Why Won't You Fall Into My Arms?

We ate in what felt to be our first comfortable silence, both of us perched contentedly on his bed. Jack was still wary about leaving me alone in his house after I’d snooped into his private life so had bolted back with the speed of the hunted. I was just happy to have something in my stomach; food was an undiminished passion of mine.

It was only after a few minutes of quietly munching that I realised Jack’s eyes were focused on me with an uncomfortably intense directness.

“See something you like?” I raised an eyebrow at his stare only to draw him back to reality.

“Off in space there,” he smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck like he used to do when caught out on a lie. I was surprised he hadn’t hurled an insult right back at me. I was surprised that it seemed we’d gone more than ten minutes without an argument. I had never thought that was possible.

I didn’t reply but kept shooting him glances that warned of my amazing punching ability and how he should watch exactly what he stared at. Jack was still my enemy no matter how delicious a sandwich he could concoct.

“So… what do we do now?” I asked awkwardly, not knowing how to speak to him in a conversation which wasn’t heated.

“No idea.”

“None at all?”

He smirked darkly “none that don’t include your clothes on the floor.”

“Keep those kinds of thoughts to yourself,” I muttered threateningly “or the only thing that will be on the floor in a minute will be you.”

“Is that a promise?” his smirk turned dark.

“You know what I meant.”

“I know what you secretly meant.”

I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling and questioned a God I didn’t believe in how it was possible for one boy to be so incredibly smug. And if He could give me the strength to carry on, it would be much appreciated.

“Well… how about we go and raid the supermarket? There’s nobody there to take our money,” Jack proposed after being absorbed in his own thoughts. “And there’s nobody to tell us not to have trolley races!”

“That’s what you want to do? Go to the supermarket to have trolley races?”

It was far from impressive. I had thought that if Jack had suddenly found himself alone in the world, his desires would be a lot more… dangerous. Criminal possibly. Not the type which may get you banned from the supermarket for a few weeks, a month at most.

“What can I say? I like to live on the edge.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at him then, at the misconceptions I had been harbouring for far too long. Maybe the person Jack had become wasn’t as different as I had originally thought, maybe what he had been trying to make me believe for years had actually been just an act.

He was smiling now too. The smile which blazed straight through his dirty smirk.

“Maybe we’ll do that tomorrow,” he yawned “it’s getting late and I don’t want to be walking around after dark.”

“What are you talking about; it’s barely the end of the morning.”

“It’s practically evening Soph,” he said slowly, shooting me an unsure look.

But surely it was still only mid-afternoon. Surely, I hadn’t wasted all of that time arguing with Jack. The clock on his bedside table told me that I had in fact used up almost all of the day with nothing but sarcastic comments.

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” he said sardonically.

I snorted in response, feeling the fatigue of the day suddenly in every muscle of my body. It was as if learning how late it was made my body immediately aware of all the energy I had spent on being unpleasant. I was tired. Tired of being scared, being annoyed and being angry.

“What am I supposed to do then? If my brother returns home tonight and finds me gone then I am in so much trouble. He’ll instantly assume I’m out screwing boys and taking drugs and God knows what else.”

I hadn’t meant to say if. I had meant to say when.

“Does he know you at all?” Jack scoffed; the idea of me doing any of those things was obviously amusing. To him anyway.

I slapped his chest from where I sat cross-legged on the bed. I watched his happy expression slowly drain away; melt off, to be replaced with a half sadness which made me unexplainably sad too.

“We’d be in a lot less trouble,” his voice was equally as grave “if they came back tonight at all.”

He was right. I would have given almost anything for Jamie to reappear, find me gone and want to ground me for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t have even minded my lack of freedom as long as there were other people around to confine me in.

I let my eyelids slide down, finding them too heavy to hold up. I lay back onto the bed and stretched my body out. My leg brushed against Jack’s upright body but I barely noticed; only concerned with how the bed felt beautiful cushioning me in. It wasn’t late enough to sleep but it was late enough to feel exhausted.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to sleep now?” he taunted all hints of seriousness gone again.

In response, I lifted one hand off of the bed and flipped my middle finger up. I was met with Jack’s laughter, low and dark, melodic almost with my eyes closed. I could picture the smile he would be wearing and the dimples in his cheeks which only appeared when he was genuinely amused.

It felt wrong that I knew that about him.

“You’re in quite the compromising position at the moment Soph,” I could hear his smirk.

“How so?”

“Well…” his words washed over me from a place far too close “it makes it very easy for me to do this.”

My eyes flew open as his body rolled onto mine, legs weighing mine down onto the bed and both of my hands clasped in one of his. If I didn’t know any better I would think Jack was straddling me. I did know better though, and I knew what he was about to do.

“No Jack, no, don’t you dare!”

“If I remember correctly Soph, there’s a place on your stomach which is very very ticklish…” he trailed off, blue eyes flashing into mine.

Now that was certainly something he shouldn’t remember about me.

“Let’s think about this rationally for a minute.”

Jack, apparently, didn’t want to think about it rationally for even a few seconds. His free hand trailed down my stomach, almost instantly finding the spot he was referring to. He’d first discovered it when were seven years-old and it had been my kryptonite ever since. Especially against Jack.

I tried to push him away but my hands and legs were still locked with his so all I could do was laugh. And laugh. The kind of uncontrollable, gut-busting, stop-please-stop laughter.

After a few unbearable minutes, Jack finally relented his tickling but remained where he was. My laughter subsided so I was free to shoot him a deadly glare which should have bowled him over.

“Get off Jack!” I demanded, finding my voice once more.

“Hmmm,” he pretended to contemplate the idea “I don’t think so. I rather like this position.”

“I’m pretty sure if I try hard enough I can get a good shot in at your nuts from here. Do you want children? Because if not I suggest you remain exactly where you are,” I growled.

“You’re in no position to threaten me sweetheart,” he smirked, leaning in closer so I could feel his sweet breath wash over my neck. “I’m the one in charge right now and it feels pretty good.”

“I can think of plenty of things which won’t feel so good,” I snapped.

My body was writhing in his grip, trying to find the weakness which I had never discovered before. When we were younger it was easy enough to get Jack off of me – I was taller than him for most of our childhood. Now, however, he was 6ft 4 and had muscles in his thighs big enough to restrain me with ease. I didn’t stand a chance.

It took me a little while of struggling to notice that Jack was almost doubled over in laughter. There were tears in his eyes. In fact, his laughter was probably more hysterical than even mine had been.

“What the hell is wrong with you now, Adams?”

He tried to compose himself but, as I shifted again, his chest practically burst with the mirth. And that’s when I realised that my movements were tickling him. Oh sweet karma.

And so I did what any arch enemy would do with the information I had, I writhed my body around as much as I could so we our skin never stopped rubbing together.

“You might want to stop that Soph,” Jack’s smirk was back as laughter still vibrated through his chest. I wondered how it was possible to look as devious as he did when he was still being tickled.

“Or what?”

“Or me tickling you will be the tamest thing we do all night,” he looked down at me intently.

I didn’t even want to imagine the thoughts playing around in his mind when he gave me that look. I didn’t want to but already they were in my head too, making me blush, making me uncomfortable. Making me aware of how his thighs were firmly laying across my lower stomach.

“Oh God,” I groaned, finally managing to get my hands free to shove down on his chest “get away from me.”

He just snickered and allowed my pathetic strength to push him completely off. I reached up to feel my burning face, attempting to cool it down before Jack saw. I didn’t want him getting the wrong impression. I was blushing because those thoughts were x-rated, not because they were with him.

“Want to watch a movie?” he inquired carefully after a few moments.

It was such a leisurely thing to do, watching a movie, something you wouldn’t normally participate in when wondering what to do about the entire world’s population seemingly disappearing. And that is exactly why I wanted to do it.

Well… that and I didn’t want to give Jack any more excuses to make me feel ‘uncomfortable.’

“Sure, but I get to pick.”

We needed to do something normal, something which didn’t have us at each others’ throats. It had been such a surreal day with so much bickering that we both needed an excuse to just sit in silence for a while. It didn’t even matter what we watched – I don’t think either of us would really be paying attention anyway.

“My DVD collection is over there,” he waved a finger over towards his huge plasma television; the thing mounted so war into the wall it was millimetres away from disappearing.

I made my way slowly over, almost completely baffled at how many DVDs he owned, before kneeling down to get a closer look. I was searching for something at least slightly interesting so that, in case things got tense again, there was always the movie to pretend to be enthralled in.

“How rich can someone be?” I asked myself quietly, fingers flying over the cases as I quickly lost count.

In the end, I settled for a classic Harry Potter because I knew everybody loved Harry Potter. I had spotted the Twilight Saga nestled in behind some macho action movies which I would use as later ammunition. Even I didn’t have the films on DVD.

“Change of plan Soph,” Jack called from where he lazed on the bed “who needs a film when I have this glorious view.”

Snapping around, I saw his gaze directed unashamedly on my ass.

“Real mature Adams,” I rolled my eyes and stood up sharply.

He grinned like a little child after just being discovered with a hand halfway in the cookie jar. It wasn’t the guilty kind either but rather the you-know-you-love-me-anyway smile. He used that far too much and it had never worked on me.

I slipped in the film and moved around the room to pull down the blinds. I refused to have to squint during the movie. And I liked the atmosphere semi-darkness cast around me. But, of course, Jack didn’t understand my perfectly reasonable concept.

“Why are you pulling down the blinds Soph? Not that I’m complaining or anything I just thought we’d at least wait until after the movie.”

That fucking smirk on his face had to crush my childlike excitement at the prospect of Harry Potter. Everything he did managed to annoy me, infuriate me even, and make me far too aware of how much I had to restrain myself from attacking him.

I chose to outwardly ignore his comment and settle myself defiantly on the floor to stare at the opening credits of the movie. Already that familiar music had my body relaxing, my tight fists relaxing back into hands.

“Don’t be stupid Soph” he whined “get up off the floor.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re a jerk and I don’t want to sit anywhere near you.”

“Don’t make me come down there and get you.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” I gazed warily at his eager eyes and knew he would. “Fine” muttering in defeat I shifted my proud self from the floor to the very edge of the bed. Trying to regain some control of my anger, I concentrated on the baby Harry Potter being placed on the Dursleys’ doorstep and not on Jack’s smug grin.

For a good half an hour I found myself becoming more and more absorbed in the film. It was bliss to be worried about this poor boy’s battle with his awful family and the magic within him instead of about our predicament. And how close Jack’s body was to mine.

“Oh shit, I just realised,” Jack broke my enthralled silence with his annoying voice “my date with Cassie tonight must be cancelled because she’s not around. I guess that means no getting laid for me. Damn, she was probably a great fuck too.”

Maybe he’d forgotten that I was still here. Maybe he was too caught up in his sad loss at not having a girl to sleep with tonight. Maybe he was just so self-centred that he didn’t care that he wasn’t just talking to his horny, one-track mind.

“You really are the most vulgar, self-centred jerk that I have ever known. Every fucking body is missing yet all you’re worried about is having sex with another fake clone. Seriously, is that all that goes through your hollow mind? How many girls you can shag in a week? I guess it doesn’t matter to you that our families are missing and something terrible could have happened to them!”

I was so mad and I couldn’t even really comprehend why. Sure, he’d broken my enjoyable movie experience and he’d been obnoxious but wasn’t that the normal Jack? He slept with far too many girls and was already on to the next one before she’d even left in the morning.

“God, calm down Soph no need to get your jealous granny knickers in a twist.”

It wasn’t anger this time that sizzled through me like a hot wire. It was fucking fury. While Harry was entering Hogwarts for the first time I lunged at Jack, rolling over with him slightly before crashing off the end of the bed. Happily, I noted that I was still on top of him.

“I am not jealous” I seethed “I would never be jealous of girls who you probably gave your nasty STDs to. And you have no idea what underwear I wear you jerk!”

“Don’t have heart attack over it,” he scoffed, still in shock that I had actually attacked him. And that I appeared to have won.

I smacked his chest hard enough to hear a loud thud before moving myself to get off of him. However, Jack had other ideas. He wound his large hands around my shoulders and kept me where I was, both of us frozen, staring at each other.

“Do you have any idea how turned on I am right now? If you want to be in control then that’s fine, heck, please dominate me Soph,” he shoved me roughly back down onto him.

“Fuck off Adams,” I screeched.

“You are such a prick tease,” he groaned.

I could feel his excitement as my body lay flush against his, my legs resting in between his large thighs. I was bright red. I was so embarrassed and shocked that I could barely move my arms to try to escape.

“It’s not my fault you have no control over yourself,” I snapped.

“But I would rather like to take you up on that underwear offer now,” he grinned, his face just centimetres from mine.

I groaned in disgust and pushed against him as hard as was possible. I could tell that, if he’d wanted to, he could have held me in place. His arms weren’t just for show, the muscles embedded in his body weren’t hollow. But he moved with my push and allowed me to get up.

“Now if you even think about making another sexual innuendo, suggestion or move then I will have you incapacitated and possibly testicle-less before the thought properly develops in your pea-brained mind,” I seethed, looming over him with murder on my mind.

He merely laughed as if my entire threat was ridiculous, which it was, but he shouldn’t have doubted how seriously I would try to carry it out. Any excuse to render Jack Adams as a childless being and/or unable to move was more than appealing especially when he was looking at me like that.

He moved off of the floor but didn’t say anything, too busy chortling. We went back to distantly watching the film but my head was too filled with Jack to concentrate on Harry Potter now.

I didn’t want him touching me like that again. In fact, I didn’t want him touching me at all. Feelings that weren’t worth feeling were rearing their heads as if years and years hadn’t gone by and we were both twelve year old friends again.

God, we were far from being that once more. Jack had changed too much, for one he was a lot hornier and a lot more obnoxious, and I couldn’t stand him.

Even if somewhere deep down, I wished that we were like that again, that we could ever return to something like that.