"So how is everyone?" Jesse came over with his stuff and sat with us.

"Pretty good, Jesse. How are you?" Darlene said politely.

"I'm doing great, Darlene!" Jesse's attention turned to me.

"And Jean? How are you?"

"Fine." I said.

"Mind if I ask you a few things?"

"Sure."

"What is your favorite subject?" He asked.

"I don't know. I guess English, and math I guess. But I really like English. I like writing." I answered.

"Really? What do you write about?"

"Dark topics. You know, like depression, suicide, death, accidents, stuff like that. But when I do write, it's about those things."

"Wow. Any positive things?" Jesse snickered.

"Sometimes."

"Why are you so into that stuff?"

"I don't know. That kind of stuff just grabs my attention. It fascinates me."

"Okay then." Jesse said cautiously. "Moving on."

"Shoot."

"When's your birthday?"

"February 10th. So I'm 14. I'll be 15 in 6 months." I said.

"Happy early Birthday then!"

"Thanks." I said.

"What's your earliest memory?"

"Oh lord." Darlene face palmed.

"Being born." I said proudly.

"Jean, we've been over this. You can't remember being born you'd be too young to remember that."

"You remember being born?"

"Yes and nobody believes me. Not even my best friend." I looked directly at Darlene.

"But it's impossible. You can't. You were 5 seconds old you can't remember anything at 5 seconds old."

"It's slightly possible." Jesse defended.

"Thank you!" I laughed, looking at Jesse who was laughing along with me. Darlene continued to shake her head.

"Now let me ask you something." I said.

"Okay." Jesse said looking at the clock.

"Why are you asking all these-"

"Wait actually, I gotta go, but I will catch you tomorrow, right?"

"What's tomorrow?"

"Community Counseling. At 5. Bye!" He said skidding out of the cafeteria.

Darlene suddenly started to snicker.

"What?"

"He forgot his books."

Just as she said that, he came running back.

"Forgot my books." He laughed nervously. "Oh,
I forgot! Here's this."

He handed me a scrap piece of paper.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Flip it over."

I flipped it over to see a bunch of numbers. It said 'Jesse Hathaway's house phone'.

AHHHHHH!!!

"You should call me later tonight."

"O-oh-Kay." My voice cracked. He kind of laughed at my embarrassment.

~~~~~~

After school, I called Jesse and we confirmed that we were still on for our plans today. So Ramona drove me over to his address and dropped me off saying don't do anything she would do in front of boys.

I'm so nervous! I feel dizzy! I feel like my heart was fall out of my butt! I feel sweat coming from all places!

I knocked on the door as I looked back at Ramona who was giving me a thumbs up.

A tall woman answered the door. She had blonde hair that was a little below her polar bone, she wore a yellow shirt, light blue skinny jeans, and white vans with a white apron wrapped around her body. She kind of looked like Amy Phoeler She was covered in a white powder; probably flour or something. She was probably in the middle of baking. She looked down at me.

"Hi, I'm Jean. Jesse and I had plans to hang out today."

"Oh you're that one girl he met at community counseling. Hi, I'm Terri, Jesse's mom." She shook my hand and led me inside.

Damn! This place is nice!

Their house was clean; I mean really clean! It looked like a hotel but not exactly, you know? But it was just as good. The hardwood floor was shiny and slippery. Where I followed Terri, it was in the kitchen and it had one of those island counters. Which I found that to be cool.

"Sorry about the mess. I do my own cake business." She said.

"That's okay. I don't mind at all." I said.

"You should hear some of the things Jesse says. He never shuts up about you. He's always saying like 'oh this girl Jean I met is so cute" and 'she's so mysterious. She fascinates me.' It's like he's obsessed or something."

"Really?" I laughed.

"Yeah but I shouldn't keep you waiting. Jesse is in the living room watching his little sisters." She nudged toward the room next door where I heard little girls squealing and laughing.

"Thanks." I said.

~~~~~~

"Jesse?" I called.

"Hey Jean!" He looked up at me as he was on the floor with the girls. It looked like he had one of them pinned down.

"Oooooh Jesse's got a girlfriend." The little blonde girl cooed. The other girl started giggling.

The shortest girl had really bright long blonde hair that reached last her waist and it was braided. She also had bright blue eyes. The other girl had dirty blonde hair like Jesse's but
Jesse's was a bit darker. She had green eyes.

"Hey, Jean." Jesse smiled, still holding down the dirty blonde girl.

"Hey." I said.

"These are my little sisters." He nudged. "The one next to you is Daisy and the one I'm holding hostage is Grace." He said as he continued to hold her down.

"Hi." Daisy and Grace said.

"Hi." I said shyly. They bubbly smiled and waved at me.

"Alright girls go do something else. Well finish our round later." Jesse said letting Grace up off the floor.

The girls scurried off upstairs.

"So yeah. Those were my sisters. Daisy is 6 and Grace is 8. They're good girls."

"I see you have a really good relationship with them. You're lucky." I said.

"I like kids. They're cute. Plus they're smaller than you so they can't crush you."

"Who crushed you?"

"Oh nothing. Never mind." He waved. "Mind if I show you around?"

"Sure."

~~~~~~

Jesse's house was huge. I mean compared to mine, his was a mansion. He showed me the girls' room, which was pink and had a lot of dolls and posters of a boy band that's meant for little girls. Like One Direction for example....

He showed me his room and we stayed up there for a while. His room looked like your average teenage boys room. It was messy and it definitely smelled like a boys room. He had a collection nerf guns on his floor along with his dirty laundry. His bed was messed up and it was a batman comforter on it.

"Mind if I ask you something?" Jesse asked, breaking the silence.

Oh no...

"Sure."

"Why do you fight it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why aren't you accepting my flirting? Like, I'm hinting to you that you're cute and stuff. You're either not returning it or you're acting like you're not interested or once in a while you give me a little sign that you like it but then you shut me out. You're kinda giving me mixed signals so can you just tell me you're not interested so we can move on?"

What?

"Jesse...I," I was totally speechless.

Okay, this was it. I had to tell him how I feel. I didn't want him to hate me. Maybe I could have a slight chance with him.

"Okay I need to say this before it hurts one of us. Jesse, I like you. I really, really like you. I've just been down a road where a lot of guys fucked up my trust. I'm sorry. But what I'm trying to say is that I really like you. I find you incredibly sweet and it's too good to be true." I explained.

"Jean, unlike all the other assholes in our school, I'm the one who actually gives a damn about you. Besides Darlene of course. I'm not gonna abandon you and treat you like a sac of shit or lead you on. I understand where you're coming from. I've been hurt too." Jesse said.

"Oh yeah you were forced into sex too." I said sarcastically.

"I have!" He shouted.

"Wait what?"

"You know Amanda Bryers?"

"Yeah she picks on me everyday. Why?"

"Her and I used to date last year. She only wanted me to get back at another girl who went out with her ex and she was trying to win him back. So she used me to make him jealous. And I heard a rumor that she also used me because she thought I was the most dumbest. So yeah, I know a little about being underestimated. I know exactly what you mean."

This information could be quite useful.

I can't believe she would do that to a guy like him. I feel bad for him.

"I'm sorry. I guess I didn't want to open up to you so fast because I thought you'd be like other guys. I just don't want to get hurt again."

"Well I know this'll sound cliché but I'm giving you the 100% honest truth. I'm not like other guys. In fact I think the majority of the guys at our school are assholes anyway."

"Yeah they are. I can tell you're not like them. But I just get paranoid about everything easily. I don't know why." I explained.

"Same here. I keep thinking every girl is somewhat of a player. Like when ever a girl talks to me voluntarily, I feel like they just want something out of me." Jesse said.

"Well I wouldn't do that to any guy. I'm nothing like Amanda and I can guarantee that never will be like her."

"Yeah I had a different feeling about you when you first spoke to me. I knew that you were different."

"I am."

It was silent for what seemed like an hour even though it was really a minute.

"Jean, will you go out with me?" Jesse blurted out.

I just stared at him.

"Why?" I said as he laughs at my answer.

"What do you mean why? Do you want to go out with me; yes or no?"

"I-I don't know. Why do you like me?"

"I don't wanna jump too fast here so how about this; if you agree to go out with me, I'll tell you why I like you later in our relationship. It'll be like a surprise. But for now I'll tell you part of the reason why I like you; let's just say I like mysteries."

"So I'm mysterious to you?" I asked raising an eyebrow in confusion.

He nods.

"Okay then. But when do you plan to tell me the rest?"

"When I think the time is right."

"Which is.....?" I motioned for him to continue.

"Not too far away. Trust me."

"Okay. I'll go out with you."

"Okay sweet!" He smiled really big. Then he started to do something weird. He started dancing around and screaming of happiness. I started laughing pretty hard at his little show.

"What're you doing?" I laughed.

"I'm doing my happy dance, duh." He spun around.

"But why?"

"You." He turned and stopped to face me.
Gosh, he was tall. I was about a good 10 inches shorter than him. I guess I haven't hit my growth spurt yet.

Could I really make someone that happy?

A/N....FINALLY I PUBLISHED CHAPTER 9 after 4 WEEKS!!!!! I'm extremely sorry that you had to wait so long for this to be out but I wanted to make this absolutely perfect. So here you are!! Thank you for you're patience and support you guys are awesome!!!!