November 10th, 2008
“I don’t like studying,” Aimee scowled, staring down at her math book as the girls and I sat in the town’s library. “It’s just… so boring. Like, who wants to do it? I don’t. Who has the time? I don’t. I’d rather be… like… I don’t know…”
“Okay, Aimee, we understand,” Lexi groaned, her nose also buried in a book. “You don’t like studying. None of us do. Except, well, Jordan.”
My nose twitched, my face shoved into my own math textbook. Was there a problem with me liking to study? It got me to the top of my class, and that was all I really cared about.
“Studying is fun,” I excused, and all four girls made faces at me.
“I want to go home,” Aimee groaned, slumping over in her seat now. “There’s no point of me studying. I’m going to fail this stupid math test anyway, no matter how hard I study for it. I’m not smart.”
“You are smart,” AJ sighed, rolling her eyes at her best friend as she flipped through her own textbook. “You just don’t try. If you did try, you’d probably be as smart as Jordan.”
“Well…” Chelsea started, not even looking up from her book, which was actually a normal book and not a textbook. “I don’t think anyone can be as smart as Jordan. In academics, at least. I’m pretty sure everyone else is smarter than her in everything else.”
“Hey,” I snapped, my eyebrows furrowing at my four friends as I finally looked up from my textbook. “I’m right here. I’m not stupid in things other than academics.”
My friends gave me a look, but I ignored it and went back to my textbook. There wasn’t any point in fighting with them, because I kind of agreed with them just a little bit. I was stupid for falling with Dallas, and I was stupid for fighting with Jesse.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Aimee now suddenly said when her phone rang, which got us many mean stares from the people around us. I sunk in my seat a little as my friend looked at her phone. “My mom’s here to pick AJ and me up.”
“That means my mom should be here to pick Chelsea and me up, too,” Lexi said, and I couldn’t help but notice that she sounded relieved. I stared at them flatly as they all packed up their things to leave, leaving me alone until Austin came to pick me up.
I was used to my brother being late, since he had always been late when he picked me up from school. Dallas had always been late as well, so it was just something that I had been used to for a while.
I sat there alone for the next ten minutes, not believing that Austin was still not there. I was all alone, and I felt like people were staring at me, even though I knew that no one was.
I almost fell out of my chair when I saw who entered the library now. I looked around for a place to escape, but there was nowhere for me to run. He already saw me.
This was the first time I had seen him since Halloween. He had a bandage on his hand, and he luckily hadn’t lost it like I thought he would have. I wondered if he had trouble writing or not, since I didn’t know if he was right handed or left handed.
But I didn’t expect him to be in the library, of all places. I had seen him in the mall a bunch of times, but that was only because we lived in such a small town and there was only one mall in the entire town.
“Well, Emery,” he smirked, taking the spot next to me.
I shot him a flat look. “Jacobsen.”
“I guess I’m not surprised that you’re here,” Jesse sighed, leaning back in his chair so the front legs were no longer on the ground. “You look like the type that likes to study.”
I didn’t look up from my textbook. He was right, but I wasn’t about to let him know that he was. Jesse Jacobsen was smug enough.
“I don’t like studying,” Jesse shrugged, and I still didn’t look up at him. “I never really do it anyway. I’m only here to get a book for my sister, but since I saw you… I think I’ll stay for a little while.”
I knew I wasn’t going to get anymore studying in that day, so I groaned as I closed my textbook and turned to look at Jesse. He wasn’t about to go away, no matter what I did or said. And since Austin wasn’t there yet, I was just going to have to deal with it.
“My brother’s going to be here to pick me up any minute,” I smiled sweetly, even though I really just wanted to hit him over the head with my textbook. “So there really isn’t any point in staying here, really. Just go get your sister’s book.”
Jesse’s smirk only widened. “Maybe I should stay here to make sure you don’t get kidnapped.”
Before I could say anything to him, something caught my eye. My eyebrows furrowed at him as I reached forward and gripped his shirt sleeve. “What happened to your shirt? It looks like you’ve been shot at or something.”
Jesse’s eyes widened for a moment before they went back to their normal size. He moved away from me a little, looking over to see the rip in his shirt. It seriously looked like a bullet had grazed his shirt or something.
“I gotta go,” he suddenly said, surprising me greatly as he got up from his seat. I sat there in complete confusion, just watching him leave and not moving until I knew he was gone.
This had probably been the shortest time I had ever spent with Jesse Jacobsen. It was weird to think that nothing happened between us when we were together, even if we were in a library. He had stormed out so quickly that it was obvious that he had been hiding something.
I blinked, not moving until my phone vibrated. I looked down to see it was a text from Austin, telling me that he was waiting for me in the parking lot to take me home.
When I got into the car, Austin didn’t greet me like he usually did. He said nothing to me, so I said nothing as well.
At first, it was silent in the car. This wasn’t normal, so I knew that there was something he was hiding from me. I swallowed before asking, “Is there something you want to tell me, Austin?”
“Two things, actually,” Austin blurted, looking very uncomfortable as he gripped the steering wheel even tighter. “I’m not really sure which one you want to hear first. They’re both not the greatest news.”
“Just… tell me what you think is the… least worst,” I nodded, ready for whatever he was about to throw at me.
“Emily and I broke up,” Austin shrugged, and I stared at him in surprise. They had been dating for nearly a year! “You’ll probably hear about it from her tomorrow.”
I just stared at him for a moment. It would have been a year in only a few months. But if this wasn’t even the worst news, what was?
“What’s the even worse news?” I voiced my thoughts now, not sure if I wanted the answer to this question.
“Dallas called,” he informed me now, a serious look on his face. I bit the inside of my lip, saying nothing to him. “He wanted to know how you were. I told him you were… doing better.”
“I’m not depressed anymore, Austin,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest and staring out the window.
My brother sighed. “I never thought you were depressed.”
I rolled my eyes, not believing him at all. I honestly didn’t know if I had been depressed or not. I was heartbroken, definitely, but I didn’t really know if I had been depressed. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I found out somehow that I had been.
“I’m never talking to him again,” I finally concluded, still not looking over at my brother as he continued to drive. “I don’t even want to ever see him again. He just things he can talk to me or see me after everything he did? I don’t think I’ve ever been this disgusted before. Well… I have to deal with Jesse Jacobsen nearly every day, so never mind that.”
“I don’t blame you for feeling the way you do,” Austin informed me as he pulled into our driveway. “I hate to say that I’m still friends with him, but… I still think what he did to you was horrible. I won’t ever be able to forgive him for that.”
“I have a test tomorrow,” I grumbled, turning away from my brother and opening the car door. “I’m going to go study.”
“You just came back from the library,” Austin blinked, obviously surprised as he got out of the car himself. “Why would you study agai--wait. You’re Jordan Emery, my little sister. This is just like you.”
I stuck my tongue out at him, slamming the front door in his face before starting up the stairs to my room. I took my textbook out and placed it on my desk, getting ready to study, but found myself not wanting to any longer. I let out a sigh, turning toward my bed and collapsing on it before falling asleep almost immediately.
J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J
Jesse’s P.O.V.
“Dude,” Hunter started, looking down at my heavily bandaged hand. “What the hell did you do to your hand?”
“I was fixing a motorcycle and screwed up,” I shrugged, as if it was no big deal at all. I wasn’t about to tell him why I screwed up, because I was sure I would never hear the end of it. “I just got distracted.”
“By?” Hunter questioned, his eyebrows rising on his forehead.
"By… uh…” was all I could say, not able to think of a good enough excuse. This was bad; I should have had the answer to this question right away.
Hunter smirked. “It’s that girl of yours, isn’t it?”
Well, she wasn’t mine, no matter how much I wanted her to be. She wouldn’t ever be mine, and for some reason it seemed that the way Hunter was saying this was just so that he could rub it in my face.
“Yeah,” I shrugged, not even about to lie. “It was her.”
“What’s this girl’s name, anyway?” he now asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’ve talked about her a hell of a lot, but you’ve never told me her name before. So what is it?”
“Her name is Jordan,” I sighed, not able to think of any other name. “Her name is Jordan Emery.”
“Huh,” Hunter nodded, and I felt myself hold my breath. “That name sounds kind of familiar.”
I hoped that it didn’t. I didn’t want them to ever meet each other. Hunter might have been a good friend of mine, but he was a dangerous guy. I didn’t want Jordan to getting into any kind of trouble with Hunter.
“I’m not sure what school she goes to,” I lied, hoping that this would throw him off just a little bit. “Obviously she doesn’t go to my school, but I’m pretty sure she goes to a school right outside of town.”
Hunter nodded. “Maybe I heard someone talk about her before. Whatever. It’s not like I’m ever going to meet her anyway. She’ll probably never be of any importance to me anyway.”
I was sure hoping that he was right. I didn’t want the two of them ever meeting. Hunter might have had Erica, who still wouldn’t stop hitting on me, but I was never sure of how he was going to act. Jordan was a beautiful girl, and Hunter… Hunter was a guy.
Suddenly, there was a loud popping sound, and Hunter was pushing me onto the ground before diving onto the ground himself. There were multiple more pops, but I wasn’t scared. I knew what it was immediately.
“You okay, Jess?” Hunter asked once he sat up, and I nodded as I sat up as well. “Good. We better get out of here before someone calls the cops about the damage. Hurry, get up.”
I did as I was told, getting up from where I was sitting on the ground and hurrying down the street as other people started to leave buildings to see what had happened. We then split up, Hunter going to see Erica while I left to go home.
I didn’t feel very safe walking home, even though it was only a few miles. But after almost getting shot, the streets were probably not the safest place I could have been.
When I finally got to the front of my tiny apartment, I opened the front door, hoping that Camilla was in her room. Our mom was still working, so I knew that I wasn’t going to have to deal with her.
“Why are you home so late?” was the first thing I heard once I shut the front door behind me, and I rolled my eyes at Camilla as her eyebrows furrowed at me as she placed her hands on her hips.
“It’s not that late,” I sighed, glancing over at the clock to see it was only six o’clock. “I could have not come home at all.”
Camilla rolled her eyes. “I don’t even want to know what you were doing while you were gone.”
I didn’t want her knowing either, because I knew she would be worried and ashamed. It was the same with my mother, too. If they knew what I was really doing when I was out, other than practically stalking Jordan, they would have been so ashamed of me. And they probably wouldn’t have let me leave the house.
I heard a loud racket in the other room, and it probably would have made me jump if I hadn’t gone through what had just happened with Hunter. I looked over at Camilla, who shrugged. “You came home at the right time. I’m babysitting the neighbors.”
I let out a groan, and Camilla giggled. She knew I didn’t like the neighbor kids, who were bratty and annoying all the time. They acted like precious angels in front of Camilla and the adults, but they hated me for a reason that I didn’t know.
“If you want to get out of seeing the kids that hate your guts,” Camilla grinned smugly, “you could go to the library to get a book that I need for a project. You do have your permit now, so you could drive yourself there and back.”
I made a face. That didn’t sound very appealing, but I needed to get out of seeing those bratty kids somehow, and this seemed like the only way to do it. I wasn’t about to walk on the streets for a while, until I knew it was safe.
I didn’t know if I wanted to go to the library quickly or slowly. I didn’t want to go to the library, but then I didn’t want to go home to a bunch of brats. I didn’t study at all and yet I was still one of the top students in my grade.
So I left for the library, deciding to go slow even though I didn’t want to stay out of the house for too long. After almost getting shot and killed, sleeping was the only thing that was really appealing to me at that moment.
I ignored the stares from multiple girls as I entered the library, not caring about what they thought of me. I knew that I didn’t look like the kind of guy that would go to a library; I looked like what I was, a gang member. And a hot one at that.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the girl that was all alone, reading a textbook uncomfortably. At first, I didn’t know who it was; something just drew me to her. But when I realized that it was Jordan, I nearly tripped over myself.
Just like I always did when I saw her, I made my way closer. I ignored all the stares from the other girls, Jordan being the only one that I cared about.
“Well, Emery,” I started, even though I had nothing else to say as I sat right next to her.
She glared at me, but I was expecting as much. “Jacobsen.”
“I guess I’m not surprised that you’re here,” I sighed, and I leaned back in my chair so the front legs were no longer on the ground. Jordan really looked like she was going to push be backwards. “You look like the type that likes to study.”
She glared at me before looking back down at her book, not even looking at me anymore. I was sure that I was right, and Jordan didn’t like it when I was right, so all I did was smirk at her even more, even though she wasn’t looking at me. I wanted her to look at me, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“I don’t like studying,” I continued now, since she wasn’t about to say anything to me. She still didn’t look at me, which annoyed me just a little bit. I wanted her to see me; I wanted her to really know that I was there. “I never really do it anyway. I’m only here to get a book for my sister, but since I saw you… I think I’ll stay for a little while.”
She suddenly groaned, slamming her textbook shut before turning toward me. I tried not to smirk even more, but it wasn’t working. She was finally looking at me, and that was all I cared about. She may have thought that I was there just to annoy her, but I was really there just to see her.
“My brother’s going to be here to pick me up any minute,” she smiled sweetly at me, and it almost made her look like a lunatic. Her hands inched toward the textbook, and I knew I could dodge whatever she threw at me. “So there really isn’t any point in staying here, really. Just go get your sister’s book.”
I smirked even more, rocking back in my chair just a little bit. I really could have just stared at her all day. “Maybe I should stay here to make sure you don’t get kidnapped.”
She was about to snap at me, I knew she was, but something seemed to catch her eye. Her eyebrows furrowed at me, and I couldn’t tell if it was out of confusion or anger. She reached forward and gripped onto my shirt sleeve, surprising me greatly. I never would have thought that she’d willingly touch me.
“What happened to your shirt?” she asked in confusion. “It looks like you’ve been shot at or something.”
For a second, I didn’t know what to do. My eyes widened, but I quickly tried to make my face go back to its normal uncaring look. I sure hoped it worked.
Even though I didn’t want to, I moved away from her so she was no longer touching me. I looked over to see that my sleeve was indeed ripped, and I was afraid of what she thought. It looked like it had been grazed by a bullet.
“I gotta go,” I blurted, getting up from my seat and pretty much storming out of the library without saying another word to her. It was best that I didn’t say anything until I had a good excuse about the graze.
I hated that I couldn’t spend more time with her, but she just couldn’t know about why my sleeve was the way it was. If she knew, if she ever knew… She’d never accept me. That was why we couldn’t ever be together.
I didn’t end up getting the book Camilla needed, but I planned on telling her that it just wasn’t there. If she failed the project, she failed the project. It might have been my fault, but she shouldn’t have made me go out and get her something she needed. Camilla had good grades just like me, so I didn’t think it would have been a big deal.
I pulled at my sleeve as I got in the car, not wanting to think about how I had gotten it. I had been so close to being killed that day, and yet I didn’t even feel any different. I wished that I had felt scared or worried, but I wasn’t. I had almost died, and yet I didn’t even think twice about it at all.
Because Jordan wouldn’t have missed me.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I want some Hunter/Jordan interaction so much, but there can't be any. -__- I miss the two of them together. I loved them so much. Their relationship is so dysfunctional but amazing at the same time. And it's so weird to write about them like this when I know what's going to happen to them only a few years later.
So... since I miss Hunter so much, there may be a surprise for the next chapter. If I feel like it. ;D
And oh! I have pretty awesome news. I was talking with my drama teacher about next year's play and he said I could write it. When I was telling him the ideas I had, he said that I should do Thin Line (the original to this, in case you didn't know) and it could be next year's play! I'm so excited to start. :D
Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :)