What Do You Want From Me?

“Why were you late this afternoon?”

Jessica looked up from her homework, green eyes meeting with her mother’s black ones.

“Izzy needed a ride home. This boy that’s on her bus was bothering her and she asked me if, for just today, I could drive her.”

“Is she okay?” Marlene’s voice accented some concern.

“She’s fine, but that’s why I agreed to drive her because she didn’t want anything to happen. I told her not to let it happen every day though so you don’t have to worry about me being late anymore.”

Marlene sighed and leaned against the frame of Jessica’s open bedroom door. Jessica looked back down to the homework she hadn’t been able to finish during lunch that day, rolling her eyes all the while, as she knew the conversation was going to continue for at least a couple minutes more.

“Well, if it was for Izzy, than I guess it’s alright. If she needs anymore rides to get away from that stupid boy, than you go right ahead and tell her its fine. I don’t want anything bad happening to her.”

Jess almost scoffed at her mother’s apprehension for every other child except her own. She recalled being very upset about it some years ago, feeling unwanted and unloved by the people she desperately craved that from. Nowadays, though, she found herself apathetic to the actions and expressions of her parents.

“Okay, Mom. I’ll text her and let her know as soon as I’m done my homework.”

“Good girl,” Marlene concluded, closing the bedroom door behind her as she left.

Jessica did her best to resume her studies, even going as far as Googling the research she needed and trying to copy it, but her mind was in the gutter. She placed her black-ink pen down on the open notebook and stood from the desk, pushing the chair in and walking to the Queen sized bed that sat in the middle of her bedroom. She flopped down onto it, basking in the comfort of her plush pillows and lavish, fuchsia colored duvet.

Her mind immediately began to race; the events of the day being the main perpetrator. ‘He was probably only being nice to me to get something’, she thought to herself. ‘Probably so I wouldn’t tell Dad and have him sued. That’s the only logical explanation’. She sighed at this conclusion, turning over in bed and shoving her face into the pillow.

‘Maybe he is a good guy. Maybe I just need to get off my high horse and think for myself for once…’

On that note, Jessica could feel her eyes begin to fall heavy. She quickly decided that her leftover homework could wait to be done in homeroom the next day, and reached over to her bedside table to switch off the light.

After changing into something more comfortable, she resumed her position on the bed, and fell asleep rather hastily.

~*~
“Run away with me,” Matt said, caressing Jessica’s face with one hand and taking her own in his other. “We can leave here and you’d never have to deal with any of these people again. It can just be me and you.”

Jessica stared into Matt’s hazel eyes, hers with a look of shock at his request. This couldn’t be real; she was destined to be stuck in this hellhole of a life forever. Matt placed his other hand on her face and now held both cheeks, pressing his forehead against hers and gazing deeply into her pool of greens.

“I’ll take care of you; I’ll give you the world if that’s what you want. Just please, give me a chance. Give me a chance to show you that I can give you better than what you have here.”
Jessica let out a small gasp. No one had ever wanted to provide this amount of happiness for her, not even her own parents. She swallowed the lump in her throat and stepped up on her tippy toes to plant a kiss on Matt’s lips. He kissed back, moaning softly and letting his hands leave her face and smooth down the sensuous dips of her spine.

“Can we leave now?” Jess asked when they broke their lip lock.

“We can leave whenever you want.”

Jessica smiled big and took a hold of Matt’s hand, pulling him over toward the stairs, having it set in her mind to go pack before her parents could come home and stop her.

“Jess,” Matt voiced to her. She halted in her movements and turned to look at him.

“What?”

“Jess!” He shouted this time. “Wake up!”

Jessica furrowed her eyebrows at him and released his hand.

“What?”

“Jessica Marie, wake up! You’re going to be late!”

Jessica shot up from the bed, immediately being met with the angered glare of her mother, who was standing in her doorway. The elder Flaherty walked into the room and slapped her hand against the clock.

“What is your problem lately, young lady? This is the second day in a row that you were almost late for school,” Marlene began, looking at Jessica skeptically. “Are you doing drugs?”

Jessica, still coming out of her dream, scoffed and looked up at her mother. “No, mom, I’m not on drugs.”

“Than what’s going on? I don’t want to hear any stupid excuses either. I’m getting tired of hearing your excuses.”

“Mom, I didn’t hear it going off, okay?”

Marlene stepped away from the bed as Jess threw off her covers and stood up. “I said I didn’t want to hear any of your excuses. Just get up and get ready. If you’re late, you’re going to be grounded for a month.”

She exited the room, her heels clicking against the fine polished wood with enmity. Jessica rushed over to her closet and pulled out a mini dress, followed by a pair of leggings from her dresser and a bra and underwear. She dressed quickly, deciding against a shower considering the time it was already, and threw the books still sitting on the desk in her book bag.

She hustled into the bathroom and brushed her teeth, re-straightened her hair, put on deodorant, and sprayed herself with some pretty smelling spray. Marlene was already gone when Jessica appeared downstairs, earning an eye roll from the teenager, as she followed suit and slammed the door behind her.

The drive to school on that very day was unlike any other Jessica experienced. Usually, it was enjoyable and not complicated in the least bit, but those mornings also never were led up to by a dream of Matt Sanders. It wasn’t right, that’s all there was to it. It was a mistake. She’d been thinking about Matt before she fell asleep, so naturally her mind would react that way and make her dream about him.

Jessica nodded her head in agreement to her mind’s talking. This was the only plausible conclusion, and even though Jessica’s gut was telling her otherwise, she gripped the wheel tighter and pushed everything else out of her mind and concentrated on the road in front of her.

~*~
“Oh, there you are! I thought you were absent today, you weren’t in the halls before homeroom or anything.”

Jessica looked up from her book and smiled brightly at Leslie, who was the only one of her usual friends currently at their lunch table. “Yeah, I had to go to homeroom early because I didn’t finish my homework last night.”

“Oh, okay. Did you get to finish it?”

“Mhm. Thank God. My mom would have been up my ass if I didn’t.”

Leslie chuckled and nodded. Jessica reached forward and took a hold of her Pepsi bottle. She struggled for a moment to open it, as the cap was screwed unusually tight. Leslie laughed softly at her battle and Jessica looked up at the other with slight amusement.

“Shut up,” Jessica said with a smirk. Leslie held her hands up innocently and went back to eating her chips with a smile. Jessica looked in front of her and concentrated further on opening the bottle.

Her eyes drifted further as she suddenly felt a little nervous, as if someone was glaring at her intently from a far distance. Without any kind of warning, Jessica’s emerald eyes widened just a little as her gaze was met with the very same one from her dream.

Matt stared her down like a hawk. Jessica couldn’t tell for sure if there was even any expression on his face, as he was sitting under the ray of trees on the other side of the yard. All she knew was that he was looking at her. This couldn’t really mean anything though, right? He’s probably just merely making sure Jessica was okay from their little accident yesterday. That’s all it was, all it ever would be…

Jessica showed a small smile, just in case Matt could see her well enough to be able to recognize the curve of her lips, and quickly turned away from the stare. She placed her unopened Pepsi bottle back down on the table and returned to her book.

“Where’re Izzy and Jason?” Leslie voiced after a couple minutes of intense silence.
“I have no idea. They’re probably on their way now. You know how busy the hallway’s get on the way to lunch.”

Leslie nodded again. A few more moments passed of quiet, and before long, loud squeaky laughter could be heard, signaling the arrival of one Isabel Vega.

“There you guys are!” Leslie announced when Isabel sat down on one side of Jessica and Jason on the other.

“Yeah, the hallways were a little…full,” Isabel said.

Jason laughed at Isabel’s statement. “Full is an understatement.”

Jessica placed a book mark in an unread page of her book and placed it on top of her other school books. Jason looked at her and put an arm around her shoulders possessively. “And where the hell were you this morning?”

“I went to homeroom first thing because I didn’t finish some homework last night.”

Jason scoffed and removed his arm. “You and fucking schoolwork, Babe, it’s almost sickening.”

Jessica rolled her eyes, but looked at them with a pretend smile. Something had to give…

Notes