annabirmingham | Fishing for Lake Trout (July Challenge)

AU/AU. A little bit of childhood nostalgia featuring our Jack and Ennis...

Warnings - none
Length - 1,800 words
Thanks - to

hesamathgeek for the beta :)

Note - I actually started two other stories for this challenge, but this is the one that appeared randomly. It popped out after playing around on Youtube and watching the intro to kids' TV show Huckleberry Finn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q7GGYLmWDU&playnext_from=TL&videos=D0t3RcyZ2NI

Think of Jack and Ennis as Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn respectively, with a bit of Anne of Green Gables thrown in for good measure!

****

Of all the people in the world it had to be him. Such was my bad luck.

I’d never known anyone to have more bad luck than me. I mean, it wasn’t my fault that the boat I had borrowed to go fishing in had sprung a leak. It also wasn’t my fault that the damn thing had sunk in the middle of the river, leaving me battling deep water and heavy cotton clothes which threatened to drag me down. It was also not my fault that I had no dad, or older brothers to teach me to swim. Yeah, I had been dealt a bad hand, sure enough.

So, as I watched the useless lump of wood sink under rippling water, I flailed around a like an uncoordinated puppy and managed to splash my way to the old bridge straddling the middle of the river. Grabbing onto a hefty post, I hauled myself out of the water and clung on like a wet limpet while I contemplated my next move. Wondering how long my arms would hold out.

Barely five minutes had passed before I heard the unmistakable splash of an oar cutting through the water. Thank god for that. I exhaled in relief and rested my forehead against the knotted wood. It wasn’t until I turned towards my potential rescuer to wave for attention, that I realized who it was. On a raft of all things.

Ennis.

I turned back to the post and shifted a little, trying to look like hanging off a post from under a bridge was something I did all the time.

I heard the creak of wood and turned to see Ennis smirking up at me. Brown eyes taunting from underneath that stupid straw hat he always wore.

“Jack Twist. What the hell are you doing?”

I sighed and rolled my eyes, as if I couldn’t believe he had asked such a ridiculous question. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m fishing. For lake trout.”

“For lake trout.” Ennis repeated, clearly not believing a word I said. He steadied the raft with one hand and held out the other one to me.

I had no choice but to accept his offer of help. It was either that or risk falling back into the river and being mown down by a passing steamboat. Despite my feelings for the guy there was really no contest. I grasped his arm reluctantly and tumbled onto Ennis’ raft, causing it to rock precariously.

“Whoa.” Ennis grabbed the sides and tried to steady it as I scrambled to sit on the opposite end to balance it out.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

Ennis eyed me carefully and slowly began to paddle. I felt a bit awkward just sitting there, but there wasn’t much else I could do. There was only one oar. And it wasn’t like I really wanted to have a conversation with him.

Ennis was almost a year older that me, but we were in the same class at school. I guess that wasn’t difficult considering that there were only twenty students in the entire tiny schoolhouse. He had recently turned sixteen and the girls were forever fawning over him. Days at school crawled by whenever Ennis decided to turn up. I’d been forced to sit next to him on my very first day and he’d taken great delight in finding fault with me at every opportunity, saying my blue eyes were ‘girly’ and calling me ‘crow-head’ or ‘jackdaw’ on account of my black hair. I think he thought he was being funny. In reality he just pissed me off so I ignored him as best I could, although I frequently got the urge to break my slate over his head.

It was weird. Despite not liking Ennis, there was something about him that intrigued me. I kind of felt that if we had met in a different time, or a different place, then we could’ve been friends. I watched Ennis from under my lashes as he paddled us towards the shore, his gaze flickering to me every so often. Neither of us said a word.

With the riverbank only a few yards away, I jumped up and pushed my way past Ennis, planning to leap ashore and run back to my aunt’s house. The grass was hard and prickly under my bare feet, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to get away.

“You’re welcome,” Ennis said sarcastically as I offered him no word of thanks.

I gave him a half-hearted wave over my head, but didn’t look back.

“Hey! Wait a minute!” Ennis leapt out and pulled the raft to safety as I dashed away. He was taller than me, and wasn’t weighed down by soggy clothes, so he managed to catch me up pretty quickly. I got to the edge of the woods before he grabbed my arm and spun me around. “Jack, wait up.”

“What?” I wasn’t in the mood to bicker and needed to get home to explain about the sunken boat. Not that I was looking forward to that, either.

Ennis paused for a moment, the cool evening breeze ruffling the curly blond hair sticking out of the back of his hat. “Seriously, what were you doing out there?”

“Like you care.” I turned away again, but Ennis grabbed my arm once more.

“Jack, please.”

“Please? Please what?” I said impatiently. “I appreciate the rescue effort and everything, but I need to get back. And change.” I gestured down to my wet clothes.

“Yeah… I guess so.”

Something about the way he said that caught me off guard. He looked… nervous almost.

I shivered as the breeze penetrated my soggy shirt and I felt goose bumps crawl up my arms.

“You cold?” Ennis noticed the shiver and moved a little closer to me.

I stepped back, rubbing my hands over my arms. “What do you think?”

“Here.” Ennis untied the flannel shirt from around his waist and handed it to me.

I stared at it, not quite sure what I was seeing. “Seriously?”

“Sure, why not.”

I was too cold to argue so I stripped off my own sodden shirt, letting it slop to the ground as I pulled on Ennis’ dry one. “Thanks.” I eyed his bare chest, noticing the play of dappled sunlight over his skin and the small hard peaks of his nipples. “Won’t you get cold though?”

“Nah,” Ennis shook his head, “got a spare shirt back home.”

I realized that I didn’t actually know where he lived.

Ennis stepped closer again and I took a deep breath as he raised a hand. I don’t know what I thought he was going to do, but he simply helped me to button the shirt, seeing as my shaking hands were doing a pretty lousy job. With him so close into my personal space, I somehow wasn’t able to control my breathing. I wanted him to go away, fast, but I also wanted him to stay.

Ennis finished buttoning up the shirt and briskly rubbed his hands down my arms. “Better?”

“Yeah,” I replied hesitantly. I wasn’t quite sure what was happening here. Who was this version of Ennis in front of me? Why was he being so nice?

Ennis’ hands slowed to a stop on my arms, but he didn’t let go. We both stood there for a moment, not quite knowing what to say.

I made the mistake of looking into Ennis’ dark eyes. My heart sped up and I found I couldn’t look away.

Ennis’ eyes searched my face in confusion, “Jack?”

I have no idea what possessed me, but I leant leaned forward and gently brushed my lips against his. Barely a touch, but we both felt it, both inhaled sharply.

Ennis made a small sound in his throat, then he was pushing me back against a tree, hands twisting in my hair as he slammed his mouth back down on mine. He was like a man possessed. He plundered my mouth with his tongue and I could barely do more than grab onto his bare shoulders to keep myself upright. I’d kissed a girl called Becky at school once, but it had been nothing like this. A white-hot heat rushed through me as my tongue touched his. My hands knocked his damn straw hat off so I could thread my fingers through his hair, holding his mouth tight against mine. Ennis leaned his whole body weight against me, pushing me hard against the tree as something equally hard throbbed against my hip. I moaned in pleasure and tried to wriggle around so we were crotch to crotch, but Ennis had me pinned too tight.

We kissed and kissed, and damn if I’d ever felt so alive in my life. I felt Ennis stutter and then wrench himself away, panting hard, rubbing the back of his hand over his lips. I could barely breathe myself and was grateful for the tree behind me, since no doubt I would’ve fallen over without support, my knees felt that weak. I dug my nails into the bark behind me.

Ennis leaned forward as if to kiss me again, but I twisted away, not trusting myself to keep my body under control if he did.

We stared at each other in bewilderment, knowing that something profound had just happened. Ennis seemingly recovered first and stooped to retrieve his hat, jamming it back on his head. “I… er… yeah.”

“Sure,” I nodded. Sure about what I didn’t actually know.

Ennis nodded in return and started to walk backwards towards the raft, still watching me. “So… guess I’ll see you tomorrow, huh? At school?”

“Yeah. Guess so.”

Ennis pushed the raft free and jumped on, paddling swiftly out into the middle of the river. He turned around to give me once long, last glance.

Still leaning against my tree, I watched him go. Kept watching until he had paddled out of sight.

I grasped the collar of Ennis’ shirt and pulled it to my nose, inhaling deeply. It smelled of sun, sweat and straw and was totally gorgeous. I stood there sniffing it for a few moments before I realized what I was doing.

Silently I picked up my own discarded shirt and balled it in my fist, water dripping through my fingers.

I suddenly figured that perhaps my luck was changing after all. Maybe school wouldn’t be quite so bad from now on. Long days sitting next to Ennis now held somewhat of an appeal. I smiled. He could call me whatever he wanted as long as we got the opportunity to “fish” again soon. Our lives had turned a corner. I knew things would be different. I was actually looking forward to it.

THE END