The Chapters of Life

Chapter Eight: You're My Best Friend

Whatever this world can give to me

It's you, you're all I see

You make me live now honey

You make me live

Queen, You're My Best Friend

"I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!!"

Karen gave a reproving look to the whirlwind sweeping through the kitchen that was her step-daughter, but the whirlwind paid no attention. "Crap, crap! It's already quarter to eight!" Without bothering to eat the breakfast that Karen had laid out, Sarah grabbed her bag on the counter and shot out of the kitchen.

Karen was a few steps behind. "Sarah, your breakfast – "

"I'll grab something from the cafeteria after first period!" Sarah called back, wrenching open the door. "Going to park after school, be back before dinner!"

The door slammed shut.

For a moment, Karen looked relieved. Having no opportunity to talk was a great excuse for not talking about touchy subjects.

Outside, running towards the bus stop where a bus was already pulling in, a similar thought was on Sarah's face. But her expression was one of annoyance, not relief.

J Y S

It was a gorgeous day. The sun was beaming from above, shining down upon the Earth. The grass was green, inviting the students of the local high school to lie down and stare up at the impeccable blue sky.

"Damn that sun. It's way, way too bright." Sarah deposited her bag on the table with a thump, then sat beside it, her feet on the bench.

"Most people are happy to see the sun," Katherine observed mildly.

Sarah ignored her friend as she began to unwrap her burger. "It's hurting my eyes."

"Oh, come on. Why are you in such a bad mood?" Francine joined Sarah on the table, sitting down on her other side. "You've been late for two days straight now, and despite the fact that you should still be happy and hyper about your birthday yesterday, you're all so grumpy. What's going on?"

Sarah took a big bite of her burger before she answered grumpily, "Nothing."

"Well, it doesn't look as though you've been getting much sleep," Katherine noted wryly.

"That, really, is– "

"SARAH!"

All three girls winced at the booming call that could be heard all too clearly from the other side of the courtyard of the school. Their serene peace of lunchtime was over, now.

"You need to do something about that kid," Francine said with a groan, though her voice held laughter, not turning back to see just who was making all the ruckus running towards them. She knew who it was all too clearly. "His voice is way, way too loud."

"I don't think I can do anything about it," Sarah said with a chortle. She also did not look back. She could hear him coming as well.

Katherine, on the other hand, was facing them, and thus could see clearly just who was coming. "Well, well…look who's beside him," she said with a twitch of her lips.

"Who?" Sarah asked.

Before her question could be answered, the girl sitting beside her shrieked as she was attacked from behind. Something heavy had slammed into Francine, and she was lurched off the table, screaming. Sarah nearly choked from laughter to see the two sprawled on the grass; her friend screeched, "Thomas, get off!" and pushed the grinning boy off.

Laughing, Thomas pushed himself up before offering the girl a hand. She pointedly ignored it as she pushed herself off the ground. "Do you always have to make such an entrance?" she griped, though a smile was beginning to tug on her lips. "Your screaming Sarah's name was plenty obnoxious, but no, you had to go ahead and do that!"

By now, both Katherine and Sarah were helplessly laughing. Thomas stuck his tongue out at Francine; she threw the crumpled wrapping that had held her lunch at his head, and scored a marvellous hit.

"Does he do that often?" a wry voice asked from Sarah's side.

Startled, Sarah gave a sideways glance to the boy who was sliding into the seat that Francine had vacated. Messy blonde hair came into view, and then the boy in question was tilting his head questioningly towards her.

"Um, yes. Very often, I'm afraid," Sarah said. Her voice did not give off any signs of her suddenly racing heart. "Every time, in fact."

Keith shook his head in amusement as he leaned back a little. He was sitting on the edge of the table, his long legs stretched out past the bench, his hands behind him. "He tends to act that way more around girls, I think," he observed with a snicker.

"I imagine it'd feel quite strange for him to attack and wrestle another guy," Sarah said, unable to help a grin herself.

"That, too." He agreed.

Then a hearty smack and a howling of "Ow!" were heard, and Sarah's attention was wrenched to the pair before her eyes.

"That hurt!"

"You deserved it," Francine retorted, laughing as she stepped back from Thomas. "You made me lose my seat!"

Keith sat up a little. "Shall I give it back?" he inquired.

Before Francine could answer, Thomas grabbed the purse that she was holding, yanking it out of her hand roughly. She spun to face him with a yelp.

"Revenge!" teased Thomas as he began to run away.

"Come here!"

A chaos of laughter and a game of chase ensued, lasting until the bell that signaled the end of lunch. The group began to make its way back to school, still shoving and laughing at each other. And Keith fell in step beside Sarah in such a natural way that Sarah found herself talking to him as if he were any other normal human boy.

And she could not explain, not even to herself, just why she was surprised by that – since she could not explain just why she felt Keith was not any other normal human boy.

"World History next," Sarah observed with a slight groan as she entered through the door that Thomas held open for everyone.

Thomas glanced at her. "The class with the great Keith himself," he said with a mocking smile.

Keith, who was walking in right behind Sarah, smacked him on the head; Sarah heard the familiar sound of Thomas getting hit for his comments behind her and slightly shook her head in amusement.

Thomas, of course, was not one to get discouraged. "I'm perfectly serious," he pouted a little as he caught up to the pair, walking beside Sarah and Keith. "The fact that this kid came to school two days in a row is just amazing. He comes barely once a week."

"I think I'm looking at one of the reasons why I want to avoid this school," the boy in question said dryly, looking pointedly at Thomas.

"Ah, but are you sure walking beside us isn't one of the reasons that you are here?" Thomas raised an eyebrow suggestively.

Sarah threw a rather disgusted look, half-joking, at him before speeding up to join Katherine and Francine.

Waving good-bye to her girl friends, who were off to Drafting, Sarah was glad to be entering the class and sitting down at her usual place, but her arm was caught just as she was entering the classroom. She twisted around to find Thomas, all traces of joking gone, looking at her quite seriously.

"Sarah, hey, come on," he said. "I was joking. I know you don't want to be involved in anything, especially since it's the end of high school and everything. I don't know why you're just so against the whole thing, but I do know that you are." A frown settled on his forehead. "You're not really mad at me, are you?"

"I'm not," Sarah said, feeling a little awkward and more than a bit startled. She shook her head. "As for why – I'm not sure what to tell you, because I don't know. I think… I think I just don't want things to change, or be different."

Thomas opened his mouth to say something, but then suddenly closed it. He released her. "Well, I'm still your friend, right?" he grinned at her, his boisterous self coming back, and began to walk backwards a couple of steps towards his own class.

"I sometimes wonder why," Sarah rolled her eyes. Then she saw that Keith had caught up and was talking briefly to Thomas. They nodded at each other as Keith began to walk towards her. Her stomach gave an unfamiliar clench, and she backed up a few steps, intending to go in before Keith did.

Before she could move, however, Thomas suddenly turned and yelled in his characteristic booming voice, "By the way, Keith, did you give Sarah a belated birthday present?"

"Go back to class, Thomas," Sarah choked, suddenly nervous. Barely daring to glance at Keith, Sarah escaped into the classroom, only to find Keith right by her side as they entered. She felt his eyes on her. "It doesn't matter, you know," she said, self-conscious, stealing a quick look at his face. He had an unreadable look on his face.

Suddenly, his mouth curved into a smile. "But I did give you a gift," he said in a low voice. "Don't you remember?"

And Sarah stiffened, in a kind of numb shock, and could only stare as he turned and walked away. Stumbling, somehow she found her seat and slipped into it, the starting bell ringing at the back of her mind.

She felt as if normalcy and all its pretenses were broken, and she wasn't sure just who it was that had broken it.

J Y S

Glad to have escaped from school, Sarah slid onto the grass, her bag beside her as always.

The park was still her favourite place to be in. She didn't dress up and recite her lines anymore, at least not by herself, but it was still calming to be where her dreams had come alive, at least temporarily. Idly, she took out a book, intending to read the next few hours away in solitude.

It was getting dark when she looked up. Blinking, she wondered when time had passed so quickly, and shut her book. Before her, the sun was setting behind the tall trees that always loomed in the park. The sky was a brilliant work of colour, soft blue on top that gradually let way to burning orange as it neared the setting sun. She paused her actions for moment, staring up at the sight.

Lost in the sensation, she did not flinch when a voice spoke softly beside her. "Breathtaking, isn't it? I can see why you keep coming back to this place."

"That's not the only reason," Sarah said softly. She wondered why her heart wasn't beating frantically at the intrusion. Maybe it was tired to being jittery at every anomaly that jumped at her – there were simply too many changes happening around her at the moment to do that.

She sensed movement to her side, but she did not look. "Should I ask, then, why else you come back to this place?" he asked quietly.

Sarah opened her mouth to answer, then stopped. There was something, some emotion, blocking her answer, setting off the alarm in her head, and she didn't know what. "I'm sorry," she said, with a little inhale of breath. "I can't…" she shook her head, her already quiet voice trailing off into nothingness.

Perhaps it was something about the stillness and beauty of the scene that made them speak so softly, carefully… or perhaps it was the fragility of the tension between them.

"Sorry?" the voice asked.

Finally, Sarah turned to face him. He was sitting on the grass a few steps away, looking relaxed, his head tilting back as he looked at her. Staring at him, Sarah found herself thinking that his hair would have hung delicately in midair instead of sticking outwards at the shoulder if it had been just a bit longer, perhaps as long as Jareth's.

Her breath stilled for a moment. Why in the world, her mind asked in a wondering voice, was she seeing Jareth in Keith?

"Why did you say sorry?" Keith asked, gently, slowly. He seemed afraid to make any movements, in case Sarah would bolt.

He was right about that.

Sarah blinked, feeling as she was pulling out from underwater. "Because I don't seem to be able to treat you right," she said, hardly knowing what she was saying herself. "I mean – it feels like I'm judging my feelings and opinions about you based on something other than what you've done."

She gave a short laugh then, irritated and amused with her ability to make no sense. "I just feel like I should know you from somewhere else," she finally said.

Keith gave her a slight smile. "Maybe you should," he said gently. Excruciatingly slowly, he moved a little closer.

Sarah suppressed a shiver, hardly knowing why.

"Try to remember, Sarah…" He whispered, his eyes not leaving her. Hesitantly, he held out his hand, palm up, as if offering something.

"I'm sorry," she said, hoarsely. She watched him almost helplessly, as he dropped his hand at that. It lay on the ground as if lifeless, though his eyes that were glued to her were anything but. "I'm sorry," she tried again, attempting to make her voice work. "Is… Is there something I should remember?"

He was silent for a few moments, then he smiled again. "No," he said. "I suppose not. Although I was hoping you might realize…"

"Realize… what?" Sarah asked, staring at him.

"Oh, but hey," he said, relaxing and supporting himself comfortably with his hands behind him once more. "You haven't answered my question." At her confused look, he clarified, "Why you like to come to this place. If not for its beauty, then for what? Memories?"

Sarah turned back to the sun, which was now hanging precariously on top of the trees, threatening to go down any second and let darkness engulf the world. "You might say that," she said with a little laugh. "I guess I started coming here when I was younger because of its beauty, because it seemed so otherworldy, like a place out of books. Then I grew so fond of it, and continued to come here, even when I wasn't looking for magic."

"You find magic in this place?" Keith looked around at the park.

"That too, and practicality," she said, grinning a little as she remembered something. "Not many people come here. It's great for any make-belief games I might want to play."

Keith laughed a little at that. "Ah, the good old days of being young."

Sarah breathed in the fresh, cold evening air, which calmed her down infinitely. She closed her eyes, feeling calm even as she brought up the subject again. "So, your turn to answer."

"Pardon?"

"My question. What is it that I should realize?" She kept her eyes closed, breathing in, breathing out.

His answer was soft, but it sounded much closer to her than it had been barely a second ago. "Realize that we've met before."

Her eyes fluttered open. "When had we met before?"

"That's another question," Keith said, almost teasingly.

Sarah glanced at Keith, almost flinching when she saw that he was closer than she had thought. He was now sitting barely a step away from her, one hand on the other shoulder, his chin on his upper arm, gazing at her with a little smile.

And she recoiled from him, shock coursing through her entire body.

He had mismatched eyes.

Understanding hit her like a blow – just why she had thought of Jareth when she had glanced at Keith just a few minutes ago - and she pushed herself off the ground, barely able to find her balance. She felt nauseated, like she was going to throw up any moment. "I promised Karen I'd be home before dinner," the words tumbled out of her mouth. With shaking hands, she grabbed her bag and began to run from where she'd been standing, barely registering that the sun had gone down completely, barely realizing that she was running… again.

Keith watched her go. The girl had bolted from him, in the end.

J Y S

For a moment, Sarah felt disoriented.

The darkness enveloped her; she couldn't see anything other than black, even though she was fairly sure her eyes had opened just now.

Had they been closed before, then?

"I'm sorry," a muffled apology came directly in front of her, and she nearly screamed. Snatching the sheets to herself, she struggled to sit up.

A dim light was lit, pale and illuminating, and the darkness faded away suddenly. Sarah blinked, and suddenly she could see the outline of her window where light from outside was seeping through past the curtains. She was in her room, on her bed… and in front of her was the goblin king, holding out a crystal that was radiating a soft pale light.

She nearly screamed once more.

"I'm sorry," the man standing in front of her said again, this time a bit more forcefully, then turned his wrist, the crystal disappearing in a wink. Yet even without the dim light, it wasn't as dark as it had been when her eyes first opened.

Sarah let out a tight breath, leaning against the bed frame behind her. "Jareth?" she asked wearily.

"I wasn't going to wake you up," he murmured. "I didn't think you'd be asleep already. When I came and saw you sleeping, I was going to leave – but then I thought maybe you wouldn't like it if you thought I hadn't come, when I told you I would. Then again, of course, you wouldn't like it if you thought I'd spied on you when you were sleeping." He gave a short laugh.

She closed her eyes, shook her head once, then opened them once more. Her mind was still disoriented, but she couldn't tell if it was from seeing the goblin king in front of her eyes so suddenly, or from being jolted out of sleep.

Had she fallen asleep? She couldn't even remember.

"What time is it?" she asked, somewhat afraid to move to the other end of the bed to look at the clock – and thus get closer to Jareth.

"Just past eleven," Jareth answered. He still hovered, looking unsure, standing between her bed and the window.

She took a deep breath. All right. She could do this.

She pushed back the covers, then stood up. Three steps, then she was switching on the light, blinking at the sudden brightness. She looked around to find that her room looked just as it had this morning, and that she was wearing the same clothes she had worn to school.

"I must have come up here and just fallen asleep right after dinner," she muttered, running a hand through her hair.

"Do you wish to go back to sleep?" Jareth asked, quietly.

Sarah shook her head. "No, I should finish my homework, anyways. Eleven isn't that late." Strangely, she found that she could not make herself look directly at Jareth in the stark light of her room. "Would you like to, erm, sit down?" She made a vague gesture.

Jareth gingerly sat down on the edge of her bed, looking so out of place in her pedestrian bedroom that Sarah had to stop a rather nervous burst of laughter. Briefly she wondered if her nerves had finally given up and she had gone crazy.

"Homework?" His voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Erm, yes," she said, blinking. She turned from him and began to shift through the books that she had left on her desk, all the while feeling that prickling sensation on her back where she knew he must be watching. Thankfully, she noted, she did not have much homework; after all, her college applications were already sent, and there was only the matter of waiting for answers and keeping the marks up. Or should she be nervous about the fact that she did not have much excuse to keep herself occupied?

A creak of someone getting up from the bed, then suddenly he was standing behind her, standing so close, yet not touching. Still much taller than her, he looked at her books over her shoulder, his breaths traveling to her neck where a tingling sensation was beginning.

Her hands instinctively gripped the book in them harder, and she fought to keep her breathing even, though even she could not tell if it was from nervousness or… something else.

"What kind of homework?" The goblin king asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Ah, well," Sarah stalled, grabbing the book she needed before taking a few steps away from the desk, from him. She swirled around, a smile plastered onto her face, knowing that he was again staring at her, yet unable to quite look at him. Without meeting his eyes, she dangled the book in front of her. "I don't suppose you know French, do you?" she asked, half-heartedly.

In a flash, Jareth snatched the book from her. Sarah had to fight another bout of nervous giggles at the sight of her book, appearing so ordinary, in those gloved hands that looked so exotic and otherworldly. Jareth, unaware of her jittery state, was staring down at the title.

"Le Petit Prince," he read slowly. "By Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Interesting." He tossed the book back to Sarah, who caught it.

"Do you know French?" she asked, her eyebrows beginning to rise.

Jareth gave the book a look. "If you need me to," he said with a shrug. "Although if it's all right with you, I'd rather not."

She blinked. "What?" she asked.

"Unless I go to the trouble of learning a language from Aboveground, I can only speak it if I need to – as in, if the person from Aboveground that I'm talking to speapks it," Jareth clarified. He sat down on the bed again, looking uninterested. "Although I do speak French a little, my French is probably no better than yours, right now," he said, one end of his lips curling up.

Sarah stared at him. "Does so much depend on what the wisher wants?" she asked, uncertainly.

Jareth's gaze flew upwards, his eyes flashing in a way that made her want to look away. But when he spoke, he merely sounded tired. "Are we back to that, then?" he asked wearily. "Whether or not I'm here because I want to be, or because you wanted me to be? Whether I act the way I do because you want me to act a certain way? Whether I'mreal?"

"I –" Sarah began, then stopped. There was no way to put into words her feelings just then, how she wanted to know for sure, how she couldn't really know, how she was in truth terrified of what she might learn.

"If it helps," Jareth said tonelessly, "What we've just discussed probably doesn't count, because it works both ways. When you're in the Underground, you'll speak whatever language that you need to be speaking at that moment. That's what happened, two years ago." He shrugged. "Magic."

"I see." There wasn't much else she could say.

Jareth closed his eyes, then leaned back on the bed. "Well, then hurry up and finish your homework," he said; Sarah thought, or maybe hoped, that there was a slightly lighter tone in his voice.

"Is there a reason you want me to finish quickly?" Sarah inquired, watching him closely, trying not to provoke him any further.

Why was it that they could never seem to talk without feeling some sort of apprehension?

Jareth did not open his eyes, but answered with a definite quirk at the corner of his mouth. "Because I want to start teaching you on how to properly manage a crystal," he said.

Sarah tilted her head. Now that he was not looking at her, she found that it was easier to watch him. He looked so relaxed and tranquil, so comfortable, that he no longer appeared to loom in her room. "I thought it was just for my sake?" she asked, a teasing note entering her voice. "You know, therapy, calm myself down, focus on things better, stuff like that? Not a signing up for a personal lesson from the goblin king?"

"Who else can teach you?" Jareth asked back. "Besides, you're not going to be doing much calming down if you don't even know how to do a simple turn with it, and right now, you don't. So obviously, for the therapy to work, you must learn first."

"Oh, fine," Sarah puffed, a smile now widening on her face. Hoping he couldn't see it, she sat down at her desk noisily. "I'll be quick – or at least, as quick as I can with this subject," she added darkly, eyeing all the pages that she needed to read. "But if you drive me crazy after this trying to teach me how to do something impossible with a crystal, I warn you, I'm going to have to practice throwing it at a moving object instead."

"I'll keep that in mind," Jareth answered easily. "Tell me when you're done, why don't you? I'll just be lying here and bored out of my mind." A smile was tugging on his lips as well.

"Have fun," Sarah quipped as she opened the book to where she had marked the page she needed to read.

A crystal warfare would break out not long after she catches his attention by dropping the box suddenly beside his head, and in the end he would be very nearly chased out the window by a certain French philosophical book; but the amused glint was never far from both their eyes, the green ones of the human girl and the mismatched of the goblin king.

I apologize for the wait! This story took a rather dramatic turn, and I needed to take the time to figure it all out again - not to mention, for some reason this chapter came excruciatingly slow, requiring edit after edit... At least it's by far the longest yet, right?

Many thanks to those who reviewed last time! Hope you liked this chapter, and as always, reviews welcome!