***PLEASE READ!!!!***
Hey everybody!!
So I have been working my hind off trying to write some stories off line. I'm currently working on a nation wide writing contest entry, so I've got my hands full!! But I have decided that it is mandatory that I finish Wake Up Living, and While I Was Sleeping, and any other stories that I can. I will also consider it mandatory that I update BOSH as much as possible, cause I have so many chapter ideas!!
Over the last few weeks, I have been examining this story. The other day I came across its first draft. Awwwwwwe!!! I realized that its been a year since I found this site and started writing Wake Up Living on a blow-up mattress on summer vacation!!!!!
So I went back to the other chapters and edited them up for your entertainment! There done, and so is this one, hence the:
WARNING: This is a revised copy of the original "Wake Up Living", a COTT fanfic by the fates of love. All chapters from here on out with this label have been revised to fit the new version of this story, and until such time that they do, they have not.
I'm not putting this label on any chapters from here on out, cause they will all be in accordance with this and the newly edited previous chapters.
Another thing, as I said, this is the chapter where you really need to know why I named the chapters the way I did and... drum roll...... Each chapter title is inspired by and named after a song on Kalan Porter's 2007 CD "Wake Up Living", which I stole the title of for this story, duh! If you Google the songs, you will find that the mood of each song is sort of portrayed in each chapter. And THAT is why I want you to Google the songs when you read each chapter because you'll get to experience more of the chapter by doing so!!! (Especially when chapter 8 'Beauty' is posted lol just a hint!)
I'm sorry this opener ran a tad long lol!!
Enjoy!!! At least try, cause this chapter was so hard to think up!!
Disclaimer, or "Wow its been a while since I said this": No no owny COTT!! Lol, but wish-eth I did!!... Oh and I also don't own Wake Up Living album, or any of Kalan Porters songs! Again, but wish-eth I did!!! =)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxox
The day was dawning into evening as the seven teenage heroes walked down the front steps of the brownstone. All was quiet on the street; no neighbours out, no bustling high school-goers were to be seen. The night was still.
But off, not far in the distance, they heard the soft pounding of music. The seven began walking.
"Why the hell didn't anybody wear a jacket??" Atlanta asked, shivering, "It's like 30 below out here!" Atlanta looked innocently to Archie, who was taken aback by her strange comment. She loved the cold weather!
"Uh, here, Atlanta, have my jacket?" he said in almost a question, holding his suit jacket out to her. She took it, looking grateful. A few moments passed, when Atlanta quietly looked over to Theresa and smiled. The "I'm cold" trick! Theresa was impressed!
"So Odie," Herry said, waiting before going on, "what do you know?"
"I know that Archie heard screaming, and I know Alisha screamed when you finally went sober and threw her sorry ass outta the house," Odie replied smugly, "and that she came back the next night to compensate, which is when I caught her making out all over you". Herry cracked his knuckles.
"Little buddy, I don't wanna hurt you. I just wanna say that if anyone finds out, you're dead," Herry threatened. Neil spoke up.
"But I heard Cambria shouting at you over the phone-" he began.
"Like I said," Herry bluntly argued, "I don't wanna hurt you little buddy".
"Speaking of which," Odie started, trying to avoid some painful bruises, "what happened to Cambria??"
"She's meeting me at the dance," Herry said glumly.
"I have a feeling that there's an 'and' on the end of that, but I'm gonna leave it," Odie decided, speeding up only slightly to catch up to the lone walker, Jay.
"How you doing Jay?" Odie asked when they were clearly ahead from the rest of the group.
"Neil's a stupid little backstabbing- uh, nevermind. We're a team, and I can't be getting on his case," he started miserably, clearly not wanting to forfeit the chance to verbally bash Neil. "Why am I even jealous he asked Theresa? I mean its not like I like her or anything," he said, sarcasm thick in his voice, little did he realize.
"Jay" Odie said - quite forcefully too, "you need to get a grip man, if you don't wanna lose her cause you heading there with all your denial and shes fed. up. man," he finished. He stared at Jay a while as they walked. Realisation came to Jay. Odie's not gonna lie to you. Stop sitting on your sorry rear end saying 'poor me' and do something before Theresa IS fed up with you, or worse, falls in love with NEIL!!!
"Ok," Jay said, a smile crossing his face, "so what do I do?"
xoxoxox
The song finished playing, and a whir of bright blue and white light danced around the floor and walls, courtesy of Odie. The dance floor glittered in sparkles of make-'em-up snow, and the mood was that much more intensified when the light was captured by tissue-paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. The loud and anxious teens screamed with delight at the excitement of the songs. Girls in gowns danced with their penguins, everyone happily swaying and bobbing to the beats. When the song changed from rapid to soft, suddenly all were scurrying to find someone they hadn't dance with yet. Be it the boyfriend, the best boy friend, or the friend of a friend of a friend who's a boy. Everyone exchanged partners like they were sweaters. But at the end, when that last song was played, all the girls and all the guys would find who they came with and be together for one dance - even if it was only that one.
Six dances. Six slow dances. Jay had watched Neil spin and twirl and dazzle Theresa for six dances! He spun her around the dance floor flawlessly, being the pedestal that she was shown off on. The spotlight was all hers (well no, there wasn't a spotlight, but she looked fantastic). Jay sat quiet and alone at a table out of view. It was here that he spied on the young teen heroine, watching as light seemed to radiate off her glitter speckled skin. Watching her strawberry gold hair fly around her face. Watching her dress sweep the floor with every motion. Six dances - that meant only one left. The only question was when would it play? And would Jay get to her in time to snatch her from her blond beau?
And that's when the music skidded to a dull whisper of lyrics.
Do you ever stop to think about,
lines that run, run, run?
And fall, past each other,
on the edge.
Jay sprinted. He jumped up from his seat, moving through the crowd, towards the floor. Sliding between one couple holding hands, he made it to the edge of the tables, where Neil was just about to grab Theresa by the waist...
"Hi!" Jay zoomed in, completely unorthodox. Theresa spun around to look at him. When he saw her face, he was taken aback. She was even more gorgeous in this light, and up close. Her perfect porcelain features were accented by a gentle blush, her eyes lined only by grey liner and pink silver eye shadow. Her eyes were lit with happiness and emerald fire. But when she realised who the boy in front of her was, the fire blew out.
"Oh. Hi Jay," she said plainly. That really wasn't the reaction he had hoped for.
"Jaaaaay!!!" Neil screamed in delight (for some reason). "Why don't you dance with Theresa? I mean I've already danced with her soooo much!!!!"
"Naw, you know guys, I think I'm just gonna go get some punch," Theresa said, trying her best to avoid looming embarrassment.
"Awesome!!! I'll go get the punch, you two dance!!" Neil said, and quickly fluttered away to watch his plan in motion. When he was out of sight, Theresa turned to leave, only to have Jay grab her by the hand.
"Am I really that horrible of a dancer?" he asked her, smiling. She scowled at him.
"No" she pouted, slouching, and let him drag her onto the dance floor.
They came to a portion of the floor where a pale icy light was fading away. Jay stopped. He stepped closer to Theresa, and tentatively put his hands on her waist. She winced inwardly at this unwanted motion, as she put her hands gracefully on his shoulders. A look of confused displeasure pulled on her face. The look in her eyes showed that she would rather be anywhere right now than here with Jay. He noticed this. Slowly his arms snaked their way around her, in an attempt to pull her that tiny bit closer into his chest. Theresa pressed her palms into his shoulder, warning him to back off.
"Just because we're dancing, doesn't mean we have to socialize," she said bitterly, avoiding his gaze. The words stung her tongue as she spoke them, and strung themselves together uneasily as she struggled between what she thought was right and what she thought was easy. The knots in her stomach threatened to become so tight they would crumple her up like paper from the inside out. Pain struck her like a dull arrow as she beat herself for being so obsessed and so blunt. The only place she could not feel the pain was where Jay's arms burned in a cross on her back, and where her forearms leaned on his chest. There, all she could feel was warmth. The dryness in her eyes became damp as she realized she probably just started another fight. She kept her face away from him.
You went and found your distance,
with your plans, plans, plans.
Wasted time, wasted.
You make me laugh, before I cry.
Jay leaned his head down to her ear, ignoring the fact that her hands were severely warning him to stay away.
"Why?" he asked simply, with a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.
"Because, we both know that neither one of us want to be here," she started, a boldly looked in his eyes. They subconsciously searched his face for a sign that he knew she was trying hard to betray her true feelings.
"Lets just get it over with," she finished. Venom laced every word she spoke, but as malicious as she sounded, she didn't mean one word. She knew she would fall over if he walked away right now. She knew that he wasn't just fooling around with her, and she knew by the way he was looking at her that he knew the effect of his every move. Jay looked at her for a while, like he was studying what she said, how she was when she said it, how the words effected her more than they did himself. He knew what she said wasn't real; if it was, he would have felt it. But instead, it ran right through him like an aura.
"You don't mean it, do you?" he asked, genuinely curious for the answer. If she did mean it, she was lost. Theresa breathed a heavy sigh, leaning her head back in her dizziness. She didn't know how she would be straight up with the guy who was the cause of her not know which way was up!
"To be honest Jay, I don't know what I mean anymore. The beach was... confusing. And when you said you didn't want to ask me to the dance-"
"I never said that" Jay interrupted, dumbfounded.
Have you seen the world's been falling down?
I know you've got the time to care
But if you want to run, run, run
If you want to run, run, run
"You said I would never be your last resort" she countered.
"Yeah," Jay continued, "you'd never come second string, isn't that obvious?" he said shaking his head in disbelief. A smile glided across his face as he realised this issue might just be misunderstood. Theresa stood there, frozen to the floor with happy shock. Her mouth slowly fell open as she thought. After a moment she spoke, a grin from ear to ear on her face.
"So, you wanted to ask me?" she questioned.
"Yeah," Jay nodded. He wanted to say more, but he didn't know how. He just kept nodding and smiling. Together the two of them erupted into a subtle laughter, smiling at each other dumbly. After the laughing at their own stupidity ceased, they continued.
"I'm so sorry Jay," Theresa said in a sigh. Jay shook his head.
"No, I don't know whats going on, but its my fault. The beach thing was totally uncalled for, it started this and then I just made it worse," he admitted. Theresa shook her head no. She continued slow dancing silently. Again, Jay nervously wrapped her up in his arms. But again, she resisted. He looked down at her in question.
"Whats wrong?" he asked quietly bending his head to look more directly at her. Theresa huffed a sigh.
"So, what now?" she asked after a moment, "Are we together? Are we just friends? Where do we go from here?"
Jay thought. For a while he said nothing.
"I don't know," he said, "what do you think?" Theresa took yet another deep breath.
"I don't know!" she shrugged helplessly. Theresa finally admitted defeat. She took a step closer to Jay, resting her forehead against his shoulder. She did not seem to notice when he finally succeeded in embracing her. He leaned his head on top of hers. Slowly the two kept swaying.
Theresa started mumbling something incoherent into Jay's shoulder.
"I don't even know why I bother liking you. I don't know what I'd say if you ever asked me to be your girlfriend. I don't know what I find so amazing about a guy who's so absorbed in what he's doing. Maybe its your smile, or your eyes, or just the way you say what you say. I don't know what I find in that but somehow I can't stop thinking about you every other second and its driving me insane. I'm bordering on obsession and your just making it more confusing without even trying and I know maybe you don't want to hear this but its something I have to say. I don't think its healthy, or even safe to care about someone as much as I care about you". Silence proceeded for a moment as Jay took in what she had whispered to his shoulder.
"And that's why I can't be with you. I can't be with you because it isn't safe - and it won't be safe until Cronus is dealt with," he looked at her and smiled, "that's why I care so much about getting that over with... because then... I don't know," he shrugged, trailing off.
"Well all I know is that I know you do what you do, and I did what I did, and we said what we said, but I was wondering if maybe at the end of it all if we could maybe find the time to be something," Theresa blurted out - quite fast-paced at that. She smiled comfortingly up at Jay, leaning relaxingly with her arms draped over his shoulders.
Jay smiled at her. Swiftly before he could find the time to think, he leaned down and kissed the tip of Theresa's sparkily nose. When he looked back at her, he saw she was wearing more blush than she had been before.
"Ok," he said, bittersweet though he smiled. On one hand, Theresa would be his someday. On the other hand, someday was after they defeated Cronus. A light went off in his head.
"But you know," Jay whispered into Theresa's ear, "these things can sort of take a while...." he led. He pulled back to see Theresa's face, her reaction. She had been smiling for so long, he hadn't thought her smile could get any brighter. But then again, somehow it had. She leaned into him on the tips of her toes and kissed him sweetly.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxox
You know, I find it both amazingly romantic and absolutely hilarious how in love Jay is with Theresa! I mean, "watching as light seemed to radiate off her glitter speckled skin"???!!!!! Really, its both a great description, and hilarious to think about what else he thinks sparkles about her!! I laughed so hard when I wrote that line! I hope you all enjoyed it, really, this has to be my favorite chapter so far!!!
So, I decided this is gonna be a two part, yes? Next up, ArchiexAtlanta!!!!! WOOOOOO!!! Then somebody falls into the punch!!!!
So REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!! (Get it?? Run, Run, Run?? I kill myself!)
Your friend and fellow writer,
the fates of love
Cheers! =)