It was pretty late when Jessica woke up. About 12? 1pm? Who knows... Joseph was still sleeping and the two other sisters would probably return at about 2:30pm.
She decided to go on and make herself a cup of tea. Suprisingly, she was the only one in the family to like black tea with milk. Her dad just drank matcha all the time, Erica shared a passion for coffee with Sarah and Sean was the one to introduce Rosa to fruit tea. Especially the one with plums and cinnamon.
The jazz bar was pretty full yesterday. It was never boring. Though Jessica never liked talking to other people (because her aura somehow always scared all of the cute guys off), Hinata was always there to talk.
They even had a special alcohol-free drink, that never oficially ended up on the menu, soda, lemon and raspberry syrup and ice. Hinata was a short and chubby long haired lady. She had a tiny bit of accent, but it sounded cute to Jessica. She was also about ten years older, though it was pretty hard to tell. 26? 27? Eh, not important.
The band played jazz, obviously. It wasn't the kid of jazz you would imagine. Not the almost nonsensical, mostly quiet music without a steady rythm your dad listens to and says it's pure art and you understand nothing, you uncultured, mainstream person. It was the light, funny backround music, that you can find days worth of playlists on youtube with an aesthetic café in the backround.
It was called "that nasty jazz bar", because Joseph's bandmates were as intelligent as a soup made of all communist-like teachers' brains in the world. Another reason was, that it was rather dirty and the menu had almost nothing drinkable or edible. And every person who worked there, hated the place because how dirty it was, but loved it because it was a rather peaceful job.
The tea's ready! Jessica came to take a look at the streets with a mug in her hand. They were still wet from yesterday's rain they managed to miss on their way home. She loved the rain and the wet streets after it.
Jessica smiled and, like she always did on mornings like these, slided a coat over her shoulders, poured the tea into a special bottle for hot stuff and snuck out for a walk around the forest.
Since this was a different island than the city, the trees were different too. They were pointy and dark green this time. It wasn't anything special, many other places had the exact same trees. Maybe not as many as this one had, though.
It was beautiful. Everything was wet, water still sliding and dripping down from the leaves. No benches, no graffiti. Just an imaginary path Jessica made up for herself (and Alice sometimes) over the years.
As she walked she wasn't careful enough and accidentally stepped on a suprisingly well placed and crunchy stick. Jessica noticed, but didn't think much of it and was going to continue walking, when suddenly, a wild fluff of childish behaviour jumped in front of her.
She didn't really freak out, just flinched a little. It was a little mulato kid with a big, curly ponytail of puffy hair behind his back, sports clothes and a big, sharp, stick.
"Do not move, miss, or I will have to do actions!" he yelled playfully and waved his stick.
"Oh? Wha-wha-what-what are you-you-you pla-pla-planning on do-do-do-doing?" Jessica asked and placed her hands on her hips, shaking her head.
"I will... uhhh..." the boy put his stick down, but pointed it at Jessica once again when he came up with something. "I will take your coffee and drink it!"
"It's aaaa-a-actually t-t-tea, bbb-but-but-but you can ha-ha-have it if you're th-thth-thirsty..." she held the hot liquid out and came closer.
The boy let his stick fall to the ground and he ran towards Jessica, hands reaching out for the can, but suddenly, she held it closer to her chest, not letting him take it.
"Tttt-tell me yo-yo-yo-your name ffff-first." she demanded.
"Julian Kayama, and yours?" he let his guard down, his burning hazel eyes calming down, lighting up with awe instead and his lips twitching in a silly smile.
"Jess." Jessica just answered shortly and handed Julian the can with still warm tea.
"Wha-wha-wha-www-what are you-you-you do-do-do-doing in this fo-fo-fo-for-forest a... anyway?"she asked and fixed her glasses, as he blew on now his tea.
"It's a long story, I'll tell you later. I live in a tent nearby." Julian stopped blowing for a moment to look at Jessica and answer. A tent? The guy probably hadn't seen scrambled eggs in an eternity.
"We-we-wewe-we can, uhh, go-go-go to my-my-my-my place, and ha-ha-hahahave brekky..." Jessica suggested.
"Oh, come on. We just met and I'll surely be a bother to you and your parents." Julian sighed and sipped his tea.
"No-no-no-not al all!" she shook her head nervously.
"Are you sure, Jess?" he asked, secretly hoping she'll say yes. Julian almost sighed happily, when Jessica nodded.
"Le-le-lelele-let's go the-the-then," she waved in her house's direction.
Joseph must be up already. He's usually not all grumpy about guests, not even if they're boys. He didn't care if someone is running around the frontyard and caring for flowers with Rosa, or if someone is taking guitar lessons from Erica. The girls didn't have too many friends and never took home bad people, so he pretty much knew them all and knew they wouldn't do anything bad.
Jessica unlocked and opened the front door of their house, immediatelly noticing her father in the living room. He wasn't surprised, he knew about her little walks.
"Welcome home, Jessie... Where's your tea?" Joseph asked. She usually came home holding the tea can.
"I-iii-it's..." Jessica suddenly became nervous for some reason. Julian noticed and finished his tea really quickly.
"Here you go, thanks a lot," he handed her the bottle.
"Who's that with you?" Joseph stood up and came closer, ready to welcome whoever this kid was. All that came out from Jessica's mouth was "aaa, mmm, ehhh", so Julian answered for her.
"My name's Julian Kayama. We met in the forest recently and Jessie invited me to talk or something..." Julian reached out his hand for Joseph to shake it and smiled.
As soon as Joseph accepted Julian's hand and took a look at him, he realised one thing. That nose, that eye colour, that way of speaking... He knew it way too well to not recognise it all. But it might as well be a coincidence, right?
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Julian." he spoke and smiled too. "You can call me Joseph."
"Sasa-sarah ca-ca-calls him Pepe." Jessica grinned.
"Please, don't call me Pepe..." Joseph glared at Jessica, but she knew not to take it seriously, he meant it as a joke anyways. Julian nodded and giggled.
"So, whh-why-why, ehh, are you lilili-li-living in a-a-ah-a tent?" Jessica asked as they both sat on the couch.
"Promise not to take me to the police or something?" Julian said slowly, with begging eyes.
"I-I-I-I... I would ne-ne-never!" she waved with one hand and frowned, somehow reassuringly. Julian blinked and smiled.
"So, uhh... I grew up alone with my dad. We didn't talk about my mum at all, but once I asked him, he just said they broke up. But I want to meet her! So I hitchhiked all the way here and now I'm trying to find her." it seemed like he finished, but he actually didn't.
"My dad told me how beautiful and tall she was and that she had vitiligo too, that I didn't get. I mean, it isn't really hard to spot a tall, good-looking black woman with light splashes all over her skin, is it?" this time, Julian finished for sure. Jessica thought for a second and then just nodded.
"Y'know, Jules, you remind me of someone I knew before..." Joseph spoke from the kitchen. He was listening all along.
"Who do I remind you of?" the boy seemed intrigued.
Joseph sighed sadly and glanced at a hankerchief glued to his fridge with a plain black magnet.
"A man I knew a long, long time ago. Back when I just turned 18." he explained, and looked at sizzling vegetables and eggs in the pan.
"Y-y-you-you never tototo-told us a-a-a-bout him..." Jessica complained.
"I mean, you don't need to know." he chuckled, still keeping control of the food.
"You will never become less important to me, than you are now. And you mean the world to me. No matter how many years pass, you will still be the first person I call for when I'll be dying, and that will never change."
Funny enough, it's been decades now and I haven't heard from you. It's like you're dead, but I never heard you call for me.
"I promise I will never put you second. Not even if I get a girlfriend, which I probably won't. You're my best friend, and you can't even imagine how much I value that."
Bullshit.
"You'll always be my friend, right...?" was probably the only thing Joseph said at that moment.
"Right. Now, wipe the tears off that beautiful face of yours and give me a hug."
Fucking bullshit, that's what.