Video Skank
By Katie
A Scene
“Damn it, JC.” She cursed. “Pick up the phone.” She hit the off button on the phone and threw it onto the plush, burgundy couch. “God damn you.” She stalked over to the island in the kitchen, grabbed her burse and snatched her keys off the counter as well. She walked over to her car and turned the key in the ignition. If he wasn’t going to pick up, she was going to go over to his house and talk to him. No matter what. She cranked the radio, not caring to notice what song it was or if she knew it. She was on a mission. He’d avoided her calls, and avoided the press, and avoided her.
Once she got to his house and got through the gates, she put her car in park and marched to the door. She knocked loudly and waited until he answered.
“What are you doin’ here, Tara?” He asked, leaning against the door frame, running his fingers through his curly hair.
“We have to talk.” He lazily moved from the door frame and let her step inside. She slid out of her light pink flip flops and put her purse on the table that she had sat for dinner many times. “Why won’t you return my calls?”
“Why are you keeping tabs on me?” He shot back.
Tara crossed her arms over her chest and sighed deeply.
“Fine.” He sighed as well. “You know what? We weren’t dating.”
“Oh really?” She said smugly.
“Really, Tara.” He nodded, leaning against the black leather couch. “We just hung out a couple times.”
“A couple times, Jace?” She retorted. “Oh, right, all of the places we went together- that was just ‘hangin’ out’ and then the dinners, we were just hangin’ out then too, right? And then the time we slept together, that was just hangin’ out too?”
“That’s different.”
“What was it then, Jace?” Her fingers hung on the belt loops of her snug faded jeans and JC cursed himself for even feeling the urge to reach out, grab her, and strip her down and ‘make love’ to her right there in his living room.
He cleared his throat, then reluctantly pulled his eyes away from her body. “Listen, Tara, that- that was different. That’s when things were simple.”
“You’re the one pushing people away.” She told him, making sure to make him more uncomfortable. She knew just how to read him. She knew that the outfit she chose was killing him and she was going to enjoy every minute of watching him squirm. “You’re the one making this harder than it has to be.”
She took two steps towards him, just two and stopped. She was close enough to him that if he were to reach his hands out and touch her he could and she saw his hands shake before he shoved them in his pockets. “I don’t shut people out, and if I did, what’s it to you?”
“Jace, believe it or not, I want to be with you and I like everything about you. The way you fidget all the time, and the way you chew on pen caps and the way you look when you’re deep in thought. Even when I know you’re not listening to a word I say but you pretend you are. Because even when you do tune people out, you end up feeling guilty and tell them. You’re not perfect, and I know that. You’re just Josh to me.”
That was it. He’d heard enough. The first part was fine, but the Josh part was not. “First of all, you don’t know Josh. You know JC. The only way you would’ve know Josh is if you knew me before all of this started, and you’re not my mother or grandmother or my father. My family calls me Josh and you’re not my family, so you can call me JC.”
“Oh,” she said, she’d never actually seen him like that. “All right, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset, Jace.” She took just one more step closer to him and touched his cheek lightly. “You know what? I know I’m not part of your family, and I should have known better than to just try and push myself towards you. You must have a hard time trusting people.” She touched his soft, curly hair and wondered when his manly instincts would kick in.
“Yeah, Tara.” He nodded, remembering the way her skin felt on his fingertips. So soft. “Ya know, I really do have a hard time trustin’ people.” His hands came out of his pockets and one hand rested on her hip and the other reached for her hand.
“You can trust me, Jace, if you just try.” She told him, stepping away from him. He had to want her.
“I do, Tara.” He followed her, his hands trying to roam her body. “I do trust you.”
She grabbed his hands from off of her half exposed stomach and waist and held them in her hands. He surrendered at her touch and stood still until she moved. “Do you really?” Tara asked, knowing she was at the point where they both had to be honest and she had gotten JC to the point of honesty. From now on, he had to be honest with her or else she would make her own decision of whether or not she wanted to be with him.
JC averted his gaze from her eyes to her forehead, hoping Tara wouldn’t notice. “Yes, Tara.” He stated firmly, but still sweetly. “I do trust you.”
“There’s a lot more than trust in a relationship, JC.” She still had her eyes on him, watching him. She knew the moment his eyes left her and she felt her heart break a little. “There has to be honesty.” She paused for a moment, as saw that his eyes we focused back of hers. He didn’t really have to say anything else, she could practically read him just through his eyes and if he knew he’d probably want to shut them. “There has to be respect and there has to be love. Some kind of love. Maybe not the kind of love where you’d dive in front of a bullet for them or maybe not the kind of love where you feel like you’ll die if you lose them, but some kind of love where you feel like you just feel complete when you’re right there with them. Maybe even just like, but everyone needs love in their life, Jace. Even you.” She refused to look away from him, and didn’t say anything for a while, half wishing the JC would just say something, but no words escaped his mouth. She knew right then that he really wasn’t ready and she felt her heart break a little more. “Are you ready to be in a relationship now that you know what that implies?”
He cleared his throat, ran his fingers through his hair as soon as he’d gotten his hands free from Tara and shuffled his feet slightly. “Yes.” he nodded slowly. Tara knew that he wasn’t and that he wasn’t being honest, like he just said he wanted to be. Tara finally looked away and down to the floor. That was it.
She didn’t know why, but tears sprung to her eyes and she hoped they wouldn’t overflow. She felt a few tears drop and hit her cheeks. That was really it. Maybe he really was ready, but just didn’t want to promise all of those things to her. But why would he lie? When had be become so cruel? Why couldn’t he have just told her no? “What now?” He snapped. It was like he’d just split personalities and turned into someone who was an inconsiderate bastard.
“Nothing.” She said, wiping her tears away that just wouldn’t stop flowing. Emotions suck.
“You’re crying. Don’t bullshit me.” He sounded a little angry now. “What did I do? What the hell did I do?”
“Stop screaming at me!” She finally looked up at him. “You just lied to me. You’re not ready for a relationship! Why didn’t you just tell me you weren’t?”
“Because I suck, all right?” He spat. “Tara, to be completely honest, because that’s what you’re looking for, I don’t want to be in a relationship. I told you that, but you thought it’d be a project. ‘Oh let’s see if I can make JC love me.’” He mocked her. “Well guess what? You were nothing.”
Tara couldn’t believe the words that she was hearing. She was nothing? He told her he loved her. “I’m never gonna be good enough for you, am I?” She wiped her eyes again, to make sure she didn’t have mascara running down her face. “That’s all I am to you, isn’t it? I’m just your video skank.” He shrugged and expected her to leave. “Then it’s a good thing that you lied to me or I might have made a very wrong decision. That’s not who I am or who I would like to be viewed and if you don’t see what you’re going to miss when I’m gone, then I just wasted seven weeks of my life.” She turned on her heel and walked back to her car, feeling more confident than she ever thought she would. She left him alone.
She’d get over that. JC, though, would probably have that scene flashing though his brain very often because he just let the best thing that could ever happen to him walk away and out of his life.
