Jasper had been lounging around on his sofa, cosy in his sweatpants and t-shirt and watching some telly when his phone had rang. He’d been dubious about answering, if he was being completely honest. He had no idea what Ariadne was doing phoning him at such a late hour, particularly when he’d already noted from her frequent instagram stories that she was at a party somewhere, hanging loosely off of young Adam Walton’s arm, swigging what appeared to be champagne. But, well, perhaps retrospectively he should have known exactly why she was calling him. Ariadne very much liked a good tipsy chinwag, he’d give her that.
Still, he was still a little unaccustomed to the current dynamic they’d shaped for themselves. Ariadne was both his student and his friend, but he was still a little embarrassed at how close they’d come to blurring the lines in between. Even after Benjamin’s reassurance that they’d done nothing wrong, on account of the fact that Jasper hadn’t known she’d be his student, he still managed to get a little shy when talking to the pretty blonde. That being said, he answered her call dutifully, his concern for her wellbeing outweighing his own silly anxieties.
Ariadne had sounded fed up when he’d spoken to her, though he couldn’t be sure for what reason. The line had been loud and muffled, music booming in the background and making it hard for him to make out everything she was saying. She’d been saying something about needing a ride home when Jasper had found himself slipping his feet into a pair of runners. He’d already been half-way out the door by the time she shared her location with him. Whatever label people wanted to apply to the pair of them, Jasper would never leave a friend out in the cold. Besides, it was already summer break – imagine that! Summer holidays by the end of May! Bloody America! – which meant heh ad nowhere to be in the morning.
Jasper had had the foresight to ask Ariadne to wait for him just short of the house party she’d been attending. While there was absolutely nothing untoward going on between them, he knew how his students could talk. The last thing either of them needed was for somebody to get the wrong end of the stick and start spreading rumours about her slipping away with her professor. She’d just sent a text to say she was on her way, so he waited, awkwardly fiddling with the radio in the meantime. He’d turned the volume dial up and down so many times now that he eventually settled for switching it off completely. He had so much nervous energy buzzing through him that he couldn’t put a name to. Music would surely only confuse and overstimulate him more.
His fingers drummed absently at the wheel as he waited, and he glanced down at himself with a frown. He hadn’t taken the time to get changed before leaving, so Ariadne was about to be rewarded with the horrors of seeing him out of his usual tweed get up – or, on one occasion, a blue duffel coat. With a glance in the mirror, he noted the way his stubble had started to grow back in, dotting his jaw with a fine layer of scruff. He looked a little worse for wear, his hair floppier than usual as he’d let it grow out, not that it mattered he supposed.
Distracted as he was, Jasper somehow missed Ariadne’s approach and he jolted upright as he heard her fumble with the handle to the passenger seat. Wincing, he remembered how finnicky that stupid door could get and hurriedly clambered out of the car before rounding it and joining her. The vast contrast of her pretty outfit and his scruffy attire was already enough to send him into a shame spiral, his gaze fixed on the faulty door as he tried not to let his eyes stray to the pale expanse of her bare thighs.
“Sorry, my bad. This door’s bloody useless,” he mumbled, tugging on the stiff handle a little harshly before managing to swing the door open. He clumsily waved his arms in the general direction of the passenger seat, as though he were a magician exclaiming tada! after a particularly nifty trick. “In you pop, love.”