Stonebrook High School

Chapter 11

"I felt my eyes closing
yet there seemed to be nothing
that could pull me away
from the tragedy that day."

"What are you saying?" Jesse sipped from his little juice box and stared at her with a strange look on his face.

Jess felt her face flush and she used her hands to gesticulate all of her words in little, frantic movements. "Oh, um, forget what I just said! Sorry, I was just thinking out loud and thought of this line from a song I heard..." She laughed nervously and tried to get him to wave it off.

"Are you okay?" Jesse put down his juice box and lightly put his hand on her forehead. "You're a little warm."

"I'm fine! Really, I am! I'm just... I've been thinking a lot."

"About what?" He picked up his juice box again and sipped loudly, much to Jess's irritation.

"Well-" she awkwardly cleared her throat- "It's the third day of school, right? Our first Friday?"

"Um... yeah."

"It's only the third day- and we've already managed to have mortal enemies. Mercer, Porter, those other two- what were their names, again? Ah, Maya and Gill."

"The Ocelots are kind of a bunch of jerks if you don't remember."

She rolled her eyes. "Obviously. Just... okay, listen to me as I speak and don't interrupt me unless I say otherwise." Jess took out her phone and spoke as she pulled up a screenshot. "Yesterday, I may have done some really regretful actions. I screamed at Porter and cursed at him. The day before, I insulted Mercer without thinking and threatened him. I hustled Porter, too."

"Wow..."

"Shush, I didn't say you could talk yet. Anyway, after yelling at Porter out of pure anger, I went home and he found our Instagram account and messaged me. He asked if I could forgive him and if we could start over again. I said no. I blocked him. I deleted our messages. A few hours later, you came home and started talking about your day with Petra. You sounded really happy and I didn't want to ruin that for you, so I just... kept my mouth shut about the whole ordeal."

There was a silence between them and Jesse watched as Jess fidgeted around with her fingers. He threw away his juice box in a nearby trashcan and sighed loudly, placing both hands on her shoulders.

"Jess. I can't believe how dumb you are despite your 3.95 GPA."

"Hey- what?!"

He smiled and pulled her in, hugging her tightly. A shocked expression and a gasp were all he needed to see and hear. "Jess, it's good that you've paid attention to your interactions with other people and considered how they may have affected the other. In fact, you made me feel like a jerk for a bit until you explained what you did."

"Hmph."

"Sorry," he chuckled. "But really... you did a good thing. Can we start over with the Ocelots? I don't know. But it doesn't hurt to try."

"... Thanks, Jay. I love you." She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed gently, digging her face into the crook of his neck.

"I love you too, Jess."

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A bunch of cheese?"

The two looked up and slightly frowned. Aiden stood cockily in front of them while the other three were behind him. "Come on, we were just talking about starting over with you guys!" exclaimed Jesse.

Lukas's head perked up behind Aiden and he looked at the twins. Although he didn't express any emotion, his eyes were sparkling.

"Starting over? Pfft, how so?" taunted Aiden. "It's not like we can erase the past."