On the Strawberry Moon - 21. Chapter 21

Later on, when they were walking onto the field to watch Tom’s game, Robert tugged at Jasper.

‘Hey, can I just have a quick word?’ Robert said, his voice low.

Jasper watched the gang climb to their seats, and he looked back and shrugged at Robert, ‘Sure. You know I’m not Kalum, right?’

‘I know,’ Robert said in almost cold tone.

They went a little behind the bleachers.

‘What’s up?’ Jasper said, calm.

‘You broke his arm, didn’t you?’

Jasper looked at him, ‘He fell off the bunk bed.’

‘Your story won’t work on me.’

‘What makes you think I’ve done anything? Has Kalum said something?’

‘No.’

‘Then you shouldn’t be making accusations like that then you should you.’

He turned around to walk away when Robert pipped up, ‘I’ve seen you hurt him, before. In the toilets. I’ve seen how you talk to him and look at him, when no one else is looking. I see it. It’s wrong. I’m going to report you.’

Jasper snapped back and walked right up to him.

Determined, Robert continued, ‘I saw you strangle him in the toilets. You pinned him against the wall. You’re a psychopath.’

Jasper suddenly lunged forward and curled his hands around Robert’s neck. Robert choked hard, snatching at Jasper’s tight grip. As Jasper tightened his grip, Robert began hitting Jasper in the stomach.

As the referee blew his whistle onto the field for the game to start, Jasper let go, clutching at his stomach while Robert coughed and spluttered hard.

‘I hope you enjoy your lovely date with my brother,’ smirked Jasper, rubbing his stomach. ‘I don’t think he’s ready to be outed so probably best to keep the queer stuff private, yeah? Would be a shame if he got outed right after his brother was reported, right.’

Jasper walked away while Robert glared, his throat feeling on fire.

Kalum was sat with the gang and noticed Jasper joining them late but concentrated on watching Tom’s game. He noticed Jasper was quiet and gave small smiles to everyone.

When it got to the break, the gang rushed off to get food. Oscar peer pressured Jasper into grabbing nachos.

‘Kalum can stay here and keep our seats,’ she announced, pushing them all off their seats to get food.

Kalum sat there by himself, watching Jasper trying to protest about going on but being pushed on anyway.

Suddenly, Robert was next to Kalum. Robert gave a small smile to him, ‘Hey,’

Kalum noticed that Robert’s throat was red, he reached forward without thinking and pulled at the collar, and saw the red markings.

He was familiar with what that meant.

Without thinking, Kalum reached his fingers and touched Robert’s throat. His eyes burned up with tears in an instant.

Robert smiled and pulled his fingers away. He zipped his jacket up to his chin.

‘I’m okay.’

‘When did this happen?’

‘It’s fine.’

‘Did he do that now?’

Kalum tried to compose himself even though he was on the verge of crying and hyperventilating.

‘He’s never hurt anyone else before,’ Kalum managed to say.

‘He broke your arm, didn’t he?’

Kalum stared at Robert. He didn’t reply. But that silence answered Robert’s question.

‘Are you okay?’ Kalum finally asked, his voice low.

‘I’ll be fine, I’m worried about you,’ Robert paused. ‘Did he do this after you told him about us going out?’

‘The twenty-eight is the same day as Sammy’s rock climbing so, um,’ Kalum gave a shallow laugh. ‘Jasper thought this would be good reason for me to not show up, so we can go on our date.’

‘We could have changed the actual date,’ Robert looked really upset, his voice cracking a little.

‘I didn’t want to,’ Kalum smiled at him. ‘I don’t want to make you compromise more than you already do.’

Robert didn’t know what to say. He could see the gang climbing back to the bleachers. He leaned over and whispered, ‘I’ve gone to Mr Johnson, Kalum. I told you I would sort this.’

Before Kalum could reply they could hear the gang climbing up to the bleachers with their hot cheesy snacks ready for the second part of Tom’s game.

***

JASPER’S POV

The school stood there, the building grey and brown.

Everyone was inside. It was packed today, the sound of gangs of kids inside, shouting. The wind whistled a little.

It had a been some weeks now and Kalum’s arm was back to normal, he no longer needed a sling. Since Robert told on him, some teachers had spoken to him about some concerns. The carers had spoken to him too. Lots of speaking, lots of telling off. No one really doing anything. Little poor Kalum. Big bad Jasper.

The carers were now wanting to remove Jasper to another care home away from Kalum. They have arranged for him to move on Sunday and his bags were nearly all packed. The care home was only an hour away and school were making him sit separately at all from Kalum.

Jasper looked down.

Jasper didn’t know if Kalum went on a date with Robert or not. He kept a watchful eye on him to see if he slinked off. Robert and Kalum both came with to the climbing and sat and watched everyone climb so maybe they rearranged or just agreed to not go out.

At this point, he was so sick of Kalum getting all gooey eyed over Robert. Robert was black and gay, he was going to target, why did Kalum go for that? They looked weird together too.

It made Jasper’s skin crawl.

Now, even worse, Kalum was remembering Simon.

Jasper couldn’t take it. He had tried so hard with Kalum, but he had no choice now.

He walked inside the school, cool and collected. Just like how the gun felt in his hand. It was interesting how easy it was to get. The internet has very interesting sellers. He practised on the beach in a tunnel where no one would hear the shots going off.

The bang was louder than he thought, but the gun was in his hand like it had belonged there for a long time.

The plan wasn’t to kill anyone. Just to look like he would.

This was just for fun. He had made a plan and that plan would work, and after today, Kalum would be sat in prison forever.