Six Feet Under the Stars

Without opening the message, I clicked the delete button.

That was the best way to deal with Dorian's drama; don't even worry about it. It was better just to let things go with him. My bruised eyes from his most recent beating had just healed but at the same time I knew my heart would take much longer to warm up to him again, if it ever did.

Balancing three fresh cups of greent tea, I slid open the balcony door with an elbow careful not to spill any of the tepid liquid on myself. For some reason, Alex and Jack held out their right arms to compare their length talking about the benefits of each while playing guitar. I rolled my eyes and remained quite immobile until Alex took a mug from me to lighten the load I was carrying.

"Thanks." I told him handing the other cup to Jack.

Alex sighed loudly, "Everyone ready for the concert tonight?"

"You sound very enthusiatic." I replied, straight-faced. Jack grinned in response to my sarcasm and hid the smile with his green tea mug.

"I think it'll be alright once it gets started. Before the show is the worst time for stress and deadlines and all that." Alex shrugged trying to look nonchalant.

The chilly air made Jack shiver. "Well, I don't know about you but I'm more concerned with the possibility of me freezing to death in Seattle. By the time the concert starts, I'll just be an icicle." He frowned as if this outcome would truly happen.

Laughing, I laid a hand on his arm and could feel the rise of goose bumps on his skin from the cold weather. "You're going to get sick if you don't go inside."

Jack scoffed, "I have the immune system of an ox."

"Is that good?" Holding back any chuckles was harder than I thought.

"Of course."

"And you didn't think to bring a jacket?" Alex questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"When I think of Seattle I imagine coffee shops, not cold weather." The guitarist defended while hugging himself to conserve as much body heat as possible. "Can I borrow one from you? I would just walk into your room and take it but that's like a war zone in there."

"Sorry, I only brought one." Alex told him.

"Damn." Jack bit his lip.

"I saw some in the lobby gift shop downstairs." I said to Jack while finishing off the last of my tea.

"Come help me find them." He grinned widely, trying to encourage me to accompany him.

"You're scared to go alone?" I guess, half-amused.

"It's a strange place." But still, he wouldn't answer my question.

Honestly, I found his slight helplessness kind of endearing. Taking a frozen arm, I pulled Jack into the warm hotel room throwing a tennis show at him to put on. Ducking down quickly and shielding his face with a hand, Jack managed to dodge the projectile before it hit him. "Shit, sorry." I laughed waiting for him to recover and join me by the door.

Jack busied himself with tying the shoelaces tightly. "No big deal. I just saw my life flash before my eyes."

"Overdramatic." I accused quietly.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." I turned to Alex who was standing in the doorway connecting the balcony to the hotel room. "Are you coming with us?"

"No, I think I'm gonna get some more sleep." He replied stretching his arms up in the air.

"You just woke up."

Alex shrugged, "I'm tired."

I laughed, "Okay, well we'll be back in a little bit. Try not to burn the place down."

"No playing with matches." Alex gave a sharp nod. "Got it."

By that time, Jack was ready to go and the two of us shuffled down the hallway to the elevators. There was a man in an expensive business suit standing there that eyed us suspiciously and switched his briefcase to the hand away from us. The music in the metal cage made the down journey a little awkward with the third person in there. Jack and I stood quietly on the verge of smiles the whole time.

When the doors slid open, the man took a moment to glance at his gold wristwatch before bolting out, obviously late for an important engagement. Grandly, Jack extended an arm in front of him, "After you."

On the cusp of a grin, I nodded minutely and walked towards the gift shop like a 1920's solcialite. Jack rolled his eyes playfully and followed beside me. "I feel like I should hold onto your arm or something."

"Very proper." I noted while my eyes roved over the tiny shop we had just entered.

The room was filled with cliche T-shirts depicting local sports teams and cheesy mugs with goofy cartoon figures printed on the sides. Jack almost knocked over a rack of keychains when reaching for the price tag on a sweatshirt. His voice sounded choked, "Ninety dollars for this? At this price, I'll freeze."

"Maybe it's on sale." I told him hopefully.

"... That is the sale price."

"Oh."

A grim looking hotel representative walked up to us looking bored out of his skull. He had a someone-please-shoot-me-so-I-can-get-out-of-this-hell-hole look on his face that I recogized all too well from my days working at a movie theatre in my hometown. The scraggly, sandy-haired boy sighed before asking, "Can I help you with anything?"

"Do you have any sweatshirts that are less expensive?" questioned Jack while accidently knocking down a stack of Seattle playing cards.

The hotel worker studied the mess on the ground with a blank look on his face then met Jack's eyes, "We have a kid's size on that. It's seventy-five."

"Damn."

"Sorry." The worker shrugged and took refuge behind the counter where he booted up a laptop and brought up a Solitaire game application. He restarted the game multiple times until he got a good humber of card matches.

"There's probably a lot of stores close by." I told Jack and started towards the door, "It shouldn't be too hard to find."

Stepping into the brisk air, Jack and I quickly walked the damp city streets until we found a promising store on the corner of the street. All of the walls were covered in Seattle sports apparell, including multiple jack designs. Jack scanned the walls and racks. "Melanie, this one?"

Grinning, he held a hot pink tank top up to him. I broke out in laughter. "That's a keeper; goes great with your eyes. Really lovely Jack."

Chuckling, he replaced the hanger on the shelf with a clatter of metal against metal. "This store has too many choices. It's taking over my mind."

"Woah, calm down. This is only a sweatshirt store." I said to him while pulling an article of clothing off of another rack, "Besides choices are what you need. What about this one?"

"The color's ugly."

I frowned. "I like it. It's olive."

"That's not olive. That's my-german-shephard-barfed-this-up green. It's part of a new color pallete from Crayola. Creative stuff."

Sighing, I shook my head and restocked the jacket. "You're getting a little picky."

He absentmindedly ran his fingers across a row of T-shirts. "Well, if I have to spend my money I want it to be something that I'm not going to hate for the rest of my life."

"Strong words." I commented. "This one's not bad." Holding the dark blue sweatshirt up to Jack's chest, he looked down at the Seahawks logo without expression.

Chewing the side of his cheek, Jack replied, "Well, it's not that bad. But quadruple X? I'm not that fat."

I laughed, "It was the first one I grabbed."

"I mean, if you're trying to tell me something about my weight..."

"No, this was just an unfortunate mistake." I assured him while working to hold back a laugh and simultaneously searching the sale rack for a lower size. "Medium?"

"Better."

"Here, try it on." I urged trying to thrust the sweatshirt in his hand.

He wouldn't take it from me. "They're going to think I'm stealing it."

Rolling my eyes, I told him, "There's no dressing rooms in here. I bet they're used to people trying things on in the aisle. It's not like you're waving a gun in the air and running out of the store with it in your hands."

"Maybe you're right." Sighing, Jack shrugged the comfortable sweatshirt over his head and adjusted it until it rested around his body. Thrusting his hand in the front pocket, he cocked his head to the side and smiled crookedly, "What do you think?"

Taking in the laid back image of Jack under the store lights, the only adjective I could think to describe him would be 'beautiful.' Shaking those troublesome thoughts away, I replied, "Not too shabby." Jack struggled to read the tag tucked in behind his neck. Chuckling, I stood on my tip-toes and read the sale tage out loud for him, "Thirty-five dollars."

"Beats ninety." He told me with a grin. "That was highway robbery. I'll get this one."

After waiting through a lengthy checkout line and paying for the jacket, Jack and I were once again in the cold city. We stopped for a few moments so he could pull on the new purchase. A few people glared at him for blocking their path on the sidewalk before going back to texting on their phones.

"How about lunch?" Jack asked me, "That shopping trip took a lot out of me. Seriously, I don't know how women can stand being in the mall for hours on end. It's one of the many mysteries to life. Just like how they always go to the bathroom together. What does that mean anyway? They can't just go in and--."

"You're rambling." I pointed out with a subdued smile.

"Sorry, just ranting my feelings. Ugh, I'm like an old man." Jack shook his head and the slight breeze blew his hair lightly.

"You have a few more years before that."

"Maybe I should find a coupon for lunch. Then I'd really be old."

I laughed, "Well, where did you have in mind?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders, "Didn't really think about it. I'm sure we can find a place just by walking the streets some more. There has to be some place around here."

"Okay." I agreed readily. "Just no chain restaurants. I hate eating in those places when I'm traveling. Just seems like such a waste of an experience."

Nodding, Jack replied, "I agree with you on that. See, we're already making plans for when we go to India too."

I dodged a sizeable crack in the sidewalk, "I'm not sure India has too many T.G.I. Fridays around, but then again I could be wrong."

Jack chuckled loudly, "You have a point. When we go to India let's eat something really crazy. Like sheep brain or something."

"Deal." I grinned, hurriedly shaking his hand. "And are we splitting the bill?"

"I thought I'd pay." Jack told me as we strolled down a street and turned the corner to face a new set of buildings on either side of us. The possibilities were endless.

Watching a taxi zoom by us, I spoke over the loud beeping horns. "No way. If you do that it'd be like a date."

He shifted awkwardly back and forth on his feet and studied the traffic driving by.

Eyeing him suspiciously, my heart skipped a beat. "Is it a date?"

Cheeks tinted a bright pink, Jack grinned encouragingly, "Well, you don't have to call it that. 'Dinner as a precursor to a series of continuous meetings' would work just fine too."