Mystery Boy

"What the hell were you thinking?" Those were the first words I spoke to my father when he picked me up at the airport Monday afternoon.

"Watch your language, Airea," my dad warned in reply. "And what are you talking about?"

I rolled my eyes and walked over to get my bag. "Mom told me that you tried to change her mind about letting me see Jacky, not that it's up to you anyway."

"That was a discussion between your mother and I," he replied, "She shouldn't have brought that up to you, you're just a teenager."

"Cut the bull crap, Dad," I scoffed, "She told me everything. Including how you tried to persuade her to get me to stop seeing him by telling her about the time I 'ran away'."

"You did run away," he answered, pulling my bag from my hands, "I was just telling her in hopes she'd talk some sense into you."

"I don't care what either of you say." I climbed into Dad's car and slammed the passenger's door shut once I was in. I stared straight ahead with my arms crossed over my chest as Dad got in and shut his door more gingerly.

"I'm sorry that you're offended," Dad said when we were half-way home, "I just don't know what is going on with you anymore. You're only sixteen. You've never been this infatuated with a boy before."

"It's not infatuation!" I replied angrily, "Why don't you understand that?"

Dad glanced from the road to me. "You think you love this boy?"

I set my jaw and stared out at the city.

"Airea," Dad stated, "Do you love Jacky?"

"I don't know!" I replied, anger in my voice.

Dad shook his head. "You don't love him. You can't."

I looked to him quickly. "And why not, Dad?" I asked loudly, "How do you know that it's impossible for me to be in love with someone that's never been an asshole to me."

"Airea," Dad sighed, "You can't keep turning this around on your mother and I. It's not about us."

"It's all about you," I growled, "This whole thing about you not wanting me to be with Jacky is because you don't like him. Because Ina doesn't like him. Well, I don't care what you like. It's about what I like."

We pulled into our neighborhood and all at once I got the physical need to see him. To run down the street, sneak through his bedroom window, and wrap my arms around his slender waist and hold him to me until we were sedated.

"I don't approve. I just want you to know that."

"I don't care," I replied as we pulled into our driveway behind my car.

Dad sighed again. "You should. I'm your father."

"Family doesn't mean anything, anymore," I growled before I threw the car door open and climbed out. "I'm going to Jacky's," I called over the top of the car, "And don't try to stop me because I don't care."

I took off down the street, walking quickly through the grass on our side of the road. About halfway to Jacky's I crossed the street and quickened my pace, anxious to see him but also in a hurry to get away from the gaze of my dad. I hurried around the back of Jacky's house and went to his bedroom window. I peered through the glass and smiled when his dad was no where in sight.

The window was always unlocked so I slid it open and clambered through, my feet hitting the tiled floor with a smack that didn't rouse Jacky as he slept in his mess of wrinkled blankets.

He was shirtless and his tangled hair was pressed against his face from laying face down on the pillow so long. He laid on his stomach with his arms buried under his pillow. His lips were parted in sleep and his eyes closed, hiding the Atlantic blue orbs from me. I closed the window behind me before I slipped out of my shoes and gingerly stepped over him on his mattress.

I sat down slowly and slipped under the blanket, immediately loving the warmth that had accumulated there from his half-naked body. My fingers touched his back, tracing the visible path of his spine from his shorts up to the base of his neck. I smiled as he shivered slightly from the contact, completely foreign since he was sleeping.

"Jacky," I whispered softly, pressing my fingers into his skin a little bit harder, "Jacky, wake up."

He moaned softly in his sleep, his face distorting as I disturbed him.

"Jacky," I murmured, smiling as I gently pushed his shoulder, "Wake up."

Jacky opened his eyes a few moments later. "Air?" he murmured, groggy from the jet-lag.

I nodded and smiled. "I'm back," I spoke, "I wanted to come see you before my dad ends up going haywire and confines me to my room or something."

Jacky frowned and pushed himself up so that he was sitting up to. "Why would he do that?" he asked quietly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

I sighed. "My mom and him were talking and my dad doesn't think it's a good idea if I 'continue to see you'," I quoted, rolling my eyes.

"What?" Jacky asked, understanding but not quite believing.

I nodded silently.

Jacky looked up to me with the familiar eyes that I'd come to like quite a lot. He looked into my own blue eyes, a quiet question that I knew was worrying him.

To reply, I reached and grabbed his hand, tangling our fingers together and holding on tight. "I'm not letting you go that easily," I murmured, watching as he smiled. I leaned forward and pressed my mouth against his, my free hand resting on his bare shoulder.

His lip rings were surprisingly warm as they pressed against my bottom lip. I leaned forward and he fell back, pulling me with him as we kissed in the blankets of his bed.

"I missed you," I whispered when we pulled away, my head resting against his shoulder and my lips brushing his skin.

Jacky shifted so that he could wrap his arms around me, my head still laying on his shoulder but his arms holding me against him. He pulled me closer to him and nodded his head in reply.

"My mom and dad," I started, "They really scared me. They tried telling that I was so infatuated with you that I would let you 'have your way with me'."

Jacky turned his head to look at me, concern on his face. "I wouldn't," he stated, looking me dead in the eyes.

I nodded and reached up to touch his jaw. "I know," I agreed, "But my mom's never met you and my dad is being controlled by Ina."

Jacky frowned and kissed the side of my head. I wrapped my left arm around his waist and laid there, thinking about what I would be doing now if my dad had put up a bigger fight and kept me from Jacky completely.

When I said goodbye to my mom, she apologized and told me that it wouldn't be 'motherly' if she hadn't worried that her only daughter was doing the wrong thing. She promised that she'd give Jacky a chance and trust me to make my own decisions when it came to my body and sharing it with Jacky.

When I landed, my father stood there, already unhappy with me because I was unhappy with him. I could see that he wanted nothing more than to send me back to my mom so that she could deal with the anger that was radiating off of me like body heat.

"Air," Jacky murmured.

I looked up at him with waiting eyes. "Yeah?" I asked in reply, almost silently, my words whisked away with the particles in the air just as soon as they were passed my lips.

Jacky pulled me tighter against his slender body before he spoke, his words shocking me into a silence that wasn't completely welcomed by him. "I love you," he said, licking his lips and glancing away from my gaze as my mouth parted in shock.

"W-what?" I asked, pushing his arms off of me so that I could sit up and look down into his eyes.

Jacky bit his lip and nodded. He didn't repeat because he knew I heard him. It was rejection he was feeling as I stayed quiet, stunned by his words and the emotions behind them.

"You love me?" I asked after a few minutes, "Like, really are in love with me?"

Jacky chuckled and sat up. He nodded again, just once, and reached out for my hand so that he could fiddle with my fingers.

I shook my head and pulled my hand away from him so that he couldn't be distracted as I asked, "But why?" putting an emphasis on the last word that told him that I didn't understand.

Jacky just chuckled and shrugged his shoulders, reverting back to the quiet boy I'd met my second day in the City of Sin. He reached for my hand again and this time I let him keep it.

He didn't ask for me to repeat the same three words to him, and I was thankful, because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to mean them. I knew that maybe someday I would, but for now, I wanted to make sure that I was completely honest with those words. But I didn't doubt Jacky, the look in his honest eyes made me sure that he mean each one of those powerful little words.