"About what? What's wrong?" I heard Brian say on the phone. "Can you come over? I need to talk to you." I said into the phone, hearing my voice breaking.
"Yeah sure, I'll be right over." I heard Brian mutter as I hung up the phone with shaky hands. I grabbed Jimmy's jacket and put it on, I still had it, it was too cold outside and I didn't know where mine was. I lifted my sleeve to look at the dark bruise still on my arm, it was practically an imprint of a hand around my wrist. I slipped my chucks on, not bothering to tie them, I almost forgot my glasses but grabbed them on my way out of my room. I walked down stairs and out the front door, and sat on the porch waiting for Brian. I was fidgeting with my shorts and I felt another tear roll down my cheek, I couldn't keep Jimmy off my mind.
I heard Brian's car pull up and I tried frantically to dry my face with my sleeve.
"Hey Shauni!" I heard him greet me as he got out of the car, he was wearing a Slipknot shirt with some ripped jeans and a thick layer of eyeliner. "Man he does his eyeliner better I can." I thought as he walked up to me.
"Hey Brian." I said, trying to smile.
"Jimmy told me what happened, are you okay?" He asked me, walking towards me.
"No, not really." I muttered.
"You should've told him that you loved him a long time ago, short stack." He said with a smug smile plastered across his face.
"I beg your pardon?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Don't play dumb, we all see the way you look at him when you think no one's paying attention." He told me. "But Jimmy was so fucking oblivious he didn't notice, and now he's heartbroken because he thinks all you two will ever be is friends." He explained.
"Jimmy doesn't like me Brian, he told me he liked someone else." I replied.
"Are you sure? Are you sure he wasn't talking about you? Did he say it?" He questioned.
"He didn't but I just know." I muttered as I another tear roll down my cheek.
"Oh god, please don't cry." He begged.
"I'm sorry. I just, I should've told him, and now he's mad at me." I said, half crying.
"I think we both know Jimmy can't stay mad at you." He smiled.
"I need to talk to him, will you tell him to meet me at the bookstore tomorrow, at 11?" I asked Brian.
"Yeah, sure." He agreed as he brought me into a hug.
"Brian you know I'm not a hugger." I muttered into his chest.
"You need to work things out with Jimmy because if you guys aren't together all the time I might have to miss you." He said, still hugging me.
"Oh god forbid the all powerful Synyster Gates actually miss someone." I laughed as I broke the hug. He patted my head like everyone always does because it annoys me, just another reminder everyone's taller than me, and walked back over to his car.
"Wait Brian?" I called over to him, before he got in.
"Yeah?" He replied.
"Just for the record I doubt Jimmy is heartbroken over one fight." I told him.
"You didn't talk to him afterwards." He smirked, before getting into his car and driving away. "That smug motherfucker." I thought as I watched his car drive off.
The next day it was cloudy and gloomy, but the air was calm. I woke up at 10, with only an hour to get ready. Lets just say I wasn't going to school that day because I made Vicky ring them and tell them I was having personal issues or something. I knew Jimmy would take any excuse to ditch school. I pretty much fell out of bed and ran into my bathroom to take a shower and brush my teeth. When I got out of the shower I put on my Avenged Sevenfold tee shirt the guys gave me, black jean shorts, and my favorite pair of chucks, with Jimmy's jacket of course. His jacket was just a black hoodie, but it was worn out and soft and it still smelled like him, it made me get butterflies inside and I quickly tried to kill them obviously. I did my makeup in my bathroom, smoky black eyeshadow with dark red lipstick, and some concealer, like always, but I wasn't wearing my glasses. I walked downstairs trying to get out of the house as quickly as possible but my sister just had to go and stop me.
"Where are you going?" She questioned, she had a cigarette in her hand and she was still in her robe.
"The bookstore, I'm meeting Jimmy, it's really important." I expressed with urgency.
"And who was that here yesterday?" She asked, taking a drag.
"Oh that was just Brian." I told her, fidgeting with the sleeves of the jacket.
"Why must you waste your time with boys Shauni? They'll just break your heart." She stated bluntly.
"I'm not even interested in Brian, he has a girlfriend, can I go now?" I pressed on.
"You and I both know that's not who I'm talking about." She said and my eyes widened at her statement. "Don't come crying to me when your heart is broken over him." She warned, blowing smoke into the ceiling fan. I watched the smoke as it slowly disappeared in the blades of the fan. "Jimmy wouldn't hurt me." I thought to myself. "Right?" I thought as I walked out the house, slamming the door on my way out, leaving my sister with her bitter thoughts.
"She's just bitter because guys that she ends up falling for always dump her." I thought as I walked to the bookstore, looking at the things I have written on my shoes, just band names. My sister is beautiful, dazzling smile, perfect hair, beautiful eyes, but always bitter and mean towards me and anyone who's close to her, she can't help it. There comes a point where you just accept it and learn to keep loving her, I'll always love her no matter how bitter she is, she's my sister. "What if she's right? What if my heart is broken?" I thought to myself. "Vicky's never wrong." I thought, but quickly shook the doubts away. "There's a first for everything and I know that Jimmy would never hurt me, intentionally, I just have to accept the risk." I thought and continued walking, beginning to see the bookstore in sight.
There, I saw him, Jimmy. I put my hands into my pockets and walked up to him outside the bookstore timidly, he was reading the book, the book that was the reason we became friends, the book I gave to him. He hadn't noticed me yet, I noticed him though, his blue eyes were too busy scanning the page he was on to look up.
"Hey." I said, smiling as he looked up from his book at me.
"Hi." He slightly smiled, moving over so I could sit next to him on the bench, which I did. "Look I'm sorry I got mad yesterday, I know you had every right not to tell me why you were crying, I shouldn't have been so nosy." He apologized with sadness in his eyes.
"Um thanks Jimmy, but I actually came to apologize to you." I said. "And now you're kinda stealing my thunder." I joked.
"Aw shut up Shauns." He said, chuckling. I couldn't help but notice the nickname.
"No but really, I am sorry." I apologized. "I should've told you why I was crying, you don't keep secrets from your best friend." I stated as it started raining, just sprinkling, but we were under the roof still so we didn't get wet.
"Why were you crying then?" He asked cautiously.
"Because..." I trailed off, he raised his eyebrows at me to answer. "Because you told me you loved someone else, and I knew that I would still be your best friend and watch you be in a relationship." I started, he looked speechless. "I guess I always had this hope in my mind that somehow you would fall for me, and we'd live happily ever after." I chuckled. "But I learned a long time ago that love wasn't a fairy tale, I was stupid to think things like that even happened… I need to let go" I choked out. "But at least now I know all that we'll ever be is friends and I think I'm okay with that now… That's all I wanted to say." I finished as I started walking into the rain, which by the way was coming down hard, I started tearing up under my hoodie and I was hoping Jimmy couldn't see as I walked away. I could feel my markup running and I bit my lip, trying not to cry, reopening the scab that was there, and tasting blood.
"SHAUNI!" I heard him yelled as he ran through the rain over to me.
"What?" I said, my voice breaking as he faced me, he was soaking wet.
"You're so stupid sometimes, you know that?" He said blatantly.
"What?" I managed to choke out before I felt his lips crash against mine, I put my arms around his neck, kissing him back, it was amazing, and it was my first kiss, lamely enough, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I was on the tips of my toes and it was still raining hard as we kissed, like a sappy romance movie or something. He pulled away from me smiling, that cheeky smile of his.
"Wow kissing in the rain, we're so cliché." I joked as he bit his lip.
"I can't believe you didn't realize Shauni." He told me, I felt so stupid but so happy at the same time.
"I'm sorry." I said, completely dumbfounded with this whole thing.
"There you go apologizing again, that's such a bad habit." He told me, laughing as he held my hand and we went back to the front of the bookstore, sitting on the bench. "Remember when we met?" He asked me and I nodded. "I lied about never noticing you before." He told me, smirking.
"Oh please, no one ever notices me." I retorted.
"But I did. I saw you all the time and I never knew your name until you practically ran into my chest." He laughed.
"Jimmy why did you even care about me then? Why did you want to be my friend?" I questioned sadly.
"Because I saw that your personality was just as beautiful as you were on the outside, but you just wouldn't give yourself a chance, so I had to meet you halfway." He stated, smiling. I couldn't help but blush.
"Have you seen my face?" I questioned.
"You're beautiful." He whispered to me as he put his arm around me and kissed my temple, I felt my face grow hot and I knew I was blushing. "And then when that guy came on to you at the party, I was trying to keep an eye on him to make sure he wouldn't get too friendly." He explained. "Then I look away for two seconds and he's practically about to rape you, I just wanted to fucking kill him." He said with rage in his eyes. "That's when I realized I was falling way too hard." He told me, chuckling.
"Jimmy, I don't think it's possible to fall harder than I have." I muttered as I kissed his cheek, a smile grew on his face from my comment. "Now, give me a ride home?" I asked, motioning towards his truck that was parked. He nodded happily as he led me to the truck, opening my door for me.
We got in the truck while we were still both soaked from the rain. We drove in comfortable silence, the short way to my house. When we got there he got out first, and ran around the truck to open my door for me, I couldn't help but giggle at his actions. We walked up to my house holding hands, we got up to my front door and without warning Jimmy kissed me, again. My arms were around his neck and his hands were around my waist as the kiss deepened. "Fuck I hope this never ends." I thought to myself. But it did, we broke the kiss but our foreheads were pressed up against each other. Jimmy was looking directly into my green eyes, I couldn't help but be mesmerized. I looked down at his lips, they had some of my lipstick smudged across them.
"You have my lipstick all over your mouth now." I couldn't help but laugh.
"Good." He said, pecking my lips gently. He stepped back and looked at what I was wearing, realizing it was his. "I think that jacket looks better on you." He smiled, I couldn't help but blush.
I stuck my key into the front door, but decided not to open it, I just pulled it back out.
"I have an idea." I smiled, pulling the key out from the key hole.
"Is it a safe idea or a fun idea?" He chuckled.
"We should go to the beach!" I squealed, happily.
"It's raining." He replied.
"That's the point." I said.
"You're crazy sometimes." He scoffed. "Let's go!" He laughed, as we ran back to the truck, holding hands. We got in and started driving, it was still raining and wasn't going to stop anytime soon. I caught my reflection in the review mirror, I looked like the Joker or Harley Quinn, my eyeshadow was running and my lipstick was all smudged, it looked kind of cool actually.
"Dude I look like Harley Quinn." I stated to Jimmy, as he lit a cigarette and took a drag.
"Harley Quinn?" He asked.
"She's the Joker's sidekick, she's in love with him." I muttered as if they were real.
"Oh cool." He laughed. We didn't drive for that long, I live rather close to the beach, but I rarely go because I don't like when it's crowded.
"We're here!" He exclaimed when we came to a stop. We got out of the car and I started running towards the shore, I heard Jimmy chasing after me. I stopped before I got to the water, taking off my shoes and Jimmy's jacket.
"You're actually gonna swim?" Jimmy questioned as I took off the jacket.
"Yup!" I yelled, popping the P. He gave me a confused look and I just laughed. "What are you scared Jimmy?" I joked.
"You're a crazy little person, you know that?" He laughed as he started to take off his shoes.
"I know." I laughed. I took off my shirt, I was still in my black bra but left my shorts on, and ran into the water, before he had the chance to see that I was half naked, soon I was almost completely submerged in the salt water. The water was warm even though it was raining, it usually is every time I've done this. Jimmy followed me into the water, he was only in his pants now. We swam out pretty far before we stopped.
"Hey can you still reach the bottom?" I asked him, trying to keep my head above the water.
"Yeah why?" He asked.
"Because I can't anymore, and this is getting exhausting." I laughed as I swam onto his back, making him give me a piggy back ride type thing.
"You're so lazy." He joked as he held onto my legs, keeping me in place. It was still raining, but not as hard. I kissed his cheek and swam back to the shallow water. When it finally stopped raining and I laid in the sand, while the water was still coming in and out of shore on my legs, and Jimmy came and laid beside me. I held his hand and looked at the sky, zoning out in my thoughts.
"Jimmy?" I asked timidly.
"Yeah?" He inquired.
"Do you think I'm crazy?" I asked, still looking into the sky.
"I know you're crazy." He smiled, leaning over and pecking my lips. He had a huge smile on his face, it was kind of freaking me out to be honest.
"What?" I questioned.
"You're not wearing a shirt." He laughed and I rolled my eyes.
"Oh shut up.." I muttered as I playfully hit his shoulder. I suddenly felt really insecure, I forgot I had took my shirt off. There we were, laying in the sand, the water still coming in and out of the shore at our legs. I felt Jimmy's hand on my arm, he was looking at the bruise that was still there.
"I'm so sorry." He muttered, his touch on my skin was so gentle but I still felt like I was getting electrocuted.
"Don't be." I said as I sat up, running my hand through my hair to feel all the sand that was stuck in it. "Ugh I have sand in my hair now..." I groaned as I shook it off. He kept looking at me and it made me happy and embarrassed all at once.
"Stop looking at my fucked up body." I laughed as I stood up and walked towards our stuff.
"It's not fucked up! It's fucking glorious!" He laughed, following me. I put my shoes back on and picked up my shirt out of the water it had fell into, it was soaked, I rung it out and loads of water came out.
"It's soaked." I sighed.
"Well that's a shame, I guess you can't wear it!" He mocked as I rolled my eyes. I picked up the jacket, which was only slightly damp and zipped it up so it was the same as wearing a shirt as Jimmy put his shoes and his shirt back on.
"Rainy beaches are the best beaches aren't they?" I said as I held his hand.
"The best!" He grinned as we started walking back to the truck.
When we got into the truck, I realized something. I was in Jimmy's truck, earlier we had kissed and I didn't even know if we were together or dating or whatever. But I wanted to be with him, forever, and that terrified me. I leaned over to him and started to kiss him, I hesitated at the thought he might not kiss me back, but he did. It was a gentle kiss, I placed my hand on his cheek and pulled him closer as I felt his hand on the back of my neck. I broke the kiss finally, and sat back in my seat.
"What just happened?" I thought aloud.
"I think I love you Shauni..." Jimmy muttered as he started the truck.
"I think I love you too..." I muttered, biting my lip and messing with my damp hair, looking out the window at the grey sky