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The city of Rockfall never seems to be quiet. Not anymore, anyway. It overflows with activity, even when the city should be asleep. When Summer should be asleep. She just can’t escape it. The noise. Even within the four walls of her pristine bedroom in her family’s two-story house that is just too far away from the city for comfort, it’s simply too loud to sleep. The cars are rumbling as they drive past with music so faint it yells at her. The people next door are talking too loudly about some event that Summer couldn’t care less about at this hour. The wind won’t stop howling the same song it has been singing forever and ever. Despite Summer’s best efforts, her brain can’t seem to shut up.
And all of this together means Summer can’t get to sleep.
She’s tried laying in the dark for hours, eyes squeezed shut as if keeping them closed could lull her to sleep faster. But here she is, glaring at the illuminating clock at her on her bedside table that flashes ‘11:58 pm’ far too brightly to be considerate of her tired eyes. Because instead of falling asleep like she’s supposed to be, her brain has been flooding with images of a certain purple-themed someone. A 'maybe-more-than-just-a-friend' someone who had stopped into the café where she works earlier that day and hasn’t left Summer’s mind since. Jade had entered the quaint place, politely ordered his “black coffee”—that in reality, was the most sugary drink on the menu—and looked surprised when she noticed it was Summer handing over his poison. And no matter how hard Summer tried, she couldn’t. Stop. Thinking about it.
Couldn’t stop thinking about Jade’s hands as he had grabbed the drink, purple painted nails gently gripping the cup. Couldn’t stop thinking about each individual ring on her finger that caught the light. Couldn’t stop thinking about his nice outfit that, while dark, had only made the purple in her hair stand out more. Or the flushed smile Jade gave when he said ‘Hi’. Or her soft laugh at Summer’s stupid joke. Or how when he leaned in slightly towards Summer all she could smell was the fruit punch scented shampoo she used that she could somehow notice under the strong smell of coffee. Or how Jade’s perfectly pretty face looked in the light of the café-
All this is to say Summer can’t get to sleep, and she knows exactly who's responsible for her just lying there.
So, Summer does the thing that any tired, illogically thinking teenager who can’t push away the smell of fruit punch would do. Summer reaches for her phone as the distinct scent floods her senses without really being there at all. The passcode is entered before she can really comprehend what’s going on, and as a reflex built in from countless late-night calls, her finger hovers over the top contact. She doesn’t need to remove her hand to know what the contact photo looks like; the name finishes with a purple heart for a reason.
It's a photo Summer remembers taking a couple months ago after only a week of talking to Jade. Doug had introduced them, and they’d mostly gotten along since. Jade was sitting across from her at the cafeteria table, looking up from her phone and smiling slightly at the camera. By all means, the harsh fluorescent lights above their heads really shouldn’t have been able to make someone look nice, but Summer couldn’t help but notice that in that moment the lighting somehow made it seem like Jade was angelic. Like Summer had taken a photo of a radiant deity in the dingy setting that was her high school cafeteria. Of course, this is just her muddled brain talking on little sleep and little logic. Summer smiles at the memory anyway as she clicks the call button.
The phone rings once before Jade picks up, the neighbourhood noises filtering in before his voice does. Summer holds her breath.
‘Uh... Hi Summer? Are you okay? Do you need anything?’
Summer doesn’t need to be more awake to be able to hear the concern in her voice. She can practically picture his face now, with slightly pinched eyebrows and a small frown. Summer wants to take the concern away—reassure her that she is okay, she just wanted to hear his voice. Instead, Summer focuses on the call, on the surroundings, the cars. Those goddamn cars again. She wants to sleep; she wants to be with Jade.
‘You should come over!’ Summer blurts. It’s rushed. And she doesn’t quite realise what she’s said until it’s too late. ‘I mean… I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind. And you could sneak through my window. I just…’ want to see you.
‘What?’ Jade doesn’t sound accusatory, just confused.
Still, Summer finds herself backtracking. ‘Never mind- Forget I said anything, really-’
‘No. No it’s alright… Just… Now? It’s practically midnight… I mean I’d love to! Just… Are you sure?’
I’ve never been more sure, her delirious mind echoes. ‘Yeah, I’m sure,’ she says instead. It’s quiet—so quiet that she almost fears Jade didn't hear her, but before she can repeat herself, Jade speaks again with a smile in her voice.
‘Okay. I just need to take care of something... I’ll see you soon.’
Summer paces around cleaning her room for thirty minutes before she hears the tapping on her window. It’s faint at first, so faint that she doesn’t even pause in stuffing miscellaneous objects in their right places around the room. Books in the right order, sheets of scribbles and art vaguely in their correct places, and clothes stuffed into her closet rather than her bedroom floor. Her cleaning has become less cleaning and more making sure there was nothing that could be tripped on or that would cause Summer embarrassment for being left out. The second tap is louder though, loud enough to startle her out of the mindless process of organising. She does a quick scan of the room making sure she hasn’t left anything else lying out before making her way to the window and opening it.
She feels a smile tugging at her lips involuntarily when she sees Jade standing outside her window like her moonlit superhero. Or like how Romeo calls out to Juliet. Except this is not a play written in the 16th century; they are not sworn enemies, they are not star-crossed lovers, and they definitely are not in love. Even with this reminder, Summer still holds back from helping Jade in and holding his face in her palms just to know what it’s like to feel the universe in her hands. Holds back from pressing little kisses onto her face just to remind him that to Summer, she is the universe. He is the stars, and the moon, and every little thing that exists that makes the world a better place to be.
Instead, she just waves and steps back as with practised ease, Jade enters her room like he’s done countless times before. She only holds onto Summer’s arm for support briefly before he is steady again, but even in that brief moment Summer is left reeling from the warmth that flooded her skin just for a second. At first, it’s a standstill. Neither really knows where to move and Jade is left glancing at the room’s contents while Summer glances at her. She looks at the purple hair that effortlessly frames his face like it’s the most beautiful artwork in the gallery—It is, but that’s beside the point.
She's wearing a deep purple long-sleeved shirt that matches his chipped nail polish, with moveable dark pants, dark boots, and a corset belt. And despite the simplicity of it, Summer can’t pull her gaze away. Not from her nails, not from his hair, not from her face. Jade is the moon and Summer’s feelings are the ocean; each wave flooding her body with a flushed face, a little smile, and the thought of wanting to be closer. He coughs and she knows she’s been caught but she doesn’t do anything, just smirks.
‘I um. I didn’t really think this through, I kind of just... wanted to hang out?’ Summer says at last, moving her eyesight to where Jade had been looking. Various artworks lined the plain walls, all with their own colours and themes and sloppy signatures by friends who would rather do anything other than AP World History. Jade cuts in before Summer can get too distracted by her makeshift gallery, by shifting close enough to Summer that he could rest her head against Summer’s shoulder if he were to take another step forward.
‘That’s alright, I was out so I didn’t even pack or anything... I just, came here... which I’m realising now was a stupid mistake-’
‘That’s okay I have clean clothes you can borrow! It’s okay.’ And before Jade can interrupt, Summer is raiding her dumpster pile of a closet for a pair of pyjama shorts and her favourite jumper. Well, Jade’s favourite jumper that had very easily become Summer’s favourite after she had noticed the smile Jade had when she wore it. ‘Here! You can wear these! The jumper may be a little big, but the pants are too small for me anyway so it should be alright! And you can just get changed in the bathroom down the hall... you remember where that is, right?’
There's an amused chuckle at her words; Jade can tell she's nervous and can probably tell exactly why she is. He's been over at Summer's countless times—she knows the layout, probably knows the layout of Summer's neighbourhood better than Summer herself—Summer is just being too obvious for her own liking. ‘Yeah, yeah I remember...’
Summer watches as a small smile graces his face.
Summer hands over the folded clothes before she can really second guess herself, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach when their fingers brush. She watches as he looks down at the clothes, shuffling a little in her place.
‘Are you sure you’re okay with me wearing this... you wear it all the time, don't you? It's your favourite.’
‘Yeah, of course it’s okay! You always mention how much you like it so... there you go. I don't mind lending it to you for the night.’ Summer has to peel her eyes away from Jade, instead opting to look out the window until she can’t ignore fate anymore and her eyes return to him, only to catch Jade still looking at her. Like the moon waiting for the sun to realise it’s an eclipse and they don’t have much more time to admire each other before the cycle starts anew. Summer is pulled out of this cycle by Jade’s soft smile that leaves her face heating up.
‘Okay,’ he says, bringing them close to her chest and hesitantly exiting the room to the bathroom down the hall.
‘Fuck... this was a mistake,’ Summer mutters quietly when she knows Jade is out of earshot. She begins pacing for the second time that night, this time more in nervousness rather than anticipation.
When Jade enters the room again, his day clothes clutched in one arm, Summer stops in her tracks and has to bite back a laugh. The Jumper is definitely a size too big, and it definitely removes the whole “mysterious personality” that she wears at school. Her grin must give her away though, because Jade glares at her, the beginnings of a pout forming on his face. Summer isn't worried about offending her though, she knows it holds no harmful intentions; Jade’s too soft for that.
‘What do you even do at a sleepover?’ He says, breaking the silence that had nestled itself into the atmosphere even though they both know she's here at Summer's for this very reason far more than either would care to admit.
‘It doesn't really matter what we do... I just wanted to see you, really.’ The confession lays in the air like the fog that clings to the early morning beaches. Jade doesn’t push her away as the small part of her feared. She smiles. She smiles and it’s like moonlight, and Summer can’t help but smile with him.
‘You just wanted to see me, huh? I don’t know Sunshine, that sounds a little like you like-’
Summer grabs Jade’s hand before she can continue the sentence, dragging him to the other corner of her room where mostly unused art supplies lay idly. She sits them down before either can decide against it. Now reminiscent of that day in the cafeteria, they sit across from each other again, only this time, the one thing separating the two are the art journals Summer hastily pulls out from their place.
‘Here, we can- we can, uh, draw. I have a lot of empty journals, and nothing drawn by you on my walls yet... I mean you don't have to if you don't want to but...’ Summer shrugs, becoming more unsure of the suggestion as she continues on, but Jade beams at the journals and grabs one, and all of the worry washes away.
And so they draw, and the silence is filled with pencil scratches and light conversation. Summer tries not to take notice of the feeling of being watched or the hands sketched on the page looking suspiciously similar to the ones that are drawing in front of her. She tells herself it’s just anatomy practice and not just a test of memory; of how long she’s admired Jade to be able to sketch him by memory alone. She’s on to another sketch—this time of the plant beside her on its shelf, rather than of Jade—when she hears her name and glances up at Jade in front of her.
She has her phone out, positioned horizontally to take a photo and Summer feels a smile tug at her lips even as she feels a braided lock of hair fall out of place. Before she can fix it though, Jade is leaning forward and tucking the braid of reddish-brown hair back behind her ear. Is Summer breathing? She takes a breath.
‘Sorry, couldn’t see your face.’ And he sits back on her knees taking a photo again when the shock on Summer’s face is replaced with another smile—though this one a little more shy than the last.
‘I just realised I don't have many photos of you, or nearly as many as you have of me, so...’ He says quietly and she watches her put the phone away. ‘Sorry.’
‘It’s okay.’ It comes out a little breathless, so Summer clears her throat and feigns a yawn, stretching her arms out as if Jade wouldn’t be able to see through the lie regardless. ‘We should probably sleep now anyway before we stay up drawing all night or Prime forbid my sketchbook becomes filled entirely by drawings of you.’ The joke doesn’t necessarily land flat, but Summer says it less like a joke and more like a confession and she silently curses her overthinking brain.
Jade agrees anyway and starts packing up the art stuff, the two moving in a pattern as they pack everything away; like a dance they’ve practised a million times before. Summer sees his hand reach out to hers and she takes it, looking down at her when she finally stands. Neither of the two let go and they both shift dangerously closer. But just like an ending eclipse, Jade and Summer hesitantly look away from each other and pretend that the waltz they are performing is just what friends do.
Summer shuts off the lights and puts on her green bonnet before her hands instinctively reach for Jade's. With their hands interlocked like lifelines, they walk over to her large bed, thus setting the scene of the play that they’ve rehearsed hundreds of times before. They’ve memorised their lines and choreography to a point where the moves have become muscle memory. Summer takes her side of the bed and Jade takes the other. They lay under the covers, ignoring the gravitational pull of the other yet still interlock pinkies like a promise that the dance will be acknowledged when morning arrives. They bid each other goodnight with gentle smiles even though they want to keep talking. Keep laughing and playing their game of push and pull long into the early hours of the day. But the fates pull the strings here, and so they both fall asleep mimicking the breath of the other. This night will be committed to their memory, just like every other that ends exactly like this.
☼☼☼
Like each morning, light filters through Summer’s still open blinds, leaving the two in a ray of golden light. Both lay there together peacefully wrapped in each other’s arms, having subconsciously moved closer to each other in the night. Like they are Eros and Psyche drawn to one another under the dark blanket that the night carries and drifting apart ever so slightly in the morning when both are conscious enough to realise their closeness.
Summer is the first to blink awake as she notices Jade’s curled form wrapped in her arms. Her breath catches in her throat. Jade is washed in sunlight and gold and looking the most peaceful she’s ever seen him be. Her arm wraps around Summer’s torso and his face is resting against her chest. And Summer—like every morning this occurs—tries to relax her rapidly beating heart. Jade stirs a little, nestling closer to Summer before her breathing returns to a steady pattern.
And if Summer closes her eyes to pretend to be asleep a little longer just to keep her arms wrapped around Jade—to prolong the scene into the later morning—well that’s for only her and the rising sun to know.