When You Let Her Go

[Lucy James]

Opening the door leading to the dancing studio, Lucy paused, and for the first time in a really long time, she actually felt a little uncertain. For a moment, she remained perfectly still, simply watching the two brothers move around within the large dancing studio. Her eyes flashed briefly towards the large mirror covering one of the walls, and she wondered briefly if the best course of action was to simply turn around and leave, but then again, she was Lucy freaking James - she didn't back down for nothing - or anyone.

Least of all Casper and Jasper.

Maybe, just maybe the three of them could be in the same room without wanting to slit each other's throats, but thinking back to their past encounters, she seriously doubted it. Taking a deep breath, Lucy's stoic expression returned to her features as she stepped inside.

She was wearing a pair of black thighs and a tight tank top - perfect attire for dancing. She had never been the type of girl who wore frilly ballerina skirts or unitards. Somehow, this felt a lot more comfortable, and even more like her. Even if she much preferred baggy clothes, this felt like a nice compromise.

Putting her bag down on the floor, Lucy's eyes moved towards the pair of twins. "Long time no see."

Tag: Casper & Jasper Emory

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

"I'm surprised we still remember all the moves." Casper said to his brother as the two of them danced around the room. They were doing a routine they did a long time ago on a stage where they were dancing with these woman who they would end up lifting into the air, and onto; what the brothers called 'hanging sheet'. Then they would control these hanging sheets, spinning the girls around in them while the girls climbed and did flips, and ultimately making it seem as after a few spins the girls vanished.

The two of them were dressed the same; as usual, wearing tight black pants, a tight white shits without the sleeves, and dance shoes. Their bodies moved at the same time, to the rhythm in a song that played in their head; having not forgotten it since they had practiced it so many times back when they were in the circus. "Not like we are ever going to use it again." Jasper said, it being clear that he was still not in the best of moods and also wished that they could go back to the circus.

They both felt that way perhaps that was why they were in the dance study, doing a routine from muscle memory alone. At any rate, it was good to just dance and work some muscles that didn't get attention in normal workout. The brother did not expect for Lucy James to walk in and greet them as if they were friends. Both the brother's pause din what they were doing, staring at Lucy to make sure she was actually there before they looked at one another and had one of their silent communication moments.

"That is because we have been avoiding you." Jasper pointed out, as he moved into a standing position. "We figured you would have done the same, so why did you come in here after seeing we were in here?" Casper asked as he looked at Lucy with a confused look.

[Lucy James]

"Because this is the only dancing studio, and I'm not going to let a childish dispute stop me from working out," she replied with a roll to her eyes; so, they were really going to be this childish about it all? Fine. Three could play at that game, she supposed. It wasn't like she had to talk to them. She could always ignore them and they could keep to each their side of the room. The room itself was more than big enough for the both of them, and honestly, she didn't even need to use the music player. She could plug her headphones in and voila; problem solved.

No, Lucy wasn't even going to bother. If the boys wanted to avoid her, she wasn't going to stop them. She rarely did. It was often exactly what she wanted too. Granted, some people weren't as easy to chase off, but it seemed as if she had successfully managed to turn the twins against her - and she hadn't even been trying that hard.

And hey, she had tried. They were the ones who started acting all hostile - especially Jasper. Not that it was overly surprising of course. That guy had a giant stick up his asshole and someone seriously needed to pull that out for him.

Crossing the room, Lucy dragged her bag with her until she reached the far end of the room, as far away from the two brothers as she possibly could. There, the brunette started rummaging through her stuff, looking for her headphones.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

Lucy had a valid point as to why she was here, but that still didn't fully answer why she was willing to put up with even their presence. The brothers were pretty sure she hated them at least as much as they were upset with her. Clearly, unlike her brother she was not here to try and make things better between the three of them. At least if she was, she was not actually trying, and they didn't see why she would want to. From what they heard she was all snuggled up with that stupid college boy.

Just thinking about them made them sick that she would want to go with such an older loser; even if they actually didn't know much about the boy because they disliked him for the fact that he got in the way of their study of Lucy; mainly Casper's study. Lucy moved to the other side of the room after she said her bet and looked like she was going to do her own thing. Casper planned to do the same thing but his brother was giving him a look. "What? There is not point and I hate that word." Casper said in his defense. Jasper let out a sigh and nodded his head.

His brother had a valid point and the two of them both hated the word and feeling, but that was why they had to get it out. "Just do it to get it out there so we can be done with it." Jasper said as he pushed his brother ahead of him as they moved closer towards Lucy. If they were going to keep avoiding her, they had to least got out their problem so they could move on and not be bothered by it anymore. Jasper needed Casper in front, because he still wanted to punch the girl. "I'm sorry that I punched you and was being a jerk to you. It was just your personality type generally pisses me off because I hate people that are just...blah, but it was more to it than that as well." Jasper spoke up first, staying hidden behind his brother.

Casper stayed in front, but that didn't mean that he was looking directly at Lucy. Neither of them even cared if she heard them talking to her or not. The fact would be that they didn't hold back and said and did as they pleased. That was the kind of people they were and that was why it was bugging them so much to not just be themselves. "As for me, I do like you." Casper said. They went silent for a moment then, needing to figure out how they wanted to do this and how to make a quick escape after.

[Lucy James]

Looking up from her stuff, Lucy furrowed her brows as she noticed that the twins had drawn closer. She looked from one brother to the other and pursed her lips. She wondered if they were here to start some shit. She was hardly in the mood to have another fight with the two of them. It seemed rather pointless by now. Though, what came out of the boy's mouth wasn't at all what Lucy had expected. He was apologizing? At first, she felt tempted to point out that it sounded more like making up excuses than apologizing, but she managed to keep it to herself.

She was confused. She didn't understand why they bothered to apologize. The confusion was also apparent against her features as it shifted between that, disbelief and concern. Were the boys getting ill? Did they have some kind of bucket list to go through before they died? Or was this another prank? "Uhm..." she began, licking her lips. What did someone even say to that? It wasn't as if Lucy was used to people apologizing, or apologizing herself.

Though, she didn't get much else figured out before whom she assumed was Casper said something that had Lucy furrowing her brows. Surely, he didn't mean he liked her as in liked her, did he? Of course, he simply meant that he liked her as a friend --- not that they were friends to begin with, but there was no romantic feelings involved...right? "...Okay?"

Pushing herself up into a standing position, Lucy folded her arms across her chest and looked at the boys, her eyes narrowed. "What's all this for? Did someone tell you to say all that?"

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

The brothers were indeed apologizing, and they meant it. Well, at least they were trying to apologize and it was something that they did not do often so it was not as easy as they thought it would be. They already were starting to feel a little ill from trying to be honest with the other girl when they bother knew she did not give a damn. At least that was how it always felt and they had a feeling that even after all of this she would not give a damn. They thought that it would help them stop giving a damn, so that was why they were doing this.

It was very interesting to see how Lucy didn't seem to understand what was going on, or at least looked confused. Did they not say what they were trying to say right? At her confused okay they figured that they had to break it down a bit more so she could get it. Just as Jasper opened up his mouth to say more; they paused, she was talking more and it seemed like she didn’t think that they did this by choice. How rude. No, they both scolded themselves to not think that way since it had to be odd that the two of them were doing this with how things normally went between the three of them.

"No, we wanted to do this. I wanted to do this because well...I actually had a sort of respect for you. Standing your ground and being yourself despite people around you hating you or loving you for it. Takes guts and I liked that, liked you a little bit myself as well but that’s mainly cause Casper does." Jasper admitted. He still remained behind his brother, leaning in enough to rest his head on his twins shoulder. Being close to his brother, the simple physical contact was normally enough to keep Jasper level headed. "As for me...I like like you." Casper admitted. It was weird to say but it was the truth.

"I wanted to kiss and fuck you again but you kept getting closer with the stupid older college boy and breaking for him. So I will admit I was jealous, but only because someone weak like him was able to break you." Casper admitted. He didn’t' care that it was that boy; he cared because the boy was weak in his opinion and Lucy broke from him when she was so strong. It just made him feel sick and he didn't like it and perhaps it was also because she was likely having sex with the other guy and not him. "But, it just showed me my brother had better luck getting people to like him then me." Casper added as he shrugged his shoulder. Lesson learned and he would stick to getting his brother's leftovers or what his sibling got for the two of them.

[Lucy James]

They claimed to be doing this on their own accord, and even then, Lucy couldn't do anything but stare at the boys. This was the last thing she had ever expected, and in truth, she wasn't all that used to people apologizing. In fact, she couldn't really remember the last time someone had. She didn't know how to react, and her usual spite didn't seem to be the best thing to turn to right then. Because yes, although left unable to say much, Lucy did fully comprehend just how difficult it had been for the twins to come clean like this.

She had no idea how they managed to swallow their pride like that, but it was admirable. "...thank you?" she said, her brows furrowing. It was obvious from looking at the girl, that she didn't at all know how to handle something like this.

And then there was Casper, who claimed that he liked her.... in the most crude manner possible. Frowning, Lucy looked at him, her brows furrowing. "Wait," she said, her hand coming up. "Breaking for him? I did not break." That wasn't at all what had happened, was it? It wasn't as if she'd suddenly... No. She had not broken. That wasn't a thing. "I'm not broken, and he did not break me." Her jaw clenched at the simple idea of it all.

Though, even Lucy had to admit that she'd lost a certain edge after all of this. She'd been off her game, and clearly, it was nothing more than being under the weather. It wasn't as if the girl fell in love and suddenly turned nice. Oh no. That was out of the question.

"It takes more than some stupid boy to break me," she snorted. The simple idea of it was laughable, and yes, that might just have hit her straight to the core of her pride, but there was no chance in hell what Casper said was correct. It was impossible. She was still very much the little spitfire she'd been when she came here. She hadn't grown, nor matured, and she surely had not gotten nice, or broke.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

They got a thank you, but it didn't feel as grateful as they thought it would have felt. Which didn't help the fact that having done all this still made them feel weird and a little sick. It was done by their choice and they were hoping that it would help but at the moment it didn't feel like it did anything. If anything because of Lucy's lack of response on the matter; that they felt was important, it felt like they had just wasted their time. They understood how people reacted and how to get them to react, but they didn't actually get people.

Least of all Lucy, because clearly there was something that made them want to be around the girl and at the same time to snap her pretty little neck. "Pffft, yeah you did." Jasper spoke up when Lucy said that she had not broken. Both the brother nodded their head yes as she seemed to bot believe them on that fact. In their opinion, she really had broken; she was not the same girl that she was before. Of course they were mainly going off of what they had seen and heard about Lucy of late and her boyfriend; who they assumed was her boyfriend by now from the things they heard. Still weird that she wanted to go out with some guy in college and didn't even seem like her type.

They figured that it was one of those opposites attract or something but didn't care enough to really think about it too much. "First stage is denial." Casper pointed out as Lucy kept going on about how she was not broken by that college boy. She so was. "Well, apparently that stupid boy was enough. We heard you two went to prom together and had sex after. Not the first time you two had sex either from what we heard." Jasper said as he moved to stand next to his brother now. He didn't feel angry or like he was going to punch Lucy, now he felt amused by her rejection of what they saw as facts.

"Plus he calls you love and we even heard that you love him back. He so broke you and you are broke, it happens. Girls tend to fall in love with guys when they have sex with them a lot because of the hormone that is released. The health book said so." Casper pointed out. Yes, they paid attention in health because it was so interesting to learn about the bodies, where babies came from, and plus they could look at pictures of a naked girl and guy without getting into trouble.

[Lucy James]

"We did not go to prom together," she corrected, her eyes rolling. "I went alone." Sure, they might have met up at prom, but they didn't actually go there together. "As for how many times we've had sex, is really none of your business, and I sincerely doubt you're the right people to call anyone out on having sex." From what she'd learned, these boys were hardly virgins. After all, they'd probably bone over anything that moved, so what right did they have on telling her she couldn't have sex with whoever she wanted?

It was her goddamn right as a human being. Or some bullshit like that.

"I can't control what people call or don't call me, just as little as you guys can. If I told you to stop calling me a bitch, would you? Yeah, didn't think so." Her eyes rolled again. She couldn't help but growing increasingly more defensive, because as it stood, she hadn't "broke", and she wasn't going to break. "...you don't seriously believe in that, do you?"

"Didn't you JUST confess, and here you are berating me about falling for someone?" Though, she was made acutely aware of one tiny little detail that made this attack seem all the more... grounded, maybe.

"You're jealous," she said, as if in disbelief. The frown was quickly replaced by a laugh, and the mimics head shook. "You feel threatened by this "stupid guy"." Taking a step back, Lucy's arms crossed over her chest as she looked at the boys. Man, how awesome wouldn't it be if she called Taylor up right now and told him to come meet these guys? She could just kick back and watch the mayhem. "Oh man, aren't you guys cute?"

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

"Tons of people saw you at prom together." Jasper quickly retorted. She might have gone alone but she was still with the guy. So they probably met up or something and they were spotted leaving together so that meant that they went to prom together. Simple as that. They didn't get why she would deny something, but then again they were not going to claim they understood Lucy anymore. As for her next comment, the brothers didn't say anything. They were not virgins but despite how they acted they were not all that sexually active. Or at least, not the two of them were.

Jasper got more action then his brother, which was why Casper had already come up with his decision. Not that it mattered all that much. The brothers liked sex but they were not worried about not being able to get it for a while or anything like that. There were things that actually interested them far more then sex did. Lucy was right on the bit about not being able to control what people said about her. Yet, neither of the siblings liked that she asked and question to them but answered it herself without even giving them a chance. "Actually, if we were on good terms and you made it clear you did not like being called that; we would not call you it." Casper pointed out.

If people just spoke up; well people they liked, said something about what the siblings did then it was likely they would stop doing what it was that upset the other person. That was what they were trying to do with Alex and Franck, even if they were currently upset with the two of them but that was something to be worked out later. Then she was asking if they really believed that she and Taylor were in love. "Yup, people said they heard him say it and I think someone said you said it too." The siblings said at the same time. It was odd for them you say something so long at the same time, but they both believe it. They believed a lot of rumors and that was probably why they were upset at a few people.

Then she said that word that both the siblings disliked, causing them to roll their eyes. "We already told you that we were but not for the reason you are saying." Jasper said as he was starting to just get disgusted by the fact that she thought they would be jealous of some stupid college boy who could not speak without having an accent. The brothers were just happy that they had gotten rid of their accent and improved in their English skills. "I don't feel threatened by the guy. I could probably break him without breaking a sweat. I'm jealous that someone like him was able to break you. That somehow a college boy can get with a girl like you." Casper corrected her.

Casper had already given up on the idea of trying to seduce someone; it just clearly was not his thing. He didn't know how to go about it and if he did it like his brother he would end up acting like his brother and thus not be himself anymore.

[Lucy James]

"And?" she asked. She honestly didn't see the problem. Tons of people met people they knew at prom. It seemed more like these two were singling out this boy for their own petty, childish reasons, and Lucy for one, was getting tired of dealing with it. She wasn't broken, but that didn't mean she couldn't run around doing exactly what she wanted, regardless of what people thought of her. She had no reason to justify herself. These twins didn't decide what or who she did. It was as simple as that.

"What Taylor and I say to each other is none of your business, and I have no need to justify myself, or tell you whether or not it's true." She shrugged at that. After all, she was free to do as she damn well pleased and she wasn't going to let two kids tell her what she was doing was wrong. She as always, did exactly what she wanted, when she wanted, and these twins, or Taylor, would never, ever change that.

The boys continued, and Lucy issued a low sigh. "You can't even come up with a valid reason for this guy being bad, other than calling him some stupid college boy. If you're going to feel threatened and jealous, you might as well come up with a good reason and some better insults than that, because honestly, this is getting too childish for me to deal with. I have no need to justify myself to you, and unless you're ready to have a mature conversation about it and actually deal with your issues, I'm not going to sit around listening to this." With that, the brunette reached for her bag. She had no reason to listen to this and it was getting far too stupid. These boys seriously had some issues they needed to work out, and she wasn't going to hold their hand through it.

She wasn't broken and felt no need to prove it to these two. The only person Lucy ever had anything to prove to, was herself. No one else. "Oh, and..." she began, as she started walking. "He's twice the guy you two will ever be combined, so uh, instead of blaming him, you might wanna take a look in the mirror and realize why someone like that can get with me instead of you; bet that realization hurts your giant egos, huh?" With that, she offered the guys a smile and saluted them.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

The brothers didn't say anything, they had nothing to say when Lucy said and. Yes, it was true that they were kind of just saying something and were having a hard time making a valid point. This was all just something they were not used to; they just didn't know how to communicate with people the right way. Well, Jasper might have...at least that was what Casper assumed. While Jasper thought it was his brother who was better at talking to people. Still, Jasper was the one who did most of the talking so it might have very well been Jasper who was better at talking to people and getting his thoughts across.

Really, it as a team effort. The two of them practically needed to work together in order to talk to someone but they were just having the hardest time when it came to talking to Lucy. "Fine, whatever." Jasper said, not caring anymore. She wanted to deny it and not talk about it then there was no point in trying to press the matter anymore. He was already feeling himself grow irritated again. They should have left it off after saying sorry and telling her that they liked her. Well...Casper telling her that he liked her but honestly it went both ways for the siblings, even if people didn't catch onto that yet.

"We are not good at like...this kind of thing. This is damn hard." Casper spoke up when Lucy spoke of them not even having a valid reason for not liking the stupid college boy. They did have their reasons, but they didn't want to tell her them. Or more accurately, they didn't really know how to tell her. It was just something that they knew and figured that it should have been obvious or that it didn't need to be said. This was complicated. Too complicated for the siblings to want to deal with for much longer. "It’s like...just..." Casper said trying to put words together to try and say something that made sense. Jasper had already thrown his hands up in frustration at not knowing how to put what he wanted to say to words. At her next words, Jasper was moving over towards her, reaching out to try and grab a hold of her arm.

"You shut the hell up. We don't give a damn about some other guy you think is better than us. The two of you can rot in hell!" Jasper yelled at her, not liking that insult, mainly because it involved his brother. He did not like being insulted of course, but he lost it in an instant when it included his brother. Casper didn't say anything, just sort of stood there for a moment and looked at the ground before he moved over to where they had their bags. He then sat down, pulled out a deck of cards, and started to play with them.

[Lucy James]

She watched Casper as he seemingly tried figuring out the right thing to say, and completely failing at it. It was a pathetic attempt, that much was obvious, but Lucy saw little point in saying anything about it. Instead, she simply rolled her eyes and fell silent. In a way, she didn't even care what he had to say about the matter. The same went for his brother. This was fucking stupid, and she had nothing to justify herself for.

It was her life, her decisions and her god damn business. Clearly, these two didn't realize that. Stupid kids.

"Clearly you do, otherwise you wouldn't get so mad, or even bother insulting him," she growled as she felt Jasper tug at her arm. She peered up at him, blue eyes turning into thin slits as she pressed her lips to tightly together the skin around turned white. "If you didn't care, you wouldn't have gotten so worked up. You wouldn't have felt jealous, and you wouldn't have retorted to childish attempts at changing my mind." She turned her head, looking at Casper.

"And your brother surely wouldn't have run off to sit in the corner and sulk," she added as she looked back up at Jasper. "If you didn't care, you wouldn't have bothered apologizing. If you didn't care, you wouldn't have bothered slapping me in the forest. If you didn't care, you'd simply ignore me, and ignoring me would have been easy. But it's not easy, is it Jasper? Why? Because you fucking care." With that, Lucy pulled her hand back, hissing slightly as she took a step away.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

"You don't know a damn this about us! So just shut up!" Jasper yelled at her, glaring at her even while she let out something of a growl at him. He wanted to punch her in the face, to just knock her lights our and teach her to shut her trap. She did too much talking and didn't even bother to think about what she was saying. She didn't care, she would never care, and they did not care as well. Jasper made sure to keep a good hold on Lucy's arm once he managed to grab a hold of it. He could have so easily tapped into his power and broke her arm, he wanted to.

That desire to snap her in half just got worse as she started to talk more, about his brother this time. If there was one thing that really pissed Jasper off, it was when people talked about his brother. "He is not sulking; he is just thinking and keeping himself calm. You are lucky he likes you or else he would be with me right here teaching you a lesson." Jasper said, no longer yelling but he was speaking through clenched teeth as he went to squeeze on Lucy's arms a bit more. It was true that Caper was not fully sulking, that he was thinking about it all, and the cards were a way to help him do that while not letting his mood get in the way.

Of course, he did still feel something like pain in his body from Lucy's words. "Leave her be, she is partly right." Casper spoke up from where he was sitting as she shuffled the deck of cards in his hands. He didn’t bother to look at either of them, but Jasper turned to look at his siblings who caused his grip to loosen and Lucy slipped out of his hold. "We do care. We like her, those who we are upset with, we like, and we care about them." Casper said as he closed his eyes but still kept shuffling the cards, as if being able to see all like he would with his eyes open.

"That’s...it’s so stupid. I get the others, by why her?!" Jasper yelled at his brother as he flung his fist out. It connected with the large glass mirror along the wall, causing it to send a large crack across the glass, and break around the area when Jasper had punched. "She reminds us of ourselves on some levels I guess, I don't know." Casper responded back to his brother as he did more of a trick shuffle with his cards now. Jasper cradled his hand from the cut he got from punching the glass before he moved to walk out and to the bathroom, not saying anything more while Casper remained where he was.

[Lucy James]

"Oh yeah?" she growled, "Then why else are you getting so damn pissed off?" She wanted to yank her arm away, but with the tight grip Casper was already holding on her arm, she was already going to bruise. There was little point in playing with fate and she'd rather not mimic their stupid power again, even if that would have helped her out immensely if this ended up turning ugly. Jasper had such a temper, it was almost a little hilarious. Hadn't it been directed towards her, Lucy might have found this whole situation amusing.

Rolling her eyes, Lucy's head shook. Dear god, these kids had a thing for overdramatic gestures, didn't they? "Don't be so melodramatic, Jasper," she said, sighing. Another growl fell from her lips as she felt his grip on her arm tighten. She glared at him, blue eyes turning into slits. There was little to be done though. Unless she wanted to walk out of here with a broken arm, she had little choice but to remain still.

And then Casper spoke. Turning her head in his direction, Lucy stared at him in silence. She was a little surprised at his words and how calmly he spoke them. She'd expected him to either remain silent, or simply join his brother in this childish display of whatever the hell he was trying to do.

They continued, and even then Lucy remained silent. Then, Jasper slammed his fist against the glass which had the brunette visibly flinching. She pulled her shoulders up as her eyes pressed shut. When the shards of glass didn't start flying about, she opened her eyes again, looking over at the glass. Well, someone was going to end up getting in trouble for that, and she sure as hell wasn't going to take the fall. They seemed to all but forget she was present, which honestly, Lucy was completely fine with. Then, Jasper hurried off and finally, let go of her arm. Lifting her other hand, she carefully rubbed the now sore and red area, sighing slightly to herself.

She reminded them of them, huh? "This is so fucking stupid," she muttered.