Conversations

Jessie lives life in her own little world. But when Devin steps in, Jessie gets the chance to see life from a brighter point of view. At least until he's gone.

Conversations

My mom cleared her throat, looking at all of us around the dinner table, “So, I heard we have some new neighbors.” Oh, you heard correctly. Too bad their son is the most obnoxious thing with a dick to ever walk on this planet.

No one gave my mom the satisfaction of an answer, and all of us just stared down at our food. Anything to avoid eye contact. We had all learned overtime that mom would idiotically always try to make dinner conversation.  And that we, therefore, had only the choice to ignore her.

She continued to stare us all down. With a sigh, I finally gave in, “Yeah, we do.”

She looked at me, and I dared to make eye contact as she spoke, “I heard they have a boy your age. Maybe you could be friends.” She was a little too desperate to make me normal, a possibly I had ruled out a long time ago.

“Or maybe we couldn’t,” I mumbled, just loud enough to hear.  She gave me one of her how-the-hell-did-some-as-perfect-as-me-create-a-child-like-you looks, and shook her head.

“Did you even give him a chance?” I let him talk to me, didn’t I?

I batted my eyelashes and put on my fakest, girly-est, smile. “Why of course I did, mother. I was the very nicest person I could ever be to him-“

“Well there’s a scary thought.” The little a*s I was forced by genetics to call my brother said.

“Andrew, be nice.” My mother scolded him, and I shot him a dirty look. And then my ten year old brother mouthed the word ‘b***h’ to me.

I leaned over and punched him in the gut, causing him to choke up the chicken nugget he had recently shoved down his throat.

“Jessie!” My mother wailed, “How could you?” She ran over to comfort Andrew, pathetically being more worked up than him. “Andrew, are you okay honey?” From under my mother’s arms, Andrew shot me an evil grin.

I rolled my eyes, and returned to eating whatever my mom called food that was on my plate. She never really had been a good cook. I would gladly take James’ thrice-burnt pizza he tried to make in Family and Health class than whatever my mom dreamt up.

Deciding the ‘bacon macaroni and cheese’ wasn’t worth quenching my hunger with, I went to dump my plate in the now-empty trash can.

My footsteps creaked up the old stairs and I walked towards my room. When I finally reached the spray painted door, I whipped out my cell phone and lay down on my bed to text Lyss. After her apology, I felt she at least deserved a response.

Then again, maybe not.

I threw my cell phone across the carpeted floor where it banged into a black wall and rested there. A moment later I pulled my I-Pod out of my hoodie and crawled under the assortment of darkly colored and stained sheets that made up my bed.

I stared up at the wall, and began to count the seconds. Seconds until I ran out of time. Seconds until I found a purpose. Seconds to anything.

Five hundred and sixty-two seconds later, there was a knock on the front door, just aloud enough for me to hear above Fort Minor blasting in my headphones. My first thought was that it was Devin, but then I realized he wouldn’t be smart enough to know the doorbell was broken. He probably would have stood there, stupidly pressing the rectangular button again and again, until someone pitied him and acknowledged his presence.

A moment later, I heard hurried footsteps walking up the stairs. I recognized the sound of her footsteps before she even reached the door. Heard her voice before she opened it.

“You never texted back,” Lyss walked in the door, jacket swung over her arm, curls bouncing around her purple scrunchy. She acted like she expected an apology from me, as if anything less than one would be so unlike me. She thought too much.

“You say that like you thought I would,” I let out a little laugh. She walked closer to me, and pulled my headphones out of my ears, laying them beside me. I gave her a glare, and put them back in.

“I said I was sorry,” Lyss gave me a little pout. Why was she telling me things I already knew?

I looked at her for a long minute, “And?”

She pulled her hair out of her scrunchy slightly aggressively, “You know what, never mind." She rocked back on her heels a moment, eyes scanning around a room she had likely already memorized, "So, me, Matt, and my boyfr-“

“Don’t even say it.”

“James then. Me, Matt and James are all going to go get pizza. We might go bowling too, after, if Matt doesn’t have anything to drink. Wanna come?”

“No.”

She gave me her signature puppy dog pout that would have melted the heart of Satan. But I had gotten so used to this face, with her constant begging and pleading, that its affect was pretty much nonexistent for me. “Come on, Jessie.”

I didn’t move a muscle, but stared straight and cold into her too-large eyes. “Absolutely not.”

She sniffed, defeated, and crossed her arms over her chest, much like a child would, “You’re such a spoilsport. You know, if there was like a world’s biggest kill joy competition, you would win hands down.”

I laughed, and turned up the speaker on my I-Pod a bit, “So you admit I’m good at something.”

She bent down to pick up her purse where she had placed it on the ground, “You’re such a pain sometimes, you know?”

I gave her a coy grin, “So that’s two things I’m good at?” She was smart enough not to comment, knowing she had lost yet another word game.

“Whatever, I’m going out. I’ll see you later.” She shoved her phone in her bag defiantly, and began to walk out the door. I let her go for a moment, and then called out.

“Tell James I said hi,” I thought for a second, “and tell Matt I told him to drink an extra shot for me.” I heard her footsteps halt on the stairs, and then grow louder again.

Lyss stuck her head in the door, “Why?”

“Because he’s funny when he’s drunk,” I stretched my arms over my head in thought, “and that’s about the only time he’s funny.”  Lyss rolled her eyes at me, and once again chose not to answer. I listened and counted the seconds as her footsteps faded down the stairway and in the next minute I drifted off to sleep.

Author's Note

Any and all comments welcome.

Reviews

[Daydreamer54]

I don't tjhink jess sounds like a good friend because she was being selfish about luyss wanting to go to the dance. I feel sorry for her mom becauser all she's trying to do is to have them act like a family. Oh well, can't wait for more!