BANG! One Shot Was All It Took

His blue eyes were the first things many people noticed, strong, dark and deep and overall, incredibly entrancing. The next would be his hairstyle- usually outrageous and a bright colour. However, he would think that right now, he would have less attention than normal, with his mousey brown hair. That hadn’t stopped anyone either buying him drinks or flirting as if their lives depended on it. The girls flirted; the guys bought drinks and flirted. The final thing most people would notice before anything else would probably be the scar which marred his near perfect face, running along his jaw line in a white raised line and cutting freckles in half.

Jasper had always treated his body as a temple. Never smoked and, ok, not been the greatest about controlling his alcohol intake, but he never abused it. That was, until he’d discovered the advantages of great sex after a long, hard day. When he’d met Nicholas Rayner that was all amplified, and even his abusive and uncaring attitude had never put Jasper off- why would it? He was a street fighter of the highest standard, used to dodging blows and thrumming with adrenaline that was released when his skin was broken. The temple was no more, and there were scores of marks to prove it.

Like his nickname, Nicci had proved to be highly addictive, and Jasper found himself almost missing Nicotine when he left the academy, handcuffed and surrounded by police officers as he fought wildly to escape. A disgrace to his family was all he was, and all his knives and glorious weapons were confiscated. Jasper was convicted for his fighting, on at least a dozen counts of actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm and well as scores more accounts of ‘intent to cause harm’. He had an idea of who ratted him out, but he would keep his suspicions under wraps, as the person who he suspected was highly likely to have been drunk at the time. Jasper almost wondered if Nicci had seen him leave in the blaze of glory that was violence. The main conviction was that of leaving a man bleeding outside the club in town. Jasper’s defence had been that the man had tried something with his cousin, and he had to help out. To save her. The pride in his voice as he said this could have shown the jury just how defensive he was when it came to his family- in reality, the jury just thought he was proud of nearly killing a man.

He was let off in the end, when Daisy had come forwards and protested his innocence, that she had nearly been the victim of rape and Jasper had saved her. And who was to resist the flirty young vixen with innocence in her eyes when she cried rape?

Of course, that was only the women, but they were eventually swayed by Jasper’s own good looks, which happened to be arranged into mournful regret. He’d been let off with a tracking device, which meant he had to be home schooled and unable to go out other than between 4pm and 6pm. This meant no clubs, no parties, and no sex. It meant dialling people he knew at North Star when he was drunk as a skunk on booze he ‘borrowed’ from his parents. But now, he was off probation and could go to any club that took his fancy, stay out until the late hours of the night- or was it the early hours of the morning? Either way, he was free again. No more drunk-dialling from home, ranting about he was grateful to not be in prison, or about how he couldn’t get laid. It was drunk-dialling the solitary nights he couldn’t convince someone to leap into bed with him. It was drunk-dialling in the middle of sex (though this one was usually to Nicci, who really didn’t seem to miss him), just to try and make the person on the end of the phone hang up or listen in dirtily.

Overall, life was good once more. Despite spending more time than ever under the influence of alcohol, Jasper never let up on his fitness- essential to a fighter such as him. Then there were the very few times Jasper called Nicci when both were sober. He’d go on about how much he missed North Star and would let out a slight sigh into the receiver as Nicci stumbled over words and became more and more wound up, an obvious sign of his sobriety. These occasions were few and far between, and if Jasper was honest, he missed Nicci. Just a little. But, Jasper wasn’t honest. He told himself that he didn’t miss Nicci, that Nicci had been a toy while everything had lasted, and that there were no attachments. But you can’t have sex as much as that without at least a little fondness developing in your heart.

So this was why Jasper stood on the steps of an unfamiliar house, standing tall and proud as he waited for someone to answer the door, thoroughly expecting to find a one-night stand answer it and barrel past, hoping that they weren’t made to stay and watch the monster wake up. He wondered if Nicci was dead, or fat, or dying of cancer. Only two out of three were plausible, he was more likely to find a bag of skin and bones. Only the smell of stale cigarettes let Jasper know that Nicci had been here for a while. After five minutes stood on the doorstep, Jasper sighed and slid down the wall. The only person who’d been able to break his conviction was Nicci. This had always been through the medium of persuasion, also known as sex.

And this time, Jasper wasn’t giving in.