Power of Persuasion

Chapter Ten:

I've always yearned for a comfortable silence that I could share with someone. One where the nothingness kind of settles around you like a warm blanket. It was night time now, and we decided to walk to Abigails. The sky turned into a wine color, and the street lights made everything look more orange. Jesse was running around, and jumping on the ledge of the bridge as I walked behind him. With a cigarette delicately placed behind his ear, he ran his hands through his chocolate brown hair and turned around to look at me, although I couldn't see his facial expression because of the car headlights behind him, I flashed a smile and looked back down at the ground. He stopped and waited for me to catch up with him while looking off the bridge into the water. He pulled me in front of him and pointed. "How high above the water do you think we are?" I leaned over and looked down, although it was dark I could make a pretty good estimation. "Probably about 100 to 150 feet.?" He sighed and almost laughed. "Did you know that jumping from 150 feet or higher, you'd hit the water with such force it'd feel like concrete?" I turned around to face him and said "Well, that all depends on weight and velocity doesn't it?"

"Yeah, But I think this is high enough to create enough velocity to kill anyone."

He didn't say anything else, just grabbed my hand and kept walking towards the party. "Are you excited?" I asked, being dragged by him. "Excited to laugh at these douche bags." I laughed under my breath, and caught up with him. He wrapped his arm around me and started to rub my shoulder.

It was quite a walk, but we endured it. It wasn't too cold, but we could see our breath every time we sighed. We sat at a bus stop only to take advantage on the bench so we could rest our legs, and Jesse could smoke. He stood while pulling out his lighter, kind of defeating the purpose of finding a bench, but I couldn't take my eyes off of him. The wind was harsh, and he kept jumping around to warm up. After the wind let him light his cigarette, he sat on the curb with his back to me. Only his silhouette could be seen. No intense detail of what he was wearing, or his bone structure, just a black figure. But I didn't need to see all the details about him. I already knew them. I knew what we was wearing, and what pocket his lighter was in, and which man he stole it from. I knew that his eyes matched his hair, and his smile was crooked, but only on the left side. I knew about the scar on his neck from his mother when he was 16, the bruise on his lip from getting punched at school, and the smell of rain that emitted from him. Except tonight it was mixed with a cheap cologne. And that's when I think I fell in love with him. When I knew that without looking at him. That I could look at an indistinct black figure and know, without a doubt in my mind, that he was Jesse Lane.

I didn't tell him of course. I just sat, waiting for him to get up, and motion his head for me to get up and start walking again. And when we got there, cars were parked down the entire street. The door was unlocked and people were all scattered across the front yard. We made it through the throng of people outside, and spotted a bottle of Jameson. The shitty music was way too loud, and the level of how stereotypical this party was almost made me laugh.

"Dude, what the fuck happened to your face?" A party participant managed to stutter out. Jesse patted his shoulder and said "The cat looked at the king for too long." and started again for that bottle.

"I'm already annoyed." Jesse yelled to me over the music.

"Do you want to go?" I asked him.

"No, not yet." He said as he grabbed the almost full bottle and poured us both a shot.

"Here's to being a loose cannon." Jesse said, as he raised his shot glass in the air, and clinked it with mine "Two idioms in one night? You're on a roll, J." I said before we both downed our drink, and cringed. "Underage drinking never felt so good."