WARNING: Story contains sensitive subjects. Reader's Discretion advised. See Author's Note for triggers.

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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 conquer 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 was not 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 assume 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 snugly 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 wash and that he had 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 got 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 captive 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 his actions 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 and 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 also 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.