Two

Subtrist

(Adj.)

Slightly sad.

"Hey." Isaac nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice. He turned to see Jess standing there with a cocky grin. He immediately smiled to himself.

"Way to sneak up on someone." He said to the boy wearing that ever so contagious smile. "Hey."

"So, Mister 'I notice things', it's time to prove yourself."

"Oh no." He said it but Isaac wasn't scared. Jess had too wide of a smile for him to be scared.

"Oh yes. C'mon now." Jess began walking and he tugged on Isaac's elbow a bit to get him to walk as well. They walked in silence through the halls and Isaac noticed Jess's smile fading as it got more crowded. "Ah-hah. Who's that?"

He made a nod to someone. Isaac looked over and saw Alice. "Oh. That's that sophomore girl, I think her name's Alice. Don't you hangout with her sometimes? She doesn't have very many friends, I don't think. She talks like she's full of energy and uses her hands to explain things a lot."

Jess had a small smile as he looked at the boy next to him, Isaac would never admit it but it made his insides swell. "Yeah, that was pretty spot on."

He looked around the halls as they kept walking, Zack wasn't sure where they were going but first hour had just ended a few moments before Jess found him so he wasn't too worried. Isaac's second hour teacher, Ms Lylic, likes him so he wouldn't get in too much trouble even if he was late.

"Oh. Who's that?" He motioned over to a senior girl.

"That? That's Tiana. She's friends with nearly everyone. I had multimedia with her freshman year and she made lots of mental health jokes. I don't think I've ever talked to her though."

Jess nodded approvingly. "Yeah okay." He paused while looking around again before nudging Isaac's shoulder. "Her."

He motioned to a redhead who Zack recognized. "Don't know her name but she's a high energy freshman. She's got a short, blonde girlfriend, Hannah I think, who is friends with Jordy." Jordy was a senior and friends with nearly everyone, he's the only reason Zack even knew who the redhead was because he's close friends the girl's girlfriend.

"Yeah." Jess nodded. "Well, you win this time." And then he slipped into his class.

Zack smiled before turning around and picking up his pace to go back the way to his class. Inside his classroom Jess grinned from his seat because he saw through the window that Isaac had turned around. He didn't know if the jock had just gotten distracted or didn't care but either way he let Jess lead him in the wrong direction of his class just to talk. Jess smiled, amused, at that.

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Jess walked home. He did every day, all the time. That wasn't unusual. And taking the door out of the school that lead by the football field shouldn't have seemed too abnormal. He doesn't do it often but it can't be marked as strange in any way. So today when he turned in the hall and opened up that door to leave, few people turned their heads to see.

The dark headed boy walked down the path, having his phone in his hand and looking at it as he walked. He didn't look like there was a really specific reason other than to walk home, totally nonchalant. However once he got closer to the field his head popped up.

He looked over onto the field where sweaty boys in red T-shirts and black shorts were running around. Jess looked out and he didn't see him at first but he did eventually find who he was looking for.

Isaac Johnson, number 25.

Jess didn't have a reason to look for him but the boy had caught his eye yesterday. He'd surprised him. Jess never thought Isaac was the type to notice anything outside his perfect little bubble, but he'd been proved wrong and now his interest was spiked.

Jess was usually very good at reading people. Once he got a feel on what they were like he usually wasn't wrong, and he thought he had pretty much everyone at school figured out. Come to find out though, he was wrong.

He pegged Isaac as the type to not take notice to anything he didn't have to. The boy was a jock who had popularity, good looks, and managed to make pretty good grades. Why would he really need to pay too much attention to the outside world when he had a perfect little bubble?

However he knew Jess's name. Jess had never even talked to him or any of his friends, and yet he seemed to know about him.

The boy's mind raced with memories as he tried to recall every interaction with the boy that he could. There were only three from the past he would remember and they hardly counted as interactions.

One, Isaac accidently bumped into him freshman year in the hallway and apologized before quickly walking off. Two, he held the door open for a crowd of students and Jess had been lagging a ways behind but Isaac kept the door open for him anyway. Finally three, they were sat together for like a week in English sophomore year but they hardly even looked in each other's direction that week.

That was it. Those were really the only encounters Isaac and Jess had had. How would he know his name?

Of course it's not impossible. They go to school together and are in the same grade, kids typically found out each other's names that way. But that didn't fit for the vibe Isaac gave off.

He didn't seem the type to pay attention. He daydreamed in class when it got quiet and he didn't have friends in there and when he was with his friends he acted like the world other than them was invisible. Jess had seen it on several occasions as the big group of dumb jocks often drew attention to themselves.

If he was honest, Jess was a bit mad at himself that this had slipped by his notice. He loved figuring people out and knowing about them before they knew him. He liked knowing that he knew everyone who was aware of his existence.

Out of all the jocks to know about him, before today he would've only stated seven or eight. None of the names would've been Isaac Johnson.

There was Elise and Dagger, basketball players that were laid back and would talk to anyone if given the opportunity. Macy was a cheerleader that was nice but she seemed kind of fake, she copied off Jess's work sometimes when she was desperate for answers and no one else had them. Tally, who played football and baseball, talked to him on occasion and has ever since they sat next to each other in art freshman year but they're not close friends or anything. Jaden, a senior football player, knew who he was because he talked to Ray sometimes. Holly, a softball player and cheerleader, was nice and they talked a bit. Her boyfriend, Chase (basketball player), also knew him because of her. Lastly, Trinity might recognize him -but that was a big might- because he told her to shut the fuck up once last year when she was talking about her late night hook up too loudly in class and she glared at him whenever she caught sight of him for about a week after. Although, she probably forgot about his existence by now because she's too self centered to remember anybody that isn't a friend, competition, or someone she wants to fuck.

So in total Jess never suspected for someone other than a person on this list to so much as give him a bat of the eye. Yet, Isaac knew about him.

It pissed him off a bit. Was he not as invisible as he thought he was? But Isaac did also seem to know about a lot of other kids too that aren't really in the 'popular' crowd. So was Isaac just less of an idiot? Either way he miscalculated something and now he's gotta figure it out or else his mind will tear away at him for years.

However, to figure it out he's kind of got to figure out Isaac. Just a bit, but that means talking to him. Jess groaned at the thought. He didn't like talking to new people.

Though, then again he had held a steady conversation with the guy today before second period and yesterday after school so maybe it wouldn't be all that bad. He at least knew Isaac wasn't unbearable to socialize with.

The dark headed boy finally reached his house then as his inner monolog came to a halt. Thoughts came by all hours of the day but when entering his home his mind was blank. He walked up the rocky path and opened up the door.

There were little shoes by the door that made him put on a small smile as he took off his own.

"Daisy?" He walked into the living room and the seven year old jumped up.

"Jessie!" She ran over to hug him and he smiled, patting her back. She pulled away and lead him over to the couch where she plopped down dramatically, as she usually does.

"Where's Mom?" He could only hope to God the woman didn't leave her here alone and unattended.

"In the kitchen. She was on the phone with Daddy and told me to come in here."

The boy's facial features darkened and he gave a nod. "Alright, well keep watching your show. I don't want to unterrupt."

She gave him a toothy smile as he got up and walked away from her, heading to where their mother should be.

"Mom?" He spoke quietly as he stepped into the kitchen. The woman looked his way, holding a phone up to her ear. She waved in acknowledgment and he did the same as he slid on a chair at the table at the edge of the room to eavesdrop.

"Yes, I understand that Cliff but she's my daughter too. I deserve to see her as well." There was a pause. "She was hardly even late."

She was 35 minutes late to school this morning. They were ready to mark her off sick by the time Jess's mother had dropped her off.

"It hasn't happened in over a month." The woman defended herself.

Kleandra Hastings was a very caring woman. She loved both her children dearly and would die for them. However love isn't always enough to make up a really good parent.

She's always been a pretty self-destructive lady, as mean as that sounds it's true. Between always picking emotionally unavailable men with a million red flags and her slight drinking problem she was harmful to herself by nature. It was a problematic life style but she always managed to scrape by.

She tried her damnedest for her stupid mistakes not to affect her children but that's difficult. She sleeps in late and doesn't drop them off for school on time, sometimes forgets to pick them up for a bit, invites potentially dangerous men into her home, and isn't always around when she should be.

Although, she does love her children. She loves seeing them and being a part of their lives. If they got taken away from her she probably wouldn't be able to live. Jess knew this better than anyone as he was her only child that actually lived with her full time. He heard her cries whenever she felt she missed out on something important or hadn't seen one of her kids in too long. He understood that she wanted to be there for them, she just couldn't take care of herself well enough to do so properly.

"Fine, for the next few weeks." She mumbled defeatedly. "Yes, I understand. Goodbye."

She hung up the phone and her head hung low for a moment as she collected herself. Another detail about her was she wore her emotions on her sleeve, she could burst out crying at any minor inconvenience. When she looked back up and met her son's eyes he just raised his eyebrows at her and waited for her to spill.

"Cliff is upset about Daisy's lateness this morning. He thinks I may not be able to properly take care of her during school days and is going to keep her throughout the week days for awhile now." She said, sadness evident in every word.

Jess stood up, he expected as much. "That's okay, Ma. Just means we'll get to spend the whole day with her when she does come instead of having to wait until after school."

She gave him a smile. "I suppose you're right." She then sighed again. "I better go tell her she's heading back tonight." With that she walked back into the living room.

Jess had four siblings, all of them from different men. Brady was a year and a half younger than him at fourteen and lived with his grandparents on his father's side full time, only visiting on holidays. Lillian was eleven and stayed between her father's house and her aunt's house the most, visiting about once a month. Daisy got to come over the most, she usually came on Wednesdays after school and left Saturday mornings but now that would change to just weekends and it probably wouldn't ever change back. Lastly there was Lane who was four, she only got to visit when her father supervised the visits or if she got to stay it would only be when he triple checked that Jess would be there the whole time.

Most men that decided to settle down with Kleandra realized that her messy habits made for bad parenting skills and left her. She'd then go back to chasing after men who didn't want her or were only looking for sex before finding another guy that was half decent and the cycle would start over. Jess was sixteen and during his life time he had been introduced to about two times that amount of guys that his mother was sure would be his new dad.

It was a very colorful life he lived.

After making himself a snack he went into the living room. Daisy was still watching TV but their mother had disappeared. She was probably packing Daisy's bags or crying, there was also a high chance it was both. Jess sat down next to the seven year old girl and looked to the TV. She was watching a Disney show he couldn't remember the name of but knew it was about magic kids training to be wizards. He hadn't ever seen a full episode so he decided to sit and watch.

By the time their mother re-emerged from her hiding with Daisy's bag it was almost time for her father to come pick her up. She was currently getting her long blonde hair braided by Jess because she told him she hated when it fell in her face while she was trying to sleep in the car. When he was finished he clipped a butterfly clip to her hair and she grinned at him.

There was hugging and some crying on Kleandra's part before the little girl had to leave but her dad only put up with so much of their mother's sniffling before shuffling Daisy to his car. He apologized half assed to Jess and his mom before leaving with his daughter.

After Jess wasted some time comforting his mother he gave up and walked up to his room. He collapsed on his bed with a sigh. He grabbed his phone and decided he would mindlessly scroll to get his mind off things.

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And with that chapter two is done!

Thoughts?

Love you ♡

- Z