Internet Friends - Discontinued

3

Jesse POV

"Jesse, stop talking to your girlfriend and come eat," my mom called from the kitchen. "The food has been ready for an hour. Your siblings have already eaten."

"Coming!" I yelled back at her. In truth, I probably wasn't going to eat until Kaydn text me back or called me or something. I know I should eat since I haven't eaten all day, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm too worried about all the possibilities with her. "And she isn't my girlfriend," I added shortly after.

"Yet, anyways," I said to myself.

Kaydn can make my day go from bad to amazing in a matter of seconds. She makes it go from great to wonderful in the blink of an eye. Now I'm not going to say I don't love her, because I do, just not in a romantic way. Mom gets worried about that sometimes. She just doesn't understand the whole 'internet friends' things.

She thinks it means just being friends over Facebook or something where you're friends with someone in real life. One time, she told me to 'just go see her' and I couldn't help but feel the need to laugh and then feel like I needed to cry.

"Jesse!" she yelled again.

"I said I'll be there in a second," I said quietly. Without waiting much longer, I got up to go eat. Not going to lie, I was extremely hungry since I haven't ate today. I just haven't noticed I was hungry.

There was something I missed out on I guess, because it wasn't that late and the other obnoxious family member that I dare call brothers were watching a movie in the living room. Both of my parents were sat at the table.

"Jesse, we need to talk about this Kaydn person," Dad started. "What if she isn't who she says she is? She could be a man, a pedophile!"

"Dad, she's not like that." No one said anything. Did they finally realize I was right for a change?

"And how would you know this without ever meeting her in person?" he continued. Mom didn't say anything since she's still lost on the concept of internet friends. "I'm telling you Jesse, I bet she has secrets she's never told you."

"She does. She can tell me when she wants; if she wants." I began to pick at the cold food that was on my plate from earlier, my appetite suddenly gone. "Everyone has secrets they don't tell anyone. That's life."

He sighed and started talking again, "I'd like it if we could meet her. I'm not going to let you put yourself in risk of being kidnapped when it all could've ended beforehand."

"It's that that simple. Her parents don't trust her. Something happened last year and now they almost don't let her do anything."

"Well, then, if she can't come here, we'll go there. Where does she live?"

I sighed. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to meet her but if we just randomly pop up there, she'll probably think I'm some creep that has been doing research on her for the past six months.

"She lives in California," I said quietly.

"Where in Cali?"

"San Francisco. She lives in San Francisco, California." This meal suddenly went from just eating to interrogation. If I didn't tell them stuff, it'd be guaranteed that they'd keep me here until I answered or fell asleep. If I gave them the answers they wanted, they would let me go back to my room.

"Well, looks like you'll be calling the girl and telling her that we'll be there within a months' time."

"But Dad—"

"No buts', Jesse. You have to do this before an old man comes up to our door, telling us he's Kaydn but his real name is Burrell."

I sighed and walked back to my room. I wasn't going to try and call Kaydn since she most likely won't answer me. I could text her even though it'll result in an answer tomorrow or next week some time. I don't like this whole silent treatment she's giving me and Shannon.

I sent her a text telling her I needed to talk to her about something that's important. Within five minutes of sending the text, my phone started to repeatedly buzz. She finally decided to call me.

"Hey," I said a bit quieter than normal.

"Jesse, what did you need to talk about?" she said.

"I just finished talking to my dad . . . he said he wants something to happen in order for us to keep talking." Okay, so I exaggerated things just a small bit but it'll be the only way for her to agree to it.

"I'm listening."

"He said that he wants us all to meet. You and all of us over here."

"Wait, what?" she asked. I heard a door open and a quiet, "Alyssa, get out of my room or else I tell him not to get you anything! Oh, and can you tell Richie to come down here? It's urgent."

I couldn't help but smile and laugh at her struggle with her younger sister. Although, I'm not too sure who Richie I, too be honest. I'm guessing it's her brother.

"Hey, Jesse, can we maybe Skype about this? It'd be easier for me so I can talk to you and Richie at the same time while texting Shannon."

"Yeah sure."

We ended up talking on Skype for a while by ourselves until Richie came down. Yeah, he's definitely her brother. It was like looking at twins. They both have black hair and green eyes with the longest eyelashes you'll ever see.

"Richie, this is 'that one guy,' Jesse, I told you about earlier. Jesse, this is my secret brother Richie I've been hiding from you for the past six months," she said. Richie said hi and sat down on the bed. "Anyways, as you were saying over the phone earlier?"

"Oh, yeah! Dad wants us to go over there sometime in the next month or so to meet at least you. It'd be me, Mom, Dad, Jeffrey and Jared coming over. Jacob can;t because of his job." I watched as she and Richie quietly talked. They were talking quiet enough to where I could still hear them, but I had to struggle to make out words.

"Kay, Mom is going to be pissed if she finds out about him now."

"I know. But like I told you earlier, he's not like Jett."

"Right now he isn't. For all we know, he's got connections with Zach," Richie said.

"Richie, I already told you he isn't like that. He's too . . . sweet for it. You don't know him like I do,"Kaydn fought back. Well, I'm not a hundred percent sure on what they're talking about but I'm guessing it's something serious.

It was quiet for a second as Richie thought of something to say but failed. Both of them came back over and sat down, Richie obviously defeated.

"We need to plan this out more. Like, when, where, and how wise."

"Well, first things first, Kay. You've gotta tell Mom," Richie interjected.

"Wait, your Mom doesn't know about me? This explains so much."

"Jesse, it's not like that. If you knew about what happened last year, you would understand that it's best for my mom not to know." Richie nodded in agreement.

The rest of my night was spent making plans on when to meet next month and how to do it without her mother knowing.