The Beast

E L E V E N : h e S Q U E A L E D

As soon as they reached home, Jessie retreated to her room as Theo had suspected she would. He didn't get in right away. He knew what it was to be confronted to a past you had never wanted to begin with.

He kept the food they had gotten on the counter, hoping silently that Jessie was going to be alright.

Jessie on her part was still reeling from seeing her sister. It had been four years since they had seen and heard from each other and Jessie had tried to forget Pattie and the terrible memories that came along with her presence.

Pattie was Jessie's adoptive sister and Jessie had trusted her with all she had, until the former went ahead and betrayed her in a very stupid manner.

Jessie sighed and got out of the bed she had been sitting on. She put her curly hair in a bun and went to the bathroom and washed her face to remove the tear tracks.

After that, she moved to the living room. She knew Theo was worried and staying in the bedroom was going to worry him even more. So she went to see him. And besides, she was kind of hungry for all the food they had ordered and not gotten to eat.

As soon as she got into the living room, Theo jumped up from where he was sitting making her laugh. She got that he was worried but that was the most dramatic and funniest thing she had ever seen him do.

"Are you okay?", he asked her, holding her by the arms.

"Yeah, I'm fine", she replied dismissively, looking up at him with a sweet smile. "Just hungry"

Theo laughed a little at that and moved to the kitchen and got the food they were supposed to eat and some plastic plates.

They sat on the couch a safe distance from each other and started eating. It was too quiet, or so Jessie thought.

She shot a fry at Theo and muffled a laugh when she heard the surprised noise he made.

"Game on," he whispered at shot two back her and they lost themselves in the hair she had untied.

Jessie laughed then said jokingly, "You're not cute enough for me to waste my food on you"

"Really?", Theo teased and came towards her. They were done with the food, the only thing left on the plate were those soggy fries no one like to eat.

Theo put the plates on the floor and held Jessie captive under him. She was giggling uncontrollably and he decided to increase her laughter. He started tickling her.

"I'm not ticklish", she informed him, smiling mischievously.

Theo had noticed because tickling her even in the most sensitive of zones had no effect.

"But the real question is, are you?", she continued, the same mischievous smile on her face.

Theo froze and that basically gave him away. Jessie attacked him with her tickling hands and he SQUEALED.

Jessie burst out into laughter, falling on the floor because she was laughing so hard.

"Did you h-hear t-t-the noise y-you just made?", she asked Theo through her laughter.

Theo smiled affectionately. It was the first time he was seeing Jessie so cheerfully and he decided that he liked it. He helped her goofy ass from the floor and held her between his legs.

They were silent for a little while before Jessie broke the silence.

"What do you do, Theo? I mean your profession", she asked playing with his fingers.

"Computer programmer. You know the only job I can safely do without having to go into town everyday", he responded.

Jessie now understood why, though it seemed like he stayed around his house doing nothing, he could spend money as he wished.