Jessica Stanley, GOAT

Part II

Insensitive dude exhaled an exalted breath of relief upon Jessica opening her eyes. His warm breath tickled her face before he began to ramble. Which was normally what Jessica did. Some people liked to characterize her as a chatter box. She more identified with someone who was not a fan of silence after being an only child. The more sound the better. Usually. Except on this rare occasion where silence and a bit of shut eye would do her head wonders. But she conceded to keep her eyes open for this...incredibly good-looking dude. Were her eyes deceiving her in her delirium post-car crash state of mind? Huge maybe. But for now, she could enjoy the view as long as the guy's voice stayed an octave below a hushed whisper.

Her inept attention span somehow managed to remain engrossed on the soothing sound of his voice. His words were incoherent. Perhaps nonsensical at this point. But the gibberish was kind of A-okay in his low, timber voice. Insensitive dude was turning around in her book.

Once words started to mush together, she knew her mind was tapping out. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't remain conscious no matter how much he begged this next time. She was mentally wiped out. Her eyes shut and this time he didn't shake her. It was like he understood this time her need to fade into the bleak part of her mind. He was granting her permission.

Or so she thought. Finally, some words out of his big mouth made sense. "We're here, sweetheart." A soft pressure grazed the top of her head and an irate vigor whipped Jessica's subconscious into a mood. How dare this thug call her sweetheart and perhaps kiss her head in an affectionate matter? Bleh. She was with it enough to give him a piece of her mind. Her eyes popped open with an urgent matter to address. At this same moment, her body was being lowered into a couch chair and she by some miracle recognized Dr. Cullen bending over to her eye level. Her eyes did a quick scan of the room as she found herself with it for the first time since the accident occurred.

"I'm a little confused," Jessica mumbled to Dr. Cullen as he blinded her with a flashlight. It was a pleasant curtesy statement masking her absolute rage that her rescuers brought her to the home of Dr. Cullen versus, you know, a fricken hospital. Like, what the heck?

"Can you follow this light, Jessica?"

"My head hurts," she moaned while poorly attempting to follow the light that Dr. Cullen flitted around in different directions at too fast of a pace.

"Yes, I can see the exterior damage." Jessica found it strange the cool, calm and collected Dr. Cullen sounded irritated. She presumed he wasn't fond of her not being in a hospital either at the moment.

"I can't do much for her here. It's good she is coherent at the moment, but a CT scan needs to her performed. We have to assess internal damage before addressing the external damage."

Someone was whining behind her. Like a little puppy. She had a puppy once. Fido, a chocolate lab. Fido ran away after she only had him for a month. She was only five then. She has been a cat person ever since.

"Seth, I can't do anything more for her here. I will meet you at the hospital. I will get stuff prepped for her arrival." Seth seemed like an old school name to Jessica. She didn't know any boys named Seth. She heard about one from La Push. From Bella. Ugh, Jessica's headache would only grow more severe if Bella Swan crossed her thoughts. Jessica's wave of irritation simmered and her driving force to remain awake was diminished. With nothing left holding her in the present moment, she succumbed to the darkness.

...

Jessica had some weird ass dreams while laid up in the hospital in recovery. Some she couldn't tell if they were real life events her memory distorted or if they were all just odd dreams. Like right now. Was what she was hearing outside of her hospital room door real or a dream?

"I want to see her. But it will be weird, right? Super weird. It's out of the blue. I need an in. Can we call Bella? When are her and Edward back? Bella knows her. She can help!" The rambling voice outside of her hospital door sounded oddly familiar. Why did it sound familiar to her? Jessica's brain did some recon of her most recent memories.

Her heart rate sped up while she recalled dreamy, insensitive rescue dude. What the actual fresh hell? She couldn't understand why he was here or wanted to see her. Creeper much?

"Shit, man. She's awake."

Jessica clenched her eye lids shut further to insist she was sleeping and not awake. How could they know? She said nothing! She was just lying in bed like freakin sleeping beauty with nowhere to go.

"Go in. You got this." Jessica resisted gagging from this blind faith encouragement. She would squash it like a bug.

Then...she recalled this dude saved her, so she could be kind. Another small tweak. This would be good practice for her. She could act grateful. Because she was. She could show it. Easy enough. Swallow her pride. Show maturity. And remember kindness exists besides the bad example she was given from the slow and tumultuous fallout of her parent's marriage over the years. She had this in the bag.

When the door clicked open, Jessica opened her eyes. Her eyes devoured the hunk in front of her. He was much better looking than when her vision was not fogged up from a concussion. So yeah, being kind wouldn't be that hard when he was easy on the eyes. And he did look a bit bright eyed and bushy tailed? Something along those Bambi-like lines. Now the real question was, what the hell did he want. She couldn't just ask that, right?

"Hi, Jessica. I'm Seth Clearwater." He radiated a calming, positive aura. Despite this, his voice trembled like she was a predator on the prowl. He seemed nervous. She either wasn't putting all that practice to use to soften her resting bitch face or she looked like a train wreck. Most likely both. It had been hours since she last looked in her room's bathroom mirror, but she saw the damage done. She didn't look like the beauty queen she was used to seeing in the mirror. They shaved a nice chunk of hair off the left side of her head to remove the glass and stitch up her head wound. Feeling self-conscious, Jessica wished she practiced her clever combover idea she came up with later after her bathroom assessment. Too late now. Seth would have to see her at face value. Her exterior for once reflected the internal mess. But she was working on healing it up too.

"Hi. I remember you," Jessica rasped. Her vocal cords didn't seem to work like she remembered before the accident. They were dusty. Scraggly. She regretted not taking the ice chips offered to her when the last nurse came in to check on her. Well, tough shit. She would have to persist on. "Thanks for saving me. You saved my life." Was she supposed to say more? Jessica never had to say a "thank you" to this extreme degree before.

Seth shuffled forward to her bedside. Jessica resisted from arching her eyebrows in curiosity. She wasn't sure if that was rude or not. But she wasn't sure what more she was supposed to say. She presumed she was in need of a deeper, heartfelt thank you to get her message across. Before she could blunder her continued praise towards Seth, Seth saved her.

"I am glad we found you in time. It was a horrific scene. You're okay now. That's all that matters." Seth sat in the chair by her bedside and this time Jessica couldn't stop her eyebrows in time. They raised nearly to her hairline over Seth's actions. He wasn't leaving anytime soon. Now she was trying to figure out what was she supposed to do now. How much longer was she in need of being nice Jessica thanking a stranger and having to carry on a pointless conversation?

"Crap. This isn't going how I wanted it too. Can I start over?"

Unsure of what the hell he was talking about, Jessica remembered she was playing nice. "Sure," she responded in good nature. No hesitation. Seth smiled at Jessica and she felt any negative thought in the present moment be choked out of her. Like she just looked into a positive ball of light that promised happiness. It was weird as hell. But she didn't mind it. Her mind was now in favor of her verbal answer.

"Hi, I'm Seth. I'm happy you're doing better. How are you feeling?"

"I've been better," Jessica laughed. Seth was interesting. His redo was not much different, but his confidence was there. Why did she laugh? Jessica wasn't a giddy person. Or someone to be cheerful so soon after what just happened. It's like his smile just blinded her to whatever shit was going on around her. Focused just on Seth, a sense of security enveloped her, and she didn't hate it.

"Where were you driving from?"

"School. We're on spring break. Thought I would spend some time with my parents." Jessica omitted specifying she had to split her stay between two houses because that was too much information to share with a stranger.

"Nice. I'm on spring break too. Any big plans?" It was a casual question that was brimming with hidden meaning.

"Nada. My big plans were canceled which forced me to be here. And fate handed me this fun kick-off to the break."

"Fate can be weird. But things happen for a reason, right?" Jessica shot a peculiar look to Seth before reviewing her current accommodations to non-verbally disagree with him.

"Fair point. But you got to meet me. And I can offer you some fun plans for your break." Seth's wide smile disarmed Jessica. Where did this ever-increasing confidence come from?

"Um, I don't know about that..."

"What do you have to lose?"

"Another chunk of my hair?" Seth's brown eyes glimmered, and Jessica slunk back in the pillow on her bed.

"Not if you stick with me." His optimism was endearing. He was cute, sweet and funny. A lethal combo. Jessica was going to have to resist.

"Thanks for the offer. You'd waste it on me. I am sure there are plenty of other girls who you can take."

"Why would I waste it on you?" His curiosity should have bristled Jessica. Her walls should have forged. She was doing the right thing. She was being kind. Sparing Seth from her black (but in recovery) heart. She was just beginning to tweak it. Baby steps. And this hunk was not capable of being just a baby step or allotting her small tweaks. Maybe after several more tweaks she would deserve someone of this caliber.

"How would you describe yourself, Seth? Or better yet, how do others describe you?"

A blush crept on his cheeks as Jessica took in his bashful appearance to only further drive her appreciation at this sign of her maturity.

"You're humble. You can't bring yourself to call out all the great things other see in you and you recognize in yourself." Seth shrugged his shoulders as Jessica answered for him. Further confirming she had pegged him correctly.

"If I was asked that same question, this is what I would say. Me? Jessica Stanley, greatest of all time. Others? Standoffish. Chatterbox. Cold. Snarky. Unapologetic. No loyalty. Immature. To put it plainly, I'm a hot mess in need of a lot of self-love and work. And I am working on it. Small tweaks here and there. Like me admitting to you that you should steer clear of me." Jessica began to giggle because the truth was so freeing. Being said out loud to another human also showed her progress. She wasn't a lost cause. She always knew that. She just put off needing to grow up for way too long.

"I like a challenge." Jessica's heart thumped wildly against her chest. Did she mishear Seth right? Did she need some q-tips? Maybe the nurse was wrong, and they hadn't cleaned out all the blood the pooled into her left ear from the accident.

"I had nothing good to say about myself. Nothing. I am not a challenge. I fix myself."

"Oh, I know that. But that doesn't mean I can't be there while you do it. I like a redemption arc for someone."

"What's the challenge then?"

"Making you see more in yourself than you do right now. I like what I see." Jessica swallowed. Who the hell was this guy and why was she kinda okay that he wouldn't give up so easily?

"We're seeing the same Jessica, right? I look like shit."

"I think you look beautiful."

"My god you must have low standards."

"Nope." Seth popped the "p" and offered Jessica a cheeky grin.

"I will be cleared tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night pick me up at 8. You'll see why I am right and you're wrong."

"Excellent. Bye, Jessica. Rest up. I got some big plans for tomorrow night." Jessica rolled her eyes before waving Seth off.

What the hell did she just agree too? And why did he take off before asking her directions to her house?

Sneak preview for Part III:

"Oh, shoot!" Jessica muttered when she turned her wrist (with no watch on it) towards her face. "Look at the time, gotta jet. Great catching up though. See you two around campus? Enjoy the break!" Jessica turned around and sped walked back to her car. She just had a bad feeling. Which was confirmed when Bella's secret lover (no- Jessica could admit he was probably just an ex) cut off her path when she was oh so close to making it to her car.

Author's Note:

Frick this is fun to write. Part III is already written- just in need of editing/a dash mas humor. When an idea just sparks and flows and it is fun to write...ugh it's just a joy to type. I am not sure how many parts this will be. I had written an outline but I kinda like these small, quick to the point chapters. Easier to edit and write. And fun. Because I write for fun. So, if you read and enjoyed reading it as much as I did (and maybe had a chuckle or too) I am happy. Because we all need more humor in this world :D. And canon Jessica needs a redemption arc for her GOAT self. – Lalaland972