Author's Note: This is for Freak-of-Spade's December challenge. I hope you all enjoy, I wrote this up in just a few hours actually. Kind of had fun writing it. I know the re-enactment part wasn't really much of that, but oh well. Review if you would be so kind. I don't really describe Luke physically but if you are curious I how I pictured him in my mind, just ask or use your own imagination. =]

The worst part about still living with your folks at eighteen because you don’t have the means of living on your own being the totally unmotivated bum that you are is that at any moment they can just kick you out. This is especially true for someone like me, who is not only a slacker, but a magnet for trouble. I almost felt sorry for them for having to put up with me all these years and I like to think that they do because they love me so much. Unfortunately, I think I have stretched that love to the limit this late afternoon. It was an elastic band quivering to snap and snap I think it did. At the very least, my parents certainly did, and on Christmas Eve no less.

So there I was standing on the stoop as the door was slammed in my face after literally being shoved out. I don’t think they were giving me the boot without anything considering all I had were the clothes on my back and my wallet. I didn’t even have my cell phone. I figured they just needed to cool off for a while. So I decided to go get me some smokes from the local 7/11, but just as I stepped out onto the drive it started raining. Lightly, but still dismally wet.

I hadn’t minded this sudden change in weather, but it was something I could have easily done without on that particular day. I shrugged to no one and slipped the hood of my zip sweater over my head.

Another unexpected event occurred not too long after I had bought my cigarettes from the gas station. The tobacco stick had long since gone out from the moist air and just hung limp between my lips. I was too lazy to re-light it or take another out, it seemed fruitless to me at the time. I just liked the feeling of something there. Oral fixation I supposed it was called. I felt I was on a trek to no where but my feet had carried me toward the boardwalk in our town.

I lived in a relatively small town but not small enough to where everyone was in your business and knew your name. It was a beach town actually, in Florida along the gulf side. The boardwalk wasn’t so much that than a semi-large dock with railing near our little port. It was more like a little cousin of a boardwalk or pier. It also happened to be pretty empty that day except for a figure right at the end.

I hadn’t really take notice or interest in this person as moved father down the wide dock. My mind was jumping from one random thing to another in a lame attempt to keep myself distracted and warn off boredom. My thoughts drifted to that odd hobo just outside the 7/11 when I got about a yard and a half away, maybe less. The homeless man had rambling about shit that had made no sense, something they do often don’t they? I wondered if he had been a professor or writer before he lost everything. One specific thing he had seemed to be yelling at me rang in my mind again. “It’s the floaty men, dude…they’re here to steal your soul and put it in a little star-shaped glass box…” He had continued to shout ludicrous rubbish as I left.

“Crazy fucker,” I mumbled and laughed to myself.

It was about this time, only several feet away, that I registered the guy standing on the top part of the wood railing right at the corner.

He was dressed all in black like he was going to a funeral and by the look of it maybe his own. He must have been freezing since his shoes, jacket, and scarf were in a pile behind him on the dock. This may be Florida but it can get pretty chilly in the winter and the rain didn’t help. Even I shivered a bit once in a while. So he basically stood up there with just a pair of skinny jeans and a thin long sleeved shirt that whipped around a bit from the wind coming off the ocean. Christ even his semi-short hair was black as night and his skin pale as snow.

It was about that time of just staring at this kid who was looking out at the crashing waves of the Gulf of Mexico, that I realized I might have stumbled across some emo-goth’s suicide attempt. I took a step closer.

I think he may have sensed me, because barely a second later he glanced over his shoulder at me. I had to admire his balance because he didn’t even wobble in the least. He seemed surprised at first as well when his eyes landed on me, I think they were blue but it was hard to tell from where I stood. However, after the initial shock of my presence wore off his brows furrowed and dipped inward. He was definitely glaring at me.

I don’t know why I did it or decided to do it, I still don’t but I smiled at him with a strong sense of motivation (or maybe determination) in my heart that I never felt before.

“Hey buddy, how’s your Christmas going?” I asked.

Obviously not so well because he simply snarled and shouted, “Go away!” before he stared back at the sea.

I approached the railing to his left and leaned against it with my folded arms on the top rail. I watched the waves that crashed against the dock’s supports and whistled loudly, “Whoa, man, looks pretty intense out there.”

From my peripherals I observed as he said nothing and merely clenched his fists then shifted his weight. It was clear he hadn’t bargained anyone disrupting him out here especially someone like me. I bet my casualness unnerved and irritated him. I turned my head fully to get a closer look at his face or rather the side of it. He looked vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place him. I probably had just seen him around town somewhere most likely at where I worked the local grocery store.

“That salt water is probably pretty cold, dude,” I said when I looked down at it once more. He mumbled something but I hadn’t quite caught it. I didn’t bother to ask him to repeat himself but slipped out of my shoes and stepped onto the next rung in just my socks. I flicked my hardly smoked cigarette out into the waves.

“What are you doing?” He asked alarmed.

“I think the real question here is, what are you doing?” I winked at him.

“None of your damn business!” He snapped.

I tilted my head before I pointed out, “Your eye-liner is running.”

He seemed to instinctively touch his lids and underneath his eyes, a brief panicked concern for his appearance. It made me chuckle which once more got him annoyed.

“What is your problem, can’t you just fuck off?!”

“Nah,” I supplied shaking my head. “Got nothing better to do.”

He groaned and went silent. We remained in this silence with only the nature of noises surrounding us. There was a strange sense of peace to it that I had to admit I kind of liked but this was no time for reverie and contemplation of the universe. It was time for action.

I stepped up to the second rung up and steadied myself till I was certain I wasn’t going to be the one to topple to my doom, either that or fall backwards on my ass. “So what’s your name?”

He hesitated briefly, I could tell, “Jeremy.” He said it so softly but loud enough for me to hear. I just smiled.

“Pleasure to meet you Jeremy, I’m Luke,” I might have offered my hand but that would have been a terribly bad idea. “So are you going to tell me why you think this is a good idea?”

“Why should I?”

“Why shouldn’t you?”

He seemed to debate with himself, biting his lip. “My life…it’s just not worth living.”

Oh yeah, that made a whole lot of sense. Was this kid for real? Even I, a consistent screw-up, knew there was a shit load of things worth living for no matter the life. He was an attractive kid, maybe fifteen or sixteen. Perhaps he wasn’t the friendliest person but everyone had flaws which only made us human, did it not? If it was something like his home or school life was shit, he’d just need to get over it. Change it. I think someone would know when it was really the end of the world and as far as I could tell then it definitely wasn’t.

“Wow, first a crazy bum and now a crazy idiot, what a day?”

He wasn’t amused by this. “If you are going to just insult or make fun of me, then you can go…just go!” He was frustrated but I think he had begun to re-think his decision of jumping off the miniature pier.

“Easy does it, J-bird,” I got off from the railing and moved up behind him. “No need to get testy.” Though I wouldn’t have called it testy, because personally I thought he really was scared. It was definitely apparent as I noticed that he was finally shaking a bit.

He wrapped his arms tight around himself and tried to I assumed stop himself from quivering like he was. For some reason, I looked at his ass for a minute. That would definitely be a sad loss. Instead of grabbing it like I sort of wanted to, I began to get on the railing right behind him. That really freaked him out but managed to maintain that splendid balance I wished I possessed. “What the hell? Stop that, get down!”

“No, you get down!” I responded back but with a sort of playfulness. I stopped just below the top rail and wrapped my arms around his waist. He tensed almost immediately or at least more so than he had been. Jeremy was short enough that I could snuggly rest my chin on his shoulder even though he was higher up.

I wondered if he could feel my heart beat, it was going rather rapidly.

I said nothing and he kind of relaxed in my arms but still seemed on guard. I inhaled his scent then and grinned as I picked the smell apart. He interestingly smelled like mandarins and butter pancakes. That was a unique combination. I came to the conclusion that the mandarin was probably a body spray and that he had pancakes for breakfast. How could he want to chuck himself into the ocean with delicious things like pancakes in the world? That was insanity right there. I love pancakes. I had the strangest urge to eat Jeremy or maybe just lick his neck.

“No, I won’t let go, Jack, I’ll never let go!” I squeezed Jeremy around the middle and I think I almost heard a quiet laugh from him. That was progress, oh yes it was.

“Wrong scene, Rose,” he said and I could hear the smile in his voice.

I mock pouted, “Still go you to laugh.”

Jeremy made a weird nasally sound of annoyance and as if he just remembered his original intention of being there, started to tug at my secure arm wrap. “Okay, let me go. Luke, let me go right now!” Of course, I wouldn’t.

He started to squirm quite a bit then. I held on but as previously pointed out, my sense of balance was lacking. I lost it, fell back, and dragged my captor down with me. We hit the dock floor quite hard and Jeremy nearly knocked the wind out of me. I finally let him go and groaned.

Unfortunately this was a mistake, because Jeremy jumped up and spun around. He was seething and suddenly pounced back on me like a rabid cat. I just have a knack for pissing people off, both a curse and a gift. At least the kid smelled divine. He grabbed my shirt in his fists and for a moment I thought he would punch me. To my surprise he slapped me hard across the face. We were both stunned for a moment, my hand cupping my cheek.

Then my lips curled and I laughed, quite loud too.

He was astonished by himself and my reaction before suddenly laughing too. Then we were both a couple of idiots, he straddling me with my shirt still clutched in one hand and I beneath him rubbing my cheek, in a fit of giggles.

We untangled ourselves and stood once we managed to quell our laughter. He looked over at me sheepishly, I assumed embarrassed by his behavior and I just smiled stuffing my hands in my pockets. My eyes traveled down at read the curvy gothic lettering across his shirt. “Phantasmagoria?”

He dropped his definite blue eyes to the front of his shirt and half-smiled, kind of nervously. He shrugged and looked back up at me, “they’re this Japanese band.”

“Huh,” I nodded. “Cool.”

I watched silently as he shivered and then proceeded to put on his socks, shoes and then jacket. He tied his long purple wool scarf around his neck and then fiddled with it as he avoided looking at me. I moved closer to him not really thinking, and he looked up finally as I did with his mouth open to say something.

“Look, I wa—” But I stopped him right there with my lips.

It was soft, chaste, and brief, but delicious and I had half a mind to just seriously make-out with this kid. I hope that was legal, then again I wasn’t known for my law-abiding ways. I hadn’t noticed but my hand had come up to cup the side of his face, as I pulled away I let my thumb rub his cheek before I let it drop. I smirked as I watched his eyes slowly open and stare dumbfounded at me, his cheeks flushed. It was a nice rose tint that suited him.

“There, now you have something to live for,” I declared before I moved passed him to get my shoes. As I put them on though, I felt skinny arms wrap around me from behind this time.

“Thanks,” He said quietly. Jeremy squeezed me before letting go. I turned around and threw an arm over his shoulders.

“No problem, kid,” then started to usher him back down the dock. “Now come along, I’ve been kicked out of my house and you are now obliged to entertain me.”

“Oh really? Well, as long as I can entertain somewhere dry,” he quipped even though the rain had let up to barely a sprinkle. We were still kind of soaked so I didn’t blame him.

This was a Christmas that would be stored in a special archive, not only in my mind but later in my heart. It would certainly be a fascinating “how we met” story. Those are the best kinds, the unexpected and especially odd ones if albeit morbid.

Just remember kids, pancakes are worth living for especially if you have someone to share them with.