Title: Listen to the Rain
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Once and Again characters or anything to do with Once and Again. I'm not making money on this either...So please don't sue me.
Summary: Basically some teen loving going on between Jessie and Katie. Some of the other regulars of the show will make an appearance in here. There will also be some lovely humour, and some angst they have to deal with first.
Feedback: I'd love it. Thanks.
Author's Note: I'm making Jessie 16 in this, and Katie 17. Please don't hate me for the ending of this chapter because if anyone likes it there will be happiness ahead for them. They just have to deal with a few things first in among all of the fun.
Jessie sighed and leaned back into her comforter. She turned her head to the side and glanced around the room. Was it weird that she was more excited to talk to Katie than Tad, both of whom would probably be calling her today? Stupid question. Tad was just that, Tad. A good friend, maybe, but nothing more. And he could get tiresome after a while. He was a good guy, but sometimes he didn't realize that Jessie wasn't into him that way. Well, at first he didn't anyway. As for Katie. Who wouldn't want to talk to her? She was as near perfect as anyone could be, witty, intelligent, charming, and beautiful. Where did that last one come from?
Jessie shook her head before reaching one hand up to grab a pillow. She shouldn't be thinking her best friend is beautiful. There was no way she could say she wasn't though. Jessie shut her eyes and buried her face in her pillow in one swift movement. Her subconscious was ganging up on her conscious, which really wasn't fair. Suddenly it seemed as if the internal debate needed to be voiced. It just sometimes seemed to help the person with the problem figure out a solution. That's what they do on soap operas, and those problems always get resolved right? They always ended up getting overheard, but no one was even home in the Manning household so there was nothing to worry about! "I won't have do deal with my mind any more if I smother myself. There that'll solve it. I already have my pillow!" Jessie smiled into her pillow realizing how many things would be solved then, if she was smothered. Wait, she frowned. Then she wouldn't be able to talk to Katie again. "I'm not sure I could handle not talking to her, unless I was able to come back as a ghost..."
Suddenly her pillow was yanked out from over her head, and she could feel it whacking her slightly on the head. What the? "To smother or not to smother is not the question. Smothering is out of the question when it concerns my Billy." Katie was still stuck on the Shakespearean talking routine that she had been trying to focus on lately. Did she just say 'My Billy'? Katie continued, "Somehow I don't think even a ghost you could measure up to the real thing. Though this 'she' you were talking about, must be pretty important..." Katie laughed a bit to let her know she was joking. Jessie's blush worked its way up her face. It was a good thing she didn't realize Jessie had been talking about Katie. Jessie smiled.
Jessie sat up and turned to Katie, "I don't get to smother myself then, huh? Says who?"
Katie smiled wickedly, "Me, and seeing as I hold the pillow of power I get to be in charge."
Jessie shook her head, "Whose house is this though?"
"Who didn't lock the house though? You, instead you let a little vagabond like me wander on in, and that whole talking-aloud-to-yourself thing never works in soap operas, don't you know that?." Katie was able to shoot back an answer just a few seconds after Jessie.
"I thought I was home alone and why would I lock it when I was home? Maybe you broke in?" Jessie suggested.
Katie got a shocked look on a face before swatting Jessie playfully with the pillow she still held. "That's for suggesting I would take part in criminal activity." She swatted her with it again. "That's for..." Katie searched for something, "for not having any ice cream in your freezer." Jessie raised her left eyebrow before trying to grab the pillow.
As they struggled for it giggling, Jessie managed to gasp out "How do you know we don't have ice cream? Did you look?" Katie nodded her head. Jessie laughed because from the expression of sincerity and wonder on Katie's face, she really had looked.
Katie faked a hurt look before hitting Jessie with the pillow again, "That's for laughing at me." Jessie grabbed at the pillow, but missed and accidentally ended up reaching out and touching Katie's side. She grinned. Perfect, she knew that Katie had a very ticklish area around there... Jessie reached out and poked along Katie's side. Soon she heard a little bit of a gasp from Katie and knew she found the spot. She smiled before tickling there with all she was worth. It took Katie a minute to recover. Soon, after realizing the pillow was worthless in this tickle fight, she dropped it. She reached up and started tickling Jessie as well. This received a happy screech from Jessie as she tried to avoid being tickled while tickling Katie.
Jessie, who had knocked Katie over while tickling her, hovered over Katie laughing as she tried to reach Katie's most ticklish spots again. Katie took a moment to compose herself, and stopped tickling. This confused Jessie, who momentarily stopped as well and tilted her head looking bewildered down at Katie. Katie then reached up and flipped Jessie over, catching Jessie off-guard. Katie grinned down at a startled Jessie, as she began tickling again. She decided that Jessie should have to say 'uncle' and admit her loss. "Say it!" Jessie shook her head laughing like crazy. Katie raised an eyebrow, boy, Jessie could sure be stubborn. She started tickling her more, trying to see if there was a new ticklish place she had missed before.
Jessie started to struggle, which was a first. This made Katie realize she found an even more ticklish spot, her left thigh. Even through her shorts, the outside of Jessie's left leg seemed to be really ticklish. "EEEEEEE," Whoa. That was an odd sound for Jessie to make. Katie glanced down at her, and grabbed her hands to keep them from protesting, but stopped tickling the poor girl she was now straddling without either of them really realizing it.
"You sound like some kind of pig, are you okay?"
"Did you just call me a pig?" Jessie looked flabbergasted at her friend.
"I didn't mean a literal pig! Though, I don't usually have Jessies 'eee'ing at me, sometimes pigs.." Katie sat there thoughtfully for a moment before adding, "Sometimes another type of pig whistles instead of 'eee'ing though." Katie grinned down at her friend, who caught onto Katie's reference of Tad whistling at Jessie one day, and Jessie not knowing whether to take it as a compliment or not. In truth, Katie knew that her friend was just trying to speak while being tickled, unfortunately, her vocal cords didn't seem to work so well at the time.
"Well, usually I'm not getting attacked by my best friend!" Jessie was still trying to catch her breath. She wasn't sure how she ended up losing this tickle-fest.
"You know, you could have just said 'uncle' and it would have been over."
"What fun is that," Jessie grinned up at Katie, who grinned back.
"Well, not so much fun, but are you going to say it now?" Katie took both of Jessie's hands within her one, and wiggled the other hand's fingers in front of Jessie's face. "I can use these again you know." She raised her eyebrows waiting for Jessie's answer. "I'm very talented with them."
"I know you are," Jessie responded before they both caught on to the double meaning that lay intertwined into their conversation. This seemed to be happening more and more, their conversation reaching a point that could be considered flirting, and their touching becoming frequent. Neither girl minded, in fact, they seemed to be more attached at the hip than ever. Neither of them would admit that it was anything more than friendship, but they seemed to be growing bolder with what they had the audacity to say to the other. Jessie blushed a bit realizing what she just said before grinning deviously. If she had to blush during this conversation, so could Katie. "Then again, I think you just like the position you're in currently."
This time Katie blushed. Truth be told, both of them actually did like the positions they were in. But, they were just friends. I mean, they were both completely friends. Friends could think another friend was the most beautiful person they'd ever seen. That was okay, right? They could like laying around with their friend...almost too much, right? Katie decided to stop thinking about it so much, instead she just leaned her mouth close to Jessie. Jessie got caught up staring at Katie's lips for a moment wondering if they were going to connect with her own. Then her conscious caught up with her, and she tried to think of something else, which was really difficult with Katie settled on her waist like that getting nearer every second. Finally Katie's movement ceased right next to Jessie's ear and she whispered, "I think you're right."
Jessie's breath caught in her throat as she stumbled through some words in her head of what to say. Katie smirked then rolled off of Jessie so that they were laying side-by-side on Jessie's bed. "So what do you wanna do today?" Jessie lay there stunned for a moment, recovering from that. Katie was trying not to grin, but couldn't help it as a little smile crossed her face again.
Jessie was able calm herself enough now to answer, "Who says I'm going to do anything with you today?" Katie didn't catch the playfulness in her voice and just kind of shrugged looking off to the side. When Katie didn't respond Jessie looked at her friend and noticed her looking a little upset and embarrassed. "Oh, Katie!" Katie shrugged once more before standing up.
"I guess, I should probably go then." "Katie, wait!" Katie was already walking towards the attic door when Jessie caught up with her. "I was kidding! Of course I wanna do something with you today." Katie turned back and looked at Jessie realizing the other girl was sincere. She felt silly now. Jessie just smiled at her and rolled her eyes, letting her know not to worry about it.
Then, before she knew it, Jessie was grabbing her hand and they were walking out of the house just as Grace pulled up to the garage. Grace saw them both smiling and holding hands, "Finally, you two got your act together so that you could be, well, together, huh?" Grace was smirking at them. Unfortunately, only Katie seemed to realize what Grace was implying at first. Then Jessie caught on, immediately letting go of Katie's hand.
"What? No, no...we...we're friends, Grace, get over it." Jessie rolled her eyes as she grew more frustrated and flustered as Grace tried to decide if she was lying or not. Of course Jessie wasn't lying. Perfect Jessie, she couldn't like a girl. Grace should have known better. She cast a glance at Katie who was trying to cover up her own feelings, as she folded her arms across her chest protectively. Poor Katie, it was easy to see she was crazy about Jessie. Actually, it was easy to see Jessie was crazy about Katie too, if only she would let herself be happy for once.
Grace rolled her eyes at Jessie, and started to open her mouth only to be interrupted by the hurt looking Katie, "Come on Jess, let's go get some smoothies." Jessie glanced between Grace and Katie. She debated between arguing with her step-sister and getting smoothies with Katie, wait, why was Katie not looking in her eyes?
Still looking at Katie, Jessie nodded and said, "I'll see you later Grace." Katie smiled halfheartedly wondering what her problem was. She wasn't suppose to be this sad at the loss of contact with Jessie. So why was she? I mean, they were friends of course. Friends could hold hands when trying to get the other person to go somewhere, but holding hands wasn't suppose to feel...like that. She had been with, well with wasn't the best choice of word really, at least when you included Sarah.Sarah and her had been friends with slight benefits in a sense. They had kissed and held hands. Katie had thought she had really fallen for the other girl, but then it became all too much for her. She had really just been trying to figure herself out. Sarah had wanted too much from her that Katie couldn't give her. Sure, Sarah was a really good friend, and she had felt more with her than she had with any of the guys, but she still wasn't the one for her. Of course, when Katie told Sarah this, it didn't go so well. Especially when Katie had become intrigued with Jessie. Truthfully Katie felt more holding Jessie's hand then she had felt with anyone else. It was all so confusing. She didn't understand it. Jessie was straight, she knew this, but why did it hurt so much then?
While Katie was trying to collect her thoughts, an eager Jessie stood watching as her friend was caught up in her thoughts. She reached over and grabbed her hand again. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she already missed feeling the other girl's hand in hers, simply about getting Katie to move. Or, at least partially about getting her to move. Katie was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts and shoved back into reality. Reality that seemed to include Jessie holding her hand and getting her to walk to the park. Well, they were now at the park anyway. However, this couldn't be the place they intended to get smoothies at, just a little detour. Katie smiled. "So where to princess?"
Jessie raised an eyebrow looking at Katie, "Princess?" Oh crap. Katie had said that aloud...Um...Think fast Singer!
"Princess Billie?" She turned to face Jessie who was looking at her with a straight face perplexed. Oh crap. Wrong again. Um...Wait. Jessie was smiling at her.
"Princess Billie, huh? I like that. Though, I liked the one you called me earlier better," she teased Katie smiling. Jessie always tried to keep her guard up, and not let herself be like this. Flirty like this, with Katie. Wait, she wasn't flirting. They were friends, they were joking. She tried to reassure herself. Just friendship, that's all they had and wanted. Katie smiled back, trying to remember what she had called her earlier. She had called her a hyped up strawberry the other day when she was giggling and blushing, that couldn't be it could it? Jessie just always felt herself melt around Katie, especially when she would smile at her. Smile at her like, just like she was currently.
She couldn't help but lean forward and up a bit to whisper in the taller girl's ear, "When you called me 'your Billie' remember?" Oh, Katie remembered all right. She pulled back to look in Katie's eyes. They were still only a few inches away, and Katie was partially in shock of what Jessie had said. She had been just kidding right? Neither girl seemed to be pulling away, and magnetically both closed the last couple of inches separating their mouths. Their eyes closed simultaneously letting themselves go into the kiss. It was a sweet kiss from start to end, both girls enjoying the feel of the spark between them. The previously linked hands finally drifted apart willingly. Jessie's seemed to drift towards Katie's neck, turning her a little bit more towards her. While Katie's arms wrapped around Jessie's waist, hoping to get closer to the younger girl.
Both were too wrapped up in emotions to consider the effects their actions may have afterward. Boldly Jessie ran her tongue against Katie's lips. The strawberry lip gloss on the other girl's lips welcomed her tongue into her mouth. Katie's arms tightened around Jessie's waist a little more trying to pull her closer as the kiss deepened. Both having to try their hardest to suppress any moans. Several moments later, both girls seemed to realize that oxygen was needed and Katie was the one to pull back first. They leaned their foreheads against each others and looked into the other's eyes. Katie was the first to speak, she had to release the words she had felt inside for so long. "Jessie, I love you."
Jessie's were still kind of foggy as if she was just realizing what she had just felt was real. Katie loved her? She felt ecstatic at first, grinning madly which did not get passed Katie, who smiled in return. Then she realized that she was feeling this way for a girl. Her feelings for Katie were definitely very real.
There was no way to convince herself of this otherwise now. "Oh my God..." Jessie murmured.
"What?" Katie asked, looking into Jessie's eyes, trying to figure out what was going on. Please don't let her be freaking out on me...please don't let her run. Katie was hoping that Jessie was going to stay by her, they could figure it out together. Jessie looked up at Katie, her eyes full of tears already. She had kissed Katie. Katie had kissed her. Her and Katie had kissed. Why was it that it made so much sense to her, but at the same time sounded absolutely ludicrous no matter how it was worded? No. No. It couldn't be. She wasn't gay. She couldn't be gay. She wouldn't be gay. She shook her head, filling her stomach with an immediate sense of panic. Jessie had to leave. She had to leave now.
She couldn't even look at Katie afraid that she wouldn't be able to hold the tears in. No matter what she felt inside, she wouldn't let herself love Katie. She started to back up away from Katie removing her hands from around the other girl's neck, where they had previously rested lovingly. She turned away from Katie, tears now streaming down both of their faces. A few seconds later she was in a full out sprint away from Katie. Katie stood their astounded at what had just happened. She had told the only girl she had ever loved that she loved her after kissing her, and she had fled. What had she expected, to be told that she loved her back? How could she have been so stupid to let herself fall for Jessie, to let herself act on it, thinking it was mutual. Stupid Singer, of course Jessie is straight, and not only the best friend you've ever had, but also the person you love. If you hadn't acted on it, you could have still been friends. It's your fault. All your fault.
Words of blame shifted into Katie's mind, as her heart shattered into millions of pieces in her chest. Just in time, the rain started to fall making Katie's hair plaster itself against her face, mixing in with the tears that were still pouring from her eyes. She didn't really care now. The girl she loved was gone, and she felt as if it was she who had sent her away.