CHERRY. [JESS MARIANO]

Don't Let Me Fall

The sound of Blink-182's 'Enema of The State' album provided a comforting soundtrack to my horrible history notes that I was currently revising on. Usually I would choose to study physics this late at night but seeing as I had a pop-quiz on Monday, physics got the boot.

Mumbling the lyrics to 'Adams Song', I heard what sounded faintly like stones clattering against my window. Brushing it off as some background noise from the music I continue studying my notes.

However, when the sound only got louder and more continuous I decided that maybe I was going crazy. Nonetheless, I decided to check if there really was someone there.

Walking towards my CD player and lowering down the volume, I could clearly see that stones were being thrown at my window. As I opened the window, I narrowly avoided a stone to the head as I ducked.

"Sorry!" I heard a familiar voice call from below.

I stuck my head out the window to see Jess standing below with a handful of rocks. He looked like he was wearing a dark green jacket that from up here just looked like one big blurry blob of green.

"What're you doing?" I say as quietly as I can, careful not to wake my mother this late at night.

Jess grabbed the ladder that was leaning against the house and propped it up below my window. "I'm coming up!" He warned.

I took a step back at hearing his loud clambering as he climbed up the ladder. When he came in and sat on the windowsill I sent him a glare. "Are you trying to wake my mum up?"

He jumped off the windowsill and took a look around my room. "Calm down will you, she didn't hear me," he says with his eyes glancing over the various band and movie posters on my bedroom wall.

I move to sit back in my chair at the desk to let him roam around the room for a bit. "Backstreet Boys?" He asks questioningly, pointing to the poster above my single bed.

"Hey!" I exclaim in protest. "I'll have you know that their music isn't half bad."

Jess shrugs as he goes through my cd collection. "Just didn't peg you as someone who likes Backstreet Boys and Blink-182. They're very far apart on the music scale."

"Says the guy who sang Destiny's Child the other day," I remarked.

He points his finger at me accusingly. "That was one time."

I get up from the bed to stand next to him. I push him aside playfully causing him to laugh a bit. My fingers rake though the many cd's I had until I found the one I was looking for.

I hold up the cd, showing it to him. "Here, you can have it back."

As I lean on the wall, he takes a few steps closer to me. "The Shins aren't to your liking?"

"Quite the opposite actually," I toss him the cd. "I love them, but it's yours. So here."

He shakes his head and throws the cd back to me. "Keep it, I've got another copy back home."

I give him a small smile along with a 'thanks' before putting it back in its rightful place.

I could feel Jess next to me as he spoke, his eyes still on the cd's. "You arrange it alphabetically?"

"Anyone who does any differently is a psychopath."

"Then I must be a real Patrick Bateman since I arrange mine according to genre," he comments as I let out a gasp.

"How is Patrick Bateman your go to psychopath?" I ask incredulously.

Jess faces me with the corners of his lips slightly upturned. "Who would yours be, then?" He asks.