: I grabbed some extra absorbent Maxi pads, lined them bitches up and sat Iris on top of them. By the time our parents and Bri came home, nobody would have guessed the adventure we had. The moral being feminine hygiene products are the versatile tool you want for anything that bleeds.” Jasper concluded his anecdote.

After a moment of shocked pause, Jasper, Jackson and Stryker all burst into loud laughter almost simultaneously.

The three were still chuckling when they joined the others downstairs, Stryker now without nosebleed – or tampon – but highly entertained.

Jasper’s big mouth wasn’t all that big, but gaped open the moment he saw Iris, who evidently had made her way down with Bri while he was with Jackson and Stryker, as she turned around to him in her prom dress, when Hailey nudged him.

“Isn’t she gorgeous?! The one time I couldn’t take her dress shopping and had to send daddy with her, now look at her! I had to bribe her to even get her to try on, let alone wear a dress for her junior prom, she wanted to go in jeans, sneakers and a blouse! Leave it to daddy to have his girls look like goddesses. Nice job, Gump!” Hailey swooned.

“Uh huh …” was all Jasper managed to get out, staring.

“Yeah, the one time I accept a task like that, which I KNOW I am not qualified for as I know zilch about girls’ fashion. Iris doesn’t wear a lot of dresses, so I thought this would be some in and out kinda deal, grab some little black dress and BAM done, as long as the wife is happy. Instead, I had to sit through a million different dresses, and she wanted me to help her choose the right one, meaning one we could agree on. She liked some skimpy numbers which I immediately nixed, my choices had too much fabric according to her, but we finally both managed to agree on the one she has on now, which caught my eye because it was purple, like the Iris flowers most often are and I felt the style suited her! And I do not even wanna think about how much that cost me! I am glad I am not a woman, cos turns out I have expensive taste in clothing. I need a drink.” Chase grumbled and walked off, Hailey followed him, smiling.

“Well, you did exceedingly well, I am so proud of you. I can’t help that it came up so last minute, ever since Sterling got the pass Iris said nothing about going to prom and I sure as heck wasn’t gonna start that dumpster fire by asking. She didn’t start getting interested in buying a dress until Jasper said he’d take her … and Bri already had her dress all along.” Hailey said while pulling the bottles and glasses Chase was picking up out of his hands to set them back down, then distracted him with a kiss.

Jasper finally managed to find his voice when Hailey started to line them, Jackson and Bri up for the obligatory pictures.

Jackson and Bri just did as they were told. Iris and Jasper were still talking though the shoot.

“Damn girl, you clean up nice, Miss Cameron! You look … crazy good.” he said in an unusually croaky tone and a low voice, making Iris beam.

“You’re not too shabby yourself, Mr. Hargrave. I like you in a suit. Doesn’t hurt the eye one bit …” Iris purred back.

Bri hadn’t even attempted to hide her excitement about Jackson taking her to prom, so if that cat had still been in the bag for anyone about her liking him, a LOT, it was now out for sure. Jackson was more than tense about it all.

Since both girls had broken up with their boyfriends who were their original dates, finding another date this close to senior prom was impossible. So, the girls had decided to ask Jackson and Jasper.

Nobody had expected Jackson to agree, probably not even Jackson himself, least of all Bri, but yet, he had, and it didn’t even take any of the many arguments Bri had rehearsed at home before going to ask him.

Jasper was Iris’s date, single again himself, he had chosen to skip his own senior prom at his high school in Del Sol Valley, to take Iris to hers here in the Bay, and didn’t seem one bit bothered by it.

Prom turned out to be nothing short of amazing.

The four danced, laughed and Briar Rose made prom queen again. The whole night was nothing magical for all involved, even though everything stayed PG-13.

If you asked Iris or Bri afterwards, they couldn’t tell you who of their classmates was even at their prom, as they saw nothing and nobody except their dates.