I THINK WE SHOULD TALK (TAG: JAYLA)

[zach]

Zach stared out at the tennis game that was going on in front of him behind the screen fence. He had been sitting there for the past fifteen minutes watching the ball fly back and forth with loud grunts from the two players. He had no clue why people made those noises. He’d played tennis countless times none of which dealt with him grunting at the effort it took to hit the ball. He was starting to think players thought it was something ‘normal’ so why not participate in stereotyped grunting? Whatever reason for the unwanted noise, it was annoying. But he had told Jayla to meet him here on the bleachers by the Rec Center. He was surprised she even agreed to do it after the events that had happened between them after the spell although he was probably the only one that knew it had been a spell. A love spell that Jace cast that went completely wrong. Jayla was probably still oblivious to all of that stuff. Zach was less fortunate. It was almost like he’d never get rid of any of that. He couldn’t believe Jace had done a spell to get him to accept her and love her. When the spell had broken, and he was with her when it did, he knew right away that she was the cause. He stood up and walked out. It just wasn’t something he wanted to discuss. How was it okay for someone to be able to fuck with your life like that regardless of who they were. It wasn’t right, and it bothered him that after everything, Jace would do something like that. He had been working towards talking to her again and rekindling their relationship, and then this happened. He had no clue what to do now. But as of this moment, he wanted to first apologize to Jayla. He just wished he could tell her that it was a spell that had made her like him. She didn’t really like him. Zach had to smile. Even though lately they had been pretty civil with each other, it was funny to even think that Jayla, Jace’s best friend who used to hate him, would ever like him in that way. It was just unfathomable.

[jayla]

Jayla knew Zach wanted to meet her here, but now that the - whatever it was - had done it's job, she was totally nervous, because the realization that she had kissed him, was still very much aparent. Why had she even kissed him, if she didn't have those feelings for him? She didn't, did she? With a sigh, she made it to the bleachers and sat down next to him, without saying anything, with her eyes on the Tennis game. Why had she agreed again? She didn't even know. "You know in most competitions, grunting like that is even illegal." She said, dryly with a smile.

[zach]

It wasn’t too long before Jayla showed up and plopped down right next to him on the bleachers. She mentioned the idea that grunting was illegal in most games now which was something he hadn’t even thought of. He smirked. It was funny that she even said something about the grunting due to the fact that he had just been thinking about it. He couldn’t deny that he and Jayla’s relationship had grown a lot. Part of him thought it was just because she saw how much he had changed since high school. She seemed more open now to his weirdness. He was happy for that. Having her around was definitely something he was getting used to now no matter what had happened during that love spell. “Yeah, I heard about that,” he said not taking his eyes off of the game at all. He knew it was going to be awkward the moment he asked her to meet him. But it was something that had to be done if he still wanted to be around her. He looked down and fidgeted with his black adidas hoodie strings that were dangling in front of him. “So, I’m just gonna come right out and say that I don’t want things to be weird between us.” He shrugged and glanced over at her. “You weren’t feeling like yourself, and neither was I.” He didn’t really know how else to say it. Most people would have probably bounced around the topic for a half an hour or whatever, but he was a pretty straight forward person who wanted to just get it out even if it would be awkward.

[jayla]

Jayla didn't know how she had been able to accepting him all of a sudden, but she was and truth be told, she didn't not want to be accepting to that, Zach was way nicer than she had anticipated after he had dumped her best friend. She smiled when he said he'd heard about it and nodded. She then looked at the game and started fidgeting with her black leather bracelets. "Neither do I." She said softly, about things not wanting to get weird.

She honestly thought things had been weird enough lately, and with her suddenly falling for him, with her being out of balance, it was just so weird. Se sighed and kept looking at the game for a moment, as she crossed her boots over each other, under the bleachers and looked at Zach slowly. "I haven't been myself for a while, Zach.. And i'm pretty sure that whatever happened, only intensified that." She smiled vaguely, as she thought about the possibility of it being a spell. "Did Jace do this?"

[zach]

Zach watched Jayla as she agreed with him. Good. Good. It was nice to know that they were both on the same page. Awkwardness was never a pleasant issue to deal with. Now that they got this out of the way, it wouldn’t be so weird especially because both of them seemed to want to keep in touch with each other. Jayla could have easily just told him that being around him wasn’t going to be something she still wanted to do. But she didn’t, meaning that apparently he had become somewhat of a friend to her.

Zach listened as she continued on about how not herself she had been lately. Zach could definitely relate. Trying to figure out how to deal with all of this supernatural crap on his own was weighing down on him, and he wasn’t sure what he should do about it. He was never one to be sad or depressed, but these things were causing a ton of anxiety issues for him that he really just didn’t want to deal with. Zach nodded as she continued on about Jace. “Yeah, I get what you….” Zach paused and his eyes shot her way. “Wait, what?” Was she really being serious right now? Did she know about the spells? Did she know about Jace? She had to if she had just asked him that question. He swallowed hard as his eyes were still on hers. “So, you know about her too?” Zach was amazed. He really thought it was only him who had known for this long. Questions started to form in his mind that he wanted to ask her, but right now, he was so speechless.

[jayla]

"I still want to be friends with you, me kissing you, whatever that was, hasn't changed that. I mean, you've really been there when all that at those abandoned apartments happened and even though i probably won't be able to explain any of that, either, at least not umtil I'm certain you won't freak out.. But, I really do want to be friends with you." Jayla said, as she looked at him, realizing she was rambling.

The fact that everything was falling apart, mustn't only have been for her, it must have been just as hard for him, with finding out about magic and the supernatural world. Not to start with her own secret. Jayla smiled, as his eyes shot her way and she just calmly looked his way, as she kept her mouth shut, for a moment, thinking of an answer. "Of course I know, Zach, she's my best friend." She then said, surprised he would even doubt that she knew.

[zach]

Zach listened to her rambling which was surprising actually because when someone rambled, he’d usually just either pretend to know what the person was talking about while actually drowning them out, or he’d just get up and walk away using the excuse that he had ADHD. But Jayla was different. He wanted to listen to what she had to say mainly because it affected him greatly especially in regards to Jace. When she mentioned that he had really helped her through some stuff that she wasn’t going to tell him about until she was sure he’d accept them, Zach really wasn’t sure what to expect with that. I mean surely she wasn’t another witch was she? Nah, probably not. Maybe it wasn’t even curse related. That is what he called it now since the love spell that Jace had created. What else could it be called. She did magic that affected other people in negative ways. Not that anything that happened to him during the love spell was negative, but Jayla kissing him was something that wouldn’t have happened normally. And neither would him falling for Jace all over again in the circumstances that they were in. Messing with peoples’ emotions because you can wasn’t something he could ever see Jace doing until now. Now, he knew what she was capable of, and it really scared him. He really couldn’t see Jayla intentionally trying to hurt someone or change them, but then again, he couldn’t see Jace doing that either and look how that turned out.

But when Jayla said that she knew about Jace being a witch, Zach was extremely surprised. I mean he knew how close Jayla and Jace were. They had been best friends for as long as Zach could remember, but he thought that Jace would keep her issues to herself. Keep her secret to herself. Apparently not. “So, you know why we broke up then, right?” That was the first question in his mind. I mean, after he left Jace, both Jayla and Axel stopped talking to him completely which it wasn’t like they normally talked anyways, but he didn’t even so much as get a smile or anything from either of them anymore. “I mean have you known for as long as you and Jace have been friends? How have you dealt with her being a….” Zach stopped before saying it. He leaned closer to her and whispered, “….witch.” He was sure that if anyone did hear them talking about this stuff they would have thrown them into the ‘crazy kids you shouldn’t talk to clique’. He had a lot more questions, but he figured that he should probably slow down before her head exploded. He didn’t want to overwhelm her. But really, this was a nice turn of events. It opened up a lot of doors for them. First off, it meant that he could finally talk to someone about a lot of the things he’d been feeling since the whole break up. Second off, it meant that she would probably understand exactly where he was coming from….hopefully. After all, she was just a regular person like he was trying to cope with the realization that there were more things out there in the world scarier than serial killers and murderers.

[jayla]

Jayla just wanted Zach to know what her own secret was, even though it would do him much more bad than good. She didn't want to lose him as a friend, or whatever he was to her. And her telling him that she was a banshee, would do those damage. And besides, ever since she met Everette, a guy who had just accepted that she was a banshee, right after she saved his ass, was a good thing, she didn't hope to get back with a snap of her fingers.

"Yes, Zach, I know why the two of you broke up. I've known her pretty much my whole life, so, yeah, secrets like those, are shared." She told him, as she looked at him, and smiled slightly. "It's easy enough to accept that, Zach, i mean, it's not like my own life has been so much as normal." That much was true. If her life ever turned out normally, she'd be honestly surprised, as she didn't think she'd live to see it happening.

[zach]

Zach sighed and looked back out at the tennis game still going on. Apparently they had switched players because the two chicks that were now playing definitely were not the same ones. They were much less manly than the others which was good because it was a better view. He wanted to say something to Jayla about how he was feeling about this, but it didn’t seem like she’d get where he was coming from unfortunately. She told him that it was not that hard to accept. But now, it was much harder to accept for him. She could have hurt someone badly from this spell. Did Jayla not see the dangers in it? She obviously hadn’t because she seemed to be siding with Jace. Or maybe Zach was just being stupid. But was it really his fault? I mean wouldn’t anyone freak when they found out about something ‘different’? Especially if those somethings were things that your mother told you as bedtime stories to scare you into being a good little boy. And when Jayla mentioned her life not being normal shortly after she told him that it should be easy to accept, Zach started to connect the dots. Maybe there was something ‘different’ about her as well. After all, she didn’t really understand where he was coming from. Maybe Jace wasn’t the only one hiding things. If Jayla was hiding something, did Zach really even want to know? Probably not. Especially if it was something to do with what was happening to Jace. But they had become friends, so maybe it was a good idea that he know what was going on. But what would happen when he found out? Could he deal with it if it was something supernatural?

”What makes your life so not normal?” Zach asked as he turned to look at her again. He was actually nervous to hear what she had to say. If she did come right out and tell him, it was way better than how he had found out about Jace’s. She lit his bed on fire. Oh yeah, real cool. Good thing there wasn’t a bed around this time.

[jayla]

Jayla smiled when she saw his confusion and looked at the match for a moment. ”Zach, what Jace did was wrong, but you can’t be mad at her, for wanting you back. She’s still so much in love with you, everyone sees that. And even though the means were wrong, the intentions weren’t.” She looked at him again and reached over to give his arm a little squeeze. ”I know it’s hard to accept, Zach.” She said and she meant it. It wasn’t like she saw her own life as easy, hell, she was born into a life where she could scream someone to death, that was real fun, truly.

”You know.. Jayla started cautiously, as she looked at him, not sure if she should tell him, or not. She then decided to just do it and closed her eyes, not wanting to see the look on his face before she was done talking. ”The day you found me near those abandoned apartments.. I kind of knew I had killed someone. I didn’t see him, but I felt it in my gut, and when I saw him, eyes burst.. I just felt so guilty. Truth is, I’m not ‘normal’ either. I’m a Banshee. You know, creatures that can make people’s ears and veins burst? Those kind of creatures, but I’m not evil.. I hate what I can do. I always have.” She opened her eyes and looked at him.

[zach]

When Jayla began to explain the reasons behind her Jace’s love spell, Zach hadn’t given that idea much though. Once he found out that Jace was going to the same University as he was, he had fallen right back into the love he was so deeply trying to stay away from. But he couldn’t help it. He did miss her, and he had for such a long time. Her being here just made that so much more real. It made sense that she would feel the same way. He was the one who broke up with her, his high school sweetheart, the girl of his dreams. It wasn’t the other way around. And as much as he wanted to disapprove of her reasons for casting the spell on everyone, he had thought about casting a spell on himself to make him just forget everything that he had witnessed that very day. Zach sighed as Jayla gave his arm a squeeze and told him she understood that it was hard to accept. He just wanted things to go back to normal. He didn’t want to know about all this stuff. It wasn’t natural. Life was already hard enough without the added supernatural beings.

After a few seconds, Jayla began to speak but trailed off. Zach glanced at her, and her eyes were closed. Uh oh. Was this a bad thing? He knew she was about to tell him something. He could see it in her face. Her face said it all. Warned him to braise himself because what she was about to tell him would probably freak him out. He tensed as he waited for the words he was so not wanting to hear. And boy was he right. She had told him things that he would have never imagined. When she opened her eyes, he looked away moving his arm away from her grasp because she had still been holding his arm from before. It took him quite a few moments to finally find something to say. “Wait a minute. So you are telling me that you are a Banshee?” He asked moving his eyes towards hers. “Like that Banshee in that new horror movie from last year Scream of the Banshee? And you killed that guy with your vocal cords? You’re joking right?” He watched her looking for some sort of response. She didn’t look at all like she was lying to him. He chuckled shaking his head. “You know, I can see witches. I can see some possible vampires. Hell, I can even see a few werewolves here and there. Because those are the main supernatural things. But now we are talking about screaming chicks who blow up the eardrums of their victims? You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me!” Zach was getting overwhelmed again, and some of his words were becoming a bit harsh, but he had felt just as upset as he had felt back when he and Jace broke up. This was just too much. What else could he say? There was way too much going on in his head at that moment that he couldn’t even muster up a complete sentence.

He needed to get out. He wanted to be done with this conversation. “You know what Jayla,” he started as he stood up off of the bleacher grabbing his backpack and throwing it over his shoulder. “I just…I just need to go....right now.” His eyes met hers and part of him felt bad for doing this to her especially after she had come out and told him something she probably didn’t say much to anyone. But he just couldn’t handle it right now. Especially so soon after finding out about this crazy love spell and what supernatural being could really do.