I woke up on Tuesday morning to someone shaking me and yelling at me to get up.
"Jenny! Get up, get up, get up!!" My little brother, JJ, screamed. He's 12, so his voice is still maturing, making it very hard to just turn over and ignore it, but he's my brother and that makes it easier.
"Ugh, fine, I'll just tell Sam that you're not going to school and he only needs to give me a ride." He begins to walk away when I stop him by grabbing his wrist. He just rolls his eyes.
"Wait, he's here? Why?" I ask, squinting up at him because of the brightness in my room.
"I don't know, he showed up about 10 minutes ago and offered to give us rides, so we shouldn't keep him waiting." JJ breaks out of my grip and leaves my room, slamming the door. I quickly get up and change into a pink crop top and jean shorts. On my way out of my room I slip into my white converse.
When I get downstairs, Sam is talking with my mom at the counter and JJ is getting his shoes on by the front door.
When Sam notices me, he instantly runs over to me and picks me up, making me giggle. He doesn't usually show this much affection, but there's a special reason for it today.
"Happy anniversary, babe!" Sam puts me down and instantly connects our lips, causing me to tangle my fingers in his hair.
When we break apart, I don't waste one second before replying with a cheerful "happy anniversary!"
"Alright kids, save the PDA for when your little brother isn't watching, please." my mom says, sending me a teasing glare.
"Who you calling a kid, Mrs. G? Last I checked I just turned 14!" Sam exclaimed, his voice covered in sarcasm.
My mom and I laughed, and Sam turned to the door where JJ was watching us impatiently.
"Are we leaving now? I don't want to be late to school." he pouted, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Why, got a hot date?" Sam says, walking over to him and ruffling his hair.
"No, he'd actually have to be interested in girls for that to happen." I say, following Sam and JJ outside. I vaguely heard my mom say goodbye before I shut the door behind me.
"What, are you gay now?" Sam asked JJ, leaning the drivers seat forward so he can get into the back.
"N-no, Jenny's just being s-sarcastic, right Jen?" he stuttered, climbing in. Sam moves the seat back into its original position as I go to the passenger side.
"Yes, why are you so flustered?" I ask, laughing as I get into the passenger's seat.
"No reason." he chuckles nervously, and I decide to drop it, but apparently Sam has other ideas.
"You can tell us if you are, since Jenny's bisexual and I support her, I would one hundred percent support you too." Sam states, looking in the rearview mirror as he starts to drive out of the driveway.
"I'm not! Can we please just drop it?" JJ yells, glaring in between Sam and I.
"Yeah, of course buddy. Anything to make you happy." Sam states, grabbing my hand from my lap and resting our intertwined hands on the center console.
We spent the rest of the car ride in a comfortable silence until we pulled into JJ's school parking lot. Sam got out and moved the seat forward so JJ could get out, and as soon as the seat was out of the way he bolted towards the door to the school.
"Have a good day!" Sam called, but he was already inside. Sam just sighed and moved the seat back and got in.
"You shouldn't have persisted with it. Now he's going to be mad all day." I say, intertwining our hands back to their original position.
"I just want him to know that we're here for him. I want him to tell us these things." Sam looks down and sighs again.
"He knows, believe me. And he will tell us if he is. There is always the possibility that he's telling the truth that he's not gay, you know." I say, giving his hand a soft squeeze.
"I know, and I do believe you," he looks into my eyes. "it's just... I want him to know that I'm not just in it for you, but I'm in it for him too."
"I get it. I mean, I don't the way you do because you're an only child, but I understand where you're coming from. Anyway, we should probably get going before people think we're stalking or something." I chuckle at the end, trying to lighten the mood. I can tell it worked by the way he sent me a small smile.
Once we got to school, I could already see Emmy sitting at the tree that we go to every morning. Jose was there too, and to no surprise of mine, they were making out.
"Hey! Save the PDA for the wedding!" I call, making them stop and look at me. Emmy gets off of him, but he keeps her by his side when he sees Sam following me. Sam doesn't exactly have a good reputation at school, so all the guys keep their girls far away from him even though he obviously only has eyes for me.
"Who says we're getting married?" Emmy responds, leaning into Jose.
"I don't know, I just have a feeling." I say, sitting down across from them and telling Sam to sit next to me. He does, but it takes a moment of persuasion for him to do so.
I could see Emmy glance at him warily out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't say anything. Jose was shamelessly glaring at him, but I wasn't going to bring that up either. They had their opinions, I had mine. Theirs just happened to be wrong.
I barely noticed Emmy start to fiddle with Jose's fingers before Jazlyn walked over and plopped down into the grass, groaning. She laid back with one of her arms over her eyes.
"You okay?" I ask, leaning forward a bit.
"Yeah, just tired. I want to strangle my brother." She sits up and rubs her eyes.
"Don't you always want to strangle him?" Emmy says, looking over at her.
"Yes, but this time I might actually do it." Jazlyn crosses her legs and looks up at the sky. "But God says 'though shall not kill' so I can't, dang it."
"That's a good reason not to." Jose speaks up, and Jazlyn narrows her eyes at him.
"It's the only reason not to. He's a pain in the ass."
This is the moment where I ask the question that everyone wants to know the answer to. "What did he do this time?" I ask, rolling my eyes for extra effect. It was always something small, like 'he rode my hoverboard' or 'he didn't do my chores when he said he would' and stuff like that. I only ask now for the free entertainment, and the possibility of being late to class.
"He did the most unimaginable thing you could think of! He posted a video on my TikTok page saying that I have a boyfriend and that he knocked me up which is why I post so many drafts! Even though me, you, and Emmy made a TikTok yesterday! Like, he is outrageous!" She plopped back onto the grass dramatically.
Me and Emmy looked at each other, her expression saying 'is she serious right now?' and mine probably has a little sympathy, but other than that I'm pretty much thinking the same thing.
Jazlyn tends to... overreact, a lot. When I say a lot, I mean a LOT. But, as always, me and Emmy play along for the fun of it.
"He didn't!" I exclaim, covering my mouth with my hand.
"He did! Ugh, I could so strangle him right now!" Jazlyn sits up and covers her face with her hands.
"Just because you could doesn't mean you would though, right?" Emmy asks.
"I don't know. Maybe." Jazlyn sighs and starts picking at the grass just as the one person that has been obsessed with her since the 9th grade walks over.
"Hey guys, mind if I sit?" Brandon Smith asks, staring right at Jaz.
"Yes, we do mind. We're in the middle of a very important conversation." She says, looking back at him. He sits anyway.
"I was kind of hoping to catch you alone, but this works too." Now he has all of us staring at him, except Sam, who is no longer next to me.
"Excuse me." I say, standing up to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Emmy asks, breaking her fearful gaze towards Brandon to a look of curiosity at me.
"To find Sam. Did any of you see where he went?" I ask.
"Uh, yeah, he went behind the school over there." Jose says, gesturing to where he's referring to.
"Ok, thanks." I walk over to where Jose said, and sure enough, Sam is there leaning against the wall.
"It's about time." He groans, pushing me against the wall lightly so he doesn't hurt me.
He starts kissing me which quickly turns into a make out session with my hands in his hair and his on my waist. His tongue enters my mouth forcefully, and that's when I break apart from him. I glance into his eyes, and they're full of lust.
"You're so sexy.." he says, going to kiss my neck but I push him away gently.
"I-I don't think I'm ready for... that... yet. I'm sorry." I say.
"What?" he says, pulling away completely. "But- I thought-"
"I'm sorry. I'm not ready. And we don't even have protection!" I say, raising my voice a little.
"You really think that I don't carry condoms everywhere? I have to, I never know when I'm going to get hard!" He's yelling now.
A tear falls down my cheek. "Does that mean... you're cheating on me..?" I say softly.
His face falls. "No, baby, that's not what I meant, I swear. I know that's how it sounded, but that's not at all what I meant." He pulls me into a hug. "Please... please believe me."
"I believe you. I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"It's ok, I was being an ass."
"yeah, yeah you were." I chuckle. "Let's go to class."
The rest of the day went by smoothly, until 5th hour when I walked past the boys' bathroom and heard cries for help. They sounded like a girl was screaming, and there was no one else around so I quickly rushed in and saw.... my boyfriend. On top of someone. The screaming someone, who just happened to be Emmy.
I quickly grabbed my boyfriend from under his arms, and he recognized my touch because he shot up with a look of 'oh shit' written all over his face.
"Jen- it-it's not what it looks like!" He stutters, trying to pull his pants up. I slowly back away with mascara draining down my face.
"Get out." I say, and when he doesn't move, I start yelling. "Get out! Get out, get out, get out!!" I push him out with his pants halfway up his legs then turn around to help Emmy.
I help her to her feet and to get her clothes back on, and she's shaking so much so we just sit on the floor and sob together until I hear the door open.
I look up to see Ethan Rodriguez, Emmy's ex boyfriend. As far as I know they're on good terms, they were just too young for a relationship.
He rushes over and tries to comfort Emmy but she squirms away.
"What happened? Why are you guys in here?" He asks, not taking his eyes off of her shaking, fearful figure.
"Sam- he- I think he raped her." I stutter, and Emmy breaks down even more, if that's even possible.
"Shit. Isn't he your boyfriend?" He looks at me.
"Ex boyfriend." I correct him.
"Good for you. Dump his ass." He turns back to Emmy. "Should we call Jose?"
Emmy violently shakes her head no against my chest. Her wish gets ignored, because the next person to walk through the door is Jose.
He rushes over, pushes past Ethan, tries to gently pull Emmy into his arms, and fails miserably because the next thing she does is shakily stands up and tries to walk out. I say tries because she can't, in fact, she falls to the ground on her hands and knees so I get up, mutter an apology to Jose, and guide her to the girls' bathroom, which is luckily right next door.
We spend the rest of the day in there, with only two or three people approaching the stall we were in to ask if we were okay.
Once I got home, I walked to my room in a complete daze and layed in bed. I had 10 missed calls and 27 unread messages from Sam, but I didn't care.
I cried myself to sleep that night.
