Jelly Janna 9

Quietly, Janna snuck up the stairs to Marco's room.

Inside, though, her soul was soaring. She had stopped thinking so much about the future, stopped fearing all the terrible consequences that had gnawed away at her all this time. She knew exactly what she was going to say to Marco. Life was life, and however it sorted out, that was the way it was meant to be.

The door to Marco's room creaked as she opened it, and in the dim light, Janna saw Marco sleeping on his side. Her heart skipped a beat, and she couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face. She had always thought Marco was really cute when he slept. A though leapt into her mind, and she pushed it down, until she shrugged. "It might be the last chance I ever really get," she mused.

Stealthily, she crept across the room, and gently slid beneath the covers. Gingerly, delicately, careful not to wake him, she wrapped her arms around Marco and buried her face into his back. His smell, his warmth, the feel of his body pressing into hers, it was too much. Janna could feel her heart pounding. How nice it would be to wake up to this, every day. How nice it would be to just drift off to sleep like this every night.

Slowly, she felt Marco begin to stir. She thought about getting up, but then thought better of it. Why not give him a bit of a jump? Why not enjoy this as much as she still could, while she still had time?

"Mmh." Marco rubbed his eyes, then became aware of the pressure on his chest, on his back. He looked down to see a pair of unfamiliar hands. "Wuh?" he said, still groggy. He rolled over to be greeted by Janna, her long hair free from her beanie, deep brown eyes twinkling, a mischievous smile on her face.

"Hey Marco."

"AH!" Marco leapt out of his bed, scrambled for balance, and face planted on the floor, Janna's mocking giggle echoing in his ears. "Janna?! What are y..." Marco stopped for a moment, as he got up and dusted himself off. Janna was wearing just her t-shirt and one of her short skirts, hugging her long legs. It wasn't just the sight of her legs that silenced him, though. It was the expression on her face. It was a sort of mysterious, sly happiness, a sort of wild energy as she looked at him. "I....uh...what are you doing here?"

"I have something to tell you." Janna got up and crossed the room, standing directly in front of Marco. She was trembling slightly.

"What is it?"

"Not here, not right now. Take a walk with me, Marco."

"What? No. I'm not goin-" Marco found himself cut short as Janna threw her arms around him. He thought to push her away, but there was something about her that stopped him. Her hair smelled sweet, like flowers, and the feeling of her face pressed into his chest was intoxicating. The way she shook while holding him made him concerned.

"Please," Janna said, her voice muffled in his chest. She looked up at him with those eyes that seemed as dark and mysterious as the night sky. "This is really important....to me."

"Janna..."

"Just...give me this one last thing, okay? Just do it for me? I promise I'll leave you alone after, if that's what you want."

Marco stared into her eyes until he couldn't stand it anymore, and then looked away. Truth was, he was concerned about Janna, even if he suspected her of messing with him, even if he was angry at her for screwing things up so badly between him and Jackie. She had been acting oddly lately, and despite how much they had grown apart, despite how angry she made him, despite how awkward things might be, he was still really worried about her. "Okay," he sighed. "Let me get dressed."

Janna smiled at him, then walked over and sat down at the edge of his bed. "Okay, go."

"I'm not getting undressed in front of you-"

Janna pushed her hands over her eyes. "Come on, Diaz, I promise not to peek."

"Yeah, right. Like I can believe that."

Janna's face split into a humongous, happy smile, suddenly. "You're right," she murmured. "I wouldn't be able to resist looking at you."

Marco blushed furiously as he grabbed his clothes and headed into the bathroom to change.

Janna lay back in the bed and wrapped her arms around herself. This was it. It was now or nothing, there was no going back. It felt so, so good to be honest and not worry about the consequences.

As Janna left the house with Marco, Angie shot her a knowing wink.

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"So, uh....where are we going?" Marco asked, as they walked down the sidewalk.

Janna flashed him a grin, grabbed his hand, and pulled him down an alley between two houses, onto a narrow dirt path.

"Wh-oh. Oh! Hey, I remember this. We used to walk down it as kids. Down to the woods, right? I remember racing you down here all the time."

"That's right. We can take it slow, this time, though." Janna hooked her arm around Marco's, and rested her head on his shoulder.

Marco blinked in surprise, and almost pulled away, then just sighed. "What is with you?"

"I just like the way your muscles feel," Janna said, squeezing his arm. "It's nice."

Marco felt his heart jump in his chest. Why was she being so affectionate? Was this all a ruse? "Janna, this thing you have to tell me...what is it? Does this have something to do with Jackie?"

Janna winced. "No. No...no, it has absolutely nothing to do with Jackie. It has to do with you and me, and that's all." She sighed, and pulled Marco closer to her, as they walked down the path into the entrance into the woods. "Hey, look over there. You remember when we were kids, and we planted a garden around here one summer?"

"Oh. Oh yeah, I remember that! Hah, we never came back to take care of it or anything."

"Well, check it out." Janna let him go, and began parting the thick bush. "It's around here, somewhere....ha, here it is!"

Marco stepped off the path to where Janna was, pushed back a tree branch, and was surprised by a shock of color. It was all the flowers they planted as kids, growing haphazardly off the path, here and there among the thick brush of the forest. Yellow sunflowers, orange and white lilies, violets, daffodils - almost everything they had haphazardly thrown into the ground as children was growing.

"Can you believe it?" Janna said quietly. "Even with us paying no attention to them, they grew like wild." Humming, she began picking some of the flowers.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to make you a flower crown."

"Aw, what? You were always terrible at those, though. They always fell apart."

Janna pouted at him. "I got better. I can make a better one than you, I bet."

Marco began plucking flowers himself. "Nope. No way. I'm still way better."

They laughed and joked together as they sat among the flowers, slowly weaving their crowns. Marco's was a tightly-woven band of blue and purple blossoms, while Janna's was a wild shock of orange, reds and yellows. She cursed under her breath as it kept falling apart in her hands, and glared at Marco's smug smile as he slowly, methodically constructed his.

"There, finished," he declared. His was a sold knot, tied together with vines. You could toss it and it would stick together. Janna sighed at the chaotic mess in her hands. "Aw, hey, yours isn't bad. It has a lot of character. I..." Marco got quiet as Janna suddenly got very close to him, her face inches from his. She delicately placed her crown on his head.

"There," she said. "It suits you."

Marco paused for a moment, then placed the crown he had made on top of Janna's hair. She looked up at him quietly. She was shockingly beautiful, Marco thought for a moment, before he chased that notion out of his head. Janna took his hand again and led him out of the flower patch.

"So where are we headed now?"

"A place you'll remember, maybe."

Marco jumped in shock as Janna's hand snaked into his, her fingers interlacing with his own. "Janna..." he said, glancing down at her.

"Don't think about it, Diaz," she laughed, and she was so beautiful that Marco felt his mouth dry.

"What are you doing..."

"Just wait." The smile on her face was so quiet, mysterious, so complete, that Marco felt the rest of the world fade away in his mind. There was nothing else to think about right now. It was just him, Janna, and the woods they had spent their childhood together in.

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The sun was setting when they reached the destination Janna had been looking for.

It was a small lake, fed by a waterfall maybe twenty feet high. Not a large one, nothing but a small burbling stream, sunlight beaming down through the dark green cover of leaves. The lake itself was shockingly clear.

"Remember this?" Janna asked.

"Hey....yeah. We used to go swimming here." Marco rubbed his head. "Man, it's really been a while. I totally forgot this place even existed."

"Well, not many people even know this lake is here. It was just you and me, I think. Our little secret when we were kids." They both sat down at the bank of the lake. Janna removed her shoes and socks and dangled her feet into the water. "Do you remember how we used to dare each other to climb up those rocks and jump off the waterfall?"

"Hah, yeah. It seemed so much bigger back then. We were both way too scared to do it."

"Until one day. Remember? You climbed those rocks and jumped right off. You didn't let it scare you at all." Janna took a deep breath.

"Hah, no, I was totally scared. It was you teasing me that got me to do it. I had to prove to you that I could."

Janna felt her spirit soaring, watching the golden light drift down through the leaves, watching the speckled patterns of the leave's shadows playing across Marco's face. This was it. It was time to jump.

"That was the day," she said quietly. "That was the day I first got a crush on you."

She watched as Marco froze next to her. Then suddenly, he relaxed. "You know," he said, "I think I might have had a bit of a crush on you when we were kids too. I...I dunno, I mean, we were both young. I just thought you were very pretty. You still are. More so. I-"

"But my crush," continued Janna, resting her head on Marco's shoulder, "Didn't go away."

Marco became completely quiet.

"I wanted it to, sometimes. Sometimes I hated how you made me feel. So nervous. It made me angry." Janna's hands crept up, to touch Marco's face. "But it never went away. Even when we stopped hanging out so much. It just grew, and grew, and grew. And I hated it because no matter how I tried, I never seemed to find the right words. I never seemed to be able to find the right way to say things, to let you know how I felt."

"Janna..."

"No. Shhhhh. L-let me finish this." Janna took another deep breath, felt the flame inside her screaming out for the truth, felt her soul dancing with joy. This was it. He wasn't drunk, this time. There was no more excuse, no more game, no more anything. It was all or nothing. "The truth is, Marco....I love you. And I have for a very long time."

It was as if a thousand lights were dancing behind her eyes. Every part of her felt lit up with electricity. She surged forward, feeling more like a flow of feeling than flesh and blood. Marco tumbled backwards, laying on the grass, as she pressed her face into his and kissed him.

She didn't know how long it lasted - it felt like forever - before he kissed her back. But when he did, she felt her hands shaking, gripping his shirt. It was too much, she was filled with too much energy, too much light. She broke away, gasping.

Marco stared up at this girl, her hair framing her face, crowned with flowers, a bright blush spreading across her cheeks. His mind was filled with a dark fog. It was all too confusing for him. He was sure he still loved Jackie. But there was something, something dark and burning within him, something that surged, grew stronger when Janna kissed him, something buried deep within. "I...but...Jackie..."

Janna crashed into him and kissed him again. "I....I don't know. I don't know what to do. I know you love Jackie. But...if you feel anything for me at all...just forget about her for a while. Just be here, with me, in the woods." Janna leaned her face in, and whispered into his ear, so close that it send a shiver down Marco's back. "And I know you feel something, Diaz. I know you do. I know you, I can tell." She nipped at his neck.

"I...no, this is still wrong. It doesn't matter what I feel, this is still wrong."

"You think I don't know that, too?" Janna laughed bitterly, and Marco felt his mind fog over even more, as her hands snuck inside his shirt to play across his chest, and he felt Janna pushing her chest, her hips into him. "You think I'm not doing something terrible here, too? Jackie is my friend. But I couldn't stand it anymore, Marco, I couldn't stand to watch you drift away from me, I couldn't stand to know that if things didn't change, in a few years we'd graduate and I'd never see you again, I couldn't take it. I had to take the chance, no matter who I hurt. You think I don't know what an awful fucking person I am?"

Marco couldn't think clearly at all, now. Janna was on top of him, the whole world was the forest, and all he could think about was how beautiful she was, how good she felt on top of him, and the dark, burning desire he felt buried deep within. All he could hear was the sound of Janna breathing, all he could feel was the cool breeze across his face and the bounding of his heart. He was muffled in the silence of the forest, with only the babbling of the small waterfall int he background. He reached up and caressed Janna's neck, and she shivered, then kissed him so furiously that the last vestige of rational thought left his mind. He kissed her back, and did not protest when her hands snaked beneath his shirt and pulled it up over his head, and he helped her when Janna began to remove hers.