Title- The Return of Jess
Chapter Title- Silence
Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders
I saw Steve walking down the street.
"I figured you'd be inside," he said when he almost tripped over me. I didn't say anything.
"Dad said quite a few nice things about you. The name Jessica has a few nice cusses after it now. If Denise wasn't there, you'd be dead." I got up. I walked inside and straight to the kitchen. I was hungry; dad's spaghetti wasn't very good looking. The noodles were slightly undercooked and the sauce was watery. I've said it before, I don't eat a lot. I won't unless I'm really hungry, and for some reason I was. Dad's food just looked, I can't even describe it. I pulled out some chocolate cake and got a glass of milk. I started to look for the forks.
"Throw me a beer," Steve ordered and I lightly threw him a beer. I don't see why he drank. Didn't he see what the crap did to dad? He caught it and I continued my search for the forks. I found one and ate the cake. I carefully put the stuff in the sink and sat down on the floor leaning against the couch.
"Don't even say hi to us anymore?" Two-Bit asked. I didn't even look at him. I was in a bad mood. How could he lie to her? I had been lied to before but it never hurt. It was about my mom, I guess that was different. When I was really mad like this, I just didn't talk. I shut my mouth and unless something really important happened, I wouldn't say anything. I could shut off my other emotions so not even the funniest things could make me laugh, or the saddest things couldn't even make my cry.
"Are you okay?"
"She's mad at the ol' man, he lied about her to the therapist," Steve said, "I guess she shuts her trap when she's mad."
"I'm gonna get her to talk or make noise." So now this was turning into a game? 'Well, yeah, right, not even you, Soda, can do that,' I thought. I was really mad and stubborn. Soda left and I didn't even know where he went until he jumped over the back of the couch and tickled my sides. I couldn't even laugh, I was so mad. I told you my emotions shut down and I'm in a dream world or something. For some reason, I wanted to laugh but all I could do was tighten my arms to my sides and pull away from him.
"Wanna go out with me tomorrow?" I thought about it, I didn't have anything to do. I nodded.
"So, what do you wanna do?" I shrugged. He wasn't going to get me to talk. Couldn't they tell?
"She could challenge Ponyboy to a silence competition. Would ya do that?" I rolled my eyes. No matter how hard they tried, I wasn't talking. I was stubborn. Suddenly, somebody grabbed my hand and pulled me outside. I looked at the person, it was Soda.
"Jessica," he started. Did he call me Jessica? Normally he called me Jess or Jessi; I was used to those from him. He sounded serious. I was really scared, an emotion, I never could turn scared off. Being scared was serious. This was serious.
"Jessica, I love you." I was really surprised. My stomach did a flip.
"I love you too, but don't tell them I talked." He grinned and I hugged him.
"Maybe I should," he said. He hugged me back and we started to make-out. We stopped because somebody started to clear their throat. I jumped and almost let out a gasp. I felt relieved when I saw Steve. I didn't know how Ponyboy would enjoy this, and Two-Bit would make some stupid jokes.
"Jess, we gotta go. Our old man said no later than 11 an' this is cuttin' it close." I nodded. I still wasn't talking to anybody.
"I can give ya'll a ride," Soda said and ran inside to get the keys. He came back and hopped into the driver's side. I climbed into the truck followed by Steve. Soda drove us quickly home and Steve hopped out of the car and headed for the door. Soda gave me a kiss on the cheek.
"Bye Jessi," he said.
"Bye Soda," I told him and walked into the house. My dad got up when he saw me.
"I see you've brought back your ungrateful sister," he said to Steve and then turned to me, "I'm not in the mood to yell at you tonight, just go to bed." He sounded pretty calm. I went into the bedroom and laid down on the bed. The phone rang.
"Jess, I know you ain't talkin' so I'm just gonna tell ya that some girl named Anna called. I told her you were in the shower and ya couldn't talk." Crap, I wanted to talk to her, even though I wasn't talking to people. I needed to find out what happened. I'm just like that you know, a little hypocritical. It wasn't a weekend, so she wasn't at her Uncle's house. I didn't know where she really lived. I'd have to find out.
"Are you gonna talk today?" Steve asked as he woke me up. I looked at the time, 6:30, and figures. He has to go to school so he makes sure I'm awake first. I rolled over onto my stomach and pulled the pillow over my head. I didn't hear much of what he said.
"…left for work already… don't be too late… bye." I rolled out of bed after hearing the front door slam and looked in the kitchen. I half expected to see my dad and I got ready for him to yell at me. 'Stupid,' I thought, 'dad left already.'
I made myself breakfast. The house had fresh food! That was amazing. I watched some stupid shows on television and decided to head to work.