I'm Restless, Obsessed With Your Future

Dessa looks down at her shirt, completely shocked. Whatever was in that cup, it was cold, and it’s going to stain her white t-shirt a mysterious brown. Does she even have other white t-shirts? At home, maybe, but not in her dorm. She reluctantly lifts her head, looking into the eyes of a much taller man. The man who walked past her as she was talking to Alex backstage. The guitarist. He looks just as horrified as she does, she can imagine.

“I am so sorry,” Jack says, trying not to smile. He tends to do that when he’s a little embarrassed. He should really stop.

Dessa laughs.

This makes Jack smile more. He’s confused as to how he feels. She’s genuinely laughing. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? He just looks at her and laughs to himself awkwardly. "Uh…" He's at a loss.

When Dessa finally looks Jack straight into the eyes, she still seems somewhat uninterested in his apology. "It's fine, really." Her laughter has continued, though it is much more controlled than before. "I swear, nothing is going right today," she mumbles at a volume she believes he will not hear as she begins to walk past him.

But he heard her. And she's walking away. He feels like an asshole, never mind that it was an accident. He feels the urge to convince her otherwise. "Look," he begins. He doesn't quite know what he's going to say yet, but does he ever? He just needs an excuse to talk to her.

She reluctantly turns back around, and he notices her look of sheer disappointment. Immediately, she freezes, not knowing what to do. She knows that he sees her sadness. It frightens her.

Jack looks at her newly-colored shirt and comes up with what he thinks is a brilliant plan. "I'm really sorry, okay? Let me make it up to you. You can borrow a t-shirt for the night if you want."

Taken aback, Dessa widens her eyes enough to let him know that she’s surprised by his kindness. "Do you carry shirts with you?" she asks in a sarcastic tone, trying not to come off as nervous as she is.

He chuckles. "Nah, I just mean from Alex. He wouldn't mind." He watches her, hoping to get a reaction. She seems confused at first, but she nods. And he smiles. "Alright, follow me." He reaches for her hand, grabbing it and moving toward Alex's room, which isn't far. Once they get there, Jack lets go of Dessa's hand and opens the door, then walks inside.

Dessa walks in and closes the door, feeling immediate relief. She can often handle parties, but she's in a poor emotional state. In her thoughts, she looks toward the guitarist and sees him rustling through a drawer.

"Oh!" he says, pulling out a plain blue t-shirt. "I think this is mine, actually." He throws it to the girl across the room, and she catches it. "So, yeah, bathroom's over there so you can change." He points to a door to his right. Then he looks at her again. She is beautiful, he discovers, and it wasn't just his embarrassment that caused him to believe so. So something is going in his favor tonight. He runs from Danielle and finds… what's her name? "What's your name?" he asks.

She looks at him politely as she walks to the bathroom door. "Dessa."

Alex's Dessa.

To his pleasant surprise, she's not at all like Alex's type. Except for the nice ass, which he sneaked a look at when she closed the door. And the brunette hair. He's almost surprised at how good of taste Alex has tonight. Well… he's not completely wasted yet. That usually makes the difference. "Ah, Dessa," he says, confirming her name. This is what a Dessa looks like. He wonders if all Dessas are as gorgeous as her. "Alex has mentioned you."

At the sound of Alex's name, Dessa immediately reacts in a scoff. Alex has mentioned her. So he was plotting to get her. Lovely. "Ah, I see," she says, walking away from the bathroom and towards the guitarist. She tries to notice what he looks like in case she has to explain him to her friends the next morning. He's completely attractive, from his somewhat messy black hair to his smile. She's seen him smile a lot, actually. Maybe it's because of her. But maybe's he's drunk. "So he's already staked a claim."

"Yeah, sorry about him," apologizes Jack. "He's like that. Determined and all. You want me to tell him you're not interested?" Secretly, he's praying she’ll say yes.

She lights up at the kind gesture, though it's of no use since she plans on avoiding Alex anyway. "Oh, it's fine. I kind of ran away from him just before I ran into you, actually."

This astonishes him. He's heard of girls rejecting Alex, but so quickly? "Damn," he exclaims, clearly humored by this. "I don't think he's ever been rejected that fast."

She laughs, awkwardly of course. "Aw," she says sympathetically. This is Alex's friend, so she can't say anything bad about him. "That sucks..."

"Oh, no, don't worry about it." He shakes his head, even though he knows she's just being polite. "He needs people like you, or he'll go overboard with cockiness." Jack looks at her and realizes how unbelievably perfect his situation is. Here before him is what seems like a sweet, thoughtful girl who is as beautiful as she is adorable. Yep. Pretty perfect as far as he's concerned. "I'm Jack, by the way."

"Well, thank you for your shirt, Jack."

It's not until she reaches the bathroom that Jack realizes how close she was to him. Suddenly, he longs to get close to her again. Is he drunk? It's hard to tell when he's alone. He walks toward Alex's bed and lays down on it. The ceiling is spinning—okay, so he's drunk. Maybe that's why he wants to be with this girl. To talk to her, get to know her... Wait. That makes almost no sense. He's accepted that he's drunk, but it’s more than that. He doesn't want to bang this girl and leave her alone the next day. Just talk.

He sighs in confusion. He's felt like this before, this thrill of promise rushing through his veins. It's all so surreal.

Dessa peaks her head out of the bathroom door and sees Jack lying on the bed. Even though she didn’t expect him to, he waited for her. Her stomach flutters. Butterflies. Going against her fears, she makes her way to the bed and lies next to him. He looks at her, trying to think of what to say.

There's a lot he wants to say. For starters, she looks amazing in his shirt. She looks amazing in general, even with Coke and Grey Goose spilled all over her. He wants to grab her hand, her waist, her body. There's so much to talk about that he can't think of what to say first.

So he doesn't say anything. He just looks back to the ceiling and watches it spin.

If she wasn't nervous before, she is now. She needs to replace the silence.

Dessa grabs the phone out of her pocket. He's watching her now, and she notices, but she doesn’t look back so as to avoid an explanation. Odds are he's confused. That's fine. As long as he likes her music.

The song begins to play.

Jack's trying as hard as he can, but he honestly can't hold his excitement. "You're kidding."

"What?"

"'Josie.' You like blink-182."

And Dessa smiles again. "Literally my favorite band in the world."

"Really?"

"Yep. It's the only band my sisters and I ever agreed on."

"They're great guys."

"Wait, you know them?"

It’s sort of embarrassing that he mentioned that. He doesn't want to brag, especially not to someone he just met. Especially not to her. "We're not like, BFFs, but we're cool with each other. We've worked with Mark Hoppus before."

“What the fuck!” She chuckles in astonishment. “Let’s become best friends. Right now.”

Embarrassed? Nope.


“Favorite movie.”

“Home Alone, no exceptions.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously! I want that movie to be my life. Your favorite movie is probably some Disney princess shit.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. My favorite movie is Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

“That’s basically the same thing!”

“Is not! It’s a classic!” They laugh together.

Dessa and Jack are facing each other, she sitting cross-legged and he sitting up against the wall. It’s been almost an hour since the two started played Twenty Questions. Since then, they’ve learned about each other’s siblings, pets, favorite food, favorite color… maybe they’ve ask more than twenty questions. They haven’t really kept track. After all, they’ve been in this room for quite a long time.

“So,” Jack says after they’ve stopped laughing. “I’m cutting the bullshit.”

Dessa raises an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

He nods and looks at her with a curious expression. “Why’s today not your day?”

“What?”

“You said today wasn’t your day.”

She sighs. Her eyes wander away from him. “Well, my ex-boyfriend was at your show.”

Then he smiles. “Ah, fuck him!” He puts his hand on her knee as a comfort.

That marks the fourth time she’s heard someone say that. She’s slightly annoyed that Jack is using her bad news to his advantage. “It was a really recent break-up,” she admits.

Not good. Jack sinks a little in defeat, though not enough for Dessa to realize, and takes his hand back. She’s single, but she’s newly single and (most likely) still in a fragile state. She won’t even look at him when she talks about it. “What happened?” he asks. The break up could’ve been mutual. They could’ve split on good terms. She might’ve broken up with him, even. Just anything but—

“He cheated on me.”

“Fuck.”

She glances over to him in confusion.

He tries to process what he’s thinking. Did he say that out loud? “That’s so shitty. I’m sorry.” It sounds a little better now.

“I mean, it’s whatever,” she says casually. “No big deal. Just have to move on.”

“Exactly,” he says, putting his arm around her shoulder. He’s smiling again. “You’ll be fine.”

She shrugs under his embrace. “I guess.” She’s not very enthusiastic.

There’s a knock on the bedroom door. Is someone in there? says a voice from the other side.

Jack pauses. “Danielle.”

“What?”

“Shit, uh…” He looks at the door, then at Dessa. He can’t move away from this girl and hide, but he can’t have Danielle see him.

Then he remembers something—jealousy.

"Look, I’m sorry," Jack begins, trying to be courteous in presenting his plan. “But will you do me a favor?”

"Jack, what are you—"

The door opens.

He grabs Dessa and kisses her.