Look at Me

Amygdala

March, 2006

Elsa felt like she was flying after her first kiss with Jackson Overland.

He'd offered to walk her back to her apartment once they reached campus grounds again, but she said she had some errands to run. That hadn't been true, she just didn't want to inconvenience him with the extra walking, and also she couldn't contain all the jubilance, all the ecstasy inside of her. Once she knew Jack was out of sight, Elsa started to run, just run.

She ran aimlessly about, hopped, skipped, spun around, not caring what anyone else around thought of her, all with a smile on her face. She sprinted all the way back to her apartment in her dreamy euphoria as if she'd won all the world's riches. Even Anna was baffled when she came prancing home in such a state. But when she told her everything, Anna was bouncing up and down with her, they were dancing on the couch.

One date became two dates, then three.

Sometimes it would be coffee, others it would be for walks around the city, neither really cared where they wound up so long as they were together. Once Elsa engaged him in another snowball fight in Central Park, and evidently, he was quite the sore loser since when she came out victorious, he pulled her down into the snow with him. After trying to break free of his playful tackle, she would find herself kissing him with both a gentleness and a passion she didn't know she'd ever had. How ironic that Jack Frost was the only thing keeping her warm in this cold, with his fingers gently getting tangled in her snow-covered hair, arms pressing their bodies together with the soft yearning to be as close as he could to her.

The most mysterious, independent, melancholic, articulate, beautiful creature she's ever known... and he belonged to her now. And she was his as long as he would have her. To her delightful astonishment, it would be Jack to first whisper, "I love you." During moments like these, as though he were certain of the fact.

Sometimes, midway through their time together, Jack would start to mentally check out, as Elsa called it. She'd notice him pinching his forehead a lot and starting to daze as she spoke. She knew once they'd be spending more time together, they were sure to learn new things every now and then about each other. For Jack, it was that he got migraines almost daily, to the point he pretty much woke up and went to bed with two tablets of pain-killers. Elsa didn't ask if it was a sort of 'side-effect' of years of using drugs and just shrugged it off since it was only a mild interference.

For Elsa, it was her love of animals. Jack pointed out every time she saw someone walking their dog, she'd get so happy and point it out to him. That was when she told him about Olaf, and how he was getting older—she said once she got her own place that allowed pets, she'd get another puppy. And so Jack had an idea. They went to the pet shop and played with some.

All of the dogs gravitated towards Jack, mainly because he wasn't weird about letting them lick his face like Elsa was... Didn't mean he enjoyed it. "They sure like you!" She laughed.

One almost Frenched him and he had to set it down, "Blech! A little too much."

Elsa sniggered and scratched the pup's tummy. "Ohh you're so cute!" She cooed. "Did you ever have any pets growing up?"

"Nah. My dad wouldn't let us."

Elsa had forgotten about his father. Jack wasn't anxious to talk about him, and she oftentimes forgot about what he'd been through because of him. She felt bad now for even asking. "Right. Sorry."

"It's fine. We talked about getting one after we moved for Virginia, but we had so much other shit on our plate we never got around to it."

"Well, it's only fun once they learn how to not shit on the rug." She looked down at the puppy, already worn out. "I wish I could take you home with me, but my landlady would have a fit, yes she would." She said in a baby voice.