IDLE TOWN, jess mariano

⁰⁴knees weak, arms are heavy

「 chapter four 」
❝ girls love it when you tell them they look like shit „

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IT WAS ONE ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS where Aries couldn't fall asleep.

When Aries first came back, she was fine with sleeping in the inn, but after a while, it became lonely. Of course, Sookie made her amazing food and Michel was great morning company, but she didn't like the feeling of living alone.

Giving up on trying to sleep, Aries pulled out an old camera she got from some now estranged family member; she tried not to think too much about the fact that all her family members were estranged now. She smiled and reminisced when she was younger and would sneak out at night and wander around the town—quite dangerous, but she always returned home safely from some adult finding her and automatically knowing where to return her to. Aries changed into a crew neck sweater and track pants, packed her camera and journal and a few other things, and left the inn.

She didn't need to sneak out quietly or anything since people often came and left as they pleased. The Independence Inn was only a short walk away from the lake, so she made her way there, sitting on the low bridge and dangling her legs over. Staring out at the quiet nothingness, she pulled her pencil out from behind her ear and twiddled it in her fingers as she opened her journal. Late nights like these were perfect for her to write about absolute nothingness and everything-ness.

Once she got into a very inspired writing mood, her legs started swinging more wildly and she basically forgot about the things happening around her except for the very spot her eyes were focusing on with unmovable concentration.

The sound of a rock plopping onto the water almost didn't pull her out of her trance, but that combined with her journal being snatched from out of her hands brought her back into reality. As soon as she identified that it was Jess, she shot up to her feet and chased after him.

"Give it back," she said, on his heels.

He taunted and held it over both their heads. She huffed a breath of annoyance but she was sure he was just messing with her and wasn't actually going to read it.

He did, though.

Once he cleared a bit more distance between them, he brought it back down to his face and turned away, implying that he was going to read it. With a shriek, she sprinted in his direction and jumped on his back, wrestling the journal out of his hands and in the process, tackling them both onto the ground.

"You dickhead," she said, thudding on the old wooden bridge which by some miracle didn't break. She had taken the brunt of the fall and was sure she would bruise, especially since she had landed on her back with her hand holding her journal wedged between the floor and her back.

Her arm could've gotten badly injured, but at least her journal was safe from prying eyes.

"Huh," Jess breathed. "This is perfect."

Aries muttered an exasperated, "Oh my god," before scoffing playfully and rolling her eyes.

He couldn't possibly be referring to the position they were in right now. They had somehow twisted mid-fall so that Aries was on her back and in some cliché twist of fate, Jess hovered over her with his arms catching himself from thudding on top of her. She was grateful that he had at least not fallen straight down on her.