Ziiiiiip... Ziiiiip... Ziiiip...
Sarah zipped the wide gold band back and forth across the chain as she lay stretched horizontally across her bed. She could still hear Karen on the phone downstairs yammering away about the grand news.
"Yes!" she exclaimed to someone on the other end of the line. "He's the football captain and an
All-Star lacrosse player."
Chase Lewis. Sarah studied his name engraved in gold on the ring he'd given her. Chase Lewis the dreamy blonde stud with tanned muscles and shiny white movie-star teeth. Chase Lewis, the Chase Lewis had asked her to go steady.
So why wasn't she happy?
Sarah sighed and let the ring drop onto her chest. She should be ecstatic; Karen certainly was. She'd screeched in delight when Sarah had shown her Chase's class ring dangling from a chain around her neck. After all, he was gorgeous. He was from a well-respected family, he drove a red corvette and dressed in the latest fashion...
"Ugh," thought Sarah. "What is wrong with me?"
She pulled herself up from the bed and crossed over to the door. Downstairs, Karen's voice was getting even shriller as she announced over the phone, "They've only been dating three weeks and he asked her to go steady!"
Sarah groaned and closed the door and leaned against it. Why couldn't she just be happy?
An insistent scratching at the window roused her from her angst-fest and she walked to the window and opened it wide enough to allow the snowy barn owl to fly in. The owl flitted about the room for a moment before settling onto the floor and stretching up into the familiar shape of the Goblin King. Dressed in a simple but elegant black waistcoat with a flowy white shirt underneath, body-hugging leather pants and shining black boots, Jareth looked like a cross between a sexy swashbuckler and a bad-boy biker. It took all of Sarah's will not to gape at him. Instead she grabbed Chase's chained ring and dumped it swiftly under her blouse.
"Hello, Sarah," purred the Goblin King.
"Oh. Hi, Jareth," Sarah replied, avoiding his gaze.
He eyed her suspiciously, watching as she began to move around the room picking up objects and then putting them back. She was clearly distracted and trying to hide something. He knew the look of dissimulation.
"Sarah..." Jareth coaxed.
She turned from her fidgeting, but wouldn't meet his gaze. Jareth stepped toward her, noting a new, conspicuous bulge beneath her blouse. He knew every inch of her lovely frame and this was something that didn't belong. What was she hiding from him?
Sarah inched backward as he advanced on her, placing her hand over the concealed ring without thinking.
"Ah!" said Jareth. He reached a gloved hand out and brushed a finger over her collarbone.
"Jareth, what are you doing?" Sarah snapped. She tried to move away but found herself pinned between the bookshelf and the Goblin monarch. She watched breathlessly as his slender finger dipped slightly beneath the collar of her blouse and then reappeared, hooked firmly around the chain. He pulled the chain up until the gold ring emerged, plainly emblazoned with the name of her new boyfriend.
"What's this?" he asked, dangling the ring in front of her face.
"It's a class ring," Sarah snapped, snatching the piece of jewelry from his grasp.
Jareth stepped back and studied her. She'd grown another inch taller over the summer. Her legs were long, though ungainly at times. Her hips were wider, but her waist remained slim giving her a pleasing hourglass figure. Her bosom was as lovely as ever, full and firm. It was no wonder young men such as this Chase were interested in her.
"I suppose this ring is symbolic of something," he began, pacing around the dark-haired girl.
"It is, Your Majesty," Sarah replied, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice.
Jareth stopped his pacing and took a seat on Sarah's bed. "Do tell then," he said.
He waited patiently as Sarah seated herself at the vanity, still fidgeting with the ring.
"Chase Lewis gave me this ring and asked me to go steady," Sarah told him at last.
"Go steady?" asked Jareth. "I'm afraid I don't know what that means, Sarah dear."
Sarah sighed, trying to think of the best way to describe teenage relationships to an ancient magical being.
"Chase wants to be my exclusive boyfriend," she told the Goblin King.
"So, he is your lover?"
"Um... no, not exactly," Sarah fumbled for words. "I mean, we haven't um..."
She trailed off, unsure how to finish or even if she wanted to. Jareth waited expectantly for her to elaborate.
"This ring just means that we're not going to see other people," Sarah told him finally. "We're a couple."
The Goblin King was silent as her words sank in. Sarah looked down at Chase's ring, imprinted with his class year on one side and a tiger, the school mascot, on the other. Chase's name encircled a large cat's eye gem on the top of the ring. Why was such a stupid, gaudy thing causing her so much inner turmoil?
From his seat on the bed Jareth chuckled. "Oh that silly boy," he said with a wry smile. "He can't possibly lay claim to you like that."
"And why not?" Sarah bristled. She rose from her seat at the vanity to face the Goblin King.
"Because," said Jareth, standing to meet her. "I've already done so." He smiled a triumphant smile and motioned with his hand and on the bookshelf, the birch box with the owl on it opened . A little package wrapped in purple tissue paper flew out of the box and into his outstretched hand. Jareth quickly unwrapped it and showed it to Sarah, who stood watching in shock and awe.
"I gave you this on your sixteenth birthday," Jareth explained as he lifted the jeweled brooch up for her to see. "You accepted it. You belong to no one but me."
Sarah's befuddled expression turned to one of rage. "How dare you," she hissed. "You made a promise to me that there would be no tricks!"
Jareth shook his head. "It's no trick, Sarah. It's a gift. You accepted it and took possession of it. I staked my claim-"
"NO!" Sarah screamed, her green eyes flashing like lightning. "That is not how it works. I don't care what your fairy rules say. Screw your rules and your tricks and screw you!"
She grabbed the lamp from off the vanity and hurled it at him. Jareth ducked and the lamp crashed against the wall. Sarah reached for her music box to chuck at his head, but he managed to leap forward and grab her arm.
"Sarah, please," he said in barely a whisper. "Listen to me."
Sarah twisted in his grasp. "I'm tired of listening to you," she said choking back a sob. "My whole life has been wrapped up in you for the last three years and I'm sick of it. I want to have a normal life with friends that don't live in my mirror and a real boyfriend that I can introduce to my parents. I just want to be ordinary." She sniffled and Jareth smiled.
"Sarah dear," he said softly, "Despite what I may have said in the beginning, you have never been and never will be ordinary."
He waited for her reaction, but Sarah only looked down at the floor.
"Jareth," she said, "I think you should go."
"Very well," the Goblin King answered. He straightened his waistcoat and brushed his sleeves and then walked to the window. It was only then that Sarah looked up at him.
"Please don't come back," she told him.
"What?" Jareth asked. "You're not serious."
Sarah nodded her head. "I am serious, Jareth. I told Chase I wouldn't see other people, and while I'm not sure you qualify as a person, it probably wouldn't make him happy to know that I regularly have a man in my room."
Jareth left the window and paced toward Sarah. "You wish to dissolve our agreement then?" he asked.
"Yes," Sarah answered. The Goblin King couldn't help but notice that her lip trembled slightly as she answered.
"Well, if that's what you want," he whispered and Sarah nodded.
"As with all Fae deals of this nature it must be sealed with a kiss," Jareth told her.
Sarah leaned her forehead to him, but he caught her chin and lifted her face to his. "Tell me that you love him," he rasped.
Sarah tried to say the words, but they wouldn't come. Jareth smiled at her knowingly.
Before she could move, his lips were on hers. He kissed her fully, moving his mouth over hers in a way that made her whole body tingle. When he finally pulled away she was trembling and breathless.
"Goodbye, Sarah," said Jareth. He pressed the jeweled brooch into her hand and then turned quickly and walked to the window. He didn't look back at her, but threw open the window and slipped out into the night.
"JāJareth," Sarah called after him. "Jareth, wait!"
She ran to the window and looked out but he had already disappeared into the darkness.
"Jareth!" she cried out the window into the night but there was no reply. He didn't appear.
"Please come back," she pleaded to sky. "I didn't mean it."
But her calls went unanswered.
A/N: *Quietly creeps in and places package on front steps, rings doorbell then runs away.
