By: kf6tac (Brian) and Jamie Sommers
Email: kf6tac@yahoo.com
Rated: PG-13
Synopsis: This story is about Landon and Jamie’s
budding relationship. They’ve had their
first date; Landon has told her he loves her, now they have to face their
friends, their family and their own fears.
Written from both Landon (written in bold print by kf6tac/Brian)
and Jamie’s (written in italic print by Jamie Sommers) POV.
I have never in my entire
life done half the things I’ve done this past week. I am not the type of girl to worry about her hair, or her
make-up. What I was wearing or if I
were pretty enough. I usually went to
the closet, grabbed something to wear, pulled my hair back and that was
that. So why every single article of
clothing of mine was strewn across my bed was a total mystery to me.
Everything I put on
seemed wrong. ‘Nope too plain, too
dressy, too casual, not casual enough.
I had one pair of jeans and they were dirty, so those were out. ‘Just throw on a skirt and shirt Jamie; this
is getting to be ridiculous. You’re
only going to the carnival with him.’
That’s when memories of this past week and Landon started to flood my
mind.
That first day at school
as Landon’s girlfriend and the grief all of our friends gave us. Finding a new place to eat lunch that second
day, and getting Landon’s stuff and my stuff situated in my locker. We decided that we should just share ‘til
the end of the year. We figure Principal
Kelly’s got enough on his mind to have to be bothered with something as trivial
as a locker. Besides, now we don’t have
to trek to different parts of the school to get our books between classes. Weds morning I had a doctor’s appointment so
Landon couldn’t pick me up, but he did take me home. I also got a note from my doctor excusing me from gym class for
the remainder of the school year, so now Landon and I had study hall together
too.
Landon’s friends didn’t
really start anything with us after that first day, and Sally, well…she was
coming around. She still thought Landon
was destined to hurt me and continued to tell me that she would be there for me
when it was over. The one that shocked
me though, was Eddie Zimmerhoff. I
always knew he had a little crush on me so it kind of surprised me when he just
accepted Landon and me without any hurt feelings or harsh words. He always asked about him when I saw him and
he usually took the time to talk to Landon for a few seconds after drama
class. They didn’t really have much in
common, but it was nice to see that someone was finally on our side. I think Landon felt the same way too.
As I continued to throw
clothes all over my room I heard the phone ring. It was him.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Almost ready?” I look around at the mess I’ve made and can
feel the towel slipping off my wet head as I answer.
“Uh huh.”
“ ‘kay. I should be there in about 30 minutes.”
“Okay.” Thirty minutes. ‘NO!!! My hair was still wet.’ “See you then.”
Don’t ask me how I did
it, but I did. I dried my hair the best
I could, threw on a skirt and shirt and grabbed a jacket. I really didn’t wear much makeup so I just
swiped a blush brush across my cheeks for some color and started wadding up my
clothes and shoving them back in my drawers telling myself that I would hang
them up tomorrow.
The rest of the week at
school wasn’t quite as rough as that first day had been. After the confrontation in the cafeteria,
Dean and everyone else just stayed out of our way, and we stayed out of
theirs. I was disappointed that Eric
was still hanging out with Dean, but I told myself that I’d done all I
could. Eric had the right to choose who
he wanted to hang out with, and if he wanted to stick with Dean then there was
nothing I could do about it. Jamie and
I ended up deciding to just use her locker for the rest of the year; Principal
Kelly probably didn’t need me stirring up little problems for him anyways. All of our teachers started being pretty
nice to me, especially after I started sitting up front with Jamie whenever I
had a class with her. Jamie’s friends
in the drama department didn’t let me off easy though. Most of them at least. Eddie Zimmerhoff was totally cool with the
way things played out, but a lot of the other people from drama were suspicious
of me. To put it bluntly, I got the
feeling that they thought I would break up with Jamie like I had broken up with
Belinda. I got a lot of strange looks
and muffled greetings whenever I stopped by to get Jamie after school. I tried not to let it bother me though; I
figured they would all see soon enough just how serious about Jamie I really
was. How much I loved her. How could they not see it, when it was the
single thought that occupied my mind most of the day? That’s what I told myself anyways.
I called Jamie on Friday
evening just before I left to pick her up for the carnival. I was running a little bit late since I had
run into a little clothing problem. I
realized after I had taken my shower that most of my laundry hadn’t been taken
care of for the week. Now I knew it was
just a little carnival, nothing fancy, but I think Jamie at least deserved to
see me wearing clean clothes. My
choices eventually came down to my one clean T-shirt that I found and one of
two pairs of jeans. One pair of jeans
was pretty old and had holes, so I chose the other pair… but when I started
putting on the shirt I noticed some sort of mark across the front. ‘Damn, can’t wear this shirt either!’ I
thought to myself. I realized that I
seriously didn’t have anything left though, so I took a chance and started
scrubbing the thing right there at the bathroom sink. The mark came out, but the shirt was all wet. I looked at my watch and knew that Jamie
would be calling me any time to find out what the heck was taking me so
long. I ran to my mom, who was sitting
downstairs in the living room.
“Hey mom, I need your
help real quick. I had to rinse this
shirt to get a mark off of it, and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind ironing
it to get it dry while I called Jamie.”
My mom looked at me, and
I realized I was probably talking really fast.
“I’ll help you out Landon, but you have to promise me that you’ll calm down,” she said to me. “There’s no need to get all worked up about
this.”
“I know, I know,
mom. Thanks.” I kissed her on the cheek as I raced back to call Jamie. Fortunately I had half an hour, so when I
got there to pick her up my shirt was dry and all was good.
When I got to Jamie’s
house, the door was answered once again by Reverend Sullivan. ‘How does that man get to the door so fast?’
I wondered when I saw him there.
“Landon, Jamie says
she’ll be down as soon as possible. Why
don’t you come inside for a moment?”
This was weird. Was Jamie’s father being nice to me for
once, or was he luring me into another tough situation? Either way, I really wasn’t certain I wanted
to follow him inside. “It’s alright,
sir, I wouldn’t want to intrude…”
“That’s fine, Mr. Carter,
I can talk to you right here. I just
wanted to make sure you two stayed out of trouble tonight. These carnivals… they can get pretty
rowdy. I don’t want my daughter caught
up in any of that, you understand?”
“Yes sir,” I gulped. He probably thought I was going to go out
with Dean and make Jamie do something crazy like we had done with Clay.
“Good,” he said, staring
right at me. “Now remember, ten
o’clock.”
I nodded as Jamie came
down the stairs. As soon as I saw her,
I think I forgot that her father was standing there at the door. She was beautiful. I’m not sure if it was her outfit, her hair, or anything at all
besides for her – but she seemed to walk with a certain glow about her, an
aura. She was… heavenly.
I was so excited.
I had never been to a carnival before so thanks to Landon, this was
another first for me. All right, going
to a carnival wasn’t exactly on my list, but it should’ve been. So I made it number 101 and crossed it off
all on the same night.
I couldn’t believe all the
cars that were there, we had to park over a block away and walk the rest of the
distance to the school. The closer we
came to the school the noisier it got.
Children were running around and laughing, couples were holding hands,
and everybody, absolutely everybody was smiling.
The smell accosted me the
moment we got to grounds, it was cotton candy and I made a mental reminder to
try it out—another first. ‘102
perhaps?’
Men and women dressed in
red and white striped smocks were calling out, trying to entice passers by to
play their games.
“Win the little lady a
stuffed dog?”
“You look like you could
toss this ball…”
“Step on up and throw the
darts…”
The list was endless. Landon went up to a booth and got a string
of tickets, then took me to the first ride.
It was called a tilted whirl or something like that. Ewww…it was sickening. It went up and down in little waves while
going round in a circle and each individual car spun like a top. It was enough to make you sick. I LOVED IT!
We laughed and rode just about everything there was to ride, saw just
about everything there was to see and Landon even won me a stuffed bear by
throwing a ball at a stack of bottles.
It was tiny and fit in the pocket of my coat, but I adored it just the
same.
We were getting hungry so
he went to get us something to eat and as he was gone I looked at the one thing
we had yet to try. The ferris
wheel. I’ve seen them on TV and I’ve heard
about them, but I had never been on one and all I could think was how beautiful
everything must look from up there. Now
that was on my
list—number 74.
I parked the car about a
block out from the school because of all the cars that had showed up for the
carnival. Beaufort had gone all-out
this year, and there was everything from the usual fun and games to some
full-blown rides. Jamie saw the ferris
wheel before we were even through the gates, and I could tell she wanted to get
in a ride on it before the night was over.
I made a note of it as I walked her into the carnival. We were immediately swarmed by the sounds of
children enjoying themselves and the smell of all those typical carnival foods:
hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn. I
looked over at Jamie, and she seemed so amazed by it all. Almost like… a child’s first time in a toy
store. The look on her face was so
innocent, and so happy. I remembered
then that her father hadn’t seemed all to enthusiastic about carnivals, and I
figured she probably had never been to one in her life.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” she replied, still
staring around at everything around her.
“So, uh, what do ya wanna
do first?”
“I don’t know Landon,
there’s so much to do!”
“I’ve got an idea, here
come with me.” I took her hand and led
her off to the nearest ride I could find.
‘Might as well just make the rounds,’ I thought to myself. ‘This is going to be great!’
By eight that evening, we
had gotten a taste of just about everything the carnival had to offer. We went on the merry-go-round, walked
through the fun house with its goofy mirrors, and saw the animals in the
petting zoo. I had even won Jamie a
stuffed bear from one of those games where you try to knock over all the
bottles with a baseball. She just
smiled and laughed the whole evening, and I was pretty sure I was smiling all
night too. We took a short dinner
break, and I got us some hot dogs and a big cup of soda. When I got back from the snack booth, Jamie
was staring up at the ferris wheel again.
“So you wanna go on that
after dinner?” I asked her.
“I’d love to Landon. It looks like a lot of fun.”
I put my hand on
hers. “When I’m with you, Jamie, life
is a lot of fun.”
She turned to me and
smiled when she heard that, and she said to me, “I’m glad, Landon. I have a lot of fun when I’m with you
too. Now how about passing me one of
those hot dogs?”
After finishing up our
hot dogs, we got in line for the ferris wheel.
It wasn’t too long of a wait, but while we were standing in line we saw
Dean, Tracy, Belinda, and some other guys I didn’t recognize standing off toward
the edge of the carnival. Dean looked
like he had some sort of bottle in his hand.
Probably a beer.
“I hope they don’t go and
do something dumb tonight,” I said, partly to myself.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, I was just lookin’
over there at Dean. Looks like they’ve
found some new kids to take my place. I
just hope they don’t make ‘em jump into a shallow pool or climb a water tower
somewhere.”
“I know, I worry about
them sometimes. I’m just glad you don’t
do those things anymore.”
It surprised me that
Jamie worried about people like Dean and Belinda, but I know it shouldn’t have
shocked me. Jamie was just that kind of
person. She was nice to everyone, even
the ones who openly mocked her. My
thoughts were interrupted when Jamie pulled on my sleeve, telling me it was our
turn. The technician helped us into the
ride, and up we went.
It
was amazing. We were going round and
round, up and down and I swear you could see all of Beaufort from up
there. I was glad we waited to do this
last because the lights were simply beautiful.
When the ride started coming to an end they stopped the cars and Landon
and I were at the very top. It was like
we were just floating up there.
“This
is wonderful Landon,” I knew I sounded excited, but I guess I didn’t realize
how excited I was.
“You’re
cute, you know that?” He laughed.
“Are
you laughing at me?” I couldn’t seem to
stop smiling.
“No
baby, I’m just happy.” He held his arms
open and said, “Come here. Let’s do
this the right way.”
“The
right way?” I asked and snuggled into his arms as the ride lurched us into the
next waiting position, then the next…
“Yup. This has gotta be the ultimate date
ride. Well, this and that boat that
goes through the tunnels, but since I’ve never been on one of those, I guess
this is it.”
I
nestled my head under his chin and asked, “Why is this the ultimate date ride?”
“Well,”
he looked around, “do you see room for anyone else in here?”
I
shook my head ‘no.’ He leaned in and kissed me. It was just a little brush of our lips, but he did this just as
we got to the bottom of the ride and the technician opened our latch to let us
out. We stepped off the platform and
held hands, “Thank you Landon,” I said as I threw my arms around his neck.
“For
what?”
“For
crossing off another thing from my list.”
“My
pleasure.” He squeezed me and lifted me off the ground then put me back down
again and out of the corner of my eye I saw her. Belinda was standing at the entrance to the building where the
ladies room was located, just watching us and even from this far away I could
tell she was crying.
“Landon? Could you excuse me please? I’ve got to use the restroom.”
“Oh,
sure.”
I
made my way through the crowd and walked into the building, hoping that she was
alone and wanting nothing more than to put an end to all of this--to help
Landon get his friends back. She was
standing at the sink, looking in the mirror when I walked in. She glanced at my reflection and I could
tell she was trying to repair the damage to her make-up her tears had caused.
“Belinda. I’m sorry.
I never meant to hurt you.”
She
closed up her purse and looked right at me, “Don’t flatter yourself. Who said it was YOU that hurt me?”
She
walked back out to the festivities with me a few feet behind her. She stopped when she saw Landon waiting for
me by the entrance to the building.
“Jesus! Can’t she even go to the bathroom without
you hanging all over her?” She looked
back and forth between the two of us and said, “You two are pathetic.”
‘Pathetic?’
I thought. ‘Oh, Belinda. I really am sorry.’
As
I looked at Landon he was pursing his lips in thought and said, “Pathetic? I can live with that.” His smile seemed to lift all of my guilty
feelings away and we walked back to the fairway.
“So
what’d ya wanna do now?”
“Well,
I promised my dad that I would stop by the pavilion and give his regards to Mr.
Levy our choir director. Do you mind?”
“Nope. To the pavilion we go.”
We
walked completely across the carnival to the area the school had designated as
“the pavilion.” It was actually part of
the parking lot with a tent over the stage--a small platform that was raised
about a foot off the ground-- and a spacious area for dancers.
Just
as we got to the end of the barricade we heard, “HEY! Jamie! Landon!”
“Clay!”
“Hey,
man!” we both said at the same time.
“Hey
guys,” he looked at us a little strange and I realized that he didn’t know
about us.
“When
did you get out of the rehab center Clay?” I asked.
“A
few days ago. I don’t have to go back to school ‘til Monday though.” He kept
looking back and forth at us and gave me a little smile when he noticed that we
were holding hands. “Hey, Jamie. I just wanted to say thanks.”
“Oh,
don’t worry about it.” I was in the
office one day when all of this stuff happened with Clay and overheard
Principal Kelly talking with a few of the teachers, saying that unless Clay was
able to make up all of his missed work there was no way he would be able to
graduate with the rest of the senior class.
When I heard that I took it upon myself to bring Clay not only the
homework we got assigned, but also went over the stuff we covered in classes
too. I visited him at least three times
a week, but I still hadn’t told Landon about it.
“No. I mean it.
If is wasn’t for you I don’t think I’d be graduating this year.”
“Anytime.”
I looked at Landon and said, “This song is almost over so I’m gonna go say hi
to Mr. Levy.” I looked back at Clay and
said, “It’s nice to have you back, Clay.”
I
knew Landon was wondering what Clay was talking about, and I could feel his
curious stare piercing my back as I walked away.
After
Jamie had walked toward the pavilion, I turned back to Clay. I hadn’t seen him since I went to apologize
to him at the rehab center, and I was glad he at least talked to me.
“So
Landon, what’s going on with you and Jamie?” he asked. Having not been at school for a while, I
figured he probably had heard nothing about what was happening.
“Actually…
we’re going out.”
“What,
like dating?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh
man, I never thought I’d see the day,” he said. “Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan…. This isn’t something that
Dean and them put you up to is it?” He
sounded really concerned when he said that last sentence.
“No,
it totally isn’t. Dean and I… well… we
stopped talking about the same time Jamie and I got together.”
“Man
Landon, what happened to you? It’s like
I’m out of the action for a few months and the whole social order falls apart!”
“Well…
remember when you told me you didn’t know why you had wanted to be my friend?”
I asked him.
“Yeah.”
“For
awhile I wasn’t sure why I would want to be my friend either. That and Jamie came into my life.”
I
explained to him the whole thing, how I had been forced to tutor and be in the
spring play after I got busted that night at the factory. I told him about how I had asked Jamie for
help on my lines and how awful I felt after the blowing her off in front of
Dean and all the rest. Then there was
the whole mess with the fliers… after a couple of minutes of talking Clay and I
were all caught up. He was happy for
Jamie and me, which wasn’t something I was used to. Pretty much the only person who took us seriously up to then was
Eddie Zimmerhoff, so it was nice to have another person behind us.
I
waited for the song to end and then I said hello to Mr. Levy.
“Well
Jamie! This is a surprise.”
“I
just wanted to say hello. My father
sends his best.”
“Why
don’t you come on up and join us for a song?”
I
started to back off a bit saying “No. I
don’t think so…” but he grabbed onto my arm and guided me to the
microphone.
He
turned around to the rest of the band and said, “On The Side Of Angels.”
I
stood there at the microphone, trying to protest, but the music started and I
knew the only way out of this situation was to sing the song. I searched the crowd with my eyes, trying to
find Landon, hoping that he would see me, but I couldn’t find him. There were just so many people. I noticed his old group of friends standing
off to the side as the music started. I
began to sing kind of softly when I saw Dean roll his eyes and say something to
Belinda then the group of them looked at me and laughed. ‘Landon.
Where are you?’
I’ve never been so certain
I've never been sure
We're on the side of angels
If we believe this love is pure
Is it so hard to trust it
'Cause we've been wrong before?
There comes a time in every life
We find the heart we're waiting for
I
kept telling myself that the tremor in my voice and knots in my stomach was
just nerves from the amount of people that were watching me, but somewhere deep
inside I feared that this would be the last time I ever sang for a group of
people in public. I still didn’t see
Landon anywhere so I closed my eyes and began the chorus.
After all the might-have-beens
The close and distant calls
After all the try-agains
Don't be afraid to fall
We're on the side of angels after all
I was getting ready to ask Clay about what he meant when he had thanked
Jamie earlier, but before I could I heard someone behind me in the crowd say,
“Hey look, that’s Jamie Sullivan singing up there!”
I hadn’t been too focused on the music before, but
when I turned around and looked at the platform – sure enough, it was
Jamie. Her voice… it was so clear, so
full of emotion. I stood their, eyes
fixed on her until I felt Clay put his hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t just stand here, Landon,” he said. “Go on over there and support your lady.”
Every time you touch me
Don't you feel it too?
The gentle hand that's guiding us
You to me, me to you
I began
listening to the words I was singing finding new meaning in them and when I
opened my eyes I saw him. He weaved his
way through the crowd of dancers, never once breaking eye contact with me, and
I watched as the corners of his mouth lifted in a soft, loving smile. He was standing right in front of me now,
with this mesmerized expression upon his face.
The raised platform I was standing on enabled me to look directly into
his eyes as I continued singing. The
crowd that had me nervous just a few minutes ago, now seemed to have faded into
an abyss and the only two people left standing was Landon and myself.
After all the might-have-beens
The close and distant calls
After all the try-agains
Don't be afraid to fall
We're on the side of angels after all
I stood there at the front of the crowd, watching
Jamie sing. It felt like the first time
I had seen her sing “Only Hope” for the play, only this time I didn’t have to
wrestle with the feelings that were inside of me. I knew I was in love with her, and every second that passed as
she sang confirmed it. Jamie Sullivan
was amazing. She was everything I had ever
hoped for in life and more. I felt like
I was watching an angel sing on that stage, and the thing that made me the
happiest was that she was mine.
Heaven only knows
Why this took so long
But only Heaven knows
A love is right or wrong
Suddenly this surge of energy coursed through my veins. I lifted my hands towards the heavens and
threw my head back and sang like I’ve never sung before. I could feel the power of every note, every
word from the deepest part of my soul and I knew he could feel it too.
After all the might-have-beens
The close and distant calls
After all the try-agains
Don't be afraid to fall
We're on the side of angels
On the side of angels
On the side of angels, after all
Ohhhhhh, yeah
On the side of angels
He raised his arms and lifted me off of the stage, crushing me to his
chest. We just held onto one another as
the crowd applauded. When the clapping
ceased and the band started a new song he finally whispered into my hair, “I
don’t think I could ever love you more than I do right now. You were amazing up there! That was…wow…” he pulled back and I saw
tears in his eyes, “Wow…” It was the most incredible feeling I’ve ever had in
my life.
After
Jamie had finished singing, I took another step toward the stage and lifted her
into my arms. I held her close to me as
the crowd cheered. I was so proud of
her. I just wanted to hold her there
forever, basking in the moment. The
band started to play another song, but all I could think about was the song my
Jamie had just finished singing. I
whispered to her, as we stood there, “I don’t think I could ever love you more
than I do right now. You were amazing
up there! That was … wow…” I was on the
verge of tears when I pulled back and looked deep into her eyes. “Wow…”
Even
though I “officially” couldn’t dance, we danced to a few more songs there in
front of the stage. Before I knew it
ten o’clock was rapidly approaching.
“Hey
baby, it’s time to go. We wouldn’t want
my car turning into a pumpkin halfway home.”
She
laughed when I said that, and replied to me, “Alright Landon. But you know my father doesn’t have that
kind of power over you.”
“Oh, no,
but it’s his connections I’m afraid of,” I joked, looking up at the sky. “That and… he can stop me
from seeing you.”
“You’re
right Landon, we need to go.”
We said
our goodbyes to most of the people around us, and walked back out to the
car. We drove back to her house mostly
in silence, my right hand over her left.
I could tell she was pretty tired.
We’d had a pretty fun-filled night.
It was a
few minutes to ten when I put my car into park in front of Jamie’s house. Just enough time for a kiss goodnight. I walked her to her yard, and I turned to
kiss her.
Just as
our lips met, I heard the door open ….
If you’d like to hear the song “On The Side Of Angels”
Simply cut and paste the web address into your browser or click on the
hyperlink. Trust me…it’s worth it!
http://freepages.music.rootsweb.com/~blueyes/sideofangels.html