Paralyzed Love ✓

thirteen

"Mornin." Jacob pops out from the doorframe while Jesse is changing in his room.

"Lord, I'm naked."

"Pffff. I saw everything when you still wore diapers."

"Shush, you're only one year older than me," Jesse throws his brother a death glare.

"The scene was too breathtaking, it's still really intact in my mind." Jacob shrugs.

Jesse slides himself into a dark green hoodie. "Shut the fuck up." He tosses his pyjamas in Jacob's direction aggressively. They laugh and Jacob throws it back to Jesse.

"So," Jacob walks into the room and sits on Jesse's bed, crossing his arms, "We won last night."

Jesse widens his eyes and turns around. "For real?"

"HA! Yup, you were asleep last night so yeah, we won West Bridge High."

Jesse and Jacob have always been making deals about whether their school's basketball team would win in games. It stopped after Jesse was forced to leave the team after his car accident, but gradually the deals came back.

This time, Jesse bet Jacob that his basketball team was not going to beat West Bridge High in the game.

Jesse scrubs his face with both hands and groans. "Argh, fine. I'll take it."

"Time for the dare." Jacob smirks. He pauses and think. "You're going to a party with me."

Jesse stops. His face twists, he tips his head to the side. "What?"

He never goes to parties, being in packed places is already not his thing, and he finds it more difficultly with the wheelchair with him.

"Yes, party. It's my friend's birthday and you'll meet many people there."

Jesse breathes in deeply and stretches his neck. If he does not take the dare, Jacob is going to decide what Jesse's Instagram profile picture is going to be for the next month, (it's part of their deal). And Jesse knows that if Jacob has the chance to ruin his life, he will definitely try his very best.

"Fine, when's it?" Jesse picks up his schoolbag and puts it on his lap.

"This Thursday."

Jesse sighs. "Okay."

Notification: Ava Morales sent you a snap!

Jesse's phone rings and he grabs it immediately after reading the notification. He opens the snap — it's a photo of Ava's room ceiling with the caption 'streaks'.

Jesse Sanders
wow, you finally decided to save streaks?

Ava Morales
I'm trying to figure out what to do in the morning.

Jesse Sanders
LOL. Everyone knows you stalk their snap stories and snaps but never send anything 🧐

Ava Morales
Yea, so I wanna see why the streaks thing is so appealing to u guys.

Jesse Sanders
😉I like seeing u being like this

Ava frowns — she's skeptical. Like this? Like what? Like being a person that uses Snapchat properly?

Ava does not reply. When Jesse looks up, Jacob is already gone.

—

It's another day in school, having boring classes alone and having fun classes with Ava. Jesse catches a glimpse of Ava chatting with Melanie during the class transition in the hallway. He stops.