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Biscuitman18

"Stacy And Jeff: The Beginning"

“Good morning, Baltimore! I’m Jack-Jack and you’re listening to The Morning Bake on WTNF FM. Ooh, boy, do we have a scorcher out there today! The temps this morning rose to a blistering…11 degrees! I gotta tell you folks I am loving this win--“ POP!

Stacy Kess had rolled over and silenced the annoying pseudo-humor of her local morning shock-jock on her radio alarm clock. She knew he hadn’t even started his usual ratings-grabbing Howard Stern wannabe act, but she didn’t want to be there when he did. This morning, however, Jack-Jack (or Jackass, as her fiancé Jeff called him) had given her the best news to start her day: it was absolutely freezing outside. She smiled that smile that made every guy melt and threw the comforter off of her, taking very little time to skip happily into the kitchen where Jeff already had breakfast on.

“Good morning, love,” he called musically, cracking another egg into the pan.

“Good morning.” Stacy replied, tiptoeing over to the now opened arms of her beloved, and throwing herself happily into his embrace, kissed him passionately.

“So, what are you up to today?” Jeff asked, smiling down at the angelic female resting her head on his shoulder.

“Well, I heard some good news on the radio this morning.”

“What?—They finally get rid of Jack-Jack?”

“No,” Stacy giggled, stroking Jeff’s chin with her index finger, “the weather.”

Jeff smiled a knowing smile. This moment served to remind him just how lucky he’d been to find a girl like her. Ever since he was about 14, he’d had what some would call an unusual love for the winter. Well, not the winter, exactly. He had spent the past years cultivating a fascination with goose down jackets; a fascination that had cost him a number of possible romantic relationships, and had seen him ostracized by those who would use this clean-but-unusual attribute as a means to ruin his reputation. It was this bizarre one-man witch hunt that had sent him north after college, to Maryland, of all places.

It was here that he’d met Stacy on what was probably the first cold November day last year. He had been napping on a couch in a suburban Baltimore library, bundled up in his royal blue overfilled Yeti parka, when he awoke to find a gorgeous blonde staring down at him smiling.

“Well, don’t you look comfy?”

Jeff had sat up on the couch, to find the blonde sitting down in a nearby chair, and pulling a book from her backpack.

“'The Perks of Being A Wallflower'. My favorite book.”

“What?” The blonde asked, cupping her hand to her ear. Jeff realized what had happened. He’d been so comfortable in his cocoon that he’d forgotten to open his hood. He pulled the Velcro apart and pushed the puffy headgear back, repeating what had no doubt come out as, “Mmm pmphs mm bmnm m wmmfmnm. Mm fmumnm bmph.”

“Oh, yeah. I love it, too,” the blonde replied, going back into her reading.

Within moments, Jeff had sunk himself into the couch and was napping upright, his arms crossed, his hood hugging his face. He couldn’t help it, being wrapped in the dreaminess of the marshmallowy Quantum parka. After what seemed like a very short slumber, he awoke again, sensing a close presence. He looked to his left, seeing the blonde curled up next to him, dozing against the armrest. Some believe that it’s almost impossible not to fall for a girl while watching her sleep. At this moment, Jeff began to see what those people meant. He took a moment to glance up at the clock. 5:30 p.m. The library would be closing in about thirty minutes. As much as he didn’t want to, he knew he needed to leave this area briefly. He hadn’t even done what he’d come here to do.

Making sure not to stir the blonde, Jeff slowly stood up and began to head toward the graphic novels…and then, he had this…feeling. Turning around, he saw the scene he’s just left. The beautiful stranger, curled up on the couch, looking purer than anything he’d ever known. Without thinking he made his way back over to the couch, unzipped his jacket, and carefully draped it over the sleeping figure, smiling. Now, things were right. He resumed his journey back over to the graphic novels, where, in a matter of minutes, he’d stocked up on copies of Frank Miller’s Sin City and Kevin Smith’s limited run on Green Arrow.

His literary selections in hand, he sauntered back to the couch, where he found the image that would indelibly become the image of the moment he officially fell in love. The blonde had awoken, and now sat in the middle of the couch…fully zipped up in the parka, her hands in the pockets, and the hood closed around her face. Noticing Jeff, she hastily un-velcroed the hood and began to unzip.

“Oh, no, no, you don’t have to do that.” Jeff said, dropping his books on the coffee table.

“You sure?” The blonde asked, rezipping all the way up the collar.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s fine.”

“Okay.”

She sat back down carefully, and put her arms back in the pockets, before sinking into the puffiness once more, leaving only her brown eyes visible above the semi-high collar. Jeff couldn’t help but grin, as he sat down next to the girl, taking the copy of Quiver from the coffee table in a vain attempt to keep to the task at hand. A vain attempt, in that the book’s cover never opened once it was in Jeff’s hand. He couldn’t take his eyes off the figure sitting next to him. He knew he had to, though. He didn’t want her to think he was…weird, or something. It was these kinds of presumptions that had sent him here in the first place…and yet, he just couldn’t look away.

It wasn’t long before the girl turned toward Jeff, and saw his smiling gaze. She giggled as she popped her head out of the collar.

“What?” She asked, sporting a smile of her own.

“I—I—nothing,” Jeff quickly replied, opening the book so hastily, the front of the cover ripped clean off, causing another giggle from the blonde. Jeff sat mouth agape, knowing that he’d blown his cover…or ripped it off, as the case was. “You see what you do to a guy?” He asked, playfully. He knew he’d have to pay for the book, but, at that moment, he didn’t care. He was feeling something he hadn’t felt since sophomore year of high school. Jeffery Monroe Healy was in love.

Putting the destroyed literature back on the table, Jeff slumped down in the seat, resting his head, and turning toward the blonde, meeting her beautiful gaze. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Um, Stacy. Stacy Kess.”

“Jeff Healy”

Jeff instinctively stuck out his right hand, which was met by Stacy’s…and didn’t leave it for a good five minutes. The two of them caressed the contours of each other’s hand, not giving their actions a second thought, and both of them gazing passionately into the other’s eyes. It was a beautiful silence, broken all too soon by the sound of the library P.A. system.

“Attention, the library will be closing in five minutes.”

Stacy and Jeff broke their gaze, both scrambling over to their things. “I didn’t realize it was so late,” Stacy said, briskly.

“I-I didn’t, either,” Jeff replied, obviously still shaking from the events of the past few minutes. His backpack in mid-zip, he looked over toward her, seeing her start to remove the jacket. “No, no, you don’t have to.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s really cold out there, especially at night. I…” He paused, pulling a gray hooded sweatshirt from his backpack, “…I have this. I’ll be alright. I-I mean, obviously, I’ll have to walk you home…I mean—I don’t mind—I—“

“Oh, yeah, yeah, that’s okay. I mean, why not, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, why not?”

Both of them realized the irony of their nervous, faux half-hearted conversation, knowing full well that this was exactly what they had silently planned on the couch, and yet, the charade continued all the way to the door, where Jeff had a realization.

“Oh, crap. I left my books on that table back there.”

“You wanna go get them? I can wait here.”

“Oh, no. I mean—you know what? I can just come get them some other time. It’s no big deal. I mean, I just live about two blocks from here…and, hey—now I don’t have to pay for that book cover, huh?”

“Yeah…yeah.”

The two of them stood in silence, once again. The irony had to die, and both of them knew it. Jeff dropped his backpack on the ground, stood proud, and looked at Stacy with intent.

“Okay,” he said, as though losing a battle, and walked over to Stacy, kissing her with the passion of a man possessed. Stacy, who obviously felt the same way, spread her arms wide, and wrapped them around Jeff’s neck. They stood in this embrace uninterrupted, until Jeff felt a poke on his shoulder.

“You kids get out of here,” scolded the white-haired librarian, “this isn’t a brothel.”

Jeff turned to face the old biddy with her hands on her plastic hips, Stacy leaning on Jeff’s front, as he put his arms around his new lady-love, delighting in the cuddliness of his jacket on her. He stood, grinning, desperately thinking of something to say, and yet, all that came out was a jubilant laugh, which Stacy joined in immediately.

“Well, I never!” The librarian stormed off, as Jeff and Stacy, hand-in-hand, walked out the door, toward their new life together.

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