Charms or Banjos?

Chapter 13

The next day, Jessica woke up to a good morning text from Alex, alongside a shirtless mirror picture that made Jessica kick her feet and giggle. When she checked the time, she saw it was around 10 so she went downstairs to grab some breakfast before getting ready for The Dip. "Good morning." Jessica said as she walked into the kitchen where her grandma and grandpa were sitting reading the newspaper. "Good morning Jess." Chloe said as she brought her empty plate into the kitchen. "You're happier than usual in the morning, so who's the boy?" Chloe asked once she got a good look at Jessica's face. "There's no boy, Chloe, it's Christmas, can't I just be happy?" Jessica retorted. "Chloe, you're so stupid sometimes, clearly it was that Alex guy from Paige's house." Sidney said as he walked into the kitchen, rummaging through the cupboards for some food. Jessica groaned and rolled her eyes, making her way to sit at the table with her grandparents.

"We look ridiculous." Sidney groaned as Jessica and her family made their way to the sea front wearing their blow-up shark costumes for the Boxing Day Dip. "It's for charity Sid, grow up." David said, putting £5 into the donation bucket. Out of the corner of her eye, Jessica spotted a familiar few faces making their way to the pub that overlooked the sea.

"What's going on over there?" Alex asked as he looked out of the window towards the groups of people dressed in costumes walking towards the sea. "It's the Boxing Day Dip, Jessica said it's where people put on costumes and run into the sea for charity. Each person has to pay a pound to do it and the money collected goes towards the lifeboats." Paige explained, looking for her friend. "See those people in the blow-up shark costumes, that's Jess and her family." Paige added, pointing them out to Alex. "That's cool." Alex replied, taking a picture of them to send to Jessica later. "What do you guys want to eat?" Jane asked Alex and Paige once they had turned around. "American breakfast please." Paige replied, sipping on her apple juice. "Bagel for me, mum." Alex said before turning around to watch Jessica run into the sea with everyone else.

"Why do we do this every year if every year the sea is freezing? Chloe asked as they walked into the pub overlooking the sea. "Because it's for a good cause Chloe, do you guys all want hot chocolates?" Louise asked, standing over the table. "Uh, can I have a coffee instead, I'm a bit tired." Jessica said, checking her phone for any texts from Alex or Paige. "Sure, I'll be right back." After Jessica checked for texts from Alex or Paige, she found that she had been added to a group chat with Alex, Paige and Sam. The group had been named 'Go-Karting' and the only messages in the chat were Alex and Paige arguing over who was the better 'go-karter', which Alex adamantly said was himself, whilst Paige said Sam had to be the best because he was the only actual driver in the group. Sam had not said anything, but created the group and sent a TikTok of a huge indoor go-karting place. "Jess!" Paige yelled from across the room of the pub, waving her over to sit with her. "Dad, I'll be right back, Paige is over there." Jessica said before getting up and walking over to Paige's table. "So, me and Sam were going to go to watch that new film with the guy from Top Gun: Maverick in it, I think it's called Anyone But You and we invited Alex but he said he wouldn't go if you don't. So, you in?" Paige asked when Jessica arrived at her table. "Hell yeah I'm in, I've been seeing clips from that movie all over TikTok, I'll send you the money for my ticket as soon as I've asked my parents if I can go." Jessica replied.

A few hours later, Jessica, Alex, Paige and Sam were all sitting in the back row of the cinema, eating their popcorn as the trailers played. "Hey Jess, do you want some fruit pastilles?" Paige whispered, holding out the package. Jessica nodded her head, reaching into the packet, once she had grabbed a few, she tapped Alex on the arm and handed him his favourite flavour of fruit pastille before turning back to the movie. Alex smiled at the sweets in his hand and wrapped his arm around Jessica, caressing her arm with soft, gentle strokes. Feeling brave, he spelled out the words, 'I love you' on her arm, equally hoping that she didn't notice and that she did notice. Little did he know, Jessica did notice and smiled into her popcorn. Jessica too felt brave in that moment and pushed the arm rest separating the two of them down, snuggled into Alex's side and spelled out the words 'I love you' on his other arm, smiling.