Between Two Lungs

Mae got back to her apartment and slid the door shut with a sigh. She groaned, squeezing her eyes shut and gently banging the back of her head against the door's metal surface.

"That took a while. What are you doing?" a male voice called from the couch. It took Mae a minute to remember that she had invited Jordan to stay at her place for the duration of his trip. She shook off the slight feeling of dizziness from her head and walked over to where he was sprawled out on the couch bed.

"Nothing," she replied, waving it off with a flick of the wrist. "Just some stupid logistics for the art show."

"Like what?" he asked curiously.

Mae sighed and said, "Well, it's just that two of my friends haven't paid their deposits yet for the gallery rental space, and if they don't give in their money, then the rest of us have to pay double. And I can't afford to spend a hundred and sixty dollars when I barely have enough to pay for my rent and food."

Jordan's jaw tensed, but Mae didn't notice. "Maybe...you should just stop spending so much on indulgences."

Mae glanced up at him before turning away. "Every artist has their vices."

He sat up and looked over at her. "What are yours?"

She swallowed down the lump in her throat and fixated her eyes on the blank television screen. She took in a deep breath and said, "Coffee."

He let out a small laugh and shook his head. "Coffee?"

"What can I say?" Mae grinned. "I'm a caffeine addict." She grabbed a DVD case of the ground. "Want to watch anything? I don't really have movies, just a lot of TV shows."

Jordan shrugged. "I'm down."

Mae grinned and pulled out a disc. "I hope you like shows about serial killers killing other serial killers," she spoke. "Have you ever had the chance to watch Dexter?"

"Marc's always telling me about that show, but I've never actually gotten around to watching it," he confessed. "Is it any good?"

"I'm going to pretend like you didn't just ask me that question," she smirked as the show started. She walked over to the light switch and turned it off as the opening scenes of the pilot appeared on the screen. Jordan had his back propped up against the couch with his legs outstretched and relaxed on the mattress. Mae came and sat next to him, a little distance away, cross legged.

"Tonight's the night. And it's going to happen again."

Mae smirked inwardly at the irony of that statement. Her life was the same as Dexter's...except her addiction didn't consist of murdering the scum of society.

Jordan watched her intently as her eyes stayed glued to the screen. He kept glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, looking back at the TV every now and again in case she became suspicious.

After a few minutes though, she looked over at him just as he was averting his gaze.

"Do I have something on my face?" she asked, bringing a hand up to her cheek.

"No," he said, extending his own hand out to lower her arm. "I was just wondering..."

She mumbled in reply, "Wondering what?"

"I was just wondering..." he trailed off. "Why...you were sitting so far away."

Mae examined the distance between them. It couldn't have been more than two feet. The couch wasn't that big. "Did you want me to move...closer?"

He shrugged. "If you wanted to."

She smiled slightly. "I do."

Mae scooted closer to Jordan and as soon as she was right up next to him, he draped his arm over her shoulders. She relaxed and leaned up against his toned chest, feeling contented. She could feel her heart pounding inside her chest. She'd never experienced anything like it before--it was a different sort of rush from any kind of high she'd ever felt. And she liked it.

"Jordan?" she looked up at him. The light from the television gave his face a soft, almost angelic glow. His blue eyes sparkled as the sun started to set over the city, ushering in a cold winter's night.

"Yes?"

Mae felt herself blush, but asked anyway. "Can I kiss you?"

He looked a bit surprised, but grinned and said, "Sure."

Mae inched closer to him, her heartbeat increasing with each passing second. His hand came up to cup the side of her face, and she could feel his warm breath tickling the surface of her lips. They were mere millimetres away from touching when her cell phone rang obnoxiously in her pocket.

"S-Sorry," she stammered, backing away and fishing her phone out. Jordan laughed sort of awkwardly.

"It's fine. I'm sure it's an important call."

"Actually," she muttered, checking the caller ID. "It's your brother." She looked back up at Jordan. "Did you tell Marc that you were back in the city?"

Jordan blinked a few times and said, "Nope."

She could sense that Jordan was lying, but pressed the 'Accept' key on her phone and held it against her ear anyway. "Hello, Marc?"

"Is Jordan at your place?" was the first thing that she heard out of Marc's mouth.

"Yeah," Mae answered, tugging on a few loose threads on her sweater. "Is it that big a deal?"

"Why isn't he staying at my apartment?" he nearly demanded. "He knows that I have a guest room here. And he's my brother, he should know better than to ask for shelter from a near stranger."

"We're not really strangers anymore, Marc," Mae said defensively, moving off the couch and walking away to take the call in the kitchen. Jordan just sunk down into the couch bed and kept on watching Dexter. "I hope you know that even though he's your younger brother, he's allowed to make his own friends and so am I."

"I'm trying to look out for you," he defended. "Not that Jordan's a bad person or anything, but I know how private you can be--"

"Marc, I can take care of myself just fine," she snapped. "And the next time you call, do your best not to bite my fucking head off the second I pick up." With that, she ended the call and turned off her phone before returning to watch Dexter with Jordan.

"Is everything okay?" he asked as Mae ran a hand through her hair. "You look tired."

"Y-Yeah, I am," she sighed, looking at the clock. It flashed 7:30pm, but it was already pitch black outside. And since the nightmares had been keeping her awake, she could feel herself succumbing to the allure of sleep. "I think I'm just going to crash early. The bathroom is down the hall over there, and there's food if you get hungry. If you need anything else, you can just wake me up, I guess."

"Sure," was all he said. Then she disappeared into her room.

Mae shuffled to her room and nearly collapsed onto the bed. She let her eyes close, wanting nothing more than the immaculate embrace of dormancy.

From his position on the couch, Jordan felt his cell phone vibrate. He took it out of his pocket and read the message in his inbox. It was from Marc.

Fuck with her, and I'll beat the shit out of you.

"Love you too, bro," Jordan muttered to himself. He put the phone away and made sure that Mae was in her room before pulling out the plastic bag and its contents from his back pocket. He frowned at them again, not knowing what to do. He knew that he had feelings for Mae, that was certain, but what could he possibly make of this?

He debated putting it back where he found it. He had an inkling that she wouldn't be using while he was around, but what about when he had to leave? Would she fall back into the same old habits? Surely she'd notice if her stash was gone. But at the same time, he didn't know what he would do if she was to overdose and potentially kill herself. He barely knew this girl, but still felt a need to protect her.

"But how do you protect someone from themselves?" he wondered aloud as the episode ended. Jordan reached over and turned off the television. He put the bag back into his pocket and laid down on the mattress, staring at the cold, metal ceiling. "Maybe I'll get my answer tomorrow morning." Then he dozed off as the first snowflakes of the season started to fall outside the frosted window.