Jessica's Fate

Chapter 38

It was finally the end of all assignment things related to school and I was looking forward to being able to be back at work at the Diner and getting started on my commissioned dessert bar for Sang and the boys later in the summer. But for now, the good stuff.

A boyfriend who I truly liked and I felt liked me in return, even though my older brother was an ass.

Validation that hard work absolutely pays off. I was brimming with excitement because I'd just found out this afternoon that I was going to be Valedictorian of my class and now I had a speech to write for graduation. Good thing I had a week to write it. I wasn't at all sure about what I wanted to say to encourage my classmates to follow their dreams.

I let my mind travel away from my current success to think about Zack for a moment. We'd had a great time after the BBQ, watched a movie, cuddled in the hammock out back and watched the stars come out while we iced his ankle. He stayed over, we fell asleep on the couch and that's where Mom found us when she came home from work the next morning. But he'd been distant this week. I had hopes for the long weekend we were entering. I was hoping he'd be up for going to the beach again at some point this weekend.

But I wasn't getting my hopes up.

It had been another week where we hadn't done much more than text and maybe talk before I fell asleep each night. I was busy studying for the finals that I'd taken this week and he was busy doing ... well, he hadn't actually ever told me what he was doing but apparently, his friends, again, had some odd jobs that he could help out on.

If I had to guess and put my finger on it, it felt like he was withdrawing from me. Having never had more than one date with anyone before, I didn't know if this was a stage before you got dumped or if it was just a sort of confusing time for a relationship to hit at the just over 6-week mark.

I know he's going out of state for school. He knows that I'm going to be in France for 2 years, in about 3 years. One way or the other, if we stayed together, there would be long distance relationship of one sort or another. In the states or in France, there wasn't going to be any way to avoid distance if we stayed dating. I wondered if we were gearing up for a 'so how is this going to work exactly' chat. I probably should be brave and just start the conversation, get a few ideas rolling in both of our heads so that we could have an educated discussion about where we were headed.

I was also puzzled about his friends. I mean, he'd met the rather small handful of people I could tenetively call friends at Prom. He'd met my entire extended family with all the extra brothers, most of whom seriously liked him. But he never called his brothers... a term which did make me wonder if he was somehow part of the Academy like Kota and the others... by name. He easily alternated between brothers and friends and at times I felt like asking for a clarification but he seemed to drop the line of conversation rather quickly.

So, was it me? He didn't see me as important enough to introduce me to the other important side of his life or was it them? He didn't WANT to introduce me to them.

So, which side of his life was lacking in trustworthy people?

I made it home from school, changed into clothes that I could work in the kitchen at the diner in without worrying about them and headed towards the diner. I was pleased as I approached to find Zack waiting, leaning up against his car in the parking lot. "Oh hey. I wasn't expecting to see you." I grinned at him, walking up close to him and stretching up to kiss him, my fingers hooking into his belt loop to steady myself.

He kissed me back but something felt distracted in his response. "I wasn't supposed to be here but something came up tonight so I won't be able to swing by later."