STAY

Chapter Two

Beca watched in amusement as he sat up quickly, his computer rolling off of him and onto the bed. He pulled out his ear buds and looked at her almost as if he were surprised to see her there, "Uh, hi."

"Hello."

"I'm Jesse." He told her, rising to his feet. He stood there next to his bed, poised straight as an arrow and watched her as if he were afraid that she was going to bolt from the room with any sudden movement that he might make.

"I'm Beca."

"Yeah, I know."

Beca raised one of her eyebrows at him before nodding and slinging her bag onto the edge of his full-sized bed, "So how long have you been homeschooled?"

"For a while." He answered vaguely.

Beca frowned at him, "How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"…How long have you been seventeen?"

She fought back a smile when Jesse started laughing, "Wow, you do not look like the kind of girl to be quoting twilight."

"I only watched it because my friend claims I look like one of the girls on there." She told him, unzipping her bag and pulling out her textbooks. "So, is there a certain subject that you're having problems with?"

"What? Oh!" Beca looked at him curiously and he laughed, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "History annnddd Geography?"

"Oookay. Do you mind if I sit on your bed?" she asked, motioning to his Star Wars bed sheets and struggled not to grimace at them.

She could have sworn his cheeks reddened a bit, "Yeah, you- we- go ahead."

"You're kind of a weirdo, you know that?" she teased as she took a seat on his bed, hoping it might help him be a little more comfortable with her. This was going to be a horrible last semester if this guy could hardly stand to talk to her.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." He told her, sitting on the other end of the bed as her, "I just wasn't really expecting you."

Beca raised her eyebrows, "Ms. Kerns didn't tell you I was coming?"

"She said she would ask...what did she tell you about me?"

"That you needed help in some classes." Beca narrowed her eyes at him when he looked almost relieved at her response. "And you know, that you killed somebody."

She smiled when Jesse's jaw dropped down and she reached forward to slap him playfully on the knee, "Would you lighten up?"

Jesse smiled, "Sorry, I don't really get to hang out with a lot of people my age."

"Why not? You don't hang out with any of your friends from before you were homeschooled?"

Jesse face scrunched up and he looked extremely uncomfortable with her question so she turned her attention away from him, glancing at the numerous movie posters that filled his walls. Seriously, this kid has so many that they were beginning to overlap each other. "Aah, you're a movie buff."

She glanced back at him in time to see his eyes light up and a big grin stretched across his face, "I love movies, they're my inspiration."

"Inspiration?" she questioned, "For decorating?"

"Ha-ha." He tilted his head cutely at her, "No. I want to get a job scoring movies."

Beca blinked, "That's ambitious."

Jesse laughed at her response, "Don't be so surprised!"

"Sorry, it's just that most of the people in my grade are going to be graduating in six months and have no clue about what college they want to go to, much less what they want to go to college for. It's kinda refreshing to meet someone with a goal."

She flipped open the pages in her Geography book and pulled her study guide out of her notebook, handing it over to him wordlessly while she flipped through her notebook pages until she found her hand-written notes from class that morning.

"I don't." he said quietly.

Beca tore her attention from her papers and looked at him, "Don't what?"

Jesse took a breath and let it out slowly, "I don't hang out with any of my friends from before I was homeschooled."

"Why not?"

He stared down at the study guide in his hands and half-shrugged, "People grow apart, I guess."

She watched Jesse's face when he said this. His eyes grew a little harder and a deep crease appeared on his forehead like he was thinking hard about something, something that obviously bothered him quite a bit. His lips looked even fuller when they were pouting like that and it made Beca wanted to reach out and touch them.

Woah, get a grip Beca! She shook her head and cleared her throat, eager to change the subject so he would quit looking all depressed like that. For some reason, it made her stomach hurt to see him so obviously upset.

"Okay, so Geography."

"I'll see you tomorrow afternoon." Beca told him before giving him a small wave and leaving out the front door, her bag swinging back and forth in her hand.

Jesse watched her until as climbed into her beat up old Taurus and pulled out of the drive. Only when he heard the sound of somebody clearing their throat behind him did he shut the door and turn to face the music, so to speak.

"She seemed nice." His father said, arms crossed over his chest.

Jesse gave him a shrug, "Yeah."

He almost groaned when his father let out a weary sigh, knowing that he was about to add his input about the whole situation. "Do you really think there isn't going to be any talk, Jesse? That her friends – your old friends – aren't going to say anything?"

"Ms. Kerns made her sign an agreement." Jesse muttered, his eyes cast to the carpet, tracing the small triangle shaped designs with the toe of his shoe.

"Keith, stop." His mother scolded lightly as she walked in. "You make it sound like-"

"That's how they will make it sound." Keith huffed. "I'm not trying to sound like an asshole, Jesse, I just don't want you to have to go through everything that happened two years ago again."

"It's going to be fine dad." Jesse told him, forcing a smile before he turned and retreated back upstairs into his room.

Short chapter – I'm sorry about that, I was rushing to try and get a new chapter out. I will try to make the chapters longer! Really hoping I didn't disappoint with this chapter – let me know! Thanks to everyone who reviewed & followed my story, I was so surprised by how many of you wanted to see this story continue.