Title: Stairwell Confessions
A/N: So, this is my first Flight 29 Down fanfic for my favorite couple on the show Jackson and Taylor. I realize there are many more JM fans, but I hope people read and review. Thanks.
Disclaimer: Don't own it, never will.
It was after fifth period when she found the note in her locker.
"T,
Meet me in the back stairwell after school.
-J"
She had found dozens of these notes ever since she got back to school, but had never corresponded to one, but something was different today. Maybe it was hope, maybe it was low blood sugar, but for once she decided to go.
It was a chilly, fall day when Taylor made her way across the campus. She past the first set of stairs, then ducked under the second, and sat down. She waited. She waited for ten minutes. She got up and took two steps forward when she heard him.
"Hey," he said softly, guiltily, she thought in her head. She turned around. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and jeans. His hair was slightly ruffled and his cheeks were a bright pink from the harsh wind.
She felt her knees begin to melt and her heart start to thump. No, she thought to herself. Don't go soft. He broke your heart. You have to keep your composure. "What do you want?" she asked as coldly as she could
He put up his hands innocently. "I just want to talk—clear a few things up."
She nodded her head. "Okay. "I'm not sure I want to, if you're going to turn me to stone with that voice of yours." Talk, then."
She tried her hardest to suppress a smile. Why was it that after just two minutes with him she felt all the anger gone from her body? "Jackson, you've been trying to get me to meet you here for weeks and this is the first and probably the last time I'm going to show up. So talk or I'm leaving." Taylor was proud of her composure. That drama class had really helped.
"Listen, I know you're not happy. Things didn't go well back at the island, and I'm sorry, I was just stupid." He ran a hand through his hair and sat down on the second step from the bottom,
"What do you mean?" she asked hesitantly.
He sighed, deeply. "Taylor?" he asked as if to make sure she was still there.
"Yes?"
"I was a total idiot. You have to know that what we had—our connection or thing or whatever we had—you have to know it was more real than anything I had with Melissa. You just have to know that."
She could feel the tears backing up behind her eyelids. Her throat felt dry and hoarse. "Then, why did you choose her?"
"What?"
Taylor felt something coming over her. It was a mixture of anger, sadness, and a bit of relief all in one. She felt her voice start to pick up. "Why did you choose her?"
"Taylor, I didn't choose her. You have to believe that. When she decided to come with me, Eric, and Abby, we hung out, and afterwards she just sort of expected me to—you know? And I had already told her that I sort of felt the same." He was rambling, but he paused and pushed his hair back.
"Look, what you saw between us—I didn't want that to happen—"
Taylor rolled her eyes. "Of course you didn't. You were having a private moment and I'm sure you would have preferred me not to have seen it. But I did, so I guess you're out of luck."
"No." He shook his head. "You've got it all wrong. I didn't want that to happen at all."
She sighed and took a seat next to him, putting down her book bag. "Jackson, stop lying. I know you're into her. You guys are together all the time."
A grin came over his face.
"What?" she asked confused.
"Taylor, this is a pretty big high school. You'd have to be looking hard to find just two people."
She rolled her eyes. "You know, back wherever we were I remember you being a lot of things, but egotistical was not one of them." She grabbed her bag, stood up, and started to walk away.
"Wait, please," he said and she turned around. "I haven't even gotten to the point."
She shook her head, and her blonde curls swung back and forth. She had stopped straightening them since she got back. "Jackson, there is no point. You're in love with Melissa or whatever, and you jut wanted to apologize to me. I get it. I don't like it but I get it."
"Have you heard a single word I said? I don't want Mel. I never wanted Mel. The only one I wanted was you."
She couldn't fight back tears any longer. They were streaming down her face. "Then why did you choose her?!"
He got up from the steps and took three giant steps towards her. They were only inches apart. "She chose me, and I couldn't say no, because I'm weak, and I don't like to see girls cry." He nodded his head. "Okay?"
She nodded back. "Okay."
"Melissa is nice, but you're smart, beautiful…" He slowly grabbed both of her hands with one of his. "…funny, cute…when I told you I would remember you most after the nightmare I wasn't just trying to make you feel better."
Forget the gently streaming tears, she was balling now. Her entire face was red, her shirt, tear stained.
"I don't think anyone else on that island but you could have gotten that song out of me, let alone get me to play it at 'Chilloween'."
She chuckled remembering her holiday, as he absent-mindedly stroked her hair with his free hand.
"And," he pressed his forehead against hers, "there is no other person in this world I have opened up to, willingly, more than you."
She sighed, "Except Mel."
He shook his head, which caused their foreheads to rub together. "Mel knows my past, but you know who I am. You got to know me. And you liked me because of me, not because of some misguided crush or the idea of what we could be."
She couldn't take being apart from him any longer. She wrapped her arms around his waste and rested her head on his chest. "I love you, Jackson."
She couldn't see, but his cheeks had become very red. "I love you, too, Taylor."
They stood there in their embrace for several minutes, when Taylor pulled away, "But what about Melissa?"
"Who?"
She smiled.
"Over," he said. "It's been over since you got the first note I put in your locker."
The smile worked its way across her face, showing off her white teeth and her sparkly eyes. She pulled his face down to hers and their lips touched for the first time, but definitely not the last.