𝚃𝙰𝚂𝚃𝙴 𝙾𝙵 𝙷𝙴𝙰𝚅𝙴𝙽 ➭ 𝖿𝗂𝗇𝗇 𝗁𝗎𝖽𝗌𝗈𝗇

fifteen; the power of madonna

"One knock on the door. That's it. This is easy, Winona," Uttered Winona to herself, pacing in front of the door to the St. James home.

After a minute or two, she finally worked up the courage to knock. As she brought back her fist to hit against the door, it opened, causing her stumble forwards a bit.

"How did you know I was here?" Winona asked as she looked up at the boy at the door. Before her, was none other than Jesse St. James himself, smirking.

"I saw you pacing for like five minutes from my window. That's kinda creepy, you know."

As she scoffed, Jesse continued.

"Pipsqueak. It's good to see you."

She remembered the nickname vividly. He called her that more often than her own name— that and Watts were his go-to's.

"Come in," Jesse insisted, moving out of the doorway. Reluctantly, she complied. After entering his house, Winona followed him to the kitchen, where he poured two glasses of water for them to enjoy.

"I didn't come here to be nostalgic," Winona blurted out, trying to read his expression. He was always impossible to figure out. His face was always unreadable, Winona knew that well. His amused, happy, mischievous and resting face were all very similar— you could never tell what he was feeling until he expressed it verbally.

And boy, how he loved to express things verbally.

"Then why are you here, Watts? You're not here because you're jealous of me and Ms. Berry, are you?" He teased, making her tense.

"No, god no," She took a sip of her drink, avoiding eye contact, "but. . We do need to talk about that."

"You have my attention."

"You can't date her, especially not with regionals coming up," Winona started. She found herself nervous around him. Not in an unsafe way, but she was worried about slipping up and embarrassing herself more than usual.

"I'll have you know, Rachel and I are very happy together. I would never hurt her—"

"Bull. Jesse, I've known you for forever," Winona's tone got more stern, "I know you."

"Do you?" Jesse countered, a smirk playing on his lips. He put a comforting, yet condescending hand on her shoulder, "because I think you're jealous."

"Don't be ridiculous," Winona's eyes widened as she let out a nervous, sarcastic laugh, "She's fragile, okay? Don't hurt her, at the very least."

"I promise. Pinky swear?" He offered. Jesse held out his pinkie and waited for her to do the same, effectively sealing their promise.

Being around him just reminded her of simpler times. Times where status didn't matter and your popularity was decided by your skill during a game of tag or whether or not you had cooties. Before their conversation could continue, her phone started ringing. Jesse realized so before she did, snatching her phone to examine the caller ID.

"Finn, with a heart emoticon? Does Watts have a boyfriend?" He teased, trying to hold the phone out of her reach. She rushed to get it back, her fingers curling around the phone and taking it away from Jesse.

"Not funny," She mumbled, shoving it in he pocket and letting the phone go to voicemail, "I should go—"

"So soon?"