Under Jersey Skies

On Tuesday morning I walked into school to find a new guy hanging out with Gerard, Frank, Ray, Mikey, Bob, Arriana and Joey. He had long brown hair and blue eyes, with stubble like he hadn’t shaved in awhile. To be honest, he was kind of cute, but I decided I’d keep that opinion to myself.

“Good morning guys” I said warmly as I approached the group.

A few said hi, the others simply greeted me with a smile.

“And who might you be?” I asked the new guy.
“Oh hey, Jackie right? Gerard’s told me a lot about you, I’m Bert, Bert McCracken” he replied in a warm, kind voice.
“Is that so? Nice to meet you” I said.

He held his hand out to shake mine, and I smiled.

“In this group” I began, taking a step towards him.
“We greet new people like everyone else” I said, and pulled him into a hug, with a gentle pat on the back.
“Well in that case, nice to meet you too” he smiled.

I smiled in thanks before sitting down beside Frank, who grabbed my hand. I looked up when I heard a loud burst of laughter to see Jessica LaTovey, hand in hand with Korey Sullivan, walking towards us.

“Aww, you guys are sooo cute” Jessica said sarcastically, eyeing off me and Frank.
“Yeah, meant for each other” Korey added in the same sarcastic tone.
“Shut up guys, they’re just friends” snapped Bob.
“Sure didn’t look like that yesterday” said Jessica.
“What happened yesterday?” asked Gerard curiously.
“You haven’t told them?” Jessica asked me in a mock-shocked tone.
“Told us what?” asked Bob, directing the question towards Korey, but Jessica answered for him.
“Frank and Jackie are fucking each other” Jessica laughed, before taking Korey’s hand and walking away.

“Together would have been a more appropriate term, I’m a virgin!” I shouted after them.

I was infuriated. Not only just by the fact that Jessica had said I was sleeping with Frank, but that she had just blurted out our secret. Sure I knew it was bound to come out eventually, but Frank and I wanted to be the ones to tell the others, not have them hear it come from Jessica and Korey.

“Just ignore her Jackie” Ray said reassuringly.
“Yeah, don’t listen to her lies” Bob added.
“But she’s not lying” I said quietly.
“Jackie” Frank said, trying to stop me from telling the others.
“So you guys?…” Ray trailed off.
“No, we’re not sleeping together” I began, trying to ignore Frank’s expression, which was pleading me to stop.
“We’re just…together” I admitted after a moment’s pause.

Bob and Ray smiled.

“That’s great!” said Ray.
“Yeah, good on you guys” smiled Bob.

“What’s great?” asked Mikey, lowering the comic book he’d been reading.
“Jackie and Frank are together” piped up Arriana, who was sitting next to Ray.
“Awesome!” replied Mikey, Joey nodded in agreement.

I turned to Gerard and Bert, waiting to hear their opinion. Bert merely just smiled, Gerard on the other hand, stared into the distance, a somewhat sad look on his face.

“Gerard?” I said worriedly.
“Yeah, I’m happy for you two” he replied with a weak smile, but didn’t sound too convincing.

I bit my lip, worried about Gerard before Frank wrapped me in a tight hug. #Looking over Frank’s shoulder, I noticed Joey and Mikey sitting a little way away from the rest of us. Joey was sitting with his face in his hands, and Mikey was talking to him. Mikey’s hand was on Joey’s back, indicating Joey was obviously upset and Mikey was trying to comfort him.

“You okay?” Frank asked as he pulled away, noticing the concerned look on my face.
“Yeah, I’m fine” I replied with a fake but convincing smile.

It obviously worked, as Frank smiled back. He put a hand on my cheek and kissed me, and I let myself forget about Joey for a moment. I pulled away suddenly as Gerard cleared his throat.

“Bert and I are gonna go, see you guys at lunch” he said.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“We’re just gonna go hang with Quinn, Jeph and Dan” Bert replied with a smile.
“Who?” I asked.
“They’re friends of mine” said Bert.
“Oh, okay, see you later then” I smiled.

Bert waved goodbye, but Gerard just stalked off without a word…

***

I sat in English answering chapter questions from a worksheet about the book we were reading; Cage Of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard.

“Pretty cool book isn’t it?” I asked Joey.
“Yeah” he replied dully, he didn’t seem very happy today.

I looked behind him and noticed Arriana wasn’t sitting in her usual seat. In fact, when I looked around the rest of the room, I noticed Arriana wasn’t in the classroom at all.

“Joey, where’s Arriana?” I asked him.
“Library” he answered.
“Why?” I asked.
“She’s doing her work in there” he replied, stating the obvious.
“Why the library?” I asked.
“Because Ray asked her to, he has a free this lesson okay?” he hissed.

He was in a really bad mood, but I was determined to find out why. I cleared my throat before speaking again.

“What’s up with you today?” I asked.
“Nothing” he replied.
“I saw you at recess, you didn’t seem too happy” I said.
“So what?” he snapped, I could tell he was really getting angry now.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing!” he snapped.
“Bullshit” I said.
“Just leave it ok?” he said, trying to go on with his work.
“No, just tell me what’s wrong” I pleaded.
“I SAID LEAVE IT!” he roared.

A few heads turned in our direction.

“Calm down dude” said Mr Tanner, looking up from his Rocksound magazine.

I liked about Mr Tanner, he didn’t call us by our last names or send us out if we yelled, unless we got out of hand of course.

“You can trust me Joey, you know that right?” I asked Joey in my gentlest voice possible.

Joey dropped his pen and looked over at me, stretching his arms out across the table. He sighed deeply and buried his face in his hands.

“We’ve always been so close” Joey began, he took a deep breath and continued.
“But I barely ever see Arriana these days, it’s like, ever since you introduced us to Gerard’s friends, Arriana’s been spending more and more time with Ray, and less time with me” Joey explained.

I felt a sudden wave of guilt wash over me, I was responsible for the sadness Joey felt right now. I snapped out of my thoughts as Joey took another deep breath and began again.

“There’s even times when we’ll have planned something, and then on the day we’re supposed to do it she calls me and tells me she can’t make it because she’s hanging out with Ray” he said.

I reached out and grabbed his hand, understanding his pain, I’d been in the same position as he was before. I wondered if there was anything I could do to make him smile, I felt so guilty.

“You really love her, don’t you Joey?” I asked.

Joey looked over at me, and biting his lip, he nodded. My eyes softened and I smiled.

“Then fight for her” I whispered…

***

The classroom was silent as I sat in Science that afternoon, Mrs. Veriton was watching us like a hawk as we worked through the questions from our textbooks on the formation and life spans of Suns and Black Holes. We’d finally finished studying Physics and had moved onto Earth and Space, the section of Science I was actually good at.

The silent atmosphere lifted as Mrs. Veriton granted us permission to talk again, and a murmur of different voices having different conversations began to echo around the room.

I dropped my pen down on the table, planning to not work for the rest of the lesson. Out of the 20 questions; 10 for the Sun and 10 for Black Holes, I had finished 15. I was tired and looking forward to going home, I’d do the remaining questions for homework later.

I looked over at Gerard, who had his sketch pad out, sitting on the page of his book that he hadn’t written on yet. He had begun to draw the outline of two people, I couldn’t really make out their appearance yet though, he was still only sketching the body shapes.

“Who are they?” I asked, wondering if they were characters he’d made up.
“No-one” he answered, but he kept his eyes on the paper in front of him.
“Oh okay” I said.

For some reason, there was an awkwardness between us. It was weird, and I wondered what was causing it.

“So, Bert seems nice” I said in an effort to make conversation.
“Yeah, he’s pretty cool” Gerard replied dully.
“You okay? You’re not talking much” I asked with concern.

Gerard nodded, eyes still fixed on his drawing.

“What’s wrong” I asked, seeing right through him.
“Nothing” he mumbled.
“Gerard” I sighed, putting my hand on his shoulder.
“Jackie, I’m fine, I promise” he said, turning his head to face me.

His eyes were pleading me to leave him alone, and a not too convincing smile played on his lips. I sighed and took my hand off his shoulder, and we spent the rest of the lesson in silence while all the while Gerard stayed focused on his drawing…