Rescue Me

Fifteen.

He had asked her to go to the cinema. He'd just walked up to her in front all of her family and friends and asked her to go to the cinema with him. And even though she'd already said she would love to go on a date with him he had been scared shitless that she had changed her mind and would say no and embarrass him and…but she'd said yes. So they were going to the cinema.

"I'll drive," she'd said cheerfully, still surrounded by everyone and he silently thanked her. No one knew he couldn't drive and that would have been embarrassing to explain, "You can drool over my car again."

"I did not drool over your car," he had protested with a smile.

"You so did!" she'd laughed loudly, "He so did."

He'd laughed with her and her friends, asking them (the ones who weren't her siblings) what they would have done if they were picked up in a 911 Turbo Porche. They'd answered very truthfully. They'd have drooled.

Now the only problem was he needed to find the money for a cinema ticket but he had a plan. He did the weekly shot a day early, doing it on Friday instead of Saturday and being very careful with what he bought he managed to save ten dollars of what he was always given for the food. That ten dollars now seemed to burn in his hand here he'd tucked it in the top of his cast.

"No change at all?" his dad slurred.

"Only coins, um…" Jasper made a show of being clumsy as he pulled out the few coins there had been in the change. His dad took them and counted them.

"Foods getting expensive these days," he grumbled loudly.

"Yes, it is," Jasper said, "I did manage to get you some beers though." It had meant going without some other stuff but the beer would put his dad in a good mood. "I had just enough to get you a six pack."

"Thank you." That was the first time in years that Jasper could remember his dad thanking him and for a moment he was completely stunned.

"Is it all right if I go out tomorrow dad?" he asked softly as his dad pulled one of the beers out of the fridge, opening it and chugging half of it in one go.

"What for? You went out last week," his dad asked.

"Well see I'm having trouble with one of my classes so I've got a tutor," he lied softly, "She's going to tutor me at the weekends so I don't fail my class."

"A tutor," his dad mumbled, obviously questioning the story a little.

"Yeah. She's really smart," Jasper nodded, speaking truthfully. Alice was really smart. "Yu don't…mind, do you?" he asked nervously.

"No. Do it, tutor whatever," his dad shrugged, "An old friend of mine from the Army is coming to town so I'm going out for a booze up anyway. He's just gotten divorced and wants to celebrate. I told him he should never have married the bitch. Apparently she's been bonking half the base behind his back," his dad laughed.

"Ok dad," Jasper said softly, rushing upstairs. His dad was ok with him going out and he hadn't questioned the change…he'd gotten away with it! He'd never have dreamed of doing something like this before he met Alice, he'd never have risked it! But she was most definitely worth it. She was perfect… "And now she won't have to pay for me tomorrow."

~ * ~ * ~

His dad had gone out for his all day booze up by the time she came to pick him up in her amazing car. He locked the door behind him, slipping the key into his pocket and climbed into her car.

"Hi," she smiled at him, "You ok?"

"Yeah. You look great," he said truthfully. She was wearing a nicely tight white blouse that had a giant collar and a black skirt with white lines going horizontally across it in random places. The skirts hem was ruffled and on right side it seemed to have been pulled up a bit so that a section over her right thigh was shorter than the rest. A thick brown belt hid the place where the blouse and skirt met and around her neck was a chunky amber necklace. And, he noticed with a quiet chuckle, she was driving in bare feet and a pair of ridiculously high black heels were peeking out from under the seat.

"Thanks. It's one of the outfits I bought last week with you," she smiled happily as she began to drive with an almost effortless air about her. Jasper couldn't help but think of how perfect she was. Truly perfect. Nice. Funny. Compassionate. Beautiful. Kind. He could go on forever. "How's your hand feeling?"

"Much better," he answered truthfully, looking down at the cast.

"And you're eye looks better," she smiled across at him.

"It feels better too," Jasper was once again truthful in his answer. His dad hadn't hit him today or yesterday, not even a little slap. "So what do you fancy seeing?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"Well I've seen the trailers for most of the films out at the moment and I like the look of all of them so how about we just choose when we get there," she suggested cheerfully.

"Ok," he smiled, fiddling with the ripped sleeve of his long sleeved top, the same one he wore on their shopping trip.

They arrived at the cinema not long after and she parked with ease, turning on her seat so that she could put her shoes on before standing up. By then he'd walked around the car to offer his hand to her in a very gentlemanly way to help her stand up.

"Thank you," she smiled at him, retrieving her purse and slamming the door shut. She pressed the button on the keys and the car did the usual 'beep-beep' signalling it was now locked. She slipped her arm through his as they crossed the car park and stood in front of the sign showing the films and what tines they were on.

"I guess we can rule Wolverine and Star Trek out, boys films and all that," he said softly as they both read the board.

"Are you kidding? They look really good!" He couldn't tell if she really meant that or if she was just being far too nice knowing he wouldn't want to see a romantic girly film like some of the others were. "I really like the look of Star Trek."

"You do?" he asked.

"Yeah and hey look! The next showing in fifteen minutes! It's fate!" she cried happily, taking his good hand and leading him inside the building. She walked them both up to the booking desk. "Two for the next showing of Star Trek please."

"Front, Middle or Back?" the guy asked, sounding like he would much rather be somewhere else. She turned to him, smiled almost impishly, made his heart beat faster and then answered with a wicked grin,

"Back please. Back row if possible."

The guy obeyed and read out the price but as Alice was reaching for her wallet Jasper had already handed over the ten dollar note he'd had in his jeans pocket since yesterday. (A/N Being British I have no idea whether ten dollars would cover two tickets but please, just go with me on this.)

"Jasper! I was going to pay!" she protested.

"You can get the snacks," he shrugged, taking his change and the two tickets from the guy who had already taken his attention off of them. She sighed unhappily before almost skipping over to the snack zone and ordering a large pepsi to share, a large bucket of sweet popcorn to share and a bag of minstrels to share. It came to more than the tickets but he tried not to notice, just grabbed the drink with the good hand while managing to hold the tickets with just the un-broken fingers of his bad hand. "This is enough to feed an army Alice."

"I'm hungry and you're too skinny. I need to fatten you up," her grin told him she was teasing him and he was relieved, he was too skinny.

"Oh really?" he asked playfully as they walked over to the person taking the tickets. "Just how fat do you plan on making me?"

"Fatter than me. That way I'll look skinnier," she laughed and he couldn't help but laugh with her. He handed over the tickets which were ripped in half as they were directed to Screen Three. A guy as bored as everyone else in the place seemed to be showed them to their seats and they settled down as the ridiculous car adverts played on the giant screen. "Why do they never make car adverts that make sense? If it's an advert for a car shouldn't it be about what a car can do? Not making a car break dance using a computer."

"I agree," Jasper said to her. So far they were the only ones in the back row and he'd let Alice have the aisle seat. He put the drink in the holder and took the popcorn from her when she motioned for him to do so, holding it on his lap with his bad hand so that his good hand was free to eat with.

"Don't forget to turn you're phone off," Alice said, pulling hers out of her purse to do just that. Jasper was not surprised that it was a very nice phone.

"Don't have one to turn off," he shrugged.

"You don't have a phone?" she asked in shock.

"No."

"I swear you live in the stone ages," she said seriously and he laughed.

"It's not all that bad," he said truthfully. "Oh, the trailers are starting," he commented as the last lights went off and the film adverts began. Harry Potter 6 looked really good and that was coming from someone who hadn't seen the other five films and had never read the books.

"We so have to go and see that," Alice whispered in his ear.

"Ok," he replied softly.

The adverts ended and the screen got even bigger as the movie started…

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A/N I've split the date in two for a reason, please don't kill me.