Hey! this is my submission (kinda) for this week’s writing contest!
since i’m a judge and a mod you can’t actually vote for my submission, but i loved this prompt so i wrote a short story for it based on a song called “Warm Foothills” by Alt-J! hope you enjoy <3
Warm Foothills
STORYTIME!
Love these two
“Y’know, we are going to the Rocks this weekend.” Daniel closed his locker, knocking Jaden out of his thoughts. “Just invite her then! I’m sure she’d love it.”
“And have Iris watch you all make fools of yourselves?” Jaden flicked Daniel on the head as they walked back to class for the final time this senior semester. “I’d rather not. This is new and… the last thing I need is you three scaring her off.”
Ronnie hung off Jaden’s shoulder then, grinning like a devil. “Oh we’ll behave Jades, for the lady.”
Jaden stopped, contemplating it.
“Fine.”
The trio, Daniel, Ronnie, and Jesse, all started whooping and hollering then.
“But!” Jaden raised his voice, calming them down. “If you scare her off, I will be personally charging you all for the breakup icecream fest i have after.”
—-
The dunes on top of the cliffs were sandy, and filled with stringy ferns. And the boys, plus Jaden’s girlfriend of two months, Iris, were sitting on a stretched out blanket on them.
“No. Absolutely not.” Jaden shook his head at Ronnie, who was already taking off his shirt, preparing himself to jump off the rocks into the ocean below. No small drop.
“Oh why not, J?” Iris giggled, leaning further into him. “If they wanna go to the ER, that’s their problem! Not ours.”
Jaden’s face flushed at the way Iris so calmly said “Ours”, like this was something concrete, real.
“F-fine.” Jaden muttered, eliciting excitement from the boys, who hopped up, shirts forgotten on the sand, racing towards the cliff.
Iris, next to Jaden, grinned, sliding off her top as she stood up, revealing the beautiful one piece she had on under, making Jaden go red.
“Well?”
Iris stood above him, holding out a hand.
The setting sun behind her framed the pitch black curls around her face, and illuminated everything about Iris that he loved. Her smile, her face, her laugh, her voice.
“Fine…” Jaden grabbed her hand, and as he stood up, she pulled him close. Their faces nearly touching, so close.
Jaden immediately staggered back, trying not to do anything stupid, unlike his friends who were now hurling themselves off the tall cliff into the water below with hollering.
Jaden, still holding Iris’s hand, ran towards the water “C’mon then.”
“Now now, pretty boy.” Iris pulled on his hand, spinning Jaden back into herself. “I wasn’t done.”
And then she kissed him. Perfectly, picturesquely, with the sun behind them and the water below, it was like a scene from a movie. And Jaden realized that in the two months they’d been together, never once had they kissed.
When she finally let go, Iris was beaming. And Jaden was sure he was a mess.
“I- wow.”
Iris just giggled, pulling a stunned Jaden to the edge of the cliff, where they could see the boys below in the water.
All of them called up, but Jaden couldn’t make out the words through his spinning head.
And then, with a perfect smile and no short amount of grace, she kissed him again.
This time, Jaden fell into it. Hearing the boys holler various shouts of approval from the bottom of the cliff, he put his hands on the side of her head and kissed her back.
And for once, this felt real.
And it was amazing.
Until Iris pulled away, grinning, and with a small push of her finger, tipped Jaden off into the water below.
—-
“Oh!! J, look!”
Iris, swimming beside a newly graduated Jaden in the shallow waters near the Rocks, pointed out a blue dragonfly perched on a marshy leaf.
“Whoa.” Jaden fixed on the thing, watching it dart to and fro. “It’s beautiful.”
But Jaden wasn’t just here to look at the beauty around them. The shallow, shining blue water. The cliff where he and Iris shared their first kiss in sight. The dragonflies and the sun and the leaves and everything wonderful.
He was here for her, his wonderful.
Because, you see, Jaden had just graduated from law school. Him and Iris were grown, and she had only gotten more beautiful.
And with time, he became ready.
Ready to right now, kneel in the shallow water, pulling something small out of his pocket.
“Iris Descher.”
She turned towards Jaden, seeing the glint of a ring in his hands, and covered her mouth with her hands, gasping.
“You have made me the happiest man in the world. So there’s only one question I have for you.”
…
“Will you marry me?”
—-
“Today was… something.”
Jaden sat on the roof of their apartment with his new wife of six hours, staring at the stars.
“Yeah… yeah it was.”
They both paused, just taking in the beauty of the sky.
Then Iris pulled something strange out of her pocket, and with a squeaking sound, began to blow up a balloon.
“Where did you-?” Jaden tried to question, but Iris stopped him.
“Hold on.”
She tied up the balloon, and then let go of it with one hand, letting Jaden hold it with one of his, so both were holding on.
“I want you to put everything on this balloon.”
“Huh?”
Iris sighed, starting over. “All of your doubts about us, yourself, anything. Everything in your life, put it on this balloon. Figuratively of course.”
Jaden huffed, but he did try to do so, breathing deep, closing his eyes and letting his shoulders relax.
“Now, let it go.”
And he did. All of it.
They both watched it float into the sky, somehow possesing such a property despite the air inside it. Jaden didn’t ponder it long, as Iris kissed him on the cheek.
“The first day of our life. We tied ourselves together today, now we tied our old lives to that balloon.”
“And we let it go.” Jaden sighed contentedly.
“So we did.”
—-
“Breathe.” Iris whispered to Jaden, who was holding their daughter, Georgia, for the first time.
“She’s-“ Jaden nearly choked on his words, nearly in tears at the sight of her.
“She’s yours. She’s here.” Iris whispered, kissing her husband’s neck from her bed, before drifting off into a peaceful sleep.
Jaden kissed his wife on the forehead, and turned back to his arms to look at their daughter. But slowly his face of love turned to one of horror.
“She’s not breathing.”
—-
They walked up the hill. It was a breezy evening, well into July. Almost a full year after Georgia’s passing.
“Breathe into it!” Iris poked at her husband’s side, carrying a small basket as she flapped out a blanket. The same one from all those years ago.
“Well I’m trying but it’s hard, walking up a hill!”
Iris laughed, setting the basket down under a tree as Jaden finally tied the balloon Iris had given him the task of blowing up as they came up here.
He sat down next to her, handing the balloon over.
He watched as she tied a string to the balloon, a reddish thing. It reminded him of the color of Georgia’s hair. Just the thought made him sad.
Iris noticed his face fall, rubbing his back as she handed him the balloon back. “Here. It’s ok.”
Jaden took it, and looked back at Iris, who had begun rummaging in the basket for something.
“Why are we up here anyway?” Jaden asked, as Iris pulled something out.
His heart seemed to stop as he recognized the picture, an ultrasound image of Georgia. The only picture they ever got of her.
On the corner of it was a small hole, and Iris solemnly took the end of the ribbon from Jaden’s slack hand, and tied it through the ribbon on the balloon.
She stood up, and Jaden grabbed her outstretched hand, following suit.
“I’ve made my peace.” Iris explained, taking him to an open section of the hill, away from their tree.
“Now,” Iris handed Jaden the balloon with their daughter’s picture on it. “I’m trying to help you make yours.”
Jaden stared at the picture, of their amazing, beautiful daughter. Taken far too soon.
He stared at it, and a tear ran down his face, hitting the photo.
He wiped it away, breathing deeply, before kissing the photo. The last time he would ever do so. “Goodbye, my dear.”
And slowly, but surely, he let go.
The balloon floated up into the air, and with it he felt himself lighten. Finally letting go.
“Better?”
Jaden nodded, and Iris just smiled, in that perfect little way she did.
“If you could do it again, have another shot,” Iris side hugged her husband as they stared at the balloon, letting their daughter be at peace. “Would you?”
Jaden paused, but nodded. “I think I would.”
And Iris grinned now, reaching into her back pocket. “Well good.”
And what she pulled out was a test. A small test, with two little lines that meant everything. Two little lines that meant-
“You’re gonna get to.”