Sixteen

Serendipity

(N.)

the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

'I like being around you too much to not be your friend.'

Isaac liked being around him. He never felt so relieved in his life. Of course, he could've guessed as much considering they keep hanging out but hearing it out loud makes it different somehow.

He and Isaac had been sending reels back and forth on Instagram last night and all Jess could think about was that sentence. He kept remembering it whenever Isaac's name would pop up on his notifications. He couldn't get it out of his mind, not that he was trying very hard.

It made him feel good. He could die happy now, knowing that at least one person in this world really noticed him. One person really saw him.

A person with beautiful eyes and a sing-song laugh. A person who cared about people but hung around guys that liked to pick at others. A person whose smile could light up the world.

Jess shoved down the thoughts and focused back in on class. It was fourth hour, lunch was nearing closer. He realized he had been zoning out most of this class and internally groaned. It was fine, his grade wouldn't be hurt because they weren't doing any real work today.

When the bell rang he felt at ease. He sprang up and followed the spurs of other kids out into the hallway. He traveled down the corridor and stopped at his locker.

It was a a little container of yogurt, strawberry shortcake, with a little plastic spoon on top. Jess smiled to himself and grabbed it. He hung back and ate his yogurt on the way to the cafeteria, taking his time. The horde had mostly passed by then so there was just a few stragglers here and there.

He finished his yogurt and threw it in a near-by trashcan when he passed one and then went into the cafeteria. He scanned the room for a place to sit, for people he knew.

Marco talking to Lia caught his eye. He didn't know the boy but he respected him so seeing his friends Lia and Maria sitting over by the boy spiked his attention. He slowly made his way over there.

"Hey, can I sit here?" He stood next to Maria and when she saw him she smiled.

"Sure, Jess! Hey!"

Jess sat down. He had returned Maria's book yesterday and they had talked about it in between fifth and sixth period.

"Marco this is Jess." Maria introduced the two.

"Hi." Marco smiled at him. The boy was honestly adorable up close. He had a dusting of freckles and big blue eyes with brown hair.

"Hey." Jess smiled a little. He then scanned the table to see who Marco sits by.

Elaine Tucker, a girl with a pixie cut that's dyed purple and always has black nails. She's a sophomore and nice to everyone, she's one of the few people that plays a sport (softball) but doesn't hang out with the athletic kids. Conor Reid, also a sophomore, he has natural brown hair and Jess can only faintly recall who he is because he and Ray sometimes talk about anime. Then there was Noelle Fisher, a junior like them. She had light green in her hair and wore lots of necklaces and bracelets. She had a ton of ear piercings and had an eyebrow piercing. She looked like a cool kid but was pretty reserved, she didn't talk to too many people.

"Marco wanted to use my crossword puzzle answers for our class so we sat by him." Lia said and Jess nodded.

"I don't think I've ever seen you around before, Jess." Marco said, looking at Jess like he was trying to tell if he could recognize him.

"I don't talk a lot. Most people don't notice me." Jess shrugged and Marco nodded.

"Aren't you friends with Zack Johnson?" Noelle spoke and there was something in her voice when she said it that made Jess uneasy. When he nodded Marco stiffened and his friendly demeanor was gone. He narrowed his eyes.

"Listen, if you're here to give me shit you can just leave now. I'm not putting up with that."

Jess realized now how that may look. He shook his head. "No, no, no. I'm not- no. I'm not here to be homophobic, I'm gay."

Jess had never told someone that so quickly before. It worked though, Marco relaxed. "Oh. Sorry, gotta take precautions."

Jess nodded. "I get it. I don't like any of those other assholes. I'm really just friends with Isaac."

Marco looked interested but he didn't ask. Instead he just nodded. "Alright."

After that Jess faded back into quiet as the group of kids started talking about other things. The group talked and Jess was quiet. He preferred to listen. Although it didn't feel so secluding this time because Lia and Noelle were both quieter as well. Now, he actually didn't feel too left out.

His phone buzzed and he checked it.

Isaac:

You're not eating, did you not find the yogurt?

Jess couldn't help but smile. Isaac had noticed that and was concerned enough to text him. He really wasn't used to people caring so much.

Jess:

I walked slow and ate it on the way over here.

Thanks for that by the way it was good.

Isaac:

You're welcome. I didn't know what flavors you liked so I took a gamble on one of the more popular ones.

Jess:

Yeah well it worked out, so good guess.

Strawberry, strawberry shortcake, and vanilla are all highly ranked on my list.

Isaac:

Duly noted.

When Jess turned his phone off Maria was giving him a look. He raised his eyebrows at her hoping she would shed some insight but instead she just smiled and turned back to talking to Elaine. Jess sat a little confused now.

After lunch he debated on asking her what she was looking at him like that for but decided against it. Other people don't dwell on things like this for so long so he wouldn't dwell on it either.

He went to his fifth hour and sat down quietly. He tried to focus on his work and he was actually successful this time around. He managed to make it through the rest of the day without getting too distracted.

○●○●○

When he got home Kleandra was watching some show on the couch. She smiled brightly over at him. "Hey, sweetheart. How was school?"

"Good." He gave her a small smile. As far as she knew, school was always good. Jess couldn't tell her anything else because if she thought he was upset she would get upset. "How was work?"

"Good. The girls and I all talked about going out this Friday."

Jess gave her a look. He didn't know if he should say it. It might upset her. He sighed and found some other way around it. "Just don't forget about Daisy on Saturday."

"Oh, of course." She said like it was that simple. Jess suspected she didn't understand the real meaning behind his words.

Please don't go out and get totally wasted because Cliff is already at the end of his rope with you.

He just sighed and went up to his room. There was no point in trying to get through to her. She was gonna do what she wanted to do no matter what. It didn't matter if he said anything or what the consequences were, when something was going on she forgot about everything else. She forgot about everything important.

Jess put on joggers and a T-shirt to get comfortable and then turned on the small fan he has sitting in the corner of his room that spins. He sat on his bed and pulled up a show on his TV. He leaned back and got comfortable, preparing to binge watch things like a sad child with no life for the rest of the day.

He didn't have to though. About an hour later his phone was ringing. Jess paused his show and picked up his phone, confused. People don't call him.

Isaac.

He pressed the answer button and put the device to his ear. "Hey."

"Hey, did you do the assignment Mrs. Penny assigned today in Algebra 2?" His voice sounded different.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Can you help me on the last five? I don't understand them and I just can't figure it out. I was doing really good on it up until now but I can't seem to figure these ones out. It's like they're some foreign language and I've read the instructions over like ten thousand times. It's gibberish to me." Jess chuckled a little and when Isaac spoke again his voice was strained. "Please don't laugh at me, I already feel stupid enough."

The humor of the situation left immediately and Jess's face dropped. "I'm sorry, I don't think you're stupid."

Isaac sucked in a deep breath on the other side of the line. "I feel stupid."

"It's okay. It's Algebra 2, loads of people get confused on parts. Some people can't understand any of it. I'll help."

"Thank you so much." He let out a sigh of relief and Jess smiled.

Isaac read the instructions and then the problems to Jess over the phone and the boy wrote it down on a notepad. He would go over it himself and then talk Isaac through the steps.

When they were finished Isaac sighed and there was some shuffling on the other line. "Thank you Jess. I don't know what I would've done without your help. Probably fail."

"You're welcome. I get overstimulated when I don't understand the work too."

Isaac hummed. "I just got so stressed out because I was reading the instructions but none of it made sense. I don't remember that being on the notes."

Jess nodded even though Isaac couldn't see him. "She did like one problem over it and didn't leave any side notes of how to do it. I had to teach myself in class today."

"I can never teach myself things. I have to have someone else explain it to me or else I just don't get it."

"That's okay. If you can't understand it you can always call me." Jess wasn't sure what he was saying but he meant it. He didn't want Isaac to feel stupid.

"I'll hold you to that."

"Good." Jess smiled.

Isaac took a huff of breath. "Were you doing anything when I called?"

"Preparing to watch TV for the next few hours by myself like a loser." Jess answered honestly. It might've sounded like a joke but he was serious.

"Then... would you want to like- stay on the line? I'm bored and figure if you're okay with it we could just talk?"

Jess smiled. "I'm cool with that."

Isaac let out another sigh of relief. He shouldn't have been so surprised. Jess liked talking to him.

"How was your day?"

"Good. Except for the fact I couldn't focus at all in fourth hour. I don't know why I kept zoning out." He knew exactly why. He wasn't about to admit that to Isaac though.

"I'm sorry." He apologized like he was the reason Jess kept zoning out. He was, but he didn't know that. "Did you have any work in there?"

"Not really. I got lucky today because we were taking notes and discussing." Jess laid down and looked at the ceiling of his bedroom, putting his phone on speaker and setting it beside him so he wouldn't have to hold it.

"Well then that's good at least. Did you have trouble focusing in any other classes?"

"No, not really. I managed to make it through the rest of the day." This was weird to Jess. He wasn't used to talking to people over the phone. Nobody really ever calls him.

"That's good."

"Yeah. How was your day?" Jess asked, folding his hands over his stomach.

"I don't know. It was a mix of emotions."

"Tell me about it." Jess's voice came out softer than he realized. At the go ahead Isaac started talking. He went through a long description of his day, ranting about classes and his friends. Jess sat quietly and listened the whole time.

History had been boring and even though Jess had that class too Isaac still told him all about what they talked about today. English was confusing but he had managed to get it done. Dagger had needed help with Biology 2 work. Lunch was chaotic.

All of it was just a story about Isaac's day and Jess sat and listened. He was smiling the whole time because these tad bits of information were interesting. All the little thoughts that went through Isaac's head during the day that he was sharing were interesting.

Isaac in general was interesting.

"Sorry, that was a long vent."

"No, it's okay." Jess smiled. "You're very informative."

Isaac chuckled lightly. "Yeah I guess so."

They faded into quiet. Jess's eyes looked at the ceiling while he tried to think of something to say. He didn't have to because Isaac spoke next.

"Do you have any plans tomorrow after school?"

"No, why?"

"Wanna hangout? We could go to the park or something."

Jess smiled. "Sure. Are we gonna sit in swings like last time?"

"Why not?" Isaac chuckled a little.

"Okay but no more saying I look all doom and gloom. I take time to work on my appearance and you insulting it like that is offensive." Of course he was joking, Jess rarely tries with his appearance ever.

Isaac laughed. "You don't have to worry. You've been looking a lot less doom and gloom lately."

"Have I?"

"Yeah. You've been smiling more, it's nice."

'You could be if you smiled more...' The memory sprang up without Jess's welcome.

Jess grinned. "Does that mean you're gonna be checking me out more? You did say yourself that I'm pretty when I smile."

Isaac laughed again. He didn't deny it but Jess wasn't about to get his hopes up over that.

"So, do you want to catch a ride with me after school or should I wait a little and come pick you up?"

"Wait a little. I gotta do my makeup." Jess said with a cheeky grin and Isaac laughed again. "But in all seriousness, I'll meet you at your car after school if you want."

"Okay, sounds cool."

Do we hangup now? Jess didn't want the conversation to end but he wondered if that was the end of it. It sounded like the end of it.

"What's your favorite movie?" Isaac said and Jess smiled.

"I can't answer that question."

"Why not?" It sounded like Isaac was actually frowning but then he turned it around. "Is it because it's the My Little Pony Movie?"

Jess laughed. "No, it's actually Kung Fu Panda."

Isaac laughed again. Then paused, "Wait, for real?"

"Yep."

Isaac chuckled softly on the other line. "Cute."

Jess felt his face heat up a little. What? Isaac said what? He cleared his throat and tried to make himself stop. He didn't need to get his hopes up. "What's yours?"

"I'm actually not sure. Probably School of Rock because it's nostalgic. Or the Karate Kid. Probably The Karate Kid."

Jess smiled. They kept talking until Isaac had to go because of dinner. Jess decided he should probably go down and make himself dinner as well.

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Another chapter done!

Anyways I hope you enjoyed!

Love you ♡

- Z