Categories > Original > Romance
I. Thou Shall Accept Thy Love for Another
I slammed the hammer against my thumb. “Ouch.” It began to throb and feel enlarged. I stuck my poor appendage in my mouth and sucked on it, trying to get it to stop pounding. I’d been hitting my fingers all this morning as I tried to nail Billy’s rooster weather vane back on the roof since the last big thunder storm had ripped it from its rightful post. That had been finished with long ago. I was about to retreat off the roof of death when I noticed something. A patch of the roofs shingles was missing. Another effect of the storm. By now, most likely a leak has begun in Billy’s house from the lack of protection from the rain. So, here I am. Nailing shingles back on his roof. I sighed a muffled sigh as I still had my slowly relaxing thumb stuffed in my mouth. “I’m too kind a person for my own good.”
Billy and Jacob weren’t home now. They didn’t really even know I was doing this. But I doubt they would mind. I’ve been know do things on a whim. I had been just coming by to see if Jake wanted to walk down to the beach with me when I noticed the poor weather vane sitting in the front lawn. I know this sounds weird, but besides just wanting to help out the family friends, I felt bad for the rooster. Yes, even though it is an inanimate object, I felt bad that it had lost its way.
My thumb felt better now. I removed it from my mouth and wiped the spit off of it on my faded jeans. Then, I returned to work. Picking up my hammer, I made sure to align it with the nail that was half sticking out of the roof. Bang, bang, bang. “Perfecto.” With my free hand I wiped sweat from my forehead. Only three more shingles and I would be done. It was a bit odd. When I had first looked over the hole, it seemed to be fairly small, an easy and quick job. But now, it was taking forever to finish.
“Hey you!” A familiar voice spoke in a friendly tone below me.
I looked over the edge and smiled at the face of my friend as he looked up at me as if looking to the sky. “Hello, Jake.” He gleamed a white and goofy smile at me. “Something broke again?” I nodded once. “Yeah, that and more. Didn’t you notice a big-ass weather vane stuck in your front lawn at any point this morning?” Jake’s head shook back and forth slowly. “Our weather vane was in the lawn?” He asked himself. My index finger pointed lazily at the shallow hole that I had pulled it out of. Jake’s eyes followed my finger’s path to the gap. “Oh. I see.” My eyes rolled. “Yeah, oh. Plus a few shingles were missing from your roof so I decided to replace those too. They were right over your room so I thought you’d like to NOT be dripped on every time you tried to sleep.” He laughed a little. “Yes, thank-you kindly, Ireland.” I grinned wide and stupidly. “No problemo. Now, you wanna help me finish off these last few?
I’m tired as hell.” Now, Jake laughed a little harder. “Yeah, I’ll be right up. I just need to drop a few things in the house, ‘kay?”
“Yeah.” He disappeared into the house. I could still hear his footsteps as he walked through his house and into his bedroom. I set my hammer, nails, and shingles to one side and laid down on my back, setting my hands behind my head. The roof was warm. Not quite as warm as Jacob, but it was still nice. My eyes closed. My mind began to drift off as it usually does whenever my eyes close.
I was in my special place. The place where I can always escape in my mind and out. The deep woods. They were somewhat dark from the thick canopy above me, but I could still see everything clearly. Whenever I went there, all I would do was walk around and think about whatever I wanted. All of it being positive though. Nobody else was there unless I wanted him or her to be. And when I did want them there, they just seemed to appear. But I usually liked to be alone with my own thoughts.
Now, I was standing on a huge tree stump. It was at least eight feet across. I was looking around to decide which direction I would begin walking so I could begin my thinking. A soft wind danced threw my hair and whispered sweet wind language into my ear. A smile grew onto my face. My fingertips gently brushed the stray pieces of glistening coal black hair out of my face. This was one of two places where I felt safe, where I felt confident about being myself, the other being at the Black’s house of course.
Randomly, I decided on a way to go. Carefully I stepped off the massive stump and began in that direction. The thin layer of leaves and dirt was delightful upon my bare feet. It was cold, but I didn’t mind it. “Now, when I leave this place, what shall I do with my time? Maybe I could ask James to go to the beach. That would be nice. I could go window shopping…or just regular shopping,” I laughed quietly to myself. “I’m a little tired. A nap would be nice too or maybe just hanging out at home while mom works at the hospital…”
I stopped walking and lightly touched my face. Suddenly, an overwhelming warm feeling overcame my cheeks. It didn’t hurt, but it just came about so all of a sudden. I wondered what was making this happen. Another light gust of wind blew onto me. This time though, it whispered words I understood to me. Ireland? Wake up. Wake up, Ireland. It’s not sleepy time yet. My eyes felt tired now. As if I was just waking up from a…nap. I smiled. Now I knew what was going on. I am being woken up by Jacob. I’m on his roof. Ireland, you need to get up. Sleeping on a roof is not a good idea. Ireland. Once more, I looked around my forest. I took as much in as I could, then I began to let myself wake up. A small warmth arose in the middle of my forehead. It lasted only a second. I wonder what that was.
A blurred face of Jacob appeared before my eyes. His hands rested on my cheeks. They were so warm. I burrowed my face deeper into his palms. “Morning.” I mumbled. He smiled kindly down at me. “Good morning, sleepyhead.” My eyes caught sight of the place where the patch of the three remaining shingles was missing. It was done. I was relieved it was done. “Hey, you finished.” Jacob’s eyes looked to where mine were. “Oh, yeah. I did. I thought you were just chilling out until I tried to talk to you. Then I realized you had fell asleep.” I giggled. “Sorry. I didn’t get to sleep until 1:00. I had this paper that was due last week in Biology that I didn’t get.” He nodded, his thumbs gently rubbing my cheeks back and forth. “Too bad. You really need to get at least eight hours of sleep, you know. It’s important for a healthy life style.” Jake pointed a menacing finger at me and raised his eyebrows, waiting for a response. “I
care about my grade more than my healthy living, Jake. Sorry to disappoint you.” His shoulders shrugged. Jake then looked at the newly repaired patch and thought for a moment.
“Hey, Ireland, guess what?” Jake finally said after what we would call an “awkward moment of silence”. Oh, well. We’ve both had our share of those. We’ve both talked to each other about them and decided that it was fine and usually not even that awkward at all. “What?”
“Fist Punch is in theatres now!” He said in a booming announcer voice. Fist Punch. An all action, bloody, testosterone filled movie that hardly has any plot what so ever except guys killing as many people as possible. “Sweet. We should go! Like, today! Jeez, this is awesome with a capital A!” I sat up and held Jake’s warm hands in mine with such determination and wanting of Fist Punch-ness; my grip began to constrict his fingers. He didn’t seem to mind at all though. Jake was smiling as big and idiotically as I was. His eyes glittered like a little schoolgirl who had just experienced her first taste of Pixie-Stick powder. (Yeah, Fist Punch is THAT important to us!)
“We should! It’s playing tonight at 7:00! Would you like to attend this crazy cool premiere with me, Ireland my dear?”
“One: That rhymed! It was pretty freaking cool! Two: Who would I be if I didn’t go to Fist Punch with my good old friend, Jacob Black?” My arms flailed around, almost hitting Jake AND myself in the face
“Not the Ireland Stokes I know.” Jake grinned at me. He smiles a lot, maybe too much sometimes. It can’t be healthy for his muscles.
“Alright, it has been decided. You shall pick me up at…6:30 at my homestead and then we will go see the most awesome movie on the face of the Earth!”
“Homestead?” Jake clenched and unclenched his fist, trying to get feeling back in his fingers that I had almost constricted to death with my excitement, I guess.
My eyes narrowed. “You know my mouth speaks faster than my brain can process. Don’t blame me for what it comes up with.”
“Hm, I just seem to keep forgetting that. Maybe because it not natural, Ireland!?” Jake was obviously just playing. I pushed his shoulder. Jake teetered towards the right for a moment, laughed, and then straightened himself.
“What is natural?! And who are you to know who natural people are and how they should act?! You are as far from “natural” as humanly possible, buddy! Do we need to recall the night I slept over last summer when you woke up in the middle of the night and stuffed carrots in my nose and tied my hand to the porch outside, leaving me out there ALL NIGHT?! That is not natural!! And besides, I got a cold because of you!” Jake rolled his eyes and stood up. He held out his hand for me take. Of course I took it and hoisted myself up. “I told you, it was a dare from Embry and Paul. And didn’t I get you cough drops and gallons of orange juice when you got your so-called cold?” We walked over to the ladder posted up against the house. Jake started going down. Once he was about half was down, I went down too. “Yeah, yeah, yeah! Whatever! You’re glad I love you so much or I would have sneezed in your face SO many times!” Jake’s face squinched
slightly at the thought of being sneezed on, especially in the face. “Ew.” I jumped down a few rungs up. Jake’s arms clenched my waist as he caught me mid-jump. I looked down at him with a smirk plastered on my face. “Yeah, ew. Be happy that I do love and forgive so much.”
I slammed the hammer against my thumb. “Ouch.” It began to throb and feel enlarged. I stuck my poor appendage in my mouth and sucked on it, trying to get it to stop pounding. I’d been hitting my fingers all this morning as I tried to nail Billy’s rooster weather vane back on the roof since the last big thunder storm had ripped it from its rightful post. That had been finished with long ago. I was about to retreat off the roof of death when I noticed something. A patch of the roofs shingles was missing. Another effect of the storm. By now, most likely a leak has begun in Billy’s house from the lack of protection from the rain. So, here I am. Nailing shingles back on his roof. I sighed a muffled sigh as I still had my slowly relaxing thumb stuffed in my mouth. “I’m too kind a person for my own good.”
Billy and Jacob weren’t home now. They didn’t really even know I was doing this. But I doubt they would mind. I’ve been know do things on a whim. I had been just coming by to see if Jake wanted to walk down to the beach with me when I noticed the poor weather vane sitting in the front lawn. I know this sounds weird, but besides just wanting to help out the family friends, I felt bad for the rooster. Yes, even though it is an inanimate object, I felt bad that it had lost its way.
My thumb felt better now. I removed it from my mouth and wiped the spit off of it on my faded jeans. Then, I returned to work. Picking up my hammer, I made sure to align it with the nail that was half sticking out of the roof. Bang, bang, bang. “Perfecto.” With my free hand I wiped sweat from my forehead. Only three more shingles and I would be done. It was a bit odd. When I had first looked over the hole, it seemed to be fairly small, an easy and quick job. But now, it was taking forever to finish.
“Hey you!” A familiar voice spoke in a friendly tone below me.
I looked over the edge and smiled at the face of my friend as he looked up at me as if looking to the sky. “Hello, Jake.” He gleamed a white and goofy smile at me. “Something broke again?” I nodded once. “Yeah, that and more. Didn’t you notice a big-ass weather vane stuck in your front lawn at any point this morning?” Jake’s head shook back and forth slowly. “Our weather vane was in the lawn?” He asked himself. My index finger pointed lazily at the shallow hole that I had pulled it out of. Jake’s eyes followed my finger’s path to the gap. “Oh. I see.” My eyes rolled. “Yeah, oh. Plus a few shingles were missing from your roof so I decided to replace those too. They were right over your room so I thought you’d like to NOT be dripped on every time you tried to sleep.” He laughed a little. “Yes, thank-you kindly, Ireland.” I grinned wide and stupidly. “No problemo. Now, you wanna help me finish off these last few?
I’m tired as hell.” Now, Jake laughed a little harder. “Yeah, I’ll be right up. I just need to drop a few things in the house, ‘kay?”
“Yeah.” He disappeared into the house. I could still hear his footsteps as he walked through his house and into his bedroom. I set my hammer, nails, and shingles to one side and laid down on my back, setting my hands behind my head. The roof was warm. Not quite as warm as Jacob, but it was still nice. My eyes closed. My mind began to drift off as it usually does whenever my eyes close.
I was in my special place. The place where I can always escape in my mind and out. The deep woods. They were somewhat dark from the thick canopy above me, but I could still see everything clearly. Whenever I went there, all I would do was walk around and think about whatever I wanted. All of it being positive though. Nobody else was there unless I wanted him or her to be. And when I did want them there, they just seemed to appear. But I usually liked to be alone with my own thoughts.
Now, I was standing on a huge tree stump. It was at least eight feet across. I was looking around to decide which direction I would begin walking so I could begin my thinking. A soft wind danced threw my hair and whispered sweet wind language into my ear. A smile grew onto my face. My fingertips gently brushed the stray pieces of glistening coal black hair out of my face. This was one of two places where I felt safe, where I felt confident about being myself, the other being at the Black’s house of course.
Randomly, I decided on a way to go. Carefully I stepped off the massive stump and began in that direction. The thin layer of leaves and dirt was delightful upon my bare feet. It was cold, but I didn’t mind it. “Now, when I leave this place, what shall I do with my time? Maybe I could ask James to go to the beach. That would be nice. I could go window shopping…or just regular shopping,” I laughed quietly to myself. “I’m a little tired. A nap would be nice too or maybe just hanging out at home while mom works at the hospital…”
I stopped walking and lightly touched my face. Suddenly, an overwhelming warm feeling overcame my cheeks. It didn’t hurt, but it just came about so all of a sudden. I wondered what was making this happen. Another light gust of wind blew onto me. This time though, it whispered words I understood to me. Ireland? Wake up. Wake up, Ireland. It’s not sleepy time yet. My eyes felt tired now. As if I was just waking up from a…nap. I smiled. Now I knew what was going on. I am being woken up by Jacob. I’m on his roof. Ireland, you need to get up. Sleeping on a roof is not a good idea. Ireland. Once more, I looked around my forest. I took as much in as I could, then I began to let myself wake up. A small warmth arose in the middle of my forehead. It lasted only a second. I wonder what that was.
A blurred face of Jacob appeared before my eyes. His hands rested on my cheeks. They were so warm. I burrowed my face deeper into his palms. “Morning.” I mumbled. He smiled kindly down at me. “Good morning, sleepyhead.” My eyes caught sight of the place where the patch of the three remaining shingles was missing. It was done. I was relieved it was done. “Hey, you finished.” Jacob’s eyes looked to where mine were. “Oh, yeah. I did. I thought you were just chilling out until I tried to talk to you. Then I realized you had fell asleep.” I giggled. “Sorry. I didn’t get to sleep until 1:00. I had this paper that was due last week in Biology that I didn’t get.” He nodded, his thumbs gently rubbing my cheeks back and forth. “Too bad. You really need to get at least eight hours of sleep, you know. It’s important for a healthy life style.” Jake pointed a menacing finger at me and raised his eyebrows, waiting for a response. “I
care about my grade more than my healthy living, Jake. Sorry to disappoint you.” His shoulders shrugged. Jake then looked at the newly repaired patch and thought for a moment.
“Hey, Ireland, guess what?” Jake finally said after what we would call an “awkward moment of silence”. Oh, well. We’ve both had our share of those. We’ve both talked to each other about them and decided that it was fine and usually not even that awkward at all. “What?”
“Fist Punch is in theatres now!” He said in a booming announcer voice. Fist Punch. An all action, bloody, testosterone filled movie that hardly has any plot what so ever except guys killing as many people as possible. “Sweet. We should go! Like, today! Jeez, this is awesome with a capital A!” I sat up and held Jake’s warm hands in mine with such determination and wanting of Fist Punch-ness; my grip began to constrict his fingers. He didn’t seem to mind at all though. Jake was smiling as big and idiotically as I was. His eyes glittered like a little schoolgirl who had just experienced her first taste of Pixie-Stick powder. (Yeah, Fist Punch is THAT important to us!)
“We should! It’s playing tonight at 7:00! Would you like to attend this crazy cool premiere with me, Ireland my dear?”
“One: That rhymed! It was pretty freaking cool! Two: Who would I be if I didn’t go to Fist Punch with my good old friend, Jacob Black?” My arms flailed around, almost hitting Jake AND myself in the face
“Not the Ireland Stokes I know.” Jake grinned at me. He smiles a lot, maybe too much sometimes. It can’t be healthy for his muscles.
“Alright, it has been decided. You shall pick me up at…6:30 at my homestead and then we will go see the most awesome movie on the face of the Earth!”
“Homestead?” Jake clenched and unclenched his fist, trying to get feeling back in his fingers that I had almost constricted to death with my excitement, I guess.
My eyes narrowed. “You know my mouth speaks faster than my brain can process. Don’t blame me for what it comes up with.”
“Hm, I just seem to keep forgetting that. Maybe because it not natural, Ireland!?” Jake was obviously just playing. I pushed his shoulder. Jake teetered towards the right for a moment, laughed, and then straightened himself.
“What is natural?! And who are you to know who natural people are and how they should act?! You are as far from “natural” as humanly possible, buddy! Do we need to recall the night I slept over last summer when you woke up in the middle of the night and stuffed carrots in my nose and tied my hand to the porch outside, leaving me out there ALL NIGHT?! That is not natural!! And besides, I got a cold because of you!” Jake rolled his eyes and stood up. He held out his hand for me take. Of course I took it and hoisted myself up. “I told you, it was a dare from Embry and Paul. And didn’t I get you cough drops and gallons of orange juice when you got your so-called cold?” We walked over to the ladder posted up against the house. Jake started going down. Once he was about half was down, I went down too. “Yeah, yeah, yeah! Whatever! You’re glad I love you so much or I would have sneezed in your face SO many times!” Jake’s face squinched
slightly at the thought of being sneezed on, especially in the face. “Ew.” I jumped down a few rungs up. Jake’s arms clenched my waist as he caught me mid-jump. I looked down at him with a smirk plastered on my face. “Yeah, ew. Be happy that I do love and forgive so much.”
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