Darkside (a Jeff the killer romance)

chapter 6

It's a calm afternoon. Rain falls outside and pitter-patters on the window. Jeff and Adrian are in Adrian's room, Jeff sitting on the floor in front of the television watching it intently, whilst Adrian sits on his bed concentrating on drawing in a sketchbook.

"I like this show." Jeff states as the credits roll on the episode and he reaches for the remote to click the next one.

"I thought you would." Adrian smiles, not looking up from his drawing. He's happy that he apparently knows Jeff enough at this point to pick a show that interests him.

The next episode starts and they both continue quietly doing their things for a while, until a few minutes later Adrian notices Jeff behaving strangely. He glances up from his sketchbook and sees that Jeff is fidgeting uncomfortably and seems to no longer be enjoying the show he's watching. His head twitches slightly and he looks away from the screen, bringing a hand up to his face and biting at a finger. Adrians eyes move to the tv screen, since he knows enough to recognise when someone with issues has been set off by something they've seen or heard. He recognises the episode as being when the main character's evil brother turns up and tries to kill them. He's not shocked at all that family is apparently a touchy subject for Jeff, who is now clearly uncomfortable and looking around the room at anything other than the television. Adrian quickly looks back down at his sketchbook when Jeff turns to face him.

"You draw a lot." Jeff moves over to the bed and climbs onto it, trying to look at Adrian's drawing.

"Mhm.. it's something to do, I guess." He adjusts his position slightly to let Jeff see what he's drawing.

"Can I look at your book?"

Adrian smiles at the request and hands his sketchbook over to Jeff, glad to distract him from whatever was just distressing him. Jeff flips through the sketchbook looking at the drawings. Most of them are pretty dark, with lots of death and gore, though the odd page is covered in drawings of characters from cartoons making out with each other. He stops on a page and chuckles.

"I like this one." It's unmistakably a drawing of Jeff, brandishing a knife and grinning psychotically, covered in blood.

"Uh, yeah. I like drawing you... very interesting subject.." Adrian laughs awkwardly and looks away. As Jeff flips through more pages he sees a few more drawings of him. Some are bloody and violent, though others have more of a sad lonely feel to them.

"You're good at it." Jeff states matter of factly, seeming to quite like the pictures of him.

Adrian looks at the tv, knowing that if it was the evil brother storyline that triggered Jeff that he probably shouldn't watch this whole episode. "The rain seems to be stopping." he looks to the window, then at Jeff, who has now finished looking at his sketchbook and put it down. "It'll be dark soon. we could go chill outside somewhere? That's always nice."

"Eh..." Jeff stands up and walks over to the window. "I'm gonna leave tonight." he leans against the windowsill and watches as the sky starts to darken outside.

"Oh. Fair enough, I guess." Adrian sounds disappointed, though quickly shifts back to cheerful and stands up. "Places to go, people to- well, cut up and stuff, I guess, huh?" he giggles. Jeff doesn't respond or turn away from looking out of the window. "Do you want to sit on the patio with me while I have a cigarette before you go?"

"Heh," Jeff smirks, though still doesnt turn from the window. "Not particularly."

Adrian rolls his eyes. "Well, will you anyway?" he smiles as he rephrases the question for him.

"Mn, I guess."

The rain is light and appears to be stopping as the two step out onto the patio. Jeff walks down the garden to the shed to grab his knife and hoodie whilst Adrian finds a dry patch of ground in a corner and sits to roll a cigarette. Jeff, now with that hood of his covering what his long black hair didn't already, sits down next to him as he's lighting up. "How long do you think until you'll come back here?" Adrian attempts to sound like he's making small talk despite just much preferring Jeff's company over any of his friends.