Chapter 11- Truce

  Neo

  Jax and I aren't avoiding each other anymore. Don't get me wrong, it's not like we're friends or anything and we certainly don't go out of our ways to see each other....but when we do, it's no more shouting or sneering or shoving. We simply pass each other with a nod. In our csses, we just...exist.

  It's the weirdest fucking thing.

  Right after everything, I immediately went to Rosa, ignoring the "Hello" from Ari and said, "We need to talk. Privately."

  Her sparkled blue lips paused mid sentence, eyes going wide at the agitation in my voice. Out of the side of her vision I see her watch Jax pass us.

  She sets her fork down and silently follows me out to the Stone, Ari's piercing gaze watching as we leave.

  Once we are alone, I turn to Rosa. "Jax is back."

  She rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yeah, thank you captain obvious I saw that."

  I quickly fill her in on the previous night...and my examination fiascos. But I don't tell her about me fainting .

  Once I get to the end, I'm grinning. "And I confronted him about the letter."

  "And?"

  "And we're going to help him. He's going to let us help him," I finish proudly.

  Rosa groans. "Neooo. How is this a good thing? Helping the enemy? This goes waayy beyond keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

  "Rosa...I know this is a lot. And you don't have to help. I'm not going to ask you to do anything you're not comfortable with."

  She sighs. "I'm not letting you work with that damn devil on your own. Someone's gotta have your back."

  I grin again. "Just think of this as a chance to finally see how evil Jax really is." She rolls her eyes at that and starts walking back to the common room.

  I don't know what to expect in this situation. What is Jax going to want help with? What's his game pn here? Do I ask him? Tell him?

  A few days go by since Jax and I originally talked about the letter. I keep waiting for him to spring some pn on me but he just...doesn't.

  It's Tuesday, the st Tuesday in January. I head back to the common room after dinner only to find Jax there.

  He looks up when I open the door and I swear his eyes light up when he sees me.

  "Cam. Your here. Good. I'm holding you to what you said Friday. You're going to help me find my father."

  I feel my eyebrows rise in surprise as I drop my messenger bag on the table and go to stand next to him.

  "I never said I wasn't. What's your pn though? That letter didn't exactly mention much." I say looking at him sideways.

  Jax picks up a notepad and tosses it at me. I catch it, barely, and look over what he's written.

  Questions:

  Who and what is my father?How did he get me the letter?What is the key?What is the Book of Noibmac?

  Where to start:

  Dempsey LibraryInternetDoes Neo know anything

  I smile at the st point...I don't know why. He's never called me Neo before though. I wonder why he wrote it here.

  When I look up, he's watching me, as if he's worried I'm going to shove it back in his face and tell him to fuck off.

  Tempting....

  I don't.

  "So...you have no other information to help us get started? Just what was written in the letter?" I hold the notebook back to him as he shakes his head.

  "No. The letter is the first bit of contact we've ever had."

  I bite the inside of my cheek, walking around the room (moving helps me think). All of those meetings these past few years...every Thursday he was gone...and all he has is a confounded letter?

  I turn to confront him about it. To ask why he doesn't have more information and why all the Thursdays have apparently been shit. But when I see him, he's looking at the notes with an expression I don't think I've ever seen on him. I bite my tongue and try to hold back my frustration. It's not his fault he doesn't have a family.

  Right?

  Jax

  When Neo still agrees to help me, I'm surprised. I don't know what change he's going through...or what happened...but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  "Well Rosa and I can look in the Rated R section of the library," he says, finally stopping that damn pacing.

  I raise my eyebrows in question. "You told Rosa?" I accuse. My stomach is rolling again. It's always rolling around him, especially now that we're actually on speaking terms.

  I watch his cheeks blush as he ducks his head, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Well, I mean, yeah. I tell her everything. And she can help, I swear."

  I hold a hand up to stop his blubbering. I don't know how I feel about Rosa knowing. I mean, I don't know Rosa, not that well anyways. All I do know is that she and Neo are always together, almost every minute of every day it feels like. Inseparable. I guess I should have expected this.

  Neo's watching me carefully, a hint of pleading in his foresty eyes and I groan inwardly. I can't stand when he does that. I swear that look will be the death of me some day.

  "Fine. But no one else will know about this," I growl. He nods, a smile creeping at the corners of his lips, those perfectly pink, soft lips.

  I shake my head when suddenly I remember why I was thinking about his lips. And who'd been kissing them recently.

  "Wait, Cam, you didn't tell your girlfriend, did you?" I groan.

  He frowns at me. "No...why would I have done that?"

  I roll my eyes. "Well, I don't know, she is your girlfriend after all. Aren't you supposed to share things in those types of retionships?"

  Neo's still frowning, liking he's trying to solve a difficult equation. "I dunno...none of the girls I've dated...well I never trusted them or anything like I do Rosa. Not that Rosa and I are together or anything," he says hastily at my arched brow. "I just...those girls are just kinda...there."

  "Wow Cameron," I whistle. "That's low. Even for you. They're just there? Just tools to make you look better?"

  He snorts, plopping into an armchair. "It's more like the other way around. I'm there to help them. So they have someone at dances or someone to walk with or feel cool with. I don't think any of them have actually ever really cared."

  I sit too, writing more things in the notebook, my mind a swirl of confusion. Is this really happening? Am I, the evil cssmate, and Neo, the forbidden love, really talking about girls? I think about ending the conversation, about flipping him off and shutting him down like I usually do. But I....don't. It's so nice talking to him, like...well not friends, but like normal people who don't hate each other.

  "Then why do you do it? Why don't you try to find something that's...I don't know, meaningful?"

  He sighs and gives me a sad, pathetic kind of look. "Jax...I don't even know what I am, who I am. How can I know what I want if I don't know me?"

  I'm so shocked by his words...by the truth in them...that I don't know how to respond. So I don't.