You, Always

Chapter Twenty-Four: Jess

"How did you even know where I lived? I thought you weren't coming for another couple weeks." I'm shocked she's stood right in front of me. It feels like years since I last saw her.

"Chillout, Dee," She starts to laugh a little. "Noah got it from some girl you guys know, Mia is it? I just wanted to surprise you."

"I can't believe you're actually here. When did you arrive?" I say, still shocked. 

"Just now, I didn't know what time you'd show." I hear someone clear their throat and my attention is drawn to Cole.

"Do I know deserve an introduction, Princess?" He smirks and my smile falters when I see the seductive look in Jess' eyes.

I feel slightly nauseous.

See the thing is, Jess has a couple of things in common with Cole's old ways.

"Right, sorry," I scooter over back to Cole and I'm at his side. "Cole meet Jess. Jess meet Cole," I look up at him while he's looking down at me smiling. "my boyfriend."

The look on her face tells me she's attracted to him. Who wouldn't? But she might as well be drooling when she finally speaks. "Damn, Dee. He's hot. Like sexy model hot."

She's probably just teasing.

"Like I said, he's my boyfriend." I fake a laugh and Jess scoffs while rolling her eyes.

"No need to get bitchy about it. He's all yours."

I know he's 'all mine' because he's my boyfriend.

She's never spoken this way towards me before. Talk about mood swings. The way she speaks makes the hairs on my arms stand up.

I just fake a smile but I notice Cole tense up beside me after her little remark. When I look down, I notice his clenched fists.

Looks like he's just as bothered by the comment as I am.

"Well, let's go indoors. You coming?" I look at Cole and his eyes aren't on me anymore. They're on Jess and you can tell by the look on his face that he's pissed by what she said.

"I'm gonna head back. Make the most of the time my parents have today." I nod but he finally tears his eyes away from Jess to look at me. His eyes soften instantly.

"Call me if you need anything okay?" I nod and he kisses me, mumbling "I'll pick you up tomorrow." against my lips.

I wave and once he's gone, I turn to Jess. "I'll invite Noah and Mia. We can watch a movie or something. Mia would love to meet you." Jess scrunches up her face.

"Actually, how about you just call Noah? It can be like the old times." As much as I miss times when it was us three, I can't just leave Mia out of the loop. Not only is she my best friend around here, she's friends with Noah as well

Just by how kind she is, I know she would understand if I didn't invite her but I'm not willing to do that.

"I think maybe we should call Mia. You're not going to be here long and I'll love for you to meet her." She smiles—which I immediately pick up as fake—and nods.

Once we're inside, Josh is in the lounge watching tv. "Josh, this is Jess. She's visiting and is gonna be staying here a couple days."

I've already spoken about Jess staying here to my Aunt and Uncle when I knew she was coming down in a couple weeks. I can't see why her staying early would be a problem.

Josh mumbles a quick hey but doesn't pay much attention.

"Wait, what about school?" I ask. If she came at the weekend, we could see each other the whole day but I'll be at school.