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chapter eight
august 15th, 2017

"jack!" veronica yelled, running down the stairs. she was the last one awake, and everyone else was in the kitchen eating cereal or some other form of breakfast food. jack eyes looked over at the girl with adoring eyes. jack smiled at her and sent her a questioning glace.

"what's up?" jack asked, moving his bar stool around and turning his full attention to his best friend. veronica sat down in the stool next to him.

"i wanna go back to the meadow and take my art supplies. i want to draw the view from the cliff," veronica told him. jack was about to reply, but they felt the burning stare of people watching them. jack turned his head, only to be met with the eyes of zach and daniel watching them closely. when the two noticed they had been caught, they turned their heads as an attempt to hide the fact that they were staring.

jack brushed it off and turned back to veronica, who was obviously giving daniel the stink eye. "anyways, i was going to say that we can go after breakfast, well technically lunch. it's 1:30." veronica nodded and laughed, walking over to the pantry and pulling out a box of cereal.

--

veronica sat on the side of the cliff with her sketch book and colored pencils in hand, drawing what she saw in the distance. jack watched, quietly admiring her beauty. he truly wondered how a person could have the power be so beautiful.

"jack? hello?" he snapped out of his thought and looked at the girl who was trying to get his attention.

"oh yeah, what- uh, sorry, roni," jack apologized to veronica.

"it's fine. i was just wondering if we could go back to the house now. i'm finished with my drawing," she said, showing him the gorgeous drawing of the city of los angeles.

"of course," jack replied, getting up from the ground he was sitting on and walking over to his black convertible, veronica following behind. the two teenagers got inside, jack pressing the gas pedal and taking them back to the why don't we household.

by the time they got back, it was ten o'clock at night and the rest of the boys were asleep. veronica and jack quietly slipped into the house, making their way up the stairs and into jack's bedroom, where they got dressed and ready to go to bed. once the two had changed, brushed their teeth, and done anything else that they normally did before they went to sleep, they had slipped into bed.

veronica was able to fall asleep quite quickly, but jack, not so much. he couldn't stop thinking about veronica and how strong of an urge he had to kiss her tonight at the meadow, but he was able to control himself. but the urge was so incredibly strong, he almost couldn't.

after two hours of laying in bed, sleep not seeming to come to him, he got up and walked downstairs to the kitchen to get some water, hopefully helping him to get to sleep. as he was drinking the cold liquid out of the plastic bottle, he heard light footsteps heading towards the kitchen. soon, he was met face to face with veronica.

"hey, roni. what're you doing up?" jack asked the girl.

"i woke up and noticed that you weren't in bed or in the bathroom, so i came down here to make sure you were alright," veronica said softly.

so caring, just another reason to kiss her.

jack didn't respond and just did something that he's been wanting to do all night, not caring about anything but relieving his urge to kiss veronica. he walked up to her and cupped her face in his hands, connecting his lips to hers. it took her a minute to let it sink in, before she kissed back. it wasn't a long kiss, but it was long enough for both of them to enjoy it.

veronica was the first to pull away, looking at jack right in the eyes for a moment before running up the stairs. "roni, wait!" jack called, but veronica had already brushed past jack's room and into daniel's, knowing he'd probably be awake writing a song at this hour and that he could give her advice. just as she suspected, daniel was sitting at the small desk in the corner, writing something in his songbook. 

when he heard the door open, his eyes darted to it and he saw an anxious looking veronica standing there. "veronica, what's up?" daniel asked, concerned. he didn't know why veronica would be in his room at two o'clock in the morning.

"jack kissed me."

☆