Hannah and Jacob were the best of friends when they were growing up.
Their houses were right next door to each other, so it was only a matter of time before Hannah popped her head over the fence in between their houses, glanced around, and saw Jacob.
'Hey! You want to come over and play?' She called out to Jacob, who was sitting quietly on his lawn, two toy trucks in his hands.
'Play...?' He echoed. 'Play what?'
Hannah appeared to shrug her head, but since she was only appearing over the fence by hoisting herself up off the ground herself, it looked unnatural and awkward.
'I don't know! But come on, let's play!' She whined, her nose scrunching up as her arms shook, tired from holding up her body.
Jacob looked around his yard unnervingly, glancing between his red and yellow trucks, to the girls' head that was staring at him, before he shrugged his shoulders, and hopped up.
Hannah's face light up with a grin as she dropped from the fence, and Jacob dropped his toy trucks as he went around to the unusual girls front yard to do whatever.
And Hannah grins and grins, and Jacob smiles and smiles.
Years later, they're on Jacob's roof at around 2 A.M. Both of them are standing barefoot, and are clad in both jeans and ragged tank tops splattered with paint.
Hannah is laughing at a joke the D.J. pulled on the radio they're listening to that is balanced on the top of the roof. It's bright red blinking numbers are the only lights on on the entire block.
Jacob is looking around their neighborhood, before he falls backwards to sit down, not even flinching as the roof tiles dug into his palms. Hannah looks down at him, before she does a spin and falls down next to himl.
Neither of them talked as they just sit there, listening to the club music pounding on the radio next to them. It wasn't long before Jacob reached backwards and hooked his ipod into the radio, muttering how 'i don't want to listen to this electric-bass and auto-tuner shit anymore'. Hannah laughs loudly again, drumming her fingers against her knees.
After a few minutes of fiddling, Jacob swearing quietly, and Hannah admonishing him for swearing when he was such a 'perfect jesus-kid' Jacob finally righted himself, and and the sounds of two guitars started to play.
Hannah's face lit up and she laughed loudly before she hopped up on her feet, wavering only slightly before she started to sing in time with the song, 'My child arrived just the other day, he came to the world in the usual way,'
She grinned down at Jacob and smiled broadly when he slowly joined in as well.
'But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay, oh he learned to walk, while I was away'
Hannah was laughing and Jacob was laughing soon also. 'Dude, Harry Chapin? I knew you had it in you. The best folk-rock artist ever.' Jacob only scoffed and said, 'i always had his music on my ipod, you just never bothered to check'.
He finished with a wink before cupping his hands around his mouth, and shouted across the roof-tops, And the cat's in the cradle, and the silver spoon, Little boy blue and the man on the moon, oh when you comin' home dad? I don't know when, but we'll be together then, son. You know we'll have a good time then.
And Hannah laughed and laughed and Jacob laughed and laughed.
Hannah is screaming in terror and her mascara is causing messy black lines to crawl down her face.
Her eyes are red from salty tears, and her throat is harsh and painful but she cannot help it. Her hands are clawing at her sides as she struggles to keep her composition, hair falling in her face.
Some of her shirt is on the ground, ripped and covered in mud and rain that continues to fall.
But her shaking eyes are still focused on the fight going on in front of her in this dark alley.
Jacob is there
Jacob is fighting.
Jacob is fighting for her. He's gritting his teeth and ducking under punches and smashing his fists and knees into the other, not holding anything back as he curses the body he's going against.
Soon, the ruckus is loud enough, what with her screams of terror and the horrible sounds of fighting that people are drawn to the alleyway, and quickly separate Jacob and the other body.
A few see Hannah standing in the back, and they see the black eye, and the split lip, and the harsh finger-shaped bruises on her sides, neck and arms. They quickly run to her, draping her in their jackets as her hands fall limply to her side, her shirt no longer providing adequate coverage of herself.
They are talking to her in hushed, rushed voices, asking her what happened, who did that to her, is she okay, what happened.
Her eyes are just only drawn to Jacob as he anxiously steps from foot to foot, adrenaline still rushing through his body as he talks to a few people, eyes accusing towards the other body which is sitting against the wall, blood pouring, a few people offering assistance, but not really helping.
Someone asks him a question, and he answers quickly, yet calmly. They nod, and repeat the information into their cellphone, and they walk away. Someone offers him a jacket, and he refuses before he slowly makes his way to the back of the alleyway.
Hannah only flinches visibly when she almost makes eye contact, and she looks towards the ground. The one standing next to her puts their arm around her for comfort, but she only inches away, fingers twisting with the zipper of one of the jackets thrown over herself.
Jacob stops in front of her, and stares at her face. He stares at the black eye that is vibrant against her pale skin. He stares at the mascara and eyeliner that makes tracks down her face, mixing with the blood from her split lip.
He stares at her silently, and she finally makes eye contact, and instantly her whole self crumples and she catapults herself at Jacob, twisting her arms around his neck, sobbing into his shoulder loudly.
Jacob only hums into her ear, holding her up as her legs are shaking so much they are bound to collapse.
And the rain continues to fall overhead, as the people around silently circled them, or the other body against the wall, waiting for the police and ambulance to come for them.
and Hannah sobs and sobs, and Jacob hums and hums.
No comments:
Post a Comment