One-Shot 16: The Swing

Jacob Stoll was sitting on the porch of his uncle's house with sketchbook in hand and a pencil. Uncle Connor and Aunt Naomi lived in Long Island with Jana and their house was big and more out in the open compared to theirs.

It was like the ultimate vacation house except people lived in it all year round. It made Jacob wonder how two photographers could gather that much money to buy such a big house like this.

Jacob's family was visiting for the weekend and after that he and his sisters would head off to camp and his mother and father would head home.

He was all alone because there was a problem when you were the only boy your age around this place (and he really didn't feel like trying to meet people, he was the most anti-social out of the two twins).

His mother and Aunt were softy whispering to each other in the living room about things, his father and Uncle were catching up and doing brotherly things and it would be awkward just sitting there listening to them reminisce about things he didn't know about, and his twin and cousin were gossiping in Jana's room about girly subjects that he would know none of.

And if he chose to hang out with them they would have done something to him that was horrible like force makeup on his face for try to force his feet (which were quite huge for any lady shoe) into high-heels or something. They were truly wicked girls when they got together and schemed.

He didn't know where his youngest sister was but she was probably off chasing butterflies or feeding that weird cat thing of hers.

"Jake." He looked up and saw his little sister standing there. She was the only one who called him 'Jake' instead of Jacob. And for some reason she was more vocal and outgoing if he was the only one around.

"What?" he asked.

"I'm bored." she announced, setting her cat thing down.

"Why?" Jacob asked.

Rosie rolled her eyes. "Hailey and Jana kicked me out of the room because they said I was too little to be around them and lame." Rosie said. "I'm 11! I'm old enough!"

Jacob smiled. "Yes, because 11 is the start of adulthood." Jacob said.

She narrowed her eyes and smacked his arm. "Shut your 17 year old mouth." She watched him draw and then her eyes met the swing at the front of the house and ran over to it and pulled herself up onto it and started to try to swing but her feet couldn't touch the ground.

"Jake!" she yelled over her shoulder. "Push me!"

He looked up from his sketchpad and saw her legs dangling above the ground. "Can't you push yourself grownup Rosie?"

"Well, do you have anything better to do?!" she called out.

He rolled his eyes at her but got up from the porch and went over to the tree swing. He grabbed onto the rope of the swing and started to walk backwards, bringing Rosie higher and higher.

She started to freak out. "Oh no, oh no, oh no!" she squealed. For a descendent of Hermes, she was afraid of heights. She got that from her mother.

"You said you wanted to be pushed!" Jacob replied back laughing.

"Put me down!" Rosie squeaked.

"Whatever you say." He let go of the rope and she screamed as she swung away from Jacob.

He kept on pushing her until she became silent and admired the view from the height she was getting. The sun was setting and the forest that lead to the beach had sunlight seeping through the spaces in between the other trees.

Her long blonde princess-like hair flowed behind her when she swung forward and past her pretty little face when she swung his way. A small smile was on her lips and wonder in her multicolored eyes as bliss started to drape over the both of them.

That would be their last moment of bliss before the war happened and tore their family apart.

Seven years later…

The truth was, Rosie knew when she was a little 11 year old that she wasn't grown up enough to hang out with Hailey anymore. But in those heavy days of war she had a lot of growing up to do in so little time.

She had killed people when she was 11 year old and girls that age were concerned about their growing bodies and boys and what normal 11 year old girls thought and worried about. All she was concerned about was staying alive and keeping the campers around her alive too.

And the only time she broke down during all of that was when the hail stopped pouring from the sky symbolizing that her older sister was dead. And somehow, she thought things weren't going to change.

But now she's living in the apartment of her older brother's because every single person in her family (excluding Jana because she now hated Jacob's and Rosie's guts for taking away her parents from her) was dead and it was all their fault.

It should have affected Rosie more. She held onto her mother's hand as she was bleeding out and dying. It should have torn her into pieces. But it didn't. She had grown a tougher skin, she got over things, and she survived. The war mentally had never left her after all this time and it affected the people and world around her.

But Jacob? He was the co-general for the war and fought alongside somebody he hated. He realized all the wrong that happened around his world. He was the one who held his twin—his other half as she died. She was jealous of him because he was more human than her. The only bright side of the war was that he got his voice back.

But he had let himself go. After Dad and Hailey died he took up smoking and drank more. He told nobody but you could tell because his clothes would reek of cigarette smoke and he would smell of vodka.

He got in trouble a lot in the last year of high school of being drunk on campus (his friends had to haul him back to his dorm 'cause he would go out in the middle of the night piss drunk and scream profanities in Ancient Greek with a mix of English and French in them), smoking in the dorms and bathrooms, grafting all over the campus, and pushing people into lockers if they even gave him a dirty look (or what he thought was a dirty look).

The school never reported this activity to the police nor put it on Jacob's record because he was 'gifted' and he clearly had mental problems.

They told their mom to take him to counseling or psychiatrist but the family couldn't because they weren't allowed to tell mortals about the war and couldn't risk it. So then Jacob pulled himself together but after his mother, aunt, uncle, and grandmother died because of him, things spiraled down.

People thought he had quit smoking but on some nights when he wasn't around his friends and the two were alone at home she would smell the smell of cigarette smoke and she would sneak out of her room to see Jacob at the balcony of their apartment smoking and a bottle of vodka would be at his feet.

He always covered it up later but she was scared that he would become aggressive Jacob again.

He had just gotten out of art school but five months after the death of their family he could and would not draw a thing. Many sketchbooks were just blank pages and sometimes when she was watching TV with him (well, he was spaced out and she was watching) he would be sitting there with a sketchbook and pencil but all the pages would be blank.

He would just be sitting there with a pencil in hand but nothing would come to mind.

Then one day she got sick of it and got out of her room and started screaming at him. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" she screamed, taking him by surprise. She went over to him and gripped him by the shoulders. "DRAW DAMN YOU! I'm fucking sick of you drawing nothing! Draw something! I need you to be 'you' again!"

She grabbed his hand and started to violently scribble onto the sketchpad. And for some reason she was crying. Her heart hurt and she just wanted everything back.

She wanted Hailey to ignore her again and keep her out of girl things, Jacob to be the one she had to resort to, Mom and Dad fighting and then later making out like hormonal teenagers, she just wanted it all back.

"Rosie!" she heard him scream as he grabbed hold of her hands. "Rosie, listen to me."

She squeaked out something that didn't make any sense. He held her there but she fought back with jerking her hands away. She pushed his hands away from her and ran to her room.

Normally she wouldn't do the whole melodramatic teenage girl thing but she was tired to being an adult. She was tired of having nightmares and having the effects of war happen to her.

After a few hours her door swung open. Before she could snap at him to get out Jacob said, "In the car, five minutes, that's an order."

She grumbled but put on a thin jacket (she didn't bother to put on real clothes and just wore her pajama t-shirt and gym shorts) and slipped on sandals. She went out of her room and saw Jacob waiting for her. They walked out of the apartment and headed down to the parking lot.

"Where are we even going?" Rosie asked. "It's like the middle of the night!"

"Just shut it." Jacob said.

They were quiet the entire ride but once they made familiar turns she looked at him with shock.

Then they pulled up to a beautiful house near the beach that was for rent. It was their Uncle and Aunt's old house. "Jacob, why are we here?" she asked, turning to him.

"Well, I thought we would just go and visit one last time." Jacob said. "Come on; let's get out of the car."

The two Stoll's got out and leaned against the car. "So, we're not buying it?" Rosie asked.

She heard Jacob softly chuckle. "No, we're not. Even though we have the money for it, Jana and I made an agreement that none of us would buy this house." He started to walk up the pathway to the house and she stood there hesitantly.

"Are we like trespassing?" Rosie asked.

"No, we aren't since I technically own the property since Jana and I are splitting the rent from the house because she knows nothing of rent and I do." Jacob replied, turning back, waiting for her to follow.

The two headed up the path and then stopped at the tree. She looked at the sad tree swing. It probably hasn't been used in such a long time but it could still hold the weight of a grown man.

Suddenly Rosie got an idea and sat down on the swing. She giggled at how her feet could now touch the ground than to when she was a little girl.

"Jake." she said. He raised an eyebrow in surprise. She hasn't called him Jake for seven years. "Push me."

He smirked and it felt so good to see him smirk again. "Oh, but Rosie, aren't you an adult now?" he said coyly. "Adult's don't need to be pushed on swings."

She made a face at him. "Well, don't you have anything better to do?" she asked him. He looked around and shrugged and went behind her. He pulled back on the ropes and he heard the same freaked out squeal she made when she was younger.

"You're still afraid of heights Rosie?" Jacob asked. "I thought you weren't afraid of anything."

Before she could come back with a retort he let go of the ropes and pushed on her back and she went flying towards the woods. He laughed at her screams and pushed her again as she came back swinging towards him.

Her screams became muted and he saw the same smile that was on her face from seven years ago. Her long hair flowed in the wind and they both couldn't help but forget about the horribleness that happened in the past.

Moonlight seeped through the woods and their night was lit up by the embrace of the moon. All was forgotten about the horrors in their life, just for moment in time that lasted forever.

I was inspired to write this when I was on vacation and we took a stop at Connecticut to visit a family friend and they had a beautiful house on a hill with a forest across it and a swing that was attached to a tree there and I kept thinking about Rosie and Jacob and thus, this one-shot was born.

So, I am writing an original story on Wattpad and if you want to go check it out then it's on my profile and you can click the link there.

Anyway, thanks for reading!