Jessica Stanley, GOAT

Part III

The first part of the break, Jessica was staying with her dad and his new girlfriend Vicky who was 15 years younger than him. Gross. Jessica wasn't a fan but remembered if he was happy, she had to try to be happy for him. God, she sounded like fricken Bella Swan. Ugh.

Per usual, he was going to be working most of the time she was around. Being a lawyer was demanding but she felt he could have given his only daughter some time while home over the break. Whatever. She was going to kill time by browsing some local shops and look for a cute hat to mask her bald spot.

During this time, of course she would run into one of her exes. Mike Newton. The real kicker was who his arm was around when they came across each other. Lauren. How typical. Jessica normally would have cut to the chase and started a war with words and dug them their social graves...Jessica considered this another opportunity to tweak herself. Rise above. Because maybe that in the end would irk them the most. The fact she wasn't bothered by it at all. And that ladies and gents, made Jessica Stanley extremely happy.

"Mike, Lauren! So happy to see you both. And together? That's so sweet. I always thought you would make a perfect pair together." Jessica beamed at the two as shock was written over each of their faces. Mike shut his gaping mouth first. Lauren followed suit when Mike began his reply.

"Woah, uh, Jess. It's good to see you're doing okay. We heard about the accident." Mike was speaking through his shock and Jessica resisted applauding him for it. She also was thankful she had found a baseball cap at this point to cover the damage done by the accident.

"It was a doozy, but I managed to pull through. You know me." Awkward laughs all around. Jessica loved it. She was also aware she didn't need to subject herself to this betrayal even further. Before she could bow out...holy shnikes were her eyes imagining things?! Off in the distance was she seeing that La Push kid who chased after Bella, interrupted their wedding AND still hung around their family? Forks was way too small sometimes. Case in point.

"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 rental 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.

Her eyes locked onto his face. He was pissed. Rage exuded from his furrowed brow, deep frown and vein popping neck. Good lord what was his problem?

"Can I help you?" Sarcasm dripped from her words and Jessica didn't regret it because this dude wasn't being friendly, so why did he deserve one of her personality tweak moments? She wasn't Oprah. She wasn't giving them out for free to every and any one.

"Why you?" His malicious tone was all too familiar to Jessica. She used that more times in her life than she cared to admit.

"Why me what? Look, I don't even know you. Of you? Sure. Officially? No. We've never had a proper introduction, so I don't know what your problem is." Her words were nothing but truthful. He knew this but still didn't release his angry vibe.

"He deserves so much better. You're a terrible person."

Jessica cackled at his audacity. "Says the terrible person confronting a stranger who he knows nothing about. I don't even know who you're talking about."

"I know enough," he bit out through gritted teeth.

"I am sure you think you do. Look, I don't know what your problem is. But you need to work on your anger and not take it out on other people. Step aside, I am going home because my head hurts." Jessica hated to admit it, but she was being nicer than he deserved. No, it wasn't a personality tweak. It was a small step of an apology to Bella by treating her ex-lover with kindness because...well she didn't really know why. And Jessica's head was really starting to hurt. The slight drumming escalated to the pounding of a snare drum line at a college football game from the time she saw Lauren and Mike to now.

He grabbed her wrist and halted her from opening the door. Now pissed Jessica was ready to take over and ground this douche bag into dust.

"Jake, please remove your hand from Jessica. Or I will force you too." The strained, but pleasant-sounding voice Jessica recognized before she turned around.

"Seth," both Jessica and Jake said in unison. Jake let go of Jessica and took a few healthy steps back, reinstating her personal bubble of comfortable space. Jessica's mouth twitched between a smirk and a frown as she pictured Seth popping out of nowhere like a shark smelling blood in the water.

"Jake, we can talk about this later. Please leave me alone with Jessica right now. Happy to see you're back from vacation." Seth's face masked a stern expression that bordered into erupting into something unfitting for him, or so Jessica thought. Jake took off and now all of Seth's focus was on Jessica. Her breath caught in her chest. She felt like she couldn't breathe.

"Hey, are you okay? I'm sorry about-"

Seth's earnest start to his apology encouraged Jessica's lungs to work again. She wouldn't put up with this crap. Not even for Seth.

"No. Look, Seth, that was good timing. A great sign. I don't do this drama bullcrap anymore or whatever that was. I can now assume Jake was talking about you? Even your "friends" don't like me. And you know what I don't like? Being treated like that by someone who doesn't even know me. This is not worth it. You seem sweet, find yourself a sweet girl." Jessica opened her door and was proud of her ability to stick up for herself. Even despite the crushing feeling she had in rejecting him. But it was all about Jessica right now. And her head was crippling her. She hoped she could make it home. A knock on her driver's side window pulled her from her thoughts.

Against better judgement, Jessica rolled down the window to let Seth say what he needed before she closed this short chapter (perhaps just a page or two?) in her life involving him.

"You look like you're in pain." He wasn't wrong, so Jessica nodded her head in affirmation. "Can I drive you home?" Jessica bit her lip while resisting the idea of needing to be saved. In normal circumstances, she would have found the willpower to pull through. Right now, she would do what was best and allow Seth to drive her home to make sure she was safe and sound.

Jessica closed her eyes after scooting over to the passenger's side seat. When she opened them next, she found herself in Seth's arms as he fumbled with her car keys to discover the house key.

"It's always open." Seth looked down at her and smiled before confirming her declaration.

She lightly whispered the directions to her room as he carried her up to her bedroom. Her mind blurred but she recalled Seth pulling back sheets before settling her into the bed and then tucking her in tightly.

"Jakes wrong. And a dick. I'll talk to him about how uncool what he did was. And he will apologize for it. After that, I hope you'll give me a chance. I heard what you said to him. And you weren't wrong. What he said would have made anyone angry but you didn't rise to his level after he goaded you. Remember that, because I do. I'll be in touch soon, Jessica. Feel better." Jessica felt the light touch of a warm hand on her head, sweeping back her thick hair before the presence was gone and so were the echoing footsteps. She fell asleep wondering if the present pain she was feeling was drawing source from her head or for some odd, unknown reason her heart.

Jessica dreamed about the grinch. And it was March. But, she understood it. The grinch went through a transformation where his heart grew three or five or something like that times bigger by the end of that classic Christmas story. Jessica's heart wasn't growing in her dream. Not thawing either. It was turning inside out. Like turning over a new leaf to welcome this self-imposed change. She was the GOAT after all. It was all attributed to her. Not some stupid, hot, cheery positive attitude boy who was too nice for this world. Just her. And as she dreamed, she smiled in her slumber because this was a welcomed change in Jessica Stanley.

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed if you read it! – Lalaland972