The Lost One

8. An Eye Disease (edited)

Song of the chapter- I found by Amber Run

I think this song kinda describes a lot of the things going in in Jack's life. 

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             Lidia's POV

      "I can explain. If you'll listen." There was a spark in his emerald eyes; not of fear, and not quite amazement either.

      "They're... they're red..?" He was fascinated, his voice deep as he spoke. I almost shivered as his chest vibrated under my hands. His green eyes just stared into mine peacefully. I wanted to get closer to him, wanted to run my hands all across his perfect body. His being here made the pain go away.

      Mate, heat, need, mate. The voice in my head continued to whisper suggestively at me, never seeming like it would shut up and leave me the hell alone.

      "I don't really know what just happened, but..." My voice hurt from screaming. "I don't know either. It's just another way of making me different from my family..."

      "That's silly. What makes you different?" He asked, and still not looking away from my eyes. His hand caressed my cheek, making it hard to think. He looked only in my eyes. I would have expected him to look away at my body, which was only being covered by short shorts and a sport bra. My tattoo was showing, but I didn't care. Jack probably wasn't going to tell my parents. 

      "I... I have an eye disease- thing." He let out a airy, relieved laugh.

      "Is that all? Which disease?" He asked, his eyebrows pulling together in mock tease. His teeth were white peeking out behind his full lips that were smirking. 

      "Uh. Yeah. It's um- look I don't know what it's called, but it makes my eyes change colors." I took a deep breath. Now that I had made up this lie, I needed to back it up. "I don't like people to know. It never happens to anyone else." I allowed tears to gather in my eyes and blinked them out onto my cheeks. 

      "Hey, hey," he stroked over my cheek bone with his thumb. I could see that Jack was being understanding of my fake disease and my request to keep this under wraps. 

      For the first time tonight, I realized that the annoying little voice was gone. It was peaceful and quiet. I was tired, all of my muscles were sore and pulsating with the beating of my heart. I felt Jack's breath on my face. 

      "Are you tired? I can let you sleep," he started to get up, but with a gasp laid back down again as I tugged on the back of his shirt. "Please don't go," I asked him. I wanted to be close to him. 

      I looked down at myself, noticing uncomfortably that I was covered in sweat smells and I needed a shower and my cloths and sheets needed changing. "Um, I'm going to go take a shower." I struggled to get up with my muscles weak. "Don't leave. Okay?" 

      He nodded and smiled softly. I walked through the path that Connor made through the forests of Mount Laundry to the bathroom. The shelf and its contents remained spilled all over the floor. In the mirror, my eyes were still crimson like blood. I turned away. 

            --Jack's POV--

      A minute after Lidia went into the bathroom, I heard the water turn on and knew that I could move without her hearing. I dropped from her tall bed onto my feet. In the hallway, I felt my way along the wall in the very low light. Everyone seemed to be sleeping. I felt for anything that felt like a linen closet. Lidia and her family had a very decent-sized house, so they had to have a linen closet. Or a hallway cabinet. Something.

      I inched quietly along the wall, making as little noise as possible. There were two night lights at both ends of the hallway. On the wall, I could make out the silhouette of a cabinet handle.

      I struck up Lidia's lighter and saw towels behind the cabinet door. I opened the other cabinet adjacent to that and found the sheets. I pulled out a set of plain gray ones that looked like they would fit Lidia's queen size mattress. 

      Back in her room, I tore her sheets off her bed, replacing them with the fresh-smelling silky ones that fit nicely on the bed. I placed her black comforter on the bed and made it up, putting the red pillows at the top. I knew what it was like to have a crappy days and crawl into a clean, made-up bed. It was the best feeling.

      I was sitting cross-legged on top of the comforter when Lidia came out of the bathroom. She had discarded her sport bra and shorts and now wore just a long t-shirt, probably one of Connor's old shirts. Under the bottom of the shirt were the soft edges of black boxer shorts. 

      She stood there, looking at the bed with her arms crossed comfortably over her chest. "You changed my sheets." She said, raising an eyebrow. 

      "Yeah, I did." 

      She came closer, lifting up her knee pretty high in order to get onto the bed, routinely, like she'd been doing it forever. She inserted her legs into the cool sheets and sighed. Her hair was wet and was strait over most of it, but was starting to curl at the ends. Her face was not flushed from hot water, so I could only assume that her shower had been cold.

      I ducked my head to see her face better. "Your eyes are brown again."

      "I'm tired." She ignored me. Obviously, bringing up her weird condition wasn't a thing she liked, so I dropped it, too. She laid down on her side, tilting her pillow downward toward her knees so that she could hug it with her neck and shoulders. "Aren't you going to sleep?" she asked, her voice low, almost a whisper. 

      "Only if you want me to." I scratched the back of my neck. Gran would kill me if she knew I had slept in a girl's bed without marrying her first. 

       "Sleep, Jack." Her voice said my name, and I did as she said. I always slept with my shirt off, but I kept it on tonight, thinking that it wouldn't be good if either one of us was showing more skin than we were now. Of course, I was fully clothed, the only things missing were my socks, which were down on the floor somewhere. 

      Her bed sheets were cool and soft. I could feel my body heat starting to warm the space around me. Lidia was silent, but I couldn't tell if she was awake or sleeping. 

      "Thank you," she whispered. Her voice felt close to me, like a caress. Her eyes opened and looked right into mine, indeed the same chocolate brown as it had been earlier. I was on my side, my arm tilted up behind my head. Moving forward, Lidia wrapped her outer leg over my hip, pushing me onto my back as she snuggled into my side. She was not wearing a bra. Her head was warm against my chest. 

      "You're welcome."