*James*
Shit. James thought to himself as he saw Jessica walk over to where he was having lunch with his friends. The guys didn't know but James was so nervous about asking Jessica out and he didn't know why, when he asked other girls out it was always easy. But to be fair he didn't like the other girls as much as he liked Jessica…there was just something about her.
"Hey" She said more confident than she was yesterday.
"Hey Jessica" James hugged her and she hugged back. She seemed much more friendlier than yesterday. He quickly brushed the thought off and sat back down with her next to him.
"Guys, this is Jessica. The girl I was with at Jacob's party." He said introducing her to his friends.
"You can call me Jess, most people do anyway." She said smiling. God she had a beautiful smile, he kept thinking.
She got the usual friendly greetings from everyone, as they continued to eat and talk amongst each other. James turned to Jessica and smiled.
"Sorry about yesterday. I know I came on a bit too strong but I didn't really know what to say and it's just that…" He was so nervous and he battled to get the next words out his mouth. "…I really, kinda like you." He finally said. She blushed and smiled up at him. Had this actually worked for him? He waited for her reply anxiously.
"Well it just so happens that I really, kinda like you too" She said smiling, that signature smile that James melted over. Their eyes met briefly until James moved his gaze down to her hand and held onto it softly.
"I've been stressing about this all day, but do you want to go and see a movie tomorrow night?" James said with hope showing in his voice.
Her smiled beamed as she nodded her head in agreement before embracing him in a warm hug. James was pretty proud of himself – even though he had asked girls out plenty of times before. He was excited for their date, and so glad that she had agreed to it. She was beautiful and he just really wanted to get to know her because he could feel that they could really go somewhere.
They were both brought out of their fairy tale daydream by Carlos' peppy voice.
"I've gotta go to the library any of you guys want to come?" He asked the group, smiling.
There were a few nods by Kendall and Logan, so James was left with Rose and Jessica. They talked briefly, nothing important – just small talk here and there. James suddenly realized something.
"Hold on. How do you guys know each other?" Pointing back and forth between Rose and Jessica, confused. They both laughed a bit awkwardly and looked at each other for a brief moment.
"Oh, we've known each other for a couple of years now. Just extra-curricular things." Jessica smiled. Rose gave a smile too, except hers was a bit more awkward.
"Alright then" James said skeptically but not enough to show through his speech.
"I should be going, I have Ms. Berzelius for Science next and she will slaughter me if I'm late. Bye guys" Rose said as she gathered her things and left, leaving James and Jessica.
"We should probably get going too Jess, I'll walk you to your locker?" James said standing up from the table holding his hand out to Jessica to help her up.
"It's on the third floor, are you sure?"
"Of course I am, plus I wanted to talk to you" James said with a warm smile.
As James and Jessica were walking to the third floor, James couldn't stop thinking about how Jessica and Rose knew each other.
"Hey, you know how you said you and Rose knew each other from things outside of school. Do you mind me asking what type of things you meant?" James said, carefully placing his words to not sound nosy or pushy.
"Yeah, don't mind at all. Something I probably should tell you about myself. I'm bipolar, like I have days where I'm really happy, then days where I'm really sad or angry." She said, looking a bit embarrassed. James looked at her half in shock, but he didn't want to be rude to Jessica – she was dropping a bit of a bombshell on him so suddenly, but he felt a bit sorry for her.
"Well, I'm not really sure how to respond to that but thanks for telling me it makes me feel like you trust me already," he said smiling "and if you ever need any support or want to talk to me I'll be here for you." As James spoke, Rose smiled appreciatively.
"James, thank you I'm glad I can trust you but it's alright, I'm getting help and I take medication to control my mood swings. That's actually going back to the main question you asked me, that's how I know Rose. We both go to the same support group for teens with mental illnesses." She said more confidently than before.
"Wait, why does Rose go to these support groups?" James was confused as hell now, he couldn't keep up with all this information.
"It's to help her deal with her depression. We talk about like problems we're having and how we can deal with our problems in good ways." Woah. James was thinking as he looked at Jessica in surprise.
"Rose has depression? Since when!" James exclaimed in a hushed tone, being careful not to say it too loudly.
"Well I think it was hereditary but she was only diagnosed a few months before I met her" Jessica explained as if it was completely normal and not out of the blue.
"Well, this is where my locker is but I'll see you tomorrow night? Text me details. Oh and it was great talking to you. I feel closer to you now" She said sweetly giving James a kiss on the cheek briefly before turning away to get her books for the rest of the day. James could not believe what he had just heard. He went onto the outside stairwell and sat down, completely not thinking and trying to process all the information he just got from Jessica. So basically, the girl he was practically in love with had bipolar disorder and his best friend's girlfriend had depression. He felt so sorry for both of them but figured, if he were in their situation he wouldn't want pity from other people. He also wanted to help but knew he wasn't a trained counselor or anything like that. The last thing that kept overtaking his thoughts, did Kendall know about Rose? James knew he had to somehow bring up Rose's problem with Kendall, but he had no idea how to do it. Kendall had a right to know about something this serious about the girl he loves. James pulled out his phone from his pocket and texted Kendall. Gotta ask you something man. My place after school? parents are working late. He hit send and waited impatiently for the end of the day considering all the classes he had for the rest of the day had none of his friends in them.
James saw Kendall in the distance walking over go him. Kendall had agreed to come over and talk with James, but he still was oblivious to the reason.
"Hey buddy. How's it going?" Kendall said giving James a sloppy handshake.
"Yeah man, things are alright. Wanna get going?" James said nervously, and Kendall nodded. He was so afraid to tell Kendall about Rose, but then again they had been going out for three months. He had to have had some idea - shouldn't he? They began to walk home through the cool streets of their small town in Minnesota. They had awkward small talk for a few minutes then Kendall stopped walking and turned to face James.
"Ok, what's going on? You tell me you need to talk to me then you barely say anything while we're walking home. What's the problem? Is there something you need to tell me?" Kendall said, now clearly slightly annoyed.
"Well it's just that...I was talking to Jess today at lunch. She was telling me that her and Rose know each other." James struggled to get out
"Yeah I know. I was talking to Rose, they know each other through a youth group thing."
"Wait...you mean...ah fuck" James said burring his head in his hands. He knew he shouldn't have said anything. What the fuck did he just do?
"James? What do you know that I don't? You tell me right now, you know we always tell each other everything." Kendall said now having a mixture of confused, annoyed and scared in his voice. Was this seriously how Kendall should find out? Well there is only one way to find out, James thought to himself.
"Rose and Jess didn't meet at a youth group...the go to a support group for teens with mental illnesses together" James gulped, seeing Kendall's facial expression change. "Rose has depression, dude."
Kendall was frozen. He just stared at James moth slightly open. Fuck. Now James was worried, this was a huge thing to hear and he knew Kendall should have heard it from Rose. James snapped his fingers in front of Kendall, as if to take him out of a trance. Kendall shook his head and blinked a few times, coming back to reality. James knew he was shocked and he also knew that Kendall would not let this go.
"Can we skip out on tonight? I think I have to go talk to Rose." Kendall said, stony faced. James nodded respectfully and gave Kendall and quick "guy handshake" before Kendall make a beeline clearly for Rose's house, walking like a zombie still shaken from the news he had just heard. James knew he did the right thing by telling Kendall but there was no telling what Kendall would do now.