Charms or Banjos?

Chapter 2

In the weeks that followed prom, Alex and Jessica became friends again, the pair of them picking up where they left off at the end of year 8. The two of them messaged every day, quickly becoming best friends. Alex and Jessica couldn't go twenty minutes without speaking to each other and at the end of each night, they couldn't sleep without saying goodnight.

Just over a month after prom, Jessica and Paige went into the city to watch a movie. "Tell your mum thank you for bringing me by the way." Paige said once the two of them step into the cinema. "It's no problem, plus I wanted to tell you something." Jessica replied. Paige made a face at her, the two of them had been talking all through the summer since prom, surely there was nothing new to say? "I've been talking to Alex, like every day since prom." Jessica said when Paige didn't respond. "What? Like Alex, the guy who's like my brother?" Paige asked. "Yeah, he added me from this group chat I was added to after prom. We kinda just started talking every day ever since." Jessica clarified. Paige was speechless. Their high school was kind of like mean girls in the way that people had their cliques and nobody ever really strayed from them. There was the odd person who would be popular throughout two or three cliques, but even those people rarely started from their closest friends. "Jess, you do realise Alex is the football king. He's like the Garret Graham of our school. And no offence girl, but you're definitely the invisible girl. It's like the title of that one book I read. Popular guys don't fall for invisible girls." Paige ranted. "Okay, you have valid points there Paige, but we're not in high school anymore, things might be different at college. And anyway, doesn't Garret Graham fall for Hannah Wells, the so-called 'invisible girl' in The Deal?" Jessica countered. "Yes, but that's so not the point Jess. Alex can be an evil little man and I don't want to see you get hurt, that's all." Paige told her. "I'll be okay Paige. Come on, we're next." Jessica said. Among all the hubbub about Alex, Paige had totally forgotten where they were but moved forwards with Jessica in the queue.

After the movie, Paige and Jessica went to a small cafe to have some lunch. "That movie was so good. I need to tell Alex about it." Jessica said once the two of them had sat at their table with their food. "Yeah, it's definitely the kind of movie he would wanna see." Paige responded, having decided it would be for the best to be supportive of Jessica's friendship with Alex. "Thanks for paying for me to come with you by the way Paige. I've really had a great time." Jessica said after a while of the two of them just sitting in silence. "It's all good, my dad had some free tickets off a friend at work but they expired while he was still on holiday. I'm so glad we got some places on opening day to be honest." Paige admitted. Soon after the two of them had eaten lunch, they went shopping for a few hours before Jessica's mum picked them up.

That night, Alex and Jessica continued their text conversation, with Alex telling Jessica all about his time bowling with his and Paige's families on holiday. Jessica told Alex about the movie and their conversation continued into the night, with neither of them going to sleep until they had both said goodnight.

As the two young teenagers slept, both of their minds became fogged with dreams of the other, Alex dreaming about a simple date with Jessica, just the two of them in a restaurant, chatting happily over their food, whilst Jessica dreamed of college with Alex, the two of them holding hands through the halls, no weird looks from anyone else, no judgement. Just the two of them, happy. Though neither of them would ever admit to having a dream about the other that was anything but platonic.