"So do you have everything?" Sarah asked. I looked down at the overwhelming amount of papers in my hands and sighed.
"Yeah, I do." I replied. Sarah clapped her hands excitedly.
"Excellent! Well I'll be back in six weeks on the twenty second. You behave now, and if you have any questions don't be afraid to call." She extended a bill and a piece of paper with her number on it. I looked down at it confused, but then met her gaze.
She winked.
"I heard your stomach growling down the block. Fifty should be enough to get some canned food from the store to last you a while." She smiled and then picked up her carry on bag before bounding out the door.
"Bye, Willow!" She shouted. I smiled and shoved the fifty dollar bill into my back pocket.
I went behind the front desk where the cash register was and also the dry cleaning bills. With a sigh, I dropped the piles of paper work onto the desk and made myself comfy in the spinning computer chair.
I opened the first file and got busy reading.
After about two hours, I found myself watching funny cat videos on Youtube on the monitor sitting on the desk. I chuckled when a cat started doing the thriller dance.
When the bell above the door opened, I quickly exited out of the browser and darted my head down to make it look like I was reading the ten plus files sitting before me. Footsteps echoed through the room and a pair of beat up Converse stopped in my line of vision.
I looked up.
"May I help you?" I asked before becoming completely speechless. The boy standing before me had to be about eighteen or nineteen with dark hair and a faint five o'clock shadow. He was fit and wore a beanie on top of his head.
"Yeah, you got change for a five?" He asked. I gaped, watching his small lip ring move as he spoke. I was never a fan of them, but the one on the right side of his mouth had my complete attention. It was sexy, I wasn't going to lie.
I realized I was staring and cleared my throat, pulling away from his gorgeous brown eyes.
"Uh, Yeah. Yeah I do." I popped open the register and he handed over the five. His hands were scarred and had small black streaks all over. He wore a silver band on his middle right finger and I couldn't help but admire how attractive his hands looked.
God, what was I thinking! The last time I admired someone's hands, I ended up stranded in the middle of the desert and had to walk ten miles to the nearest gas station. I was seriously messed up.
I passed him four ones and four quarters.
He smiled and swung a big plastic sack full of dirty clothes over his shoulder, where it landed with a thump on the ground. I got a glimpse of Superman boxers and I looked away with a blush.
Jeez, I needed help.
"...around town." His voice rumbled across the room as he sifted through his large amount of dirty laundry.
"Uh, I'm sorry, what?" I asked. He laughed.
"Are you new here? I've never seen you around town." He said. I blushed harder.
"Uh, yeah. I just moved here a few days ago. I came from...Arizona." I said with a cough. He turned to look at me from over his shoulder and I couldn't help but blush harder at the fact that I could clearly see his butt.
I wasn't exactly complaining at the view either...
"Arizona?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. I nodded.
"Long story. One I would prefer not to get into with someone I just met." I said, clasping my hands behind my back. He smiled and then walked over, said Superman boxers in hand.
He stuck out his right hand and I shook it.
"Name's Jaxon, but my friends call me Jax. Will you be my best friend?" He asked with a chuckle. I sighed. Even his name was sexy.
"Willow, my friends call me Will. And only if you'll be mine." I said with a grin. He laughed.
"Okay then Will. Why did you come here from Arizona?" He asked, walking back over to the washer and dumping his clothes into it, along with the navy blue Superman boxers.
I cleared my throat again.
"To get away. I made an awful mistake a couple years ago and I got into some bad stuff. So, I ran away from it and for the life of me, I don't know why, but I ended up here in Foster's Corner." I answered, walking over and sitting on top of the dryer next to the washing machine. He popped a couple quarters in along with some detergent and started it. He turned to me.
"What kind of stuff?" he asked. I scoffed.
"Wow, you don't hold back do you?" I asked. He just smiled.
"If you must know, partying, drinking, smoking all kinds of things. Roofies. I did all sorts of awful things. And it was all because of one guy." I sighed and dropped my chin into my hands. Jax was quiet for a moment.
"At least you got away from all that. Props to you for walking away. But how was it because of that one guy?" He asked. I chuckled, but there was no humor in it.
"Well, he showed up at the pier in the town I used to live in, before shit hit the fan. He was flirting with me while I was with my friends. We'd been camping on the beach that weekend and life was tough for me then. He was just passing through on his way to L.A. and asked if I wanted to go with him. I was only sixteen and he was nineteen. I was being really stupid at the time. Anyway, I went with him and we travelled the country, partying, drinking, doing drugs. I...lost who I was and when I went to Burning Man this summer, I passed out from being too drunk and when I woke up, he was gone. He abandoned me in the middle of the desert and I was forced to walk ten miles in the scorching sun with an awful hangover to get to the nearest gas station so I could lift a ride off of some truck driver." I said bitterly. Jax remained quiet.
"And the worst part? I think I still love him. After all of that, everything he did to me, playing with my heart and sleeping with other girls, and changing me, making me see life differently, and then wrecking it all, I still love him. How fucked up is that?" I asked with a humorless chuckle. Jax nodded.
"It is. But you didn't have any control over that. You got a taste of life. And then when you got what you wished for, you realized it wasn't what you wanted." He said. I looked over at all his sexy glory, leaning against the washer with his arms crossed and muscles bulging.
"You speak like you know what I'm talking about." I accused. He shrugged.
"I do. I met this girl about four years ago, when I was fifteen. She was just beautiful. And all her beauty was natural. She never once used an ounce of makeup. She was dying of cancer when we got together. But she never told me. One day, we were driving in my new car, I lived in a small county and so driving at a young age was acceptable. We went to a bay about thirty miles out of town and there was a cliff there. We changed into bathing suits and went up to the edge of the cliff. I looked down, scared out of my mind." He smiled fondly. "She grabbed my hand and told me to no matter what, let go of her hand before we hit the water. I thought she was crazy, and I was right." He chuckled.
"We hurled off that cliff, feeling the adrenaline and I looked over at her. Her eyes were closed and she just looked so serene as we fell. Right before we hit the water, I let go. When I resurfaced she was floating on the water just relaxing. That night, she died. And then what she said before made complete sense. No matter how bad something seems, if you make that risk to just let go and let it happen, something good will come out of it. And so when she died, I let go. I didn't hang around mourning for her loss for long. Because I knew that she wanted me to move on and find someone that made me feel the same way that she did. In the end, I see life differently and I know not to take it for granted." He said with a grin. I smiled.
"I'm not going to lie, that's deep." I chuckled.
"But I understand what you are saying." I concluded, hopping down from the dryer.
"This guy, the one you say you still love, he was crazy. I wouldn't leave you in the middle of the desert if I had you." he smiled and grabbed his clothes from the dryer. I just now realized that we'd been talking for two hours while his clothes washed.
He tossed them all back in the sack and winked at me before turning around and leaving the Laundry Mat. I smiled and bit my lip before walking back to the desk and pulling out my binder from my backpack. His name may be written all over it, but just like my life, with the mess and words and memories, it all can be written over.
I grabbed a sharpie from the drawer of the desk and removed the cap before writing in big letters 'No matter how bad something seems, if you make that risk to just let go and let it happen, something good will come out of it'. Below it, I wrote Jax.
***
A/N I just love Jax. Gah! So, I'm back! I'm alive and ready to write! Vegas was awesome! I'd tell you about it but you know, what happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas. Am I right?
Anyway, Vote Comment, Fan!
Lotsa Love,
C