Lost Stars

viii. heliocentric

Elle munched on her final piece of her blueberry pancake stack and drank the final drop of her juice before her eyes glanced up to the analog clock that was hung on the wall. She was going to say goodbye to her mom, but then she saw that Jack was still going for more pancakes, probably his fifth before he reached for the syrup and drowned his pancake in its sticky clutches. Her eyes passed her mom, and she looked like she finally laid down her defensiveness and finally started enjoying Jack's company, but not as much as Elle did.

"We should probably be heading out." Elle said as she held Jack's stare for a second before she stood up from the wooden chair, hearing as it scraped the floor, and reached over for her shoulder bag that she always left on the sofa. Jack almost choked when he tried to fit the remainder of his pancake in his mouth and rather than insulting his lack of manners, she was surprised that her mom was actually suppressing a smile of amusement, which Elle scrunched her eyebrows together in utter confusion as to why her own mother pardoned Jack's rudeness and hounded her in the few times she did it.

"Thank you for the wonderful breakfast. It was wonderful." Jack politely thanked Elle's mother with a gracious smile before standing up from his chair and walking towards Elle before they walked out the door together.

"I'll see you in school?" Elle asked him as she was ready to get in her car and drive off, but she was surprised to see Jack shake his head.

"Don't be silly. I'll drive." Jack nudged her over before walking towards his own car that was parked outside. Elle actually hadn't noticed that his car was there, but she still tried to get to her own car with her car keys in her hands while her fingers fiddled to separate her car keys from her home keys. But she couldn't finish picking the right key, since they were immediately pulled out of her grasp.

Jack swung it around in front of her as he taunted her with it. Elle tried to grab it, but Jack kept moving it away from her, resulting into her running an entire circle before he raised it over his head. He watched her as she tried to get it from him with a few pathetic jumps, since her heeled boots were preventing her from jumping any higher.

"Fine." Elle breathed out in a heavy pant before giving up, knowing that her shoes, as well as his height, were not going to help her anytime soon. She saw how big the smile grew on his face, and her irritation grew along with it, but doing anything was no longer an option when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hauled her towards his sweet ride.

"Ladies first." Jack commented as he opened the passenger's seat open and waited for her to slide in. Elle snickered at his faux-gentleman self before indeed getting in. The first thing Elle did was abide the cardinal rule of a car ride— buckle your seat belt. Jack finally walked around the car, taking his sweet time, before the car veered off.

"Where's your school bag?" Elle turned her head to Jack and watched as he kept his eyes locked on the road before nudging his chin over his shoulder. Elle turned her head further and saw that his bag was on the backseat, and so were a lot of other things like his jacket, a baseball cap, and an extra white shirt.

Elle soon leaned her head back with it turned a bit to look at Jack. She couldn't help but admire his face, from how sharp his jaw was to how serious his eyes were as they were devoted to the road. Even how sexily messy his hair was. She finally took in his attire that composed of a white shirt, much like the one at the back, and some black jeans. Simple but undeniably attractive as they emphasized his perfect body. Even the way the neckline of his shirt dipped because of the aviator shades that hung from them made her breath hitch.

Elle panicked when she saw him smirk, afraid that he caught her red handed staring at him, before he maneuvered his car to make a sharp turn to enter the school's parking lot. And only then did it occur to her how badly the social system would implode if they saw her with the face of notoriety. They would probably take it to social media, flooding them with absolute lies that would probably range from her getting knocked up to her paying him to date her; not that she had the money or the desperation needed to pull the last one off.

Jack finally stopped the car in his usual parking space, just three parking spots away from the door, before he noticed how tense Elle was. She had a destructively blank expression on her face, and her fingers were rubbing together as her hand started vibrating. The grasp she had on the strap of her bag got so much tighter that the fabric was starting to crease.

But all of it went away when she felt his hand embrace hers in a warm solitude. She was shocked to see that his warm hand was holding her pale one over the car's controller. "It's going to be fine, Elle. Don't worry." She felt her senses spark up when his thumb started going over her knuckles over and over again before his grasp tightened around her hand. It was amazing on how he fast he would change into the caring side whenever he needed to be.

"Right." Elle quickly pulled her hand away from his hand, ignoring the icy cold she felt the moment her hand escaped his, and he would have been offended and thought that she was trying to shake him off had it not been the duration that she spent staring at him a while ago.

Jack reached behind and reached for his backpack, and Elle couldn't help but notice how his muscles flexed with that one action. He soon stepped out and basked in the usual prying eyes of everyone in the parking lot, but they intensified once they saw that someone had the rare fortune as to ride in his Jeep Commander; something absolutely no one has ever experienced, and it piqued their interest even more as to who was the lucky person to get Jack Kingston's seal of approval.

Gasps erupted when Elle Martin exited the car.

Elle finally felt the thing she dreaded the most: being in the spotlight. She should have known the moment Jack offered her a ride hat it would spark a wildfire of reactions. She saw the popular kids drop their drinks on the floor, causing their sodas to stream away. She looked at everyone else whispering to each other things along the lines of 'is this a joke?' or 'is this really happening?'

Elle would have froze right then and there if it weren't for Jack's touch igniting her skin into fireworks that snapped her out of it. Once again, he threw his arm around her shoulders and pressed her closer to him than usual, not liking how everyone was looking at her like that. The sunglasses he wore were covering up the glare he had as everyone continued to stare at them until they entered the building as Jack slammed the metal door shut.

"It's over." Jack leaned down and whispered into her ear after seeing a very ghostly and absent expression on her face, which was probably what she wore throughout the walk here. And by the feeling of his hot breath caress her ear, she snapped out of it and looked around the room and only realized now that they were indoors walking in the very empty halls, since everyone usually stayed outside at this time.

"How do you live with that on a daily basis?" Elle asked him as she shook her head slightly, but her question was an honest one. She would sometimes spend her mornings outside as well and watch how everyone looked at him the moment they see his car pull over. They would always look at him like he was a total oddball, not caring that he was just a few feet away. They would criticize him on irrelevant things like how he looked different from the other guys, even when he clearly had t he superior fashion sense over everyone else who had pants that were on the brink of falling.

"You realize that they only do it because you're different." Jack smirked. They took a few more steps before he spoke again. "You free this weekend?" Elle looked at him, shocked by his question but still racked her brain for any plans a loner girl such as herself would have. Elle nodded her head, looking up at him to see what he would say next.

"There's a music festival somewhere in the East Coast, and you and I are driving there." Jack told her with excitement riding on his smile, but the protective little girl in Elle saw the possibility of a massive tragedy in his plans. But when she looked up, he was gone and so was the chance of saying no. But deep inside, she knew that she was definitely looking forward to it.

sorry for the super late update. my inspiration was massively drained because of an English thing :(

in case I missed anything, if you see any miscellaneous 'Alec Grey's there and are wondering who the f he is, well just change those into 'Jack Kingston's cuz I kinda confused them.