Picture Perfect

Chapter 11

Alessia POV

I was sitting at the table after I fixed my face, waiting for Jonathan to come back. Thankfully my mom had stayed in her office, I really wasn't in the talking about feelings mood.

"You ready?" I looked up from my phone to see Jonathan was sitting at the table, next to me this time.

"Yeah sure," I put my phone back on the table and looked at Jonathan.

"So how much did you get done for the project?"

"Um not that much, how about you?" I changed the subject before he could ask more.

"Oh well just a few notes," he smiled and opened his computer for me to see. I looked over his page and was impressed by what I saw.

"So MIT?" I raised an eyebrow, glancing at him from the screen.

"Oh yeah, it's more of a dream than anything I probably won't go."

"Why not? You'd totally get in." I mean the dude had straight As for goodness sakes. I'm sure his test scores were amazing, why wouldn't he?

"Maybe, I don't know. I'm not sure if I want to leave my mom behind with everything." He said softly.

"Everything?"

"Well my mom is a single parent with five kids. That's kind of a lot to deal with and I want to make sure she has my help."

"Oh, I get it. What does she think?" My mom was a single mom for a while and it was hard. I couldn't imagine what it'd be like if my dad wasn't around.

"The opposite, actually," he chuckled half heartedly, "she is making me apply."

"I don't blame her it's a good school. And you want to do-" I looked down at the screen. "Computational math and science. Wow." I couldn't help but be jealous that he knew exactly what he wanted.

"Yeah, yeah, enough about me. Where are you going, Alessia?" He reached over and grabbed my computer to look at my notes. Which were absolutely blank.

"Hey," I tried to grab it back but was too late.

"Oh. Sorry," was all he said after he had looked at it.

"Well now you know. I have no plans." I crossed my arms, a little frustrated and embarrassed. I had been feeling that quite a lot today.

"There is nothing wrong with that. You don't have to know yet."

"As if. You basically have to know what you want to do in middle school and decide your life from there. You have a plan, Kayla had one knowing her, and probably Parker."

"So what? You still have time to figure it out."

"Stop being my guidance counselor."

"I'm being your friend, Alessia," he looked at me with the most sincere expression on his face. One I had only really seen on my parents and once upon a time on Kayla. I'm sure he meant well, but it only made me feel worse.

"Whatever." Was all I could mutter after turning my head towards the table.

"You don't have to be embarrassed," he said softly.

"I'm not," I snapped my head towards him with a glare.

"Ok fine," he put his hands up in the air and smiled.

"Mock me all you want, but I'm not embarrassed."

"You're right. I'm sorry," he chuckled. "Let's figure this out though. We need to at least have something for the project. Okay?"