Jessie Jones

Chapter 22:The missing part of the pictures

I turned around and took a look on my bedside drawer. I took a frame picture of my mom and me, and started staring at it, I brushed my mom's face with my thumb,a lump forming in my throat. If only she was here? Will she approve of Jessie? I wish they have ever met. I knew she would like her so much. They would get along. I imagined  my mom showing her my baby pictures which I would be embarrassed about , an image of the two of them in the kitchen cooking , her helping mum with the dishes popped in my head. If she was here, I would have someone to talk to about Jessie,her smile, her laugh, her voice, every single detail about her. These are the thoughts ploughing through my mind off lately.

I started looking at other pictures in my room most of them consist of my friends and I. Whenever I looked at those pictures , I felt like something is missing. All the pictures in this room, in all the other rooms and in my albums were from two years ago. There were only few ones from my childhood which consisted of either my mom and me or my mom, dad , Cassie and me. It made me wonder didn't I have friends when I was young, where are the pictures we took during parties, sleepovers, birthday and even junior prom? I only had a single picture of middle school and that was with Rivers and Evan. A funny picture of me seated on the grass flanked with Rivers and Evan, beside Rivers was a pink kind of clothe which I had been wondering what it is for years. Looking at it now closely, it looked like a part of a dress, a girl's dress but which girl? I brushed off the thoughts like I always did for the past two years . What's the point of bothering yourself with questions you know you will never get answers to?

Other weird things had been happening in my life. For example last week , I just happened to know that my dad knew Jessie. They were really close and familiar to each other. I was so excited to introduce Jessie to my dad. Imagine my surprise when I opened my mouth to introduce them and before I could close it ,Jessie was in my dad arms. He said she is his friend's daughter but I didn't believe him. My instincts told me it was something else. Not just because of how close they were but also because of how strange she acted a whole week after their talk. Throughout the ride to their house that day, Jessie didn't say a word to me. As if that wasn't enough, the continuous shaking of her head and weirds looks made me really worried. Our relationship became some what strained. I had to call Rivers after that and told him everything. He assured me it was nothing to worry about and would get back to me when he talks to her. And up till now he had not gotten back to me. I was pretty sure they had already talked long ago. And I was still worried as hell about what they talked about. I kept thinking did he tell her about mom?But she had been acting worse than just knowing that I lost my mom.

Apart from that, last week Rivers, Evan, Jessie, Cassie , James and I hanged out in the park. We played hide and seek. The surprising and weird thing was that Jessie knew all my hiding place that I was hundred percent sure that I was the only one that knew about them. Rivers convinced me that it was just coincidence but I didn't believe him for a second. Rivers, Evan and Jessie kept looking in my direction and whispering to each other. I kept assuming they were talking about me.

The last weird thing that happened to me was yesterday. I went to pick up Cassie from Jessie's house and guess who I saw, everyone. They were all there except me. Rivers , Evan and Alice. They were having some sort of meeting without me. I felt hurt and very suspicious.

My hair, like my life, was a rumbled mess after pacing for two hours , thawing at it out of frustration. What was wrong with the people around me. It looked like they were hiding something from me. I didn't even know who are the guilty and who are the innocent. Everyone is a suspect including dad and Jessie. I don't trust people easily and am usually a closed book, for fear of hypocrisy, pretense and betrayal.