Author's Note: Long story short; I've finally gotten the internet back for my computer. About freaking time; it's been over two weeks. What a wonderful coincidence that we should lose our DSL line in the midst of a Bell Canada worker strike.
Maybe I shouldn't have so blatantly told you what was going to happen in this chapter in the last author's note. Oh well, enjoy anyway!
I also changed the titles of the fics to names of The Killers songs. Since I, uh, "borrowed" their song, it's the least I can do for them, advertise?
Oh yeah, one more thing, uh, 'yesterday' (in the fic) Jack's crops were unwatered right? So according to the game, he would have nothing to harvest the next day, 'today'. But in this fic, he has... stuff to harvest. Minor factual error.
Mr. Brightside
All These Thing That I've Done
(Jack's POV)
My own unconciousness prodded me awake that morning. I turned to my left to coax Karen out of bed, and was surprised to see her missing from her usual sleeping position on my left.
Crap. What if she woke up early again to make me breakfast?
I slid off my bed and rubbed my eyes. Hm, that was strange. There was no foul smell coming from the kitchen, nor was there black smoke. In fact, there wasn't a peep of sound in the house, other than the bird's sweet melody.
During my survey of the room, I spotted a slip of paper on the table. Intrigued, I sauntered over to take a look;
Jack--
I've
decided to leave you for good. I just can't take it here anymore. I
thought we loved each other enough so that the farm would be a nice
place to live, but I guess I was wrong. I'm back at my parent's
vineyard in case you want to talk or anything.
I
don't blame you for this, nor do I blame myself. We just fell out of
love, that's all.
--Karen
I chuckled. It was kind of funny that she signed it at the end. Who else did she think I would think it was from? The love thing provided a little bit of ironic humour too. I don't think that was a mutual feeling we ever shared together.
I felt compelled to do a happy dance. Wasn't this what I've always wanted, to discard of her? Yes, but... it still burned a little bit to know someone's dumped you. There was no denying the small pang of failure in the pit of my stomach. Divorce and suicide, if you consider them, are much alike. They are both easy escapes from unfortunate situations.
The note was crumpled in my hand, and tossed into the trash bin. A short, mild emotional set-back shouldn't disrupt my usual morning schedule. As usual in my routine, I headed out the door, tended to my animals (still in a foul mood from yesterday, but nevertheless more forgiving) and my crops.
I was just tossing in the last of my tomatoes into the shipping box when who should pay a visit to my farm but Popuri.
"Hi!" she waved to me from where I was working in the fields, her face shining radiantly, naturally.
Her visit startled me, but I just smiled back and greeted her with a mild "Hello."
In her right hand was a pitcher of lemonade. "I just thought you might be thirsty, after working so much. And especially all by yourself now..." Popuri glanced around the field earnestly. "I heard about you and Karen." She poured out a glass and handed it to me, which I gulped down gratefully.
"You did?" I furrowed my eyebrows suspiciously after swallowing the last mouthful of lemonade. "But it just happened this morning."
"Word just slipped out," Popuri explained simply. "You know how information travels around in town."
I couldn't help but smirk. "Yeah."
She delicately placed the pitcher of lemonade on the shipping box and leaned her slender body on the side. "I'm sorry. I didn't know things between you two had gotten so bad."
"Yeah," I said passively. "I guess she never understood farm life." I plucked the very last tomato off the plant and gave it a little squeeze. A slit burst and a small amount of juice dribbled down to my hand. With a smirk concealed, I step forward.
"Oh, Jack," Popuri stammered, backing away. "N-no... this dress, I just bought it!"
How ironic that she should wear a holy white sundress today.
"Please don't," Popuri pleaded, her hands held in front of her. "I-"
Before she can finish, the tomato has left my hand, and lands dead on. The fruit (or is it a vegetable? No time to argue about that) splattered all over her clothing, and the residue left more than just a small stain on her pure white dress.
Her eyes formed into slits, and seemed to glow a little more brightly than usual. I swallow, wondering whether I should have done that.
She stepped forward. "I told you not to do that."
"I'm sorry I'm sorry," I squeaked, begging for mercy.
Her face still burned with anger when she swiftly reached into the shipping box and slung another tomato at me. Bingo, it hit me right in the face.
With seeds in my eye, I heard her howling with laughter.
"Revenge! Sweet revenge!"
"Augh!" I swiped the juice out of my eyes, and in an ominous voice, I declared, "This is war!"
The next few moments consisted of no more than a blood bath, tomato blood that is. It was unescapable. Its red flesh left nothing spared in its wake of destruction. My livestock, having gotten accustomed to our immature behaviour, simply all cowered into the nearest corner of the fence and shielded themselves from the flying fruit.
"What the--" I watched a head of cabbage zoom by my eye, the green greatly contrasting the other predominant colour.
Popuri shrugged, still grinning. "We ran out of tomatoes."
I took a peek into my shipping box, to find nothing more than the residue of old produce now long gone and probably consumed.
With impeccable timing, Zach happened to walk in. "What? Nothing to ship today? All right then, see you tomorrow." (A/N: Those aren't his exact lines in the game, but you know.) Popuri and I dissolved into a flurry of giggles, leaving Zach bewildered but good humoured.
"Been having a war or something?" His eyes sparkled mischeviously after taking in his surroundings.
"Sorta," I told him, still clutching at my sides.
"All right. Just take it easy, you two." And with that, he left my property empty-handed.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead. "That was exhausting."
"Oh, yuck," Popuri grimaced. "The lemonade is red now."
I invited her inside for a drink, and somewhere to sit down. It didn't bother me that her clothing was probably giving my furniture a much needed paint job. I poured us two glasses of veryberry grape juice and took a seat across the table from her.
"You're alot of fun, Jack," Popuri told me after taking a sip of her drink.
I gave her kind of an exaggerated coy smile. "Thank you." I would have swooned dramatically for effect if I hadn't been sitting down.
"I never do this kind of thing with Gray."
"Oh?" I looked up at her, interested.
"Yeah." She looked down at her cup solemnly. "He's very conventional and conservative. He does the same things everyday. Work, eat, sleep. It's starting to get really boring. And what did I always used to do to kick bordem?"
"Come hang out at my farm," I finished, almost in awe.
"I hope you didn't mind."
"No, of course not," I deadpanned for her passively, my brain running a mile a minute.
Popuri suddenly shot up. "Oh no!" she wailed. "I'm getting tomato juice all over your furniture! I'm so sorry!"
"No, it's all right," I insisted quickly, standing up to calm her down.
She went into a frenzy, trying I suppose to find a rag or towel to clean up the probably tiny little subtle (pretty much unnoticeable) dot of pink. I finally intercepted her when she tried to go into the kitchen.
Don't ask me how it happened, because I'm not too proud of it myself. There she was, leaning on the door, covered in bits of tomato. There I was, towering over her, also covered in bits of tomato. I put my hand on her neck with one hand, and grabbed her wrist in the other. And before I could comprehend what I was doing, I'd already leaned in to kiss her. Strange thing was that she was kissing back.
Then almost simutaneously, I couldn't ignore the unwelcome sensation around my abdomen. I guess she couldn't either, because we both somehow took our way onto my bed. Her fingertips caressed my chest as I began to slide the straps of her dress off her shoulders(!).
Maybe it was that grape juice. It was some concoction Karen had left in my fridge. It did smell...
Uh oh...
I woke up the next morning to a loud pounding in my head with a somewhat vivid and somewhat hollow memory of the events of the night before. The pounding wasn't exactly located in my head, I soon discovered,but somehow outside it. I snapped my neck up to look at my front door. Someone was either trying to force their way in, or was very, very lost indeed.
Popuri paced back and forth by the table, fully dressed in that same white, freckled red dress from yesterday. Her head was in her hands, and she shook with violent sobs. When she saw me slip out of bed, she grabbed my arm. The grip of her fingernails jerked me into full alert.
"What should we do?" she whispered in a tiny, nervous voice, the lack of firm confidence confirming what I had dreaded. It was Gray.
I swallowed loudly, almost trembling. "I don't know."
It sounded like Gray, but I never knew he was capable of yelling in such a loud manner. He was slamming the door with his body, desperate to gain entry.
"Open the door right now! Jack! Popuri, I know you're in there! Come out right now!"
Oh... shoot.
Author's Note: (!)--I felt somewhat obligated to include a sentence like that, you know, to go with the song lyrics: "She's touching his chest now, he takes off her dress...". Yep. Hopefully my internet doesn't go out again. Anyway, please review!