"Jesse!!!"

One word. One name. One idiot that never fails to piss me off. That name was how my day ended, not that it started out any better. You would have thought that after the sentimental moment of playing the guitar for the first time since my father died and me crying in his arms would have meant something.

Well...they did, but that's besides the point. You would think the idiotic tendencies I've grown accustomed to with Jesse would have stopped, even for just one day.

No. Shark week continued, with full force might I add.

Let me rewind for you.

.......................................

"Wait, what?!" Lissa shrieked.

"You played again?!" Demi shouted, slapping Jared next to her making him wince. She quickly pat him to apologize then directed her attention back to me.

"You let Jesse hold you?!" Lissa shrieked after Demi.

"Oh my gosh, shut up would you?" Demi snapped at her.

"Oh I'm sorry, I was talking to my actual best friend, not to the liar in the room," she responded and crossed her arms.

To say they hadn't gotten over what I had so foolishly blurt out at the hospital was an understatement.

"Guys, can we not make a big deal out of this?" I sighed and stuffed a pillow over my head. "Thanks a lot Jared." My voice muffled from underneath the pillow.

"Payback is a bitch," he murmured under his breath.

Ripping the pillow off of my face, I sat up swiftly and whipped around to face him.

"What did you just say?" I demanded.

"Nothing," he said innocently.

I felt my face visually fuming as I considered the repercussions for injuring him further.

"What have I done to you to deserve payback?" I clenched my hands into fists.

"I can't believe you called me a liar, sorry your boyfriend sucked, like they always do," Demi grumbled.

Lissa blinked and flipped her hair over her shoulder, turning to face Demi.

"Excuse you?" She said slowly.

"You heard me," Demi challenged.

"You left me here with Mom and her new boyfriend!" Jared suddenly exploded. "Do you even know how miserable that was?!"

Shocked, I stared at him, unable to believe his random outburst, but my anger soon took over.

"Oh forgive me! You only left me here with our brooding mother for months after Dad died," I yelled back, tossing a pillow at him.

He shoved the pillow aside, it hitting Demi in the face.

"Hey!" Demi shouted, punching the pillow away, it immediately smacking me in the head.

"Ow!" I responded, moving my hand to cradle my stitches.

"You bitch," Lissa spit.

"I can't believe you would use that against me," Jared pointed his finger at me as I held my hands up and rolled my eyes.

"You're the most self centered bitch I've ever met. How could you possibly think he wouldn't cheat on you?!" Demi fumed.

"You knew what was going on in my life!" Jared yelled at me.

"Oh did I?" I mocked. "No! I didn't! Because everyone left me out of the loop in my own life since Dad died!"

"Well how is that my fault?! You were acting like a little baby!" Jared responded.

"Oh like your past boyfriends didn't cheat on you?! Sorry, I like to be happy and meet new people, at least I haven't been pining over my friend's brother for years!" Lissa yelled.

"I was not! I had to do everything for Mom!" I stood up, growing angrier by the second.

"How dare you bring that up? That's not fair!" Demi threw a pillow at Lissa.

"Ouch!" Lissa threw the pillow back at her.

"Oh whatever! You have no idea how much I did for her!" Jared reeled.

"Quit growing pillows, you are such a child!" Demi threw another pillow.

"You quit throwing pillows!" Lissa threw it at her face this time.

"Ohhh try and tell me how much you did for this family, Mr. I went to rehab a million times and had to have my friend bail me out," I mocked him.

"You did not just say that," Jared warned.

"Oh get over it, I'm tired of having to pick up your slack, how was I supposed to know anything about your life? You left Jared!" I crossed my arms.

"When are you going to grow up?!" Demi yelled.

"I had to leave!" Jared responded, frustrated.

"You could have called me!" I spit, surprised at my own comment as soon as it came out.

"When are you going to stop being such a prude?!" Lissa yelled.

"Hey, hey, hey!" A pillow bounced off of my head and hit Jared.

"Stop throwing pillows!" Jared and I both yelled at Lissa and Demi.

"What in the hell is going on here?" Jesse demanded, stepping in between Jared and I, ripping the pillow out of Lissa's hands mid throw.

"I left for thirty minutes, thirty minutes!" He tossed the pillow onto the couch.

"Oh go ahead and be her knight and shining armor lover boy," Lissa bitterly muttered.

Jesse glanced at her, then me, then Jared, then back to me for a moment longer before sighing and crossing his arms.

"You all are being ridiculous. Lissa, Jake was a dick. Get over it," he turned to Demi.

"Ugh," Lissa crossed her arms.

"Demi, you should have told her when it happened, she deserved to know," he raised his eyebrows and clapped before turning to Jared and I.

"And you two..." he sighed, his hair shifting with his shaking head as he almost laughed out of frustration.

"You two used to be the sibling envy of the town. You guys were the all American family, everybody loved y'all and what was even more bizarre was you loved each other. Okay, so you hit a rough patch, but you aren't going anywhere if you sit here and blame each other for your family's demise after your Dad's death!" He said loudly. I winced at the sheer volume of his voice, it reminding me of us in the van.

I glanced at Jared who was refusing to look up, instead choosing to pick at the loose fabric on the couch. I stared at him, replaying my last comment, wondering if maybe I'm more upset I wasn't the one he called for rehab. Maybe I wasn't upset he left us, maybe I'm upset because it felt like a betrayal, I thought we were closer than that.

"All of you need to get a grip and be adults about this," he finally said, ending his rant.

I swallowed, refusing to look up at him, but I could feel his eyes boring into the side of my head. Giving in, I glanced at him and his eyes softened at the sight of me.

He was right, I knew that, but I would be lying if yelling at Jared didn't feel damn good right about now. So many feelings escaped and it felt good to let them out for the first time.

Sighing, I pursed my lips and crossed my arms. Jesse's lips twitched, like he wanted to smile because he knew I knew he was right. Darnit.

"I'm sorry," I heard Jared mumble.

"What's that?" I asked.

Jesse elbowed me in the ribs.

"Ow!" I rubbed my side and sighed. "Fine, I'm sorry too."

"You're still a selfish bitch," Demi snapped at Lissa.

"And you're still the bitch that kissed my boyfriend," Lissa responded.

Jesse's hands dropped to his sides and sighed. "I can't deal with you guys."

"Look, you're a bitch, but I love you," Demi finally said quietly.

Lissa glanced up at her. "You really mean that?"

"Wait, are they serious?" Jesse whispered to me.

"Shh, this is beautiful," I whispered back to him admiring their makeup.

Demi nodded and held her arms out.

"I love you my fiery red headed bitch," Lissa said as she hugged Demi.

I laughed at Jesse's face as he stared at the two, utterly dumbfounded.

"Women," he finally muttered with a mystified look on his face.

Staring at him with the same expression, "Men."

His face fell, seeming unamused as I chuckled.

"Well," Jesse clapped as he stood. "Now that we are all one big happy family again, can we please get to work, namely my employee?" He looks pointedly at me. My face fell as I remembered the boardwalk sale was today. Ugh, the worst day of the summer.

"Is it too late to quit?" I grumbled as I stood to go find my bag and shoes.

"I heard that!" Jesse called after me. I raised my eyebrows in response and continued to search for the necessities. Lissa and Demi quickly followed after me sending me questioning looks.

I shoved my converse into my bag, no need to put them on when I would be walking in sand the entire way there. "What?" I asked, looking up to see their concern etched on their faces.

"Are you okay?" Lissa asked.

Raising my eyebrows, I leaned against the wall to balance so I could scrape something off of the bottom of my foot.

"What do you mean?" I asked, innocently.

They looked at each other, then back to me in unison.

With a sigh I set my foot down and crossed my arms, with my bag over my shoulder. "Guys, I'm okay. In fact, it's a huge weight off of my shoulders being able to play again."

Again, they shared a glance before meeting my eyes once again.

"Jesse." They both said.

"Aren't you two supposed to mad at each other? What's with the freaky twin like tendencies?" I shot as I pushed past them.

"Something is going on between you two Al," Demi accused.

I came to an abrupt stop at that, spinning on my heel to face them. "What? Are you guys insane? It's Jesse we are talking about!"

Only the person I may or may not be falling for.

"You like him," Lissa stated.

My jaw dropped. "Umm no, we have established my epic crush has been reserved for a rockstar," I corrected.

Liar.

Lissa shook her head. "Nope, this is different."

With a sigh, I turned around to walk away once more. I rounded the corner, smacking into Jesse's chest.

He winked. "Oh hey there sweets, how you doin'?" He began nodding his head, similar to Joey in the show Friends.

I stared at him blankly, successfully concealing what was actually happening on the inside.

"Ew," I said flatly and pushed him aside, his cackling following closely behind.

"C'mon Baby Dess, I'll walk with you to the shack," Jesse winks and throws an arm around my shoulder.

Attempting to ignore the flutter in my heart his arm gave me, I shoved him off of me and walked ahead of him.

Pushing open the door, I tore down the steps with Jesse closely following me.

"So, you just going to pretend last night didn't happen?" he asked, catching up with me once in the sand.

"No," I murmured, shifting my bag over my shoulder to be more comfortable. Suddenly the bag went missing from my body.

My head whipped up, noticing it now slung over his own, a smug look on his face. His hazel eyes begged me to turn it down...because he knew I wouldn't.

"Jesse," I sighed as I continued walking next to him, surprisingly ready to be in the comfort of the shack.

"I mean, I feel like it was a bonding moment," I saw him grin out of the corner of my eye. Refusing to let him notice my eyes on him,  I increased my pace.

He laughed as I trudged ahead of him. "Oh Alice, maybe one day you won't be such a light switch."

Confused, I stopped, my eyes narrowed as I crossed my arms.

"Umm, what does that even mean?" I demanded. He shifted to stand in front of me, making his larger frame noticeable as he took a step closer to me, uncomfortably close. The smell of his familiar ocean and sunscreen scent was intoxicating, making me momentarily forget what we were talking about as his hazel eyes gleamed, as if he was beginning to realize the affect he had on me.

Sometimes.

Oh who am I kidding? It's pretty much constant now, much to my dismay.

"You know, you're always on, off, on, off, on, off," he continued as I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, okay, what's your point?"

His head cocked to the side as he stared at me momentarily and took in my obvious annoyance with him. He let out a breathy laugh, quick and sharp, shaking his head softly.

"Forget it Baby Dess," he finally said and began walking once again. I stared after his back feeling both exposed and annoyed by his sudden use of Baby Dess again.

I jogged to catch back up to him and fell into step with his long stride.

"Thank you," I murmured.

I saw him glance at me out of the corner of his eye, raising an eyebrow.

With a deep breath, I let out a long sigh, staring down at the sand.

"You're a good friend," I finally said, refusing to meet his gaze. "I'm not sure what I would do without you."

He laughed, almost harshly at that. I glanced up at him and noticed him shaking his head, his hair shifting with his movement.

"You're never going to figure it out are you?" he mumbled to himself, rubbing the back of his head.

"Huh?" I questioned, stepping around a dead crab.

"You're welcome," he simply replied.

We fell into silence the rest of the walk and I was left wondering what he meant by that. Figure what out? Was he in the same boat as I was? Was he as confused by everything as I was?

After opening the shop, he began ordering me around like he often does when he was annoyed with me. He had me quickly piecing together options for the sale.

So quick I almost didn't notice what was in the store front window. Coming to a screeching halt, I backed up to take a closer look at what just caught my eye.

Is that what I think it is...

I moved some floaties around to shift closer to inspect the massive print now taped to the window.

"That mother f-" I whisper before turning around.

It was the period kit picture my mom has or had rather. Below it said, "Don't be shark bait."

I was flaming red the longer I stared at a picture of ninth grade me holding up a tampon.

"Jesse!!!!"