The Five Musketeers

Chapter 11 - Insta

Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this sweet sight? Her dotage now I do begin to pity. For, meeting her of late behind the wood, seeking sweet favors from this hateful fool, I did upbraid her and fall out with her.     

~Oberon, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act 4, Scene 1.

  

      Jess stared at the ceiling of her bedroom. The fan was on and spinning rapidly overhead. If she spun her eyes around in her head, she could track each individual blade as it whirled quickly. Vaguely she wondered if it was possibly for ceiling fans to spin so fast that they would disconnect and crash into someone, causing them to be killed in a freak ceiling fan accident.

        Sighing, Jess closed her eyes, growing dizzy from watching a spinning object for minutes on end. Sometimes she wondered if it was possibly to completely tune the world out and think of absolutely nothing. From her experience, it was most definitely not possibly.

        Thinking of the events that had transpired twelve hours ago made her cringe. No, not cringe, but full on shudder complete with jazz hands. After Nicole and Jack's confessions she had become a sort of zombie, sitting on the now repaired couch and staring at the black television while the others muttered around her. 

        Remembering what Nicole had said in the cramped bathroom made her throw a pillow over her eyes dramatically.         

        After staring at her best friend for a full minute slack-jawed, Jess had made a sort of gurgling noise in the back of her throat, begging Nicole to explain her sudden change of heart about Peter.

        "it's just that . . . god, I don't even know. He's always been there, and I didn't like him before, but now I do, and I'm really confused, but I know I want to be with him, but who knows if he's even still into me, since I've kind of been a huge bitch for the past two years," Nicole said in one breath.

        Jess's mind worked overtime, trying to decipher Nic's run-on rant, and figure out how to not crush the feelings of half the people in the other room still merrily playing reverse strip poker. Her idiot brother and his girlfriend non-withstanding.

         "Nicole, why couldn't you have figured this out in middle school? Seriously, Peter was heart broken when you said you would never date him." 

        She looked down, slightly ashamed. "I was shallow. I don't know, I just didn't feel anything for him. You know how it is," Nicole said desperately, clutching Jess's arm when she glanced towards the door.

        "Well while you were being shallow I was up until 3 am with him, trying to explain you weren't worth ripping his heart out over. And when he finally got a girlfriend Freshman year, I was so relieved, since I thought he had finally gotten over you. But no. He hadn't, and he led poor Sydney on for nearly a year," Jess said viciously. She immediately felt a pang of regret when she saw Nicole's face crumple, eyes filling with a miserable guilt.

        Jess sighed, already wishing she could shove her fist in her mouth. "Look, I'm sorry. It's just that Jack just told me something that's freaking me out, and now you dropped this bomb, not to mention that my brother is god knows where doing god knows what with an attractive girl."

        Nicole blew out a breath of air and stomped her foot. "I'm sorry, I really am. It sucks that you're the one that everyone comes to with their problems. And I literally have no idea why; you've never had a relationship or anything, yet you're the unofficial romance expert."

        "I know. Seriously, I'm not that smart. I just watch a lot of YouTube videos," Jess confessed, momentarily forgetting about the fact that she was locked in a bathroom.

        "I've sometimes cancelled play dates with you to stay in my room and watch crappy videos on my crappy laptop," she continued. "No wonder I'm so sophisticated."

        Nicole and Jess grinned at each other for a minute before remembering they were in the middle of a not so serious crisis. Nicole's frown slowly appeared again, and Jess leaned back against the sink.

        "So . . . you think I should forget about this thing for Peter?" 

        Blowing out a breath of air, Jess thought about it, actually thought about it before responding. "Here's the thing. Why now? This is seriously the second most random, left-fielded thing I've heard today. And don't say his body; he's basically a walking skeleton."

        Nic laughed slightly. "Well it was just that when we were playing cards I totally cheated, and he so noticed. But he didn't say anything, and gave me his shirt when I couldn't find mine. . . ." Jess made a face at Nicole's dreamy expression.

        "You just need to wait. Cool off. Take a step back. This seriously happened 10 minutes ago. You can't go and play with the poor kid's feelings again. Just go home and think about it," Jess explained rationally, looking longingly at the locked doors.

        A knock on her door made Jess's eyes unglaze, and she jerked up on her bed. Clearing her throat, she screeched out a, "Come in!" before falling back onto her pillows.

        Brianna rushed in, holding her phone up high like it was a trophy. "Look at what was on Insta," she exclaimed, throwing herself down next to Jess, bouncing upwards slightly. Bri then proceeded to show Jess about 20 photos in rapid succession, all of kids in her grade.

        "Uh, look at Lauren's beach photos . . . she's dating Tommy Anderson now. I used to like him, but then he reveled that he didn't believe in eating meat. Wow, look at that ninth grader. She went to my school last year," Bri chattered on and on and on.

        It was nice to be distracted from her problems, even if they were about middle school drama. Brianna was always good for taking away Jess's stress.

        "Seriously, you need to get an Instagram or something so I can tag you in all my pictures," Bri absently swiped and tapped at her phone. Laying in a peaceful silence, their serenity was shattered by none other than Jeff.

        He crashed into Jess's room like a hurricane, slamming the door behind him. He leapt into her closet and slid the door shut. A second later their dad followed, eagerly looking around.

        "Where is he?" Brianna looked up finally, being drawn out of her social media fog.

        "Where's who, daddy?" Jess asked innocently.

        "Jeff. He's not getting out of changing the oil again. I know he's in here."

        "Oh, he's in my closet," Jess said casually, pointing in the general direction of Jeff's position.

        Like a rocket, Jeff shot out from under the blanket, somehow squeezed around their father's grasping hands, and bolted through the doors. With a loud yell the boys rushed out of the room, down the staris, and presumably around the front yard.

        "God," Jess sighed, looking over at Bri, who was now staring at Harry Styles on her phone. At least her mind had been cleared effectively. "This family, I swear."