Lost Stars

vii. gravity

Nothing flooded her senses more than the desire to return to consciousness. The pain that overwhelmed her was like a massive wall that hindered her from fluttering her eyes open. It was like she was fighting a war that she didn't even know was happening—like she was there but at the same time not. The breaths of her body were calm, cool, and collected but inside was the fight to return to reality. Then suddenly, the vile memories of the night's recklessness came over her and ignited the fight in her. Flashes of the blinding lights, the poisonous drink, the worst decisions of her life. And finally, she returned to her body.

Her eyes were widely opened as her body shot up as quick as lightning with breaths that were like just as quick. She was shocked to see that she was back in her room as her eyes glanced over the familiar dresser with the same picture frames on top of them as well as the same curtains that swayed along with the cool breeze that brought in the cool chill in her room. But even with the frigid temperature of her room, she felt her hair stick to her forehead and the sides of her face because of the thin glistening sweat that covered her face from the internal battle.

"Elle, calm down. You're safe." A voice as soft as silk resonated from beside her, and she immediately whipped her head and saw that it was Jack. He was sitting on a single couch that was usually located at the corner of her room but must have been moved beside her bed. Her distress made him get up jump to her side as he was now sat on the corner of her bed as his hands massaged her shoulders slightly to soothe her racing heart. Elle felt her heartbeat slow down as his expert fingers rubbed her shoulders.

"What happened?" She asked him in a sedated voice, his actions proving to be highly effective as they came to a halt and his magic fingers setting on his thighs as he stares at her with a relaxed posture and concerned yet relieved eyes.

"You fainted, probably because of your intolerance for that much in your system. I brought you home and after I convinced your mom that I wasn't some deranged teenage boy with an uncontrolled sex drive, she allowed me to bring you to bed. Of course, she was the one who changed your clothes, but she was nice enough to let me stay by your side all night long." Jack said with a variety of voices, but Elle hasn't noticed that she was no longer wearing her modest black dress and was now in a baggy white t-shirt until Jack said something about it. Elle had to hold back a few chuckles after hearing how difficult it must have been to persuade her mom to allow a strange boy in here with here, but she found it as a courteous gesture that he stayed here with her. She looked at his eyes, and it was obvious that he was sleeping on the little couch before she woke up.

"How did you know I'd be at Lucas' party?" As much as Elle was awfully grateful to him for all the things he has done for her despite her treatment and attitude towards him, but you couldn't blame her for wanting to know everything about him. She couldn't look at him straight in hie eyes, afraid that she would do something stupid. Instead, her gaze was pointed down onto her fingers that were fiddling with her blanket as she awaited for his reply.

"When the Elle the Friendly Ghost decides to go to her first party, news gets around. But knowing you and knowing how ridiculous Lucas' parties are, I knew that something was going to happen. I decided to drop by to just soothe my worries, and there you were. I take it that you didn't know about the whole pills-in-the-punch-bowl thing, huh?" The corner of Jack's mouth rose up to a cunning smirk as Elle made the regretful decision to look up, since it captivated her. Jack Kingston enchanted her in every angle.

Suddenly, Elle found a strange difficulty to breathe the moment she found it nearly impossible to pull her gaze away. Jack was leaning on one arm that was upright on her bed. Her fingers stopped their fiddling and were instead clamping the cloth between her fingertips.

"Does this mean that I'm no longer on your bad side?" Jack broke the silence in a persuasive voice, and she had to recall some memories to understand what he was talking about. She remembered how enthralling their first encounter was. Then, she remembered how bad she felt when he raged out of the room. Next, was the exhilarating and death-defying trip to the restaurant for that enjoyable lunch date. She remembered the countless amounts of time that he left her questioning her already unstable sanity, but then there was this man right in front of her who literally stayed with her until the sun came up just to make assure that she would be okay.

"You were never on it in the first place." Jack's eyes darted to hers with a shimmer of shock the moment her words registered in his mind. She figured it out when this silent voice in her head told her that Jack would always be worth the risk. It was this little innocent voice that she has never noticed. But then, she's never got this close to a guy before.

The sun was starting to come up, and Elle couldn't help but admire the sky as it transitioned into a beautiful lavender masterpiece. It only occurred to Elle now that she had no clue as to what time it was. She reached her arm out and got her digital clock from her bedside table and watched as the clock blinked 6:04.

"We should probably be heading downstairs now. My mom probably made some pancakes or something. And knowing her, she's probably ripping her hair follicles out with every passing minute that you're in a room with me." Elle chuckled before throwing the blanket off of her and snuggling her feet in her fluffy slippers. She found some jogging pants lying around the other side of her room and put it on. She was amused to see that Jack placed his hands over his eyes. It was a small but polite gesture that made her smile slightly.

They exited the room and had all intentions to patter their feet down the wooden staircase before Jack stopped. "What's up there?" He asked as his finger pointed upwards to a little square in the ceiling with a handle like thing. "Oh, that's the attic. We don't really use it, and it'll probably be the dustiest thing you have ever seen in your entire life." Elle commented dismissively before she grabbed his hand and constantly tugged on his hand, but Jack wasn't budging as he stared at the useless part of the room with incredible interest until he eventually budged slowly as he felt Elle's excessive efforts to pull him downstairs.

"Elle? Honey? is that you? Are you finally awake?" She heard her mom's voice from halfway down the stairs, and she was immensely ecstatic when the smell of the pancakes and bacon & eggs combo slapped her in the face in a good way. The sound of her feet hitting the wooden panels of the staircase increased in speed with the childish excitement she had towards such a small thing such as breakfast. Particularly, her mom's breakfast.

"Hi mom. You probably already know who Jack is, and I just woke up if you're wondering." Elle added the last part with the implication that they didn't do anything moderately R-18 in her room. She was glad to see that there was an entire stack of blueberry pancakes prepared on the table along with a pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice with an orange slice placed on the rim of the glass pitcher. Her mom only put this much effort on breakfast when there was a guest or if she was having a great mood in the morning, which was probably a supernatural phenomenon.

"Oh, is your dad still asleep?" Jack asked, and Elle felt her mom tense up at the mention of him. The lowering of her mood soon followed, and Jack immediately realized that it was due to his question and how he was probably imposing on family matters. "I"m sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude or anything." He immediately apologized, which earned him some serious brownie points from Elle's mom for showing an adequate display of manners.

"No, it's fine. It's just that my dad kinda bailed out on us when I was a little tot." Elle said in a hushed tone to spare her mom from having to relive his abandonment over and over again. Her mom was a nurse in the local hospital, and living with a child in a nice home wasn't in any way easy, which meant that she needed to work overtime almost every night. Elle eventually grew accustomed to being alone, which was probably why she didn't mind it so much when she had no one to be with in school.

"Never mind that. Come on, let's go eat." And thus, the awkward mom interrogation began.