Jess Mariano: a Biography

Chapter Two - The Girl by the River

Jess woke to the slam of the front door and voices. One was Liz, the other was a deep male voice he didn't recognize. He checked his watch; 12:29am. He didn't remember falling asleep.

Jess didn't know if his mother had come back after the phone call with Luke or just gone straight to a pub. Probably the latter.

"Have a seat, I'll make you some tea," Liz was saying.

"Thanks, Liz," the guy said. "This looks cleaner than earlier."

"Yeah, I decided to give it a quick tidy, make it look presentable," she shouted back from the kitchen.

The liar! Jess had tidied that and Liz knew it. He also knew they didn't have any teabags left, so he wasn't sure what Liz was going to give the guy. Jess wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Jess and his mother lived in an apartment on the bottom floor, so whenever Liz was especially drunk or brought some guy over, Jess would just open his bedroom window and escape. Liz wouldn't usually mind if he just left out the front door, but when she's drunk she would either scream at him for apparently being a terrible son or make him sit with her and play cards, which would have been fun but not when Liz was drunk. And then, when she had her boyfriends over they would usually wouldn't like the fact Liz had a kid, so she made Jess stay in his room. The only thing he could do when he was in these situations was climb out his bedroom window.

So that's what Jess did today. When he got out he went straight to the river and sat on the bridge. He produced a cigarette and book  from his back pocket, lighted the cigarette and resumed his book.

***

The face of a young girl with startling blue eyes and long blonde hair hanging down, tickling his face is what Jess saw when he groggily woke up. He screamed, scrambling backwards, away from her. He fell and there's a cold sensation as he realizes he's in the river.

"Oh no! Oh, I'm so sorry!" The girl said, peering over the edge of the bridge at Jess.

"It's fine," Jess replied taking off his jacket, wringing it out.

The girl held out her hands to pull him out the river.

"Thanks," he said, looking over the bridge to check he didn't drop anything. "Ah, shit," he mumbled, pulling out his soaking wet copy of "Ulysses".

"Oh, your book! I'm so sorry I scared you like that," she said worriedly.

"It'll dry," he said, dropping it on the bridge.

"I'm Cora," the girl said "Cora Banks." She held out a hand for Jess to shake. He just stared.

"Well, bye." He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked away.

When Jess got home he found Liz passed out on the sofa, as usual. He hoped she'd been like that since her boyfriend left, but something told him she'd been awake and probably not cared that he'd been out all night. Typical Liz.

Jess dumped his book on the radiator before remembering they couldn't pay for heating anymore. He put it on the coffee table instead.

He decided to let his mother sleep, even though she already got plenty of that. It was 10:30am, Jess was already a few hours late for school so he decided not to go today. No need to go anyways. He could catch up easily.

He went into his room, although he wasn't sure what he was going to do. He'd probably go out or something. When he opened his door there was quite a surprise inside.

Most of his belongings - so not much - was in bags and his clothes in a suitcase. So Liz really was sending him away. Where to? Military school? Maybe she was putting him up for adoption or something?

Did he really want that though? If he left, Liz wouldn't survive by herself. But she obviously wanted him to go.

"Hey Jess," Liz appeared behind him in the doorway.

"What's this about?"

"Well... I thought a change of scenery would be nice for you!"

"A change of scenery?"

"Yeah... Your uncle, Luke... You're going to live with him now, so...' she trails off.

"okay," Jess shrugs, trying to look as though he didn't care. He did though. As much as he disliked life in New York, he'd started to feel somewhat at home.

"Right. So you'll be leaving tomorrow. He lives in England so you'll be getting a plane."

"How are we paying for that then?" Jess snorts, knowing that their savings consist of about $20.

"Luke's been kind enough to pay for the plane over."

"Oh. Nice," Jess said, then slammed the door in her face. There was no need to, but telling him he was going to England the day before he left was quite the bombshell.

Jess flung himself onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.

He could run away. All he'd have to take was a little rucksack. But maybe Luke wouldn't be so bad? He looked around at his books, which Liz hadn't bothered packing, so he found a battered cardboard box and put all his favorites in, along with some he bought the other day. He couldn't afford new books anymore, but there was a second hand book store down the road with affordable books.

He found another box and put his small collection of CDs in there. Nirvana, David Bowie, Metallica, AC/DC, Blur, Radiohead and a few others.

He put the boxes with his other bags and went to sit back on his bed, which creaked as though it would give way any second.

Jess knew he wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. But what else was there to do?

He thought about the girl at the river, Cora. He'd never see her before. Then again, he'd never really spoken to anyone in New York City unless he had to.

He decided to go back to the river, see if she was still there.

The river was only a minutes walk from the apartment, and Jess liked to go there to read whenever he had spare time, since he always felt relaxed there.

When he got there he did in fact see Cora, sat on a bench, reading.

"Hello!" She said when she looked up from her book and saw him, "Oh! It's you. You never told me your name?"

"It's not important," Jess replied shortly. "What're you reading?"

"Franny and Zooey, it's really good."

"Yeah, I've read it."

Jess felt happy, for a second, since he might actually have a friend in New York City now. Then he remembered that he was leaving tomorrow. To go to England. Not even New England, it was a whole other country!

"Do you come here a lot?" Cora asked.

"Sometimes."

"I've never seen you!"

"We probably come at different times," he shrugged. "I should go. See you."

"Wait! You never told me your name!"

"Jesus, nosy much?" he retorted.

"Well, I told you my name, so you have to tell me yours," Cora demanded.

Maybe he wouldn't want to be her friend anyway. She was starting to annoy him.

"Look, I've gotta go, I'll see you around," he turned and walked away.