It had been a week since the incident, and Lucy was still not at school. Jess, curious as ever to know why that was, went over to Luke's Diner before school. He went up to his room in the apartment and tossed his stuff on the floor quickly before shuffling back downstairs.
In all this, Luke watched as the blur of his nephew was present only a few seconds, back and forth. "There something wrong?" Luke spoke up; catching him before Jess went out the door. "No.." he said. Luke looked at him, "Where are you off to?"
"Lucy's."
"Why?"
He turned around a shrugged, "Just wanted to see if she was okay. She hasn't been in school today." he said.
"Why rush?" Luke asked. "What?" Jess replied. "Why, rush?" Luke asked again. Jess paused, "I have, things to do."
"Like?"
"Like studying." he lied.
"Really? And where exactly do you drive off to study?" Luke interrogated. Jess sighed, "Is this gonna be a regular thing with you?" Jess evaded, "First taking my tips, then questioning my whereabouts?"
Luke shrugged, "Just wanna see what you're up to. Make sure you're focusing on school." he said. "Whatever." Jess walked out before Luke could say anything more. He hurried to his car to drive over to Lucy's before seeing an empty lot. Where his car should be.
Luke smirked to himself knowingly as he went back to work.
________
Lucy heard a knock at the door. She got up from her bed and walked up to the peep hole. She then opened the door. "Jess." she said almost surprised to see him at the other side of the door when she opened it. "What are you doing here." she asked.
He lifted some papers and notebooks from behind his back, "Notes from this week's classes." he said. Lucy felt a pang in her chest. She looked down holding onto the door, "Jess..I don't need those..thanks though." she said.
He took them back suspiciously. He shook off the feeling before looking at her, "So when are you clear to come back to school. I know caffeine pills pack a punch, but--"
"I'm not going back to school." she stopped him; quickly stepping outside with him on the porch, and pulling the door closed behind her. Lucy pulled her arms close around her and sighed, "I made a deal with my grandpa. I could go to school as long as I keep out of trouble, and I don't freak out." she kept her eyes on the ground. "So...?" Jess waited for her to continue. "So I did both." she sighed, "It hasn't even been a whole semester and I blew it." she said.
"So what happens now?" Jess asked.
"My grandpa signs me up for therapy sessions, and I don't go to school until I'm 'ready,'" she used air quotations, "Whenever that is." Jess looked down briefly. He saw how bummed out she was about missing out on school. He tried to keep positive; pulling a smirk, "Lucky duck." he said.
"What?" she looked at him.
He went and walked around on her porch casually, "Are you kidding? You're the one kid not allowed to be in school? Jeez, if our roles were reversed.." he said as if imagining. She looked at him confused, "Alright, James Dean, what would you do with that time?"
Jess scoffed at the thought; sitting on the rails of her porch, "I could read as much as I want, as long as I want. I could got to work full time.." he nodded in thought, "Worry more about doing what I want to do, rather than what people want me to do."
Lucy looked at him. She sat down on her porch swing and bit her lip, as Jess unzipped his jacket to cool off. "You have somewhere to be?" she commented. Jess looked at her, "What makes you say that?"
She pointed to the Walmart vest under his clothes. Jess nodded briefly before looking back up at her. "Yes, but I'm employee of the month. I can afford to miss a day." he smirked.
"And what would you miss a day for?" she raised a brow. Jess shrugged moving to sit down next to her. "What do you want to do?" he asked her; a little too close for her comfort. The last time he got this close was when they were decorating the gym. She got up and moved away from him. At his point in time she really wished she had her music. "Why aren't you with Rory, Mr. Employee of the month." she said.
Jess bit his lip and sighed softly, "She's in school." he said getting upset already at the mention of Rory. "You know, you're really a downer." he said.
"I'm the downer?" she turned around to him in disbelief.
"Yeah, I came by to make you feel better-"
"That's the point Jess. You don't get to try and make me feel better. You're with Rory okay!" she looked at him, "You can't make me feel better... If you really wanted to make me feel better then you would have my music.."
"Your music." he commented; knowingly hiding some truth she was about to find out.
"Yeah, I lost my phone." she sighed.
"You know, I looked in the gym after that day you had a panic attack." he informed. She turned around to look at him, "Was it there?" she asked.
He shook his head, "Nope." he got up and looked at her with a knowing smile, "No, it seems someone took it." Lucy mentally curse at her herself. That phone had almost over 500 songs. She wished she kept a list of the songs so she could just get another phone. Jess saw her obviously discouraged and smiled wider before taking the phone out from his inside jacket pocket. He handed it to her with the earbuds attached.
She looked at it, "You took it!" she snatched it from him. He chuckled, "I merely picked it up after you left it at the dance." he shrugged. "Why didn't you give it to me afterwards?" she asked.
"You ran out, remember?" he said.
Lucy looked at Jess clearly displeased by the fact he had it the whole time. "Jess. That's not funny."
"Who said it was?"
"I could've really used this the past few days." she looked at him.
"Keep your shirt on, I just kept it a little longer to put some songs on there."
She paused, "you did what?" she frowned before opening her phone and looking through the songs. She saw a whole new playlist titled: Jess' Music. She looked back up at him with a look of question.
"Some things you could start listening to for your escapism." he looked at her. She nodded softly before standing there awkwardly. She wasn't too upset anymore that he had had her music. She almost felt like she had to give him something back in return for retrieving it in the first place.
Jess looked at her before taking a step forward, "Lucy." he took her hand in his, "About school..I'm sorry." he said seriously, "That's a shitty thing that your grandpa did." he moved a little closer to her. She felt his breath they were so close. Lucy looked down before getting an idea, "Stay here." she told him before quickly running into her house.
Jess stood there trying to figure out what just happened. He frowned before standing on her porch awkwardly. He waited there a good five minutes before he saw Lucy come back outside. She was holding a little brown book. She handed it to him.
He took it and looked at her before looking back down at the book, "Winnie the Pooh..?" he frowned and looked at her, "is this a joke?"
"Read it." she said and looked at him.
"Why?"
"For your escapism." she said. She looked at the cover of the book before looking back at him, "Winnie the Pooh is said to be loosely based on a string of mental disorders--"
"Gee, thanks." he said sarcastically.
"--I mean, as cheesy as it sounds, this book is very insightful. The idea of schizophrenic cartoon characters becoming such a renowned phenomenon, should be enough inspiration for you." she explained. Jess furrowed his eyebrows; wrapping his head around what she was meaning slowly. She continued, "Jess, I believe you can do great things if you only believed you could." she said, "Stop listening to everyone else and work on what you need to."
Jess looked at her still registering the unwanted pep-talk he never knew he needed. He pat the book in thought in the palm of his hand before looking at her again, "..I'll see you later Lucy."
"Bye Jess." she watched him leave.
He gave a knowing wave and stalked off to his job before he was late.