Cruel Summer - C. Sturniolo

Fourteen | Chaos

When Stella arrived in New Jersey and was at Jack's apartment, she was not thinking straight. Her thoughts were scrambled along with her emotions. As she was walking up she wanted to run back to her car and leave, but the other part wanted to go and see someone she knew could level her.

"Hey! Come in" Jack said with a warm smile

"Thanks for letting me stay here" Stella said walking in

"No problem man, you're always welcomed to stay" he said going into the kitchen

"So Trevor's out?" she asked

"Yeah he is, he's gonna be here in like thirty minutes though" he said pointing at the door

"Alright" she lowly said

"Hey are you hungry? I made like four steaks and a lot of sides"

"If that's fine with you" she said sitting at the island

"Yeah of course" he said grabbing a plate

Jack served her food along with himself, sitting next to one another talking about why she was there. He listened to her even when she got off track of the story, saying how much fun she had when they went to the lake. He was invested when he heard what happened after, becoming genuinely concerned for her. But when he heard the part where Vanessa came in, it hit him hard. This is what happened to him also, but they worked it out and had a good run. He didn't know if it would work for Stella.

"Do you wanna be with him?" Jack asked

"I don't know anymore, he hasn't broken anything off with that girl" stella responded

"Just see how it plays out. But honestly I'd stay focus on hockey, shit like that makes you off your game when you really need to be on it" he said

"Yeah" she sighed

"But hey, if it's meant to be then he'll do something about it and it'll all workout in the end" he said patting her back

Jack continued the conversation by talking about their childhood, how they got along so well and memories they have of one another. Stella enjoyed this conversation, remembering a lot about her childhood that was somehow shut out of her memory.

Suddenly the front door opened along with Stella's phone ringing. She went into another room answering her call, learning very vital information about something she forgot about.

"Jack" she announced storming out the room

"Its nice to see you here" Trevor spoke

"Oh hey Trevor, Jack do you have a computer I could use?" Stella asked

"Yeah theres one in my room I'll show you" he said walking her to his room

"Totally forgot about this interview" Stella said letting him know why she was asking

"Oh good luck, online interviews are so boring" Jack said setting everything up

"Thanks for the pro tip" she sarcastically said with a pat on his back

"Yeah no problem, good luck" he patted her back before leaving the room

Stella stared at the zoom login, entering the room code and password. Getting accepted quickly and seeing everyone else getting set up, she was nervous. It was her first online interview and it was to get to know more about her. Like about her life and what she does at home. Not about hockey, no, they had plenty of interviews with more to come.

"Are you ready?" Andy asked

"Yes" Stella responded

They did the introduction and announced what they were going to do, it was an "explain this" interview where they would dig through your social media's and ask you for dialogue on the photo or whatever they pulled up. She was now shitting bricks knowing what they would bring up.