Every story is the same, if you pay attention to the simplicity of it all. The beginning, middle, and end. The problem and the solution. The climax and the finish. If you squint, everyone's a story, with all the twists and turns and heartache. You relate to the other characters as the protagonist, hitting the deep-end of both confidence and insecurity. Jess, she always loved stories; reading and writing. She knew her passion for literature would get her somewhere, thanks to her everlasting optimism (she's a Gemini with an Aquarius rising, its in her nature) which pulled her through basically all her mid-life crises.
And right now, Jess feels like that really annoying bad dude with the sad childhood, 'cause the hero got to her this time.
'Cause he shattered their contact.
'Cause he said, "Jess, I think you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. And - and we're messing it up again."
So she stands with the weight of love dragging her down and waterfalls ready to pour out of her eye sockets and remembers how it was before she missed her friend.
FROM JESS: Marry me so I can afoid boyz foreveeerrr
FROM CECE: You ok, Lil J
FROM JESS: I'm drowning in chocolate milk
FROM JESS: Remember that time that I like
FROM JESS: I fell on my face
FROM CECE: Time to plan the wedding
FROM JESS: You will be a beautiful bride… AGAIN!
FROM JESS: Hahaha btw me and Nick didn't just make out in the middle of the night for reasons unspoken so no need to worry
FROM CECE: Bitch, I am about to break world records
"I came here as fast as I can. I took. The stairs," Cece panted.
"You didn't… oh, darlin', ya shouldn't have!" Jess shouted awkwardly. Cece rolled her eyes and muttered about how confused Jess makes her as she stepped inside the loft. Jess followed her best friend to her own room. The same room where Nick Miller and herself did the do many a'times and no longer counting (but it might not stay that way for long, and for that she hopes). And once the door shuts, Jess is spraying profanities out of her mouth before Cece can decipher "I don't only miss my friend," and then Jess shoves her face into her pillow and nothing fills the silence. Cece settles herself on the bed, knowing full well what she wants to say to her sister.
"What do you want, Jess?" the model asked softly.
Her response comes without hesitation.
"Him. It was always him."
"Do you think this break-up is for the best?"
"... I don't know."
Cece folds her warm hand over Jess' and clutches it reassuringly. "Listen, Jess, I understand why you guys did what you did. All of it. Both of you wanted it. But that spark's always gonna be there. You'll both know what to do with it, and right now, you need to stop overthinking it. Just go with with flow."
Jess finally looks up at Cece, eyes teary but relaxed. A small smile stretches her lips. "Thanky danky, Big C," Jess says.
"Good lord," Cece laughs.
FROM WINSTON: Jess
FROM JESS: Winnie
FROM WINSTON: Don't eat the yogurt in the fridge
FROM JESS: You got it, dude
FROM WINSTON: Please tho, I have been looking forward to it for the past two days
FROM WINSTON: Similar to the way you and Nick have with each other
FROM JESS: WINSTON
FROM JESS: That was kind of lame
FROM WINSTON: He didn't voluntarily tell me
FROM WINSTON: I tickled his neck and he yelped
FROM WINSTON: Like the warrior he isn't
FROM JESS: I kind of want to eat your yogurt now
FROM WINSTON: I will never let you touch Ferguson again
FROM WINSTON: Or Nick
FROM JESS: WINSTON
Jess dozes off watching Scooby Doo after realizing she vaguely resembles Velma, especially in her glasses, which were currently absent. The loft is asleep like the way she should be in her bed but its a lazy weekend and she can't move. And then she remembers a time when she said, "Hey, remember that time you were gonna move out but then you freaked and we got stuck in the desert with no keys and you came back home? I never threw my keys," and he said, "I'm glad you didn't and I came back for you," and her chest tightens in a painful but comforting way. She jumps at the sound of the front door unlocking and notices that it is well past midnight."Shit," she whispered to herself, but she doesn't truly mean it but she pushes that to the back of her mind where it stands alongside her hidden and totally subconscious plan to stay up and wait for him.
Its too hot for a blanket and it gets even hotter when he enters the apartment.
"Jess," he states plainly.
"Hey," she replies weakly.
He stands still for a moment, the T.V. the only source of light in the damn place, and their eyes are locked until neither of them could take it anymore. "Good night, Jess," he exits with and there's pain lurking in those three words and for many reasons it makes her want to cry.
When the door to his room shuts, she allows her tears to fall with everything on mute. Her heart aches and it spreads and bites at her limbs and her throat and her head.
She whips out her phone.
Types in his number to prove to the universe that this is happening.
Presses it to her ear and listens to it ring once, twice -
"Jess," he answers and he sounds so sad.
"I need you," Jess admits in the void of her misery, ignoring how broken she sounds. She hears him breathe for years and when he tells her to come to his room, she stays on the line with choked-back sobs and he opens the door before she can.
They hang up and he lifts her from the back of her thighs and lets her curl up into him until they reach her bed. He sets her down and plants a kiss on her nose and then she knows that he misses this so she chains her arms securely around his neck and feels herself come undone.
Nick Miller steals your heart right outta ya. Nick Killer.
"I'm sorry," Nick tells Jess and she shushes him and takes his bottom lip between hers and throws fire into him. His hands wind around the curve of her waist and he pulls her closer, as if it'll mesh their bodies together. She slants he head and licks into his mouth and behind his teeth and loves the growl that vibrates from the back of his throat.
"Jess…" he pants as she kisses up his jaw until she reaches his ear and starts sucking on the lobe. "Mmm," she moans faintly against him as she reaches below and moves his hand up to her breast. She gasps when he squeezes and leans back on the sheets. He follows. Her mouth smashes against his, all desperate and greedy and she arches her back when he rolls his core against hers. "God, we shouldn't… we shouldn't be doing this," he breathes into her neck. He inhales her and nips at her collarbone.
"This can't be the end," she sighs and he stops and she almost regrets it but then he looks at her and a garden sprouts on top of her bones and when he kisses her she gets dizzy and then she's in a haze, searchin' for any remorse in his stare.
"What are we gonna be now?" she whispers in the dark and he never gives her an answer.