Hi!
I just have to say, I love this fandom! You guys are the best!
So this story is sort of a companion to another one of my stories titled It's Always You. This one can definitely stand alone, though! Basically it's the same story from Jess' point of view, where as It's Always You is from Nick's point of view. Just like the last one, this one grew so quickly I had to split it into three parts. In fact, this one's quite a bit longer than It's Always You (which is really not surprising since Jess tends to have much more to say than Nick hahaha).
For those of you who have already read It's Always You, I really hope you enjoy this! Also I want to point out that there are some parts that are almost word-for-word the same between It's Always You and this one. That's done intentionally. I feel like Nick and Jess think fairly similarly in certain situations and I also think there are moments when they think the exact same thing at the exact same time.
Sigh. I love them.
The title and summary are inspired by the song "I Always Knew" by The Vaccines, which is the song that plays at the end of the Season 2 finale. It's an awesome song! You should definitely check it out!
I don't own New Girl or anything else you might recognize!
'Cause It's You
Chapter One
November 27, 2015
The first time Jess ever sees Spencer, she's absolutely mesmerized by his hair.
It's kind of weird, because she's never really been into guys with really long hair, but there's something about the way this guy carries himself that kind of makes it work. She's at some bar she's never been to before because she couldn't quite remember where that one bar she and Cece went to the night she ended up sleeping with Teddy was. She needed a place to study for her final that's coming up next week and she just isn't prepared for it and the models are all at Cece's place and they're a little too loud for Jess' taste tonight so common sense told her that a bar probably wouldn't be crazy loud on a Tuesday evening. Her common sense was correct.
She settles in the back, in a booth tucked away in the corner, head buried in her textbook. She has to blink rapidly every now and then when the words blur together and her glass of pink wine has been sitting in front of her for over two hours with hardly more than a sip taken from it and she's pretty sure the bartender is getting annoyed with her for squatting but he can kiss her ass for all she cares.
No, that's not true. She'll leave soon, she's sure. She shoots him apologetic looks every time they make eye-contact.
It's the sudden change in music that draws Jess' attention up from her book for the first time in forty-five minutes. After a moment of searching, she spots a very tall man with very long hair standing by the juke box. She's trying to decide if losing five minutes of study time is worth getting up to yell at the monster who has the nerve to turn The Vaccines off but when he turns around all irritation goes flying out the window.
His forest green eyes drift over the empty bar disinterestedly as his head begins to gently bob along to his choice of music, a song that Jess doesn't recognize. His delicate, chiseled face is framed by a crown of shiny blonde hair that waves like majestic grass in a gentle spring breeze. When he spots her, his gaze lingers long enough for her cheeks to heat up.
Five minutes later, she watches him approach her table. She smiles shyly and nods when he asks if he can sit down with her.
The first time Jess ever kisses Spencer, she's just received her master's degree.
They've been seeing each other casually for the last several weeks and Jess is sure she's never felt so much for one person before in her whole life, including Teddy. She's twenty-three years old with two degrees and her whole life is in front of her and it's all so amazing and wonderful she just wants to sing.
She texts him to invite him to her graduation party and he texts back a few hours later saying he'd be happy to go and Jess chooses to ignore the face Cece makes when she reads the message over Jess' shoulder because it's all so perfect. She's got a good feeling about Spencer, the kind that only intensifies each time she sees him.
The moment he strolls into her party half an hour after it starts, everything else falls away. She snatches his arm and introduces him to everyone excitedly. Her mother nods approvingly when Spencer glances away and her dad merely grunts which is actually a much better reaction than she was anticipating and so with both of her parents' approval Jess pulls Spencer out to the hallway outside of Cece's apartment where the party is still going and almost knocks them both off of their feet when she leaps up to kiss him.
He stumbles back until his back hits the wall and loops his arms loosely around Jess' middle and Jess is soaring.
The first time Jess ever sleeps with Spencer, she wakes up nearly suffocating under one of his long, gangly arms.
His face is a few inches away from hers and his mouth is open, sending a puff of warm air skating across her face each time he exhales. She manages to scooch a little further up her pillow so that his arm isn't crushing her throat anymore and just stares at him for a second.
He's so pretty.
The thought keeps echoing through her brain randomly. Memories of the night before - the party, their kiss - come flooding back and she has to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from squealing excitedly. Sure, it wasn't the greatest sex she'd ever had. But he was good. Like, good. She definitely wasn't disappointed.
He talked a lot, though, which sort of bothered her. He would continually break her concentration. But it didn't matter in the end. Because they were both able to fall asleep satisfied.
That's what she keeps reminding herself.
Her phone is face-down on the nightstand; she rolls toward it carefully, desperately trying not to jostle him in his sleep. Eventually she's able to grab it and unlock it to see five new texts from Cece:
Are you planning on doing the nasty here or there?
I'll take that as a there. Does he even have a bed?
Ew, does he have roommates? I bet he does. He kind of seems like the type that would. What kind of grown-ass man has roommates?
Oh, God, if he takes you back there and you end up getting roped into an orgy with his weird stoner roommates I'm gonna kill him AND you for being so stupid. Text me back!
Okay, it's almost 3AM and you're not responding, so I'm going to sleep. If I don't hear back from you by 9 tomorrow morning I'm calling the cops!
Jess huffs in annoyance. She knows, deep down, that Cece means well. But it's sort of unfair that she hasn't even given Spencer a chance to prove himself to her, especially considering the kind of garbage people Cece herself dates. Actually, that's not fair, there's a pretty good chance that they're at least halfway decent people in general, just...not with Cece. The second Cece laid eyes on Spencer, though, she supposedly had him pegged.
She lets her phone fall against her chest as she turns to look at him again. How could anyone think they had someone has beautiful and mysterious as Spencer figured out with one look? She just wanted to curl up next to him and listen to him talk about conspiracy theories about wireless internet and government spies all day long.
She texts Cece back. I'm fine, I'll be back later.
Spencer offers to take her out to brunch when he wakes up an hour later, and Jess agrees. She's excited both to spend time with him and to break in her new black flats she bought specifically for her graduation party.
When she decides to pursue a relationship with Spencer, she's in her car.
She's breathing pretty heavily and her makeup is running because of her salty tears but she dials his number anyways. It's not like he can see her or anything.
"Jess-Jess," his voice soothes her instantly; a smile turns her Puffy Crying Lips up into a grin.
"Hi," she chokes.
"What's wrong?"
"I just got into a fight with Cece," she says softly, dejectedly picking at the flaky leather on her steering wheel. Her car is idling in the parking lot of Cece's apartment building.
"Oh no,"
"She just doesn't think this thing we have is serious," Jess says. She hears him sigh on the other end of the line. It's a conversation they've been having for weeks now, on repeat since their first brunch together. "Look, I know you think relationships are too...constricting, or whatever, but...I don't know, man, I just want to know this is real. That I'm not just some chick you're banging in your free time."
She hears him tut at her language. "Jess-Jess," he says warningly. Something in the pit of her stomach shifts unpleasantly. "Of course what we have is real. If this is really a big deal for you, then...fine. I'll do it. Let's be a couple."
Her smile is blinding. "Really?"
"Of course."
The first time she tells Spencer she loves him, they're standing in their bedroom.
They've been dating for a year and Jess is finally making enough money to move out of Cece's apartment and into a house - a house! - like a real-live actual adult.
It's Spencer's grandparent's house and he asks her to move in with him two days after his grandparents are relocated to a retirement home. Jess hesitates at first, unsure that her salary as a new teacher would be enough to cover all the bills that come with being a homeowner, but the idea of sharing a home with Spencer is just too enticing to pass up.
It's been a whirlwind all day long, and Jess has hardly had time to breathe. She feels every muscle in her body ache which she doesn't really understand because it's not like they have a lot of stuff between them to move. Actually, now that she thinks about it, the majority of the stuff they have in the house is hers and even though Spencer paid to rent the truck he didn't seem to help with the hauling boxes thing. He was more interested in fitting them into the back of the truck and then organizing them in tall stacks inside the house. But even beneath the exhaustion that plagues her body and the annoying recurring thought that the house still smells like old people, she feels an undeniable spark of excitement when Spencer straightens the last throw pillow on their bed.
They both stand at the foot of the bed, side-by-side, to admire their handiwork. Jess has never shared a bed with anyone before and it's kind of a weird feeling but when she looks up at Spencer and sees him smiling down at her happiness bubbles up inside her stomach and the words fall from her lips mindlessly.
"Hey, I love you."
His eyebrows raise in surprise, but his smile widens. "I love you, too, Jess-Jess."
She's dancing naked behind a large pillow when he breaks up with her.
She nearly slips on her trench coat piled up at her feet and even though ten seconds ago she was irritated by how large the pillow is it suddenly seems minuscule beneath the gaze of that foreign redhead.
"I-I can explain," Spencer says lamely, holding his hands up as if to block a physical attack. Jess just blinks, trying to comprehend the scene before her.
"Who's that?" She asks, pointing to the redhead.
"Um, uh...Jess, you need...you should go."
She cries for an hour straight before she finally catches her breath enough to tell Cece what happened and then cries for another two hours until she finally passes out on Cece's couch. When she wakes up the next morning, she's unusually quiet and somber until the models arrive to pre-game before some group shoot later that night. Cece offers to tell them to leave, but Jess waves her off.
What becomes quickly evident is that moving in with Spencer five years earlier has decimated any semblance of a savings account she might have had otherwise. She definitely can't afford a house; she can't even afford her own apartment. She barely even has any clothes at this point; it's all stuffed in one of the bigger Mary Poppins-style purses she snagged at an estate sale a few months earlier at the foot of Cece's bed. Even through the grief of losing Spencer, who Jess thinks now might have actually been the love of her life, she recognizes that she can't financially afford to be on her own.
It's around the moment she comes to this realization that she hears the models howling somewhere in Cece's kitchen. The idea of moving in with Cece again is gone. She's twenty-nine years old with a master's degree, she absolutely can't live with models again. That might have flown when she was younger and a little more naive, but those days are long gone.
She spends the rest of the evening holed up in Cece's bedroom searching roommate ads on Craigslist until one in particular catches her eye.