Chapter Twenty-Four: Jess

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"How did you even know where I lived? I thought you weren't coming for another couple weeks." I'm shocked she's stood right in front of me. It feels like years since I last saw her.

"Chillout, Dee," She starts to laugh a little. "Noah got it from some girl you guys know, Mia is it? I just wanted to surprise you."

"I can't believe you're actually here. When did you arrive?" I say, still shocked.ย 

"Just now, I didn't know what time you'd show." I hear someone clear their throat and my attention is drawn to Cole.

"Do I know deserve an introduction, Princess?" He smirks and my smile falters when I see the seductive look in Jess' eyes.

I feel slightly nauseous.

See the thing is, Jess has a couple of things in common with Cole's old ways.

"Right, sorry," I scooter over back to Cole and I'm at his side. "Cole meet Jess. Jess meet Cole," I look up at him while he's looking down at me smiling. "my boyfriend."

The look on her face tells me she's attracted to him. Who wouldn't? But she might as well be drooling when she finally speaks. "Damn, Dee. He's hot. Like sexy model hot."

She's probably just teasing.

"Like I said, he's my boyfriend." I fake a laugh and Jess scoffs while rolling her eyes.

"No need to get bitchy about it. He's all yours."

I know he's 'all mine' because he's my boyfriend.

She's never spoken this way towards me before. Talk about mood swings. The way she speaks makes the hairs on my arms stand up.

I just fake a smile but I notice Cole tense up beside me after her little remark. When I look down, I notice his clenched fists.

Looks like he's just as bothered by the comment as I am.

"Well, let's go indoors. You coming?" I look at Cole and his eyes aren't on me anymore. They're on Jess and you can tell by the look on his face that he's pissed by what she said.

"I'm gonna head back. Make the most of the time my parents have today." I nod but he finally tears his eyes away from Jess to look at me. His eyes soften instantly.

"Call me if you need anything okay?" I nod and he kisses me, mumbling "I'll pick you up tomorrow." against my lips.

I wave and once he's gone, I turn to Jess. "I'll invite Noah and Mia. We can watch a movie or something. Mia would love to meet you." Jess scrunches up her face.

"Actually, how about you just call Noah? It can be like the old times." As much as I miss times when it was us three, I can't just leave Mia out of the loop. Not only is she my best friend around here, she's friends with Noah as well

Just by how kind she is, I know she would understand if I didn't invite her but I'm not willing to do that.

"I think maybe we should call Mia. You're not going to be here long and I'll love for you to meet her." She smilesโ€”which I immediately pick up as fakeโ€”and nods.

Once we're inside, Josh is in the lounge watching tv. "Josh, this is Jess. She's visiting and is gonna be staying here a couple days."

I've already spoken about Jess staying here to my Aunt and Uncle when I knew she was coming down in a couple weeks. I can't see why her staying early would be a problem.

Josh mumbles a quick hey but doesn't pay much attention.

"Wait, what about school?" I ask. If she came at the weekend, we could see each other the whole day but I'll be at school.

"Well I can stay until Thursday but I can just travel to school from here, a little bit of a drive but I'm only gonna be doing it twice." We stand in the lounge doorway when I speak to Josh.

"I'm about to text Mia if she wants to come round by the way." He sits up straighter and his face lights up.

"Great! When will she be here." I laugh at how quickly he changes just by the mention of her name.

"As I said, I haven't texted her yet." I chuckle, "But I'm sure your future wife will be here soon." I tease and he rolls his eyes.

We leave Josh to do his thing and head upstairs. That's when Jess asks a question.

"Are they dating or something? Your cousin and May?" She knows Mia's name. She said it right early so why she's saying it wrong now is beyond me.

"It's Mia and yes. They're dating. Have been for a little while now. They didn't tell me at first because he's my cousin, they weren't sure how I would've reacted." I shoot Noah and Mia a quick text to come over because we're going to get pizza and hang for a while.

"Wow, dating you're cousin and then not saying they were actually together? She seems like a bitch to me."

Well that was fucking rude. Why's she acting so different?

"No actually, she isn't. She's one of the nicest people I've ever met." She huffs and I feel guilty for dreading the rest of the time she's going to be staying here already.

I throw my phone on the bed and Jess finally sits down.

"The house is nice." I nod in agreement.

"Yeah, it is. I'd rather be at my old house with my mum but it's kinda nice here I guess. If I think about it, If I didn't move here I'd have never met Mia or Cole."

She looks like she's arguing with herself whether to say something or not. But looks like she makes a final decision because she breaks the short silence we were just sat in.

"I miss your mum. And you. It's not the same without you guys, and Noah's gone now. It's just different without you guys, you know?" I start to feel bad for her but it seems like she hasn't finished.

"And your mum is...Was...Better than my own." My heart clenches and a mix of loss and grief fills me. By the look on Jess' face, it fills her too.

"We had some really fun times though." She says, grinning and I laugh. We did. We had some great times and it's been forever since we last hung out.

I don't know what was up with Jess earlier but this is the Jess I left. She probably just found it odd seeing me again. I guess a lot has changed.

My phone beeps, interrupting us and I see it's Noah's name.

Sure, I'll be round soon :)

Straight after Mia replies:

I'll make my way now x

"What pizza shall I order?" I ask and google the nearest pizza places number.

"Did you seriously just ask that?" She fake gasps and I laugh.

"You're totally right, pepperoni with extra cheese. How could I ever forget?" I smile and so does she.

"We haven't done this in so long." I hum in agreement and open the bedroom door and shout Josh.

"JOSH WHAT PIZZA ARE YOU HAVING?"

"ME AND MIA USUALLY SHARE A HAWAIIN PIZZA!" I cringe at his answer.

"YOU AND MEE DESERVE EACHOTHER! PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA IS WRONG IN EVERY WAY!" I hear Josh laugh and once I've ordered, the doorbell rings.

Jess and I are at the top of the stairs when Josh opens it. He's probably hoping it's Mia but unfortunately for him, it's not her. It's Noah. Jess squeals and runs down the stairs to hug him.

"God I've missed you! School is so different without you!" The joy in her voice really makes me feel bad. We were all so close, a trio, and now she's the only one left in our old school.

Josh heads back into the lounge, disappointed, while the three of us and catch up on what we've missed. After about ten minutes of joking around, there's a knock at the door.

This time it's Mia.

Josh is there in a flash. "Hey baby," I leave Jess and Noah to it while I head to the door.

"Hey, Mee." I smile and give her a quick hug before leading her to Jess and Noah.

"Jess, meet Mia. Mee this is Jess." Ma smiles warmly and waves.

"Hey, Ands has told me so many good things about you." She waves but I notice Jess' smile is gone and she looks rather... Irritated and bored. "Hey Noah." She greets him as well. and he smiles, saying 'Hey' back.

Jess just stands there, looking her up and down. Is she judging her? What the hell is up with her now?

She was fine just now.

The evident scowl that's etched on her face only catches mine and Noah's attention. I don't know how. It's probably because Josh is speaking to her or she's just too kind to notice.

Noah throws me a look as if he's trying to ask me what's up with her. I shrug when the door knocks again.

"Pizza's here." I head to the door, grabbing the three pizza boxes and once I've paid and closed the door, Noah's takes them from me.

"Pepperoni and extra cheese?" He asks and I grin.

"You know it."

Everyone is too busy eating to notice that Jess hasn't moved to grab a piece. "Are you okay, Jess? You seem a little off." She's resting her chin in her hand and turns to look at me.

"Just fine." She says and I don't miss the bitterness her voice holds. I've seen the Jess I left back in my own town for about twenty minutes.

The rest of the time it's like I've been speaking to a stranger.

She's never been this cold. She walks away and grabs some pizza and all I'm thinking about is that something's is definitely up,

And I plan to find out what it is.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hey guys! Sorry this chapter isn't the best one yet :/ While I was rewriting I realised how much of a mess the first draft was.

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