A/N: Yo! ^^;; Sorry once again it took so long to post the next
chapter, but all my teachers have literally doubled the homework load over
Spring Break, so I haven't had much time to write at all lately .o But,
anyway, I'd just like to give a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed
my fic, and an extra special one to Escaflowne for actually liking me
enough to be put on his favorite list! ^_^ That's the first time I've ever
been on Favorite Author list. Some of my individual fics have made
someone's Favorite Fics list, but it's the first Author one I've ever been
on :-D So thank you all!
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Jamie cleared his throat, then turned around to face me. "...Caitie..."
I sat back down, leaning against the side of the building, and hugged my knees to my chest. "What?" I ansered, trying my hardest not to cry.
"My God..." He slowly walked over and knelt down beside me. "You...You Ok? He didn't...?"
He soulded so worried, so concerned! That destroyed the already weak dam. A fresh wave of tears hit me and I burried my face in my knees, not wanting Jamie to see just how rattled I was, even though it was quite obvious.
H waited a minute for my sobs to subside, then softly asked his question again. "Did he...?"
I glanced back up at him for a second before covering my eyes with my hands and shaking my head.
Jamie smiled grimly. "Well, I guess that's one thing to be thankful for..."
I finally scraped up enough nerve to meet his gaze, but I couldn't keep my position for long, as my eyes began watering, my bottom lip began trembling, and I broke down once again. "God, just say it, Jamie! Just say it!"
"Huh? Say what?" he asked in a confused voice.
"Just say it! Say it now and get it over with!"
He laughed uncertainly. "Caitie, I really don't know what you're talking about..."
"You do too! You were right and I was wrong! This is all my fault and I should have listened to you, just say it!" I cried loudly, but Jamie only grinned and shook his head, putting his arm around my shoulders and giving me a little sideways hug.
I sighed and stared down at the ground, both of us silent for a while. Still avoiding Jamie's eyes, I spoke, "Please...Jamie...go. Leave. Just go away and leave me here...I...I don't want you to see me like this..."
"Caitie!" He looked at me incredulusly. "I'm not going to leave you alone in some dark deserted allwy way, Caitie, are you insane?!"
I didn't move from my spot.
"C'mon...Why don't I just give you a ride home? C'mon, please?"
I proceeded to ignore him.
"Ok, your choice...I'm not leaving until you decide to come with me..." I looked at him but still said nothing as he got up and stretched, cracking his neck and his knuckles, then he stood there, looking down at me, tapping his foot with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked so determinded, so *concerned* about my safety...why?
"Caitie..."
Well, there would be no getting around it. I slowly rose to my feet, but as I did so I began crying again. I had been an inch away from getting raped! Just one tiny inch! How could he be so calm?! How could he just stand there looking at me like nothing had just happened?! My dignity and self respect had been violently stripped from my grasp. Would it be possible to feel normal again? To be able to feel like...me...once more?
"There you go, crying again," Jamie rolled his eyes in mock dissappointment. "C'mon, he's gone. He's not coming back. He didn't get what he came for...and besides, I cam and rescued you, didn't I?" An impish smile tweaked the corners of his mouth up.
I tried to force a smile, but it didn't come. Instead, I turned my back to him. This was not how I wanted him to see me as! Not now! Not my soft inside that had somehow leaked through my tough exterior. The soft inside the world wasn't supposed to know about, not even Val, and especially not Jamie...
"Cai-tie..." Jamie sighed in exasperation. "Come on." He gently grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards his motorcycle. I put up no resistance and allowed myself to be led, my head hanging down in embarassment and shame, my long hair covering my face from view.
"You want front or back?" He asked me.
I said nothing, but I pulled my hand away from his and half-heartedly straddled the front half of the seat, waiting for him to get on behind me. Since I was wearing a mini skirt and all, it would be a lot easier for me to keep my knees together if I sat in the front. And since I was so short and he so tall, Jamie would have no problem seeing over me. And besides. Jamie's bike had no windshield. I really felt like I deserved to sit and suffer in the biting cold, at least providing Jamie with some sort of shield...after all he's done for me and all I haven't.
He swung his leg over the side of his motorcycle and turned the key, left in the ignition, in front of me. The motorcycle roared to life, the headlights cutting through the dark night air. With an arm on either side of me, he gripped the handlebars, twisted the throttle, kicked the start peddle, and we sped off down the empty road towards my house.
Grasping the edge of the seat I was sitting on so I wouldn't fall off, I closed my eyes and huddled down, trying to make myself as small as possible, just wishing with all my heart that I could forget everything that happened tonight. The ice cold wind was blowing right in my face, stinging my cheeks like millions of sharp tiny needles.
"You Ok?" I heard Jamie's voice out of my left ear.
I nodded, still without looking up, then inhaled sharply as the dark sky above us was suddenly lit up as bright as if it were day. My eyes open now, another bolt of lightning rippled through the air, followed closely by the distant crack of thunder.
"Storm's coming," Jamie stated, taking his eyes off the road for a second to glance up at the sky.
A few seconds after he had said that, I felt several drops of water on my head and arms. It wasn't long before tiny rain drops, soon growing into larger ones, were pitterpattering on the road, all around us. A strong wind was blowing against us, hitting us head on, splattering freezing cold rain drops straught at our faces.
Thunder rumbled again, startling me. I could feel goosebumps prickling out all over my skin and I shivered involuntarilly.
"You sure you're Ok?" Jamie asked me again. "You cold? Want my jacket?"
Even though we were only four blocks from my house, a short ride on a motorcycle, Jamie pulled over to the side of the road, under the meager sheltering of a small tree, and quickly removed his jacket, draping it around my shoulders before I could even utter a word. Then he restarted his bike once again.
God, Jamie...all he was wearing underneath that was a thin black T- shirt...He must have been freezing! But...if he was...he didn't show it at all. He bravely faced the whipping wind and the harsh rain without even flinching. How he could possibly do that was beyond me...
I pulled Jamie's jacket tighter around me as we turned in on my street and the dark shape of my house loomed closer and closer, barely visible beneath the shadows of the many trees surrounding it. Before I knew it, Jamie had pulled up into my driveway and shut off the engine. "Well...We're here..."
Yeah, thank you," I smiled ambivalently, slowly and rather ungracefully hobbling off the motorcycle and regaining my balance, brushing down my mini skirt.
"Welcome...You, ah...you sure you're gonna be alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I looked down at my boots and remembered I was still wearing Jamie's denim jacket. "Oh, you want this back?" I offered, beginning to take it off.
But he only refused, smiling back at me. "Naw, that's Ok. I'm good. Just give it back to me later."
I looked at him, surprised. "You sure? God, it's like freakin' Antarctica out here, and you're soaked..."
"No, I'm great..."
"Um, ok, thanks," I rubbed the back of my head akwardly. "Well...I'll see ya later...thanks again for the ride..." I waved and turned away, walking up the stone steps that led to my front porch, and removing my backpack to dig through it for my door keys. Jamie was still there, waiting to make sure I got in Ok, though he had begun to back his bike out of my driveway. "God, where are my stupid keys now?" I muttered to myself...It wasn't like this was a huge canvas bag, and it wasn't filled to the brim with crap...they shouldn't be so hard to find...yet, it was as if they had vanished...An icy cold hand of fear gripped me. ...Oh God...Oh God, no..!
I couldn't help but jump as the security lights mounted a top my garage suddenly flickered to life. The stupid things were supposed to go on when the motion sensors picked up anything, though they only seemed to work two percent of the time.....My blood ran cold. My keys missing, something setting off the motion sensored flood lights...I caught what I thought was some sort of movement out of the corner of my eyes, but when I spun around to get a better look, I couldn't distinguish anything unusual from the pitch black shadows of the surrounding foliage...but that didn't mean that I absolutely *didn't* see it...Oh God! He - He didn't...He couldn't...Oh my God!
Dropping my backpack, I turned tail and tore out of there as fast as i could, leaping down the stairs and running through the slick, sopping wet grass, nearly slipping once or twice and almost twisting my ankle in an invisible indentation in the ground. I made it across my lawn toward Jamie, crying the whole way. When I finally reached him, I threw my arms around him, burrying my face in his arm, nearly knocking both him and his bike over. "Oh, God, Jamie...Jamie, God..." I sobbed.
"What, Caitie?" He asked me, a confused smile on his face.
"God, Jamie! He...He...He..."
"He who? ...Jason?"
I nodded.
All traces of a smile suddenly gone from his face, he pried himself out of my death grip and forced me to look up at him. "What? What did he do?"
"He took them! My house keys! He stole them! They're gone, they're not in my bag...!" I backed away from him a step and ran my fingers through my dark hair in pure fear and frustration. "God, he has my keys! He can get into my house now! Oh, God, Jamie, now what the hell am I going to do?!" I broke down into tears again, though they were barely visible against the drops of rain that was still coming down.
"Caitie, Caitie, calm down," Jamie tried to reason with me. "Are they in your pocket?"
My pockets? Did I dare consider or believe that I could have possible put them there? Did I dare get my hopes up even a little bit like that? Taking a deep breath, and rubbing at my eyes with the back of my hand, I timidly felt around in each of the six pockets in my vest-jacket, nearly collapsing with relief when my fingers brushed against the plastic surface of my keychain in the very last pocket I checked. I pulled them out and stared at them in disbelief before my face broke into a grin and I couldn't help but laugh at my anxiety. Of course! Before I had left my house at four, I had put them in my jacket pocket, not my bag! I remember now!
I met Jamie's gaze and he smiled back at me, the rain water dripping from his spikey brown hair...I felt my cheeks flush and quickly looked away.
"So, you gonna be alright now?" He teased.
I began to nod, but when I glanced back at my house, the same feeling of uneasiness and dread settled back down on me.
"You still worried?" He asked softly.
Lighting flashed again. I said nothing.
"...Want me to stay over for a while?"
Thunder cracked short and loud right above us as I slowly nodded. "...At least to, you know, get out of the rain for a while..." I turned and began walking back to myf ront door. "Come on." I motioned for him to follow. He wheeled his motorcycle once again up my driveway and left it leaning against my garage door, where the over hanging roof would give it at least some protection from the storm, and soon we were both inside my messy, cluttered house, trying vainly to dry off.
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Woo, Chap 5 dun ^-^ Please R/R, as always :)
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Jamie cleared his throat, then turned around to face me. "...Caitie..."
I sat back down, leaning against the side of the building, and hugged my knees to my chest. "What?" I ansered, trying my hardest not to cry.
"My God..." He slowly walked over and knelt down beside me. "You...You Ok? He didn't...?"
He soulded so worried, so concerned! That destroyed the already weak dam. A fresh wave of tears hit me and I burried my face in my knees, not wanting Jamie to see just how rattled I was, even though it was quite obvious.
H waited a minute for my sobs to subside, then softly asked his question again. "Did he...?"
I glanced back up at him for a second before covering my eyes with my hands and shaking my head.
Jamie smiled grimly. "Well, I guess that's one thing to be thankful for..."
I finally scraped up enough nerve to meet his gaze, but I couldn't keep my position for long, as my eyes began watering, my bottom lip began trembling, and I broke down once again. "God, just say it, Jamie! Just say it!"
"Huh? Say what?" he asked in a confused voice.
"Just say it! Say it now and get it over with!"
He laughed uncertainly. "Caitie, I really don't know what you're talking about..."
"You do too! You were right and I was wrong! This is all my fault and I should have listened to you, just say it!" I cried loudly, but Jamie only grinned and shook his head, putting his arm around my shoulders and giving me a little sideways hug.
I sighed and stared down at the ground, both of us silent for a while. Still avoiding Jamie's eyes, I spoke, "Please...Jamie...go. Leave. Just go away and leave me here...I...I don't want you to see me like this..."
"Caitie!" He looked at me incredulusly. "I'm not going to leave you alone in some dark deserted allwy way, Caitie, are you insane?!"
I didn't move from my spot.
"C'mon...Why don't I just give you a ride home? C'mon, please?"
I proceeded to ignore him.
"Ok, your choice...I'm not leaving until you decide to come with me..." I looked at him but still said nothing as he got up and stretched, cracking his neck and his knuckles, then he stood there, looking down at me, tapping his foot with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked so determinded, so *concerned* about my safety...why?
"Caitie..."
Well, there would be no getting around it. I slowly rose to my feet, but as I did so I began crying again. I had been an inch away from getting raped! Just one tiny inch! How could he be so calm?! How could he just stand there looking at me like nothing had just happened?! My dignity and self respect had been violently stripped from my grasp. Would it be possible to feel normal again? To be able to feel like...me...once more?
"There you go, crying again," Jamie rolled his eyes in mock dissappointment. "C'mon, he's gone. He's not coming back. He didn't get what he came for...and besides, I cam and rescued you, didn't I?" An impish smile tweaked the corners of his mouth up.
I tried to force a smile, but it didn't come. Instead, I turned my back to him. This was not how I wanted him to see me as! Not now! Not my soft inside that had somehow leaked through my tough exterior. The soft inside the world wasn't supposed to know about, not even Val, and especially not Jamie...
"Cai-tie..." Jamie sighed in exasperation. "Come on." He gently grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards his motorcycle. I put up no resistance and allowed myself to be led, my head hanging down in embarassment and shame, my long hair covering my face from view.
"You want front or back?" He asked me.
I said nothing, but I pulled my hand away from his and half-heartedly straddled the front half of the seat, waiting for him to get on behind me. Since I was wearing a mini skirt and all, it would be a lot easier for me to keep my knees together if I sat in the front. And since I was so short and he so tall, Jamie would have no problem seeing over me. And besides. Jamie's bike had no windshield. I really felt like I deserved to sit and suffer in the biting cold, at least providing Jamie with some sort of shield...after all he's done for me and all I haven't.
He swung his leg over the side of his motorcycle and turned the key, left in the ignition, in front of me. The motorcycle roared to life, the headlights cutting through the dark night air. With an arm on either side of me, he gripped the handlebars, twisted the throttle, kicked the start peddle, and we sped off down the empty road towards my house.
Grasping the edge of the seat I was sitting on so I wouldn't fall off, I closed my eyes and huddled down, trying to make myself as small as possible, just wishing with all my heart that I could forget everything that happened tonight. The ice cold wind was blowing right in my face, stinging my cheeks like millions of sharp tiny needles.
"You Ok?" I heard Jamie's voice out of my left ear.
I nodded, still without looking up, then inhaled sharply as the dark sky above us was suddenly lit up as bright as if it were day. My eyes open now, another bolt of lightning rippled through the air, followed closely by the distant crack of thunder.
"Storm's coming," Jamie stated, taking his eyes off the road for a second to glance up at the sky.
A few seconds after he had said that, I felt several drops of water on my head and arms. It wasn't long before tiny rain drops, soon growing into larger ones, were pitterpattering on the road, all around us. A strong wind was blowing against us, hitting us head on, splattering freezing cold rain drops straught at our faces.
Thunder rumbled again, startling me. I could feel goosebumps prickling out all over my skin and I shivered involuntarilly.
"You sure you're Ok?" Jamie asked me again. "You cold? Want my jacket?"
Even though we were only four blocks from my house, a short ride on a motorcycle, Jamie pulled over to the side of the road, under the meager sheltering of a small tree, and quickly removed his jacket, draping it around my shoulders before I could even utter a word. Then he restarted his bike once again.
God, Jamie...all he was wearing underneath that was a thin black T- shirt...He must have been freezing! But...if he was...he didn't show it at all. He bravely faced the whipping wind and the harsh rain without even flinching. How he could possibly do that was beyond me...
I pulled Jamie's jacket tighter around me as we turned in on my street and the dark shape of my house loomed closer and closer, barely visible beneath the shadows of the many trees surrounding it. Before I knew it, Jamie had pulled up into my driveway and shut off the engine. "Well...We're here..."
Yeah, thank you," I smiled ambivalently, slowly and rather ungracefully hobbling off the motorcycle and regaining my balance, brushing down my mini skirt.
"Welcome...You, ah...you sure you're gonna be alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I looked down at my boots and remembered I was still wearing Jamie's denim jacket. "Oh, you want this back?" I offered, beginning to take it off.
But he only refused, smiling back at me. "Naw, that's Ok. I'm good. Just give it back to me later."
I looked at him, surprised. "You sure? God, it's like freakin' Antarctica out here, and you're soaked..."
"No, I'm great..."
"Um, ok, thanks," I rubbed the back of my head akwardly. "Well...I'll see ya later...thanks again for the ride..." I waved and turned away, walking up the stone steps that led to my front porch, and removing my backpack to dig through it for my door keys. Jamie was still there, waiting to make sure I got in Ok, though he had begun to back his bike out of my driveway. "God, where are my stupid keys now?" I muttered to myself...It wasn't like this was a huge canvas bag, and it wasn't filled to the brim with crap...they shouldn't be so hard to find...yet, it was as if they had vanished...An icy cold hand of fear gripped me. ...Oh God...Oh God, no..!
I couldn't help but jump as the security lights mounted a top my garage suddenly flickered to life. The stupid things were supposed to go on when the motion sensors picked up anything, though they only seemed to work two percent of the time.....My blood ran cold. My keys missing, something setting off the motion sensored flood lights...I caught what I thought was some sort of movement out of the corner of my eyes, but when I spun around to get a better look, I couldn't distinguish anything unusual from the pitch black shadows of the surrounding foliage...but that didn't mean that I absolutely *didn't* see it...Oh God! He - He didn't...He couldn't...Oh my God!
Dropping my backpack, I turned tail and tore out of there as fast as i could, leaping down the stairs and running through the slick, sopping wet grass, nearly slipping once or twice and almost twisting my ankle in an invisible indentation in the ground. I made it across my lawn toward Jamie, crying the whole way. When I finally reached him, I threw my arms around him, burrying my face in his arm, nearly knocking both him and his bike over. "Oh, God, Jamie...Jamie, God..." I sobbed.
"What, Caitie?" He asked me, a confused smile on his face.
"God, Jamie! He...He...He..."
"He who? ...Jason?"
I nodded.
All traces of a smile suddenly gone from his face, he pried himself out of my death grip and forced me to look up at him. "What? What did he do?"
"He took them! My house keys! He stole them! They're gone, they're not in my bag...!" I backed away from him a step and ran my fingers through my dark hair in pure fear and frustration. "God, he has my keys! He can get into my house now! Oh, God, Jamie, now what the hell am I going to do?!" I broke down into tears again, though they were barely visible against the drops of rain that was still coming down.
"Caitie, Caitie, calm down," Jamie tried to reason with me. "Are they in your pocket?"
My pockets? Did I dare consider or believe that I could have possible put them there? Did I dare get my hopes up even a little bit like that? Taking a deep breath, and rubbing at my eyes with the back of my hand, I timidly felt around in each of the six pockets in my vest-jacket, nearly collapsing with relief when my fingers brushed against the plastic surface of my keychain in the very last pocket I checked. I pulled them out and stared at them in disbelief before my face broke into a grin and I couldn't help but laugh at my anxiety. Of course! Before I had left my house at four, I had put them in my jacket pocket, not my bag! I remember now!
I met Jamie's gaze and he smiled back at me, the rain water dripping from his spikey brown hair...I felt my cheeks flush and quickly looked away.
"So, you gonna be alright now?" He teased.
I began to nod, but when I glanced back at my house, the same feeling of uneasiness and dread settled back down on me.
"You still worried?" He asked softly.
Lighting flashed again. I said nothing.
"...Want me to stay over for a while?"
Thunder cracked short and loud right above us as I slowly nodded. "...At least to, you know, get out of the rain for a while..." I turned and began walking back to myf ront door. "Come on." I motioned for him to follow. He wheeled his motorcycle once again up my driveway and left it leaning against my garage door, where the over hanging roof would give it at least some protection from the storm, and soon we were both inside my messy, cluttered house, trying vainly to dry off.
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Woo, Chap 5 dun ^-^ Please R/R, as always :)