the life changer// j.j

five

*Marie's POV*
Johnson walks up to me at the end of the day, smiling.
"Alright so I'll drop you off. Pick you up at 5:00 so be ready gorgeous." He says, grabbing my hand as we walk out.
"Don't call me that." I say, pushing my hair back and looking down. "It's not true."
He stops in his tracks. "Your still insecure?" He says, looking at me.
I don't answer.
"Marie." He says, turning me so I'm facing him, and putting his hands cupped around my neck. "Your still like you used to be." He says quietly.
"Can we not do this here?" I say softly.
"C'mon." He says, walking me to his car.
I get in and he gets in the drivers seat. He drives to my house and I get out. "We're not done discussing this. But I have to get ready. See you at five." He says, driving off.
I sigh and go inside.
The yelling tells me that both my mom and my dad are home. They never stop arguing. It's gotten so bad I can't fall asleep without hearing their screams.
I walk up the stairs, and knock on my big brother's door.

"Come in." I hear a slight mumble.

"Hey" I say smiling. I notice hes writing something "Poetry?" I ask, becoming extremely concerned with the fact that he's wrting. He only writes when he's going through a stage of depression, and if he goes through another stage like he did, then he's gonna push me away again, and I really cant handle that again.

"Yeah." he says trailing off. "Its about you."

I look down at the stanzas that he is showing to me.

"Littlle Hands?" I ask, wondering what the title of the poem even means.

"When we were little, you were probably too young to remember, but mom used to tell me that I needed to watch after you, and when I asked why, she would respond in saying that you had little hands."

I look down at the lines and laugh at the memories, and the message behind each stanza that he has wrote on the paper.

"Jackson how do you remember-" I start, but then hear the yelling getting louder.

Jackson winces. I look down.

"I've got a date." I say, trying in any way to lighten the mood.

He looks at me. "Can I meet him?" He asks, smirking at me.

"Jackson." I whine.

"You dont have to be a brat." He says.

"maybe." I say, "but FYI, he'll be here at five"

Jackson turns and smirks at me, and I laugh, walking outof his room.

I look at myself in the mirror. This morning, I just wore jeans and a sweatshirt, because I woke up to late. But today, right now, I'm gonna dress nice. But not too nice. Its just a first date.

i get dressed in (A/N pic at the beginning.) and look at my somewhat straight hair, deciding to leave it as is.

I walk downstairs and go outside to wait on Jack. When I open the door, I see Jackson and Jack talking.
Jacks wearing khakis, black Vans, a dark grey sweatshirt and a dark grey beanie.

"Jackson go back inside." I complain.

"Oh stop being such a cry baby." he says, sticking his tounge out at me.

Jack laughs. "Dont encourage him." I say, walking over to where their standing. "When are you going back to college?" I say, rolling my eyes at him.

"When you go back in the womb." He says, which causes Johnson to burst into hysterical laughter.
"C'mon let's go." I say, grabbing Jacks hand.
He chuckles and Jackson yells goodbye, which I totally ignore.
I get in the car, and Jack drives off, leaving my brother sitting on the front porch.
That brings back the memory of our Christmas picture, when I was eight. Jackson was fourteen
I remember him pushing me off the steps, and me getting and awful scar on my side that's actually still there. I smile at the memory. We're both really busy now.
He's studying to be a doctor, but I know his hearts in poetry.
"Marie." Jack says.
I snap back into reality. "Yes." I say.
"You ready?"
I smile and nod.
Jack drives for a little while and the smell of our hometown bakery flutters my nose.
"You did not." I say, looking at him with the biggest smile on my face.
"I did too." He says, getting out of the car.
We walk in and I order a cupcake and a coffee, noticing that Jack has almost the exact opposite of me. I have a vanilla cupcake with black coffee and one teaspoon of creamer. He has a chocolate on chocolate with a hazelnut iced coffee something.
I take out money but he's already beat me to it.
"Typical." I say, mumbling.
"You know you love it." He says, flashing a huge smile at me and walking me outside to a table.
"Why are you still insecure?" He asks me, not even waiting for me to sit down first.
"The same reason that your still talking about why I'm insecure. I wanna know."
"Wanna know what?"
"Jack for these past highschool years, everyone's told me I'm ugly. Worthless. So when it's the only thing you hear, you sorta start to believe it." I say, looking down and taking a sip of my coffee, and then biting my cupcake.
He looks down, and grabbed my hand, holding it slightly. I just barely let a tear fall.
I lay my head on his shoulder as the rat of my tears come.
"But your beautiful." Jack says. "Why am I so stupid for calling you ugly! Your not! Your so freaking gorgeous! I am so stupid!" He says, standing up and throwing his beanie on the ground.
"Jack stop your scaring me." I say, looking at him closely.
He looks at me, with bloodshot eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being such an asshole to you. You didn't deserve it." He says, siting down next to me again and wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
A slight snow starts to fall. The joys of living in Omaha.
I smile at the moment we've created, and shut my eyes to the sound of Jack softly humming music, and the swoosh of wind that is breezing behind us.
We are invincible.