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  Erica nodded.

  "On second thought. I wouldn’t." Jessie said.

  They headed to an on campus cafe’.

  "God, now I’m going to have to be nice to him." Jessie muttered kicking a pebble on the side walk to the cafe’.

  "You’re going to have to be more than nice to him if you want him to ask you to be his girlfriend." Erica said. Jessie groaned.

  "Can we please change the subject now? I’m tired of talking about Nick!" Jessie said.

  "Fine. You see that guy over there?" Erica asked, pointing to a short guy with very light, brown hair and blue eyes as they entered the cafe’.

  "Yeah." Jessie said following Erica into a booth.

  "That’s Brian. Nick’s best friend." Erica pointed out.

  "I thought we were through talking about Nick?" Jessie said.

  "We are. Now we’re talking about Brian, who just happens to be Nick’s best friend." Erica explained.

  "Whatever." Jessie said rolling her eyes.

  "Anyway, Brian is also on the basketball team. He’s a great player and-"

  "OhmyGod, Erica you have a thing for Brian!" Jessie said smiling at her friend’s babbling.

  ‘What? Don’t be ridiculous! I do NOT have a thing for Brian and would you keep your voice down, he’s right there!" Erica said in a hushed voice.

  "Then why are you whispering?" Jessie asked. Her friend was obviously in denial.

  "I’m not whispering." Erica stated.

  "Yeah you are. I don’t believe this, you really like Brian!" Jessie said shaking her head, "What is Kevin going to think?" She asked referring to Erica’s boyfriend.

  "Actually I forgot to mention that Kevin and Brian are cousins."

  Jessie laughed out loud. She couldn’t help it. Brian heard her and turned in their direction. When he saw them, he shook his head and walked out.

  "Now look what you’ve done!" Erica said her voice finally audible.

  "I’m sorry. So tell me exactly what is going on here." Jessie said calming down a bit.

  "Well, you see, Kevin knows that Brian and I dated before but we broke up and a couple months ago I met Kevin again and then we started dating and now Brian is convinced that i’m just using Kevin. For what reason? I don’t know." Erica explained.

  "That’s weird. So Brian doesn’t like you?"

  "Actually, Brian hates me." Erica corrected her, "Maybe I should explain further. This is a rather long story."

  "Hey, i’ve got the rest of the afternoon free." Jessie said leaning back.

  "Well, Brian thinks i’m a pompous, stuck-up bitch and I don’t blame him because that’s exactly how I was in high school. It was weird because Brian and I were dating then and I cheated on him. I don’t know why I did it. I mean Brian is the sweetest, most considerate person in the world."

  Jessie raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at her.

  "Okay, so maybe i’m exaggerating a little. Anyway, he found out and we broke up. He’s never forgiven me since. And then college came and I decided that I didn’t want to be the same person that I was in high school. So I decided to change."

  "But you still like Brian." Jessie stated.

  "Yes but I realized that too late. After i’d already started dating Kevin. I didn’t know they were related at the time though."

  "Why didn’t you break up with Kevin then and try to get back together with Brian?" Jessie suggested.

  "I wish it were that simple but Brian still thinks that i’m the same person I was in high school. He’s not going to believe that i’ve changed and he thinks i’ll hurt Kevin the same way." Erica said sadly.

  "Then you’re just going to have to prove it to him." Jessie told her.

  "How?"

  "We’ll think of something."

  CHAPTER 5

  Jessie and Erica were walking to class the next day talking about their so-called ‘Mission’.

  "Wait a second! What am I stressing about? I don’t even have to talk to Nick! All I have to do is tell them that he asked me to be his girlfriend. They’ll believe me!" Jessie said with a smile. She didn’t even notice Britney behind her.

  "Jessie?" Britney said tapping her on her shoulder. "I forgot to tell you one minor detail." She said sweetly.

  Shit! Jessie thought.

  "You have to get Nick to give you his ring as proof. You know, the ring he always wears." Britney stated. "Okay?"

  "Fine." Jessie muttered.

  Britney smiled at her then left.

  "I think I spoke too soon." Jessie said when Britney disappeared.

  "Hey Jessie! Don’t look now but there’s Nick and I think he’s coming this way."

  "I’m going straight to the car!" Jessie said turning in the opposite direction. She was about to walk off when Erica grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

  "No, you are staying right here." Erica stated, "At least apologize to him for the way you acted the other day."

  "Excuse me? The way I acted?!" Jessie said angrily, "He’s the one that needs to apologize."

  “Jessie you were the one that started it." Erica said.

  "I can’t believe you’re taking his side!”

  "I’m not on his side. I’m being honest." Erica told her, "Besides, this is a good time for you to ask him out."

  "I don’t think so." Jessie said.

  Nick finally approached them and their conversation ceased.

  Erica automatically reached into her back pack and took out her History notes for Nick. Jessie and Nick avoided eye contact the whole time.

  "Here ya go Nick." Erica said handing him her book.

  "Thanks. I’ll have it back to you by Monday." Nick said then turned around and left.

  "What the hell are you waiting for?" Erica said pushing Jessie in Nick’s direction, "A sign from God?"

  "I can’t!"

  "Just do it! Look there’s this party at one of my friend’s house tonight. Just ask him to go with you!"

  "Okay, okay!" Jessie said then ran to catch up with him.

  "Nick! Can I talk to you for a second?" Jessie asked when she reached him.

  Nick turned to look at her, utterly surprised that she actually wanted to talk to him.

  "Okay you’ve got a second." He said looking at her.

  "First of all, I want to apologize for the way I acted before." Jessie said, suddenly interested in her tennis shoes.

  "You don’t really mean that." Nick said when he noticed that she couldn’t look him in the eye and say that.

  "Yes I do!" Jessie stated looking into his blue eyes. "I don’t know why I lashed out at you like that but i’m really sorry."

  She looked sincere and Nick’s features softened.

  "It’s okay. I understand why you reacted that way. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend and I’m sorry for bugging you." Nick said. "So, we’re friends right?"

  "Sure. Um.. Nick, about that boyfriend thing. Well I lied. I don’t have a boyfriend." Jessie confessed.

  "Then why did you tell me that? Just to get rid of me?" Nick was hurt.

  "Well sort of. You see, my last relationship ended badly and I wasn’t in a hurry to start another one just yet." Jessie explained.

  "Oh." Nick said softly.

  "But then I realized that I would like to get to know you better." She said. "So would you like to go to a party with me tonight? One of Erica’s friends is having one."

  "Oh you mean Amanda’s party? Sure. How about I pick you up at eight and we could grab something to eat before we go." Nick suggested.

  "Great!" Jessie said.

  Nick gave her a lopsided grin then left.

  What the hell am I doing? Jessie thought as she watched Nick’s retreating figure. The last thing she wanted was to get hurt again so why was she encouraging him?

  CHAPTER 6

  "At least try to smile!" Erica said. She was at Jessie’s house helping her to get ready.

  "I can’t smile when I don’t really want to so this!" Jessie said putting on eyeliner, which was one
of the few items of make-up that she actually wore. "Besides Erica, you don’t have to be here you know. I’m perfectly capable of dressing myself!"

  "I know you are but I know how excited you are to go out with Nick and-"

  "Stop the sarcasm already! You’ve made your point. You know I don’t like Nick."

  "You don’t know him! So how could you possibly judge him?" Erica countered.

  "All men are the same!" Jessie muttered.

  "I assure you, they’re not!" Erica said.

  Jessie went into the bathroom to change at Erica’s request since she didn’t like what Jessie was currently wearing. She came back out a few minutes later, wearing a baby blue short dress, with two spaghetti straps which practically clung to her body.

  "Now this looks much better than that thing you were wearing before." Erica said.

  "Thanks a lot! But I happen to like what I was wearing before!" Jessie complained.

  Erica ignored her and turned her around to see the back of the dress. It was then she noticed the scar on Jessie’s back near her neck which was easily visible once her hair was pinned up.

  "Jessie, what happened?" Erica asked concerned when she saw the scar.

  "What are you talking about?" Jessie asked off-handedly.

  "The scar at the base of your neck." Erica pointed out.

  "Oh that. Um.. well, you see..."

  "Josh did it, didn’t he?" Erica asked.

  The doorbell rang then.

  "Look Erica, I said it’s in the past okay.. forgotten. So just forget about it." Jessie said. She went to the mirror, loosed her hair so that it fell around her shoulders and down her back covering the scar.

  "Okay fine. You don’t have to talk about it." Erica said.

  "Thanks."

  "Kevin and I will meet you guys at the party later." Erica said.

  "Erica, you know you’re being unfair to Kevin. You’re still in love with Brian."

  "I know, I know." Erica said with a sigh. "But I can’t hurt Kevin. He really likes me."

  "Then you’re going to be the one that gets hurt." Jessie said then went downstairs to get the door.

  Erica was driving home thinking about what Jessie had told her. She was right. She had to do something or she would be the one to get hurt. And no matter how much she liked being with Kevin, it still didn’t compare to how she felt when she was with Brian. Kevin was bound to find out that she still liked Brian.. a lot. So the best thing to do was to end this now. Okay so maybe she wouldn’t be able to have Brian back. But at least she wouldn’t be fooling herself into thinking that she had something for Kevin when she obviously didn’t. Well not anymore anyway. She was seeing Kevin tonight so tonight she should tell him how she really felt.

  CHAPTER 7

  Jessie’s dad was out that night working late so she was the one who had to answer the door. Nick couldn’t help but gape at the sight before him.

  "Nick, you can close your mouth now." Jessie said, but couldn’t help but smile a little.

  "Oh sorry. But you look absolutely beautiful." He said honestly.

  His words made her blush.

  "Thanks."

  He was dressed casually in a pair of khaki pants and a black shirt. Jessie couldn’t help but notice that he looked damn fine himself, but she quickly brushed it from her mind. She was just doing this to get into the sorority and not for personal reasons. But then, it wouldn’t hurt to have a little fun to, Erica had told her.

  "Let me just grab my keys then we can leave." Jessie said as Nick followed her inside.

  "Sure." He replied, slipping his hands into his pockets and looking around.

  The house was very simple. A two-story house in a very quiet neighbourhood. And it was also furnished quite simply, no bright colours or flashy pieces. There were various pictures in the living room but one in particular caught Nick’s eye. It was of a woman in her early thirties with similar features to Jessie and who Nick assumed was her mother. There were no other pictures of her, only ones of Jessie and her father.

  "Where are your parents?" Nick asked when she gathered her stuff and they headed out the door.

  "Well my dad’s working late tonight. He’s a lawyer so i’m accustomed to that." Jessie explained.

  "And what about your mom?" Nick asked as Jessie locked the door.

  Jessie turned to look at him then.

  "My mom died when I was really young. I don’t remember much about her." Jessie said softly.

  Nick suddenly had an overwhelming urge to comfort her and he did. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Jessie accepted the hug. It felt really good and she needed a hug and damn did he smell good.

  "I’m sorry. I had no idea." He said softly his chin on her head.

  "It’s okay. I don’t really like to talk about it. That’s why we don’t have many pictures up of her. My dad doesn’t like it and sometimes I think it hurts him just to see me because I remind him so much of her and that’s why he works so late at night." Jessie said. She didn’t understand why she was telling him all this but Nick just seemed so easy to talk to. What she’d just told him, she’d never told anyone she didn’t really know and the fact that she could open up to him so easily was really beginning to bother her.

  "Jessie, maybe you’re overreacting. Maybe your father just has a lot of work to do. I mean you did say he was a lawyer right? And lawyers are busy people." Nick said.

  Jessie let go of him and shook her head.

  "I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Can we go now?" she asked.

  "Sure." Nick said.

  Erica and Kevin were at Amanda’s party about an hour later. There was a live band playing so everyone was on the dance floor. Well, everyone except for Erica and Kevin. Kevin had noticed that Erica seemed a bit preoccupied tonight but dismissed it.

  "You wanna dance?" he asked her, trying to raise his voice above the music.

  "Sure." Erica said. Kevin led her over to the dance floor.

  A few minutes later, after watching Erica, Kevin didn’t know why he had bothered asking her to dance since she looked like she wasn’t in a party mood. When the song ended, he took her arm and led her out back where there was a pool and a swing. Erica took a seat on the swing looking up at Kevin who was standing in front of her.

  "What’s wrong?" he asked.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Erica I know your mind has been somewhere else tonight and I want to know where." Kevin stated.

  Erica took a deep breath then began.

  "Kevin, I don’t know how to say this because I really don’t want to hurt you but I think it would be a good idea if we don’t see each other anymore."

  Kevin looked at her shocked. This was not at all what he’d expected her to say. He thought that maybe she was having problems with school, not their relationship. He thought everything was great. Apparently, he thought wrong.

  "Why?" he asked softly taking a seat next to her.

  "This is kind of hard for me but-"

  "Wait! Let me guess." Kevin said stopping her. "This has to do with Brian, doesn’t it?" He asked looking at her.

  "How did you know?" Erica asked surprised.

  "Well, I know how much you liked Brian when you two were dating. I knew you loved him then and I found it strange that you two broke up. Neither of you told me why you two broke up though." Kevin stated.

  "Brian didn’t tell you?"

  "Nope. He never wanted to talk about it. When I told Brian that I wanted to go out with you he just told me to do whatever I wanted so I assumed everything was definitely over between you two and there were no hard feelings. I was wrong, because after we went out that first time, Brian was pretty upset. He told me that I shouldn’t trust you and that you would hurt me or something like that." Kevin explained.

  "Well Kevin, the reason we broke up was because I cheated on him." Erica said ashamed.

  "You did what? Erica-"

  "I was a different person then, Kevin!" Erica protested. "That wa
s a year ago! I was vain, shallow, I wanted to fit in so badly. I wanted to be popular so I did everything possible to get there. And Brian, well.."