Chapter 11.
Matty's P.O.V.
I was in the middle of a pretty sweet dream, until my alarm clock decided to scream in my ear. I turn it off and try to remember what the dream was about but it had totally left my brain. I hate it when that happens. Today,
is the day we go back to school. Even though I told Jenna that I wasn't nervous, I am. I'm out of Football practice for a while, but I still have to go to team mettings. I wonder what rumours are going around about Jenna and I, but I guess I'm going to find out sooner or later. I just know that all of the guys on the team are going to give me shit about me and Jenna and about how I'm 'whipped' and about what went down at the party. Thats all Jake ever had when he was dating Lissa, putting her before the team and stuff. For a moment, I forget about school and focus my mind on Jake. I know I shouldn't after what happened, but I wonder how he's doing, I wonder if he's getting better. His parents must be in so much pain at the moment, I've known them all of my life, and all Jake ever done was made them proud. I know they aren't together, but they did stay as close as they could when they broke up, for Jake. He always blamed himself for their break up, but they always reassured him that it wasn't his fault, I wonder if that was what drove him over the edge. I knew he was more pissed because his mom was already seeing another man during the divorce. They broke up when me and Jake were 13, it's been roughly around 3 years now. I'll never forget the day my mom picked us up from school on one of the rare occasions that she actually had time, we dropped Jake off at home, when we pulled up outside of Jakes house, his parents were both stood at the door. When my mom and I got home, she said to me:
'Honey I have something to tell you about Jakes parents. They're getting a divorce, so Jakes going to be going through a bad time, you need to try and cheer him up as much as possible whenever you see him.' Even I didn't understand why they were breaking up at the time, they looked like the perfect family from the outside,
they had perfect jobs, and the perfect son with some of the highest grades in our year group and he was doing great on our old out-of-school football team. But as we got older, we found out that Jakes mom was always sleeping around, cheating on his father. An hour after we got home from school that day, Jake came to my house really upset. I cheered him up by doing funny expressions and we played our favourite video game.
Those were the times when we were inseparable, and It was only last year that he told me 'If it wasn't for you,
I wouldn't of gotten through that, I would of been a wreck' and now look at him. I wish I could of helped him more than I did, maybe he wouldn't be the way he was. Seeing as Jake lived with his father, in that moment I decided I was going to visit him after school, I wanted to see how Jake was doing. I jump out of bed and head for the bathroom to go to the toilet, have a shower and freshen up before school. When I finally finish in the bathroom, I have 10 minutes before I have to pick Jenna up, so I pick out a pair of jeans and a shirt, get dressed, and cover myself in deoderant. I still had 5 minutes so I put some gel in my hair and style it, the usual way. When I walk down stairs I was greeted by James.
"Morning." He smiles.
"Hey, I'm off. I'll see you after school..wait, I might be a little late." I smile back, and head for the door.
"Where you going?" He asks.
"I'm going to..Jenna's?.." There was no use in lying to him, he always knew what I was lying. "Look I'm not going to lie to you. I'm going to see . I know you must think I'm.." I didn't have a chance to finish my sentence.
"Thats, great Matty. I think that he'd like to see you." James says.
"So..you're okay with this?"
"That guy was like a second father to you. When our own dad wasn't there, which he never was, was always there for you no matter what. He would really love seeing you, I promise." James says.
"Hey look man, I know this is batshit crazy, but..do you think I should visit Jake? I know I shouldn't but I can't stop wondering how he's getting on.." I trail off, taking my eyes from James and focusing them on the floor.
"Matty, thats your choice. I guess you would wonder about him, he was like..well was a brother to you. It's your decision, I'm going to agree with whatever decision you thinks right." He nudges me, I focus my eyes back on him.
"Thanks man, really I mean it."
"No problem, you're going to be late." He laughed.
"Oh shit! I'll talk to you later!" I smile before, literally, running out of the front door. I pull out my cell and call Jenna.
"Hey I'm just leaving, be there in like 2 minutes."
"Okay, see you then." She seems to be in a pretty good mood. I jump in my truck, and head to Jennas. When I pull up outside of her house, I text her saying 'Outside' and within seconds she was heading out of the door.
"Morning, you look beautiful." I smile as shes getting in the truck.
"Morning, you look amazing." She smiles back, leaning in for a kiss.
"So, we ready?" I ask.
"Yup." She smiles. So we set off for school. When we pull up in the car park, We notice Tamara and Ming were waiting by the school enterence. We drive around and I see that my usual parking space was empty, so I pull in.
When I get out of the car, it felt like everyone in sight was glancing at me. I try not to take any notice of the whispers and looks. I run my fingers through my hair and run to the other side of my truck, opening the door for Jenna, I pull her in and kiss her letting everybody see. Glances turned into obvious stares.
"Hey Jenna! Hi Matty!" We hear a familiar voice from behind us, we stop kissing and turn around and see Lissa.
"Hey Lissa." We both smile.
"How are you both? I'm glad to see you guys have sorted everything out." She smiles, she really does look happy for us.
"We're great." Jenna smiles, I smile too.
"You heading in?" I ask, including myself in the conversation.
"Yep!" She smiles. We begin to walk towards Ming and Tamara.
"Hey guys! So..everything good now right? I'm sorry if i'm slow on gossip, I think always being grounded for so long is making me socially awkward.." Ming exclaims, coming right out with it. We all laugh.
"We're fine." I smile. After standing around catching up, Tamara finally speaks up.
"You guys are aware that like, everybody that's walked passed had started at us, half of these people have actually walked passed us twice.." Jennas smile slowly fades and she faces the floor.
"Look, it's going to die down my lunch. Surely a little argument isn't that facinating that everybody has to stare,
point or mutter pathetic remarks forever." I smile wrapping my arm around her.
"It's not just the argument, its was the whole thing with..you know. That isn't going to die down for a long time." Jenna mumbles.
"Jake? You can say his name you know it's not like Voldemort, 'thou who shall not be named' I laugh. "Don't worry, as long as you don't pay any attention to it, they'll soon get bored." Everybody laughs.
"Speaking of Voldemort, wheres Sadie?" Tamara laughs. This even made Lissa chuckle.
"She should be here soon, I think she's trying to avoid Matty after he told her he thought she was coming on to him." Lissa smiles, not knowing she's leaking information Sadie didn't want us to hear. I already explained the whole Sadie thing to Jenna.
"Why are you even friends with her? I tried to be friends with her, we all have. It's like, she hates everybody apart from you." Tamara was always honest, even when she didn't mean to be.
"She's kind of different once you know her like I do, not by much, but I guess she's okay. Its almost like shes always fixating her time on making other people miserable. Speaking of which, you guys mind..if I hang out with you a little more? Sadie's spending more time with the other cheerleaders thank god, I think we could form our own little group!" Lissa asks, she sounds so innocent.
"OH MY GOD! We could like, make out own little group! I guess we kind of already have one, but this would totally make us popular! We have THE lead football player, one of the most popular cheerleaders, we have Jenna, who everybody see's her life as a soap opera, we even have an asian! And of course theres me, totally hot. HOW AWESOME?" Tamara squeals with exitement. We all look around and laugh, until we literally couldn't laugh anymore. I could get used to this, a whole different scene of friends. Change is good. We all stand around and joke for a while, ignoring the stares and whispers before the bell rings. We all have a 'welcome back' assembly from our head teacher and all of the other teachers giving us the same 'respect us, we'll respect you' talk, he then gives us the 'this term we will not tolerate any bullying' speach and goes on about the rules we have no choice but to obey, before dis-missing us to our lessons. As Jenna and I go to leave the assembly hand in hand, the head master orders us to stay behind, making us the center of attention.
"We have all been notified about recent events, so if there are any troubles or anything we can do for you, we are here for you. We know that Jenna had a close relationship with the guidence counciler, Miss Marks. She has been told to put you both before any other students, so any time you feel like you need to speak to her, she will be there to listen. Good luck." He says, still speaking softly.
"Thank you." Jenna smiles.
"It means so much to us, thank you again." I mumble. We leave the main hall, and I walk Jenna to her first class.
"I'll see you at lunch baby, remember, keep your head held high. I love you." I smile and kiss her.
"I love you too." She mumbles between our kiss.
I give her hug and smile before heading to my own class. But when I walk past Valeries office I hear a 'Psstt' sounds. I turn my attention to her office, she's stood bythe door bending her finger at me, indicating for me to go into her room. I walk in, she takes and seat and orders me to sit in the other chair.
"Is there anything I can do for you Valerie? I say, lowering myself onto the chair.
"Just wanted to check up on my second favourite student..wait I'm not supposed to have favourite students.." She looks at the closed door almost as if she was suspicious that someone was listening in on our conversation.
"Well, I won't tell if you don't." She jokes, looking deadly serious. "Sooo. I just wanted to know how your first day was going to far."
"Well..it hasn't really started yet.." I reply, awkwardly.
"Oh that's great good for you. Now, lets get down to the serious stuff."
"Um, okay?.." I was totally confused by this point.
"So, does James like tacos?" She has her arms rested on her desk, looking straight at me showing that she's really focusing on our conversation.
"Yes.."
"So, you think if he came to my place and we had tacos..we'd..you know? I know you and Jenna do it. You do know what I mean by 'it' don't you?"
"Oh god..yes..I don't know. This is a little weird..can I go now?" I ask, trying not to laugh, I knew I shouldn't because she looked totally serious.
"Yes..I have to answer I need. I think me and James are going to have tacos tomorrow night then." She says handing me a note that says 'I've been with Miss Marks at the councilers office' with a smiley face at the bottom.
When I open to door she shouts 'Thanks!' That was probably one of the weirdest conversations I've had with her, its great that we have such a funny person at the school, even though she doesn't realise how funny she can be. I'm finally get to class. After showing my teacher the note, I take a seat and pull out my books. The day goes by pretty fast, it wasn't as bad as I expected. It was lunch time now, I head outside and Jenna, Ming,
Tamara and Lissa were already sat at the table.
"Hey guys." I smile. "Hey beautiful." I say, seating myself next to Jenna.
"Hey." They all reply.
"Hey! How was your day?" Jenna asks.
"It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. How was yours?" I ask in return.
"It's actually been great. Lissa's in all of my classes this year, and Tamara and Ming are in my gym lessons so I'm not alone." She smiles.
"That's great. Well, apart from gym, Mings in most of my classes." I smile up at her, she looks surprised but then she laughs.
"I forgot, you're actually going to notice us now." She laughs, I felt kinda awkward and I didn't know what to say so I just look around.
"Oh no, she didn't mean it like that Matty." Tamara explains. "What she means is, this year we've all actually spoken properly and gotten to know eachother so now that we actually talk to you, we've realised you're not the dick we thought you were going to be." She smiles.
"Oh, I didn't mean it as a bitchy comment or anything, I just meant now that were friends.."
"It's fine I understand." I laugh, I get what they ment.
"Well. Unlike some of you guys, I'm in lessons on my own mostly. At least I have a great personality otherwise I'd feel pretty gutted that I was on my own." Tamara laughs. We all sit around for a while, eating and laughing.
I could really get used to this, I think we were all enjoying our new 'group' as Tamara and Lissa call it. Everything was going great.
"Lissa? Why aren't you sat with me?" Sadie snaps standing inbetween Lissa and Jenna.
"Because I'm sat with these guys." Lissa smiles.
"Well..why?" Sadie asks giving us all her 'what the f*ck are you looking at' look.
"Because they're my friends, plus you've been with the squad and seeing as I quit the squad, I didn't want to sit with them." Lissa explains.
"Well..come back to.." Sadie gets cut off by Tamara.
"You quit the squad? Sweet! I tried out once, but some b*tch said I wasn't good enough." She snaps looking at Sadie.
"Yeah, I didn't enjoy being on there so I didn't see why I should stay on there." Lissa replies.
"Well, f*ck you then. I'm embarrassed to even be stood by you." Sadie snarls out of jealousy before walking off. She's suddenly changed her mind about all of this now. When lunch is over we all head back to our classes and, unfortunately, Sadie's in my class. I over hear her saying something and it sounded like my name, and she raises her voice so I can hear her.
"Matty is clearly trying to ruin his reputation for dating her, he could of had someone so much more prettier. If they ever break up, I bet she'll commit suicide. Oh my god, when Lissa practically forced me to go and see them after the whole thing at Matty's party, you should of seen it, it almost looked like they were attempting to have sex. Just thinking about it is un-natural. And is he really that stupid to run back to her after what happened at Lissa's party?' she looks over at me before adding "It's degrading, you're welcome."
I try to ignore it but then people starting laughing.
"Fuck you, Sadie. You know nothing about Me and Jenna. Wait, are you jealous? Are you saying this bullshit because I rejected you like, how many times? Look Sadie, your not perfect, you can carry on thinking you are, but if I chose Jenna over you, you should know your not even close. Just keep your mouth shut and mind your own bussiness! You're welcome." I snap out of anger.
My outburst got a couple of laughs before the teacher tells us all to settle down. I look behind my shoulder and Ming has a huge smile on her face and she puts her thumbs up at me. I smile back and nod my head. Sometimes I actually think Sadie's got a little bit of humanity in her, but she lets her ego get the best of it. I focuse my attention on the teacher and get on with the rest of the day. When the end of the day finally comes, I grab my stuff from my locker and meet Jenna by hers.
"Got everything?" I ask.
"Yeah." She smiles, I'm glad she's ignoring everything. We say bye to everyone, and they all arange to meet up this evening at Lissa's, everyone liked hanging out at her place. We head for the truck.
"Want to come to mine after school before we go to Lissa's?" Jenna asks.
"Um..I can't. I'm going over to see ." I reply as I pull out of the school parking lot.
"Okay baby. That's great, I hope he's okay." She replies, putting her hand on my arm. She didn't even seemed the slightest bit pissed, I thought she wouldn't be happy that I was going to see him, but I realised she wasn't the selfish type who wouldn't let me. We pull up outside of her house.
"What time should I come get you?" I ask.
"6:30, is that okay?" She asks.
"Yeah, that's great." I smile. Pulling her in for a passionate kiss. After a while she pulls away, and giggles. She jumps out of the truck.
"I love you baby." She smiles.
"I love you, too." I smile back. I turn around and head for 's. When I pull up outside, my stomach fills with nerves. I haven't been here for a while, but it looks exactly the same. Jakes car's not outside, his dad was given the car when Jake was arrested, it must be in the garage. I stand there, staring at the house for a while, remembering all of the memories I've had. I finally plucker up the courage to walk up to the house and knock on the door. After waiting for a minute or so, the door finally opens.
"Mr Rosati. Hey." My hands are shaking at this point.
"Oh my, Matty! Come here!" He holds his arms out gesturing for a hug. I step up and hug him. "Come in!" He offers.
"Thanks." I smile. I head towards the front room with Mr Rosati following.
"How have you been?" He asks.
"A little better. You?" I return the question.
"Not too good, I'm just devostated." He replies, glumly.
"How is he? Is he getting any better?" I ask curiously.
"He's doing so much better now that he's on medication, he really is. He's realised he's done wrong, and if things go right be can be out of that place in 9 months earliest." He replies. "I'm sure that's not what you want to be hearing though.."
"Oh no, that's great. Do you think..that..maybe I could visit him? I know it sounds crazy but I need to see him.
It feels so weird not seeing him all the time, I forget about what happened and just think about all of the memories we have together, I miss him.."
"He's been asking to see you. I think he would love it, he really would. He's so sorry you don't understand how sorry he actually is.."
"Your sure? He won't freak if I see him? I'm glad he's sorry, I don't think I can forgive him, not for a while anyway,
it's not something you just forgive and forget, but I'd feel so much better knowing that he's doing better." I reply, trying not to sound rude, but out of honesty.
"Of course he wouldn't he'd love to see you. I wouldn't expect you too, he needs help and he's getting it, but the fact that you've came over here asking about me, and him, and you want to see him, is enough to prove that you are one of the only things he's had to depend on other these past few years."
Out conversation goes on, we catch up about other things like how im doing at school, how he is at work.
I miss not seeing Mr Rosati regularly, and without Jake I think he needs to company every now and then. After spending 2 hours there talking with him, I have to go home and see James before heading out over to Lissas.
I say good bye to him, and tell him I'll be over soon to sort our a time for me to visit Jake.
I finally feel like I have some weight lifted off of my shoulders, knowing that Jakes improving and Mr Rosati's okay.
'PLEASE REVIEW, I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW YOUR OPINIONS ON THE SITUATION WITH JAKE BEFORE I WRITE CHAPTER 12!'