Notice Me

chapter one

October 4, 2006

My eyes almost bulged out of it's sockets, the cutest boy in school wanted to be friends with me? Jessica Richardson? It couldn't be real. I closed my eyes and pinched myself.

"Jessica?"

I opened my eyes and met his captivating blue ones.

"Jessica are you okay? You're looking at me weird. We don't have to be friends if you don't want to be."

"No." I shook my head. "No I'm sorry. It's just.. You want to be friends with me? I'm a nobody Rodney." I looked down at my beat up sneakers. I am a nobody. I didn't have any friends except for my best friend Rebecca.

He shrugged. "Doesn't really matter to me. You're really cool. I need more friends like you. Every since I got here it's just been me and Cody. He's the only friend I have."

I smiled softly and put a strand of black hair behind my ear. "You really think I'm cool?"

He nodded with a smile. God he was beautiful. "Yeah, I think you're amazing."

I blushed. "Thanks Rodney."

"No problem Jessica, I'll see you around okay?"

I nodded. "Okay."

•

February 2, 2016

I walked down the hall of my new apartment and it was amazing. I've always dreamed of having an apartment like this all to myself one day.

Graduated from college? Check.

Landed a nice job? Check.

Moved out of my mother's house? Check.

Finally get to live in a nice apartment that I paid tooth and nail for? Check.

I've got everything I've ever wanted.

Well, almost.

I felt my cell phone vibrate and dug it out of my purse to answer it. "Jessica Lewis speaking."

"Jess!"

I groaned, here we go.

"Jess I miss you!" Becca squealed into the phone.

Rebecca Johnson is my best friend. We've known each other practically our whole lives. She's been there since the very beginning and I'll never get rid of her. I'd never want to.

"I just spoke to you three hours ago Rebecca."

"Wow, so does this mean that I can't miss my best friend?"

I laughed. "Oh come on, you know I miss you too."

I could picture her rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I have news."

"Good or bad?"

"Bad."

I cringed. "Oh God, what happened this time?"

"One word. Rodney."

My stomach clenched. "What? Rodney? What about him?"

"He's in New York. I think that Cody is with him. They got there a couple of days ago. Jeremy told me he had expanded his business in three other states besides California." She took a deep breath. "I just wanted to tell you before you found out from someone else."

I sat down on the couch and leaned back. "Fuck. I was honestly trying to avoid him for the rest of my life."

"You knew that wasn't going to happen. It's like you guys are meant to be or something." She laughed.

I glared at the wall. "I'm glad you find this amusing, and we are not meant to be, not in the slightest."

She sighed. "You were in love with him at one point Jessica."

I chuckled, with out the humor. "Please don't remind me." I put my hand over my forehead. "Shit Rebecca, why is he here?"

"Jeremy said he's expanding his business, but Rodney wasn't thinking about New York until Cody said something about you being there."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding?"

"I wish babe, but I have to go. My mom wants me to come over to help with dinner. I'll talk to you later okay?"

I nodded, even though she couldn't see me. "Okay. I'll talk to you later." I hung up. "Can I ever catch a break!" I groaned and ran my fingers through my hair. I heard a knock on the door and went to go answer it. "Who is it?"

"Adam girl! Open the door!"

I opened the door and smiled. "Hey you."

Adam Lewis is one of my best friend's and also my foster brother. Adam and his mom helped me out a lot when I came to New York. I received a scholarship into NYU during the end of my senior year and just left. No one knew about it except for Rebecca. I got a one way ticket and never looked back. I met Adam at a coffee shop, I thought he was hitting on me at first until I found out that he was homosexual. Anyways his mother.. well our mother Karen, took me in as one of her own and the rest is history.

He pulled me towards him and hugged me. "Hey you, I've missed you my beautiful sister."

I smiled against his chest. "I've missed you more. Come in."

He let go of me and walked in. I closed the door and he went to go sit down. "Well this is an upgrade from mom's former guest room." He looked around appreciatively.

I squealed. "I know right I'm so happy. I'm glad I saved up for it." I sat across from him.

He laughed. "You seem really excited. I'm happy for you sweetie, you deserve the world you know." He raised an eyebrow.

I waved him off and sat back. "You say this all the time."

"And I'm going to continue saying it until you get it through that big head of yours. Anyways, Becca called me and told me about Rodney."

I raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you stopped by?"

He nodded. "And because you're my best friend and only sibling. I wanted to see how you were doing. So how are you?"

I ran my fingers through my hair. "I'm fine really, just can't believe he's here and I really just don't want to bump in to him."

"Yeah about that.." He scratched the back of his neck. "He was kind of at your office today."

My heart dropped and I sat up. "Excuse me?"

"He's taking over the whole company.. As head CEO."

I shivered and let out a breath. "Wow, this is just fantastic."

"That's it? You're not going to freak?"

"What for? It's not like I can do anything about it. I'll just find me a new job. That would work right?"

He rolled his eyes. "You're going to be okay. You don't need another job. You're in charge of the whole third floor for crying out loud, you can't just quit."

"Adam, you don't understand.. I can't see him. Too much has happened between us and I can't see him. I haven't seen him for a long time now and I just.. I can't." I put my face in my hands.

"Stop being dramatic Jessica." He pulled my hands away from my face and made me look at him. "You'll be fine, nothing bad is going to happen okay?"

I took a deep breath. "I'm taking your word for it."