HELLOOOOOOO WATTPAD BLOCK PARTY!!!
This is a very exciting time for me - I'm incredibly thankful to for giving me the chance to be part of this experience. I hope you guys enjoy this post! A little context for it - I wrote a book on here called Finding Everett. It focuses on Everett North, his best friend Lizzie Baldwin and his brother, Jesse North. This chapter is a little extra I've had in my head for a while about Jesse. It's more of a Drabble than anything else, but I thought it might be interesting to write for the party. Hope you guys enjoy this post and even more so, the rest of the Wattpad Block Party! There's a lot of amazing people who are part of it this year, so make sure to go say hi to everyone! Now then – onward!
The flight home nearly killed him. Hours upon hours of time in the air officially wrecked his nerves. Jesse almost wobbled off the airplane, feeling exhausted and tired and homesick. But now, he could finally see his family, after two years.
The last time he'd been home, he witnessed his older brother and best friend tie the knot. Now that was a memory he would forever treasure. During the ceremony, Jesse tried to remember a time when Everett's eyes had shined so brilliantly or when his smile was so bright. Try as he did, no memory came to mind.
Ever since Everett came out of his years long funk, he became a better person. A happier person. Jesse had longed for that as long as he could remember.
And now he was married and happy.
But that did leave Jesse with a few worries and concerns of his own. Like where he fit in to the scheme of things now. For years, he'd taken care of Everett and helped him. They may not have been super close but they did do a lot together. It was weird to have that position belong to someone else now.
Jesse tried to shake the thoughts away as he walked through the JFK airport. "It has to be the lack of sleep," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes and pushing hair away from his face. As he pulled his hand away, Jesse pulled a strand of curly hair with him. His hair had gotten longer over the past few months; it would need to be cut as soon as he got a good solid nights sleep.
But he would worry about those things later because to his joy, he could see both Lizzie and Everett standing by the doors. Lizzie's head shot back and forth, searching the crowds. Jesse smirked; Lizzie never witnessed his long hair days. He'd gone through a phase years before where he grew his hair out. He thought it looked cool then, but every time he saw the pictures now, Jesse cringed. Anytime Lizzie came over during school, Jesse made sure those pictures were far out of reach.
"Jesse! Hey, over here, curly!"
Groaning, Jesse picked up his pace and met the two waiting for him halfway, dropping his bags and wrapping Lizzie up in a crushing bear hug.
"We missed you, Jess," she said softly, hugging him even tighter before letting go.
Jesse grinned and hugged his brother next. "Believe it or not, I missed you losers, too." Everett grinned and ruffled his hair, grimacing when his fingers got a little tangled up. Laughing, Jesse shook his head. "A lot. I missed you a lot."
Everett held out his hand for a bag, which Lizzie promptly deposited before claiming one of Jesse's bags herself. "How was the trip?" he asked, the three of them walking towards the exit. "Lizzie said you posted a lot on Instagram, but we haven't actually heard from you in what feels like forever."
"It was amazing," Jesse confessed, memories from the trip seeping into his tired bones and giving him an extra boost. But even so, it wasn't enough to clear his foggy brain. "But I'm going to need to regale you with those tales at another point. I'm so tired right now."
Lizzie popped open the trunk, dumping the bag she held and gesturing for Jesse to do the same. He swung the backpack from his shoulders and into the car, taking the bag from Everett next. Once they were all secured in the car, Jesse tilted his head back and closed his eyes.
He could hear Everett and Lizzie talking in low tones from the front seat. Every so often Lizzie would giggle and he could hear the sound of Everett being whacked. It made Jesse smirk. Their relationship hadn't changed at all since high school. Seven years later and they were still a quirky, happy, blunt couple.
Jesse felt more relaxed than he had in a long time. While searching the world to find yourself was fun and exciting, it still had a lot to be desired. You didn't see your family for long periods of time. You got worn out from the constant interaction figuring out your next move. Yes, the life of a nomad had many perks. But sometimes coming back home for a well needed break was just what one needed.
And for Jesse, sitting in the back seat and listening to the playful bickering of his sister in law and brother, that would be a definite perk.
* * * * * * *
"Wake up, sleeping beauty."
Jesse blinked rapidly, feeling a finger poke him on the cheek and the words of a voice he hadn't expected. Feeling slightly disoriented, Jesse looked around and found Jeffrey going in for another poke on the face.
Slapping his hand away, Jesse unbuckled and slid from the backseat. "I didn't know you were going to be here! What's the occasion?"
"Oh, you know - my dorky little brother is back from his world excursion," Jeffrey teased. "I had to drop by and say hello." Leading Jesse into his childhood home, Jeffrey chattered on about some random things, things that probably weren't ground breaking, but Jesse appreciated the gesture all the same. A bit of normalcy as soon as he got home helped.
Entering the house, Jesse made a beeline for the curly haired woman standing to the side. "Hi, mom," he said with a tired smile, hugging her tightly. She returned it with a fierce hug of her own. "Kenya was cool," he tacked on, feeling her chuckle a little.
Denise pulled away, and held her sons face in her hands. "Well, it doesn't look like anyone tried to beat you up and you look like you've been eating properly. I'll take that as a win." Before he could say anything else, she turned him around and towards the stairs. "There will be plenty of time for chatting later. Go take a shower and get some sleep. We'll catch up in the morning, okay?"
Jesse mumbled something that could pass for agreement and followed his mother's orders. Twenty minutes later, Jesse collapsed into his bed, content, tired, and mostly importantly, home.
* * * * * * *
Waking up in the morning to the scent of coffee and waffles easily ranked in the top ten of Jesse's favorite things. Even if he'd traveled the world, coming home and feeling the warmth of his own childhood roots never ceased to bring a smile to his face.
Rubbing his face into the pillow, Jesse took a deep breath and released it, feeling himself relax into the mattress. Halfway rolling out of bed, Jesse stood and stretched. It felt really good to be back home.
Leaving his room, Jesse made his way down to the kitchen, where his family was waiting. Cole sat in his chair, silverware in both hands as he plowed through his waffles. Upon seeing Jesse enter the room, Cole leaped from his chair with a cry of joy and ran around the table, nearly bowling Jesse over. A spry eight years old, Cole had energy to spare and made no exception to showing it all off.
"I've been so excited to see you again!" Cole practically shouted, bouncing up and down. He grabbed Jesse's wrist with both his hands and tugged him along. "Sit here, sit here! This chair's next to mine!" After nearly shoving Jesse into the seat, Cole scrambled into his own, beaming up at his older brother.
"Well, someone is happy to have their brother home, huh?" Denise gave Jesse a smile as she placed a plate of waffles in front of him. She ruffled his hair, giving him a bit of side eye when her fingers tangled in it. "Maybe we can get in a haircut today at some point," she mumbled, mostly to herself.
Jesse pretended he didn't hear and instead, shoved food in his face. After all, home food was the best food.
* * * * * * * * * *
For the most part of the next couple of days, Jesse lounged around the house, his jet lag kicking him in the face repeatedly. He looked through pictures he'd taken during his travels and narrowed them down to his favorites. Jesse managed to fill an entire 32GB full of pictures. Some were landscapes, ocean views and city scapes. Some were people he met, people he saw on the street.
Somehow, when he looked at the pictures, Jesse felt like he was telling a story of sorts. Without words, he felt like he managed to capture the tale of the places he visited. What a great feeling, he thought, opening Photoshop to brighten one photo in particular. The TV played on in the background, one of his favorite shows having a marathon.
After he fiddled with the photo for a while, he started flipping through the pictures again.
Click.
Jesse's eyes widened and a smile formed as a picture from Lizzie and Everett's wedding popped up on screen. This one in particular gave him fuzzy feelings. To see the smiles of his family and his best friend, Jesse couldn't replace it.
Groaning, Jesse shut the laptop and flopped backwards, running s hand through his now shorter hair.
Sometimes, Jesse got this uncontrollable and overwhelming sense of life moving on. Even though he had done so much traveling, he felt like compared to others, he was being left behind. Something was just...missing. When Jesse left for his world adventure after high school ended, he thought that this was it. His calling was to travel and be a freelance photographer.
Except, it wasn't that easy. Of course, the actual travel went off without any hitches. But as far as having an actual calling and it working out for me? That part of my life seemed to continually evade me. Without any formal training, the pictures came out as rather amateur. Pretty, but amateur.
Few people wanted photographs taken by an untrained kid.
"Seriously. Adulting is hard," he complained, sprawling out on the floor. It seemed like everyone, even his younger brother knew what to do with their life. Cole had developed a passion for soccer. He was absolutely in love with it. It was really cool for everyone else. Everett had his music, Jeffrey had his family, Lizzie had her cooking and now Cole had his soccer. They were all training, putting forth the effort into it. They were becoming skilled in what they loved.
It made Jesse wonder if he made the right decision in skipping college and going straight for the freedom. Now, close to eight years after graduation, he felt lost.
"I hear rambling," an amused voice called out. "Yup. That brings me back."
Peeking once eye open, Jesse discovered Lizzie and Everett entering the home. Lizzie released the hold on his arm and let him make his way through the house that hadn't changed in years. Everett grinned in the general direction of his brother, saying, "Man, it's good to have you back for a while. Feels like it's been forever." Throwing his arms open, Everett closed his eyes and dramatically said, "Come now! Give your big bro a hug!"
"I hugged you yesterday," Jesse deadpanned back at him.
"But it's such a joy to hug me. You know you want to. We both know you want to."
"Sure, keep telling yourself that," Jesse piped in, shaking his head as Everett began chatting with their mom in the other room. His brother had really changed in the past nine years. It might seem like, yeah, sure everyone changes in that time. But for Everett? Changing and embracing the change was so cool.
Frowning, Jesse shook his head. There he went again. Without even realizing it, Everett became the train of his thoughts. It seemed like no matter what, he reverted to the caretaker mode he'd been in for the better portion of his life.
"Stop thinking so hard. I can smell the smoke from all the way over here," Lizzie told him with a smile, sitting down next to him. "Wanna tell me what's got you bothered?"
Jesse replied with a shrug of his shoulders, unsure of how to put this feeling into words. And to his sister-in-law best friend at that. During high school, they'd told each other a lot. There were quite a few things that Jesse unloaded onto Lizzie after they met.
But it felt different somehow. It felt like, now that she and Everett were married, that maybe he shouldn't unload.
"And now there's a visible manifestation of the smoke. Come on, please tell me what's going on? I thought you'd be, I don't know," Lizzie flailed as she tried to find the right words, "I don't know, pumped? Maybe? You just got back of several years worth of traveling the world. Surely something struck a chord with you and you want to tell us all about it?"
Hard as it was for everyone to believe, Jesse hadn't told anyone stories from his trip. He'd posted a few things online, but he was just struggling with himself at the moment. Shaking his head, Jesse gave Lizzie a weak smile. "I think I'm going to go take a walk. Clear my head a bit. We'll chat when I get back, okay?"
Pushing his laptop further onto the table, Jesse stood. He could feel Lizzie's worry and eyes burning into him as he put his shoes on. He just tried to ignore it and continued on his way. Throwing a wave over his shoulder, Jesse left the house.
Somehow, after about twenty minutes of walking around, Jesse managed to land himself in the park only five minutes away from his house.
"Ugh, this sucks," he groaned, flopping down into a park bench and squeezing his eyes shut.
"Jesse?"
Leaning back so that his head sort of hung off the bench, Jesse took an upside down look at who called his name. He recognized her right away. "Hey, Angie!" Jumping from his position, Jesse quickly rounded the bench to give the red head a hug. "How have you been? I haven't seen you in forever!"
Angie gave him a smile in return. "I've been really good. How about you, world traveler?"
Jesse gestured towards the bench he previously occupied. Seeing her again left him a touch tongue tied. They met freshman year of high school and almost immediately, Jesse had developed a crush on her. It never went anywhere and he was always too busy to pursue a romantic relationship. But that initial crush never really faded. Even now, he had a hard time not blushing like a dork in front of her.
"Ah, same old, same old," he teased, sitting down next to her. "Just got back a few days ago. Coming back home was really needed."
They sat in silence for a few moments, the cool breeze drifting past.
"I'm actually kind of amazed," Angie started. "The rest of us went straight to college and you decided to go see the world. Pretty cool stuff," she commented with a grin.
Jesse smiled back. "Yeah. Sometimes I kind of wish I would have done the college thing tough." Looking at the ground, he shook his head. "To be honest...it didn't go the way I thought it would. I had envisioned this journey of self discovery and traveling the world taking these amazing pictures and making somewhat of a career from it." He released a sigh. "I feel like I've totally failed in some way."
She looked at him like he'd grown a second head; sheer bewilderment covered her face. "Okay? So?" Jesse narrowed his eyes at her, opening his mouth to say something. She cut him off though. "So the traveling and photography thing didn't work out the way you thought it would. That is literally part of that self discover; of finding who you are. Things fail, you know?" Angie smiled bitterly, continuing on, "I can say from experience that just because you go to college first doesn't guarantee that everything is going to work out."
Jesse sighed, stretching out on the bench a little more, getting comfortable. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. I just wanted to be more...you know, more."
Angie smiled, a real smile this time. "You'll find it. Whatever it is you're searching for, you'll find it. Stop overthinking it so much."
"Yeah," he said fondly, "Lizzie is always telling me that."
With that, Jesse and Angie played catch up on the last several years of their lives. As they spoke, Jesse regretted (and not for the first time) that he never had the chance to really talk to Angie in high school. They had several classes together through those four years. There was certainly plenty of time to talk. But it just didn't work.
As the sky began to darken, Jesse and Angie stood, brushing a invisible fluff from their pants.
"It was really nice to see you and catch up," Angie told him honestly. For good measure, she pulled her phone out and unlocked it before handing it to him. "Let's do it again sometime."
Jesse and Angie smiled at each other, a soft little thing; he grabbed her phone and entered his information and hit save. "Send me a text later so I have yours as well."
They parted ways after that, with Jesse's heart feeling a bit lighter. So he needed to reassess things. So what? Why was he overthinking it like he always did? People had to rethink things and change tracks all the time. He could do this. He could find another path to take. And he already had an idea of what he could do.
Opening the door to his home, several voices greeted him, some were excited and others were concerned.
"You've been gone for a really long time. We were starting to get worried about you," Denise told him sternly.
"Honey, he's a grown boy. He knows how to get around the neighborhood," with a chuckle, Peter tacked on, "After all, the kids traveled the entire world."
"Well, not the entire world." Jesse kicked off his shoes and walked towards the living room, grabbing his laptop. Peeking over his shoulder, he grinned. "Anyone wanna see pictures?"
* * * * * * * * *
The next several hours were spent with Jesse's laptop hooked up to the television. Everyone loved the photos; Lizzie would take time to explain each picture to Everett, helping him grasp the concept of it. She described every detail and what she forgot or couldn't explain, others would pick up the torch and carry on.
"So are you going to continue taking pictures?" Everett asked. Denise was putting Cole to bed and Lizzie was helping to clean up the kitchen from dinner. It was just the two of them for a few moments.
"Dunno. Maybe. It doesn't quite give me the same fuzzy feeling as the first time I took a picture, you know?
The first time being when he found a junky Polaroid at a community yard sale Lizzie dragged him to right before he left. He snapped a picture of Lizzie that to this day, she ha don idea about.
"But I think I have a back up plan."
Everett raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what exactly would that plan be?"
Later that night, Jesse laid in bed, phone in hand. The screen lit up, illuminating his bedroom and forcing him to squint his eyes at the reply sent. He smiled as he typed a reply, scanning the new, small thread.
Hey, it's Angie!
Yo. So I've been giving it a lot of thought. What you said.
And?
I don't think I'm going back out to the world. I've seen enough of it. It's time to move onto something else, I think. Something closer to home.
Okay? Yeah and what has your brilliant mind come up with???
I have absolutely no idea. But it's going to fun discovering it, don't you think?
* * * * * * *
Thanks a ton for reading everyone! Feel free to stop by my page to say hello or to say hello right here! Enjoy the rest of the block party! Remember: there's a bunch of giveaways as well. Don't forget to check them out on each authors post!
KimberlyWritesBooks will giveaway be one follow + book read + shoutout to one lucky winner! My giveaway is open internationally.
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