Title: Shiver
Pairing: Peyton/Jake
Rating: PG
Jake doesn't understand her. He would like to, absolutely.
But the truth is, he doesn't have a fucking clue. She's an enigma in her own right.
That's okay, because Jake is subtle. He has learned how to get under her skin without her realizing it till it's done.
There may not
Be another way to your heart
So I guess I'd better find a new way in
And after that, she hates him for it. For a while, but really, Peyton can't be angry with him for long. What she can do is shut him out.
Or try. Unfortunately for her, he keeps pushing.
What she sees is that his pushing is never intrusive. If it is, he's smart enough to cover his tracks.
"I don't get you, Peyton," he says to her one day.
She smiles a little. "Don't stress over it, nobody does."
"You like being a martyr, huh?" he jokes.
She doesn't think it's funny.
"It's not about that."
"Then what is it about?"
"Forget it."
The conversation ends there. He watches her close up, and smirks because she's practically shrinking into her shell.
Avoidance is her favorite game to play.
He plays along because he's determined to crack her.
You look at me
I look at you
Neither of us know what to do
Jake notices something in her eyes, and that gives him incentive to keep pushing. Something about the way she looks at him tells him that she wants to be figured out.
"You want to get some pizza?" he suggests one night after he returns home. She is babysitting Jenny again.
You build me up
You knock me down
Provoke a smile
And make me frown
"Don't you have better things to do than try for a conversation I can't give you? What is this, a game for you Jake?" She shakes her head.
"I don't know about you, but I just asked for pizza. I'm starving," he grins.
Her laughter is gorgeous, if not forced. He is content with this, because it's something.
Eventually, they get around to the things she hates talking about.
Her mother.
Herself.
Her loneliness, above all else.
When she bares herself, makes herself vulnerable, she is the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.
These are the times he has to remind himself to breathe.
But soon enough, she closes up.
Peyton always does.
What she won't admit to herself, though inherently she knows it's true, is that Jake has figured it out.
He's not going anywhere, despite her valiant efforts to push him out.
It doesn't bother him. He'll keep trying.
I shiver when I hear your name
Think about you but it's not the same
I won't be satisfied 'till I'm under your skin
At the end of the day, he's too determined to reach her. To get under her skin.
Because she's already under his.