Another Chapter! Please comment, sorry for the delays.
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Jessie sat on a couch, pretending to read Gone With The Wind for the countless time. Hadji sat on the same couch, sitting a little closer than Jessie would have liked. She mindlessly turned a page, her eyes never leaving the book. When the phone rang, she dropped the book and answered.
"Hello."
"Jessie? It's me."
"Alexis! How are you?" Jessie's face lit up at the sound of her high school friend's voice.
"I'm great, how are you?"
"All right." Jessie answered vaguely as Hadji's knee brushed against her own.
"How's Jonny?"
"Jonny's..." Jessie paused for a moment, "fine."
"Actually, what are you two doing tonight?"
"Me and Jonny? Tonight. I'm free, I'll go check with him, why?"
"Mike and I want to take you two out." Alexis giggled.
"Sounds fun, I'll go check with Jonny. Hold on a sec." Jessie pushed the hold button and ran upstairs to Jonny's room. Lightly, she knocked on the door.
"I'm sleeping." Jonny called out. Jessie rolled her eyes and walked in. Jonny was sitting on his bed again, still only wearing his boxers.
"Any plans for tonight?" Jessie asked, sitting next to him.
"Yeah Jess, I thought I'd hang out with my two best friends in the world." Jonny sarcastically said, rolling his eyes.
"How's dinner with Mike and Lex sound?"
"You gonna be there?"
"No Jonny, they just want to see you." Jessie answered, using the same sarcasm as Jonny. He narrowed his eyes at her.
"I'll do it, but because I miss Mike, not to be near you."
"Yeah, whatever Quest. Be ready at seven, dress nice." She walked away, her hair flying behind her. She sat back on the couch and felt Hadji squeeze her knee. Instead of acknowledging that, she turned to the phone.
"Lex, he's game."
"Great, there's a new Italian restaurant near the mall, I'll get us a reservation for seven thirty."
"See you then." Jessie promised. They talked a little more before hanging up the phone. Jessie picked up Gone With the Wind and started to pretend to read again. The words blurred before her, as her mind wandered. Things had once again gone drastically wrong between her and Jonny. And as much as she regretted what had happened, a small part of her didn't. She looked up and gave Hadji a small smile.
"Thanks Hadji, for always being there for me."
"That is what I am here for Jessie," Hadji lightly kissed her cheek, "that is what I am here for." Jessie rested into Hadji's arms as she pulled the book back out. She felt safe with him, safe with his arm around her. She was being torn in two directions, her heart was being torn in two different directions and she had no clue how to change that.
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Jessie knocked on Jonny's door at six and was amazed when he actually answered, wearing a tee shirt and jeans. His eyes were still bleary and his hair was still an unruly mess, but it was a start.
"I'll be ready, you don't have to baby me."
"I just wanted to be sure Jonny."
"Get ready yourself Jess, go curl your hair or something."
"I'm not going to curl my hair, I imagine the blond will be shock enough for them."
"You know what would really shock 'em?" Jonny pulled Jessie close to him with her arm.
"What?" Jessie asked, her heart racing. Jonny pulled her closer, until their lips were nearly touching, his eyes gazed into hers, then just as suddenly, he pushed her away.
"You know they were always waiting for us to get together."
"Yeah, so?" Jessie tossed her hair before turning around, her heart racing as she took a few breaths, attempting to regain her composure. Jonny laughed bitterly to himself and shut his door. Slowly, he started to sort through his clothes, piles of rejected outfits growing with every glance.
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As their clock chimed seven, Jonny knocked on Jessie's bedroom door.
"I'll be out in a second." Jessie called as she carefully brushed mascara onto her long eyelashes. She gave herself a final glance before heading towards her door. She opened the door and smiled at Jonny. His hair, though combed, still slightly fell in his eyes, giving him a sexy, rumbled look. His five o'clock shadow was gone, replaced by smooth skin that Jessie had an urge to lightly kiss. He wore a light blue button down silk shirt that Jessie recognized with tan colored dress pants. He was holding a tan sport coat over his shoulder and his face sported a "devil may care" look.
"You look great." Jessie told him, momentarily hating him for it. Jonny nodded, giving her a look over. Jessie wore a sleeveless dark blue silk dress that emphasized her bust line and had a loose skirt that stopped a few inches above her knees. Her strawberry blonde hair was held back with a silver clip with only the palest blond strands still around her face, and she wore basic diamond studs in her ears. The only touches of make up that Jonny could see on her were the mocha lipstick she had taken to wearing and a thin line of navy eyeliner, with a touch of mascara.
"You don't look so bad yourself." Jonny graced her with a small smile.
"You feel like driving?" Jessie asked as walked downstairs.
"Sure, haven't driven in months." Jonny grabbed his keys as they headed out the door.
"Bye dad, bye Hadji, bye Dr. Quest." Jessie called out as the door shut behind her.
"The Porsche or the Jag?" Jonny asked as they walked to his cars.
"Let's go for the Porsche," Jessie suggested, "the midnight blue matches my dress."
"Slammin' let's go!" Jonny's face broke out in a grin as he ran to the car. Jessie laughed to herself and followed him, the smile never leaving her face. For just a few minutes, it was as though the past year had never happened.
They arrived at the restaurant quickly, then walked in, arms linked. Jessie checked her watch, a delicate white gold creation.
"We're early." She announced, as Jonny's hand suddenly wrapped around her own, their fingers intertwining. Jessie smiled slightly as they walked to check on their reservation.
"What name's it under?" Jonny asked Jessie.
"I don't know, try Dawson." She answered, using Mike's last name.
"Good idea," Jonny nodded, "excuse me, do you have a reservation for four under the name Dawson?"
"No sir." The waiter said, glaring at Jonny. Jessie snickered to herself before looking at the waiter, her emerald eyes shining.
"Excuse me sir," Jessie said in perfect Italian, "but my friend and I are supposed to meet friends here, but we are unsure of what name the reservation is under.".
"You speak Italian well, are you from there?"
"No," Jessie shook her head with a polite smile, "but I have visited there many times."
"What is your name?" The waiter asked, kissing Jessie's hand. She could see Jonny scowling out of the corner of her eyes.
"My name is Jessica Bannon," she told him, holding back a smirk, "and this is Jonathan Quest."
"Quest, of course," he smiled, then switched to English, "follow me."
"Thank you." Jessie smiled, as the waiter pulled out a chair for her. Jonny sat across from her and gazed into her eyes, enthralled by the way the candle's flame played with the color.
"So Jess, I know I'm trilingual, what exactly are you?" Jonny laughed, still watching the flame in her eyes.
"You're more than trilingual Jonny."
"I can say things in other languages, but I can only speak English, Spanish and French fluently." He argued.
"I'm not fluent in everything," she smiled, "just English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian and Japanese."
"And Latin." Jonny added with a smirk.
"Hey, I am hardly fluent in Latin!"
"Better than me."
"You trying to start an argument Quest?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Aren't I always?" He answered with a grin. He was now enjoying how the candle flame danced in her sparkling diamond earrings.
"Yes." She admitted, taking a sip of water.
"Hey guys." Alexis said as the waiter pulled out her chair.
"Hey," Mike smiled, "we put the reservations under your name Jonny, we figured Quest had the most pull."
"Good idea, how ya doing man?" Jonny grinned at him.
"Very good," he gave Alexis a sideways glance, "I'm doing very very good."
"Very well." Jonny muttered. Jessie nearly dropped her glass and held in laughter.
"When did you become so concerned with grammar?" Alexis asked with a smile.
"I blame Jessie." Jonny insisted. The four laughed as Jessie breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't want Jonny to think about Hadji, not tonight. She didn't particularly want to think about Hadji either, but that seemed to be inevitable.
"Jessie? Hey Jess." Alexis said. Jessie turned to her and smiled.
"Yeah?"
"Whatcha thinking about?"
"Life." She said vaguely. Jonny looked at her and bit his lip. He could only imagine what or who she was thinking about.
"We wanted to tell you two something." Mike said suddenly. Alexis grinned.
"What's up?" Jonny asked. Jessie looked up curiously.
"Well, do you want to tell them or should I?" Mike looked at Alexis.
"You can." Alexis smiled.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
"Ok," Mike looked at Jonny and Jessie, "we're engaged."
"What?" Jonny gasped. Jessie nearly dropped the water glass that she was holding.
"We're engaged." Alexis repeated with a grin.
"Oh my god," Jessie said, "congratulations."
"That's great." Jonny added.
"When did it happen?" Jessie asked.
"Last week." Alexis' grin grew larger.
"That's amazing." Jonny said.
"And it works with the bet we made at the winter dance." Mike winked.
"The bet?" Both Jonny and Jessie shared a confused look.
"We bet that we'd be engaged before you two finally got together," Mike told them, "unless of course there's something you'd like to tell us."
"Nothing." Jessie said quickly.
"Not a thing." Jonny said just as quickly.
"Really?" Alexis and Mike exchanged a look.
"Really," Jonny insisted, "Jess has someone else right now."
"No I don't!" Jessie insisted.
"Who is he?" Alexis asked.
"No one!"
"Hadji." Jonny answered with a smirk.
"Hadji?" Alexis asked with wide eyes.
"That's Jonny's idea of humor." Jessie smiled, kicking Jonny lightly.
"Yeah, it's just my idea of humor." Jonny said wryly. Jessie breathed a sigh of relief. She needed to handle the Jonny/Hadji triangle, but now certainly wasn't the time.
"Good, because you two belong together." Alexis said as the waiter walked up.
"Do we?" Jonny asked as Alexis and Mike both ordered soda.
"Yep." Mike grinned, as Jonny ordered his drink.
"A glass of red wine please." Jessie smiled innocently at the waiter.
Alexis and Mike opened their eyes wide and Jonny snickered. The waiter looked her over before nodding and walking away.
"What if he had carded you?" Mike asked.
"I've got a fake id. Jonny does too." Jessie shrugged.
"We did it when we were younger, we wanted to be eighteen." Jonny added.
"It's no big deal." Jessie said, taking a sip of water. Alexis and Mike exchanged a glance, it was obvious that Jessie and Jonny had changed immensely in the past few months. But one thing, as always, was obvious: they belonged together. They just needed to stop being so stubborn.