A/N: I forgot to mention, the title of the first chapter is the title of a song by dEus, a Belgian band
Disclaimer: I'm just trying to write a story, I don't make any money out of it, so please, don't ask me any!

Chapter 2 – Californication

'I'm off!' yelled Jess. He took his coat from the hook. He already had the door knob in his hand when he heard someone yell. 'Stop! Wait a minute. I got something for you.' His boss, Mr. Wilson, came running after him. With all his fat, this wasn't easy for him. With a red head and slightly out of breath he handed Jess an envelope. 'To take your girl out this weekend' he winked. Jess took the envelope, gave him a half smile, nodded his head and said: 'See you on Monday. Have a nice weekend Mr. Wilson.' 'You too son, you too.' the old man said, with a bit of affection written all over his face. Jess went through the door and when he was outside, he turned en put up his hand. Mr. Wilson, standing behind the glass of his diner, put up his hand too. Over the years, Jess got attached to the old man. He was very reasonable, not that stupid and had had a lot of patience with him. He had nobody, was never married, had occasionally a girlfriend but it always went wrong, because the diner came first. Jess turned and walked away, into the sunlight.

While walking through the small streets that led to the shopping area where he was to meet his girl, Anna, he looked into the envelope. He knew what it was: his share of the tips they received plus some extra money when he had worked more or when he did something for Wilson. He did not do bad this week apparently. But he really wasn't going to spend it on Anna. She just wasn't worth that.

Anna was blond, thin, thought she knew something about fashion and her hobby was 'star spotting'. But she was fun, and that's all he wanted: no trouble, no difficult moms who protected her daughter like a tiger from all the bad in the world, no grandparents, no money, no college – just plain fun. He saw her leaning against the wall of a house, reading some girl magazine. Her hair was straight with some butterfly pins in it, she wore a jeans miniskirt, a pink T-shirt and pumps. From the moment she saw him, she started running in his direction. 'O help', Jess thought, this is so embarrassing'. 'Hi Jess!' she yelled, waving her hand, like he didn't see her already. She flew him around the neck, hugged him almost dead – if you wouldn't know any better they hadn't seen each other for months or years while it had been ten hours. Jess got himself out of her arms, took her hand and kissed her. She giggles when he stopped. O God, she was so immature. 'Guess who I saw today?' She looked at him with big brown eyes. They're actually pretty eyes, Jess thought, but the effect was ruined by her make-up: too much too often. 'Who?' he said. He didn't really care, but you can't argue with women, so he played along with her little game. 'Oh come on, Jess' she poked. 'What?' he said irritated 'I did ask you 'who' didn't I?' The look in his eyes darkened and he started walking, up the boulevard. She came running after him. 'It was James Travolta.' They talked while they walked, Jess with big, angry steps, she with quick, little steps, trying to keep up with him. Her high-heeled shoes didn't allow her to make very big steps. Jess stopped and turned to her: 'It's John Travolta, Anna, JOHN Travolta. Gosh, don't you know anything?' He started walking again, she keeps standing 'Hey! You don't have to be rude to me! I don't deserve that you know,' she yells after him. 'And I don't have to take it from you!' Jess stopped, turned around and said: 'Then don't! See ya.' With a little move from his right hand, he turned around, started walking and didn't look back. Somewhere after his back he heard her yelling: 'It's over jess! You know? I don't ever want to see you again.' Like he cared…

The sun started setting. He decided to take a walk on the beach to get home. Another failed relationship. It wasn't a real relationship of course. He only had one of those. 'No, don't go there!', he ordered his brain but like always when you desperately don't want to think about something, you can't get it out of your head. He reached the water line and he took off his socks and shoes. He started walking, letting footprints behind him in the wet sand. Rory… how much was she on his mind? More than he liked to admit, that's for sure. Thinking about her hurts him. The first girl he ever loved and ever cared for losing… and he lost her, due to his own doing. He still can't explain why he didn't tell her in the bus, why he couldn't explain it to her over the phone, why he didn't even wrote her a card. Maybe because it would have made things too real, maybe because he knew that he than had to make a decision, a decision he didn't want to take. A decision that was made for him by her when she was left no other choice. He always had had difficulty with saying goodbye's making things definite. He stood still and stared at the see and the glowing ball also known as the sun. 'I wish it ended differently,' Jess thought but then he corrected himself: actually he didn't want it to end at all. But what did he expect, really? A smart, beautiful girl, with deep blue eyes, which gave him the shivers and long dark hair that he used to curl around his finger – of course she wasn't going to wait for him. She deserved better than that. He knew that, she knew that, her mom, Luke, Lane, the whole freakin' town knew that. He knew that her hair was short now - or maybe it had grown already a little? He knew that because he had seen her last year, when his car was found back. He told her than he loved her. A difficult task since she kept running away from him, literally. He just thought she ought to know. She didn't response and he didn't really expect her to. He really couldn't expect her to wait for him when he left for the other end of the end of the country without even saying goodbye now could he? He sighed. And then when he asked her to go away over the summer she refused. He wondered if she should've refused if Dean wouldn't have been there to 'rescue' her. She seemed confused, he remembered but he gave it up a long time ago to read too much into that. He was pretty sure she didn't want him in her life anymore otherwise he would have heard. After all he did lay the ball at her side. He couldn't blame her though. He didn't exactly do it right, did he?
With sadness in his heart and the feeling there was a big hole in his stomach area he slowly walked home.

At home he didn't say much, but neither his father, Sasha or Lily cared since he never said much. After dinner he and Sasha did the dishes. She tried to have a conversation with him. 'Anna called today' she said. Her voice was careless but Jess knew better. She looked at him but he avoided her look and kept wiping. 'She sounded sad' she tried again. Jess didn't respond. 'Are you going to call her back?' 'Nope' he answered reluctantly. 'Why not?' her voice sounded disappointed. He kept silence. 'C'mon', she insisted, 'Why not?' 'Because she's stupid and not as much fun as I thought she would be'. He put away the last dishes and went to his room. He didn't want to talk about Anna and he hated how Sasha was trying to be all affective. Unfortunately he hadn't a room of his own, which became clear when Lily entered after her TV-show to do her homework. She put on some lame boys band, took some books and went to her desk. 'Lil, would you please turn that down? I'm trying to read.' 'You're always reading and I have to study. Some of us do their homework you know.' the girl answered brutally. Jess ignored the hidden message in her words. 'Fine!' Jess stepped out of his bed and decided to go for a run. He changed his clothes and put on his running shoes. Just as he smacked the door behind him, he heard Sasha call his name. 'Later!' he screamed and he started running. After a long exhausting run, his mind was finally clear. He hadn't felt this good in a long time. He did some stretches and walked home. When he got to the house everyone already went to bed. He entered and saw an envelope lying on the table with a note upon it. 'Jess, this came for you in the mail. I wanted it to give you before, but you just went of running. Sweet dreams. Sasha' It was unnecessary to look for the sender, he would recognise this handwriting anywhere. His heart skipped a beat and his stomach rotated inside. He went to the bathroom and threw some water over his face. His heart beat like an idiot. He undressed, brushed his teeth and took a last look in the mirror. A pale serious face looked back. He went back to the living room and took the letter. He noticed that his hands were shaking. He went to the room he shared with Lily, put on his reading light and nestled in his bed. He watched the envelope. There it was – a sign from her. Nervous, his heart beating in his throat, he opened the envelope. He took out the letter, which he caressed softly. He felt like he was doing something sacred. He took a deep breath and started reading.

A/N: The title of this chapter is from a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The song is called –surprise surprise- californication from the album, you'll never guess… californication!

Plus, I ha difficulty finding the right angle to write this but I really wanted it in the story. I hope it doesn't suck too bad…