Another Time

Sean, Ito, Sydney, and Xiao seemed to be getting along.

But Ito seemed to have a shine in her eye whenever she looked in my direction. It had been almost two weeks since she came and she didn't seem to have any intention of leaving. When the day came, we dropped her off at the airport.

"Ito-Senpai, it was great seeing you," Xiao said.

"Well, you'll see me again soon," Ito said with a wink.

"What do you mean?" Xiao asked.

"Well, my mom is stuck in London so I'll be going to Manchester with these guys for a bit." Ito laughed and hugged me.

"Did you agree to this?" I asked Sydney.

"Yeah, we didn't tell you because we knew you would freak out." Sydney responded.

Sean nodded in agreement.

"Ok, that's great," My brain was freaking out, what could Ito be thinking right now?

"Ok, well make sure to call me Ito-Senpai," Xiao begged.

"Yes Xiao, I will," Ito reashurred.

We waved goodbye and hurried onto our flight.

"I can���t wait to see your home, is it nice?" Ito asked.

Sydney shrugged. "It's pretty average."

I didn't want to be rude but Ito seemed to be taking way too much interest in our life. I stared down into the empty abyss which was my phone and looked at our choir group chat.

"Did you hear what Rachelle and Chloe just did?" Someone wrote.

The message was pretty recent so I responded with "No, what?"

Talia answered immediately. "Oh hi Jay, how was the trip?"

How should I respond? "It was great, met Sydney's family."

Chloe answered next. "Have you read Jay's latest book, it's a total disaster."

"Have you seen your face Chloe, it's a total train wreck!" It was Bianca.

"Jay, get off the phone!"

I looked up to find Sydney also on the group chat.

"Ito is trying to talk with you," Sydney said.

I groaned, "What do you want Ito?"

"Considering that I'm going to be staying in your room."

"Wait what!" I gasped.

"Is there anything I should know about you?"

"Yes, I'm taken," I said with a stern look.

Ito looked taken aback, "I'm sorry?"

"What do you mean you're taken?" Sydney asked. "Last time I checked, you didn't have a girlfriend."

"I'm, I'm going to ask Vienna out, that's all."

Sean peered from the seat behind me, "No you're not."

Was this the right move? Vienna still hadn't called me yet, so I didn't even know if I would ever see her again.

"Um, that wasn't what I was talking about." Ito laughed, "I'm talking about what you don't like so I can avoid it."

"Oh," I said, ``That was rather embarrassing.

Sean, who was still looking at me with darting eyes said, "So why are you so interested in Vienna?"

"No reason, why?"

Sydney and Ito both looked at me with blank stares.

"Um, are you two ok-"

"You need to be prepared for her to say no, and plus, well no offense, you're not exactly the best looking," Sydney said.

"Hey-"

"And let's be honest, your hair could use some work," Ito commented.

I looked up, "What's wrong with it?"

"It just doesn't look good, there's no way to explain it," Sydney said.

"But it's not necessarily a bad thing," Ito grabbed a comb and brushed my bangs to the side, "See, better."

"Ito, whose side are you on, it looks the same!" Sydney shouted.

We were gaining a lot of attention, it kind of made me nervous. Have I ever mentioned that I'm an introvert?

As Ito and Sydney raved on about my looks and why Vienna was way out of my league, that got me thinking. I did actually like Vienna, but I was too embarrassed to admit it. It had only been a couple months since Rachelle and I had our disbuit. Was I moving too fast? And my feelings for Sydney, those were drifting off, she was more of a sister now than a friend.

Sean started to doze off, all this talk about girls seemed boring to him, obviously.

Sean was one of those people who, if you didn't talk about what they wanted to talk about, he got bored. He was a good person, when I first met him, he really helped me a lot. But he started showing his true colors a bit more once he got used to me. He still was funny though, he wasn't mean or anything.

Finally, twelfth grade. It was great to finally leave school after this year. Now, everyone talked about relationships and all that boring stuff.

I bet most of the world are wondering how Ito is doing. Her family moved here, which was great. Ito lived down the street from us. She requested her mom to move closer to Xiao but we all know who she was really going for.

Anyways, I joined the literature club which was great, plus Vienna was there.

I noticed that Vienna kept asking if I wanted to hang out more and more.

She even leaned in to kiss me, which I obviously declined. After a while, people just assumed we were dating, but I assured them that it was just a random rumor somebody started up.

My writing business was booming, somebody even asked if they could interview me for live TV.

Vienna even agreed to help me, we became a two man group.

We decided on trying our hands on a sequel. I scraped together the original Black Mist sequel and we got to work.

I worked on the point of view of Aria Conners and Vienna worked on Bethany Conners (Aria's daughter).

Vienna seemed to be getting a hand of Bethany and Gia Smith's relationship. How Gia was a third wheel most of the time and how Bethany would do anything for Gia even if she was the third wheel.

The only problem we had was that our writing styles were completely different.

I liked to leave my writing vague so that the reader could have more room for their imagination, but that sometimes led to me being too vague.

Vienna's writing was descriptive and more concrete, she was really descriptive about how her characters felt and how the world around them changed. But she wrote a lot of useless information in the story sometimes.

We were still determined to work hard so we could improve more.

Sydney seemed to not take this lightly. She lectured me for staying out too late and spending too much time with Vienna. She talked about how I shouldn't deny how Vienna and I weren't dating because we obviously were. But that wasn't how it was, we were just friends.

(Rachelle)

"Interesting," I said softly. I stared at a note Chloe had given me during class.

"Jay got himself a girlfriend, what a surprise," It read.

Yeah, big surprise, how did he manage to get a girlfriend, he was the same idiot that he was a couple months ago, right?

"Anyways, I was wondering if you wanted to go hang out, spa day?" Chloe asked.

I turned around, "Oh hey, didn't see you there."

"So, spa day!?" Chloe asked again.

"I'm not sure, I might be busy," I said.

"Aw come on!" Chloe begged.

"Like I said, it's a possibility but I'm not sure," I explained. "Anyways, I'm off"

"Where to?" Chloe asked.

"The literature club, obviously," I answered.

"Isn't Jay there?" Chloe asked.

I nodded, the one thing that made the club miserable.

The Literature club had about ten members there. We weren't exactly that big. But hey, that's just how it is. Now let me explain what we do in the literature club. Every week, we are given a topic to write about. At the end of the week, we bring in what we have and share it with a partner. Your partner gives you advice and you go on your merry way. I had been so lucky not to get Jay. Everyone always asks why I hate Jay. Well first, he's a horrible writer and I can't be bothered by his work, second he can be a bit of a jerk, he's so full of himself, lastly he has such an ego and is too scared to admit that he's wrong.

I had finished my writing and was waiting for my name to be drawn. What was taking so long.

I waited until there were four names left, Mine, Jay's, Vienna's and this really weird introverted boy named Callum.

The club president drew two names and read them aloud.

I gulped and closed my eyes hoping I would get the weird kid.

"Rachelle and Vienna."

Great. I thought. You see, the reason I hated Vienna was because she was a simp for Jay.

Vienna handed me her paper.

What I saw amazed me.

I felt a soft breeze emanate behind me. The sound of the crashing waves rumbled through my ears. I saw the river glisten in the morning sunrise. I saw the morning dew fall from the leaves of the trees. The sun rays shone through the cracks of the trees. Finally, I was home.

"Um, it could use some work," I said.

"Ok, let's see yours," Vienna put out her hand.

I looked down at my poem. "Ok, sure."

Vienna sped through it, it was pretty short and it took me forever to do.

"Ok, you said to but you really meant too, you put an exclamation mark where it should've been a question mark, and what is this, the door was left ajar open?"

I took the poem from her, "where?"

"Right there, you wrote, 'I saw that the door was left ajar open' I sometimes question if you even know how to write."

See what I mean, Vienna, Jay they're all so mean and give way too much criticism.

"You know, you and Jay can be quite mean," I commented.

"How?" Vienna asked.

"Let's see, how both of you criticize me the most out of anyone here, both of you are so full of yourselves, you two are made for each other," I shouted.

Vienna nodded, "Well, out of everyone here you have the least amount of experience in writing."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Jay has been writing for five years, I've been writing for three, Quentin and Becky have been writing for about four years, Janice, Ken, Callum, David, and Trent have been at it for two years and Riley has been doing it the longest, six years," Vienna explained.

She wasn't wrong, but she basically said that I was a bad writer. "Well, I've published a book, that's better than anyone has done."

"Um, Jay has published five, so beat that." Vienna acted like Jay's girlfriend, but they continued to deny it.

Today was the day, I was going to make them admit that they were dating.

"Let's talk about Jay, do you like him?" I asked sweetly.

"Sure, he's a great guy and I enjoy writing with him." Vienna answered.

"You know that Sydney's on to you, right?" I asked.

"So, we're just friends," She was playing it hard.

"You go out together almost every day after school."

"Is this about you and Jay, cause I think you should sort this out on your own."

What was she saying, between Jay and I? What was I supposed to do, apologize for something he did wrong, yeah right.

"You need to, you were friends, weren't you?" Vienna asked.

"First, stop trying to be my friend, second, don't tell me what to do," I stomped towards Jay who was talking with Callum. "Jayden Davis, we need to talk."

"Hi to you too Rachelle, now if you please excuse me-" He stood up but I grabbed him and pinned him against the wall.

The classroom went silent.

Jayden struggled as I pushed my arm into his collar. "What do you want?"

"Apologize for all the pain you put me through," I shouted.

"What pain, what did I ever do to you?" Jay asked.

"You put me through so much, you and your stupid stories."

Vienna tried to pry me off of Jay but I elbowed her in the chest sending her tumbling to the ground.

What I didn't realize was that there was a desk behind us so when I hit Vienna she hit the side of the desk hard.

There was blood everywhere. Becky and Quentin dragged Vienna out of the room.

While I was distracted, Jay took my arm and lifted it off his chest, he then ducked down and I fell into the wall.

I heard ringing in my ear and nothing else. I started to regain my senses as I heard Sydney's voice shouting at Jay.

He finally got what he deserved.

(Sydney)

"What were you doing, I see Vienna being taken to the nurse's office and Rachelle lying on the ground, what did you do?" I asked.

Jay looked ashamed, "Listen, I'm sorry about that but-"

"Wait 'till mom hears about this one, I swear you will not see the light of day again," I was so pissed off.

Jay needed to be more aware of his surroundings. He was coming up with excuse after excuse. "I swear, Rachelle started it, ask Vienna."

"Don't give me that Jay, I know what happened."

"You know, the only reason I was ok with living with you was because I thought you would listen to me," Jay shouted.

"What are you going to do now, you can't leave."

"Oh really?" Jay opened the front door and stormed out.

"Where are you going?" I shouted.

"Ito's house, don't come to get me," Jay walked off with just his jacket.

"Jay, wait!"

"You obviously don't understand me, you know I'm starting to wonder what happened to the old you!" Jay called from the street.

The old me? I thought, What could that mean?

I heard footsteps behind me, I turned around to find Sean.

"Have you seen Jay?" He asked.

I had to tell him, "He just left," I rushed into Sean's arms, "I didn't mean to snap at him, I was just so mad, Racelle is still my friend and she was hurt."

Sean patted me on the head gently. "I heard you screaming, so I came down to see what was going on."

"Jay was saying something about me not being the same," I told Sean.

"All this stress about Jay and Rachelle might have just pushed you in one direction," Sean explained. "Where is Jay anyway?"

"Like I said, he left," I wiped a couple tears off my face.

"No, I mean where is he?"

I didn't want to answer, but I had to. "Ito's house, he said to not follow him."

"Damn it, that's going to make it hard," Sean collapsed onto the couch.

"I do know somebody who can help us." I said.

"That's right, Vienna might be able to talk some sense into him," Sean exclaimed.

"No you idiot, Vienna's at home trying to recover."

Sometimes Sean could be so clueless. "So who then."

"Bianca, you remember her?" I asked.

"Oh, you mean that girl who hasn't been mentioned for a while now," Sean winked.

"Yes, that one, I still have her number somewhere."

"Are you sure though, I mean, how would she help?" Sean took my phone and stared at Bianca's number.

"Don't even think about writing that down," I said, taking the phone from him.

"Ok, fine just let me see it!" He said reaching for my phone.

As we fought over the phone, I accidentally pressed the call button. However I didn't realize until I hit speaker.

"Sydney, you there?" Bianca's voice rang around the room.

Sean paused, "Um, hello?"

"Sydney, what happened to your voice?" Bianca asked.

"Shut up Sean," I elbowed him in the chest. "Sorry about that."

"No problem, anyways, can you stop by Ito Jakashitsu's house?" I asked.

"Who?" Bianca asked.

"She lives down the street from us."

"Ok, got it, I'll go find Jay."

"Wait, I didn't tell you the address!" But she was gone.

"Well, I hope she has a good time looking for him, she lives about three blocks away," Sean laughed.

"Yeah, I know," I really hoped that she would find Jay.

As I lay in bed, I wondered what Jay was doing right now, he had left about an hour ago and I just hoped he wasn't lost. Then again, he got lost pretty easily so there was a high probability he was still out there.

Then there was Rachelle, I had been friends with her for years now but it didn't feel right to help her. Maybe it was the right choice. But I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Rachelle and Chloe, or Jay and Vienna? That was the question. What would Sean say?

Would he agree with me when I say that I wanted to help Rachelle, or would he try to push me to help Jay.

I didn't want to turn against him, but he gave me no choice.

(Bianca)

"Ito Jakashitsu's house, where could that be?" I said to myself. I noticed somebody walking down the street, it was worth checking out. I ran towards the figure and tapped him on the back.

"Bianca?" It was Jay. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to come and get you."

"Did Sydney put you up to this?" Jay asked.

"Yes she did, but at least come home with me," I begged.

"Ito's house is only a couple houses down, just leave," Jay said pushing me away from him.

"Jayden, what exactly happened?"

"Rachelle and I got into a fight, and my girlf…. My friend Vienna got injured."

Was he about to say girlfriend? I thought. "But that doesn't explain why you're here."

"Sydney yelled at me, I did the only thing I knew to do, run."

"You can't run from everything Jay," I took his hand. "Come on, let's go home."

We walked silently back to Sydney's house.

"It's been a while," Jay said, finally breaking the tension.

"Yeah it has, the last time I saw you was before you went to Falmouth," I sighed.

Those were the days when Jay seemed so much more happier. Now, he seemed moody. "How's Talia?" He asked, breaking my train of thought.

"Oh, Talia that's right," I said, trying to remember what happened. "She moved out two weeks ago."

"That's too bad," Jay said.

"Yeah, but she has a nice house now, you should come with me tomorrow," I suggested.

"Maybe not, I don't really think that it would be a good idea," Jay answered. "If you don't mind, could you drive me to Vienna's house?"

"No, I don't mind," I was kind of disappointed, but it was what he wanted.

We arrived at my house and I immediately ran upstairs to tell my mom. "Mom, can you drive Jay somewhere?"

"Jay, where is he?" My mom asked.

"Downstairs waiting," I told her.

"Ok, why don't you come with us, maybe you can ooh him."

"Mom, he has a girlfriend," I groaned.

"Oh, too bad," My mom laughed. "Ok, let's go."

We went down the stairs to where Jay was sitting.

"Thank you ms. Jefferson." Jay said, shaking my mother's hand.

"No problem, now where's the address?"

"I have it written down somewhere," Jay scouranged his Jacket pockets. "Ah, here it is." Jay handed a crumpled up piece of paper to my mom.

"Let me go get my keys, Bianca you two should talk," My mom winked at me and walked to the kitchen.

Jay sat down on the couch, if you don't mind, can I use your phone?

"Of course," I handed Jay my phone.

Jay dialed a number and put the phone up to his ear. "Hallo, ich bin der Freund Ihrer Tochter. Wenn es Ihnen nichts ausmacht, kann ich dann in Ihrem Haus übernachten?"

I couldn't understand him, but he seemed to be talking with Vienna's parents. "I didn't realize you spoke German."

"I don't, my speaking is as bad as google translate, I don't know how to say some things and my grammar sucks," Jay laughed.

"What did they say?" I asked.

"Ja natürlich, which means yes basically." Jay answered.

"Jayden, Bianca, time to go!" my mom called from the garage.

We got into my civic and drove out of the garage.

"So Jayden, why were you all the way out here?" My mom asked.

"That's, classified," Jay said.

I nudged Jay, "She's not going to stop asking you, might as well tell her."

Jay sighed, he obviously wasn't happy with his answer. "I got into an argument with Sydney, my foster sister," Jay explained. "I feel like living with my friend-"

"Cut the crap Jay, we know you're dating her," I said to him with a stern look.

Jay let out a long sigh, "I feel like living with my girlfriend makes more sense than living with Sydney."

"What about that Ito girl?" I asked.

"Ito, she's just a close friend who moved here from Japan," Jay said. "She's not that important and besides, she's a bit weird."

"Sean talks about her a lot," I commented.

"Of course, they're like best friends," Jay seemed to be half paying attention. What was on his mind?

"So what's this Vienna girl like?" Mom asked.

Jay thought for a second, was it that hard to explain?

"Jayden, are you alright?" I asked.

Jay burst into tears, "It wasn't worth it!"

I gave him a confused look, "What are you talking about?"

"I should've just gone with Rachelle, then maybe this stuff wouldn't have happened," Jay cried. Did he really mean that? Even if he didn't say no to Rachelle, that wouldn't have changed what happened to his parents. "Bianca, you wouldn't understand."

"I may be the only person who understands."

Mom shook her head, "Bianca, let him have his moment."

Jay began to sob into my leg. Tears dripped onto my pants.

"Jayden, honey it's alright," Mom said.

Jay took a pencil out of his jacket pocket.

"Jay wait!" I shouted.

Jay took the pencil… and took a tissue and began to write on it.

I sighed with relief, "For a second I thought you were going to stab yourself."

Jay, who was still crying a bit, handed me the tissue. "Here, don't lose it." He then unbuckled himself and got out of the car, "I'll walk the rest of the way, it's only a block away."

Would I ever see him again? I didn't know, that short exchange we had might have been the end.