All or Nothing

t w o: not so good at feelings

A knock on the door woke me up the next morning. I groaned frustrated and brushed a few hair strands out of my face. I'm clearly not a morning person. "Come in!", I yelled and sat up straight.

Jackson opened the door and came into the room. "Good morning, rise and shine.", he smiled amused as he watched me roll my eyes and pull the blanket over my head. I heard his muffled laugh and then he dragged my covers of me. "How are you in such a good mood this early?", I questioned him while rubbing my tired eyes. "Julie it's almost ten. It is not that early. Now get up, I'm hungry and breakfast is waiting downstairs.", he replied still amused.

"Alright, I'll be there in five minutes.", I told him and slowly got up. "Hurry! I'm starving.", Jackson exclaimed jokingly as he left my room laughing. After he left I stretched my tired muscles and yawned loudly. I finally got up fully and put on some clothes that were more appropriate to have breakfast in with people I basically didn't know. Then I headed over to the bathroom to wash my face and put my hair up in a high ponytail.

Then I slowly went downstairs. "Finally!", Jackson yelled as I came into the kitchen, throwing his arms into the air, "Can I start eating now?","Yes, but only if you stop screaming all the time.", his dad chuckled. "Come here, Julie. Take a seat.", Megan smiled at me kindly. I sat down on the empty chair next to Jackson. "Do you want coffee or tea, sweetheart?", she offered. "Yes, coffee please." Not being a morning person in general and the jetlag slowly creeping in, had me longing for some caffeine.

"So do you guys have plans yet for today?", questioned Tim after everyone had started eating. "Well, Marissa asked if I could help her set everything up for her party tonight.", he turned to face me,"Marissa is my girlfriend, it's her birthday today so she's throwing a party. If you want to you can come with me.", he explained.  "That's a great idea. Then you can already meet Jackson's friends before school starts.", Megan clapped her hands together in excitement.

"Yeah, sure sounds great.", I agreed. She was right, this was a great opportunity to make friends. But I was slightly worried because usually when I went to parties at home I was always that one person who awkwardly sat in a corner the entire night, pretending to have something important to do even though I was only refreshing my Instagram feed ever five seconds.

* * *

"You seem nervous.", Jackson stated. "Why?", he gave me a questioning glance as we stopped at a red light. I stayed quite for a few seconds. I didn't actually know why I was so nervous. In the end they're also just people, nothing to be afraid of. And still I sat there, biting the inside of my mouth, a bad habit I picked up a while ago, to keep my brain busy.

"I don't know.", I finally answered his question, "Are you sure that you're girlfriend wants me to be there?", I asked very unsure of the situation. "Yes, I am sure. She was the one who asked me to bring you with me in the first place. Marissa is grateful for every helping hand and has been looking forward to meeting you for a while now.", Jackson reassured me, "It's to late to go back now anyways because we're here."

I looked up from my lap as we pulled up into a driveway. The front door of the house opened and a petite girl appeared in the frame. Jackson and I got out of the car and walked towards her. He greeted her with a gentle kiss while I awkwardly stood beside them.

"Julie, this is my girlfriend Marissa. Marissa, this is the girl I told you about.", Jackson introduced us to each other. "Hi, nice to meet you and happy birthd-", she just interrupted me by pulling me into a tight hug."Thank you so much for coming. I'm so excited that you're here, I can't wait for you to meet everyone!", she exclaimed with a huge grin on her face. "Come on, lets go inside.", Jackson giggled beside us and gently pushed his girlfriend back towards the open door.