After all the play and talk and lunch, we got really tired and started resting on the couch. Karly was sitting on the floor, her hair standing on all sides like she got a shock and her legs crossed, while Dorian sat right beside her, touching his chin thoughtfully. Klaus was sprawled on the couch lazily, his head resting on my lap while I was slumped back on the seat tiredly. Dorian was the first to speak after a long while, "I'm bored," he muttered, "The party is almost finished and we're sitting here lazily. Can't we play again?"

"Noooo, man," Klaus groaned, turning his head towards Dorian, "I'm too tired to even sit up. That's why I'm lying down, see?"

I rolled my eyes, "On my lap. Can't I get a minute of rest from you?"

"How does me lying on your lap make you tired, December?" he shot back.

"Your head weighs, like, 100 pounds or something," I retorted, obviously joking.

"Oh yeah? That's the weight of my intelligence. Deal with it, don't be jealous."

I laughed in mock at his 'intelligence', "You mean, the non-existent one?"

"No, but seriously, we should consider what he said," Karly interrupted, gesturing to Dorian, "I'm not tired anymore either, and I'm bored. Maybe instead of playing with the confetti again, we can do something else fun, like watch some Netflix or walk outside?"

"But I'm still tired," whined Klaus, stretching and pulling my hair in between. Surprisingly, like Dorian and Karly, I wasn't tired anymore either - which is unlike usual, when I'll be tired out of my mind after such a busy day and almost dead by nighttime. But I felt nothing right now, not even a tint of tiredness, which was all thanks to Jasper for forcing me to stop my bad habits and start being regular at meals and sleep. I was a bit thirsty, nothing else.

"Your opinion doesn't count, Santa-Klaus," I rolled my eyes at him and then turned to the other two, "I've a better idea. How about we clean up this place for the time being? We do have time till tomorrow morning to catch up with movies and walks."

"That's actually a great idea," Dorian agreed quickly, "Also, your parents might be mad if they see this mess. If we clean this up right now, then we're safe, nothing more to worry about."

"And the work won't be in the hands of just two people," I said, gesturing to the twins, "I mean, we made the mess; we have to clean it up too, shouldn't we?"

"Hmm, considerable," said Karly. We all looked at Klaus, waiting for his decision. In response, he groaned and sat up from my lap, "I'm up, but that's all because our parents might really kill us if they see this shit."

"That's the spirit!" we exclaimed in unison, and then all of us stood up and got ready for the next set of tasks - cleaning the entire living room and making it look as nice and tidy as before. This is usually a hark task for me at my own house, and I hate doing chores, but when it becomes a game-like task with three of my friends, then it's a sure win-win. It doesn't even feel like difficult chores anymore, but more like a fun and enjoyable task.

I went to the kitchen, where all the cleaning materials were kept, and returned with a variety of tools like a red vacuum cleaner, random dirty clothes, dusters and then a short ladder. Well, yeah, I knew every nook and corner of this house and everyone here treated me like a family member than as a guest. I'm free to go anywhere here.

"We do the sweeping!" Karly said quickly, gesturing to herself and her brother, "We can't let our guests sweep the floor, can we?"

Dorian rolled his eyes at that, "Sure, guests."

"Guests? Since when?" I added, "We're always okay to do the sweeping ourselves. Aren't we, Doritos?"

He nodded immediately. Klaus sighed at that, "Guys, just let us do the difficult tasks. You can clean the table and the walls, it has also been smeared with cake."

I and Dorian looked at each other with dubious glances and then shrugged; well, if they want to do it themselves, then fine, we're not against it and we're not going to make a fuss about it. I'd obviously feel the same if they came to my house and then joined me in cleaning the floor afterwards. Even if they're my friends, I'd hesitate in letting them do the sweeping. It's just basic formality. "Fine, here," I said, handing the vacuum to Karly and the other stuff to Klaus. I gave the smaller duster to Dorian for cleaning the table while I worked on the walls, rubbing off all the cake smeared on it along with the paper and snow confetti stuck everywhere. After the walls were cleaned up completely, I looked up to notice the large pieces of snow stuck on the side of the ceiling, making the wall look like it had fungus on it.

Damn, what on earth did we do to this house?

"Uh-oh, guys, there's a little problem here," I said, pointing upto the ceiling, "I may have to clean the ceiling too."

"Whoa!" Karly's eyes widened "How can you reach till the ceiling?"

Narrowing my eyes, I pointed to the ladder kept right nearby the kitchen door and she grinned sheepishly, "Fine, but be careful while using the ladder."

"I'll be careful, don't worry," I waved her off, taking the duster in my hand and then keeping the ladder alongside the wall with Klaus' help. Unfortunately, it wasn't a portable ladder; if it had been, it could've been easier to balance as well as to reach further heights. However, since the ceiling was not that afar, this was enough. Climbing up the ladder and reaching the far top step of it, I held onto it tightly while using my other hand to wipe off the snow with the duster I had. There was even a little bit of whipping cream stuck right atop the snow. How did that even reach up here? We're unbelievable.

Sighing internally, I tried to reach towards the little smear of cream. A bit more far and we're done here, I thought, happy that I got to help the siblings with at least this and saved them from a hell lot of work after we left. I reached up higher with my hands, but I still couldn't reach it. It was too far for my shrimpy self.

Come on, come on!

Deciding that I can't leave it there like that and let their parents notice it, I stood on tiptoes on the ladder, accidentally leaving my remaining hold on it and able to reach the top. I began to wipe it off slowly, unaware that the ladder had started shaking a bit after I left hold on it. Suddenly, I started losing my balance and quickly held onto the ladder again, standing properly instead of tiptoeing. But the ladder shook even more wildly from the impact of my sudden jerk.

"June!" I heard Karly shriek, noticing me losing my balance.

It's going to fall!

There was a sudden cease of movement and the ladder stopped moving like magic. I stood with my hands tightened on the ladder, my eyes closed tightly and my feet umoving in fear. I slowly loosened my grip and looked down carefully, making sure to not leave the grip ever again. There stood Dorian at the bottom, holding one side of the ladder while using his other hand to catch the duster that'd fallen from my hands in the shock.

"I thought I died," I murmured as I slowly stepped down from the ladder, my legs still shaking, chills of the shock passing up and down my spine continuously. I definitely needed a break before starting on cleaning again. As I reached the bottom, Dorian dropped the duster and used his hand to hold me gently and keep me on the floor. He let go of the ladder and then turned to me with a smile, "Are you okay?"

I smiled back sheepishly, "Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks for saving me in time, Doritos."

"No problem, it's just fortunate that I was right nearby."

"Yeah, it could've lead to a disaster if you'd fallen down," Karly said, approaching me quickly and checking me out in concern, "Do you need something to drink, June? You're sweating a lot."

I definitely needed something to drink. I was tired, scared and still shaky. After I nodded, Karly rushed to take a drink for me while Klaus sat me on one of the chairs. Dorian just watched me concernedly. "I'll clean the ceiling, we're done sweeping the floor," Klaus said.

"Yeah, cleaning the ceiling isn't meant for shorties," Dorian added. I narrowed my eyes at him and huffed dramatically, "I'm not short!"

"Sure, you aren't," Klaus chuckled, ruffling my hair like they always do, "Anyways, rest here for a while. We don't want you breaking your bones after such a wonderful day, y'know?"

"But you already did a lot of work," I protested, since Klaus and Karly had cleaned the entire floor by now and was going to take up my job too, "I'll help after sometime."

"Okay, your choice," said Klaus, "But come back only after you're completely okay. You're still shaky."

"Here you go! Some cool, refreshing lemonade for everyone," Karly announced, coming out of the kitchen with four tall cups kept on a wide, marble plate. Klaus cheered in delight while Dorian sat on my right and was the first to take the cup out of Karly's hands. He passed it to me, then took one for himself as well as for Klaus. After taking the drinks, finishing the final few touch-ups to the cleaning process and then resting a bit again, we freshened up by taking a walk right outside, not going much far from the house but just enough to watch the fresh greenery, feel the cool winds as well as to walk past a few shops.

All the while, I searched if Jasper was anywhere around here, since he usually walks around randomly or searches shops after he's dropped me at school or in this case, at my friends' house. However, seeing that he wasn't anywhere nearby, I decided that he might have went back to the car after a little while of walking. As much as I hated to admit it, I kind of missed his presence even though it's just been a few hours since I didn't see him. Sure, I had a lot of fun and rarely thought of him in between all that mess, but unlike usual, he did pop up in my mind several times. His presence and his vibes were much different than my friends, in a good way of course, and I wished he was here too. Having the company of both my friends as well as Jasper would have been the best time of my life.

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆

"Yo guys, two more hours for this day to be over," I pointed to the block, leaning back on the bed as we watched a random horror movie together. As expected, a horror movie with friends turned out to be like a comedy. Klaus gave us random jumpscares every now and then, and Dorian was the most scared out of all of us that he jumped and sat on Karly's lap during one such jumpscare. We laughed at that a lot.

I sat in between Karly and Klaus like usual, with Karly and Dorian accidentally hugging each other at each and every jumpscare. Then they broke it up with awkward laughs, while I and Klaus smirked knowingly. It wasn't even that scary, honestly. We were currently in the twins' parents' bedroom, watching a Netflix movie on their home theatre after a stupid pillow fight and some gossip. Since this was a sleepover and obviously, we're supposed to be together all night and spend the time by watching movies or something, we were planning to watch some random series all night long. But this day had really tired us out, much more than we expected it to. We were almost sure we wouldn't last past two in the morning, as much as we hated to admit it.

"Will we stay up till then?" Karly asked excitedly, shaking her brother's shoulder, since he was the one who was the most tired among us. The three of us weren't tired just yet.

"Definitely," Klaus stated, "not."

"Why not? None of us are tired! Are you?" She pouted, looking at us and folding her arms like a little kid. I and Dorian agreed with her and turned to Klaus with menacing looks. He seemed to be intimidated by our stare, because he quickly nodded, "Okay, okay, we'll stay up. No big deal."

"Good for you," Karly smirked.

"What? You would've killed me otherwise?" Klaus asked her with a dramatic huff.

"Nah, I need you alive to punch and insult daily."

"I'd rather die than live with a sis like you, sweetie."

"Not this shit again," I shoved both of them from the middle.

"Can we please watch this movie in peace? I think we just missed the exciting part," Dorian sighed tiredly. We laughed and went back to watching the movie without anymore nosy fights or conversations.

In between, I'd taken a break to call Jasper and ask him about what I'd planned. Before that, I confirmed with Klaus and Karly that there was a bedroom with double beds for each of us, since they had decided that I might definitely need a bedroom for the night considering my extra tiredness everyday. However, Klaus was much more tired today.

"Well, we sleep on bunk beds," Klaus said, "Then there's our parents' bedroom with a single bed and the guest bedroom, which has one bed and a couch. You choose what you want."

I thought over it. We definitely can't choose the parents' bedroom, since they've got a single bed. But the guest's bedroom had only a couch besides the bed... Should I ask Jasper to take it or let him be in the car itself? I mean, it's very obvious that he'd force me to take the bed and not the couch. Either way, a couch still seemed much more comfortable and better than a car seat, especially for an entire eight-hour sleep.

Dorian glanced at me, waiting for my opinion. "Okay... I think I might need the guest bedroom. Can you go with their parents' bedroom, Doritos?"

He shrugged and nodded, "Sure, I'm fine with any room, or even the floor."

"Well, so am I, but I just need the double-bed room today."

"Why? Are you inviting your boyfriend over when we're asleep, sneaky July?" Klaus smirked at me. The fuck? Why does he always associate me with some made-up boyfriend just because I'm the only one who prefers being single, in our group? Stupid jerk.

I blushed again while answering, "No, fuck off, it's just Jasper."

I said it wrong -

Karly and Dorian immediately gasped in surprise while Klaus just frowned. "What do you mean by that?!" Dorian screeched, "Don't tell me -"

"No! You can't be mistaking me too, Doritos!" I sighed heavily, "What I mean is... Jasper stays in the same room that I do."

Klaus giggled at that and I shot him a death glare.

"But why?"

"For 'protecting' me, Sherlock," I rolled my eyes, "He says that he needs to keep a check on me even in the bedroom, because I can easily be the target of any of dad's business rivals. He won't let me out of his sight for even a second."

"Really? But he did leave you out of his sight today."

"That's because I'm with you guys," I answered, rolling my eyes, "I don't think any kidnapper would go as far as to intruding into your house just to kidnap me while you're still with me. Besides, he's just nearby the house. He can see me whenever I walk out."

They nodded at this, but I explained more.

"He did say he can adjust in the car, but I disagreed with that. Are you all okay with him staying over just for the night? I can't let him be in the car all night, that isn't right."

"Obviously not right," Karly agreed with me, "We've got no problem with that, June."

"Yeah, no problem," continued Klaus, fortunately stopping his stupid smirk now.

Dorian stood quietly, since he didn't exactly know what to say to this. The twins were the ones who had to agree, since it was their house, so Dorian just continued watching the movie while we finished our discussion and the twins too joined him.

I called Jasper again, hoping that he would still be awake. He took the call right after a single ring.

"Hello?"

Oh, right, I forgot that he sleeps only way after ten - which is about eleven, twelve, or even afterwards. He's always on his laptop by the time I get to sleep. I did see him keep his laptop in the car before we left. Seems he already predicted that I might stay here today.

"Hey, Jasper," I cleared my throat, "Where are you?"

Are you dumb, June? Where do you expect him to be this late - chilling in a pool?

"In the car. Why?"

"Uh, well... You can come over."

There was a pause from the other side. I knew he was confused.

"Why? Is there a problem?"

Not him thinking that I've been kidnapped or something.

"No, to stay over till the morning. Don't you want to protect me during the night?" I asked jokingly, hesitating to reveal the actual reason. He just chuckled at that, "I'm right outside. What makes you think that I'm not on guard just because I'm not nearby you?"

"Whatever. You won't know if I sneak out through the back door though, will you?"

"I will, I'm tracking your location. A little movement and I'd know."

...When on earth did he set that on my phone? Right, when he was working on it while I had continued on my homework and didn't notice anything he was doing. Well, not that I care, it's just my location that he's tracking and that has taken place many times before. Literally every bodyguard dad had appointed, used to track my location, especially in cases of extreme threats and danger. This wasn't new to me.

"That's not the topic here!" I said, "Just come over right now."

"Won't it be an interruption to your party, though? I'll stay here."

"Nope, we're almost done with the party, not in the mood to watch anymore movies or stuff. Anyways, I need you here whether you like it or not. Otherwise - I'm never talking to you again."

I had nothing else to threaten him with. It seemed like he fell for only this and no other actual threats like firing him from this job or calling my dad on him - even though I won't actually do any of the things mentioned here. I've no right to fire a hardworking person from a job just because I've a personal grudge against him, especially if the person has practically done nothing to harm me and I dislike him for apparently no reason. However, if he does his job for time pass or dares to do something wrong to me, I definitely will complain.

"Sure, boss. I'm coming over."

I chuckled at that and cut the call, waiting for him to arrive here. I knew that he wouldn't come here if I told him the actual reason I called him here for, that's exactly why I just said the fake excuse of wanting him to 'protect' me. He wouldn't give up otherwise, and would force me to reveal the real reason to why I'm requesting him to come over when I usually try my best to avoid him otherwise. Well, not anymore, I guess. Ever since we spent an entire day shopping outside and getting to know each other more, I'd started liking and trusting him better. Which is probably why I missed him today.

_________________

We ended up ditching our movies plan like we expected.

Klaus got too tired to even sit up straight, I started getting slightly sleepy, Karly and Dorian got bored of the non-scary horror movie and started talking about random stuff while I and Klaus leaned our heads against each other and rested. We eavesdropped a bit on Karly's and Dorian's conversation but it didn't go that way - it was just casual talk between friends. And then when Jasper came, I immediately rushed over to the door, leaving a confused Klaus on the floor as he fell off my shoulder.

"Here, how's this one?" Klaus asked after we entered their parents' bedroom again - but this time, with an extra person besides us four. The question seemed to be directed to Jasper since I've already seen the room before and we were watching movies in here, but I replied either way, "It's perfect, Klaus. Thank you for setting it up."

He shrugged and waved it off dramatically. He and Karly had set up the room neatly for the both of us, especially the couch, which had been messy with a ton of clothes till just hours ago. Karly had went to show Dorian his room.

Just like expected, Jasper had rung the bell just a minute or two after we'd cut the call and after a little introduction between the twins and him - since Dorian already knew him - and wishing them a belated happy birthday, we went straight to each of our decided bedrooms with Klaus directing us to the parents' bedroom. Unlike Dorian's first impression with Jasper, Klaus had gotten along quite well with him since he's the type to mingle finely with any sort of person, whether it's an introvert or an extrovert, a serious person or a fun person. That doesn't mean that they got as acquainted as Lucas and Jasper did, though; those two were like they knew each other way before they knew me and were best friends or something. They kind of behaved like how I and Klaus did.

"I'm sorry that we couldn't get another bed for you," Klaus said to Jasper. He waved it off with a smile, "That's fine. I can adjust."

"Alright, I hope this is comfortable enough for you, Jasper," Klaus said, getting out of the room and sliding the door close, "See you in the morning, July."

I smiled and then turned to Jasper after the door had been shut close. Like usual, he was scanning the room. When he saw me glance at him, he turned to me with a curious glance, probably not knowing what to say at this second. I was a bit speechless too. Should I tell him that I missed his presence, at least as a joke? No, maybe not. He might start using that on me later on.

Fortunately, I spoke something, breaking the awkward silence.

"Are you okay with sleeping on a couch?"

"Yeah, sure I am. It looks comfortable enough," he shrugged, then continued, "Why did you call me over? I thought you disliked having someone to 'protect' you. I thought you disliked me."

"I don't hate you," I said, "But yes, I do hate having someone to protect me. I didn't want you staying in a car all night just for me."

"How sweet of you," he said, quite amused but kind of doubtful about that, "No, I mean, seriously. Why?"

"I meant it seriously, Jasper," I rolled my eyes, wondering why he thought it was a first for me to be nice to him sometimes, "I thought that sleeping on a couch might at least be better than staying in a car all night long."

He shrugged again, a look of belief finally crossing over his face, "I was okay with it, though."

"You might be, but I'm not. Case closed," I said abruptly and sat on the bed, getting ready to slowly get to sleep now that it was already sometime after midnight. I expected him to reply to that and start the next argument, but, either because he's tired or just not interested since we're at another house, he chose to stay silent and went over to his own spot.

"What did you think when I first called you? That I was scared or something?" I asked again.

"Honestly, yes. Or that you were worried about something. I just don't know, I had many thoughts at the time," he said, "I knew that you probably wouldn't be simply scared, since you've stayed over here at multiple other times."

I nodded at that, "Yeah, I have. I just asked out of curiosity."

We heard some noises outside and at first, Jasper immediately stood up with a sort of cautious look, alert, and he was about to go over to the door. I rolled my eyes. What does he think is happening outside? Someone intruding into the house to kidnap me or someone trying to burn the house to ashes, targeting the famous June Jacobs?

Well, it's none of that - it's way worse.

It's world war infinity; which means Karly's and Klaus' next fight for the umpteenth time today.

"It's just Karly and Klaus," I said blankly, stopping him on his tracks, honestly amused at the irony and at Jasper's exaggerated reaction. He sat back down again with a sigh of relief and nodded, "Right, I forgot about them. Are they always like that?"

I laughed at that. He was referring to the first fight they made when he came over - which was about how they should sleep in their own room. They usually alternate between beds each day, like Karly sleeping on the upper bunk one day and Klaus, on the other day. However, since today was their birthday party, both of them wanted the lower bunk to themselves. They hated having to climb the ladder to the upper bunk.

"You slept on the lower bunk yesterday, liar!" Karly started screaming first. Klaus added even more fuel to it, "Oh yeah? You got proof, liar?"

"I shoved the proof up your ass, you ultimate liar!"

My eyes widened at this, since Jasper was right here, watching all this going on. Dorian was holding in a laugh while Jasper just had a blank but amused look. He then looked at me and I just muttered an 'Uh' in embarrassment at my friends' fight in front of an outsider.

Noticing my reaction, Klaus chose not to respond with an even more worse statement and just said, "Shut up. You sleep on the upper bunk or I'll not give you my new watch during the weekend."

Well, Karly has maths tuition on Saturday and other stuff on Sunday, where she has some other rivals besides Sally and Ava. Or just frenemies, I'm not sure. Either way, she wants to wear her brother's new watch that I gave, to those events and show it off - which is completely acceptable until she starts being mean to him again.

Karly's face immediately went from angry to soft, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. But your snores are too audible from the upper bunk!"

Klaus flushed in embarrassment, "I do not snore! And snores will be audible whether you're on the lower bunk or upper bunk, don't be dumb."

"Fine, I accept, geez!"

"Karly," I said, interrupting them yet again, being as embarrassed as Klaus was, "Stop arguing and take the upper bunk today. It's not like today's the last day, alright?"

Klaus nodded agreeably.

"Okay, mom," Karly rolled her eyes playfully.

Right afterwards, when Dorian was in a conversation with Karly and Klaus was setting up our room, Jasper turned to me with a smirk, "So you do know how to stop an argument, huh?"

"Obviously, I do. I'm not dumb."

"But I thought you were," he grinned, "Sorry, I'm kidding. You're usually the one to keep continuing whenever we start an argument."

I shrugged, "That's because I'm always right."

He just nodded at that mockingly, "Sure, you are. Better stop talking before you start the next argument here."

I was about to protest against that, proving his statement right, but Klaus called out to us just in time and now, here we are. Else, we would've been in a situation just like Karly's and Klaus'.

I answered Jasper's question with a grin, "Almost, yes. They always argue, but they care about each other just the same."

He smiled at that and nodded, "Obviously. Why would they not? They're siblings, and arguments are common. But that doesn't mean that don't care about each other."

That's not true all the time, though - just take my and Jasper's case for example. We're not related, of course not, but like he mentioned here, we argue all the time, even though we don't hate each other.

So do I and my friends with Ava and Sally. That doesn't mean that it's because we care about each other, isn't it? We hate each other, that's why we argue. We dislike each other's views and personalities, I hate how they consider everyone who's not rich inferior to them while they hate everything about me, like my outfits, my friends, my life, even my phone.

But Jasper's case, as you know already, is very different and quite puzzling. It's evident that he cares about me, like as a person and as my bodyguard, but I'm not completely sure of whether I can trust him. Though he seems to be trustworthy most of the time, what makes me doubt his actions is the fact that he's not anyone of mine and has no reason to care about me personally - just like I don't. As I said before, I'll be nice to him like how a person usually treats another person; but neither he nor anyone else can expect me to care about him personally. It's better that we both remain unaware of each other's life and problems, because I don't want to care about him and neither do I want him to care about me. I'm a person who gets too attached if I end up spilling a lot of my secrets, so in case I ever got too attached to Jasper, I'll hate the thought of having him leave my house. Another reason why I'm keeping distance from him sometimes. I already missed him when he was absent for just a few hours, and that's all because of this one reason. I warned myself to not get too close to anyone that's temporary in my life.

He's already pretty closer to me than all other bodyguards have been and knows my biggest secret; I can't let him know more. I can't let myself get attached and then hurt later.

However, holding all of this in, I nodded agreeably to his sentence. In the current context, what he said is obviously right.