alive

five [elle & jake]

[elle] 

"Just let me talk. Please," the words were out of his mouth as soon as my locker shut and his face came into view.

I turned and started down the hallway, thinking of everything but him, but thinking of him in my thoughts of getting away. "Please, Elle."

I sighed. 

Two days he'd been like this. He'd apparently done some investigating and knew some basic, and not-so basic information about me. Showing up at my locker every morning, and my car every afternoon, the boy was relentless. Him and his brown eyes, and leather jacket.

"Hear me out. I have a proposition."

I stopped in my tracks, so suddenly and unexpectedly it forced him to stumble and avoid colliding with my back. Which didn't work very well, but an incredibly dumb part of me didn't mind. "Talk."

He puffed a lungful of air into the air between us, and his breath hinted of cigarettes and chocolate, something I'd grown accustomed to recently. "Two A.M. My friends and I meet up behind Shirley's. You should come."

My lips tighten as I think. "What's in it for me?"

"A sleepless night. And I've heard you prefer those."

My mouth is clamped tightly, and I can't imagine speaking in the next hour. He chuckles, knowing he's hit gold. "Two A.M. See you there."

He turns and walks in the other direction, leaving me standing in the middle of a crowded hallway, which after the bell rings, immediately empties. My books are held firmly in my arms, pressed against my chest, and my feet firmly on the ground.

It's silent, and my mind is restless.

[jake] 

"What yu' waitin' for, Bennett?" Ameri sounds from her spot against the dumpster, cigarette held in between her teeth, red lips glistening in the flickering mosquito light.

"Nothing." I say, but it's quite useless to hide my disappointment as my watch ticks to 2:07. Nothing.

I turn from the road and am greeted by the faces of the boys, Ameri, plus Caylette who managed to finally conquer sliding down the eaves of her roof. But before anyone else can say anything, headlights are shining against the back of Shirley's and the bodies in front of me are covering their eyes and sneering.

The car's engine stops rumbling and the lights are gone. I hear the driver's door open, and turn in time to find a tall girl stepping out; looking far from dressed in school attire, and wildly attractive. She shoves her door closed behind her, and I smile. "You came."

"Sleepless nights, remember?" She says, trudging through some fresh mud and onto the peeling concrete that could be used to formally describe the back of Shirley's.

"Who's dis?" Ameri says from behind, and if she was any less cautious she'd have already approached Elle and scanned her over a few times.

"A friend." I say, and Elle frowns.

"An acquaintance." She says.

"Yu' invited an 'acquaintance' to dis? How stup'd are yu', Bennett?" Ameri is displeased, but she doesn't have the right to pick a fight. This was never her idea, it was James, who wouldn't care if I invited the Sherriff's daughter; he trusts me. I hear her boot scrape roughly against the ground, and I don't need to turn to know she's walking towards us, lipstick smudged.

"He's pretty fuckin' stupid, but you should know that already, huh?" Elle says, squinting at Ameri, and I flinch. It's not that I didn't expect it, but I was completely shocked, anyways. It wasn't as though she'd seem so suited for such language, but apparently, she was.

"Watch 't," Ameri sneers, her eyes flickering over Elle. She turns and starts back towards the dumpster, towards James who's grinning like the Cheshire Cat himself. "I don't trust 'er."

"I like her." James says, and flicks the cig held in between two fingers.

Elle smiles triumphantly, leaning in to whisper in my ear. "Hah."

this is unedited and it's one am and i just wrote it now aigh gl guys. vomment pls and ty.