~Luke~
Today. We agreed on going to the ice cream shop in the middle town.
Why isn't she answering? I was supposed to call her to tell her the time. Maybe she was in the bathroom, yeah that's probably where. I'll just go to the place and keep trying.
"Hayden! I'm heading out, I'll be back later," I yell down the hall at my roommate. I walk down the stairs and grab my keys.
"Wait don't go downtown, there was a huge fire at some tech support place. It's a complete mess." He yelled back at me.
Fire. The Tech Support place on fire. No, it can't be on fire Jade is there. The building is not crumbling to the ground. There is not smoke in the sky. There is not ash raining down. It can't. I won't believe it.
"Woah there, Luke. Sit down." Hayden guides me to a chair and forces me to sit. I start breathing heavier, my heart rate going through the roof. I put my head in my hands. No, no, no, no, no....
A glass is shoved in my face. "Drink this," Hayden gives me the glass and sits across from me. "It'll be alright, have you called her cell?"
I sit up and dig in my pockets for my phone. How could I forget about cell phones!
I dial her number and pray she'll answer.
"The number you tried to reach is unavailable"
I stand up and and throw my phone across the room. I don't understand why does the bad stuff always happen to me?
"Woah there tiger. Look would it help if I drove you to the hospital to see if she's there?" Hayden says while handing me my now cracked phone.
"Yeah" I mumble and take the phone. I follow him to his car and the whole ride to the hospital is silent other than me telling him to get there faster. He pulls up at the building and I open the door and get out before he comes to a complete stop.
I run to the front desk, "Hi, I'm looking for a girl named Jade Linder? She was in the building that burnt down."
"Take a seat and I'll help you as soon as I can." The lady at the desks says and answers the ringing phone.
I take a seat in an old plastic chair and put my head in my hands. I hate hospitals, from the smell, to the white brightness of the decor. Last time I came to this hospital, my brother was dying.
My butt started to vibrate and I quickly pulled out my phone. One crack went straight through the name so I couldn't see who was calling.
"Hello?"
"Hello, this is Tech Support, what seems to be the problem"
"Jade." Hearing her voice, I let out a huge sigh of relief. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? I heard about the fire. Where are you? Please tell me your ok-"
"Luke, lookup"
I raise my head and see a beautiful girl with chocolate brown hair a little past her shoulder. Her light grey shirt is covered in ash and had a rip gong down the side. Her black jeans had white ash spots and her black combat boots are untied and have some burn marks on them. Her eyes are a light shade of jade green, like her name suggest. She has a light olive tone skin and high cheekbones. All and all she was absolutely beautiful.
I stood up and wrapped my arms around her. She was slightly smaller than me, like only a inch or two. She smelled like smoke, but I didn't care. "I thought you died" I mumble into her hair.
"It take a lot more than a fire to kill me"
"Are you okay?" I pull back, but I keep my hands on her waist. A white bandage covers her wrist and a brace is wrapped around her ankle.
"Yeah, just three minor burns and a sprained ankle." She shrugs. I drop my hands from her waist and take off my hoodie. I put it around her shoulders and hug her again.
"Please don't ever do that to me again." I say and kiss her forehead.
"I won't, I promise"
I start to lean in -
~Jade~
*Two hours earlier*
I sit at my desk. The old, dirty, and rust colored spinning chair underneath me. Well, it was a spinning chair at one point but not even a full bottle of WD-40 could fix it at this point.
I lean back and put my feet on the equally as old laminate desk. I have a blue and black headset on. I sometimes use it to answer calls, but most of the time it's used for music.
At the moment a New Politics song was playing and I was, as expected, aggressively lip singing. I looked around. Two other people were in the old room. This place was interesting. From the outside it was a big metal building but from the inside it had a semi-functional ac unit. The floors were concrete. The walls were a prehistoric wood covered with a "brown" layer of paint that was now peeling off. I'm pretty sure it was either gray or white at one point.
All the computers in the room had big, old, and off-white dinosaur monitors. Why such crappy computers? No idea.
After looking around and making sure that the boss wasn't going to walk in anytime soon, I decided to read something to pass the time until my meeting with Luke. I closed out the program that we used to answer calls. It was basically a speech-to-text program and we could either say or type a response. I opened up Firefox and went to Wattpad. I would use Chrome, but the computers here can't update past Windows Vista and Chrome just won't run.
I look through all the different categories. I go the Short Story to see that weird story, Tech Support, is up at the top. How can people like such a weird story? Do they not see that it's rude to spy on people? Anyways, I end up on some Destiel story, even though I don't ship it. I didn't mind reading it every once in awhile, as long as it was fluff.
Around 30 minutes passed, it was 11pm. No one called. Not even Luke. Only interesting thing to happen was two drunk guys came stumbling in. They were cursing up a storm. They tried sitting next to me and talking, but I just ignored them. I looked up a few minutes later to see them doing something in the back. The two people for earlier encouraging them.
Another hour passed. One of the sober people left. Three other people walked in, one smoking. The other went back to working. The two drunk guys passed out. Just then I heard the boss's footsteps. My ears were highly tuned and could somehow detect his footsteps, even with headphones on. I quickly closed Firefox and Spotify. I opened up the program, logged in, and sat there in silence. I didn't dare turn my head. It would make me seem as if I wasn't working. I pushed the side of my headphone off my ear a little bit and heard his footsteps next to me. He tapped my shoulder. I took off my headphones and gave him my full attention.
"Any calls?" His voice was shrill and raspy. Kinda matched how he looked. He was short and skinny. He reminded me of Captain Hardcastle in Boy, just with black hair.
"No." He looks at me, then walks off. I wait for him to go into his office and I decide to go outside. Taking off my headphones, I stand up and put on my jacket. I grab both my phones and start heading outside. I had one phone that was hooked up to the Tech Support phone line. That's how I was always able to answer Luke. The other was my personal one.
I pull (the door is backwards) open the old metal door and walk out into the night. After pushing my way through the "greenery" (it was more brown than green, but whatever) that surrounded the metal building, I came to the little clearing. A few people were smoking and having fun.
From the road, all you could see was a forest and a dirt road. If you decided to drive down that windy road you'd find yourself at a small clearing with a few cars. To the side there'd be a few paths. Take one of those and you'd wind up in the clearing that I'm in, right beside the building.
I decided to take a small walk in the forest. After walking no more than 10 feet, I decided to turn back. Ew, outside.
A few more people were out in the clearing, having a party. When they took notice of me walking, they decided to follow me inside for some reason. I took off to the bathroom which was disgusting, and waited for them to pass. I didn't want to deal with them. Hearing their footsteps fade away, I came out, almost gagging from the smell in there. I quickly headed back to my desk and continued to work for 20 more minutes or so. It was around 12:20 then. That's when I smelled it.
It was different from the usual stench that lingered in the air. The two smells mixed together to form one big disgusting smell. Eh, I could tolerate it. Something about it seemed familiar though. I just couldn't quite put my finger on it.
It also started to get hotter. I thought the AC unit just went out. I decided to be smart and to follow the heat/smell. I walked into a room to feel it getting hotter and hotter. That's when it finally clicked. The smell, the heat, the sound. It was a fire.
I would like to say that I was heroic in that moment. That I ran through the building saving people. But that would be lying. I froze in panic until the sound of creaking metal above my head snapped me out. The building was collapsing. I ran throughout, yelling about the fire. I'm not sure how many people understood my warning or left the building but I don't think it was a lot. I was right outside, a few people gathered around in the clearing. Some were panicking [At The Disco] others were too stoned and too drunk to care. I tried to make people move, but I twisted my ankle on nothing (I was just that smart) and fell. I tried to get up but couldn't. I heard the building start to give way. The sober people ran. I tried crawling away, but at that moment i heard the building collapse. I put my hood on, pulled my jacket close, and prepared for the worse as I heard the building completely collapse.
-
I heard the motor first. I slowly opened my eyes to find a white ceiling close to me. I tried to get up, but end up violently convulsing at my lack of movement. "Slow down" I looked around to see someone on the stretcher next to me, hooked up to an IV. It wasn't him who spoke. I saw an EMT at the back, looking at me. "You just have a few burns and a sprained ankle. We're taking you to the hospital just to make sure of nothing else though" I nod my head and lay back down.
10 minuted later or so, I'm being wheeled into the hospital. I'm taken to a room where a nurse comes in as soon as I get there. "I'm gonna check you over real quick." Her name tag said Ralyn. As she looked me over, I realized I had lost my jacket. She found three burns on me. One on my twisted ankle (The right one), one on my left side, and one on my right wrist. My ankle was also badly twisted. "I'll go get one of the doctors. I'll be right back."
She left me alone for a few minutes until she came back with a doctor. "Hi, I'm Grant," he said shaking my hand. I smiled. "So what do we have here. Three minor burns and a sprained ankle. You got lucky" I smiled. This was too awkward for me.
He tended to the burns and wrapped my ankle. "You should be good. Pick up some pain meds at the pharmacy on your way out. If you have any problems, let us know." With that they both left. I got down off the bench and limped outside. I was walking across the waiting room when I heard a semi-familiar voice say my name.
"-Jade Linder? She was in the building that burnt down." I looked up to see a boy at the front desk. That must've been Luke. He walks away from the window and sits in a chair with his head in his hands. I try not to look at him to long. I want to see him up close first.
I pull out my miniature tablet (my Samsung phone) and dial Luke. The boy who i'm almost positive is Luke pulls out his phone and answers it.
"Hello?"
It's my Luke.
"Hello, this is Tech Support, what seems to be the problem"
I begin to walk over to him.
"Jade."
That's all he says for a few seconds.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt? I heard about the fire. Where are you? Please tell me your ok-"
He's cute when he worries. I get over to him and speak.
"Luke, lookup"
He is breath takingly gorgeous. His blonde hair is short, but wispy and messy and sorta spikey. His eyes are a light blue, like the ocean on a sunny day. He is also pretty lean and muscular, and is sporting a really nice tan. His shirt is a plane light green that clashed with dark jeans and blue vans he is wearing.
He stand up and wraps his arms around me. I tightly hug back. I probably smelled like smoke. I don't think he'd mind though. He was a little taller than me.
"I thought you died" He says, his face buried in my hair
"It take a lot more than a fire to kill me" I laughingly say.
"Are you okay?" He pulls back and looks at me. I nod.
"Yeah, just three minor burns and a sprained ankle." I shrug it off. He takes his hands off of me and lays his jacket over my shoulders. [The Man and the Woman] He hugs me again.
"Please don't ever do that to me again." He says, kissing my forehead.
"I won't, I promise" At least I hope.
He starts leaning forward and I meet him halfway. Our lips connect and it feels like fireworks are going off. Nothing in this moment matters. It's just me and Luke.
He pulls back slightly out of breath, "I love you Jade"
"I love you too Luke"
--------------------
A/N
Woah, it's finally here. After a month's wait, they finally meet.
So how was it?
Did y'all like it?
The song for this chapter basically says how their relationship is and we both think its a great fit, also its by our favorite band so that makes it a hundred times better.
We have a little contest between the two of us. Who's POV did you like better? We won't tell you who wrote who's till the next chapter.
Don't forget to submit your entries for the contest! It ends tonight! (May 18, 2016) Any submissions after today (but not during the early hours tomorrow to make up for timezones) will be void and will not be entered. (I will still read them if you send me them! ~Liz)
To make sure it has been submitted and we have it, check our profile and go to our reading list and make sure it's there so we can do our thing. Please comment if it's not there! We really want to read all you've created!
And also, since it's been at the bottom since we've started writing:
Marinate in my bloodstream
So yeah, thanks for being patient. Contest winners will be announced the end of May. Thanks for being amazing people!
-~Tera and Liz