CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Pizza, bags of Lays and overly sweet milkshakes didn't sound entirely appealing to Raegan and she had all the blame on Jack for the reason she agreed to it.

She was opposed to it initially, opting to just stick to milkshakes and nothing else that would mess up its flavor, but when they finally got the chance to be together alone on the daylight ever since they've found out that their feelings were mutual, it was difficult to say no to Jack.

Mostly because the hand kisses and sweet words mumbled against her skin sort of softened her resolve.

She wasn't entirely happy about it but they eventually found themselves on the parking lot just across the restaurant they've come to know as World's Best Pizza Place, Reagan huffed hair out of her eyes while glaring at Jack.

"Just so you know," Reagan told Jack, "I still don't approve of this."

"Relax, grumpy," He said as he pulled off his seatbelt the same time she did and that's all it took. That boyish, charming smile that crinkled his eyes and the corners of his lips for Reagan to be sold.

He threw an arm over her shoulder as they walked in the shop and they walked out with three boxes of large pizzas in Jack's free hand.

"We're not gonna finish that," Reagan shook her head at the sight of it, "Hope you realize that."

"Wanna bet on it, Wallace?" Jack said, sparing her a look, and instead of going for the car doors, he led them to the front of the pick-up and laid down the pizzas on the bonnet.

Reagan didn't put up any resistance when Jack leaned his back against the bumper and pulled her closer to him until she was standing between his outstretched legs.

"Remember this parking lot?" Jack asked, linking their fingers, and Reagan felt shocks of butterflies at the mere contact.

And then she understood what he meant and she nodded, "Oh, yeah. We had our first, non-hostile conversation here."

"Well," he rolled his eyes, "This is also where I realized that I really liked that dorky girl with mismatched clothes who probably made tea out of the leaves from her garden."

"Hey!" Reagan gave a false, affronted scoff, "I'm offended!" She then shoved his shoulder and grumbled, "And for the matter of fact, I do."

Jack burst out a laugh and shook his head.

"All I'm saying is," He said, still with a small laugh, "This place is special right?"

Reagan made a show of looking around, across the dewy-green mountain range and down the street of quaint houses and shops that had chipping paint, before landing on the empty garage with a broken neon sign and a boy with eyes that likely glows brighter than that sign ever did.

"I guess you could say that."

Jack tightened his grip on her fingers, "Which means that this is sacred ground. And if we make a promise here, it's gonna be important you comply."

Reagan narrowed her eyes, "Where are you going with this?"

Instead of giving her a mischievous grin or anything of the like, Jack actually turned somber and he sighed.

"One thing we can't escape is death, right?" He asked seriously and Reagan did a double take because where the fuck is this going? He must've noticed the panic and concern that washed over her because he added, "No, this is just to prove a point. But you agree that death is shit and it's inescapable?"

Reagan went along with it and shrugged, "Sure."

"Yet what are we doing right now?" Jack asked, "We're driving around town to get milkshakes, getting hammered above cliffsides, singing to the Beatles during sunrise. We're living."

"Because we're not really given a choice to live. We just do," Reagan countered but Jack wasn't phased.

"Maybe," He shrugged, "But we're making the choice to continue living well anyways. You know why?"

Reagan shrugged back just to humor him, "Why?"

"Because we have the time," Jack answered, looking at her square in the eyes, and Reagan only started to understand what he's trying point out.

"The fact that we still have time makes us lucky already as it is so what do we do with that?" He asked rhetorically, "We spend it the best way we can."

"Jack," Reagan sighed, starting to pull away because talking about limited time was the most efficient way to ruin her day but Jack pulled her back to him.

"No, listen to me," He said, bending down to meet her lowered gaze, "We have time. We still have a lot of time. When you're nearing death do you spend your last days being sad about it or do you make the best damn memories you can make while you still can?"

Reagan rolled her eyes but answered begrudgingly, "Option two."

Jack snickered at the dryness of her response and nudged her knee but he said, "Be here with me. Promise me on this very spot where we started that you will be here with me. You'll spend the rest of our time together living instead of worrying about how long we've got."

That was impossible. Reagan's already programmed herself to not climb too high so the fall afterwards wouldn't be as catastrophic but Jack was looking at her pleadingly and she might not mean it but she couldn't say no to him.

"Alright," She sighed, "I can't promise that a hundred percent but I can promise I'll try."

"For my sake?" Jack asked, his voice soft, "Leaving you isn't gonna be easy too you know. But that's in the future. I have you right now so everything else doesn't matter right now."

Reagan could see the desperation he has to convince her to spend the rest of their time together without any reservations so she nods despite herself.

"Okay. Okay, I promise."

Jack broke out into a smile and he raised his hands to the back of her neck to pull her in for a short, chaste kiss on her forehead.

"Thanks, Wallace," He grinned, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "I'm holding onto it."

Reagan didn't actually know if she could promise that. She guessed that she could just have her breakdowns inside her bedroom if ever they come. If the realizations of how awful it'll be once they leave come back, she'll learn how to keep it to herself.

Because if Jack looked at her the way her did then, she was going to try her hardest.

ok jk this is the actual start of the long fluffy chapters

this chapter had minor serious topics and i hope i handled the topic of death welllll. if i offended anyone with it, please tell me how i could improve it, i am very willing to edit it

Anyways, as always, feedback is muuuch appreciated 💕

edit: just posted the playlist yay and if u want to listen to it while reading i highly reccc(: