You Can't Run From the Past

Chapter 12: A New Start

Chapter 12: A New Start

Jessie's Point of View:

Tessa had finally left. Only a small part of me actually felt bad. Everything that had gradually started creeping into my mind and shadowing my good thoughts was out in the open. It was refreshing and for once I didn't feel so trapped. I finished packing my second bag full of clothes and was ready to go. Most of the clothing filling my bag were exercise shorts, jeans, and plaid button-up shirts. I had a couple hats as well. Straw, beanies, and cowboy hats. I never wore them but I liked to throw them on for random occasions. Straw hats were always related with country. Country is wide, open, and free. Beanies feel loose and carefree and cowboys were always free and careless. Did you spot the theme?

Before I came all the way out here, risking my own life, I was happy moving from place to place and never settling down. I was happy. I never had the time to get attached or get to know people. Don't get me wrong, this isn't some sad story. In fact, the sad story was when I left that perfect drama-less and free world to come and help Tessa, the queen of drama. Heck, she even made me dramatic! I loved my life when I had nothing to worry about but what I wanted to wear or what new place I wanted to travel too (if you could call calm and excitedly making a choice "worrying").

This pity fest was going to end though. I threw on my straw hat and smiled in the mirror. I was going back to my old life. I zipped my bags up and threw one across my shoulder while I pulled the other out of the room. Nate and I had never been serious, but it had irritated me that Tessa woke up and expected everything to be the same. She expected that Nate would still be mooning over her. Then she found out about Alex and made up (or made-out) with him. Even with Alex back and me being happy with Nate she still couldn't take it. She took them both back just to hurt them. She was hurting three people to satisfy and please herself. That wasn't right.

I shook my head as I traveled down the stairwell. I was trying to forget everything. Settling down and trying to help had been a huge mistake. I know that I was and am in danger too. That was one of the reasons I had come out to help, but after all the things Nate and I discovered while Tessa was out we realized that the danger had never been on anyone but Tessa. That was because Tessa was the first one they realized that was immune to the infection. Even after they found out about the rest of us they were still targeting Tessa. We didn't know why. Nate and I had been in the middle of trying to figure out what else they needed Tessa for when she woke up. Well now that she was awake she could figure it out herself.

By this point I was in my car with my bags in the trunk. I traveled all that night. I went from Wisconsin to Ohio in around eight and a half hours. That had been all I was able to drive that night though. I pulled into a parking lot of a nice hotel and checked in. I rested comfortably that night without any worries. I awoke in the afternoon; it was around 12:30. I jumped out of bed and got ready for the day. With a wink at the cute guy at the front desk I had checked out and was on the road again.

Six hours later I had barely gotten to New York. I didn't know why I decided to go to New York, but a part of me felt like it was the state for new beginnings. My head was swirling with thoughts of Tessa, Nate, and Alex. I shook them each out of my head though. Alex and Nate wanted Tessa and Tessa only wanted herself. I never thought that this was how things would end for me, but this was both the end of an old life and the beginning of a new one.

I first searched for a job. School was going to start in a week and I needed to go. I was many things, but I was definitely not a high school drop out. It didn't take me long to get a minimum wage job at a small but homely store. It was a tiny coffee shop that was on the corner of a busy street. The owner said they had just gotten an expansion, they used to run their business in a fairly run-down neighborhood in Brooklyn. Now they are here in New York, New York with a store three times as big as their last. With the new business opportunity they needed more workers and I needed a job.