All Winds (Love Song Part 2)

"Jared," I pulled away. "I can't."

His eyes studied mine and seemed to spot the figure reflected in them. He smiled. "Come on. Let's lead him for a ride."

I cried out, exasperated. "That's not how you break things off with a guy, you hippopotamus."

He grinned at our old term for when the other was acting particularly dense. I always screwed up hippopotamus and ignoramus. "He'll get the message," he said.

"No," I said. "Give me five minutes."

"Five, then," he shrugged.

The thing was, I thought along the incredibly awkward stroll toward my boyfriend, was that I liked my boyfriend. He was funny, and good to talk to, and picked me flowers off the side of the road. I wasn't looking to break things off.

Jared might have been my best friend, but then he... moved on. He always was intended for bigger things. And I didn't mope around like a soap opera diva, I healed.

At least, I thought I had, until Jared's whirlwind tugged off the bandage. What did it look like underneath, after all this time? Was it oozing? Had he ripped the scar clean off? Or was it pink and shiny with someone else's name sharpied on it? I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

Mark was holding a little purple daisy. I swallowed. This really wasn't fair.

"So, um, hi," I said.

He handed me the flower and our fingers touched. I raised mine to tuck my hair behind my ears. "That's Jared," I said.

He nodded. "I know."

"You know?" I gaped.

"He is kind of famous," he half-smiled. "I have some of his songs on my iPod."

"Well, I didn't know," I grumbled.

"Only for the last six months or so. He rose up fast. Don't have that song, though." He raised his hand to the back of his rusty neck.

"It was a warning, Mark."

"Or a challenge," he shrugged. "Are we over, then?"

Unable to say yes, I hesitated, and a sweet expression filled his eyes.  "We're not," he said.

"I just don't know, it's all kind of fast," my voice rose at the end. "He came back for me."

"Back? Were you ever his?" he asked.

An image burned my mind of Jared and I riding out a howling storm in my treehouse because I'd lost my house key at gymnastics. Jared smiled at the roar but wrapped his warm arm around me anyway.

I nodded. "He left without telling me anything, but you have to take his warning seriously, Mark. He can do things." As though I'd spoken a charm, a wind swirled at my feet.

"Things like..."

I told him about my cat. And the dead bugs he'd resurrect to feed his lizard, and the tails that grew back overnight. By the end, my hair was whipping around my face. I glanced behind me. Jared was at the apex of a crowd of schoolmates who were held back by some invisible barrier. His dark eyes watched me.

"I'd better go," I said.

"You're going to let him take you, then, just like that?" Mark said.

"I don't want you to get hurt," I protested.

He squared his shoulders. "It's not about getting hurt. He's trying to steal my girlfriend."

Trust his ego to make things complicated. It was another reason I liked Mark, he knew where to draw the line.

Jared's song pierced my mind. You fly, waltzing like fireflies.

I shook my head and with one hand grabbed my hair into a ponytail, and with the other, handed Mark back his flower. "Listen to the song. You have to believe me."

"You're going to ditch me the way he ditched you, then. Two wrongs don't make a right, Med."

My voice rose to a scary pitch, sounding almost like the wind. "I don't know what I think."

He nodded, a new smile I'd never seen crossing his lips. "I'll be hanging around til you do, then." He tucked the purple flower behind my ear.

He raised a hand to the boy behind me, stuck his hands into his pockets, and turned his back on the whirlwind.

___
The last story just begged to be turned into something more, so I hope you don't mind that for the next few weeks, I'm going to play out Jared's love song. Very exciting details coming up :).  Reread Part 1 here, and for more awesome flash fiction, check out Suzanne Warr's blog hop.