I Dare You

Chapter 4

         COLE

         She abruptly hit the brakes and stepped out while I had a mini heart attack and I just sat there, frozen, trying to catch my breath. "Are you freakin' crazy?!" "Probably" she said, throwing a wink in my direction and started walking away.  "god help me.." I muttered to myself and quietly followed her. 

           She lead me through a forest-like path that sent shivers down my spine. "Are you going to kill me? Because if you are, just get it over with already." If you couldn't already guess, I said that because she was intimidating to another level. She scared the shit out of me! but i also felt at ease around her. Trust me, I know how confusing it is. The path led to a beautiful lake. It was exquisite and gave out an aesthetic vibe. There was a small boat floating in a distance, looking picture perfect. There was a wooden plank leading to the water, probably made to jump off of. We both sat there in a comforting silence until I decided to speak. "So what's your name? We haven't even officially met yet.. I'm Cole Davis." "Jess Rodgers." she stated in a finalising tone. "Well, you said that we knew each other..how? I don't remember you." She threw her hand to her chest and spoke, "ouch. broke me heart already, monkey." Only one person had ever called me that. Just with that one simple word, a flood of memories rushed back to me. How did I not put this together earlier? How was I that dumb! "shit." "So you do remember me?" she said with a raised eyebrow and a smirk plastered on her face. This brought back a lot of memories I buried down long ago. She wasn't just 'Jess', she was my Jessica!

            Since I was a kid, the furthest memory I have is being a big happy family with us and our neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers. And of course, the breathtaking 'Jess' was their child, my childhood best friend. I had a huge crush on her as a child as well, with her deep green eyes shining in the dark, holding in so much mystery and wonder, who wouldn't have? Even though she was a very straightforward and bold person, she was always different with me. I was the only one who had seen her gentle side, who had truly seen her vulnerable. Like our moms, our dads were also best friends and they were both in her the garage one evening, working on their cars, when it got caught on fire. We both tried to save them but at six years, none of us could manage to do much. By the time actual help arrived, they had both passed away. They died on the spot, their lungs not being able to get enough oxygen. 

             We were always together but this incident made us drift. She changed. She stopped talking to me, stopped coming over and started ignoring me every time I tried reaching out to her. This shattered my heart, considering the fact that my father had just died and all I wanted was the support and comfort of my best friend.

             Soon, they moved away and after a while, I got so caught up in school, I managed to forget about her for a while. But the day I saw her in the hallway, I knew I recognised her. I knew something was up. But all I could think about now, looking at her, was how much I missed her.. How much Ionged for her to be back in my life. But I couldn't just let the past repeat itself. I had to be more careful with her now, but I also wanted to be her best friend again. To have her by my side through everything. Goddammit, I missed her so freaking much!