Jealous Minds Think Alike

Two days had passed since that incident.

The girls were suspended, everything went back to normal, vice versa. I mean, I could still hear lingering rumors and whispering, but everyone knew better than to comfort me about it. Since that day, John stayed by my side. The rest of The Summer Set seemed a bit wary of the incident, but still continued to talk to me. As for Mary, she was heading back to California today after school. You wouldn't believe how fast we ran when the final bell rang, well....the gang ran. My feelings towards her didn't change as much, so I sped walked instead.

“Why are you leaving today?” Josh moaned, hugging her waist tightly. “There was so much we still had to do!”

“I promise I'll come back again during the summer, where you guys don't have school.”

“You better call us!” Jess pouted.

“And email!” Brian chimed in.

“Don't forget web cam, so we can see your pretty little face again.” Josh winked. She laughed at gave him a kiss on the cheek. In fact, she gave one to everyone. I looked at her closely when she hugged John, he gave her a tight hug. Finally, she stopped at me.

“Jaycee,” She pulled me to the side. “I have a few things to say to you, if you don't mind.”

I forced a smile. “Fire away.”

“I don't want you to break John's heart. I don't want you to make the same mistake I did.”

“I won't. I realize how unfaithful I was to John and now I'm prepared to change. John trusts me and I can't betray him, not matter how much I like Stephen.”

“So you'll get over Stephen?”

“It'll be hard, but I think I can manage.” I bit my lip. “John wasn't really my type.”

“Okay, I hope the best for you two.” She nodded. “Oh, by the way, I think John really really likes you.”

“How can you tell?”

“The look in his eyes. You can just tell that he really cares for you. Trust me, he never looked at me the same way he looked at you.”

“No! Haven't you seen the way he looked at you when he came back!? He still loves you!” I blurted out. My eyes widened and I clamped my hands over my mouth, John gave me a curious stare.

“Trust me,” Mary laughed. “John is over me! You're the one he's got eyes for. I know him and I've also dated a handful of guys. I can tell you know.”

I blushed and looked down at my feet. Just a while ago, John and I were always fighting and screaming about how much we've hated each other. So much things have changed since then. I never thought John would “like” me. I also had to nerve to talk to Stephen again since the past.

“So next time,” I woke out of my daydream and completely forgot that Mary was still speaking. “When I come back, I better see you and John as a lovey dovey couple, okay?” She gave me a wink. “I also hope to see that Stephen is forgiven and hanging out with you guys again.” Mary's lips slightly dropped. “Okay?”

“I promise. I promise things will be different when you come back.” She took my hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

“Thank you.” She whispered.

I had no right to promise anything, but I swear I was going to make things right.

Xxx

~The next day~

“I miss Mary!” John moaned. It was just another day in creative writing class, which was just free write today.

“She's only been gone yesterday.” I replied back in a sour voice. I was right. He did still love her.

“But don't you miss her too?” He poked me with the end of his pencil and frowned.

“Kind of.” I admitted. I didn't really care too much for Mary to be honest, but it was strange to not see her bouncy blonde hair hanging out with us anymore, even if it was just three days. I turned to John, who was no longer listening to me, but was now humming a tune to himself while scribbling away in his notebook. “John, did you hear what I said?”

“Yeah.” he said without looking back up, as he went back to humming. I rolled my eyes. I didn't understand his mood changes.

“Oh by the way, I'm going home by myself today.” In that instant, John snapped his head away from his notebook in a mili second.

“The heck?”

“You don't have to come walk with me today.”

“Why not?” he demanded. I took a double take. I didn't realize that he cared this much.

“I gotta clean the house, because my grandmother is coming to visit.”

“Lame!” He groaned loudly, going back to his notebook. “I guess that's okay, because today is the first time ever in a while that we're doing a band rehearsal.”

“No way.” I gasped. “I thought you don't do them anymore because with the whole Stephen business and all....”

“Naw. We decided to just do it without him already. Can you believe that? It took us a couple of months to say, 'Screw you!' Brian even said we might hold auditions for a new bass player!” John was literally jumping up and down in his seat. “OH! What if you become our new bass player? You could take lessons and it would be insane. That way Jess wouldn't complain about being the only girl anymore.”

“I'm not much of the instrument playing type.” I laughed. I really wasn't.

“Jaycee!” Ms. Swan motioned her finger towards me. “Do you mind running a little errand to me and delivering this to Mr. Hudson's room?”

“No problem.” I received a large envelope and left the classroom. Then I stopped.

A certain somebody was standing in the alone in the quiet hallway. He was holding a silver bag, the type to contain a Christmas or birthday present. He gave me a smile.

“Hey Jaycee.”

“Hey Stephen....” I said slowly. “A-Are you waiting for someone?”

“I was waiting for you.”

“How did you know I was just about to leave the classroom?”

“I'm gonna be honest, you don't' really have to deliver anything to Mr. Hudson. I just put it on your teacher's desk and she assumed it was delivered to her by mistake.”

“I'm going back to class,” I murmured, turning around.

“I knew it! You have been avoiding me!”

“What?”

“You heard me. I know you've been avoiding me recently. And I wanna know why.”

“Who says I'm avoiding you?”

“Well it's pretty obvious whenever you see me, you suddenly turn the other way and avoid eye contact. You also ignore my text messages, when I'm just trying to be friendly!”

“So what are you? Some kind of stalker?”

“No. Just someone who really wants to talk to you.” Stephen walked over to me, his face a couple of inches away. “I also forgot to give you this.” He held out the bag and I took it. Inside the back was a blue penguin stuffed animal, holding a plastic rose.

“What's this for?”

“Last year, you tutored me in Japanese and I ended up passing because of you.”

“You....remembered?”

“Look, I'm sorry for forgetting it. And most of all, I'm sorry for forgetting about you.” Then he did the most surprising thing. Stephen gave me a hug, the penguin tightly pressed between our chests.

“Stephen...”

“I'm sorry. You must've thought I was a huge douchebag. To be perfectly honest, I still am.”

“No you're not. Don't think like that. You are not a douchebag, I swear. In fact you're - “

“I like you.” That took all the words out of my mouth.

I finally gathered the courage to speak up. “W-Wha?”

“I've started liking you since last year, ever since you were chosen to tutor me. I never got the courage to say anything, because I thought a sophomore like you wouldn't like a senior. And....Karen came along. She was hot and I guess you can say that she did seduce me, but you're freaking beautiful. Trust me, it's a lot more meaningful when a guy calls you beautiful.”

“What the hell Stephen!?” I yelled at him. “You dated Karen for sex!? You broke my heart because you told her in the cafeteria that you loved her! I loved you! I always dream of the day I would suddenly wake up with courage to ask you out! If you liked me, then why didn't you say anything!? Why did you assume like that? Haven't you ever considered the feeling that I might have liked you too?”

“Jaycee,” Stephen finally said after a moment of silence. “Open up the envelope.”

“Why?”

“There's something inside that I want you to see.”

He had a pleading look on his face, so I gave in and opened the envelope, pulling out a freshly printed piece of paper. There was probably a million words in small text, that I didn't wanna read.

“What the hell is this?”

“It's my own contract. It states that you get to be with me for as long as you want. Not just one year.”

“B-But Brian's contract...”

“If you remain unfaithful, then basically the contract is useless and you 'break up' with John. It's a loophole I found.”

It was that simple! I didn't see it before I was over-analyzing it! All I had to do was cheat on John!

But....I promised myself, John, and Mary....that I wouldn't break any hearts. I made a commitment and I chose to stick with John and get over to Stephen.

I swallowed hard and turned back again. “I-I'm going back.” I dropped the penguin and the envelope on the floor.

“Please Jaycee, wait!” Stephen grabbed my hand. “Please go out with me!” My breath went shallow. “I don't know if you still like me, but I know I do! Please! I broke up with Karen just to be with you!”

“You....broke up with Karen?”

“I cross my heart that I won't treat you like some toy that I'll get tired of, the way I treated Karen. I'll stand by you always and it was my mistake that I never helped you in any of your time of need. I never had courage, until now. Being around you lot more is slowly increases it. Please Jaycee, you don't know how much times you put a smile to my face. I want you to be mine.”

I looked into Stephen's truthful eyes. Turns out the old feelings really did never left me at all.