Kareoke Night
"Now I got my boots on, got the right 'mount of leather and I'm doin' me up with the black color liner. And i'm workin' my strut, but I kn-" Carly sang the song at the top of her lungs, much to Jack's dismay.
"WILL YOU SHUT UP!" Jack bursted out, grabbing fist-ful amounts of blond locks. She had kept singing that song over and over, even though it had been off the air for several minutes.
"I-i'm sorry Jack..." Carly murmured, hurt evident in her voice. It made him feel so guilty when she did that.
"Carls, don't be sad. Just, why do you sing that song so much? Is it your favorite?" Jack tried to ease the moment, and it worked.
"Actually, it is. It reminds me of-" she didn't finish her sentence, and just stared intently at the road. Jack hated when she stopped mid-sentence.
"It reminds you of what, Carly?" he groweled, glaring at her. Maybe he could scare it out of her.
"Just drop it." she muttered. She sounded... well... embarassed.
"Please? Do it for me?" he said softly. Maybe he could charm it out of her. She looked at him swiftly, and he could see he got her.
"It reminds me of you Jack." she said, her face turning beet red. Even though Jack would never admit it, he loved when she blushed. He had never REALLY heard the lyrics to the song before, so he didn't see the big attraction to the song.
"So I remind you of a gay guy?" he chuckled, trying to make the tension easier. But this time, he didn't succeed. She didn't say anything for the rest of the ride.
XoXoXoX
"Carls? Can I ask you something?" Jack asked while drinking coffee at the two's favorite restaurant.
"Sure Jack." she said, eating some noodles. Jack found it hilarious when she ate noodles. She made it look so complicated.
"Well, the guys and I are going to go to a tournament, and we were gonna gather the girls, and see if they wanted to go with. I was wondering if you'd like to come too." he said casually. To Carly, it meant the world.
"I'd love to!" she shouted, jumping from her seat to crush him in a hug. He acted annoyed, but inside, he loved the tingly sensation it gave him.
"Okay, get off me." he said, keeping his cool guy image. She got off of him, and sat back down. She noticed her glasses were off, so she fixed them, with a light brush of blush on her cheeks.
"Sorry 'bout that Jack." she giggled.
"What ever." he said, and got a waitress so he could pay the bill.
XoXoXoX
"Yusei! I thought we were going straight to the tournament! We're not stopping at some random place to eat!" Crow muttered tiredly. They had been on the road for a couple of hours now, and the entire gang was either sleeping, trying to sleep, or was wide awake, which was Yusei.
"Come on Crow! It'll be fun!" Yusei said excitedly.
"The only thing that sounds exciting right now is getting some sleep. What'd you do? Drink three cans of Monster or something?" Jack grumbled, the sleeping Carly on his shoulder.
"Seven." he muttered giddily.
"That's not healthy." Crow yawned.
"What's not healthy is the two love birds in the back." Yusei muttered sarcastically. Jack knew Yusei was talking about him and Carly, but swiftly turned the tables.
"Who? You and Akiza or Crow and his so-called 'girlfriend'?" Jack said, pointing to the red haired girl that slept in the back of the silver Hummer. Crow's face turned red.
"I told you! It's official." Crow said, crossing his arms.
"Yeah. A pretty girl like that going out with you. Yeah right." Jack said sarcastically.
"What ever. I think Yusei was talking about you and you-know-who." Crow said with a wink.
"I truly have no idea what your talking about." Jack said cooly, trying to drop the subject. That was simply not the case.
"Since Carly stopped being a dark signer, you two have been having alot of 'bonding time' haven't you?"Crow muttered, getting a death glare from Jack.
"Jack... " Carly softly moaned in her sleep, only fueling Crow's assumptions.
"Ohh! Look at that! Looks like someone has the hotts for ya, Jackie." Crow teased, getting a kick from Jack. Crow yelped softly, meassaging where his leg had been attacked. "What was that for?" Crow hissed.
"For being a orange-haired little creep." Jack muttered darkly.
The conversation ended when Yusei made an abrupt hault. Every one in the car was suddenly awake.
"What was that for?" came from the startled Akiza.
"You bone head! This isn't the tournament!" came from Alexa, or Alex, the red head in the back.
"Uh... Can someone help me find my glasses?" was all that came from a half tired Carly.
"Yeah." came from Jack, Crow, and Akiza. They started scowering the dark Hummers floor until Jack found it.
"Got it." he said, looking at them in the dim light. When he looked at them, all he could see were the memories of the broken, bent formes of the figure. He flinched. Everyone noticed.
"You okay, Jack?" Crow asked, concerned.
Now noticing that everyone saw his mistake, he tried to cover it up. "Of course I'm okay, you dolts!" he groweled, annoyed. He saw everyone still looking at him, and groweled again. Everyone looked away, getting out of the car.
When the door opened, the lights came on. Jack could suddenly see Carly's face. His heart skipped a beat. He couldn't fathom how beautiful she really was underneaith her thick glasses. He made a side note to get Carly some contacts.
Once Jack caught himself staring, he put the glasses on Carly. While putting them on, he leaned in close to make sure they were on correctly. Once there, he found that they were fine. He also found Carly staring at him, holding her breath. He then realized how close in proximity they were.
Just as something was about to happen, Yusei's voice inturrupted. "Come on guys! It's kareoke night! People are singin'! It's gonna be fun!"
"We-uh..." Jack cleared his voice and straightened up,"We better get going."
"Yeah." Carly said solemly.
Jack was first to exit the Hummer. He got out easily, thanks to his long legs. Carly, on the other hand, was not as lucky. Jack saw that it was an emergency room waiting to happen, so he helped Carly get onto the ground safely.
"Thank you Jack." she said cheerily, looking into his eyes. He couldn't believe how stunning she was, though he'd never tell. All he said was,"Sure." as they walked into a bar and grill titled 'Mackey's'.
As the two walked into the room, their ears were filled with loud music and an obvious drunk man trying to sing 'Sweet home Alabama'. "Dumb hick." was all Jack muttered.
As the group walked through the darkened restaurant, Akiza blurted out,"Where's Yusei?"
They hadn't noticed the black-haired teens disappearence. "Yeah, where is that half-pint twit? He was the one that dragged us in here in the first place." Jack muttered darkly, ready to go back into the vehicle, when Yusei came running.
"Hey guys! There you are! I signed us up for kareoke!" Yusei said excitedly, causing the groups anger to rise.
"You had no right!"
"What if we don't want to sing? Ever thought about that, idiot?"
"No more Monster for you."
"Uh... I'm too shy."
"Come on guys. Maybe it will be fun."
"Yeah. Funny."
"Oh just shut up Crow. Just cuz you can't sing don't mean other people can't."
"Well I'm not singing." Jack muttered, turning in the opposite direction, and started to walk away, Carly trailing after him. Soon enough, they heard a pair of footsteps.
"Wait up guys." Yusei called, but Jack simply ignored him, and kept walking. Carly stopped, for Yusei grabbed her wrist. Jack kept walking, stepping out into the night. "Let me go talk to him." Yusei chided. All Carly did was studder.
As Yusei walked out of the building, he realized how cold it was. He shivered, and realized he saw his own breath. "Jack!" he called, searching for the tall blond. "Jack seriously, where are you?"
As Yusei rounded the corner, he saw a small hill, and underneaith the trees that were scatered there, was Jack Atlas. His blode hair looked golden and glowing in the bright moonlight. He was holding something in his hand, but Yusei couldn't make it out yet.
As he strolled up, and looked down to Jack, he noticed his older friend had already put the object away, safe in his jacket pocket.
"Jack?" Yusei asked, concerned. Ever since the end of the dark signers, Jack had been acting strange. Jack had always had his independence, but this was different. His attitudes would change completely if you said one thing wrong. He was always aggresive, but now he seemed to be becoming more... protective.
"What?" Jack muttered, staring intently at the moon, its rays seemingly making his face shine.
"What's up man?" Yusei murmured, trying not to agrivate his friend. "After the dark signers, you seem to have become, uh, well, a different person."
"I did become a different person, Yusei. I changed. Let's leave it at that." Jack rumbled, his voice darkening.
"Why do you always get so mad at me when we talk about it? What happened, Jack?" Yusei said sympethetically. No one else had witnessed his battle, and the only ones that were there were Jack and Carly, but she couldn't remember.
"None of your business. You don't need to know everything about every persons life." Jack said, clutching his chest where the object was.
The two teens just stared at the moon while they heard Crow singing in the distance. Just as Yusei was going to walk away, Jack stopped him.
"Can I tell you something. Something that you would never tell a living soul, even if your life depended on it. Something that you will never repeat, and forget after we... uh... talk about it?" Jack asked quietly. Yusei looked suprisingly back, stunned at his friends out of character-ness. Jack Atlas, letting the walls come down?
"Sure Jack. Anything you say." Yusei said sympethetically, and went to go lean on the thick tree. Yusei looked at Jack, as his friend started telling his tale.
"When you beat me in the Fortune Cup, and I was in the hospital and all, Carly helped me through alot. But when you and Kalin first dueled, and the helicopter almost went down, and I realized the true horror of it all, I... I betrayed her. She helped me in my lowest. Showed me things about myself that no one else ever did. She was couragious enough to stand up to me in my hardest. She also showed me that, even after all this time, I still had a heart. But I betrayed all of that, thinking it was the right thing to do. I told her I didn't want her around because I thought she was part of the paparazzi, but she ment so much more to me then that. I didn't want her hurt, but I left her broken and bleeding, and I did nothing to help her. If only she knew then how much I just wanted to go back to her apartment with her, but I knew I couldn't." Yusei could hear the guilt in the teens voice.
"I tried my best to forget about her, to try and move on, but I simply couldn't. So I made a deal that after all this junk about the dark signers were over, that it would go like it did before. But before I knew it, everything was spiraling out of control, and I didn't know what to do anymore. I was testing my new duel runner, and the heiroglyphs just glowed in the sky. The earth shook, and the next thing I knew, I was at the Arcadia Movement building. I went in in search of your girl friend, and guess what I found on the floor?" Jack muttered, nearly choking on his words. Yusei just stood in shocked silence as the strong Jack Atlas told his tale. "It was her glasses. Silly girl can't see two feet infront of her." he seemed to just stare at the moon as he grasped the offending object out from the confines of his jacket. They were bent, cracked, and broken, but they were a perfect match to the ones Carly had on. He put them back in, probably to never show another soul.
"The place was coming down around me. I had to save Akiza. I grabbed her glasses, and got your girlfriend and I outta there. All the while, I felt this strange feeling. I didn't know what it was called. My heart... it hurt. I couldn't think straight. It was as if the Arcadia building did collapse, just all on me." he said solemly, his violet eyes shining in the moonlight. Yusei didn't know what to say, other than,"You thought she was dead?"
"Yes, indeed I did. I thought my kind, sweet, life loving Carly was gone from the world. But after your fight with Roman, I saw her, but I couldn't comprehend what I saw. The group thought I was running after you, but I was truly running after her. She was running away from me. I finally caught up to her, and I truly realized it was her. My Carly. A Dark Signer." Jack murmured, gazing sadly to the moon.
"During our duel... some things were said. Things I would rather never speak about ever again. And ever since that duel... ever since that first glimpse... it's been odd. I tried to end the duel in a tie, Yusei." Jack said, peering up at the black-haired teen that peered down at him, shocked at the new revelation. Jack chuckled sadly. " Think of that. The infamous Jack Atlas, willing to give up the world, his own life, for a reporter-girl. A Dark Signer!"
"Wait... you said glimpse. A glimpse of what, Jack?" Yusei asked quizzically. It was evident that Jack had not meant to let that slip out.
"I was clinging onto my depleating lifepoints. She showed me a vision that I died, and us Signers lost the war. That I would become the Dark King, with her at my side as my Dark Queen. We would rule for all eternity. I wanted it so much. I believed it. I wanted it to be true. But it was just a vison of what could have been." Jack murmured, his voice dying off into a whisper.
"Wow. This is a lot to bottle up inside. Do you think you'll ever... ya know... tell her?" Yusei asked curiously.
"Of course not! The only reason why I'm tell'n you right now is because I think I over loaded the coffee this morning. I'm not like you, Yusei. I don't tell my feelings. I don't freely let people into my heart and mind." Jack said, pulling Yusei down by the bottom of his shirt.
"What was that for?" Yusei barked as he fell beside his best friend on the hill.
"If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you. I will murder you and stuff you in a bag, and make sure you are never found again." Jack said menacingly. Yusei didn't know what to say to that threat, so he just nodded. "Good." Jack muttered darkly, getting up, swiftly brushing himself off.
"And if anyone asks what took so long, say it's because I roughed ya up a bit for signing me up to sing." Jack said, wandering toward the bar and grill.
"Hey, do you want to sing, Atlas?" Yusei chuckled following slowly after his friend.
"Don't push me, Fudo." Jack grumbled, strutting into the restaurant, where a man just finnished 'Sympathy for the Devil'.
Okay! This is it!
Plz review!
~ILJA~