Damaged Together

Chapter Fifty Five

Wattpad had an article written about them in The New York Times! Here’s the link in case you want to read it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/technology/web-fiction-serialized-and-social.html?ref=technology&_r=0

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My churning stomach is soon comforted by Hadley and Kayley wrapping their arms around me, “I’m so glad you guys came!” Hadley smiles at Jesse and me. “Fuck Jess, what happened to your face?”

Jealousy surges through me for a second at the sound of her calling him Jess, but I push it down and remember that friends give each other nicknames and there is no reason for me to be jealous. I know it’s not fair for me to get angry since I just gave him an entire talk about tolerance.

“It’s no big deal.” He answers with a wave of the hand. They exchange concerned glances but don’t pry for more information. “Where’s Andy?” Jesse asks Kayley, changing the subject.

“He had to come late because he’s closing at work.” She responds with a smile playing on her face as she talks about him. “We brought out all the stuff before his shift and kinda set up as best we could!”

Someone catches my eye behind the two girls, and I struggle to decipher if it is actually him. The guy turns a little bit and I can see his full face and I’m ripped between elation and tension. Santana laughs easily at something someone said and I remember how Jesse punched him the last time I saw him. But Jesse isn’t drinking tonight, so hopefully I don’t have to worry about that situation repeating.

I decide that I shouldn’t be scared about Jesse getting jealous either and I excuse myself from their conversation which consists of a debate about whether or not Andy is whipped, Jesse is saying he is and the two girls are defending Kayley’s relationship.

I grab Santana’s arm as I walk up to him, when he turns and sees me the shock on his face is clear before he scoops me up in his arms and gives me a tight hug. “Alyssia, oh my god!”

I immediately have a smile on my face. “Hey, how have you been? How’s that special girl? Aria, right?” I throw out multiple questions, not with the intention to, just out of excitement.

He pulls me away from the group he was originally standing with and his face falters slightly, “I’m good. But Aria is no more. I caught her cheating on me.” He still has a smile on his mouth but it is failing to reach his eyes as they fall to the ground.

“Awh, I’m so sorry,” I rest my hand on his arm, “I know that commitment is not your thing and I’m really sorry that she did that to you.” I mean it too. Although Santana has always been a player but he’d never intentionally hurt someone. The fact that she did that to him breaks my heart.

“I don’t know. I am not the guy I was before her though, you know? Like I am not going and hooking up with random girls again all the time. She kinda had a lasting effect on me. But I couldn’t be more done with her shit.” One thing that I always loved Santana was that he never put on a bullshit act, he has always been one of the realest people I know.

“Well-“ Before I can finish my sentence I feel a gentle hand on my arm, I turn to see Hadley.

“Jesse wanted me to tell you that he’s helping Greg get some stuff out of the car.”

I begin to thank her but notice that her attention is already focused on something else. Her eyes are wide as she looks at Santana. He’s peering down at his phone, not paying attention.

“Santana,” his eyes move from his phone and lock on to Hadley. He gives her a lopsided grin, something he only does when he gets nerves. “This is Hadley. Hadley, this is Santana, my friend from childhood.”

“Hi,” he nods at her, still grinning.

I see Jesse at a cooler and decide to give the two who are both obviously drooling over one another some space. “I’m going to go hangout with Jesse or something.”

“Tell him if he hits me again, he won’t just get away with it this time,” Santana speaks to my back as I turn away, he’s smiling but I know there is truth to his statement. I nod at him and make my way to Jesse as I hear Hadley asking why Jesse hit him and him responding.

“Hey babe,” Jesse kisses me, giving me a sweet smile.

“Santana says not to hit him again or he’ll beat your ass.” I laugh. “Just thought you should know.”

“Shit, I kinda forgot about that. I should probably like apologize or something.” He pauses, “I don’t have a reason to hit him again, do I? Because I’d totally fuck him up.” There’s always that sliver of possessiveness that shows when he talks.

“I mean unless you’re jealous over him talking to Hadley then no.” I joke, feeling a lot less nervous about this party than before.

“As long as he isn’t flirting with you I don’t care what he’s doing,” he snakes his hand behind my back and pulls me closer to him, bringing our bodies up against one another. He gives me another gentle kiss before grabbing my hand and leading me to the fire where Hadley, Santana, Kayley, Andy, Tris, Ashton  are sitting and talking along with another small group of people that I recognize from school.

We take a seat with Hadley and Santana on one side of us and Tris and Ashton on the other. We easily fall into funny conversations that take us to irrelevant subjects.

 I smile as I take in my surroundings. Is this what our teenage years are supposed to feel like? Parties and friends and laughing so hard your stomach hurts?

In the middle of a kid named Chris telling a story about how he “accidently” broke into the community pool and broke the kiddie slide, Ashton taps on my shoulder, “Do you or Jesse want anything to drink? I’m going to go get me and Tris something.”

“We’re not drinking. Thank you though.” He doesn’t argue just nods his head and makes his way to the other side of party. The conversation the group is distracted with continues and everyone begins laughing harder than before.

When I see that Ashton is out of our line of vision, I reach to grab Tris’s arm, she beams at me, knowing my intentions of my gesture. I raise my eyebrow at her and she just laughs.

I turn back and focus on Chris’s story. Jesse’s hand slips onto my thigh and I lean my head against his shoulder feeling more than content.

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PLEASE READ

I know this is kinda a filler chapter but I think it was important and there are a couple important things coming from this chapter!!

Guys I have almost hit 100,000 total reads on Damaged Together. When I started writing it was my winter break of 2012 and I never ever imagined that I’d get even 100 reads at first. My friend Cameron was the only person that knew, he is actually the person who encouraged me to put anything out there and when school got back in, he and I would walk together before class every morning and he’d update me (as if I didn’t already know)how many reads, comments and votes there were. I remember when I hit 200 reads I was so so ecstatic. Thank you all for reading. So much has happened in the past 15 months and I’ve changed in more ways than I knew possible but you guys are so supportive & thank you guys so much for everything. Every comment, vote & read means the world to me.

Oh & some of yall have been following me on different things like Instagram, twitter & stuff which is totally cool, just a warning that if you were to tweet me or something about something about my story I may not publically answer you just because not that many people know about it and stuff but I’ll follow back if you’re a reader & I will DM you or something like that(: