The Boy in Black

T H I R T E E N

Jaxson

It was exactly two days later. After two days he got to receive the joys of watching her friends mourn around her locker that was surrounded with flowers, fake candles, and pictures of her.

He watched with a fake expression. An expression that would cause everybody around him to think he cared. Jaxson mentally laughed at the thought, for all he cared about in the world was Mattie. Not some skank that everybody only cared about now because she was dead.

He shoved his hands in his pockets as her friends hugged each other, listening as they kept asking themselves what they could have done before he walked away.

The same dark cloud followed him like his own shadow, however it stopped bothering him years ago.

The first time, though, was an entirely different story.

She was a natural blonde beauty, and at age ten, all Jaxson wanted was a kiss. Nothing big, just a kiss from the girl with the plump pink lips that he daydreamed of for days.

It was on the large oak tree down in the huge field behind his small town. It was just that one tree, one tree surrounded by nothing except grass and a few butterflies chasing the wind.

It was beautiful. And it was there that he climbed the tall tree with sweet Gracie, following closely behind her to make sure she wouldn't fall back. He took in the scent of strawberries and sugar that practically radiated off of her, guessing that just before she was helping her mother with one of her famous pies.

"It's so pretty out," he remembered her saying to him in her sweet southern accent after finding a spot on a thick sturdy branch. He simply nodded, smiling to himself shyly.

"Not as pretty as you." He replied, causing her already rosy cheeks to blush. 

And just then as she turned to look at him, he took the chance and leaned in for a kiss. However she turned her head, causing him to kiss her ear.

Embarrassment filled his body, and then anger replaced it.

"Jax, I-I don't like you like that, you're just a great friend-" Jaxson refused to let her finish, and roughly grabbed her dress and pushed her off of the tree with the anger of constantly getting rejected pulsing through his veins.

He listened as she squealed at first before it halted as she landed on her head.

He looked down for about ten whole minutes at her body, waiting for a single stir, a single movement.

And when he came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to move, he climbed down with shaky hands.

"Gracie?" He asked as soon as he got down, looking at her innocent face that had blood dripping down her once rosy cheeks.

The sight frightened him, however he was confused at the feeling of adrenaline that was rushing through his body. The feeling that made him feel older, stronger.

He remembered making himself cry, for he simply couldn't naturally, and running off into town screaming that Gracie had accidentally fallen from the tree.

The town was loud and panicked for the little girl and her life, her life that was loved and cherished by her family, and her life that was now nothing but the wind that the butterflies chased.

The next day, the town was in silence.

Silence for what everybody thought was an accident, but was in reality the first murder of Jaxson Maddox.

He thought back to the memory of the outdoor funeral, the girls mother dressed in black with tears down her face. That was the day the dark cloud began to follow him, and that was the day he grew a love for that color. Black.

The time after that, was at age fifteen. He didn't steal a life from anybody, those were other times. This, was his Freshman year of high school. The year that he grew to be best friends with alcohol and sex.

As he grew older, he began to look different than he did at ten years old. For back then he was nothing much to look at, just a chubby little boy. But now he was fifteen looking seventeen, muscles peaking out of his tight black shirt and his hair as black as coal after he dyed it a few months before.

At that time his parents have kicked him out, and he was living with his uncle that was also friends with alcohol, and even better friends with hookers.

He was always drunk at night, so it made it easy for Jaxson to sneak out. And when he did that one cool night in October, he met one of the prostitutes that was meant for his uncle and had his way with her in her car.

Then afterward, he broke into a liquor store and a few other places that later caused his name to be spiraled all over the town that he is now still living in.

He served two years behind bars, having plenty of time to think of his actions and how truly immature they were.

He also learned after watching women visit their boyfriends or husbands, that he wanted that as well. Not just some girl for the night, but a true one, someone he could love and call his own.

And at the start of junior year, a grade he only got to go to because of being surprisingly smart enough by passing the certain tests that it took, he found young Mattie Noelle.

Her innocence reminded him solely of Gracie, and her looks caused what he thought was his ice cold heart, to finally melt into something new.

And that day, he promised himself that she would be his.

"Jaxson?" He heard Mattie say from across the hall, holding her usual three books in her hands.

Her voice brought him back to reality, and he wanted nothing more than to feel her embrace.

She walked up to him with a shocked look in her eyes at what was happening behind him. The group of people and the sound of crying caused her lips to part, and before she could ask, Jaxson answered.

"It's a suicide." He said, trying his best to act saddened by what he was saying.

"Oh my god," she replied, trying to look past him. "Are you serious?"

"I know, it's fucking crazy." He shook his head and lowered it, causing Mattie to walk closer and wrap her arms around his neck.

He took in her sweet scent and hugged her tightly, causing a few girls around them to roll their eyes. Not Mattie nor Jaxson cared though, they only cared for the embrace of each other and the love that they felt.

"I missed you." Jaxson said in her ear, placing a single kiss on her neck afterward.

She smiled, and thought back to that night when she came to the conclusion that the past should stay in the past.

She knew Jaxson had girls before her, but now it was only her, and that she trusted him on.

"I don't need to think anymore, I'm sorry I overreacted." Mattie told him after pulling back from the hug, causing Jaxson to smile and press his lips to hers.

"It's only you." He promised, and with that they walked away from the group of students that were saddened by the suicide of Janine. Another life that was in the wind that the butterflies chased, along with Gracie.

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