Chapter 5
Phones For Two
After a two-hour nap, a bag of chips and a two-liter bottle of Pepsi, Jessy was refreshed and decided to call her friends back. She slowly dialed the number and waited for someone to answer the phone.

"Hello?" Came the female voice on the line. "HI, can I talk to Nick?" Jessy asked, even though she still remembered the events of the morning and this was her first time calling them, she was amazingly comfortable with this.

"Could I ask who this is?"

"Its Jess"

"Oh! Sorry dear, I didn't recognize your voice! Yeah just a minute, he is up in his room. Are you feeling better now?" The voice asked. Jessy knew by the response that it was Jane.

"Much better thank you Jane" she answered politely. She shifted her weight and turned on the television to MTV. Jess heard some static, obviously the cordless moving, she was guessing that Nick was listen to his radio and playing the Playstation, both the volume way too high. In the backround, she heard Jane's voice and some music (good guess), and Nick's responses.

"Hello?" Nick's voice answered.

"Hey, its me" she said to the older friend on the line.

"Oh, hey are you feeling better now?" He asked turning down the radio and saving the game then turning off the television.

"Yeah, thanks. About tomorrow.." she trailed off, hoping he would catch on.

"You mean the beach? Yeah, it's kinda a family thing, we all go out on the boat and go swimming and stuff. Then Dad makes a Bar-B-Q dinner." He explained.

"Okay, do I have to wear a suit?" she asked

"How else are you going to swim? Naked? Yeah Jess you have to wear a swimsuit. Unless you didn't bring one. " He said in an exaggerated voice.

"Ha, ha. No I have my suit, I just.." she trailed off again, not wanting to say that she was self conscious about wearing things of that nature.

"You can wear a tee shirt if you want to, but it leaves a funny looking tan," Nick joked.

"That's not helping any. Okay, fine, what about board shorts?" Jess asked, not paying attention to the video that was playing on the television.

"Why are you listening to the Backstreet Boys? They suck so bad" Nick teased hearing of all songs, 'Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely" in the backround.Jessy almost made a smart comment about the blond one, but decided agenced it.

"Hey, I like them, so don't you be dissin' them!" Jessy retorted.

"Yeah, whatever!" Came the Clueless accent from the jokester. They talked for a while more, talking about just about everything. After what seamed to be just a few minutes, Jessy looked at the clock. In reality, it had been two hours.

"Do you know how long we have been talking?" she asked laughing as she did.

"Uhhh, I have no idea." He answered, knowing that they had been on for a while.

"Two hours, the bill is shooting through the roof now!" "THAT LONG?! No way, it couldn't have been!" He exclaimed, actually surprised at the actual length of time that they had carried on conversation.

"Yup, weird huh?" she said as she got up to get something to drink.

"No kidding! You know what?" Nick asked

"No what?"

"I thought that we would have nothing to talk about, when we first met that is." He stated.

"Really? Wow, I kind of thought the same thing, but I knew more about you than you did me." she confessed.Mrs. Morris came into the door, and she looked at the clock, it was four p.m.

"Hi gramma" Jess said covering the phone with her hand.

"Oh, hi dear, id didn't even know you were home yet. Could you get off the phone please I need to make a call to your mother." Mrs. Morris said as she disappeared down the hall.

"Hey Nick, I have to go." Jess said quietly.

"Why?"

"Grandma needs to call my mom."

"Well, all right" he started, sniffling sarcastically, " is you must leave, then you have to obey your elders." He moaned, giving a few more quick sniffs.

"Just kidding, I will see you tomorrow right? 10 a.m. sharp, I will pick you up then."

"Okay, see ya then Nicky," Jessy said, "suit and everything."Nick chuckled at the comment.

"Yeah, suit and everything, sunglasses, sunscreen, I can supply the towel, and you." He could not believe he said the last part, 'and you', it sounded like a cheesy pick up line, in a way, it was.

"Okay Nick, see you later" Jessy said hanging up the phone.

Nick hung up the phone and went downstairs to return it to its base. In the kitchen, he passed BJ and Leslie chatting by the phone base.

"Geeze Nick, think you talked long enough? I almost checked to see if you were still living." BJ joked. Nick gave her a dirty look and placed the phone back on the base.

"How do you know? I may not have been talking the whole time." He said grabbing a glass of water.

"Yeah right, I know you just got done talking to Jessy" BJ said glarring back at her older blond brother. Nick emptied his glass of water and looked back interested at his sister's confidence.

"And how my I ask do you know?" He requested, knowing he didn't have any proof in his defense.

"Ummm," BJ mumbled, "I listened in part of it."

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Nick yelled furious, even if this was not the first time it had happened.

"I wanted to know what you two could talk about, and I needed the phone. I just listened in for a few minutes." Defended. Leslie was laughing quietly to herself, and of course Nick noticed.

"What are you laughing at?" He scolded.

"Well, not at you. If you call 45 minutes a few, then yeah she is telling the truth." Leslie broke down laughing then, and had to leave the room. Nick and BJ watched her go.

Nick didn't say anything to BJ for a while, he just ignored her. He didn't know why he felt so agitated over her doing this; she had done it before. He didn't really want to know why he was so much more sensitive to these things now. Was he really falling for Jessy Patkins? He went up to his room to contemplate the answer, that he silently knew in his heart.

Jessy gave the phone to her grandmother and returned the glass to the kitchen. She made her way into the closet where her suitcases were kept, and took out her swimsuit and her favorite shorts, some blue Hawaiian print board shorts. Her suit was a simple black one-piece speedo swimsuit, she liked it but it was simple and it looked good on her. She found her flip-flops and sunscreen lotion and put them together in a pile so she would be able to find them easily. Then she set out to make dinner. Jessy did cook; she made a nice Italian dinner. And chatted with her grandmother for an hour or two.

In no time at all, Jessy was ready to call it a night. She took a quick shower and slipped into some clean pajamas. She crawled into her bed on the living room couch, and turned off the lamp on the table by her head. The moon and city lights cast its luminance in through the shade that she insisted be kept open.

She looked through the window into the starlit sky, and made a wish on the first star her eyes hit. It had been the same wish for three months. She wished that Nick, would think about her the same way that she thought about him. She of course had no idea, or any way to tell if this wish came true. She smiled to herself, letting her wish fill her ears with its joyous prayers. She closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep, dreams came to her immediately.

Nick turned out the lights after a short dinner and some family conversation. He wondered if any of Jessy's wishes came true, and that, if by chance, they were about him. He smiled and looked out of the window. The city glittered, still alive. He wished someday to find the one he was to love as long as he lived, whether it is Jessy or someone else. He turned away from the window and jumped into his bed. IT was not long before dreams creped into his head. As these dreams appeared to the young man, an innocent smile crossed his sleeping face.