Sometimes Our Saints Are Sinners (TVH sequel)

“Hey Emma.” Jessica greeted happily as she sat inside the home she had been staying in for roughly five months. Jessica leaned against the window pane, grimacing slightly at the miles of dirt surrounding the farm she was residing in.
“Hey Jessi. How’s South Dakota?” Emma asked from her apartment in Huntington Beach California. After Jessica had moved away, Emma chose to stay in the apartment since she knew that her best friend would return soon, knowing Jessica’s distaste for the Midwest.
“It’s been good. The pool is now open since it’s finally warm enough to swim.” Jessica replied, watching as her younger cousins began applying suntan lotion on their skin, although it was given that the fair-skinned girls would ultimately get burned. Jessica contemplated for a minute about going down there after her conversation with Emma, but decided against it since she had to get the house ready for the future guests. “But I definitely remember why I left South Dakota.”
“Well only a few more weeks.” Emma assured her friend, her voice filled with excitement. Jessica’s mother’s wedding was merely four weeks away, and for that her new step-father’s son Zach, along with all of his childhood friends and band mates, would be flying up to see the wedding. Emma would be coming along as well, but she would be coming up later than the rest of the friends due to having started college after her best friend had left and was required to finish her term papers before she was allowed to fly out for the wedding. Once the wedding stress was over with, Jessica would be flying back with all of her friends, which made her extremely giddy.
“I know. I’m really excited to see you guys. It’s been very stressful and very lonely up here.” Jessica admitted as her eyes followed her youngest cousin from above, watching to make sure she didn’t fall into the pool.
“Hey, Emma. Are you on the phone with Kid?” A familiar voice rang through the phone, making Jessica’s insides turn a little. “Can you tell her that I’m—”
“Brian, for Pete’s sake, she knows you’re sorry. You’ve only texted her 200 times about it.” Emma interrupted, sounded slightly amused yet slightly annoyed.
“Actually 215 times.” Jessica corrected her, smiling at the thought of seeing Brian again. After Jessica had finished her phone call with her mother that one dim and cloudy day back in Huntington, she shut off her phone and quickly hit her apartment. It was empty and dark, which vaguely symbolized what Jessica was secretly feeling. She tried not to think about anything as she packed, but she couldn’t help but feel betrayed. In a way she knew that her—at the time—crush Matt would somehow show her that they weren’t mean to be, but she never expected her best and ‘special’ friend Brian would be so cruel to her. She had to admit she was a bit hurt by his words, but she’d never speak about it to anyone. Once she landed in the South Dakota airport and finally turned on her phone, she had a few calls she had missed from Emma, Matt and her best friend Jimmy, and a horrendous amount of text messages from Brian apologizing for what he had said mere hours before. She called Jimmy, knowing that he’d inform everyone of her disappearance, and then texted Brian back, saying that she forgave him—although she hadn’t truly forgiven him just yet.
“215 texts, actually.” Emma repeated for Brian, which made Jessica laugh. She heard an incoherent grumble from the other line, which made Emma snicker.
“But yeah, I guess I ran away from one form of stress just to run into another.” Jessica announced as she stared at the chipped nail polish on the chewed on stubs she was ashamed to call her nails. She had been so desperately trying to kick her bad habit of chewing of her nails, but due to the stress of her mother’s wedding and the flying in of the friends she so dearly missed wasn’t helping her.
“Do you think you’ve released the stress that had caused you to run away in the first place?” Emma wondered quietly. Jessica smiled a little and nodded, although she knew that her friend couldn’t see her.
“Yeah. I guess being here made me realize what the problem was.” Jessica admitted.
“Oh?” Her friend’s voice rang. She chewed on the inside of her lip and stared blankly outside of the large window.
“It’s better to explain in person.” She proclaimed. Emma made a noise of agreement and Jessica mentally slapped herself as she went back to her old self for a few seconds. “So how have the guys been?”
“You mean how has Matt been?” Emma challenged, seeing right through her friend of seven years. Jessica chewed on a flap of skin on her lip before frowning a little.
“No.” She snapped, her face heating up a little. “I’ve only talked to you and Zach since I’ve left. I haven’t really been in contact with the other four that much.”
“Mhm,” Emma retorted, catching onto Jessica’s real intent. “But whatever. I’ll tell you just to save you from embarrassment.” Jessica rolled her eyes, feeling a bit distraught at her friend’s unfortunately true insinuations on her intent of the question asked. “Zach and Jordyn have been getting more serious so now Jordyn practically lives with him. Johnny and I are good, we got a new kitten as you know.”
“What its name?” Jessica asked curiously, although she knew already the name of the small white ball of fluff.
“Cas. Even though you already know that because Johnny let you name it since you gave him the idea.” Emma responded, her voice hard yet playful. “Anyway, Jimmy has been good, he saw that girl at the Halloween store for a bit but his excuse to break it off was ‘I missed being a lone wolf’. Of course.”
“He probably is just too much of a softy to get attached to girls.” Jessica snickered, thinking about her very tall and very funny best friend. She had been known to stay up late at night around the home she was living in, but her family didn’t know that usually she was secretly skyping the blue-eyed teddy bear.
“Yeah, probably.” Emma agreed. “Brian’s been Brian. Just lazing around and drinking; normal stuff. He has been whoring around a little. Not much, but he’s been getting himself back in the game.”
“Well damn. I hope he didn’t catch every disease in mankind.” Jessica giggled, scrunching her face up at the thought of Brian being in disease-infested beds and strip clubs.
“Nah. I’ve been his wing-woman. We’ll go out to clubs together and if he wants to hook up with a girl, I check her out and tell him if she’s fuckable or not.” Emma informed her friend proudly.
“What a good friend you are.” Jessica laughed at the thought, picturing Emma telling him which girl was good to go and which needed to be bathed in bleach.
“I know.” Emma said smugly. Jessica smiled, although she was holding her breath as she awaited the last bit of information she was not supposed to be waiting for. “Matt’s been okay, I guess. The second he found out you left he screamed at Gayle and kicked her out in front of everyone. He actually made her cry, which was comical and kind of upsetting at the same time, but it’s understandable why he was so mean to her. I haven’t really seen him around much, though. Usually when I do it’s during a band meeting and he’s all business. He’s started on some songs for the new album, though, so that’s really exciting.”
“Sounds like everyone’s okay.” Jessica stated, her smile faltering a bit. Her face hardened as she internally yelled at herself for going back to her old tendencies.
“Yeah. We’re all good. We miss you though.” Jessica relaxed her body a little and smiled at the thought of her friends. “So anyway, the guys will be getting in tomorrow, are you ready to see them all again?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Jessica sighed, chewing on her lip as she pictured seeing all five of the men for the first time in five months. The next few weeks will definitely because eventful and unpredictable.

Notes

It's up! The sequel is up!... Well... Kinda. Honestly I only have the first chapter done. BUT I decided if I put up the sequel and you guys pressure me to continue writing I'll be more motivated since I love hearing from you guys. So please tell me what you think of the preface and maybe the first chapter will be up sooner than I think! <3 ~Jessi