10 More Minutes With You

Chapter 3
Jessica’s POV

When I woke up, my head was throbbing. I slowly opened my eyes, and sighed in relief when I found that the room was dark. I looked around and noticed that I was on the floor, laying in between Mikey and Gerard, both of whom were asleep. I heard a soft noise coming from the kitchen, so I got up to see what it was. My cell phone was sitting on the counter, vibrating.

“Hello?” I whispered softly into the phone, not wanting to wake up the guys sleeping one room over.

“Jessica, where have you been?” My friend Jenny demanded. “I’ve been calling you since last night!”

“Sorry Jen. I was at the Way’s house. Why were you calling?” I waited for her response. I loved Jenny, but sometimes, she over reacted, and caused pointless drama. A lot of girls do that, I guess that’s why my two best friends in the world are guys. I avoid drama whenever I can.

“I was wondering if you saw the new kid at school yesterday. He was adorable,” She squealed. “ He had brown hair, that was really long in the front, and he was wearing cute skinny jeans, and he had a Misfits t- shirt on. He looked like you’re type!” Oh god, now she was trying to get me to like a guy that I have never seen in my life.

“Oh, I didn’t see him. Maybe I will Monday.” I said, trying to sound at least slightly excited. The idea of meeting a guy that Jenny thought was ‘my type’ worried me. The guys she thought were my type almost always ended up being jerks.

“I can’t wait for you to meet him!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Oh! Someone else is calling me. Call me later Jess. Bye!” I closed my phone and walked back into the room where Mikey and Gerard were peacefully sleeping. I looked at my phone, a saw that it was almost 11am. Might as well wake them up, I thought as smiled down at them. I figured they had hangovers too, so instead of being loud to wake them, I nudged them softly. Mikey stirred first, rolling over and looked up at me. He rubbed his eyes sleepily, then groaned, his headache probably alerting him. I turned my attention to Gerard and rubbed my fingers gently through his long hair. He sighed pleasantly, and his eyelids fluttered open.

“Morning,” I said, smiling at them. They both groaned, and I took that as a good morning. “I’m gonna get going guys. Thanks so much for last night. I had so much fun. Maybe less time a little less vodka though,” I told them, genuinely grateful that I had such amazing friends. I gave them both a hug, them still laying on the ground, and then gathered up my stuff and headed home.

The walk home was short, and the crisp fall air felt good. When I reached my house, I took out my keys and slowly opened the front door. My dad was sprawled on the couch, sleeping off a hangover I’m sure.

My dad seemed to always be either drunk or hung over, but he wasn’t always that way. He was completely in love with my mom, but they didn’t get to spend much time together cause he was always working. One night, my dad came home early from a business trip, and walked into his bedroom and found his wife naked on top of another guy.

I was only 11 at the time but I knew my mom had done something bad. I heard them yelling for a long time, then it got quite. I fell asleep worried that night. I woke up early the next morning and went downstairs and found my dad sitting at the kitchen table, his eyes big and puffy from crying. It was the only time I have ever seen him cry.

That day I realized that my life would never be the same. My mom called me once a week to talk to me, but I rarely stayed on the phone with her very long. It wasn’t until a year or so after that I realized exactly what my mom had done, and when I found that out, I stopped answering her calls at all.

The first few days she was gone, my dad locked himself in his room, saying he was sick. I remember wondering if having a broken heart can really make you sick. Then I noticed the beer bottles in the trash. A few months after it happened, I walked up to my dad and told him he needed to go out and work. I told him that I lost one parent and that I couldn’t loose the other. He snapped out of his ‘sick’ phase, and went back to work regularly. He even cooked dinner for me every night when he got home. But that only lasted for a few months.

He started to drink again, but this time he at least went to work every day. I began shifting positions and became the parent. I made sure we both had clean clothes, and that we had food in the house. I cooked dinner, and made sure that if I didn’t, there was always something in the fridge that he could just pop in the microwave.

We talked less and less, and soon I hardly saw him. At school, I had drifted away from all my old friends. When I was 12 I met Mikey, and him and I instantly became friends. I met his brother, and the three of us became inseparable. We’ve been that way for 4 years. During that time, we had all faced hard times, and have had friends turn on us and stab us in the back, but we managed to make it through with each other.

Ms. Way called me her daughter and I loved it. She was my mom as far as I was concerned. When she went to exotic places, she sometimes got her sons small gifts, and she would also get me one. My desk was cluttered with little key chains an other trinkets from places like Hawii and Canada and Mexico. I even had a little glass bird from Venice that she got me for my 14th birthday. The bird was only about and inch tall, and two inches long, with the tail included. It was made out of fogged glass, and its head was a lovely blue. Its tail was green and its beak was bright orange. That was the thing I cherished the most. It was the best gift I have ever gotten.

The Way brother’s were my brothers. We told each other everything in the world. And we spent the night at each others house constantly. At first our friends thought I was in a relationship with one of them, and that was why I spent the night with them, but after seeing the three of us together, no one could ever think that. In the past 5 years of my life, things had always been changing, most the time for the worse, but Gerard and Mikey helped me get through everything, and there was no way we would ever drift apart.