Another Broken Girl

Chapter 11

"Sounds cool." Calum says. I shrug my shoulder.

"You can always paint over it with white paint." I say.

"Then I would have to paint the whole wall because it would be uneven." Luke says. 

"Then I don't know what to tell you." I sigh. We all stare at the mark like its a little china doll walking on a thin rope.

 5,000 feet above ground. 

"Just do the wish wall." Michael speaks up. "It sounds cool and less expensive than buying a bucket of white paint." 

"Fine." Luke says. He goes into a closet and gives me a small bucket of dark red paint which I assume he used for my room. "You write it." he says to me. I grab a chair and start to form the big mark into an "I". When I finish I start to write "Wish" along with three dots. I put the paint away and get Sharpies from the kitchen.

"Care to do the honors?" I ask Luke handing him a Sharpie. He takes it and starts to write something under the H in Wish. Once he's done I catch a glance of what he wrote. "For our band to become famous." 

"I want to go next!" Ashton yells and grabs a Sharpie. I back up to let all of them write some wishes. I go into the kitchen to get some water. I look over at all of them huddled against the wall.

I feel my phone vibrate and I take look at the screen. It's a text message from Jay.

Get ready. Met me by the park.

It's kind of weird to have Jay just out of the blue say that he's picking me up.I let it go and reply to him ok. I walk over to where the guys are still writing away on the wall.

"I'm heading out. See you guys later." I say then begin to walk to my room. 

"Where are you going?" Ashton asks me. 

"Jay wants to meet up." I reply starting to walk to my room again.  I get my black messenger purse and fill it with my normal contents. Chap Stick, a few bucks, the key, and my phone. Jay and I went to this park a couple of times when we wanted to hang out. We found it when we were running away from some bratty, spoiled girls. They were being so annoying and rude. They deserved to be tumbled by rocks.

I'm in sight of the park and I see Jay sitting on one of the two swings. This park was pretty rusty, and was in between two old buildings. In front of the park was a weak, wired fence leaving a narrow space to enter through. 

"Hey." I say sitting to the swing next to him. He looks up at me and smiles, but it seems forced.

"Hey." He says quietly.

"Is everything alright?" I ask. He looks to floor and starts to move the swing back and forth with his heel.

"Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to talk to you, you know? Just hang out." I can tell that something’s bothering him. He gives off this vibe that he's upset and uncomfortable. 

"We been hanging out mostly every week." I say laughing nervously. He keeps rocking back and forth on his heel. 

"No, I mean like just talk." He says still looking at the floor. "Not going around making trouble," he exhales loudly, "not that I don't like making trouble with you." 

"Oh ok. Then let's talk." I say awkwardly. He stopped rocking by now and he's just looking at the ground. We just sit there in silence. I don't know what's wrong with Jay, but something is really bothering him. He never acts like this.

"So, where do you live?" he asks starting to swing again.

"In an apartment not far from here." I say looking at the sky. There's no clouds and it's getting dark.

"Alone?" he asks putting his hood up.

"No, I live with that guy, Luke. The one you met." I say. He nods his head.

"Is he your boyfriend?" he asks teasingly poking me. He still has that vibe that he's uncomfortable, but I don't push on it.

"No! We're just friends. Though we do argue a lot." I explain to him.

"Well it seems like he likes you." he says looking to the floor again.

"No he does not, Jay." I roll my eyes at him. 

"Why else would he try to find you?" he asks.

"Next subject." I say waving my hand starting to rock on the swing. 

Jay asks me more questions like where I work, where I go to school, who are my friends, those kind of things. He seems really into talking to me about my personal life. It's like he has a list or something.

"Enough about me," I say after a while, "what about you?" We're both sitting on the play set near the slide and monkey bars. We both sit across from each other. Both of us are stretched out tangling with each other’s legs. 

"W-what about me?" he asks stuttering. Jay was never the one to stutter. 

"Like," I say stretching it, "where do you work?" He seems to jerk a little when I ask, but that could just be from the bars he's leaning against. 

"I work as a- um," he pauses, "personal assistant?" he says more of a question.

"Okay." I say a little unsure. "What about friends?" he tilts his head up still looking at me.

"Well, there is always my dumbass roommate." he says.

"What's wrong with your roommate?" I ask interested.

"Well, where do I begin? He thinks it's possible to become ice cream if he pours milk on himself and then sleeps in the freezer for the night." he says chuckling.

"No." I say not believing him. 

"It's true." he says smirking.

We stay like this for a while just asking each other questions about our new lives. It was kind of nice. Jay's still the same guy, but with a different life. I missed him so badly. He's like a second brother to me. Jay also doesn't have the best life either. He's parents died when he was ten and he's living with his grandparents. He only has his grandma now and she isn't doing too well.

"How's your grandma?" I ask. I hear his voice hitch and his hands start to shake. He doesn't say anything. All he does is go into his pocket and get out some cigarettes. He offers me one, but I shake my head.

"Not too well." he sighs. "I put her in a nursing home." he leans his head against the bars and stares into the sky.

"That's good. They'll take care of her there." I lean closer to him and put my hand on his reassuringly. He looks down at me and gives me a weak smile.