Work Text:
PART ONE: JESSICA
10:28
It's a few hours after dinner time when a black car stops in front of the Washingtons' house. Inside, Jessica is checking her make up one last time while Emily stares at her with an amused expression. The silence is broken by the former, who asks: "Excuse me, do you have any problems?"
Emily shakes her head: "Just watching. I don't think it's a crime. And, by the way, it's the fourth time you've tried to fix your hair-"
"It's not my fault you rolled both windows down! The air got in my hair, and I-"
"That's how the wind works, Jessica. You could have rolled it up, instead of throwing your head out like a dog!"
Jessica's eyes pop out of her sockets: "I didn't throw my head out like a dog! I'm not a dog!"
"Yeah, whatever."
The blonde rolls her eyes and opens the car door, getting out of the car. Emily complains: "The mirror!" and closes it with a sharp movement of a hand before getting out of the car herself. She leaves the car door open, a hand placed on the roof and the other on the handle, ready to close it once their friends get out of the house.
Jessica is already at the gate, her finger pressed on the doorbell as she giggles. Her heart is beating fast in her chest out of pure excitement, her feet tap on the ground and she plays with her pigtails, pushing them from side to side. Jess moves her gaze from the door to Emily's car to the sky to her girlfriend, the smile on her lips is huge as she lets out: "It's going to be so much fun!"
They have to wait a bunch of seconds before the door of the Washingtons' house opens, but it's not Josh who appears at the door.
"This is going to be awkward," Emily complains. Her eyes land on Beth Washington, arms crossed, staring at the two girls with a careful expression.
Oh... yes. This is going to be super awkward.
"Hi Jessica, hi Em..." Beth says.
Both Emily and Jessica wave their hands to the twin, the former speaks again: "How are you doing, Beth?"
She nods: "We're fine. We're both fine."
It is clear that she's referring to Hannah, which causes Jessica's enthusiasm to drop. Since nothing happened in February, Beth's expression is unfairly severe. It would have been a small prank, something silly to prove a point (to put Hannah in her place) but in the end nothing even happened. And it was six months ago! Six!
Emily takes her hand off the handle and places it on her hip: "Is Josh coming? Or is he busy wanking to some shitty hentai?"
Jessica can't stop herself from giggling, surprisingly Beth does the same. Despite the awkwardness between them and the twins, the urge to constantly make fun of Josh is unbearable.
Beth shrugs: "You know he and Chris have weird hobbies..."
There's nothing else to say on the topic, a simple laugh is the only answer: no one speaks for some time, which makes the whole situation even more unbearable. It's not guilt Jessica feels, there's no reason - nothing happened, she gave up the whole idea of pranking Hannah when Ashley made that joke about her and Emily...
"Why do you even care about Hannah and Mike? You two girls always stuck together anyway!"
How much time did Emily and Jessica spend being so close, without realizing what they really wanted from each other?
Hannah's voice is heard from inside, yelling: "Beth, where did you put my lipgloss!"
The girl rolls her eyes, but there's an affectionate smile on her lips. She turns towards the direction of the voice to explain: "It's in my bedroom, on the desk! Beside my laptop!"
Hannah appears right behind Beth, she moves her eyes from her twin to Jessica and the blonde has to take a deep breath to fight the urge to grimace.
This is way more embarrassing...
Emily, that sweetheart of a girlfriend, ignores the twin that just showed up, snorts and gets inside the car, closing the car door with the fastest movement her hand could make. Not to add to the awkwardness of the moment!
Hannah smiles at Jessica, who crosses her arms and does her best to reciprocate with a plastic smile on her own lips.
"I heard you're not coming to the party," Hannah speaks again, this time referring to Jessica.
Well, duh! Why does she think we're here to steal Josh from them?!
"Yes, Emily didn't want to hang out with Mike. Especially not in his house."
Beth crosses her arms, her gaze moves inside and she calls: "Guys, come on!"
Good, go on Beth, call them, save me from you and your sister! Emily, that bitch, left me alone here- "How's it going between you two?"
Hannah has just asked the question, her eyes are now wandering from hers to Emily inside the car and Jessica feels the pressure of the question. She can't tell what Hannah's intention is: is she honestly curious about their relationship? Is she checking if her competition to get to Mike is definitely gone?
"Good. We're good. Great."
Josh and Chris finally appear at the door, they squeeze past Beth and Hannah while their brother greets them: "Hi girls! Bye Beth, bye Han!"
Chris adds: "Sorry, we were busy finishing a boss fight in Super Mario Bros..."
Jessica's eyebrows raise in surprise, she asks: "And who's Luigi when you play?"
"Me," Chris answers.
"I knew that!"
"What do you mean you knew that?"
Emily opens the car door to shout: "Move your ass idiots!"
"Let's go get ready!" Hannah runs inside of the house, she must be going crazy - "A party at Mike-y's house?! This is my chance!" - Jessica needs to stop herself from laughing aloud, finding her own thoughts so amusing... the way Hannah embarrasses herself in front of everyone is hard to believe, Jess would never get tired of it.
Beth follows her sister's every move with her gaze, but stays at the door until the group reaches the car; Josh turns to her and waves his hand: "Have a good party, sis!"
"And you have a good... whatever you're doing!"
Once Beth has left and Chris and Josh are now inside the car, Jessica does the same, lowering the mirror to check her hair. Emily stares at her with round eyes, she probably wants to beat her ass right now (I'll keep lowering it, you won't be able to stop me!).
"Again with the mirror?!"
"I need to check my make up, Em!"
Emily lets her head fall on the head rest while Josh bends down towards her, a grin on his lips as he pats her on the shoulder: "Ma'am, can I ask you a question?"
The snort she emits is funny to everyone. "Don't even try, Joshua. I see what you're doing."
He rolls his head towards Jessica: "What is she referring to? I did nothing!"
Jessica giggles, knowing exactly what he meant with those words.
The first time it happened was right after Emily and Jess got together, when Josh forgave them for the idea of the prank (which never happened! We did nothing!). The two girls (girlfriends!) wanted to go shopping and Josh needed a new pair of jeans, so they drove to the mall together.
Emily was the driver, of course; the first question was asked by Josh, and was caused by a conversation Emily and Jessica were having while waiting for him. He got in the car when the brunette was complaining about Jessica's horniness (totally unfair!) and Josh didn't waste the chance to make fun of her: "Uhm, I'm sorry Ma'am. Isn't it what I paid for?"
Both Emily and Jessica turned to meet his gaze, they stared at him with the most confused expressions. He went on: "I thought this was what you did for a living, Ma'am. Isn't it?"
Jessica smiled, Emily was infuriated by the mere insinuation of her being a sex worker ("Me?! A WHORE? What's wrong with you, fucking creep!")
Well, Emily tried to stop him but it was useless, cause Jessica found it too funny to exclude herself from the fun (I have every right to piss her off, this is what girlfriends are for!). The longest succession of questions and jokes began, and Emily was never able to stop them.
"How much will it cost, roughly?"
"When did you drop college and start working part-time?"
"Are you an expert in bumps?"
"How will you ensure the comfort and safety of your dear passengers, Ma'am?"
"I'm feeling kinda stressed, you know, we live in a big city... I’m sure you know what I mean, right? You’re always in traffic, in more ways than one..."
“Ma’am, please, put your pants back on!”
Emily made them pay, it's true. They had to carry all of her bags, and Jessica got "punished for your long mouth!" (she ended up sleeping on the couch). Still, she never got tired of this joke. Josh kept doing it too, so there was really nothing Emily could do to end this. And they went on, every time they could, always stronger than the time before.
This time Emily leaves no time for them to go on with their banter: "Okay, let's just go. I'm sick of being stuck in the car, I have a flat ass due to the time I had to wait for your lazy butts! And no jokes about my butt, you perverts!"
“You could have waited outside," Chris suggests.
Emily scoffs: "Outside? With Hannah? Yeah, no thanks."
"Han is a good girl!" Josh defends his sister, falling back into his seat. Jessica doesn't intervene, preferring to check her nails in complete silence. She obviously agrees with Emily, Hannah is not good. She wanted to sleep with Mike when he was with Emily, which is NOT-
Yes, I should probably shut up.
"Good? Good at flirting with my boyfriend at the time!"
"Well, it's not like you really cared about it. Seeing how things went..."
Jessica snickers, her eyes fly to Emily's now slightly reddened cheeks; she doesn't give up the fight, though (she never does): "This is not the point! I was with Mike and she was always there, in the corner, trying to get his attention... trust me, I could swear that she got that stupid butterfly tattoo to impress him. Probably read it in one of her useless teenager magazines."
Jessica can't help it, now she's laughing aloud, and Josh rolls his eyes in silence. Chris looks slightly embarrassed but doesn't say a word, Emily clearly won the argument. Jessica is not sure if what she said is right, but Hannah is exactly the type of girl to buy magazines like a teenager and use quizzes as some sort of prophecy, so believing her words comes off way easier than it should.
"She's sixteen..." Josh tries to justify her sister, but there's the smallest smile on his lips. He must agree with Emily, deep down, then!
"Speaking of which," Chris finally intervenes: "there's a wonderful place sixteen minutes from here. We can drive there now, or go on with this wonderful debate and evaporate because of the car heat. What do you say, guys? What does our Miss Driver say?"
Emily rolls her eyes and starts the car, Josh turns to Chris and points at him with a finger: "You really know how to use your words, Cochise."
"At least those!" Jessica mocks him, and Emily's lips curl into a smile while Josh bursts out laughing.
Chris is red in the face when he raises both his hands, his mouth open as he's left speechless. "I... I don't- I-!"
Emily pulls into the road and Jessica turns on the music, which starts from a playlist on her phone. Chris asks: "Can I put on some music?"
His best friend mocks him: "Living Tombstone, again?"
Chris crossed his arms: "Hey, what's your problem with the Living Tombstone?!"
Josh smirks: "No, nothing. I just admire your nerdiness, Chris. It has no limits."
"Says who? The other nerd?" Jessica attacks him, a giggle is ripped from her lips as Emily nods in agreement. Josh fakes a laugh, his hand flies to Jessica's shoulder and she gets pushed against the car door.
"Hey, weirdo, stop touching my dog!"
Jessica gasps, a gasp so loud everyone turns in her direction. "Who did you just call a dog?!"
"The one who threw her head out of the window to pant against the wind, I guess."
Oh. My. Gosh. She just called me a dog. In front of Chris and Josh!
The two boys are silent, they must be dying to hear them fight. Jessica throws a quick look at them and snickers, her eyes point on Emily's face and she shrugs: "Fine. I guess your talent for doggy style makes you feel closer to me, Ma’am."
Emily slaps a hand on the wheel of the car, Josh laughs aloud and Chris is left speechless; Jessica hums Lady Gaga’s Government Hooker melody: “Yeah, you’re my hooker!”
The brunette shouts: "The hooker is not the driver! It's the fucking passenger, the client is the goddamn driver! Not the hooker! I told you ten times!"
Jessica starts laughing with the others, Emily is left alone on the fighting field so she limits herself to shake her head, her expression full of bitterness. The blonde can't stand the sight, despite everything: she bends towards her and presses a peck on her cheek, owning a small, weak glare from her girlfriend.
"Your stupid hooker joke got boring the second time you did it."
Chris intervenes: "It's pretty funny, actually..."
Emily stops the car, she rolls her whole body towards the boy and Jessica and Josh find themselves doubled over with laughter, while Emily threatens to kick him out of the car.
PART TWO: CHRIS
10:50
The wonderful place sixteen minutes from here is a park, a nice place to spend the night with your friends. At least, this is Chris' opinion. Emily's is pretty much different.
"I can't believe you tricked us into this shithole!"
"Uh... This shithole, Emily, is a park. This is where we used to throw dirt at each other when we were kids!"
Josh giggles, while the brunette fights back: "Hate to ruin your childhood fever, but I used to have a functioning brain even as a kid. And we're eighteen now, Christopher, so I'd rather spend the night in a place where we can have fun. And not throwing dirt at each other."
Jessica intervenes, a smirk on her lips: "We can create our own fun!"
Chris points a hand at her with a huge smile: "See? That's the spirit! This park is huge, we can be on our own and do whatever we like, we don't even have to worry about other people or the noise we might make, this is..." Josh and Jessica start laughing, Emily sighs. "What?" he tries to understand.
"You know what she meant."
He's still confused, his eyes stuck on Emily as she rolls her eyes. "Come on Chris, we're talking about Jess."
"Hey!" she complains, pushing her girlfriend.
Josh defends Emily: "I mean, she's not wrong, Jess! You're predictable."
"Chris didn't predict shit!" she insists.
"Well, Chris is a virgin so it doesn't count."
Jessica's cheeks are red, and yet she laughs. She looks nervous, but he has no time to wonder why- "Josh, bro, what the fuck!"
His best friend shrugs: "Am I wrong?"
Emily sits on a bench, her legs crossed just like her arms, now she looks like a mother scolding her children: "Guys, can we move on? I'm already sick of this stupid park."
"Do you want to leave?" Jessica proposes, getting close to her girlfriend. She goes to sit on the bench, but Josh runs and steals her place, earning a glare from her.
"Piece of shit, step away from my bitch!"
Josh lies against Emily's shoulder, the girl instantly tenses up but counts to ten before killing him- this is something really mature coming from Emily!
Another mature thing is the way Emily doesn't even complain about the nickname she was given by Jess; she ignores her and moves her gaze from one to the other, seemingly unaffected by it. She and Jessica must be used to calling each other any sort of names.
Chris is the one to propose: "Why don't we find something to do?"
"What do you suggest, Cochise?"
Jessica crosses her arms: "What does it even mean?"
After a brief silence, Josh frowns: "What? Cochise?"
"Yes. You keep saying that, but you only say it to Chris. Why? What the hell does it mean, what does it have to do with Chris?"
Emily doesn't waste the chance to embarrass him -not like I didn't expect it!- "It must mean virgin then."
"Oh, come on!" Chris spreads his arms, trying to find the right words to defend himself- why is it so hard?! “There’s nothing wrong with being a virgin!”
Jessica explains: “There’s two kinds of virgins. You’re not the good kind, Chris.”
“Well, at least I have things to talk about other than sex!”
Josh shrugs: “You could still use some affection, you know? Physical contact, at least. You might enjoy touching some grass for once… is this why we came here?”
Chris places his hands on his hips, already giving up the fight.
"Guys, I had the best idea!" it's Jessica, of course, and she's jumping on her place, looking amazed by her own thoughts. She's like a kid trapped in the body of a teenager, stupid and childish. Kinda cute, at least, despite her superficiality. Scientists should study Jessica, they'd find her an interesting case for sure.
Emily snickers: "What's on your mind, louse?"
Jessica pouts, but her excitement is too high to be extinguished. "Karaoke! I want to do karaoke!"
"Karaoke?" Josh repeats. "What..."
Emily starts explaining (she loves doing it, she always does and never gets tired of it): "Yes, Joshua. It's when you sing a song but the original..."
Josh interrupts her: "No way, Em! Did you create it?"
"Duh. Everything great is automatically my idea."
Chris jokes: "Oh, so even war?"
Jess turns to him, she looks confused. "What do you mean? How could you ever think war is great, Chris?"
Classic Jessica Riley.
"You know, there's this thing called the Great War… or World War I-"
Josh stops him by clapping his hands, he yells: "Karaoke, come on guys! Let's do it, I'm in!"
Jessica starts jumping out of pure happiness (she probably didn’t listen to anything I said…), Emily grabs her phone from her pocket and asks: "What do you want to sing? I'll put the song on."
"ABBA!"
Josh nods; Chris scratches the back of his head, something he always does- when he's confused, embarrassed, thoughtful... always. It's a natural movement.
"Which song?" Emily asks.
Jessica gets close to her, she bends in front of her and stares into the screen of the phone, their foreheads almost touching. "I don't know, something happy. Something we can dance to!"
Josh stares at the two girls with a smirk, while Emily types on her phone the name of a song, moving the phone to hide the screen from her girlfriend; Jess is still bent in the same position and her eyes are now fixed on hers, and Chris can't help but think they're really cute.
"Chris, do you want to start?" Josh proposes, and the blond crosses his arms: "Of course, I've been waiting for my moment to shine and I'm not wasting the chance! Hand me the mic, I'll show you how it's done!"
Emily shooes Jessica away with a hand, so the blonde smiles and stands next to Chris: "How about a duet?"
He accepts the offer, looking for a stick to use as a microphone; Josh helps him and finds two sticks of the perfect dimensions, so he hands them to his best friend and to Jessica. Chris is ready, he loves singing (even though he's terrible at it) but luckily Emily is the perfect public: she'd hate the result no matter what, since she hates everything, so he won't even have to put a huge effort into his performance.
Jessica strikes a pose like a model, the stick pointed towards her girlfriend: "So, Em, are you ready for the show?"
"Can't wait." Her tone of voice is not different from usual, there's no thrill and yet no hate. She's ready to be impressed, but won't show it unless necessary.
Her finger presses on the screen of her phone, music starts: it's Summer Night City- "One of my favorite songs!" Jessica squeals.
Emily moves a hand to invite her to start, Chris prepares himself to sing- do I remember the lyrics? I guess I'll let Jess sing all the parts I don't remember... thank god I'm performing with a showgirl!
Turns out he's not that terrible at singing. He and Jessica are getting more and more caught up, his initial embarrassment taken over by the music. He's shouting the second chorus ("When the night comes with the action, I just know it's time to go!") when he notices something he probably should have noticed before for his own safety- "JOSH!"
("Can't resist the strange attraction from the giant dinamo!")
His best friend is holding the phone, filming them. The focus of the video, though, is clearly on him.
"What are you doing!"
Jessica keeps shouting in his ears ("And tomorrow, when it's dawning and the first birds start to sing!”), Chris tries to approach Josh but she grabs his elbow and pulls him, inviting him to not stop singing. Is she working against him, just like Josh?
(“In the pale light of the morning nothing's worth remembering!")
Emily stands next to Josh, a hand on his shoulder, and she pats it with a grin on her lips: "Stop, stop, send it to Ash!"
WHAAAAT?!!
"WHAT!" he yells, running towards Josh.
He turns the opposite way and crouches on the grass, Chris can clearly see how his finger presses the button and the video is sent to their friend.
Ashley is online in less than a minute, as usual, and she's probably already watching the video. Chris wonders why he didn't try harder to stop them, but his feet seem to be stuck on the ground and his arms are dangling helplessly at his sides.
"What did she say?" Emily asks, Jessica jumps at her side and circles her back with a hand, still performing (“It's a dream, it's out of reach - Scattered driftwood on a beach!”).
Oh god, I’m screwed.
Ash: “are you drunk?”
“No I’m not, of course I’m not! Do I look drunk?!” Chris can’t stop the words from coming out, there’s panic in his tone of voice and he wishes he was better at hiding it. “I’m not drunk! Why did you send the video, Josh?”
His best friend doesn’t answer. He presses another finger on the screen without saying anything, Chris finds himself with the phone in a hand and lowers his eyes: a call, directed to Ashley.
Emily pats Josh on the shoulder: “Good idea! Now let’s see what happens!”
Jess claps her hands: “Come on Chris, one step closer to not being a virgin anymore!”
“Y’all are obsessed with this, you’re insane. You need to calm down!”
Emily frowns: “Speak for them, I’m clearly not obsessed with this stuff. And check the phone, your friend Ash might be answering your call!”
Josh’s lips form a mischievous grin and Chris already knows he’s going to get his ass kicked by Emily before he opens his mouth: “Yeah, Chris, I mean… if you want to get laid you should probably listen to her advice. Jess is a nympho, and Emily…”
While Jessica turns to her girlfriend, curious to see her reaction to whatever Josh is going to say, Ashley answers the call.
Oh fuck, oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck—
Ashley’s “Hi!” is muffled by Emily’s yell: “I’m going to fucking kill you!”
Jessica jumps on her spot, clapping her hands in enthusiasm: “See, Josh? This is what my bitch can do! This is what she’s capable of! You’re going to see what happens when you disrespect my bitch!”
Emily’s neck basically snaps towards her direction, flaming growing in her eyes.
Chris knows what is going to happen even before she bolts towards her, and Josh staggers back holding a laugh. “Bro,” he warns him, “I’d be running too if I were you!”
Ashley, from the other side of the phone, agrees with Chris: “No way, is Emily going to kick their asses? ChrisChrisChris, send me a video!”
“I don’t think I can while I’m on the phone… and I fear I’d get my own ass kicked by Em. You know her.”
Seeing Emily and Jessica run like that (or run at all!) is something Chris could have never predicted. Josh has always had, during his most anxious nights, the tendency to act in the most impulsive way (crazy jokes, jumping on his spot, sprinting out of nowhere— anything to feel alive) but those two girls have never even tried to run in front of him.
“Jessica is fast, I must say.”
Ashley giggles: “Do you think Emily will catch up to her?”
“Oh, of course. Jessica might be faster, but Emily’s determination will turn her into a monster if she can’t get what she wants from her.”
“And what does she want from Jess?”
Chris shrugs, the mere thought of anything Emily and Jessica could be doing causes his cheeks to redden and he feels flames in every inch of his body. “Uh… I- I don’t know, uh… how about you, Ash? How’s the party going?”
“I asked Matt for a drink and he disappeared. Guess I’ll stay sober tonight!”
Emily stumbles on a branch and falls knees first, Chris can hear Josh and Jessica mocking her, now next to each other. The blonde moves a hand to grab his wrist and, panting, settles: “How about you let me escape and get taken by Em? I’ll give you five bucks to get beaten up by her.”
Josh’s eyes show his confusion as Emily stands up from the ground, curses coming out of her mouth non-stop. “Why would I…?”
Jessica probably wants to answer, but Emily sprints in her direction so the two girls find themselves running again.
“What is going on? Who do you bet is getting their ass kicked?”
Chris giggles and focuses back on Ashley. “I’d bet on Jess, but hoped Josh was the one.”
There’s a brief pause and Chris can hear (despite Emily and Jessica’s screams) Ashley’s giggles from the other side of the phone. “Yeah, me too. I wish I was there to see it!”
“You chose Mike’s party over our crazy night of fun! Can I say I feel hurt?!”
Ashley justifies herself with a whiny voice: “What was I supposed to do?! Leave Matt alone!”
“Sounds like, in the end, you were the one left alone.”
“Matt is a talkative person, he’ll be back once the conversation with those jocks will be over. And don’t treat me like I never hang out with you guys!”
Chris decides to go on with the jealous route, who seems to be working. Today he feels braver than ever. “Well, you could hang out more with us. At least, with me.”
Ash sighs. “I can’t drive, I can’t always hang out. You should come and visit if I can’t reach you!”
“Oh, I’d come and visit even if you lived on the other side of the ocean. That’s the difference.”
He realizes what he said once the words have come out of his mouth, and the embarrassment fills his stomach, his ears, every single part of his body. What the fuck is wrong with you?!
“Aw, you’d take a plane just to come and visit me?”
“Y-yeah. I mean, that’s why you travel. To visit people. Or places.”
“But what if the plane crashes?”
Chris is slightly taken aback by the question, but he knows what is going on. He and Ashley tend to lose themselves in the weirdest conversations, and it’s never embarrassing enough for them to stop.
Josh shouts: “Come on Em, kick her ass!”
Jessica stumbles on her feet and catches herself just in time— “JOSH!”
“What?! You tried to send me to my death! Why would I side with you?!”
Emily stops for a second, looking at Josh with fury in her eyes. She clearly needs to catch her breath, but is an amazing actress at acting collected in this crazily childish situation.
Chris, in the meantime, answers Ashley’s question: “If the plane crashed I guess I’d send you pics of my staying in… wherever I end up. And if I was stuck in there forever I guess I’d have to chew my own leg and be patient.”
The silence lasts for a quite long moment. Chris doesn’t realize.
Jessica has stopped, her eyes stuck on him, and Emily takes advantage of that, jumping on top of her as they both roll on the grass.
“Oh, I’d love to receive your pics. That would be funny.”
“Even if I chewed my own leg?!”
“How about you chew someone else’s?”
“What?” It’s not Chris’ voice, and not even Ashley’s. It’s Josh’s voice.
Chris feels his cheeks burn even worse than before, his eyes are suddenly bright with the smallest tears due to the sudden stress he’s victim of.
“What the fuck?” Emily repeats. “Is this how you two flirt? Talking about fucking cannibalism?!”
Jessica, stuck under Emily’s body, bends towards her girlfriend to nip at her ear and the girl jolts in surprise. “What the hell, chump!”
Ashley is silent, Chris has his mouth hanging open but doesn’t know what to say. Josh nods and giggles, he seems proud of him. “Come on Chris, go on!”
Emily moves a hand to her ear and massages it, Jessica takes advantage of her free hand to move it towards her breast and the brunette twitches in pain as soon as she makes contact with it, before she even has time to do anything.
“Oh come on, Em! Stop being so dramatic!”
Emily points a finger towards Jessica, a threatening look in her eyes, and Jessica grabs it with her free hand, moving it away to reach her lips easily. They share a kiss, and Josh crouches on his feet, slipping his phone out of his pocket to immortalize the moment.
Oh, how I wish…—
“Ash,” Chris says. “Would you like to hang out after the party? Please?”
PART THREE: JOSH
11:24
The four friends are walking around. They left the park once Josh and Chris were able to separate Emily and Jessica (turns out Jess is not the only horny one in the couple! I knew it!) and now they’re in the middle of the streets, wandering aimlessy.
The two girls are in front of Josh and Chris, they hold hands and Jessica’s legs start skipping every now and then. Josh and Chris, in the meantime, follow after them and talk.
“I just wish it was easier.”
Chris starts walking slower, Josh follows his pace and lowers his tone as he tries to understand: “What?”
“Getting things off my chest. It’s so easy for all of you…”
Josh bursts out laughing: “Bro, are you serious?!”
“I mean, look at them!” he points to the two girls. “Emily always gets everything off her chest so easily, and Jess—”
“Nah, Emily whines all the time cause that’s how she works.”
Emily must have heard her name, because she turns towards them and yells at him: “What the hell do you want from me, weirdo!”
Josh shoos her with a hand, Jessica takes advantage of the situation to take her phone out of her pocket and put on some music. Emily is distracted by it, the two girls start fighting to get to pick the song (Emily requires Jigsaw Falling into Place by Radiohead, Jessica Doll Parts by Hole) and Josh and Chris can now go back to speaking.
“So, what were you saying?” Chris asks in a lower tone of voice.
“All I’m saying is none of us knows how to really get things off their chest. It’s fine, bro. No one expects you to know what to do with your life now that you’re only eighteen.”
“You know? You’re really sage for being one year older.”
Josh shrugs, a smug smile on his lips: “My life experience allowed me to become a mentor for people like you, Cochise. Always here to help those who listen.”
Jessica runs towards them, they all stop and she stands a feet from Josh, shouting: “Tell her something!”
Chris walks closer to her, pats her shoulder and imitates the behavior of a loving father: “What, Jessie? The other kid made you angry?” Jessica glares at him, but he goes on: “Come on, let’s go and tell her something! Let’s go, let’s go!”
Josh skips to Emily: “Hey, what did you do to my niece?”
“Just asked for a song,” she explains briefly with her signature eye roll.
Jessica snaps her head towards Emily: “YOU LIAR! You tried to steal my phone!! And you—”
Emily interrupts her: “You can stop crying, you know…”
Jessica jumps on Emily, who staggers back and is held up by Chris. “Woah, Jess!” he lets out.
Josh asks: “What’s the big dilemma, girls? You’re still figthing over the songs?”
Chris proposes: “How about you put both songs? One and then the other?”
Both Emily and Jessica don’t seem to be too amused by the option. The former explains: “I’d be fine with that, but only if my song is the first to be played.”
“No way! I want Doll Parts before and then your song!”
“The intro of Jigsaw Falling into Place is the perfect intro to a night out! Much better than your depressed shit!”
Jessica lets out an offended shriek: “Depressed shit?! Says who? The one who listens to Radiohead? The one who sings No Surprises at night, and NOT as a joke?! Nice try, Emily!”
“Oh, come on, it only happened once!”
Josh and Chris move their gaze from one to the other, if they had pop corn in their hands they’d feel like the audience to a 90’s coming of age movie and the feeling is great.
Jessica insists: “Your theory makes no sense, anyway! The intro of our night out was Summer Night City, which I sang before!”
Emily rolls her eyes, Chris intervenes: “You know, girls? That was the perfect intro. I’m glad Ash appreciated it, despite the horrible video…”
Everyone turns to him, and Josh is sure his best friend is currently trying to understand what’s behind those annoyed three pair of eyes. Emily doesn’t give him time, though; she rolls her eyes and accuses: “You’re such a simp…”
Jessica giggles: “Reminds me of someone!”
Interesting!
“Yes, reminds you of yourself!”
Again: interesting! Really interesting!
Josh doesn’t waste his chance: “Oh, I never thought you two could be simps!”
Both Emily and Jessica move their attentions to him, the first crossing her arms and the second placing her hands on her hips. None of them speaks, unlike Chris who’s still confused by Emily’s accusation: “I’m not! I— how does what I said make me a simp? I just said— I expressed a fact! A pure fact!”
Josh says: “You’re kind of a simp, Chris. Just like them, it seems!”
Emily counterattacks: “You know what, Josh? The only reason why we can’t call you a simp is because nobody loves you. Nobody likes you, to be fair, so even if you wanted to be a simp it would be useless. Cause nobody likes you.”
Josh grins at Emily, he circles her shoulders with an arm and pats her head, messing up her hair. She raises a hand and starts slapping his arm, yelling: “Don’t you fucking dare, creep!” Her slaps go on time with her words: “Don’t! Touch! My! Fucking! Hair!”
Jessica doubles over laughing, Chris is amazed by the scene. “Gosh, Em, are you okay?”
Emily succeedes in pushing Josh away, she fixes her hair with both her hands and takes deep breaths to calm herself down. “Don’t you dare. Ever again. Fucking creep. Understood?”
Josh moves his gaze to Jessica: “Can you touch her hair?”
“Oh, no. Of course not. I don’t want my ass to get beaten.”
“I thought you liked it!”
Jessica rolls her eyes, but says nothing to defend herself. I knew I was right!
Josh has this habit of taking notes of whatever information he discorvers about his friends, and he holds every small detail close to remember it in the future.
Chris receives a text, so he lifts his phone to check. The smile on his lips makes it pretty obvious that Ashley looked for him, and Emily barely gives him time to answer whatever message she sent: “Stop, dummy!”
Josh watches in silence as the brunette steals the phone from Chris’ hand; she reads the message and starts interrogating him: “Woah, she wants to meet you at your place?! This is sick! What were you thinking on telling her?”
“It’s not going to happen, Emily.”
“You don’t know that yet! You’ve got to be ready for anything!”
Chris rolls his eyes: “I know myself and I know Ash.”
“Right, but— you need to be careful. Really careful. This might be your last chance.”
“I might have other chances to get laid, you know? I don’t think—”
Emily interrupts him: “What?! I was talking about— that’s not what I meant! I was… I was thinking about confessing your feelings! Oh my god Chris, stop hanging out with those two nymphos!”
Josh places a hand on Jessica’s shoulder and assumes a proud expression, while her girlfriend points a middle finger to her.
Chris and Emily are walking again, organizing his night, and the other two are left behind. It’s their first face-to-face private conversation since that night in February when she had almost pranked Hannah.
“So,” he speaks. “what’s your plan for tonight?”
“Em is sleeping at my place.”
“That’s hot. I bet you two have tons of fun at night!”
Jessica’s cheeks turn purple, and he can’t help but ask: “What? You still haven’t done it?”
“N—No! I mean, yes! I—”
Josh stops a second time, he points his eyes on Jess and his eyebrows raise: “Girl, stop lagging! I didn’t mean to make you go crazy. I was just… just—”
“Joshin’ me, right?”
He giggles and starts walking again. She follows after him in silence, checking her phone even though there’s no new notification.
Emily shouts: “I told you not to do that!” and Josh shares a worried glance with Jessica.
“Do you have anything to drink?” he asks, she shakes her head. He then tries with Emily and Chris: “Hey, losers! I’m thirsty!”
Chris’ eyes widen: “What an awful sentence!”
Emily fakes a retching: “Share your kinks with that depraved child next to you!”
Despite that, she reaches into her bag and pulls out a transparent water bottle; in a bunch of seconds it’s flying mid air, and Josh grabs it with both hands, clapping them together.
“You know what?” Emily proposes. “We should go somewhere and have a drink. Or go clubbing. Do something fun.”
Chris rubs a hand on the back of his head: “Uh, I’d like to be home around midnight…”
“We can still drink something.”
Jessica reminds her: “You need to drive!”
Emily rolls her eyes and her body at the same time, ignoring her girlfriend’s words. “So,” she grabs Chris’ wrist: “What were we talking about?”
“You were insulting my humour.”
“Oh! Yeah, right. It’s awful.”
Josh and Jessica can’t help but giggle at their dialogue, the former remarks: “It’s crazy to see them interact this much. Don’t you think about it? They have something like three things in common, and yet they’re having a conversation. Just the two of them.”
Jessica shrugs: “Isn’t it crazier that we are having a conversation?”
Josh lets a few seconds of silence fall between them before stating: “We have many things in common. Way more things than them. Chris is a nerd and Emily is a bitch.”
“Still, the prank… which never happened, but— it would have been a prank. We haven’t talked in a while, after it happened— didn’t happen— you know what I mean. So…”
“It’s fine. Nothing happened in the end, as you said. It would have been just a stupid prank.”
Jessica nods. “Yeah.”
Josh offers her the water bottle: “Do you want to take a sip?”
“I’m not really into STD’s, thanks.”
Josh pushes her by the shoulder and she almost loses her balance, but is fast enough to catch herself from falling. “Asshole!”
Chris calls for them: “We want to go to a bar near here! Are you in?”
Emily replies: “Of course they’re in! Whether they are or they can walk home on their own!” She points a finger to Jessica before adding: “And I’m sure she’s too lazy to walk home on their own! Especially tonight!”
Jessica’s face is purple once again, and Josh takes note of that. Something is going on between those two, there’s no other option.
“What’s happening tonight?” he asks, a curious smirk on his lips.
Jessica glares at him, and for a second he’s almost sure his question won’t be answered. Taking another long sip of water, he walks in silence.
“Oh, nothing.” His smirk is wider now, he goes to close the water bottle, curious to hear what she’s going to say. Josh recognizes that tone of voice, there’s clearly something going on. “We’re going to do it tonight.”
Josh jumps out of pure excitement, a few drops of water escape his lips as he yells: “YEESSS!! YOU GO GIRL!” and the result of this action has him doubled over, choking on the water that went sideways. Jessica pats his back, hoping to keep him alive just like that, a naughty grin on her lips.
PART FOUR: EMILY
11:39
Young Lust by Pink Floyd plays on the radio as Emily drives Chris home; Jessica, next to her, nods her head following the rhythm of the music while using her phone; in the backseat, Josh sings (shouts, the prick) the song and Chris taps his hands on his knees.
“So,” Jessica asks, without lifting her gaze from the phone. “Is Ash on her way?”
Chris stutters: “I— Yeah, she— uh, she texted me. She’s— she’s coming.”
Josh grabs both his shoulders and shakes him, patting on his back. “Come on, Cochise. Come on, come on come on. I trust you, I know you can do it.”
Chris nods: “What if it doesn’t work?”
Emily snorts: “Stop being a pussy, Christopher.”
Jessica turns to her: “I don’t think he’s the only one who’s so anxious about his feelings. Am I wrong?”
She rolls her eyes, ignoring what Jessica says long enough to form the perfect comeback: “Cause I’m not as desperate as you. You’d give it up to anyone—”
Jessica’s fingers sink in her hip and she whines, slapping the hand that hit her; thank god Emily is a good driver, so the car barely moves from her position despite the personal attack she endured.
Mike would have already killed us all, that idiot—
“You two really hate each other!” Josh mocks them. “How are you going to sleep together without pushing each other off the bed?”
Unlike Jessica’s expression, which can’t hide her sudden wave of embarrassment, Emily’s is as stiff as usual, oblivious to his jokes. “Well, the bed is mine. She’s going to sleep on the carpet if she has a problem with me.”
“At least no one suffocates me when I’m alone on the carpet.”
Bitch—
“Oh, I thought you liked cuddling! Aren’t you the one who’s so desperate for a hug while sleeping?”
Jessica raises her eyebrows: “I thought you were the one who started spooning me!”
Emily glares at her: “Yes, cause you were whining like a bitch!”
“It was cold!”
“It was cold!” Emily repeats, mimicking her tone of voice.
Josh’s head appears in between them: “The alcohol has an awesome effect on you two. We should go out and drink together more often.”
Chris lets out: “Bro, don’t intervene! You know how it works! Now they’ll stop fighting each other and start roasting you instead!”
Emily fixes her eyes on Josh through the mirror: “Chris is right, what about you Josh? You haven’t talked about a girl in forever.”
Jessica nods at her own statement: “He’s probably grieving Sam, now that she and Beth will totally end up together.”
Josh grimaces: “Gross, girls. I’m trying not to think about it.”
“Hey,” the blonde insists: “You shouldn’t give up just because things didn’t go well with Sam! Why don’t you download Tinder? Or something similar!”
Chris remarks: “I think Matt is using Tinder. Not sure if that app actually works, but…”
Emily doesn’t let him finish his sentence: “You’d only trust Reddit, we all know that.”
“Not— Not true, Emily! I know how to interact with human beings, okay?”
“Oh, totally!” she starts speaking with a romantic tone of voice, a grin on her lips (I love making fun of these people): “Ash, I swear, if I’ll take a plane to get to you and end up in a desert island I’ll chew my own leg and send you a Snap! Frame it and keep it in your diary, so I’ll always be next to you!”
Chris’ ears are red, and yet he keeps shaking his head: “We were just joking around!”
Jessica is doubled over with laughter, a hand grips her thigh and Emily feels herself flush from the sudden contact. The blonde has tears in her eyes, and she decides to ignore what just happened. She might make fun of her, but she wants to enjoy the moment. Tonight she can let it happen, she wants it to happen.
Chris is out of the car, talking to Jessica who wanted to be sure he was ready for anything: helping Chris and Ash get together has become this sort of group mission, it’s kinda cute.
If they did anything similar with me and Jessica I would have kicked their asses.
Josh gets out too out of nowhere, Emily calls his name only to be taken aback when he gets back inside, sitting next to her where Jessica was before.
“She’s going to kill you, you know that. Right?”
“I thought I was the Psycho!”
Emily giggles, remembering his costume when he was sixteen, during the first Halloween party with the group.
Josh was dressed up as Norman Bates, he went around stabbing people with a fake knife while Emily made fun of his costume: ”You’re human, I could kill you with my powers in no time!”
She was dressed up as a banshee, with blood streaming down her eyes and the best dress she ever got to wear in her whole life: she looked like a spirit, and everyone was shocked by the sight.
Jessica was a vampire, blood streams on both ends of her mouth and on her chin, but her outfit was way too sexy to be scary— “Why would every vampire be dressed up like Dracula? It’s not my fault if he had no taste!”
Needless to say, Jessica spent half of the night trying to “bite” Emily, under the suspicious gazes of their friends, especially Josh and Beth (who was dressed up like a zombie, kinda boring but still well done).
Chris and Ash opted for Shaggy and Scooby-Doo (he was the dog, she was the stoner— no one was surprised); Matt was Muhammad Ali (”You know this is a Halloween party, Matthew?” she had said; “I could bash your face in with a punch if I wanted to!” he justified himself. Emily gave him the benefit of the doubt.)
Sam dressed up as a Ghostbuster, Hannah was the ghost; Mike was Frankenstein (and he wouldn’t have even needed a costume, since he was perfect for the role, but he took the effort to find one — younger Emily thought he was hot that night, younger Jessica would have bitten her eyes out of their sockets so as to stop Emily from catching feelings… things change, huh?)
“So, why did you come here?” Emily asks with a casual tone of voice.
Josh rolls his body towards the backseat: “I wanted to talk to you and I figured sitting next to you would be—”
“No, dumbass. Why did you hang out with me and Jess!”
His mouth forms an “O” and he nods: “Oh, I get it now.” He moves his gaze outside, seemingly checking on Chris and Jess, and shrugs: “I felt like hanging out with you, that’s it. You know I don’t really like Mike.”
Emily nods. “He’s an asshole.”
“Yeah, I mean… I can’t really blame you for that. He’s a bit of a jerk. I always wondered how you could be with him, he’s such a smug person!”
Her eyebrows raise— I never heard him say anything similar about anyone! “Josh, why do you hate him? Is it because of what happened with Hannah?”
Josh smiles, but it’s not sincere. “Probably. I don’t trust him as I once did anymore. He was ready to prank my little sister with no hesitation, I know everything of what happened. You told me.”
Emily shrugs: “Jessica was the one to stop. You should hate me just like you hate Mike.”
“I know how you work, Em. We’re similar. We let our emotions have the best on us sometimes.”
“I’m a really rational person, Joshua.”
“Not when you’re angry. And you were angry at Hannah, you had been all night. I might have drunk too much, but I still have eyes. Mike and Jessica had no reason to act like they did, but I’m glad Jessica changed her mind in time. She really loves the group, she loves all of you.”
Emily laughs, but it’s a nervous laugh: “I don’t think she likes me that much. She was ready to sleep with my boyfriend. She was begging to sleep with him, if I’m being honest.”
“Han should go for Matt instead. He’s not a jerk.”
She states: “Matt is a doormat. A doorMatt.”
Josh can’t hold a laugh, he takes his phone out of his pocket: “Let me note this down, this is special. Good job Em!”
“What, you never thought that? Isn’t it the first thing you thought once you got to know him?”
Jessica starts jumping on her spot, her arms shake uncontrollably in the air and Chris helps her calm down, a shocked expression in his eyes.
“Are you sure she’s the one giving advice?” Josh makes fun of her. “She seems stressed out.”
Emily taps her fingers on the steering wheel: “If she’s seeking advice from Chris she’s screwed. Never met someone so indecisive.”
“Matt is indecisive.”
“No, he has no opinion which is different.”
Josh and Emily giggle, they love making fun of anyone at any given time. She is the one to speak again: “Beth hates Jess, I’m pretty sure. It’s not like she told me, but you can see it. Maybe you should talk to her.”
“I could try and talk to her, but… would I change your mind about Han if I talked to you about it?”
Hell, nah!
“Maybe,” she says. The way she grits her teeth doesn’t help, though, and he raises an eyebrow.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought.”
Jessica kisses Chris on the cheek, Emily’s eyes widen in surprise.
“Uuuh, someone’s jealous!”
“Jealous? Of that thing?!”
Josh howls with laughter, clapping his hands: “Did you just call Chris a thing?!”
Emily shrugs: “Am I wrong?” and Jessica jolts back towards the car. She stops in front of it and the two friends inside stare at her in silence.
No one speaks for a bunch of seconds, while Chris shakes a hand to wave them goodbye. They wave back, their eyes stuck on Jessica’s serious expression.
Once the blond guy has disappeared inside his house, Josh invites Jessica to get in the car.
“No fucking way.”
Emily chuckles, the blonde notices it: “Emily, stop laughing you bitch! Tell him to get his lazy ass off my seat!”
Josh doesn’t move, instead he rests his elbow on Emily’s seat, indicating with a hand the backseat. “It’s not a tragedy, Jessica!”
Suddenly a bike appears on their left, Ashley is here.
She waves a hand at them and, while gettig off the bike, shouts: “You were great, Jess! Great performance! Much better than Chris…”
Josh makes fun of his best friend: “He did his best! It was his first time, Ash, don’t be so negative! You know it takes him a lot of effort to interact with other human beings…”
Emily slaps him in the chest and he jolts in pain (hah! Loser!), she yells at Ashley: “Shut up and go inside! Come on, Chris is waiting for you!”
Jessica moves her eyes from the car, which seems surreal, and raises a thumb at Ashley to show support: “You go, girl!”
“Thanks, Jessica. See you around!”
Josh nods and remarks: “So, do you think they’re going to do it?”
Emily shakes her head: “Nah, they’re too slow.”
“When does a couple become slow, though?” he considers, a small grin on his lips. What the fuck does he mean with that? He goes on with his yapping: “I mean, six months is half a year!”
Emily’s eyes go round, she snaps at Jessica: “You told him!!”
“Hey, I’m the virgin! I should be the one embarrassed!”
Josh is snickering at the two girls, his eyes stuck on Emily. “Come on, Em! What’s the problem!”
“I don’t want you to know the details of my fucking relationship, you weirdo!”
“This is not a detail. A detail would be if Jess described it, and—”
Emily elbows him in the chest and he finally lets his own elbow fall from her seat; he grunts in pain, and Jessica opens the car door, raising an arm.
“Get the fuck out of my seat!”
Josh lets himself fall on the ground, his eyes squeezed, and the two girls know that he’s being dramatic; Jess sits in the car and closes the car door, turning on her phone. “Can I put a song?”
Josh raises his middle finger at them, Emily complains: “Just get inside, primadonna.”
“Oh shit!” Jessica squeals. “Can I put that song? I love Marina!”
Emily nods, Josh finally stands up and states: “That is the perfect song to play right before losing you viriginity. Perfect pick, Jess.”
Jessica is startled by his words; Emily starts the car and he throws himself in the backseat just in time before she leaves him on foot.
And, of course, during the trip to his house Josh and Jessica make fun of Emily the taxi-rider (but he calls her taxi-mounter). And, after fighting them for five minutes, she gives up and starts laughing at their jokes. But you’ll never hear it from her.