Dark Eyed Dreamers

Jasey Rae POV

I woke to the sun spilling through my curtains. I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar room and an unfamiliar bed. It was red. I wasn't wearing any clothes, another catch. I tried to sit up, but a weight on my bare waist tied me to the bed.

I looked down and saw an arm. My eyes traced a path up that arm, to a shoulder, and saw Jack. He was also naked. Some blurry memories were coming back. My hand flew up to my mouth to keep from screaming.

I had slept with Jack! No, no, this could NOT have happened! Not after the paint fight, not even after the drinking last night!

I carefully peeled myself from Jack, being extra careful not to wake him. He'd tear me apart if he found out we'd slept together. And even worse, I'd never done this with a guy before.

I found my clothes by the door. I dressed and crept out of the room. My phone was still in my pocket. I used it to call Alicia. She picked up after the fourth ring.

"Jasey Rae?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's me." I choked.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Outside Jack's house." I answered.

"What happened?" she exclaimed.

"I . . . I slept with Jack." I whispered.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"Still sleeping. I s'pose he has a bad hangover." I mumbled.

"That's not good." she muttered.

"NO! NO!" I heard a guy yell in the background.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"Zayden's house." she said.

"Did you guys . . . ?" I asked.

"No! Heck no! We left a while after Jack pulled you upstairs and came here. We're playing Halo 2 on XBox." she said.

"Oh." I whispered.

"So you're okay with that?" she asked.

"Of course! Besides, I've broken several promises by sleeping with Jack. Amanda's liked him for a while and I just screwed that for her. Besides, I think I'm going to break up with Zayden." I said.

"What? Why?" she cried.

"Things are too crazy. He was great when I was fighting not to like Jack, but I've screwed up and Zayden hates me." I sighed.

"Oh come on!" she said.

"You should've seen his face." I whispered.

"Hey, I thought you couldn't remember anything." she accused.

"I couldn't. Everything's coming back now." I told her bleakly.

"So can you pick me up?" I asked.

"Sure! Be right over!" she smiled and hung up. She was there in less than five minutes. "So what are you gonna do about Jack at school?" Alicia asked me once we were in the car.

"Avoid him and hope he doesn't remember a thing." I answered hesitantly.

"That's not a god plan, but I got nothing better." she admitted.

--

I would've avoided Jack with no problem, except Mom invited the Evers' over for dinner. The reason my dad is never around is he died of brain cancer when I was eight. I got a lot of sympathy and crap and I used to cry myself to sleep nearly every night, but it started to fade away.

I sat in my room with my i-pod blasting for as long as I could. Jack, of all people, came up to get me.

"JASEY RAE!" he yelled.

"What?" I yelled. He came into my room.

"Dinner." he mumbled.

There was something different in his eyes, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was. All I could think of was him, naked in bed, sleeping innocently and how I'd left him. I got up and left and he followed. We walked down in silence. Dinner continued in the same way.

"Jasey Rae, you haven't said a word this whole time. Is everything okay?" my mom asked.

"Yeah. Everything's fine." I smiled.

"What about you Jack? Party hard last night?" Mrs. Evers asked.

"Yeah." he muttered, spinning his pasta around on his plate with his fork.

Dinner ended slowly and when it did, I rushed to my room. An hour later, someone knocked softly on my bedroom door.

"Come in." I whispered. Jack was leaning against the door frame.

"Came to say goodnight." he breathed.

"Goodnight then." I said. I got up and held out my hand for him to shake. He shook his head.

"Jasey Rae, we can do better than that, can't we?" he smirked, cocking an eyebrow.

I looked at him, confused. He pulled me in and kissed me hard on the lips. When he let me go, I was gasping for air.

I slapped him hard across his face. The momentum shoved his face to the side. He turned back to me, brushed the hair out of his eyes, and looked at me fiercely.

"Jasey Rae, please. Tell me you love me. I love you more than life and there's nothing stopping me from doing that now." he whispered sharply.

"I don't. I don't love you. Now accept that and leave." I said sharply, tears pricking up in my eyes. He reached out to me, but I pushed on his chest and he walked away. He suddenly turned.

"Then why'd you sleep with me?" he snapped.

"I thought you--" I started, but he interrupted.

"Thought I'd forget. I did, but I heard you say it yourself. How can you do this to me and not care for me one single little bit?" he snapped.

"I was drunk and so were you!" I snapped.

"But underneath the alcohol fogging my brain was desire. Desire for you." he whispered.

"I don't even know why I did it." I whispered.

"Just telling me now? You know that makes me feel like such a dumbass." he snapped and stormed out. I didn't hear from him again that weekend. We did our best to ignore each other in school.