You Remember Me, Right?

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 

She had arrived, he could tell by her voice bouncing off the school walls. It somehow seemed to transcend all other voices present in the hall, lowering the rest to a murmur. Jesse spun on his feet, peering through the crowd until he saw her, the light dancing off her skin. She was laughing with Luke, talking about something insignificant. He seemed to be telling her something beyond hilarious, getting a long laugh out of her. Her head was thrown back as she was reduced to a fit of giggles while Luke continued with his story.

 

Taking long strides down the narrow halls, Jesse finally reached them, turning to head the direction they were going. Beca, too engrossed in the story, didn’t even notice him until he latched his arm with hers. “Hey, Becs. Luke. How you guys doing?” Jesse began, his arm slipping around her shoulder.

 

“Good, good. I was just telling her about the last gig I played in the city before coming here. We are never ever going back there,” Luke wagged his finger in front of her face, attempting to emphasize his point, “Somehow, I swear I didn’t think it was going to get so bad, while I was playing at this little club in the East Village I met this girl. She was super sweet, but she wouldn’t stop following me. Finally, the gig ended and I was walking out of a taxi and there she was, evil smile and everything. I have no idea how but she had followed me all the way home. She literally must’ve had her taxi follow mine.” Luke could hardly finish the story without cracking up.

 

“And I,” Beca cut him off, “met said girl just before moving here. She kept asking ‘You know a Luke, right?’ It must’ve gone on for a solid 10 minutes before I just told her Luke was at the radio station, which he was, and I would give her his phone number.”

 

Jesse listened intently, trying to make her words out in between her giggles. Luke took over the story once again, saying, “I will never forgive you for that. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you did that! All this time I had no idea who gave her my number. I thought you were innocent this whole time. You know, I had to change my phone number because of her.”

 

Luke took out his phone, putting it in front of her face. Jesse, chuckled along with them, secretly longing for the friendship they had. On that note, the bell began to ring, signaling the start of first period. Jesse took her hand in his own, rubbing his fingertips over her smooth skin.

 

“Even though Beca always looks innocent, don’t doubt her ability to manipulate,” Jesse responded, earning a soft punch to his chest, “I do want to hear more of this story, Luke, but Becs and I have to go suffer though physics together.” Beca waved goodbye, following Jesse towards the full classroom. Pulling a seat up next to Beca, Jesse plopped down his stuff on the ground and reached inside his backpack to grab his notebook.

 

Class had been fifteen minutes in when he started to get bored. Rolling his pencil up and down the lab desk was starting to get old. His foot started tapping and then he started to doodle on the edges of the lined paper. Looking up at Beca, he realized she hadn’t even been listening the entire period. No one would notice it if they weren’t sitting right next to her, but he could see the little earbuds popping out behind her hair. If you could listen really hard when the teacher stopped speaking, you could hear the low sounds of a song pulsing through the air.

 

He bumped his shoulder on hers, startling her for a second. Discreetly pulling an earbud out of her ear, she stared intently at him. Jesse just took out a piece of paper, writing a quick ‘hi’ on it before sliding it over to her.

 

With short scribbles, she responded with a ‘hey’. Jesse took the paper from her, drawing long lines to create a tic-tac-toe board, putting his first ‘X’ right, plop, in the center. Beca, taking one look at the board, placed her designated letter on one of the surrounding spots. They went on like this for the rest of the period, playing games or just doing anything so they wouldn’t have to listen to the lecture. Beca would made a sly smile when she knew she was about the win, but Jesse told her that he quote, “let her win”.

 

Grabbing their books at the sound of the bell, Jesse didn’t let Beca even walk out the door before ushering her down the hallway.

 

“Where are we going,” she asked, pulling her bag over her shoulder. Jesse just continued to walk, “It’s really close, but I swear it’s worth it.” The two of them ran up the metal stairs, pushing open the door once they were on the top to reveal a large room, lit only with the sunlight coming through the massive windows on each wall. There were bookshelves filled with dusty old novels and a few chairs here and there. It was cozy; the walls were painted a light yellow and there were bean bag chairs strewn across the floor.

 

“Beca,” Jesse said, waving his hand to show her the room. “This is possibly the greatest room in all of the school. When they built the new library, everyone kinda forgot about this one. No one comes up here and its perfect to watch movies.” Beca laughed when she saw him pulling down the projector screen, motioning her to sit down.

 

Taking a seat on a bean bag chair, slipping down into the fabric, she made herself comfortable while watching Jesse set up the projector. “Well, I’ll do almost anything to get out of calculus,” she continued, “even if I do have to watch a movie.”

 

Jesse, taking a seat himself, watched as the trailers began to roll, explaining to her how Rocky was one of his favorite movies. The music score was incredible.

 

“So, do you wanna direct when you’re older?” Beca asked, watching the screen. “Nope.” Jesse added. “I want to write music for movies. You know, bring people to tears.” Music. Beca could sure deal with music much better than movies.

 

“You have a thing for music, too. I remember, in New York you told me you went to a specialized high school just for music,” Jesse continued, his eyes diverting from the screen, “I would love to hear about it some time.”

Beca grinned, “Just wait, nerd. We have a lot of time to do all that.” She looked up at the screen, partially listening, but mostly watching the boy next to her gaze up at the screen, occasionally mouthing the words of the movie. She did her best to hide the laugh that was bubbling to the surface before attempting to watch the movie with the same enthusiasm he had. It was useless. Beca spent most of her time watching Jesse, but staring at him was, in her mind, an excellent form of entertainment. After a few seconds, he caught her eye, smiling. He pulled her bean bag chair closer to his, letting her lay down on his lap. She felt him take her hand in his and smiled slightly, before turning once again to watch the movie. Beca could get used to this.