The Boy Two Doors Down

Chapter 12 - Flashbacks (Part 1)

(A/N) : Heyo!

Jessica's PoV:

As Mel unlocked the door, I rushed into the shower and immediately stripped off my clothes. I let out a sigh of pleasure as warm water rushed onto my face and body. After a long shower, I wore a 'Hello Kitty' pyjamas and jumped onto my bed. As exhaustion wore over me, I thought about the past events of the day.

(Two hour time skip brought by yours truly!)

I blinked my eyes, still slow and sluggish. As I was reaching for my phone, I knocked over a glass of water which was weird as I hadn't brought it in.

"Shit!"

As I was picking up the glass, Hunter, Mel and Yasmine rushed in.

"Jes? What happened?"

I had a grim smile.

"As you can see, my clumsiness caused me to knock over a glass of water."

As they shared a laugh, Hunter raised an eyebrow, the edges of his lips curving upwards.

"Cute pyjamas."

I rolled my eyes as I lay on the bed once again.

"I assume you still wanna know what happened in the past, right?"

As I received nods, I sighed and snuck an arm under a pillow.

"It all started in middle school.."

(Flashback)

"Jessica!"

As I slammed my locker shut, I saw my best friend Vanessa Phillips heading in my direction. She had a green jumper and a pair of grey sweatpants, Converse sneakers and her dyed pink hair in a ponytail. She was the interest of many, to say the least. Although she came out as a lesbian a year ago, it didn't stop many guys trying to go out with her. Behind her was Grady Smit, the last of our trio. He is probably the biggest hip-hop head I know. I'm not joking, ask about any rapper and he will tell you about them and their mothers but the moment he gets jumped by the Pythagorean theorem, he might as well head back to kindergarten. He shows up with a t-shirt of a rap album every other day. Today, it was Illmatic by Nas.

"Grady and I are heading to the park, wanna come?"

I shrugged. I would rather be out anyways, homework can come later.

"Sure."

As we left school, I picked up my bicycle from the shed. While Grady had his scooter, Vanessa's bike was nowhere to be seen. Before Grady could say anything, she hopped on behind and wrapped her arms around his chest.

"Thanks Grady!"

"Vanessa, I swear to God, I will run this scooter into a bus and jump off at the last second."

I smiled to myself as I heard this banter. They had been friends since birth so I knew they truly cared for each other. As we set out, I popped on my Skullcandy headphones. I scrolled through my personal playlist till I randomly pressed play on a song.

As the breeze rushed through my hair, I cycled rapidly, trying to catch up to Grady and Vanessa who were already well ahead.

Call me in the morning to apologise

Every little lie gives me butterflies

Something in the way you're looking through my eyes

Don't know if I'm gonna make it out alive

As we arrived at the park, I took off my headphones and carefully stored them in my bag, taking care not to damage it. Vanessa and Grady were already taking turns, or rather it was Vanessa taking Grady's scooter and making him run after her. I laughed at the scene. After about an hour of us sharing each other's things (and making Grady run after us), we eventually came to a rest and forced Grady to buy us drinks from a nearby supermarket. I slumped against a tree and Vanessa laid her head on my shoulder.

"You're one lucky bitch Sanders."

I let out a laugh.

"Says you Phillips. You have it all. I mean, bunch of friends, Grady and so many other things. You have a pretty fuckin' amazing life."

She shook her head.

"Ever since I came out it's been worse. My parents hate me. Dead serious. They keep on telling me to stop being so weird. My mom just thinks it's a phase. Like, can you believe that? It's not 'a phase'. It's who I am and I'm proud of it. As for friends, most of them pretend to like me. I've heard them talk about me like I'm sort of a disease. The only ones that actually care about me are just you and Grady. Although, I think he cares about you a lot more."

I sat up and stared at her, almost dumbfounded by her words. Sure, Grady was kinda hot and he's pretty nice but I don't think I want to have a relationship or anything right now. Maybe a few years down the line if we're still close.

"You're joking."

"I'm not."

"Swear."

"On my own life. He asked me for some advice."

"When was this?!"

Vanessa shrugged, deep in contemplation.

"I don't know. Around a month ago maybe."

"A month?! And you never told me."

With that Vanessa raised an eyebrow.

"If you had a crush on Grady would you want me to tell him?"

"No but.."

"Exactly! So yeah. Although I do wonder when he's gonna ask you out."

I froze. Oh shit. What should I say? I mean I like him as a friend and I did have some degree of romantic feelings for him in the past. Oh shit.

A/N: Sorry I couldn't get this out earlier. I had a power outage around my area for a while and I had a cold after that. Hopefully this suffices. There is going to be a second of this chapter. Hopefully out by next week though. Thank you so much for reading this!

Until then,

Nyx out.