FLASHBACKS ➳ JACK GILINSKY

CHAPTER TWO - COUNTING STARS

My breathing decreased and returned back to normal. My dizziness has faded and I could finally make out the guy who took care of me and was more shocked by who I saw.

"Jack," I whispered, having it come out as a statement rather than a question. He was here. For me. I was relieved to see that he still cared enough for me to help me with my asthma attack. My anxiety mixed with my asthma wasn't the best combination in the world.

He looked at me with a hard expression, and I immediately became confused. Did he truly did care for me or was it just another fantasy in my head? "You're in my group, and I can't let you jeopardize the stakes of us failing. Pull it together, will you?"

"I'm sorry," I muttered, hurt.

"Bullshit," he snarled. "Whatever. Here's the song the judges chose for us." He threw me a few sheets of paper. They dropped to the ground, and I bent down to pick it up. Once I gathered the papers in my hands and looked at the title of the song, I dropped the papers on the floor again.

❅ ❅ ❅

I looked out at the beautiful scenery before my very own eyes. Watching the sunset was something I looked forward to every day. It was a family tradition to come out to the beach every month to look at the sunset together, but I loved it so much, I decided to just come out here every day. Even the seagulls seemed to be captivated by the sunset because they always seemed to stop flying around and calling out, for a little while just to stare at the sunset.

The wind flew roughly around me, causing my hair to fly all over my face. I didn't mind though, because this feeling was something that I had grown to love. I loved the breeze; it made me feel alive and at ease.

The only thing I loved more than the sunset and the breeze whooshing past me was playing my guitar and singing to it. I tapped on my guitar, making a few beats before strumming notes to a song that had been playing on the radio so many times, that it had been stuck in my head for the past weeks.

"Lately I been, I been losing sleep. Dreaming about the things that we could be, but baby I been, I've been praying hard. Said no more counting dollars, we'll be counting stars," I sang, shutting my eyes at the last note of the chorus, then opening them again to play the next notes for the verse.

"I see this life like a swinging vine, swing my heart across the line. In my face is flashing signs, seek it out we shall find. Old, but I'm not that old. Young, but I'm not bold. I don't think the world is told, I'm just doing what we're told," I continued, concentrating hard on my fingers as they plucked the strings.

"I feel something so right, doing the wrong thing. And I-I feel so something so wrong doing the right thing," I stopped singing once I heard a voice joining me. "I could lie couldn't I, couldn't I? Everything that kills me makes me feel alive," the voice finished the first verse, without me, seeing as I was too shocked to finish.

I turned around, finding myself coming face to face with him. "You," I pointed at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd find you here again," he smiled, taking a seat right down next to me on my bench.

"Stalker much."

"No, I like to call it observant."

My eyes widened at his statement. "So you've been observing me?"

"Yep," he replied, and he laughed when he saw my appalled face. "Don't worry I'm not a crazy stalker that's planning on killing you later on or anything," he assured me, but I wasn't too convinced. I mean, he is a stranger after all, and I was taught ever since I was a little kid to not trust strangers.