Chapter Eight Starts NOW with a finally in Jess's POV chapter!
Jess lay in bed, staring at the clock. It had taken him two days to figure out Luke's pattern of 'wake up, shower, tea & news paper, open diner, check on Jess'. He woke up at exactly 6:15 am. Jess woke up a 4:45 am. Jess knew that all this laying around and barely eating anything was not going to help him get better, stronger. His jaw clenched. He hated being weak. Showing weakness was worse.
The green light from the digital clock showed the time turning from 4:44 to 4:45. Silently, Jess pulled a pair of clothes out from beneath his bed, the pair he had placed there the night before. As usual, he snuck quietly from the room, careful not to wake his brother, who was snoozing peacefully on the futon. Jess shut the door softly behind him.
He did an odd hoping-type motion that he did every morning for the past week (nearly two), past the living room and into the bathroom. After placing the clothes on the towel hanger, he grabbed three towels. The first, he hobbled to Luke's bedroom, the closest bedroom to the bathroom. He stuffed the towel in the cracks of the door. The second, he stuffed under the bathrooms door, and the third he placed on the showers side for easy grabbing action. Jess had been a thief before. He knew how to make a sound barrier when he need to.
He got undressed, showered, and dried off in the shower, careful not to leave any water on the floor. He hated having to hang his leg out like he did, but he couldn't get the cast wet and knew that putting a paper bag around it would make too much noise. Too much of a hassle. When he was done, he dressed carefully and exited the bathroom.
Jess's shoes were next to the couch. He put his right shoe on, grudgingly leaving his left one off. He hated not having shoes on in public. Jess wasn't sure why, but he was sure that the sight of his sock was a weakness that had to be eliminated. That was ok, anyway, because later that day they were going to saw the damned cast off anyway. He'd still have to use the crutches for another week or two, but the cast would be gone for good.
After achieving a tied shoe, which was painful seeing as how he had to lean forward to on his bad guts to do it, he stood and hobbled over to the closet. Opening it, he pulled on his leather jacket. No weakness, he thought idly as he pulled the collar out a little and tossed off his best bad ass scowl. The rest of the world may be used to seeing him laying flat on his ass and disoriented - weak - but not for long. Inside the closet were his crutches. He carefully removed them, and hobbled threw the apartment door.
Jess gently slid the crutches down the hand rail of the stairs, and they landed with an extremely soft thunk on the floor of the diner. He hobbled down the stairs slowly, feeling no mercy for his pair of crutches. He hated them. Jess couldn't slouch correctly with them, his hands were never free to read a book, and his movement was limited. If he needed to run, he knew he couldn't. And that scared him a hell of a lot more than he thought possible. He picked the crutches up again and left the dinner. Before he was completely gone, he glanced at Luke's clock. Exactly 5:00 am. He grinned.
Jess Mariano was going for a walk around Stars Hallows main streets.
If there was one thing Jess Mariano didn't miss about New York City, it was the air.
In Stars Hallow, the air in the mornings were so fresh and crisp and clear. He had fallen in love with it. It made him want to quit smoking, and he almost did, except for the occasional lapse due to stress. Sometimes, he imagined going back to New York and not being able to breathe correctly there. He imagined it would be like breathing normally for six months and then trying to breathe with a sock stuffed in your mouth. He was positive he would choke and die if he ever set foot back in the city.
The sun was rising over the horizon, and he hobbled to the bridge to watch it. He sat down heavily on the wood. It was gorgeous, and the skyline, smoky New York version paled in comparison. The colors were vivid here, and he loved the red and pink and orange that met him.
Creak. "Oh- sorry." Jess glanced over his shoulder. On the edge of the bridge was a leggy blonde girl. She wore no make up and her hair shined in the orange glow of the morning. She had sky blue pajama bottoms with little cows on them, and sandals. "I didn't know anyone else came here." She turned and began to walk away.
"No, it's ok." Jess called to her. She gave him a small smile and came back. She sat next to him. "I'm Jess."
"Shane," She muttered, pulling out a medium sized black sketchbook and a pack of colored pencils.
"As in 'come back'?" He asked.
"Oh, god. If I here another Shane reference, I'm gonna lose it." She growled. "Can't anyone come up with something original to say?" Jess smirked.
"Have you lived here long? I don't think I recognize you."
"About a year. And you probably wouldn't, since my face is usually permanently attached to some jerks'."
"You don't take me as the dumb blonde smut type," Jess commented, glancing out onto the lake.
"Well, I'm the blonde slut in the same way your the New York bad-ass." She said, looking up at the sunset and back to the paper, sketching away. "It's our facade, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Jess said quietly, looking at the sky again.
"It's a hell of a lot easier than being who you are." Shane said slowly. "This way…you're untouchable." Jess didn't reply.
Their conversation continued for a while.
"I haven't seen you in a while," She commented. "I recognize you from Stars Hallow High, but you haven't been to school lately, and now that it's been let out, I haven't seen you once."
"I only get out in the morning," He informed her.
"That'd explain it." Shane replied. "I come here during the day. Yesterday I stayed long enough to see the sunset, and knew I had to come back to see it rise."
Jess stared at the orange glow that stretched before them.
"You're good." He commented, glancing over her drawing and then back at the sunrise.
"I know," She muttered, then looked up at him and smiled. He smirked back. They watched the rest of it rise together in silence.
"Let's go for a walk, now that the sun's up. I won't be able to get out again for 24 hours, anyway." Jess stood. He tried to lean down again to get his crutches, and bit back a hiss of pain. She handed them up to him silently, and he accepted them.
They walked silently threw the quiet town.
"Isn't the quiet... eerie?" Shane asked. She was from Detroit, and used to lots of noise, too.
"Very." He murmured. "It feels like everyone's dead." She nodded. They turned left on Peach Street, back towards the diner. He took her wrist in his hand and tilted it to look at her watch. 5:58. Perfect. They stopped in front of the diner.
"Bye," Shane asked. Jess nodded. They departed.
Jess slid back into the diner, in a pleasant mood for the first time in a while. He looked up to see the clock, and the sight that greeted him was definitely not a clock.
"Where the hell have you been!"
End
well? R & R please!
it wont be a Shane/jess
just a one scene type deal that
will help us learn a bit more about jess, hopefully.
yes, it is the summer and Rory is currently in D.C.
2 more chapters left! I've got them all typed up and will
post them in the early night hours over the next three days.
I mean, I'd like to post them all at once, but I am a review whore.