[October 31st, 1990]
When the house was first being built, a husband's wife wanted a place where she could watch the sunset every night. She was an artist with an amazing mind. One of the things that she drew inspiration from the most was the sky. With that being said, she wanted to be able to maximize her inspiration. So, obviously, there was a way to actually get onto the roof. Above the biggest rooms in the house, there was a hatch and a very narrow, very dangerous spiral staircase leading to a huge, flat part of the roof, overlooking the huge backyard and the town below.
Alex clutched Jasey Rae's right hand and pulled her up onto the roof. Dead leaves and garbage were littered all over the entire thing.
Alex licked his lips.
"I-I-It's co-cold," Jasey said at the sky. It was now a swirl of a dark navy and black as opposed to the colorful one before. It was way too cloudy for stars but way too eerie for Jasey to even notice the lack thereof. She tugged on the left strap of her backpack. Alex pulled her closer. She felt her heart speed up. She decided it was just the fear that she was still holding due to the circumstances and nothing more.
"Do you want my jacket?" Alex began to pull his hand away, but Jasey had stopped him. He sighed. Alex really wanted her to take her jacket.
"A-Alex."
"Jasey." He smiled at her, but something felt wrong.
"D-Do you... I-I-I mean... M-maybe...." Jasey couldn't even form a full word. She took a deep breath. "N-Never mind." She could feel her chest start to get heavy and a frog start to form in her throat.
"Hey," Jasey looked down at her feet. "What's wrong? Tell me." Alex pried as he moved closer to her. He felt the tip of his nose grow cold and wondered if Jasey Rae felt it too.
"N-No." She tried to peel her hand away from his but now he was the one holding on too tight. She looked behind her, pretending to look up at the sky, anything to avoid those big, beautiful brown eyes... But she already had the entire surrounding scene etched into her mind. There was no point in looking to the sky. But there was a point in avoiding eye contact. Jasey Rae looked into the backyard. Uncharted territory. Alex shook his head. He was starting to feel the cold nip at his whole face now.
The boy sat down, still refusing to unleash his death-grip on the girl's hand.
"Sit." He ordered, but it wasn't with a harsh tone. He was still all smiley and happy. That confused Jasey a lot, but she sat down beside him anyway. He was harmless, after all. She pulled her one free arm inside her sweatshirt. Alex actually contemplated letting go of her hand to let her do the same with this one, but instead, he wrapped his other hand around both his and hers. "How's life, Jasey Rae?" He wanted to ask something deeper, but that's what came out. He figured it was a good place to start for now unlike some scary question that might cause her to shoot any other semblance of conversation down.
"G-g-great." She stared up at the sky. Again. This time she thought she had felt a raindrop or two. Alex seemed to ignore it, so she didn't ask him if he had felt them. Instead, she looked up for answers. Just as she did so, a big, fat raindrop landed square on her nose and ran down her face as she looked back down. No more sky, she decided. Look at him.
"Nah, seriously. What's going on in that head of yours?" Alex looked at her as she kept on staring out into the sky, further ignoring the water dripping onto himself. Look at him.
"N-N-Nothing."
"Nothing? You have no thoughts?" Alex laughed, but he honestly couldn't tell if this was a joke or not. "That's weird. I'm thinking about..." Alex paused. He was thinking about how soft her hands were. "I'm thinking about..." Nothing of use came to mind. "Jase?" She finally turned to face him.
She hummed her response in order to avoid the embarrassment that would come from more stuttering and more... being herself. I can't look at him.
"Jasey... where's your mom?" Alex asked. He really didn't mean to at all, but he had always found himself wondering. In all honesty, Alex wondered lots of things about Jasey. Over the past few months they'd grown closer than anything, but she wasn't really an open book, unlike Jack always had been. Jasey liked to keep lots of things to herself. More often than not, she liked to dodge super personal questions from Alex and Jack. And most of these questions Alex had, Rian couldn't even answer. (Or maybe he could and just didn't want to.)
Jasey sighed.
"Y-You don't have to answer... I was like only wondering, but you really don't have to tell me. I'm sorry Jasey Rae." The girl shook her head.
Jasey looked up at Alex. In the eyes. Despise them both being on the ground, she was a significant amount shorter than him and still felt as though she was almost breaking her neck looking up at him. But the way he was looking back at her... she did not feel so little. She liked looking into his eyes. She felt safe somehow.
"What?" Jasey stared at him, unresponsive. His big brown eyes just seemed so captivating. She felt like she was swimming in them. "Jase?" She looked to his lips.
I cannot do this. She thought. But she did.
Jasey pulled her free hand out from her sweatshirt and placed it on Alex's face. She looked up into his eyes again. He looked frightened. Jasey felt her heart skip a beat. She took a deep breath and finally kissed him.
She'd never been that bold before. Everything she'd ever done had always been a black and white choice. It was right and wrong; plain, easy, and simple. This? This was a gamble. A very risky move, at its finest. She's never kissed anyone before. But neither had Alex.
And as their lips locked together, she knew it was the right move. She moved her hand away from his face and rested it onto his shoulder as his own hand crept up onto Jasey's face and held a palmful of her cheek and hair. The rain began to fall harder.
Jasey pulled away and laughed. Can't look him in the eyes, huh?
Alex didn't laugh. He pressed his forehead into Jasey's and finally, he smiled as she just kept on laughing. Alex loved this side of her.
There aren't words to describe how purely perfect both teens felt in the moment. They forgot, just for a second, that they were sitting on the roof of an abandoned mansion on October 31st.
Alex traced his fingers over Jasey's chapped lips. He could see the markings clearly of how they were often chewed on, like the bubblegum she would often chew this past summer. Alex felt the smile start to fade from his own lips. He'd always wondered why she had this nervous habit of picking at the poor things... Jasey's eyes were closed, however, and she couldn't tell as she leaned into both Alex's forehead and the wind. She was no longer feeling scared and cold, but as if she could do anything she wanted. Who knew just kissing would be such a game-changer?
Just as a conversation starter was going to flower from Alex's mouth and into the air, Jack screamed from inside the house. Jasey's eyes popped open and she turned to face the door. Alex's eyebrows rose up his face.
"Come with me," He insisted. They picked themselves up from the ground, apparently forgetting what just happened. Their hands untangled from each each other as they rushed to the side of the roof.
Alex dashed down the stairs and Jasey was following until she tripped. The small girl went flying down the entire flight of stairs. When she reached the bottom, she landed in a huge pile of glass.
Alex whipped around. "Oh my god." Jasey lay on the floor crying her little heart out. "Jasey, oh my god."
She felt like telling him to shut up.
"ALEX!" Jack ran into the room and pushed himself onto his hands and knees next to Jasey, after kicking the remainder of the glass out of the way. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"Nothing! You were screaming!" Alex yelled back. Jasey wrapped her arms around Jack's neck. "I-what... Are you drunk?" Alex's face was burning now. He ran his hands through his hair and stepped closer, pulling back one of Jack's shoulders, causing Jasey to let go of the boy entirely, still sobbing.
"No, I'm fucking tipsy, you moron," Jack squeezed Jasey's hand as she let a moan of pain escape from her lips. "Jasey Rae, I am right here."
Jasey's blood was adding to that already on Jack's shoes.