My Life Would Suck Without You

Chapter 14

A few days later…

The days following the Fall Festival had been really great. Janessa had been spending more time with Chase and that had developed their friendship. Chase could often be seen at the Simms house studying or hanging out with Janessa. The rest of the group stayed away but they were nice to Chase when he was around for Janessa's sake. Today was one of those days; Chase had come over to work on some schoolwork with Janessa while Reid and Tyler hung out in the living room waiting for Pogue. They hadn't really seen much of Caleb lately and assumed it was because he was spending time with Sarah.

Janessa and Chase hung out in the kitchen flipping through their textbook. Chase shut the book close and sighed. Janessa chuckled before looking over at him, "Too many things going on in your mind?"

"I swear I don't know how you can just grasp all these different information from all the different classes. You'd have to be like a genius to be capable of doing that." Chase said as Janessa gave him a look.

"For your information, I'll take that as a compliment but I do happen to enjoy learning. Always been one of those things that I was into." Janessa told him.

"What do you hope to be then one day?" He asked leaning forward to look at her.

Janessa got up from her spot and walked over to the fridge. She wasn't exactly sure what she really wanted to do. All she really knew was that she had this idea of wanting to work in the medical field. That always interested her. It just had to be something where she was helping people. That's what she had always wanted to do. "To be honest, I'm not exactly sure. I know that I want to end up in the medical field." Janessa said as she grabbed a water bottle from the fridge, "Did you want something to drink?"

"Just water please." Chase said as Janessa pulled a second water bottle from the fridge, "Well whatever you choose to do, I'm sure you'll be amazing at it seeing as learning new materials comes to you rather quickly."

Janessa was just about to respond back when the doorbell rang. She could hear Tyler and Reid yelling for her to answer the door. Chase laughed as she rolled her eyes and headed towards the front door. Opening the door, Janessa was not expecting Caleb to be standing there. Caleb looked at her and said, "Hi."

"Hi, here to hang out with Ty and Reid?" She asked.

"Yeah Pogue told me that they were hanging out today." Caleb said.

"They're in the living room." Janessa said stepping out of the way, "TYLER, it's Caleb!"

Caleb stepped into the house and turned to look at the Simms house. It had been a while since he had been there. Still looked the same of course with the exception of a few new photos that he assumed Mrs. Simms added. There was a new photo of Tyler and Janessa from the Fall Festival. As he studied the changes in the house, Janessa shut the door before turning to look back at Caleb, "Make yourself at home." She made her way back to the kitchen while Caleb walked in the direction of the living room but glanced over to the kitchen to see what Janessa was up to. He noticed Chase sitting in one of the kitchen stools. Something inside of him was slowly beginning to upset him. It was starting to drive him angry that he was getting so worked up over nothing really. Janessa was definitely allowed to hang out with whomever she wanted.

Shaking his head, he walked closer to the living room where he found Reid and Tyler playing video games. Tyler looked up at him while Reid paused the game. They hadn't seen each other in so long or hung out as a group since the day that Caleb decided to spend more time with Sarah. It was a little weird for Tyler and Reid to see him since they were already accustomed to not spending time with him on a daily basis like they used to. Tyler got up from his spot and looked at Caleb before asking, "What are you doing here?"

"Pogue told me that you guys were hanging out today. I hope it was okay if I came over." Caleb said.

"Yeah dude you're always welcomed here." Tyler said as he and Caleb shook hands.

"Thanks, man. Look I wanted to apologize for the both of you for the way that I've been acting. I'm really sorry that I haven't been here for you guys." Caleb said as Reid stood up and walked over to him, "And I'm sorry about what happened at Nicky's."

"It's fine. Good to have you back." Reid said as they shook hands.

"Thanks." Caleb said as the guys are lounged around in the living room waiting for Pogue.

"Are you hungry, Caleb?" Tyler asked.

"I'm good." Caleb said.

"Alright if you're thirsty, you know where the kitchen is." Tyler said as he and Reid got back to their game.

Chase looked at the time on the microwave before he realized that he needed to leave. Looking at Janessa, he put the cap back on his water bottle before he said, "I should probably go now."

"Awe do you have to?" Janessa asked as Chase chuckled.

"I'll see you at school. Thanks for having me over." He said as he got up from his seat and headed for the front door.

"Yeah anytime." Janessa said opening the door for him and giving him a hug, "Catch up with you later!"

"See ya!" Chase said as he headed towards his car.

Janessa shut the door and decided to head up to her room. She was going to clean up her room and move some things around. She also had to do laundry. Going into her room, she turned her TV on and found one of her favorite TV show, Laguna Beach was on. Grabbing all her dirty clothes, she headed for the laundry room that was down the hall. Putting her clothes in the washer before heading back to catch up on her show. She never knew why she was so addicted to this show. It was just the drama and the romance that always seemed to capture her attention and this was definitely one of her guilty pleasures. Sitting on the floor, she started to pick up the things that she had thrown on the ground while watching.

Caleb had gone upstairs to see if Janessa was doing okay and to apologize to her for not being there for her when she needed him the most. He looked into her room to find her watching TV and cleaning up. He never understood why she was so into reality TV shows. But then again it always made her happy so that was a good thing really. Turning his attention away from her, he looked at her room. It had been so long since he had last seen her room. The one thing that he loved about her room was that it wasn't exactly a girly room at all. Sure she loved dressing up and wearing make up but at the same time she was into sports and doing guy things. Then again if he really thought about it that was probably the guys' fault for her being so into sports. Her walls were filled with tons of photos that had been organized neatly. Almost like she had done several different DIY projects. He shifted his eyes towards her vanity stand that was neatly organized just like her desk. That was Janessa for you. Out of their group, she was definitely the one you could count on to be organized about anything.

Knocking on the door, he watched as she looked up at him in shock. "Caleb." She said as she pushed the stuff she was cleaning up to the side, "What are you doing up here?"

"I just came to see if you were doing okay." He said looking at her as if he was asking for permission to come in, "Is it okay to come in?"

Janessa looked at her room trying to think of an excuse to get him out of her room. She wasn't really interested in talking to him right now or having to listen to him talk about his relationship with Sarah. That was the last thing that she wanted to hear. But if there was one thing Pogue would ask of her, it would be to hear Caleb out. She looked back at him and nodded her head as he gave her a smile making her blush. He walked into her room and took a seat beside her. "So I wanted to talk to you about something." He said not wanting to beat around the bush.

Janessa gave him a strange look before saying, "Okay?"

"I just wanted to apologize for not really being there for you. I know that I've always told you that I'll be here for you no matter what and the one time that you really needed me I wasn't there at all." Caleb said as Janessa shook her head.

"It's fine, Caleb. You've got enough on your plate and you're in a new relationship. There's no need to worry about me." She said as he shook his head this time.

"No, Nessie, what I did was wrong. I'm supposed to be there for you no matter what happens. You're one of the most important people in my life and I shouldn't have been so caught up in this relationship with Sarah." Caleb argued, "I'm really sorry for the way that I've been acting lately. I've been so focused on this relationship with Sarah that I've been pushing everyone I love away."

"As much as I appreciate your apology, I can't let you apologize for that. As much as I refused to speak to you about what was going on, I had to understand that you were living your own life. And you do have your own life, Caleb. I can't always ask you to make sacrifices for me. You deserve better then that." Janessa said as Caleb looked at her before his eyes caught the photo on her nightstand table.

It was a photo of him holding her close and kissing her head as she smiled and blushed.

Author's Note: So sorry for the late post! Work has been pretty busy but I'm beginning to find time to get back into the groove of writing. I'm a little iffy on this chapter and have a good feeling I'll probably go back and edit this. But I really like the ending of this chapter so I'm not too sure. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Thank you again everyone for the follow, favorites, and reviews! I really appreciate them!