Desperate Hearts

[jared]

TAG; Closed To Dodge Jacobs
[M] Language/Other 'Stuff'

A chuckle passed through his lips as he read the last IMs that Dodge had sent him. He quickly replied back and waited until she signed out, before he moved his cursor up to the 'Sign-Out' option and then closed the program. He ran his hand over his face, passing his fingers through his hair briefly as he sighed slightly, yet a grin, barely present but still there, was dancing lightly across his lips. He couldn't believe that he'd gone and blurted out all that to her, that he'd told her how he actually felt. His mind replayed the words that she'd said about halfway through the conversation. I'm not 'taken' any more. Those words had changed everything from his point of view. And then he hadn't been able to stop himself, going and letting the bomb of his drop down sharply, that he wasn't sorry that she'd broken up with her boyfriend. How totally inhuman could he have gotten, really? He wanted to slap himself hard, as if it would help knock some sense into him that obviously seemed to be lacking in great quantities.

But she hadn't been upset. Surprised, maybe, with a bit of shock, but not upset at all. Somehow, he'd seen that as an encouraging sign, because he'd instantly went ahead and told her what had been eating at him since that one day, several weeks before. He still didn't know how things had managed to get to that point on that day, a couple weeks back. When he'd offered to rescue her from school with the suggestion of hanging out in his flat, eating ice cream and watching movies, Jared certainly didn't ever think that it would end up with him and Dodge in his bed, limbs tangled together in the throes of passion. He swallowed quite sharply at that sudden and rather arousing thought and stood up abruptly, running his shaky fingers through his hair slightly. Now was really not the time to be thinking about that. He needed to focus on going to Sanglignée and picking up Dodge so that they could spend some time together. The thought that sprung to his mind right then wasn't helpful either, and he groaned to himself in annoyance.

He walked the short distance from the desk to the chest of drawers against the wall, pulling open the top drawer and rummaging around within it for a moment, before finding a long-sleeved black shirt and pulling it out, tossing it onto the bed. A pair of fitting black jeans followed that, as well as socks, a clean pair of boxers and his black jacket that he wore almost every single day, before he walked over and sat down upon the bed. He shrugged off his boxers and chucked them into the laundry basket, before picking up his clean pair and putting them on. He pulled on the socks and the jeans, slipping a belt into the loops and buckling it, and then the long-sleeved black shirt, leaving the few buttons at the top of the shirt undone for comfort's sake. He reached under his bed, grabbing his black and grey converse sneakers and putting them on, before picking up his black jacket and pulling it on, then exiting his bedroom. He stopped briefly to get his motorbike keys, his motorbike helmet and an extra helmet for Dodge, before exiting the apartment.

Descending the stairs quickly, Jared walked through the rather silent lobby and exited the building, heading down the small set of stairs outside swiftly to get to his motorbike. He opened the compartment under the seat, placing the spare helmet for Dodge inside, before donning his own helmet and pulling on his gloves, straddling the bike and placing the keys into the ignition. He backed the bike out of its parking space before he turned on the engine, revving it up a few times, then placing his feet on either side of the motorbike and driving off towards Sanglignée. It did usually take a good chunk of time to reach the small town just outside of Marseille, but true to his word, Jared drove quite a lot faster then normal down the main road from the city to the village. Thankfully, because of the late hour, there was not one car out, and within about 20 minutes, he slowed his speed as he drove into the outskirts of the village. He parked a few minutes walk from the square, then turning off the engine and getting off the bike, heading towards the square at a brisk walk.

He unclipped his helmet and removed it, running his fingers through his hair to make it slightly more neat, rather like it had been before he'd put the helmet on. It only took him about 5 minutes to reach the square, and as he stepped into it, he found it to be empty and silent. He smiled slightly to himself. Obviously he'd gotten there quicker then he'd thought, since Dodge was not here yet. It didn't matter. He walked quietly and slowly to the fountain in the center of the square, setting his helmet onto the stone edge of the fountain, then going and leaning back against the fountain edge with his hips. He removed his gloves and put them next to his helmet, then he crossed his arms over his chest loosely. Part of him wished he had something in his hands, as he suddenly felt very nervous. He bit his lip lightly, willing himself to calm down mentally, while he waited for Dodge to arrive.

[Nona Constantine]

There was something soothing about the sound of rhythmic key strokes in the dead of night. It was late - or early, depending on how you judged it - and Dodge Jacobs was wide awake. Exhaustion had long since left her, replaced by that strange sense of auto-pilot of insomnia. She hadn’t slept in days it seemed, and she new exactly why. It wasn’t the fact that she recently split up with her boyfriend, or the fact that Ginnifer had left town, or that Selene moved schools, or even that Aidan had been back in Ireland for the last month or so and she missed him. It wasn’t that her brother’s life was being turned upside down in the past weeks either, because of a seven year old ‘baby’ being left on his doorstep so that the mother could have her twisted life back, though not knowing if she was the aunt of the girl or not had given Dodge a bit of bother. What kept her awake at night were the voices.

She knew, like everyone did, that whatever you called the abilities half of the population of San had, they were constantly changing and developing as they grew. Recent developments in Dodge’s Telepathy were definitely a hindrance. Where before her skill depended on eye contact and concentration to read peoples direct thoughts, that need had been overridden. Now she didn’t need eye contact, or skin contact, or any kind of contact at all, because she was hearing people whether she wanted to or not. And it wasn’t just a single person this time either. It started with a couple, her parents , and it frightened her that she couldn’t turn it off. Then she realised that wherever she went she could hear people around her, close by. Recent days though had brought a new revolution, where she was hearing the more emotional thoughts of people a good deal away, even through walls and rooms. She talked to a friend, a fellow Telepath, about what was happening to her and he reassured her that it wouldn’t last long so long as she exercised it and practised control. Which, to be honest, isn’t one of Dodge’s strong points.

Her insomnia, though genuine, was thus somewhat self induced. When people slept they tended not to think too much, and so the night hours were the only times of ‘day’ that Dodge’s mind could catch a break. All she heard then were the thoughts of the few people up late watching TV or the like, and all the problems that gave her were ruining basketball score that her dad would have told her in the morning. Of course, there was always the occasional ’yeah baby, that’s it’ and ’is it in yet?’ that she could really do without, but even those were drowned out by music blasted from her trusty headphones.

Tonight though, it was late enough that there wasn’t a waking thought in her mind but her own, and the sound of the keys were a welcome relief. She had no idea how long she stayed talking to Jared for, but not once had she felt like saying goodnight to him. There was something riveting about having someone tell you that they cant stop thinking about you and that if they had to they would wait forever. She clicked the tiny‘x’ in the corner of the window before she had a chance to check and see it he had actually said that or if it was her sleep deprived mind feeding her nonsense. Either way, it was a really nice sentiment. Although, ‘nice’ wasn’t exactly the right word to use for something that had her heart beating so hard it felt like it was trying to escape her chest.

It took her several moments before the computer’s screen turned black to pluck up the courage to move. She was playing a dangerous game that the players didn’t even know they were playing. She had gotten away with it until now, but what if her mother or father woke up and caught her sneaking out? If they didn’t she at least had the excuse that Baeddan or Kynan or Eric called round and she went to spend the night at theirs; those three boys were amongst the few that her parents actually trusted their daughter with overnight, though they had little choice now that all of the girls had left Dodge’s life. Then there was Jared, who Dodge wasn’t sure he knew what type of game he was playing. Dodge wasn’t exactly sure herself.

It was why the first thing she did was stuff her school uniform into one of her empty messenger bags. Yes, the school had introduced a uniform and it was the bane of her existence, but if she wasn’t going to be coming home in the next … (she checked the clock)… four hours, she was going to have to go straight from Jared’s company to class, so the uniform was going with her, just in case. The next problem was with what to wear now. The summer was definitely upon them and even the nights were sticky and warm, but the idea of too little clothing (though probably exciting as hell) wasn’t the best option when riding on the back of a motorbike.

That had stumped her. She stood for about five minutes just staring into her dark wardrobe trying to put logic to her indecisiveness. Eventually the deciding arguments were that a) it was too warm for heady clothes, b) Jared was too good on his bike to really warrant the need for protective clothes, and c) wearing a skirt had more risks that one. She grabbed the black, loose cloth from its hanger inside her wardrobe and pulled it on, realising only then that while no underwear with her pyjamas was something she could get away with, a skit definitely required some modesty to be saved. She raided her underwear drawer - black being the hue of choice - and quickly changed into them too. It was as she turned around that a glimmer of blue made her freeze again in thought. Just how daring was she feeling?

Daring enough. From the hanger it came from the shop in Dodge grabbed a corset of royal blue and black. This was her second one, her first being a brilliant red colour that Blaize said made her look like a hooker, and promptly dropped it into the shadows. This one though had a touch of class; even her brother grudgingly agreed when she bravely showed him and asked for his approval. There were no studs or buckles or leather straps like Blaize had feared, just simple fabric with a black lace up the front, which Dodge not blessed as she tied it solidly in place. Shoes, not boots, because Blaize gave them too the Hooker Plunge of Darkness, were found in the bottom of her wardrobe; faux Converses of black and blue that together with the rest of her attire made her look all-in-all… unique. Despite all this effort she did grab an oversize, black, zip-up hooded sweatshirt and pulled it on, zipping it up half way, to protect her while on the back of Jared’s bike at least. She grabbed her bag and picked up a brush as she left her room, dragged it through her loose hair, dropping it on the hall table before she left through the front door.

The night was warmer than she expected as she walked briskly towards the square in the middle of town. There wasn’t a single other living soul on the streets, and she breathed a sigh of satisfaction and relief with the knowledge. It didn’t take her long to get to the cobbled square, and ten minutes after she had left the inn she was making her way across the uneven surface in silence. The moon was close to full tonight and lit the memorial fountain in the middle like a spotlight between the shadows of the surrounding buildings. Mica in the sandstone sculpture made it glitter as she approached, and the babbling water hid any sounds she would have made with her light footing. She had come from the other end of town to Jared, and as such he was facing away from her, on the other end of the fountain, and had yet to realise she was there. Biting down on her lip to kill the urge to laugh, Dodge climbed quietly up onto the three foot high wall that encompassed the mass of water. She walked along it’s edge, now far taller than her company, and tried to ignore the nervous chatter in his head. With a flick of her wrist she was able to shower a dozen droplets of water on the back of his head and neck as she came closer, and she grinned down at him when he turned to accuse his attacker.

“Isn’t it past your bed time?” she asked cheekily, the moonlight making her dark eyes flash as much as the cascading water beside her.