Springtime: Love in the Air By

Springtime: Love in the Air By Manwathiel
Part 1 of a much longer story.
This comes after the story about Jessica.
Characters: Jessica, Annie, Emily, Valerie, Monica, Timothy, Peter, Justin, Andy, Nelson
**********
    Love was in the air at school, and the boys were acting silly. Valerie giggled at their antics. Emily rolled her eyes. Monica laughed, and Jessica gave a small smile. Annie groaned.
    It was late spring, and they were juniors. Valerie laughed loudly at something Andy did, then looked guilty. She and Andy had gotten together over Christmas break, and she was thrilled. She had been crushing on him since the beginning of high school.
    She shared a glance with Monica. Monica had been secretly in love with Justin for the entire year, and Valerie wouldn’t be surprised if they started dating soon. Annie had been dating Timothy since March, and Emily was totally in love with Damien, although they weren’t together. And Peter had been flirting with Jessica for weeks.
    Emily rolled her eyes as she watched the boys fool around with each other. Peter threw a french fry that landed in Andy’s soup, and everyone laughed. Even Jessica. Emily just groaned. She was tried of them acting silly. She wished they would just grow up.
    Jessica giggled watching the boys. It felt good to laugh again. While her heart remained broken from the recent tragedy that attacked her family, it was nice to have a reason to laugh. She looked down at her hands when Peter winked at her. He had been flirting with her for a while, but she wasn’t sure about a relationship at this point in her life. She needed more time.
    Monica really liked Justin, and she was getting the feeling that he liked her too. He was so funny and crazy. Monica loved that about him. He didn’t care what others thought, and he was very straight-forward when he spoke. She liked that in a guy.
*****
    “Valerie, you flirt shamelessly with your boyfriend,” Monica told her later. Valerie smiled.
    “He’s my boyfriend. Why shouldn’t I?” she asked. Out of the five of the girls, Valerie was the most romantic. She read romance novels all the time.
    “Because you totally don’t flirt with Justin all the time, Monica?” Emily retorted to her friend. She watched Monica blush. They all knew Monica’s feelings for Justin.
    “Peter likes you, Jessica,” Valerie said. “He was flirting with you again today.” Jessica only shrugged her shoulders.
    “I don’t really care right now,” she said. She glanced down, but she could feel her face growing warm.
    “You’re blushing!” Monica exclaimed gleefully. She laughed.
    “Hey, leave Jess alone,” Emily said, frowning. She knew Jessica was still hurting from her aunt’s death. “If she wants to talk about Peter, she will. When she’s ready.”
    “What’s going on?” Annie asked, walking up.
    “We’re talking about boys,” Monica replied. Annie glanced around the group. Jessica looked lost in her own world, and Valerie had a silly grin on her face. Emily just looked annoyed.
    “No, we’re done talking about boys,” Jessica said, her voice firm. “Boys are just a pain right now. Just like most things.”
    “But boys are fun to talk about,” Monica said, grinning from ear to ear. Emily stalked away, looking extremely annoyed. “What’s up with her?” Monica asked.
    “Let her be. She’s just mad,” Annie said, watching her step-sister walk away. “She misses Damien.”
    “It’s hard, not having someone you love around,” Jessica said slowly. Annie smiled sympathetically. Jessica obviously wasn’t over her aunt’s recent death, and Annie knew it was a pain that would never fully heal.
*****
    Emily knew she couldn’t sit there any longer while her friends talked boys. Not when she missed him so much. She knew it was all her fault she didn’t have a boyfriend anymore, but she missed him all the same.
    She was jealous of her friends. They had special guys in their lives. And who did she have? No one. No special guy to make her feel loved. No special guy to make her feel special.
    She wished she had someone. Actually, she wished she had a specific someone. She wished she had Damien.
He was often on her mind. She hated it how they were apart. He still texted her occasionally, and they were friends on facebook and stuff like that. But they hadn’t talked in person in over a year.
*****
    Valerie knew she was acting crazy. But she was in love. She was hopelessly romantic, and Andy was perfect for her. He was so romantic, and she loved him. He could always make her laugh. She blushed whenever he looked at her. Her friends teased her about it, but she usually ignore them. Andy had watched her play soccer, and he enjoyed it. He was on the school’s baseball team, and she was having fun learning more about the game.
    She loved watching him play. He played shortstop, the place between second base and third base. He had even promised to teach her how to throw the ball better.
    They had fun together. She loved to laugh, so that was good. He was finally starting to understand her moods, and he knew she liked romance. She was falling for him more all the time.
*****
    Timothy walked Annie home, holding her hand. He really liked her, and he knew she liked him.
Annie smiled shyly at Timothy. She cared about him, and she knew he respected her. He would never push her to do something she wasn’t comfortable doing. She really appreciated that about him.
    “Hey, Timothy, if I don’t tell you enough, I really appreciate the fact that you respect me,” she whispered quietly. He smiled.
    “You mean a lot to me, Annie. I want to respect you as best as I can,” Timothy replied. He watched her blush. “And I think it’s adorable when you blush.”
     Annie glanced down at the sidewalk, embarrassment running through her. She wasn’t used to this kind of attention from a boy, and she didn’t really know how to react to it.
    “Annie,” Timothy said, touching her arm gently, “I”m sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
    ‘Because that totally helps,’ Annie thought, although she didn’t actually say anything right away.
    “Really, Annie. I’m sorry.” She looked over at him and couldn’t help but laugh. He just looked so cute, and genuinely sorry for embarrassing her. She thought it was adorable. He gave her a slightly strange look when she laughed, but it was really funny.
    “No, I’m sorry,” she finally said as she caught her breath. “I’m sorry for laughing. Honest.”
    “Are you laughing at me?” he asked, feigning hurt. She laughed even harder, and he laughed with her. When the both stopped laughing, Timothy asked Annie if she wanted to come over to his house for a while.
    Annie thought about for a minute. Emily had been in a bad mood lately, and Hannah and Janet were fighting constantly. Doug was busy at work, leaving Christina alone to deal with the kids.
    Annie didn’t relish the thought of going home just yet, so she nodded and smiled at Timothy. He grinned and took her hand, and together they walked down the street to his house.
*****
    Jessica sat at the dinner table with her brother and her father. Her mom was working the night shift again.
    “How’s school going, Jess?” her dad asked. Jessica smiled, loving the fact that her dad was actually showing interest in her.
    “School is pretty good. I really like APUSH now that the AP test is done. It’s a lot more fun.” Jess grinned. Mrs. Downing was really nice, and now that the test was over, class was awesome. “Math is the same as always, and English is kinda boring. But it’s okay.”
    “That’s good,” Nelson said. He watched his daughter eat her dinner, enjoying the closeness they shared as of late. But there was something she wasn’t saying. “Anything else?”
    “Nope.” Jess’s answer was quick. Too quick. But she wasn’t ready to tell her dad about Peter and how he had been flirting with her lately.
*****
    Monica Robertson sat in the office of the small apartment on the computer that she and her mom shared. She was supposed to be doing her homework, but she was on facebook, chatting with Justin.
    She really liked him, and she got the feeling that he liked too. Part of her was afraid though. Afraid he might mistreat her.
    She never told anyone, but her dad had been really mean to her when she was young. She and her mom moved out of his house when she was nice, but the emotional damage had already been done. She didn’t trust men. Her mom didn’t trust men either.
    That was why Monica was afraid. But she didn’t want to tell anyone. She was very insecure because of the things her father had said to her as a girl, and she knew it was hard on her mom as well. She didn’t know what she would do without her mom.
    She knew she could never date a boy who was mean to her, especially after her dad. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to date anyone, but Justin had shown her that there were good guys out there, ones who wouldn’t abuse girls.
    Monica was afraid to tell her mom about Justin. She knew she was still her mama’s little girl, and she wasn’t sure how her mom would take it. She wasn’t even sure how she felt about it. She only knew she really like Justin.
    Sometimes she wished she could tell one of her friends. The only people who knew about her dad were her mom and her counselors. She had spent countless hours talking with Heather about everything, and sometimes it helped. But she still had a lot of trouble with trust. And self-esteem.
    At one point, her self-esteem had been so low that she nearly gave up. She had struggled with an eating disorder in junior high school and early high school until one of the teachers took her to see a counselor. It was only then that her mom realized how seriously Monica was struggling, and Heather started meeting with her every day instead of twice a week.
    They were back down to three times a week, and Monica knew now that she really needed to take care of herself. Most of the time, she was fine, but there were those times when she felt hopeless. Heather had helped her understand things better, and she knew that she could trust her counselor.
    The chiming of the alarm on her phone made her jump. She realized it was getting late, and she still had a ton of homework to get done.
    “Enough procrastinating,” she said aloud as she closed down facebook. “You need to get that homework done!”