"Jessica, it's wonderful to see you again." I see Christian. I'm already angry for no reason. "You still look the same."
"It's great to see you too." I lie. Andrew's getting himself something to drink while I'm just over here being the sober person I am.
"Where's your partner?" He asks.
"Getting himself a drink." I reply, glancing at my phone, mom and dad are going to Washington next week, mom claims grandpa is sick.
"Why isn't he getting you anything?" He questions. Has he always been so nosey?
"I don't want anything. I'm good this way." I roll my eyes. And here is Andrew.
"Haddad, how have you been?" They hug each other. I think I already want to smoke.
"Been great man. How's your fiancée?" Andrew asks as they pull out. And I choke on the word fiancée, um what?
"Jessica, are you okay?" Christian asks, grinning. That bitch. I inhale deeply and fake a smile.
"Andrew, Mr. Collins, I'd like to excuse myself for two minutes." I look away, I really need to smoke, this is too much to handle.
I leave them and head outside, I get out my pack of cigarettes and pick one. I put it in my mouth and then light it. Man, smoking gets me so much comfort. I check my phone for texts, and I just have an email from Mr. Woodhouse, who's been my substitute teacher for the week. I'll read that later.
"Are you okay?" Andrew shows up out of nowhere, he seems worried.
"I'm fine, he's just too obnoxious." I sigh.
"You know you can smoke inside right, it's freezing in here," he suggests.
"The cold isn't bothering me." I fake a smile, I'm just sort of tired because I didn't sleep well yesterday. "You can go back in there, I don't mind. It's the reason you're here after all."
"I prefer spending time with you." He smiles.
"I'm sorry I'm a party pooper." I blow out smoke. "I'll finish this one and we'll go back inside."
After an hour of peaceful talking with people who aren't Christian, he shows up again, this time with a woman who's wearing a tube dress, it still looked formal, though.
"Jessica, I'd like to introduce my fiancée to you, this is Miranda. Miranda, this is Jessica, Haddad's girlfriend." He says. I'm surprised he didn't introduce me as his ex.
"Good evening." I shake hands with her. She is pretty, blonde, blue eyes, small nose, collarbones showing so much, and let's not forget the dimples.
"It is pretty weird, meeting the woman my fiancé used to cheat on with me." She giggles, that was a stupid remark which Andrew didn't know about.
"It also is weird that Christian switched from Columbia Records © to whatever company this is." I smile as well.
"He works for daddy now." She puts her arm around his waist. This is disgusting.
"Collins, man, you know Jessica is the hottest teacher in UCLA?" Andrew interrupts. I look at him, very confused.
"I have an internationally known model." Christian rolls his eyes.
"Sorry man, but no one can beat Jessie's personality." This time, Andrew wraps his hand around my waist. Miranda's jaw drops whilst Christian looks away, he's embarrassed.
"Actually, there is." Christian looks at me this time, what is he planning on doing? Fuck. "At least, I'm sure my fiancée is a woman." Oh, he didn't, oh fuck no he didn't.
"What the fuck do you mean?" Andrew furrows his eyebrows, and I don't even have the guts to face any of those people. His hand is no longer around my waist now.
"Oh my god, you didn't tell him?" Christian laughs, Andrew looks pissed and I'm in deep shit.
"Didn't tell me what?" Andrew asks, raising his eyebrows.
"Jessica is-" Christian starts as I cut him off.
"I'm intersex okay?" I felt so angry and humiliated, that's for me to say not for him to blackmail me with. I couldn't stand another second without a cigarette, man they're such lifesavers. How ironic, lifesavers that kill you.
"I can see Andrew couldn't get you to stop smoking too." Christian scoffs. I glare at him, blowing out smoke. I can't really spend any more time in here. I don't even bother talking to any of these people, I just want to leave.
I'm back to teaching, it's my first day, though, and I'm pretty sure today will suck. Andrew and I haven't talked since that accident at the party. We've been ignoring each other for so long, we didn't talk in the airplane, not even when we reached Los Angeles. Angelina's fine, Peter's good, and Tyler's been fantastic.
The thing is, I get that Andrew is mad. I wouldn't mind that he's angry because I didn't tell him such a huge thing. Yet, what would offend me is him being enraged by the fact itself. There's no negative thing in being born intersex, it's not like I chose to be.
This is my first hour, and I've got sophomores, their lessons are pretty okay, but that'll hopefully pass.
Glad I'm done with the day, the last hour was seniors, and it was pretty awkward for Andrew and me. He was wearing casual clothes and he looked hot in them. I couldn't see him as a student for some reason. I'm really glad he didn't bother talking to me, even though he stayed a few extra minutes after his classmates left.
I'm now heading to LAPD. I will see Jake, I really need to talk to him, about everything.
"Good afternoon Jake." I sit down, I can't shake hands with him since he's handcuffed, they think he'd abuse me.
"What do you want Jessica? You have my daughter for god's sake." He directly rages at me. He should chill.
"Jake, although you harmed two very precious persons to me, I'm offering help today." I lash out.
"What do you want? And why?" He narrows his eyes.
"What do I want, I'll let the court put you on probation, and you better pass that, and then you'll go to UCLA, you have no other option, with whichever major and minor you pick. Oh, and you'll be living with your daughter." I start, getting out my pack of cigarettes. "Why, because Angelina doesn't deserve to keep on fearing her father, neither having a separated life. I'm not saying we're going to date, fuck no, we're just going to be roommates."
"Are you fucking serious?" He seems confused, man his accent reminds me of Kristen so much.
"I'm giving you back your life, which you don't deserve." I shrug. "And you better be happy."
"I am. I just don't understand why my daughter means so much to you." He asks.
"Because she hasn't done anything wrong, and it would be tragic to throw her off in the streets." I answer. "By the way, you're going to have a part-time job, I don't give two shits where I just need you to start getting some money on your own."
"Fine. When is the probation order going to be filed?" He questions. "You know so I can prepare my stuff." As if he has any.
"I don't know, a month maybe?" I blow out smoke.
"Jessica," he takes a deep breath, "thank you."
"If I see a scratch by you on Angelina, I'll file a restraining order okay?" I stand up. "I'll come back next week to see which major have you decided on."
I wear my sunglasses and head out. I did this because I owe Kristen and Katherine. They made me a better person, and it's my turn to transform other people's lives. Speaking of Katherine, this is where I'm heading now, we need to catch up.
"So you basically dated for like, two days and then you never spoke because of a thing your ex-boyfriend said about you?" Katherine summarizes it.
"You can say so." I shrug.
"That's stupid." She scoffs.
"Says the woman who's dating her boss' husband." Margaret rolls her eyes.
"Ex-husband." Katherine pours some tea into her own cup.
"Both of you are guilty." Maxine states. "He overdramatized it, and you weren't fully open with him."
Maxine's father is french, whilst her mother is from the States. When her parents got divorced, she lived with her father, so you can say she has the french mentality, yet I think she's cool.
"You think I should apologize then?" I blow out smoke.
"I think you should wait till the tension loosens a little and then maybe consider talking to him." She replies.
"Thank you for your advice." I smile, and then my phone buzzes. It's a text from mom.
I don't know how to react to this.