Take My Life, I'll Hand It To You - Jalex - {19/?}
Title: Take my life, I’ll hand it to you.
Author: Me, CherylMcMinorrr
Pairing: Jalex
Chapter: 19
Rating: PG-13 for now.
Summary: based on the House of Night series, by P.C and Kristin Cast
Disclaimer:Contains some quotes/lines/ideas belonging to the authors of the original House of Night series. No copyright infringement intended. I don’t own the members of All Time Low or any other band members mentioned. Title is from ‘Poison’ by All Time Low. This hasn’t happened, duh.
A/N: I wanted to update this two days a go, but I didn't have internet connection, in fact we weren't supposed to be reconnected 'til Thursday... But it appears that, that was a lie. I hate the end bit of this, I'm sorry, I tried.
Master list ; Fiction List ; Tumblr
I ran down the next corridor, where Jack and Hayley were stood but neither noticed me approaching, too engrossed in their own conversation.
“He’s gonna have got to him.”
“I don’t think so, he’s not an idiot.”
“Yeah, but you know Pete, he‘ll get to him.”
“Then we’ll deal with it, we’ve got other things to sort out right now.”
“Ugh, I know, why wouldn't he listen, it's like he wants...”
“He does, it’s not like he gives a damn about people, not really.”
Just like that, a new layer of mystery was added to the situation, and just when I was starting to get my head around things. Still, I needed to talk to them about my epiphany so I cleared my throat. Jack jumped and turned to face me, whereas Hayley faced me wearily, she looked worse for wear today. Probably this business about whatever’s going on with them and Pete taking it's toll on her. My eyes flicked between them, wondering the best way to begin my questioning.
“There’s something not right is there?” They looked confused so I elaborated. “With Pete… I mean, I have a theory, but there’s holes in it. Basically Jack, you practically said that things aren’t what they seem and if that’s the case then that would mean that you two aren’t as bad as you first seem. But Pete told me the same thing, that things aren’t what they seem, but then that would mean that he’s also not what he seems and him wanting me to not be friends with you guys wouldn’t just be because he ‘doesn’t want me to fall in with the wrong crowd’… But if I’m right then I have so many questions.”
It all came out rushed, but they seemed to catch the gist of what I was saying. Jack shot Hayley a look that clearly said ‘I told you so’ and Hayley’s eyes scanned the corridor before they landed back on me and she shot into action, but when she spoke it was aimed at the boy beside me.
“Well give the boy a medal. Erm… Jack, why don’t you take Alex and answer his questions? Not here obviously, Pete could come back or his stupid cat could be lurking in the shadows. I’ll join you after I’ve gone to sort out that other thing, on my own.” She still managed to sigh dramatically at the last statement and glared at me before she turned on her heel and headed off.
“And then she goes and acts like that to me and I question if my theory's actually valid at all and if you really are the good guys or that's just what I want to believe.”
Jack shook his head at my rambling and offered me a small smile.
“Or Hayley’s just a bitch even when she’s supposed to be one of the good guys.”
“That sounds plausible.” I agreed, deciding to trust the other boy and actually follow him when he started walking, this was happening a lot, me ending up following Jack around the school like a lost and confused puppy. We didn’t stop walking until we got to the big oak tree from the night before, even though the happenings of that night now seemed forever away. Jack slid down the trunk and sat on the floor with his back to the tree, gesturing for me to sit beside him. I glanced around, shuddering when my eyes fell on the area where I’d spotted the weird ghost/creature/thing with the red markings, before sitting down, slightly closer than necessary to Jack, not that I was scared or anything, okay, maybe I was a little creeped out.
“What’s wrong?”
“No doubtedly I’ll end up telling you later, after… this.”
“Right, where did you want to start?”
“Pete. What’s he up to?”
“We’re… Not exactly sure.”
“What do you think he’s up to?”
“I don’t actually know for sure…”
“Ugh,” I sighed “You’re supposed to be answering my questions not leaving my confused, I want to believe I'm on the right lines.”
“Well ask better questions.” He snapped, folding his arms.
“Obviously Pete doesn’t want us to be friends because you’re on to him, am I correct?”
Jack nodded.
“Then why was he making you bring me timetables and sit with me and requesting I go to the Dark Daughters’ and Sons’ ritual?”
“We don't actually know... but we think it’s possibly so you could witness what horrible people we are and you wouldn’t want to be friends with us, let alone listen about the school’s High Priest being corrupt.”
It was my turn to nod this time.
“That’s clever, you can be such a douchebag at times so It'd work. Why’s he so bothered though, I mean specifically about me not being on your side?”
“Thanks. Obviously your filled out mark,” He pointed at my forehead and I inwardly sighed, hating the fact that, that instantly separated me from the rest of the student body. “means there’s something special about you and Pete can probably sense that it’ll develop as you get further into the change or something. He wants you on his side, can‘t have another gifted fledgling turning on him.”
I hated that part of this was all predetermined since the moment I showed up here, because that’s when my mark appeared to become filled out, and that I couldn’t just fit in, blend in like I wanted. Yet, I should have expected something like this from the freaky vision I had.
“How do you know all this? I mean, you’re only a third former…”
“Yeah, but Hayley and some of the rest of the group aren’t, they’ve known for a while, Hayley got suspicious - You‘d better ask her about that actually, wouldn‘t wanna tell you then have her kill me, she should be back soon anyway.”
“Where did she go?”
“You can ask her that one too.”
“You said ‘another gifted fledgling’, who -”
“That’s another question for Hayley.”
“Stop offloading all the things I ask onto her.”
“Sorry bro, it’s the stuff that she really needs to answer.”
I nodded, trying to keep track of the things I still had left to ask.
“There’s some more things bugging me, they’re all really different, but like I said, holes in my theories…”
“Fire away.”
“Firstly, I didn’t tell anyone because it didn’t feel right and when Pete asked me I kind of veered around it, it’s not really a question, but before I woke up here, when I crashed my car, I had this weird vision that I couldn‘t make sense of…” I went on to explain to him exactly what happened, well what I could remember.
“Sounds like a warning, a warning about Pete and that you’re gonna end up being part of it.”
I groaned and moved threw my head back so the top of it hit the tree trunk.
“Sucks because it’s like you didn’t get a choice in the matter, could be good though, at least you’re not just gonna go on looking up to Pete and believe everything he says without question, sounds like Nyx is on your side in this.”
I smiled, it was nice knowing the Goddess was beside me, even if shit was gonna go down sometime soon.
“Next. Pete said that you… Or you and Hayley found me… How did that come about?”
“Ask Hayley.”
“If you say that one more time…”
“I’m sorry, it‘s just, more things will fall into place when you‘ve spoke to her as well, I don't wanna answer for her because I don't wanna tell you about things that it's up to her to tell. Next question?”
At that moment the cat from last night decided to come running up to us and jumped into my lap. Jack turned slightly to face me and the animal, propping one of his arms on the tree, he stroked her behind her ears.
“Is she your cat?”
“No, not really, I don’t like cats that much, she was just stuck in the tree last night and then I saved her, but she… Uh… Got a fright and disappeared.”
“N’aww, me either much, but she’s cute, maybe she chose you?”
“I doubt it, I don’t want a cat.”
“Okay, if you say so, what scared her then, if you don't mind me asking?”
“That’s actually another thing that’s been annoying me, I don’t know if I imagined it or not, but it seemed the cat saw it too.”
“What?”
“At first I thought it was a fledgling that had followed me, but when it turned to look at me it’s eyes were glowing red and it appeared to have a crescent moon tattoo, but in a strange shade of red. It made a high pitched noise and disappeared at inhuman speed… You think I‘m crazy don‘t you?”
Jack raised his eyebrows at me.
“Did I once say I think you’re crazy? Actually, I might just believe you, I just need to speak to Hayley because if a fledgling like that can really somehow exist and us not know it might just clear something up.”
“What’s it gonna clear up?” I asked, like I didn’t know what his next answer would be.
“Wait ‘til Hayley’s back.”
I turned to him, my face the epitome of serious.
“I’m actually going to strangle you.”
He beamed at me, slightly smug.
“No you’re not, because then you’d have no one answering your questions and you'd have no one to ask and you'd all just be confused and alone.”
“I really want to hit you. What else did I want to ask? Oh, how did Hayley get to be High Priestess in training etc. if you’re all so against Pete?”
“We didn’t always have him sussed, when you first come here you think he’s just that powerful but nice High Priest who has your best interests at heart… That’ll be when she agreed to it. He can’t write her off now, because that’d give us evidence for our case if we ever wanna turn the school against him.”
“Clever fucker.”
“And Hayley won’t drop out of it because she’s too proud for that… Wouldn’t want Pete to think he’s won.”
I smiled.
“I think I only have one more thing to ask.”
“Go for it.”
“Don’t take offense or anything, you seem like a really nice guy and I’ve only heard one side of the story, but why were you such a dick to Jonathan when you were his room mate?”
Jack seemed to visibly cringe at my question, as though that was the last thing he was expecting me to ask.
“I- I was, there’s no excuse for the things I said about him, he didn’t deserve it, but I was going through some things - emotionally, I didn’t want a roommate, I liked being alone with my thoughts and I- I just… I’m not really ready to go into detail about this okay? Some of it’s personal, I am sorry though.”
I bit my lip and nodded again, watching a look of sincerity fill his eyes. He reached forward a few seconds of silence later and idly stroked the cat sitting on my lap.
“In case she has chosen you, you really should name her.”
“I really don’t want- Ugh, what then?”
“I don’t know.” He laughed. I smiled at him. “Since you asked me a personal question, can I ask you something?”
“Uh… Yeah.”
He brought his hand that had been stroking the cat up to my forehead, pushing at my fringe slightly.
“Why do you keep your mark so covered?”
I batted his hand away, pulling the hair back over my face.
“You can’t talk, yours is practically covered.”
“But at least you can tell it’s there.” He told me, trying to sweep my fringe from where it covered my mark once more. I batted his hand away again, shooting him a glare.
“I swear you just want an excuse to play with my hair.”
He gave me a soft smile.
“Why would you think that? If I wanted to do that I'd just go for it, it‘s not like you could stop me.” He told me cheekily, I scowled at him and he ran his fingers lightly through my hair, smirking. I shut my eyes at the touch and leaned slightly into it, trying to ignore the bubbly feeling settling on top of my stomach, because that couldn’t be there, no.
Author: Me, CherylMcMinorrr
Pairing: Jalex
Chapter: 19
Rating: PG-13 for now.
Summary: based on the House of Night series, by P.C and Kristin Cast
Disclaimer:Contains some quotes/lines/ideas belonging to the authors of the original House of Night series. No copyright infringement intended. I don’t own the members of All Time Low or any other band members mentioned. Title is from ‘Poison’ by All Time Low. This hasn’t happened, duh.
A/N: I wanted to update this two days a go, but I didn't have internet connection, in fact we weren't supposed to be reconnected 'til Thursday... But it appears that, that was a lie. I hate the end bit of this, I'm sorry, I tried.
Master list ; Fiction List ; Tumblr
I ran down the next corridor, where Jack and Hayley were stood but neither noticed me approaching, too engrossed in their own conversation.
“He’s gonna have got to him.”
“I don’t think so, he’s not an idiot.”
“Yeah, but you know Pete, he‘ll get to him.”
“Then we’ll deal with it, we’ve got other things to sort out right now.”
“Ugh, I know, why wouldn't he listen, it's like he wants...”
“He does, it’s not like he gives a damn about people, not really.”
Just like that, a new layer of mystery was added to the situation, and just when I was starting to get my head around things. Still, I needed to talk to them about my epiphany so I cleared my throat. Jack jumped and turned to face me, whereas Hayley faced me wearily, she looked worse for wear today. Probably this business about whatever’s going on with them and Pete taking it's toll on her. My eyes flicked between them, wondering the best way to begin my questioning.
“There’s something not right is there?” They looked confused so I elaborated. “With Pete… I mean, I have a theory, but there’s holes in it. Basically Jack, you practically said that things aren’t what they seem and if that’s the case then that would mean that you two aren’t as bad as you first seem. But Pete told me the same thing, that things aren’t what they seem, but then that would mean that he’s also not what he seems and him wanting me to not be friends with you guys wouldn’t just be because he ‘doesn’t want me to fall in with the wrong crowd’… But if I’m right then I have so many questions.”
It all came out rushed, but they seemed to catch the gist of what I was saying. Jack shot Hayley a look that clearly said ‘I told you so’ and Hayley’s eyes scanned the corridor before they landed back on me and she shot into action, but when she spoke it was aimed at the boy beside me.
“Well give the boy a medal. Erm… Jack, why don’t you take Alex and answer his questions? Not here obviously, Pete could come back or his stupid cat could be lurking in the shadows. I’ll join you after I’ve gone to sort out that other thing, on my own.” She still managed to sigh dramatically at the last statement and glared at me before she turned on her heel and headed off.
“And then she goes and acts like that to me and I question if my theory's actually valid at all and if you really are the good guys or that's just what I want to believe.”
Jack shook his head at my rambling and offered me a small smile.
“Or Hayley’s just a bitch even when she’s supposed to be one of the good guys.”
“That sounds plausible.” I agreed, deciding to trust the other boy and actually follow him when he started walking, this was happening a lot, me ending up following Jack around the school like a lost and confused puppy. We didn’t stop walking until we got to the big oak tree from the night before, even though the happenings of that night now seemed forever away. Jack slid down the trunk and sat on the floor with his back to the tree, gesturing for me to sit beside him. I glanced around, shuddering when my eyes fell on the area where I’d spotted the weird ghost/creature/thing with the red markings, before sitting down, slightly closer than necessary to Jack, not that I was scared or anything, okay, maybe I was a little creeped out.
“What’s wrong?”
“No doubtedly I’ll end up telling you later, after… this.”
“Right, where did you want to start?”
“Pete. What’s he up to?”
“We’re… Not exactly sure.”
“What do you think he’s up to?”
“I don’t actually know for sure…”
“Ugh,” I sighed “You’re supposed to be answering my questions not leaving my confused, I want to believe I'm on the right lines.”
“Well ask better questions.” He snapped, folding his arms.
“Obviously Pete doesn’t want us to be friends because you’re on to him, am I correct?”
Jack nodded.
“Then why was he making you bring me timetables and sit with me and requesting I go to the Dark Daughters’ and Sons’ ritual?”
“We don't actually know... but we think it’s possibly so you could witness what horrible people we are and you wouldn’t want to be friends with us, let alone listen about the school’s High Priest being corrupt.”
It was my turn to nod this time.
“That’s clever, you can be such a douchebag at times so It'd work. Why’s he so bothered though, I mean specifically about me not being on your side?”
“Thanks. Obviously your filled out mark,” He pointed at my forehead and I inwardly sighed, hating the fact that, that instantly separated me from the rest of the student body. “means there’s something special about you and Pete can probably sense that it’ll develop as you get further into the change or something. He wants you on his side, can‘t have another gifted fledgling turning on him.”
I hated that part of this was all predetermined since the moment I showed up here, because that’s when my mark appeared to become filled out, and that I couldn’t just fit in, blend in like I wanted. Yet, I should have expected something like this from the freaky vision I had.
“How do you know all this? I mean, you’re only a third former…”
“Yeah, but Hayley and some of the rest of the group aren’t, they’ve known for a while, Hayley got suspicious - You‘d better ask her about that actually, wouldn‘t wanna tell you then have her kill me, she should be back soon anyway.”
“Where did she go?”
“You can ask her that one too.”
“You said ‘another gifted fledgling’, who -”
“That’s another question for Hayley.”
“Stop offloading all the things I ask onto her.”
“Sorry bro, it’s the stuff that she really needs to answer.”
I nodded, trying to keep track of the things I still had left to ask.
“There’s some more things bugging me, they’re all really different, but like I said, holes in my theories…”
“Fire away.”
“Firstly, I didn’t tell anyone because it didn’t feel right and when Pete asked me I kind of veered around it, it’s not really a question, but before I woke up here, when I crashed my car, I had this weird vision that I couldn‘t make sense of…” I went on to explain to him exactly what happened, well what I could remember.
“Sounds like a warning, a warning about Pete and that you’re gonna end up being part of it.”
I groaned and moved threw my head back so the top of it hit the tree trunk.
“Sucks because it’s like you didn’t get a choice in the matter, could be good though, at least you’re not just gonna go on looking up to Pete and believe everything he says without question, sounds like Nyx is on your side in this.”
I smiled, it was nice knowing the Goddess was beside me, even if shit was gonna go down sometime soon.
“Next. Pete said that you… Or you and Hayley found me… How did that come about?”
“Ask Hayley.”
“If you say that one more time…”
“I’m sorry, it‘s just, more things will fall into place when you‘ve spoke to her as well, I don't wanna answer for her because I don't wanna tell you about things that it's up to her to tell. Next question?”
At that moment the cat from last night decided to come running up to us and jumped into my lap. Jack turned slightly to face me and the animal, propping one of his arms on the tree, he stroked her behind her ears.
“Is she your cat?”
“No, not really, I don’t like cats that much, she was just stuck in the tree last night and then I saved her, but she… Uh… Got a fright and disappeared.”
“N’aww, me either much, but she’s cute, maybe she chose you?”
“I doubt it, I don’t want a cat.”
“Okay, if you say so, what scared her then, if you don't mind me asking?”
“That’s actually another thing that’s been annoying me, I don’t know if I imagined it or not, but it seemed the cat saw it too.”
“What?”
“At first I thought it was a fledgling that had followed me, but when it turned to look at me it’s eyes were glowing red and it appeared to have a crescent moon tattoo, but in a strange shade of red. It made a high pitched noise and disappeared at inhuman speed… You think I‘m crazy don‘t you?”
Jack raised his eyebrows at me.
“Did I once say I think you’re crazy? Actually, I might just believe you, I just need to speak to Hayley because if a fledgling like that can really somehow exist and us not know it might just clear something up.”
“What’s it gonna clear up?” I asked, like I didn’t know what his next answer would be.
“Wait ‘til Hayley’s back.”
I turned to him, my face the epitome of serious.
“I’m actually going to strangle you.”
He beamed at me, slightly smug.
“No you’re not, because then you’d have no one answering your questions and you'd have no one to ask and you'd all just be confused and alone.”
“I really want to hit you. What else did I want to ask? Oh, how did Hayley get to be High Priestess in training etc. if you’re all so against Pete?”
“We didn’t always have him sussed, when you first come here you think he’s just that powerful but nice High Priest who has your best interests at heart… That’ll be when she agreed to it. He can’t write her off now, because that’d give us evidence for our case if we ever wanna turn the school against him.”
“Clever fucker.”
“And Hayley won’t drop out of it because she’s too proud for that… Wouldn’t want Pete to think he’s won.”
I smiled.
“I think I only have one more thing to ask.”
“Go for it.”
“Don’t take offense or anything, you seem like a really nice guy and I’ve only heard one side of the story, but why were you such a dick to Jonathan when you were his room mate?”
Jack seemed to visibly cringe at my question, as though that was the last thing he was expecting me to ask.
“I- I was, there’s no excuse for the things I said about him, he didn’t deserve it, but I was going through some things - emotionally, I didn’t want a roommate, I liked being alone with my thoughts and I- I just… I’m not really ready to go into detail about this okay? Some of it’s personal, I am sorry though.”
I bit my lip and nodded again, watching a look of sincerity fill his eyes. He reached forward a few seconds of silence later and idly stroked the cat sitting on my lap.
“In case she has chosen you, you really should name her.”
“I really don’t want- Ugh, what then?”
“I don’t know.” He laughed. I smiled at him. “Since you asked me a personal question, can I ask you something?”
“Uh… Yeah.”
He brought his hand that had been stroking the cat up to my forehead, pushing at my fringe slightly.
“Why do you keep your mark so covered?”
I batted his hand away, pulling the hair back over my face.
“You can’t talk, yours is practically covered.”
“But at least you can tell it’s there.” He told me, trying to sweep my fringe from where it covered my mark once more. I batted his hand away again, shooting him a glare.
“I swear you just want an excuse to play with my hair.”
He gave me a soft smile.
“Why would you think that? If I wanted to do that I'd just go for it, it‘s not like you could stop me.” He told me cheekily, I scowled at him and he ran his fingers lightly through my hair, smirking. I shut my eyes at the touch and leaned slightly into it, trying to ignore the bubbly feeling settling on top of my stomach, because that couldn’t be there, no.