Chapter VII (Part 3)

Experimenting with Jess left us both burnt out. Not like that, God --the song. After every line, I stopped and checked if she was alright, terrified each time anew that something horrible was going to happen. It didn't help that she started dropping to the ground and screaming in fake agony to irk me. We made it through the song twice piece by piece until we both decided we had, perhaps not better, but other things to do.

Currently, I was staring at my monitor, more precisely at an unfinished paper for that International Relations class. Jess had finished hers days ago--her being the more studious of us certainly an outlier.

I didn't hear the door.

The paper focused on the ever diminishing personal freedoms of modern societies. I wasn't particularly obsessed, ideologically, with privacy or anonymity. I had grown up with neither, but I suppose it was different for those who had. In another generation, will it matter? Will 'privacy' be as outdated concept as 'lost'?

"Allie."

The interruption left my thoughts like dust scattered in the wind. I knew this voice. Jet!

I lept out of my seat with enough force to send it tumbling, flinging myself at Jet with enough energy to send us both likewise. Whatever questions or objections I had, they didn't matter now. At least not right now.

He grinned, his face inches from my own, and spoke loudly, with an odd pride, "You have no idea how I've missed you."

I shook my head delicately, "Yeah I do."

We kissed. It had been the longest we'd been apart. If love is felt most noticeably in its absence, then so is longing. I hadn't really missed him until he was back. The energy between us was frantic, hungry. My nervous passion left me breathing in short rasps. In the back of my mind, a voice reminded me I had questions. A strange little war in my mind between love and curiosity.

Love continued to prevail. He pulled back for a second. His soft face, beautiful in the evening's half light, left me paralyzed, my time frozen still, curiosity be damned. From Jess's room, the music swelled noticably, a gift of privacy. Somewhere inside me chuckled and was grateful. I felt his fingers intertwine with my own, and quite literally, next thing I knew, we were pressed together on my mattress, kissing, radiating, laughing.

Laughter was the part of love that came as a surprise to me. Movies got it wrong. I loved his low, exhaled snicker when our teeth clicked or how he'd growl in mock pain when I softly bit his ear. I remember the first time I sneezed while we were kissing and how we both laughed till we cried.

He rolled gently to the side, our arms still locked, his free hand's fingers gently tracing circles on my shoulder. His voice was loud, Jet was always loud, "Okay, you can be mad now."

I grinned, "So easily satisfied?"

He propped himself up to sit with legs crossed, smiling, "No, definitely not." He smirked softly, "But I know the little devil Allie on that shoulder is demanding answers."

"She might be." I really wanted him to lie back down. Well, part of me did. The other part knew my best bet for any information was getting it from Jet solo, before Alex could convince him to keep quiet. Alex was far more intent on keeping me "safe" and clueless. At the moment, Jet was seemingly more concerned with keeping my heart rate elevated, and so, and I know I'm horrible, I let curiosity finally triumph.

I exhaled, disappointed in myself, "So what happened? Where did you go?"

"Belize. And really it was a total waste of time."

"Belize? Like the country?" Yeah, I'm an idiot, so what?

"Yeah. Alex's idea. Apparently, a few people there knew Mania, but we didn't find any."

This wasn't exactly making any sense. Jet had told me that Mania had spent time in South America, but that fact always had seemed tangential, totally irrelevant to her current actions. "Why didn't you say anything about it?"

Jet paused, as if considering evading the question, "I thought you'd want to come."

"You think?! Why is that a bad thing? You don't want me there?" Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.

"There's another one like her down there, " he murmured.

"Like her?"

"Yeah. Strong, fast, a guy though, and older. Maybe crazier."

"And you went, what, to fight this guy? Capture him, what?"

His expression changed, his eyes grew serious, "No. We thought he'd know something about whoever is behind Mania. But we couldn't find him, and honestly, the guy's a killer, and I'm not sure what good he'd be even if we had."

I waited a bit to respond, "That sounds more like Alex's interest than yours."

He smiled finally, "Yeah it is. Well it was. I'm coming around to his way of thinking."

I shoved him softly, "You sound like him." I sighed audibly.

He took my other hand in his. "Alex and I don't agree concerning your involvement."

I wasn't sure where he was going. "How so?"

"He thinks getting involved with our lives is dangerous and that I can't protect you from the dangers to come."

I swallowed hard, "And you?"

He beamed, "I'm not sure I can either, but I think you and danger are like a moth to a flame, love. Trouble finds you."