Tags: eric northman is one hot piece, waste of an entry, fangirling means srs bsns

Chapter 10

In these frozen and silent nights
Sometimes in a dream you appear

Tugging on the scarf, he pulled her closer and leaned down, closing the gap between them. Kathy closed her eyes and …

Jack kissed her. It was soft and gentle and it was a second before she even realized what was happening. It was like she’d tumbled down a rabbit hole and emerged on the other end in a world where nothing made sense.
Jack Mercer.
She was kissing Jack Mercer.
Slowly, she sank into him and he held onto her as though he knew he was the only thing keeping her from sprawling out onto the snow in a dazed heap. He tasted like cigarettes and chocolate and she couldn’t help thinking that she’d never be able to look at a cup of hot chocolate the same way again.
They pulled apart, and Kathy slowly opened her eyes to find Jack looking at her, a somewhat confused look on his face. It was hard to tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Her own thoughts were a jumble, spilling over one another, trying to sort out what had just happened.
She chewed on her swollen bottom lip and rocked back on her heels, trying to look nonchalant and not let on that she was about to faint right then and there. “What?” she asked as he kept staring at her. She was certain he was about to tell her that it was a huge mistake and he had to flee from the scene, New York City, and possibly the planet.
“Marshmallows,” he simply stated. Jeez, how could anyone make marshmallows sound so … so …
Her heart tripped and she turned, leaning against the ledge, pretending that she wasn’t melting inside from that kiss. She focused on a marquee in the distance, just to have something to look at instead of staring off into space. It was advertising an art film she had gone to last week, alone, of course. It was dull and pretentious, something about a couple who grew apart and had affairs and then died in the end. It was supposed to be award worthy and meaningful, but she found herself hoping for a dashing prince to swoop in and rescue the poor, bedraggled woman from her life of misery. And a singing teapot or two wouldn’t have hurt. Always reaching for those fairy tales, she thought. Some things never change.
“Marshmallows?” she asked, trying to sound as calm and normal as possible. Now was not a time for her nervous rambling to get the better of her - one word sentences were the way to go at the moment.
“Yeah, marshmallows. You taste just like marshmallows.” He was still holding the end of her scarf and he had it wrapped around his hand and he was busy fraying the end of a piece of purple yarn.
“Oh, um …”
“I like it,” he laughed, pushing the hair out his eyes that was getting weighed down by the snowflakes. “Though I think I might be suffering from second hand sugar shock.”
“Hey!” Acting on pure reflex, she swatted his arm and, still laughing, he jumped back to dodge her spastic aim. He was still gripping the scarf when his feet slipped out from under him and he crashed to the ground. The sudden tug on her neck threw Kathy off balance and she reached out, hoping to catch herself, but instead what she managed to catch were Jack’s shoulders as she landed on him.
“Told ya you were going to wind up making snow angels tonight.”
“You first,” she grinned, trying to untangle herself from Jack without hurting him or accidentally kneeing him in a spot she’d feel really guilty about. Jack reached up and tugged on the pompom-adorned tassel hanging from her orange hat and she froze, her eyes meeting his. “Um …” she started, suddenly feeling out of breath.
“Yeah,” he said, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he studied her. He took the tassel and brushed her cheek with it and she wrinkled her nose, a nervous bout of giggles threatening to come over her. The giggles disappeared when he reached her lips, the yarn tickling the already sensitive skin. She bit her bottom lip, holding her breath.
His mouth quirked into a crooked grin and he dropped the tassel, running his finger down the side of her face, brushing gently over her raw, reddened cheeks. Still lying on his back with her splayed on top of him, the cold snow soaking into his jeans, he cupped the back of her head and guided her down for another kiss. Kathy sighed into his lips, amazed by the warmth that flooded her. She felt him grin against her mouth and she fought another laugh.
If this is a dream, please let me sleep forever.
That thought was followed by another sigh and she closed her eyes again, half expecting to see stars explode behind them. No stars, but she did hear bells. Or rather …
Green Day song?

XxXxXxXxXx

Jack couldn’t begin to explain how he was talking to Kathy one minute and kissing her the next. All that he knew was that it just felt right. As right as walking through the front door into Evelyn’s house for the first time. As right as running his fingers over the strings of Evelyn’s old guitar the first time she handed it to him. As right as finally becoming a part of a family after years of hoping someone out there would actually want him.
Goofy as it sounded, kissing Kathy was like coming home again.
That first kiss had been like finding the right chord and the second was like getting the melody just right. He couldn’t wait to find out what the third was …

Don't want to be an American idiot.

“What on earth?” Kathy blurted out at the same time that Jack groaned, “Shit.”

Talk about ruining the mood. He was tempted to just ignore it, but leave it to Steve to program his ringtone with the single most annoying song he could think of – part of his evil plan to make sure Jack actually answered when he called. The constant jolts of the vibrating phone in his front pocket weren’t helping matters, either.
Kathy was trying to get up and he was struggling with reaching his phone – Jack should have seen what happened next coming from a mile away. In the past, anytime the two of them were within a hundred feet of one another, someone would inevitably wind up screaming out in pain – that honor usually fell on him, but tonight they were equally lucky.
They banged heads, painfully. “Ow,” she eed, rubbing her forehead as she pushed herself away from him, plopping her butt into the snow next to where they’d fallen.
“Fuck,” he grumbled as he ground the palm of his hand into his brow, hoping the pain would ease up and he wouldn’t have a goose egg in the middle of his forehead.
Kathy was whimpering and he watched as her mouth quirked down into a frown, her nose scrunching up like a little kid’s. He forgot his own pain and started laughing at hers.
“It’s not funny,” she mumbled.
“You gotta admit …” he started with a grin, nudging her sneaker with the toe of his boot.
“I’m not admitting anything. Plus, your butt is singing. Shouldn’t you answer it?” She stuck her tongue out at him and he was about to pull her down for another kiss when the stupid phone actually seemed to get louder, which wasn’t possible, but as it was, that song was already going to haunt his dreams.
Grabbing it out of his pocket, he hit talk and practically shouted into the phone. “What?”
“Whoa, Jack. Take a chill pill, dude.” Jack rolled his eyes. Steve – once a dork, always a dork.
“This better be important, because as it is, you have the worst timing in the world, man.” He swore he could hear Steve raise his eyebrows on the other end and Jack knew what the long pause meant. “Not what you’re thinking,” he answered the question before it could be asked.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Whatever, man.”
Jack was barely listening as Steve rattled on about a club or bar or something he was hanging out in. He was shouting over the music and people in the background and it was hard to make out what he was saying so it was easier just to ignore him. Plus, he was too busy watching Kathy as she straightened out her hat, positioning the pompom to the right side of her head, making sure it was right where she wanted. She gave a self-satisfied smirk when she was through and Jack grinned, wondering how this quirky girl had worked her way into his life in the span of just a few hours.
“So how about it?” Steve yelled on the other end, pulling Jack back into the conversation.
“Um … sure,” he said, not sure what he’d agreed to.
“See you in about half an hour then?”
“Huh?” Shit, he thought, what was Steve talking about?
“You really should get that ADD checked out.”
“Shut up.” He laid his head back against the cold roof, letting the snow drift down on his face. The sky looked so black from where they were, pitch black against the white of the snow.
“Okay. The bar is on …” he started to rattle off the address but Jack interrupted him.
“I just need to get back to your place and grab my stuff and then go. I got a train to catch.” It was getting late – a lot later than he realized. Of course in New York, late was early and it wasn’t truly time to call it a night until you saw the first signs of the sunrise over the Hudson.
“Dude, just for an hour. Plus, you gotta get the keys if you want to get into the apartment.”
Jack sighed as he sat up. “I have the keys.”
“No you don’t,” Steve stated matter-of-factly.
Rubbing his temples as a tension headache threatened to explode, Jack tried to stay calm. “Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t.”
Jack shoved his hand in his jacket pocket, the pocket he stuffed the spare set of keys to Steve’s apartment when he left that night for his gig at the coffee house. “Of course,” he muttered just as he heard Steve rattling something on the other end of the phone. The keys.
“ADD, man. I’m shocked you remembered to take your guitar with you when you left.”
“Fuck you, Steve,” Jack said, his attention more on Kathy than on the conversation. He had noticed her watching him, the look on her face told him all he needed to know – she didn’t want him to leave. Part of him wanted to stay. “Your apartment is shit,” he argued with his friend. “I can just kick the fucking door down if I wanted to.”
Kathy laughed and Jack scooted over next to her. Leaning against him, she put her head on his shoulder and he smiled. His whole backside had gone numb from the snow and they really should get up and go inside before they both got frostbite, but it felt like leaving the roof would break whatever spell had fallen over them.
“Come on, Jack,” Steve begged.
“Whatever. If you see me you see me, and if you don’t, there’ll be ten dollars on top of your TV to buy a new lock.”
He turned the phone off before Steve could argue.
“You’re leaving,” Kathy stated simply.
"Yeah,” he sighed.
Life had a way of doing that – reminding you that you had to get back to it eventually.

XxXxXxXxXx

“So is it true?” Steve came running up to Jack as he tried to open his locker for the third time that morning. He knew the combination, but the damn lock wasn’t cooperating. He had to be in homeroom in three minutes and at this rate he was going to get another detention for being late.
“Is what true,” he mumbled around the pen he had sticking out of his mouth.
“You and Kathy?”
Jack narrowed his eyes. “Me and Kathy what?”
Steve nudged his shoulder and winked at him. “Come on, dude, you know what I mean.”
“No, dude, I don’t.” Jack was starting to get annoyed and he glared at the lock, like he could will it to open with his mind. It was Monday and as far as days of the week went, Monday ranked at the bottom, followed closely by Thursday but that was mainly because Evelyn was still making him go see that therapist who smelled like mothballs.
A couple of kids walked by him, girls who were in his English class and he caught them staring at him and whispering. They looked away and giggled when they noticed he was looking.
“What the hell is going on?” he asked and Steve shrugged. The warning bell rang and Jack knew he was doomed to spend another hour after school with Mr. Rebar. The guy was annoying as hell - he hummed while he graded papers and that made it impossible to concentrate on getting any work done. Not that Jack ever really tried to get any work done. Usually he spent detention doodling his band name in a notebook or jotting down song lyrics; but listening to his homeroom teacher hum Copacabana for an hour killed his creativity.
“Jack.” He heard Kathy before he saw her. She was pushing her way through the crowd, practically out of breath when she reached him. Her glasses were crooked and she looked frazzled and worried. “I think Matt is telling people that -” she started, but got cut off by a chorus of kissing sounds coming from a group of guys by the water fountain.
A block of ice formed in Jack’s gut – he knew what was going on. It had been a couple of days since the fire drill and the closet and his freak out in the dark. That gave Matt the whole weekend to spread rumors, and like any good gossip, they spread fast. He wouldn’t be surprised if the whole school had him and Kathy married by second period.
He finally got his locker open and he started rifling through his paper and books to find the ones he needed for his morning classes. “It’s nothing, Kathy.” He tried to sound confident. A couple more giggles came from behind them and he tightened his grip on his backpack. “Nothing.”
“Woof. Woof. There’s the mutt and his bitch!” Jack’s slammed his locker and turned around slowly. Wilcox was standing there, flanked by two of his buddies, his typical jackass sneer in place. “Fido, I didn’t know you were such a slut.”
Kathy gasped and Jack saw red. The final bell rang and the halls were clear. Steve was backing up slowly, trying to leave, but not quite sure if he should. “Jack, it’s not worth it,” he said under his breath.
“Yeah, Jack – listen to the Dungeon Master; it’s not worth it.” Matt cackled and his friends laughed along with him.
Kathy reached out and grabbed his arm. “Jack, let’s just go to homeroom.” But Jack just stood there, staring straight ahead, taking deep, steady breaths. His fists clenched and he flashed to the closet and how close he’d come to breaking and the fact that Wilcox had caused that.
Matt stopped laughing and pushed off from the wall he was leaning on, taking a step toward Jack and his friends. “You gonna run away?” Jack shook his head and Matt started slowly circling them. “I heard you were crazy – fucked up in the head from being an orphan or some shit like that. Is that true? Did you try to off yourself?”

XxXxXxXxXx

Jack had an ice pack on his knuckles, Steve was holding one on his eye, and Kathy kept rubbing the bruise that was forming on her arm from when one of Wilcox’s thugs pushed her into a locker. Jack had at least some small measure of satisfaction that Matt and his friends were in worse shape than they were. The nurse was sending Matt to the hospital for stitches; unfortunately, they were for the gash above his eye and not for his mouth.
Principal Clark stared down at the trio from his large desk, his brow furrowed as he studied them. The clock on the wall was loudly ticking down the seconds - Jack had counted 340 of them since the secretary led them into the office and told them to have a seat. Twenty more passed before Clark cleared his throat. Steve let out a strangled cry and Jack bit back a grin. This was new for Steve – staring down the principal – and he was practically shitting his pants.
“As I’m sure you are all well aware,” Clark spoke gravely, “there is a zero tolerance policy for fighting in this school.”
All three of them nodded in unison.
“Because of that, I’m afraid -”
“Please don’t expel me,” Steve interrupted in a rush, wringing his hands in his lap.
Clark shook his head and sighed. “Son, I’m not expelling you.”
“Oh, thank God.” Steve sank back into his chair.
“But there will be consequences.”
Great, Jack thought, just great …

XxXxXxXxXx

Kathy kept her head on Jack’s shoulder and he picked up the end of her scarf again - something about all those colors blending together reminded him of her. From a distance, she was just awkward and shy and a bit of a klutz. Up close, she was still a klutz, but then you realized she was also funny and smart and different and warm and …
He shook his head to clear it. The whole night was doing something funny to his brain. Maybe that waitress at the coffee shop spiked his drink or something.
“You could, um … stay,” she said and he could tell she was just as unsure as he was of what was going on between them.
“Or you could come with me.”
“I can’t go to Detroit.” She lifted her head and looked him in the eye. “I told you that already.”
“Fine, no Detroit. But how about the bar? It’s not far.”
She started chewing on her bottom lip and fidgeting with the zipper on her coat – two sure signs she was thinking.
“You can see Steve …” He couldn’t believe he was using Steve as a bargaining chip in anything vaguely resembling his love life. She wrinkled her nose and he laughed. “Or not … it’s up to you,” he added.
She blew out a puff of air and stood up, swiping at the snow coating the back of her legs. “Okay, I’ll go.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
She started gathering up their blankets while he pulled himself to his feet, trying not to put too much weight on his bad leg. Kathy glanced at him and stopped what she was doing, smiling slightly, though it was a smile that seemed a little sad, maybe a bit wistful. “I missed you,” she said quietly and he knew what she meant.
“Yeah, I missed you, too.”


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