With a tight smile and glassy eyes, Melissa pulled open her front door and immediately rushed into the waiting arms of the boy on the other side. His dark hair was wet; messy from the cold wind and rain. His dark eyes burned with tears and when his arms wrapped around her, she melted into him, burying her face in his leather clad shoulder. He tenderly stroked her hair, kissing her head repeatedly. She pulled him in out of the rain, reaching behind him to close her front door and push him against it. He pulled her against him tighter, holding her body against his tightly. She held on for a few minutes before silently taking his hand and leading him up the stairs to her room. He made himself comfortable against her headboard, legs stretched out in front of him, with his heavy boots on the floor beside her bed.
"C'mere, Bella."
She kicked off her shoes and carefully made her way over to him, still cautious of her almost healed ankle. She crawled onto the bed and straddled him, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him against her. His hands rested on her back, near her ribs. He looked up at her and smiled tenderly.
"What's wrong, Bella?" His voice was barely above a whisper; his lips brushing against her ear, a rasp of soft heat against the sensitive flesh. "Tell me, what's wrong?"
"Just tired." Melissa sighed, resting her forehead against his. "Tired of this whole thing with Taylor."
"I know." Jackson sighed softly, pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose. "Me too."
"Why does she have to be like this?" Melissa asked him, shifting her weight slightly so that she could wrap her legs around him and cross her ankles at his back. "Why is she doing this?"
"Because two best friends, who don't even rank on her little high school food chain, have taken over what she thought was hers." Jackson murmured, nuzzling his face into her neck. A trail of heated, tender kisses trailed from just behind her ear down to her collarbone. He smiled against her skin as he kissed his way down her collarbone and around to the other side of her neck. "Now she sees herself as prey and we're the predators."
"But - oh there - she's the...oh...predator." Melissa held him against her neck as he kissed, bit, licked and sucked on her sensitive flesh. "Not - Oh God, Jackson - us...hmm, don't stop."
He tilted his head and bit down slightly on her neck, soothing the spot with his tongue. "Yea, but Bella, she doesn't see it that way."
"Perhaps...mmm, harder..." Melissa nearly gasped for air as he continually sucked and licked at the tender flesh. "She does - Jackson, please!"
"Does what?" Jackson asked her, resisting the urge to smirk at her helpless, slightly desperate whimper. "Does what, Bella?"
"She does but - " Melissa gasped, unconsciously thrusting her hips. "Why would she? We didn't ask to take over the school."
"She's childish, Bella." Jackson lifted his hips slightly, pushing and rubbing against her. "Very childish and petty. She doesn't...Bella, baby, stop...Oh god, Bella...she doesn't see it that way."
"Perhaps not." Melissa fisted his shirt in the back, as he rolled his hips so that he rubbed against her. "Jackson!"
The talk of Taylor ceased as he continued his ministrations. The heated, sensual kisses to her neck and the roll of his hips were pushing her further and further toward the edge. A gasp caught in her throat as he pushed harder, rubbing against her.
"Jackson," Melissa pulled away from him for a moment to rest her forehead against his. "I don't want to go to school, scared of what Taylor might do. I don't like for her to have that kind of power over us. I hate her for making us feel like we have to keep our guard up all the time."
"It does suck." Jackson agreed with a slight nod. "So from now on, we don't keep our guard up constantly and whatever Taylor does, we tough it out."
"Together." Melissa nodded with a slightly.
"Now, where was I?" He bit at her neck playfully as he rolled them over and hovered on top of her. "I believe I was busy making out with my girlfriend."
"Is that what you call that?"
Shrieks of gleeful laughter as his fingers dug into her ribs, groans and gasps of white-hot pleasure as he kissed and sucked on her neck; but most of all the sound of a happy couple filled the room. When her father walked in the front door, after a long day at work, he wasn't at all surprised by what he found when he looked for his daughter. There, curled on her bed under a soft throw blanket was his daughter, curled up against her best friend's chest, sleeping peacefully with a serene, happy smile on her face and Jackson, sleeping just as peacefully with a matching smile on his face.
They were finally happy again.
Taylor couldn't touch them.
xxx
Cody Jackson and Melissa Wu were untouchable. A fact of which, Taylor Hagan had become all too aware. He was the hot foster kid with a Asian bomb-shell for a best friend. He was untouchable and by association so was Melissa. That's what pissed her off. She lived from destroying reputations but Jackson and Melissa didn't ask for the reputation they were stuck with and she had all but dropped to her knees and begged for her reputation as Ice Queen.
What pissed her off even more?
How sickeningly perfect they were for each other. It was oddly sickening to Taylor to watch them because they completed each other so damn well. She had never been in that kind of relationship. The kind where the other person isn't just your boyfriend; he's your best friend. He completes you, makes you whole in a way that you just can't be on your own. She had never had that kind of relationship and she supposed she never would.
Nathan hadn't been like that and Eric certainly hadn't been her other half.
Maybe that's where her need to destroy them so bad came from. She wanted Melissa, the girl who seemed to have everything, to know what it felt like to be without that other half. She wanted Melissa to feel incomplete. But she knew as long as Jackson was around, Melissa would always have her other half and Jackson would always around, even after everything. Their bond was too strong to be broken by petty, childish games. The same childishness had ruined all of her other relationships and would, without a doubt, ruin any future relationships.
She watches them enviously. The soft murmurs of Italian passing between them like code; tender smiles saved just for each other. Hands entwined tightly or bodies pressed tightly against each other. Having whole conversations without saying a word. Listening to him tell her he loved her over and over again. They share secrets; secrets that no one else will ever be privilege too. She's as protective of him as he is of her. It's like a web they've weaved together, trapping themselves in their own little world but keeping everyone else out. Wherever they went in life, their lives were so heavily intertwined by that web of love, of friendship, of protectiveness, that whatever happened, they would always be together.
The game is over.
She knows it.
She knew it when it started.
Despite her calculative and manipulative ways, she couldn't calculate the true strength of their bond. She can't manipulate something that's strong enough to take on the world and never break. Her game had the opposite effect. Instead of forcing them apart; driving a wedge between them, it just seemed to push them further together and she can't fight that. They had beaten at her own game. So she'll step back and watch from the sidelines. Secretly she'll wish for a relationship like theirs and in the back of her mind, she'll know that she was silly and stupid for ever thinking that they would break. The truth is painful and the reality harsh but she has to face it.
She lost.
Game over.
So why did Taylor back down? Simple. She finally realized that she can't win. She was cold, calculating and manipulative but the truth hurts and the truth is, their relationship could withstand anything. They've already been through the death of his parents, the divorce of hers. Jackson and Melissa are bound together pretty tightly at this point and I felt like Taylor needed to have another dimension to her character aside from the cold, manipulative Ice Queen. She wants the kind of relationship they have but she finally realized that breaking them up won't give her that. It's something she has to find on her own. Anyway, leave me some love, Dolls!
Love ya,
RobertDowneyJrLove