Broken (Brown Eyed Boy book 2)

Just You and Me (Jessie POV)

I lay back in the passenger seat and tried to catch up on the sleep I had been lacking in the past week. But no matter how hard I tried, it seemed to evade me completely; my mind always circling back to that nagging feeling I had that something was going to happen. I still couldn't figure out what it was but the uncertainty kept my nerves in a frenzy and didn't help me to sleep at all. I knew Carlos could probably feel it coming off of me like electricity and that it made him worry. He's seen me with all my walls down and emotions all over the place and now I could only hope that he wouldn't have to see me that way again. Since he showed me that I wasn't that damaged goods I used to think I was, I've been a new and happier Jessie. A Jessie I wanted to keep around for Carlos because it always seemed to make him happier.

With my eyes closed, I could see Carlos' smiles perfectly; plural because in the past year I noticed that not everyone got the same smile from him. His smile for Cassie was always obviously different to me; all the love and protectiveness he felt for his baby sister beaming back at her warmly. Even when she wasn't around and he thought of her or looked at a picture of her, it was as though she were in front of him. Then there was the smile he gave our friends and everyone else that seemed to say he was friendly and open to new people but the second you crossed him you were gone. And finally was the smile he gave me. It took me a while to notice I got my own special smile, but once I did it seemed like the only thing I could see. It would start off small and shy, like he didn't know how I was going to react to him and then it would grow to be the widest and brightest smile I'd seen; as though I made him the happiest person alive just by looking at me.

The car seemed to slow to a crawl and I opened my eyes to see where we were. Instead of my eyes going straight to the window, they looked ay the front mirror and met Carlos’ reflection. Carlos smiled shyly and then turned his eyes back to the road. “I don’t know how you got your license,” I joked. “You never seem to keep your eyes on the road.”

“Well I never had that problem before,” he answered. “But I can’t help it when you’re sitting in the car with me. I become impulsive.”

“Your impulse is a bit dangerous don’t you think?” I said. “You can’t see the road if your looking at me.”

“Which is why I don’t do it as much as I’d like to,” he smiled. “Besides, I made sure there was no one on the road now so we’re safe.” The car turned before coming to a stop and looked out the window to see the area.

The car was far enough from the house that I could see the entire thing. It wasn’t that big, but it was definitely bigger than our houses back home. There were three cars already in the driveway and from where we were I could see part of the backyard, already decorated for the wedding. A curtain moved at one of the house windows and I knew somehow that it was Cassie.

“Believe it or not, my cousin only usually uses this house during the summer,” Carlos said from close next to me. I turned to find him half leaned toward me, looking out the window. “This place has like eight rooms and four bathrooms.”

“You’re kidding,” I said, suddenly in awe. “It doesn’t look that big.”

“It goes out more towards the back,” he shrugged. I looked at me and I could tell that our conversation was about to turn away from the house. “I was thinking about something while you attempted to sleep.”

“How did you know I wasn’t sleeping?” I asked.

Carlos just gave me an amused look without answering my question. “I know that feeling you’ve been having is bothering you and I’m not going to pretend it’s not bothering me too,” he said. “But we’re miles from school and hopefully anything that could have made that feeling surface in the first place. So I think that this weekend we shouldn’t think about it and just focus on enjoying ourselves, okay? Just because its my cousin’s wedding doesn’t mean we can’t have our own fun, right?”