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Jerome took his keys and cellphone, but didn't even bother throwing on proper clothing as he ran quietly but quickly across the hall. He opened the front door, praying that neither Victor nor Trudy would hear him. He didn't turn on his headlights as he pulled his car out of the parking lot. He drove up to the nearest McDonalds, which was a couple minutes outside the campus. After searching the parking lot for a drunk, gorgeous Mara and coming up empty, he realized she might be near a McDonalds downtown. After all, she and Mick's family probably didn't dine in a McDonalds. He swore again and pulled into the highway. After he drove into downtown he met an excruciating series of red lights. He decided to call Mara. She could help him find her, or at the very least give him Mick's number so Jerome can get Mick to help him. Mara answered on the first ring.
"Jerome!" She answered excitedly. Jerome ignored his quickening pulse. Control your emotions. He told himself. "When are you going to get here?" Jerome could hear her pouting. He rolled his eyes. Girls like Mara shouldn't get drunk. It's an insult to their intelligence.
"Do you know which McDonalds you're at? Or can you at least tell me what else you see?" Jerome talked slowly.
"Um, why would I be at McDonalds?" Mara retorted slowly, as if Jerome was the drunk one.
"What?" The overwhelming feeling of panic squashed Jerome's ability to form a more coherent sentence.
"Jeff said you'd be coming to the party soon," It was then Jerome could hear heavy rap music blasting in the background.
"Who the hell is Jeff?"
"Your friend! Why are you yelling at me?" Mara sounded close to tears. Jerome could hear jeering in the background. And then like a clear ray of light he heard a heavy male voice say "Nothing like partying in the Falls, mate!"
The Falls was the nickname for Falling Street, where the apartments of the loud, sex-crazed college students of the party college, Lenner University, resided. At least now Jerome had a location. He was only a few minutes away from The Falls.
"Mara, listen to me. I'm on my way. Don't eat or drink anything they give you. And don't let anyone touch you. Are you listening?"
"Mmmhmm." Jerome heard a clatter. He assumed some idiot just dropped something and continued to talk.
"In fact, I'm almost there. Could you possible leave the party now and stand outside so I can find you?"
"Sorry, I dropped my phone. What did you say?" Mara asked. Jerome was about to respond when he heard the same heavy male voice again.
"Is someone bothering you baby?" The voice asked.
"No," Mara responded. "It's just Jerome- hey you just spilled your drink onto my boobs!" Jerome was probably driving nearly double the speed limit now.
"Sorry, darling," The voice didn't sound at all sympathetic." Let me clean those up for you," Then the line cut off. Jerome felt like he could pull the steering wheel clean off of the car.
Mara sighed. Now Amber would be mad about the hair and the dress. She swatted away Jeff's helping hands and tried to wipe off the excess liquid with the back of the blanket on the futon.
"Don't tell Amber," Mara told Jeff again. He pulled her off the futon she was sitting on and handed her a red solo cup from which she promptly drank from.
"Who's this Amber you keep mentioning? Another one of your hot friends?" He asked. What's Your Fantasy by Ludacris started playing over the loud bass speakers. He pulled her close and they started to dance. His jeans felt rough against her nearly bare legs. She threw her hands up and he ran his hands down the sides of her body. Music and lights and people all blurred into the sidelines.
Don't let anyone touch you. The words rang vaguely in her memory. Jerome was mean sometimes, but he sounded serious over the phone. Mara tried gently pushed Jeff away from her. He seemed to mistake it for passion because he grabbed her resisting hands and pinned her against a wall next to a tacky poster of a bikini-clad girl on a motorcycle. His hands slipped up to her breast and squeezed. Just squeezed, like an orange. He planted sloppy kisses on her neck.
"Stop," Mara started to say, but was interrupted by his tongue in her mouth. He tasted like beer and cigarettes. He stopped for a breath and whispered in her ear "Don't worry baby, I'm not going to do anything you're not going to like,"
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER!" Mara heard, before Jeff was pushed off of her body with an astonishing force. The other few people at the party were either too high or otherwise too preoccupied to notice this conflict. Jeff stumbled backwards and fell onto the futon.
"Jerome!" Mara gasped. And there was Jerome. He was only wearing blue, plaid pajama pants and a white t-shirt and he wasn't nearly as muscular as Jeff. But Jeff was drunk and Jerome looked livid. His eyes were an icy blue storm. Jerome tossed a jacket to Mara and stood possessively in front of her. Mara pulled on the jacket. She realized it was Jerome's leather aviator jacket. The sleeves were a couple inches too long and smelled like him.
"Hey man, we were just messing around," Jeff said, his eyes transfixed on Jerome, as if he couldn't believe he was really there.
"If you so much as look at her again, I will murder you," Jerome's fists were curled up into balls and it seemed he was only restraining himself for Mara's sake. Jeff was astonished to be amused by Jerome's confidence. It was like a Chihuahua threatening a pitbull.
"Man, you're crazy," Jeff shook his head.
"Yeah, I'm crazy," Jerome got up in Jeff's face, and their noses were nearly touching. "And crazy beats strong-" Jerome glanced at Jeff's muscles. "-everytime,"
"Whatever," Jeff rolled his eyes, pretending that Jerome's statement didn't faze him. Mara didn't want a fight to break out. She tentatively touched Jerome's arm. He jumped, startled, and then softened when he saw Mara. He seemed to remember why he was restraining himself. Jerome led Mara out the room without another glance at Jeff, afraid that he wouldn't be able to stop himself from giving the idiot a well-deserved beating.
They walked in silence to the elevator. Then to Jerome's car. She sat got into the passenger seat, and tried to read Jerome's face. His face was stoic and expressionless. But even inebriated, Mara knew better than anyone that Jerome was an expert at hiding his emotions. Mara's head pounded as she leaned against the headrest, and fell asleep. Sort of. She entered that stage in between consciousness and unconsciousness that everyone goes through before they fall truly asleep.
"We're here," Jerome said curtly, waking her up. He left the car and slammed the door. The abrupt sounds weren't aiding her headache. Mara thought that she was getting a hangover while she was drunk, rather than after. He seemed to wait, rather impatiently, for her to get out. She crept out of the car and they walked to the Anubis house, feeling a bit hurt by his coldness. Weren't they friends now? Mara couldn't quite remember. She never really knew where she stood with Jerome.
"Why are you being so mean to me?" Mara asked. She felt tears again. Jerome gave her a sidelong glance.
"I'm not a nice person," Jerome answered simply. That answer might satisfy someone else, but not Mara. Mara stopped in her tracks. She wanted a better response. Jerome sensed this and sighed.
"It is very difficult to be friends with you, Mara," Jerome admitted. A stupid fat tear escaped from the corner of Mara's eye. They arrived at the door.
"Shh, I don't want to wake up Victor or Trudy," He slowly opened the door, and led Mara upstairs to her bedroom. But Mara didn't care about waking people up. She was too much in distress. It's difficult to be friends with her! They stopped in front of her bedroom door.
"Why? Do you not like me?" Mara asked, scared of the answer. Jerome nearly dropped his phone and keys-pajama pants don't have pockets-and stared at Mara incredulously. This gaze lasted for a second before he regained his composure.
"No, it's not because-you're drunk, Mara. Go to bed," Jerome opened her bedroom door and gestured inside. Mara wanted to argue so she did. Wasn't that how all their conversations ended up anyway?
"I want to be with you," The truth of the words filled her with relief.
"No, you don't," Jerome said. He wouldn't look at her. As if he wished he was lying.
"Yes, I do!" Mara flinched at the sound of her own whining voice.
"You won't even remember this in the morning," Jerome dead-panned. "Go to bed,"
"But-" Mara whimpered.
"Now!" Jerome whipping around to face her. He'd been avoiding looking at Mara all night but not now. This time he was looking right at her. Right through her. Mara shivered.
The most beautiful and horrific part of Jerome's face was his eyes. Mostly because it was his only feature that betrayed his feelings. It chilled Mara to the bone. The problem wasn't that he didn't like her. That wasn't the issue at all. She wordlessly stepped back into her room. The door closed, if it was by her hand or Jerome's, she didn't know. She stared at Patricia's sleeping form in astonishment. Mara's whole world was crashing down, and Patricia was just sleeping, as if the earth was still spinning. As she heard Jerome leaving, his careful footsteps, she knew sleep wasn't an option. Mara filled with anger.
How dare he! Mara could do whatever she wanted! How dare he make her feel this way! And how dare he leave again! She stormed out of her room, and by some strange miracle, no one woke up. She didn't bother knocking when she arrived at Jerome's room.
"-the hell?" Jerome opened his mouth to say something but Mara cut him off with a kiss. His mouth was cool and smooth. She closed the door behind her and pushed him onto his bed. Mara vaguely noticed Alfie wasn't there. Jerome broke apart from her weak grip.
"Why are you doing this, Mara?" Jerome didn't look angry, he looked sad. Mara wanted him to stop being sad. She kissed him again. Jerome let her for a second, and then stopped her. She pushed father. She pushed him down and straddled him. She trailed her fingers down the nape of his neck. He didn't look at her, but if he did Mara knew she would see him pained. "Go," He said, his voice raw.
"I," She kissed his forehead. "refuse," She kissed his nose. Then her lips met his mouth again and Jerome really lost himself. His brain found him eventually and he pushed him off. "Leave," He said, meaning it now. "You have a boyfriend and you're acting like a whore,"
"Why are you mean to me?" Mara rubbed her eyes. She would not allow herself to cry again. "I thought you liked me too," Mara lied. She didn't think that. She knew it.
"Well, I don't," Jerome knew it didn't really matter what he said. Mara was drunk enough she wouldn't remember in the morning- he was sure of it.
"Liar!" Mara moved toward him, and at first Jerome thought she was going to kiss him again, but that wasn't her intention at all. She put her hand on his chest. Mara was no doctor, but she knew Jerome's heartbeat was pounding way faster than usual.
"See?" Mara smirked.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Jerome swatted her hand off him and jumped off the bed.
"Why do you keep playing with me?" Mara's refusal to cry caused the liquid to pile in her nose. She sniffled.
"I play with you?" Jerome laughed in disbelief.
"Yes! I don't know whether to hate you or to lo-," Mara dropped her gaze and stared at Jerome's covers. They were deep midnight blue.
"What?" Jerome asked. He could feel his guard dropping.
Mara wouldn't tell him how she felt. The time wasn't right and she felt if she said it before the time was right, the moment would be shattered. Mara lowered himself down onto his bed. The pain in her head intensified. She felt like her head was slipping in two. She slid under his smooth, blue covers and looked expectantly at Jerome. Her arm reached out to him. At first he thought that Mara wanted to sleep with him, and he shook his head, remembering Jeff. Jerome was no saint, but he wouldn't let Mara be taken advantage of twice in one night. His gaze followed her outstreched hand to her eyes and he realized that that's not what she meant.
They seemed to communicate without speaking. I want our problems to disappear just for one night. I want to sleep with you. In the most innocent sense of the word. Just fall asleep next to you and wake up next to you. Just once. Their inhibitions, stripped, that is exactly what happened.
He lay next to her on the bed. She was under the covers. He was over. She was on one side. He was on the far other side. The only thing that touched were their intertwined hands-his cool, smooth one and her soft, warm one.
Hope you like it!