Categories > Original > Drama > Beat of Their Own Drums
You and Me
0 reviewsWhen he's with her, the world just seems to fall away. Can he find the right words to tell her how that feels? Song used: Lifehouse's "You and Me"
0Unrated
A/N: If anyone has heard the title song, then you know this is an uber sweet song and hopefully I was able to do it justice. I know you're probably getting tired of Cormac...but you must understand he's my baby. XD
Disclaimer: I do not own the lyrics to "You and Me".
Song Used: Lifehouse's "You and Me".
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Sixteen: You and Me
Puppet: Cormac O'Kane
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What day is it? And in what month?
This clock never seemed so alive,
I can't keep up and I can't back down,
I've been losing so much time...
“I just can't believe this is going to be our first -”
“Do me a favor and don't get all sentimental.” Keefe's reptilian eyes glittered with annoyance and pierced mine, almost like a sword raised above the soon-to-be-defeated soldier catches the sunlight before bringing death. “It sickens me.”
I glanced over my shoulder at him. It was hard to tell if he was being overly sarcastic or if he was serious, for his face seemed to be even stonier than it normally was. Something told me he was just as mindful that we were on our way to our first non-chaperoned party as I was. I smiled at him, knowing the best way to defeat him was to not let him bother you. “You don't look very sick to me.”
“I was being sarcastic.” He muttered, more to himself than to me.
I chuckled a bit at him, amused at his sullenness. Had anyone who didn't know him been there, they probably would've been frustrated or disappointed that he wasn't sharing the good cheer. But I knew him well; he was always like this. He didn't really like parties (or any type of social event), but he didn't want to stay home by himself.
“So Keefe,” I said after a while, bouncing a small rubber ball that I'd discovered in my pocket, looking up to the fading sky and noting the few glimmering stars, “I have a riddle for you.”
He brightened considerably. He loved challenges, particularly ones of the mind. “Yeah?”
“This thing is the most valuable possession, but can't be bought. It's fragile, and it's hard to fix -”
“A heart,” Keefe answered before I was done, “please tell me you have a harder one.”
To be honest, I couldn't recall a time that I'd actually been able to finish a riddle. Keefe had always figured the answer out with uncanny swiftness, and I'd stopped being frustrated by his sharpness a long time ago. “Sorry, you'll have to let me think of another one for you to shoot down.”
He laughed. I'd just accomplished the most difficult feat known to man. “Don't take too long, or I might have to go find someone smarter.”
I laughed with him as the pavement gave way to rough beach sand. A bonfire flared brightly up ahead. “Thanks a lot!”
We didn't talk to one another after that. The silence we shared was shattered as soon as we approached, music blaring from speakers. Once my gaze swept the crowd. “Do you think she -”
“Right over there,” Keefe cut me off for the third time, pointing across the room, “have fun.”
'Cause it's you and me and all other people with nothing to do,
Nothing to lose,
And it's you and me and all other people,
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you...
In the strange way he'd always done, my brother melted away from my side and meshed with the rest of the crowd the way a snake suddenly slithers into a patch of mottled leaves and suddenly becomes very hard to see. I had only seen his hand out of the corner of my eye, so it took me a moment to direct my gaze that direction.
At first, I didn't see what I was looking for. A sea of faces swayed and bounced in time (some not so much) to the music, making it extremely difficult to spot anyone. I ventured farther into the crowd, eyes peeled closely for that familiar cascade of crisp raven hair or those keenly perceptive eyes the color of the late afternoon sky. Even though she didn't go to school down here, it was summer time and she was home for a little while; why not invite her?
I don't know why I'd made sure we arrived separately, though. She deserved better than that. But I had a plan.
Suddenly my breath caught in the back of my throat. There she was.
She was on the other side of the fire, distanced from the rest of the group. To my surprise her hair was down; she almost always had it up in a haphazard ponytail. I wondered what the change was for. I guessed from the way her eyes were shifting from side to side, she was looking for someone. I hoped that person was me...
“Paige!” Her name rolled off my tongue before I could stop it, and my hand shot up into the air in a wild wave before I could send the signal to my brain to not let it. I shouldered quickly through the people toward her and, had I not thought better of it, I probably would've bounded right through the fire. It would've been worth more, even at the cost of some third degree burns and the brand of stupidity I'd carry with me for the rest of my college years, because it would've brought me to her faster.
“Mac!” She called back through that wonderful laugh of hers, waving right back with just as much (if not more) enthusiasm I'd displayed.
I broke through the crowd with one last little push, and before I could say anything more two forces met in an affectionate hug that was warmer than the flames themselves. My hands slid around the top of her rib cage and gently pressed her shoulder blades to me, while her arms took the usual spot around my neck.
“I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show up!” Paige said with a chortle, pulling back just a small bit so she and I could actually so the other's face.
“Yeah, well, ya' know how Keefe is,” I replied, winking broadly as if I was about to tell her some big secret, “takes a while to drag the fatty out here.”
She giggled and the rest of the world just fell away.
All of the things that I want to say just aren't coming out right,
I'm tripping on words,
You've got my head spinning,
I don't know where to go from here...
“What all did I miss?” I asked after a moment, eyes half closed as I struggled to hold on to a shred of reality. I'd been so engrossed in feeling her heart beating so close to mine, so enthralled by the mere contact of our bodies that I'd almost forgotten that I had a voice at all.
I wondered what she would say if I told her so.
She shrugged, her head coming to rest gently on my chest as if she were too tired to stand without needing some sort of support. “Nothing,” she drawled lazily, “though something tells me that it'll pick up later. Not many people are drunk just yet.”
Ouch.
It'd been a mistake to invite her to a party, I realized. If there was one thing I didn't want tonight, it was drunken college students making asses out of themselves. I'd had my fair share of experiences with that already, and it wasn't fair to her to make her suffer through it as well. Even in my high school days, I had never touched booze or liquor, and I didn't intend to change that anytime soon.
I didn't want to turn out like my step-dad.
“I-I'll protect you, if that makes you feel any better.” I offered anxiously, straightening some. Right then and there I promised myself that I wasn't going to let her out of my sight, even for a second. Just the idea of having one of my intoxicated classmates laying a finger on her made my blood boil.
She snickered, leaving me to wonder what was so funny about that. “That's so sweet, Mac,” she gushed, “but it's really not that big of a deal. I think I can take care of myself.”
“Of course you can!” I agreed a little too enthusiastically, trying to make up for the misunderstood promise of safety. “I just don't...don't want you to get hurt or...”
I trailed off, my train of thought derailed and robbed by armed bandits. I didn't need to look at my reflection to know that a blush of shame reddened what little skin was left on my cheeks, clearly outlining the pale scar tissue and making it stand out much more than I wanted it to. I was such a fool, tripping over myself like that.
I wished I had the blunt eloquence Keefe had. Then I could say what I really wanted to say without stumbling or being worried about what her reaction was going to be. What I really wanted to say was, “I just love you, okay? If you got hurt because I took you somewhere that wasn't safe, I don't know what I'd do.”
“Can I start that sentence over, please?”
Paige emitted yet another soft bout of laughter. “You can, but I think I already understand what you're trying to say.”
'Cause it's you and me and all other people with nothing to do,
Nothing to prove,
And it's you and me and all other people,
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you...
I figured it was worth trying again, so with a deep intake of breath I backed up and tried again. I withdrew a hand and very softly trailed it along her jaw line, pausing underneath her chin and gently guiding her head up so I could face her. She blinked curiously up at me, a faint, anticipating smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
It was tempting to kiss her, but I fought the urge back. “I just can't imagine how I'd feel if I let something happen to you. You mean the world to me, you know that?”
Much better.
Those beginnings of a smile quickly grew into a wide, pleased grin, her pearly white teeth showing slightly behind her naked lips. That's when I realized that, yet once again, she had chosen to go out without any makeup.
I sucked in my breath a little, amazed that I was actually holding such a surreal beauty. How was it that she was just so pretty without even trying?
I smiled too. I could still feel the warmth in my cheeks, but now I knew it was not a blush of guilt or remorse; rather, it was one of hopeful anxiety. Did she like knowing that she was the center of my universe?
“I kinda caught on.”
There's something about you now,
I can't quite figure out,
Everything she does is beautiful,
Everything she does is right...
The party was fun. We laughed, talked, I tripped...next thing I knew tugging at my wrist the way a child may jerk at a parent's hand. “Hey, c'mon! Race you to the surf!” Then, without waiting for me to catch on she scampered off, out of the light of the fire and into the black darkness up ahead.
I stared after her with a slacked jaw, stupefied by the sheer spontaneity of it all. Surf? Was that even the right way to the ocean?
A giddy smile slowly slid across my face, almost drunken in nature. I wasn't sure why, but something about her impulsiveness, that ability to casually do something no one else would ever do and care less if anyone else came with, was my favorite thing about her. She was so confident, so eager, so ready to live...
Laughing, I bounded after her into the black. “Hey, no fair! Wait for me!”
Her call echoed back to me. “You snooze, you lose!”
'Cause it's you and me and all other people with nothing to do,
Nothing to lose,
And it's you and me and all other people,
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you,
And me and all other people with nothing to do,
Nothing to prove,
And it's you and me and all other people,
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you...
I was much slower than she was and she had a head start, so it was obvious who the winner ended up being. I was glad that I hadn't worn anything fancy, because as soon as I saw that she was waiting for me, laughing for all she was worth, water frothing around her feet, I formulated a plan.
“Hit the deck!”
Her eyes widened. She knew what I was doing because I wasn't slowing down. “Wait, wait, wait!”
I didn't wait. I tackled her. I was sure not to hit her at full force, but it was enough to send us both tumbling into the cold foam with a flurry of splashes and shouts of laughter. “Mac!” She cried through her giggles, squirming wildly, “You crazy son of a bitch!”
That only made me laugh harder. I quickly rolled away from her, only some unknown force drew me back. She tried to sit up; I gently pushed her back down, angling my body so I was laying mostly on my side, but my shoulders were almost parallel with hers, one arm on her opposite side, making upward escape impossible.
She blinked questioningly up at me, not understanding my new behavior any better than I did myself.
The sounds of the party not too far off seemed to fade into nothingness. It was almost as if we'd been put in some sort of soundproof bubble. With newborn confidence I smiled down at her, focusing intently on those wondering pieces of sky. I don't know exactly what it was, but something in them gave me to courage to say something I'd been thinking all night. “Your eyes are so pretty...”
“You're crazy.”
This confidence, this certainty...it was almost intoxicating. Never before had I felt so sure about anything in my life. My words came easy. Nothing else mattered. “Only for you.” I murmured softly, hooding my eyes and lazily drawing circles on her cheek with my thumb.
She actually smiled, uttering the words that I'd wanted to hear for so long. “Love you too.”
I smiled. “Paige,” I said her name softly, “may I kiss you?”
Her answer was the shortest, most glorious sentence I'd ever hear in my life. “Yeah.”
What day is it?
And in what month?
This clock never seemed so alive.
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A/N: Personally, I thought the dialogue, both with Keefe and Paige, was very cute. Usually that's one of the things I have difficulty with, but this time, to quote Mac, the words came easy.
“Do me a favor and don't get all sentimental. It sickens me.”
Disclaimer: I do not own the lyrics to "You and Me".
Song Used: Lifehouse's "You and Me".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sixteen: You and Me
Puppet: Cormac O'Kane
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What day is it? And in what month?
This clock never seemed so alive,
I can't keep up and I can't back down,
I've been losing so much time...
“I just can't believe this is going to be our first -”
“Do me a favor and don't get all sentimental.” Keefe's reptilian eyes glittered with annoyance and pierced mine, almost like a sword raised above the soon-to-be-defeated soldier catches the sunlight before bringing death. “It sickens me.”
I glanced over my shoulder at him. It was hard to tell if he was being overly sarcastic or if he was serious, for his face seemed to be even stonier than it normally was. Something told me he was just as mindful that we were on our way to our first non-chaperoned party as I was. I smiled at him, knowing the best way to defeat him was to not let him bother you. “You don't look very sick to me.”
“I was being sarcastic.” He muttered, more to himself than to me.
I chuckled a bit at him, amused at his sullenness. Had anyone who didn't know him been there, they probably would've been frustrated or disappointed that he wasn't sharing the good cheer. But I knew him well; he was always like this. He didn't really like parties (or any type of social event), but he didn't want to stay home by himself.
“So Keefe,” I said after a while, bouncing a small rubber ball that I'd discovered in my pocket, looking up to the fading sky and noting the few glimmering stars, “I have a riddle for you.”
He brightened considerably. He loved challenges, particularly ones of the mind. “Yeah?”
“This thing is the most valuable possession, but can't be bought. It's fragile, and it's hard to fix -”
“A heart,” Keefe answered before I was done, “please tell me you have a harder one.”
To be honest, I couldn't recall a time that I'd actually been able to finish a riddle. Keefe had always figured the answer out with uncanny swiftness, and I'd stopped being frustrated by his sharpness a long time ago. “Sorry, you'll have to let me think of another one for you to shoot down.”
He laughed. I'd just accomplished the most difficult feat known to man. “Don't take too long, or I might have to go find someone smarter.”
I laughed with him as the pavement gave way to rough beach sand. A bonfire flared brightly up ahead. “Thanks a lot!”
We didn't talk to one another after that. The silence we shared was shattered as soon as we approached, music blaring from speakers. Once my gaze swept the crowd. “Do you think she -”
“Right over there,” Keefe cut me off for the third time, pointing across the room, “have fun.”
'Cause it's you and me and all other people with nothing to do,
Nothing to lose,
And it's you and me and all other people,
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you...
In the strange way he'd always done, my brother melted away from my side and meshed with the rest of the crowd the way a snake suddenly slithers into a patch of mottled leaves and suddenly becomes very hard to see. I had only seen his hand out of the corner of my eye, so it took me a moment to direct my gaze that direction.
At first, I didn't see what I was looking for. A sea of faces swayed and bounced in time (some not so much) to the music, making it extremely difficult to spot anyone. I ventured farther into the crowd, eyes peeled closely for that familiar cascade of crisp raven hair or those keenly perceptive eyes the color of the late afternoon sky. Even though she didn't go to school down here, it was summer time and she was home for a little while; why not invite her?
I don't know why I'd made sure we arrived separately, though. She deserved better than that. But I had a plan.
Suddenly my breath caught in the back of my throat. There she was.
She was on the other side of the fire, distanced from the rest of the group. To my surprise her hair was down; she almost always had it up in a haphazard ponytail. I wondered what the change was for. I guessed from the way her eyes were shifting from side to side, she was looking for someone. I hoped that person was me...
“Paige!” Her name rolled off my tongue before I could stop it, and my hand shot up into the air in a wild wave before I could send the signal to my brain to not let it. I shouldered quickly through the people toward her and, had I not thought better of it, I probably would've bounded right through the fire. It would've been worth more, even at the cost of some third degree burns and the brand of stupidity I'd carry with me for the rest of my college years, because it would've brought me to her faster.
“Mac!” She called back through that wonderful laugh of hers, waving right back with just as much (if not more) enthusiasm I'd displayed.
I broke through the crowd with one last little push, and before I could say anything more two forces met in an affectionate hug that was warmer than the flames themselves. My hands slid around the top of her rib cage and gently pressed her shoulder blades to me, while her arms took the usual spot around my neck.
“I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show up!” Paige said with a chortle, pulling back just a small bit so she and I could actually so the other's face.
“Yeah, well, ya' know how Keefe is,” I replied, winking broadly as if I was about to tell her some big secret, “takes a while to drag the fatty out here.”
She giggled and the rest of the world just fell away.
All of the things that I want to say just aren't coming out right,
I'm tripping on words,
You've got my head spinning,
I don't know where to go from here...
“What all did I miss?” I asked after a moment, eyes half closed as I struggled to hold on to a shred of reality. I'd been so engrossed in feeling her heart beating so close to mine, so enthralled by the mere contact of our bodies that I'd almost forgotten that I had a voice at all.
I wondered what she would say if I told her so.
She shrugged, her head coming to rest gently on my chest as if she were too tired to stand without needing some sort of support. “Nothing,” she drawled lazily, “though something tells me that it'll pick up later. Not many people are drunk just yet.”
Ouch.
It'd been a mistake to invite her to a party, I realized. If there was one thing I didn't want tonight, it was drunken college students making asses out of themselves. I'd had my fair share of experiences with that already, and it wasn't fair to her to make her suffer through it as well. Even in my high school days, I had never touched booze or liquor, and I didn't intend to change that anytime soon.
I didn't want to turn out like my step-dad.
“I-I'll protect you, if that makes you feel any better.” I offered anxiously, straightening some. Right then and there I promised myself that I wasn't going to let her out of my sight, even for a second. Just the idea of having one of my intoxicated classmates laying a finger on her made my blood boil.
She snickered, leaving me to wonder what was so funny about that. “That's so sweet, Mac,” she gushed, “but it's really not that big of a deal. I think I can take care of myself.”
“Of course you can!” I agreed a little too enthusiastically, trying to make up for the misunderstood promise of safety. “I just don't...don't want you to get hurt or...”
I trailed off, my train of thought derailed and robbed by armed bandits. I didn't need to look at my reflection to know that a blush of shame reddened what little skin was left on my cheeks, clearly outlining the pale scar tissue and making it stand out much more than I wanted it to. I was such a fool, tripping over myself like that.
I wished I had the blunt eloquence Keefe had. Then I could say what I really wanted to say without stumbling or being worried about what her reaction was going to be. What I really wanted to say was, “I just love you, okay? If you got hurt because I took you somewhere that wasn't safe, I don't know what I'd do.”
“Can I start that sentence over, please?”
Paige emitted yet another soft bout of laughter. “You can, but I think I already understand what you're trying to say.”
'Cause it's you and me and all other people with nothing to do,
Nothing to prove,
And it's you and me and all other people,
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you...
I figured it was worth trying again, so with a deep intake of breath I backed up and tried again. I withdrew a hand and very softly trailed it along her jaw line, pausing underneath her chin and gently guiding her head up so I could face her. She blinked curiously up at me, a faint, anticipating smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
It was tempting to kiss her, but I fought the urge back. “I just can't imagine how I'd feel if I let something happen to you. You mean the world to me, you know that?”
Much better.
Those beginnings of a smile quickly grew into a wide, pleased grin, her pearly white teeth showing slightly behind her naked lips. That's when I realized that, yet once again, she had chosen to go out without any makeup.
I sucked in my breath a little, amazed that I was actually holding such a surreal beauty. How was it that she was just so pretty without even trying?
I smiled too. I could still feel the warmth in my cheeks, but now I knew it was not a blush of guilt or remorse; rather, it was one of hopeful anxiety. Did she like knowing that she was the center of my universe?
“I kinda caught on.”
There's something about you now,
I can't quite figure out,
Everything she does is beautiful,
Everything she does is right...
The party was fun. We laughed, talked, I tripped...next thing I knew tugging at my wrist the way a child may jerk at a parent's hand. “Hey, c'mon! Race you to the surf!” Then, without waiting for me to catch on she scampered off, out of the light of the fire and into the black darkness up ahead.
I stared after her with a slacked jaw, stupefied by the sheer spontaneity of it all. Surf? Was that even the right way to the ocean?
A giddy smile slowly slid across my face, almost drunken in nature. I wasn't sure why, but something about her impulsiveness, that ability to casually do something no one else would ever do and care less if anyone else came with, was my favorite thing about her. She was so confident, so eager, so ready to live...
Laughing, I bounded after her into the black. “Hey, no fair! Wait for me!”
Her call echoed back to me. “You snooze, you lose!”
'Cause it's you and me and all other people with nothing to do,
Nothing to lose,
And it's you and me and all other people,
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you,
And me and all other people with nothing to do,
Nothing to prove,
And it's you and me and all other people,
And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you...
I was much slower than she was and she had a head start, so it was obvious who the winner ended up being. I was glad that I hadn't worn anything fancy, because as soon as I saw that she was waiting for me, laughing for all she was worth, water frothing around her feet, I formulated a plan.
“Hit the deck!”
Her eyes widened. She knew what I was doing because I wasn't slowing down. “Wait, wait, wait!”
I didn't wait. I tackled her. I was sure not to hit her at full force, but it was enough to send us both tumbling into the cold foam with a flurry of splashes and shouts of laughter. “Mac!” She cried through her giggles, squirming wildly, “You crazy son of a bitch!”
That only made me laugh harder. I quickly rolled away from her, only some unknown force drew me back. She tried to sit up; I gently pushed her back down, angling my body so I was laying mostly on my side, but my shoulders were almost parallel with hers, one arm on her opposite side, making upward escape impossible.
She blinked questioningly up at me, not understanding my new behavior any better than I did myself.
The sounds of the party not too far off seemed to fade into nothingness. It was almost as if we'd been put in some sort of soundproof bubble. With newborn confidence I smiled down at her, focusing intently on those wondering pieces of sky. I don't know exactly what it was, but something in them gave me to courage to say something I'd been thinking all night. “Your eyes are so pretty...”
“You're crazy.”
This confidence, this certainty...it was almost intoxicating. Never before had I felt so sure about anything in my life. My words came easy. Nothing else mattered. “Only for you.” I murmured softly, hooding my eyes and lazily drawing circles on her cheek with my thumb.
She actually smiled, uttering the words that I'd wanted to hear for so long. “Love you too.”
I smiled. “Paige,” I said her name softly, “may I kiss you?”
Her answer was the shortest, most glorious sentence I'd ever hear in my life. “Yeah.”
What day is it?
And in what month?
This clock never seemed so alive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N: Personally, I thought the dialogue, both with Keefe and Paige, was very cute. Usually that's one of the things I have difficulty with, but this time, to quote Mac, the words came easy.
“Do me a favor and don't get all sentimental. It sickens me.”
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