The Soundtrack of Life

by: dancechick307

Track 6: Come Closer

Artist: Sally Jackson

Untouchable like a distant diamond sky, I'm reaching out…

-Untouchable, Taylor Swift

The sea has always been a source of comfort to Sally Jackson.

Especially now, as her own tears mix with the ocean's salt water and as the cool sea breeze wraps around her like a cashmere blanket, there is no place she'd rather be.

The sea. It was her father's glory. He used to spend endless afternoons, daydreaming, until Sally's mother called him in for dinner. She used to joke that he loved the ocean more than he loved his own wife.

These jokes aren't funny anymore. They're just empty and depressing and fill Sally's chest with a pain that can't be named.

Her parents were perished in a car crash on their way home from an out-of-town business meeting just a month ago. And here she was: Sally, the orphan.

She'd never been too close to her other family members; they were just distant names, familiar faces, tossed together to somehow form her family tree.

And now, when she needed someone here the most, she turned to her father's love, to her childhood playground, the nurturing sea. The vast waters that attracted tourists during the hot summer months were not a vacation getaway for her as they were for many, but a sense of home.

Home.

Where was that?

Sally did not know. So, in hopes of figuring this out, she revisited the ocean, day after day, as if magically one day the sea water itself would spit out the solution to all her problems and take all her cares away.

This never did happen. But, in one strange way, her prayers were answered. Sort of.

Her solution came in the form of a handsome young man, merely a few years older than her, with dark luscious hair and eyes as mysterious and old as the bottoms of the ocean and yet, as comforting as the sea's gentle waves.

He had this sort of aurora to him, call it a special "glow", and this itself made Sally fall hard for him. He was everything she had ever needed, but had had stripped away from her so suddenly – love, comfort, security, and compassion.

He was protective like the waves crushing hard against the sands of the shore as though to protect the ocean's precious secret beneath the surface.

He was strong like the distinct smell of salt that was tossed around the breeze and associated with the ocean.

He was beautiful like the clear, glistening blanket of water as the warm sun reflected its rays onto it.

He was mysterious like the sand that covers the mass of the beach hiding beneath it secrets of the past.

He was untouchable and unstoppable like the constant currents of the sea, the consistent way the ocean seemed to sway.

He was her world. And she was his. Or so he said.

And she wanted to believe him so badly. But she couldn't.

For she had seen the way his eyes glazed over with a century worth of sadness as she sometimes caught himself staring out at the sea. She had seen the way he was sometimes late – just a millisecond late – in reciprocating her simplest actions such as slipping a hand around his or whispering I love you.

No matter how close she grew to him, no matter how much time, sweet, blissful time, passed between themselves, no matter how many times they exchanged words of love, there was one small part of him that always seemed distant to Sally. And she tried to capture it in the palms of her hands, she tried to lure this part of him to her just as she had lured him to herself, she tried to reach out and touch this part of him he kept under the surface, but she couldn't.

For how could she grasp a secret as big as the one he was keeping?

To be fair, he wanted to tell her. He wanted to let her know. He wanted. He wanted her.

But, you and I both know, that it doesn't matter. There some rules that can't be broken.

He broke his and his brothers' pact. Yes, he had an affair with a mortal woman. He loved her. And, eventually, he even told her his secret. He let her be a part of the world he had belonged to for so long. And even though he tried, he tried so hard, to be fair and loving and to give her what she deserved, they both knew that they could not last.

For who was she to break the routine of a god who had lived for centuries making his way through mortal women?

He had told her he'd build a castle for her under the sea. He'd said he would stop the waves for her if she wanted. He said he'd conjure a whirlpool out of the ocean and carry her to the middle of it. He had told her that he'd call all the dolphins and have them swim her to wherever in the world she pleased to go. But time after time, she declined his offers.

In the end, though, he'd given her the best gift of all.

He'd given her a whole new world, a whole new life, a whole new identity.

He had given her a baby boy. And from that she experienced the beautiful, new world of motherhood.

And for that, she was forever in his debt.

She still goes to the ocean at times. She still dips her feet in the salt water and feels memories of love and passion flood back to her. She still relaxes at the smell of salt water and the waves crushing against the shore are still her own sweet lullaby.

She still thinks about him.

His mystic features, his chilling voice, his special "glow", his mysterious world she has now tangled herself into.

He was something. A blinding sun, a glistening diamond, an untouchable, unreachable star high in the sky, a mysterious golden light that changed her life forever.

No, he doesn't wake up every morning beside her. No, she never has to complain about the way he always leaves the toothpaste cap in the sink, how he always forgets to put the toilet seat down, how he always forgets to buy milk whenever they run out. No, he doesn't come home on Valentines' Day with a bouquet of flowers purchased from the local grocery market hastily because someone almost forgot again. On Christmas morning, there are no gifts under the tree labeled from him.

But he's still sort of there. Watching from somewhere above. Listening keenly. Loving her from a distant. Untouchable by his powerful aurora.

And although she knows sadly that time will probably erode his memory of her, that a hundred years from now he'll forget whether her eyes were brown or hazel, that soon she'll just be another name part of a long list; she knows that his role in her life was something magical, something special, something she will never really come to terms with.

He really was something, wasn't he?

Author's Note: I'm trying to be nice and update quickly so I didn't have time to look over this chapter for grammar and spelling mistakes! Sorry if it the puncuation is horrible! If you catch any mistakes, just tell me and I'll owe you some virtual Reese's peanut butter cups! (or Twix bars if you're allergic to nuts :P )

Okay, whew! Yeah, I'm late. Way late. Sorry! Forgive me? :)

I've fallen way behind on my updates. I haven't updated Life and Times of Percy & Annabeth in, like, four weeks, and I haven't even touched Tales form Under the Willow Tree. Gah, I feel horrible.

But, whatever, enough rambling. How do you like my chapter? Personally, I love Sally and Poseidon. They're a mysterious couple, and I love writing about them.

The song is, yes, Taylor Swift! Don't make fun; she's amazing. :) I love Untouchable; it's one of her new singles from her Platinum edition of Fearless. That's right people: PLATINUM! Woo-hoo!

Geez, this is a long author's note! Okay, I'll stop now. ;)

Review please. I love you all.