FLAWED

Boys Boys Boys.

Thursday December 18th

Post #24

I wanted to write yesterday but we spent the day snorkeling and I was so exhausted. I had my lesson with Austin today, which I promised myself I'd go to. The night before while we were gathered around the dinner table, we all agreed on relaxing today. But before I get into my very awkward lesson, I want to talk about the conversation I stumbled upon this morning.

Once I was all cleaned up and in my fresh white shorts I headed downstairs to get myself something to eat. I overheard Lena's failed attempt at whispering and stumbled towards my aunt's room to hear what they were saying better.

"I just need a day to myself, mom." I heard her say.

Aunt Angelina sighed heavily as she took a minute to respond. "This is suppose to be a vacation; we are all suppose to be spending time together."

"Well right now, I want to spend sometime with myself." I could hear her struggling to keep herself from raising her voice. "Mom, I'm twenty years old, you can trust me with the car."

"It's not about the car, Lena; it's about communication." Angelina was no longer trying to keep her voice low as she began to complain. "Jessica's been running off in the middle of the night to god knows where. And now you want to spend an entire day running around a city you're not even familiar with."

Listening to Angelina's compliant about Jessie instantly brought me back to Monday night. The lifeguard had mistaken me for someone he'd known and probably seen earlier. Maybe that someone was Jessie? Wouldn't that explain where she first disappeared to Monday evening?

What didn't make sense is what Jessie could possibly be doing with a lifeguard she hardly knows.

The sound of Lena's voice disrupted my train of thoughts bringing me back to her conversation. "Jessica probably wants to be alone-just like I do. I only want to have a few hours to myself. When I'm comfortable with what I'm dealing with, I'll talk to you." She said.

She put her hands up as if she were a criminal who's just been caught by the police. "Honey I don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to. But I also don't want you to run away from the very things you should be acknowledging." She handed Lena the keys to the car my dad rented for her and gave her a stern look. Before she could leave and catch me eavesdropping, I jolted up the stairs and ran into the nearest open room.

The cream colored room and bright furniture were the first things that caught my eye. Even the black shorts and dark tank top Jessie sported had nothing against the brightness that consumed the room. She was spread out on the ground applying a baby blue nail polish on her nails when I finally took notice of her. I was shocked to see her black hair straightened and pulled back into a ponytail as she's been neglecting her hair since the color started fading.

"Are you actually painting your nails something other than black or am I dreaming?" I could hardly believe the girl sitting in front of me existed. When Jessie shut down after her breakup with Lucas, almost everything she owned had to be dark. So I didn't understand why she wasn't eager to get her hands on some black hair dye or painting her nails a darker color.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not complaining," I said. "I'm just a little shocked."

"Well don't get use to it-I'm only using this color because I ran out of black."

I didn't want to believe her, as I wasn't done hoping I'd get the real Jessica Annilova back. But something told me she was serious. "Austin's coming over to give me a private lesson on surfboarding; you should join us."

She didn't seem interested. "If it's a private lesson, then why would I come?"

"I don't know; I just thought maybe you'd like to stick around the house for once during instead of sneaking out in the middle of the night." I rolled my eyes and casually strolled out of the room.