The Story In His Picture

Chapter 5

Song- I really like you by Carly Rae Jepsen

…/…

Since it was a Tuesday afternoon, I knew Jules would be home. “Jace, are you ready?” I shout from the kitchen. “Yeah, in a minute” he shouts back.

I don’t know who made up the rule of having just one best friend. I have two for just one reason. When one messes up, I can always meet the other.

I enter the car and direct Jace to Jules’ new house. After a few turns to the right and left, we get to Jules’ bakery. Her house is just above the bakery. The bakery is small but big enough to fit customers with big hearts as Jules would say.

We enter the bakery and the bell chimes as a sign of a customer’s entrance. I look ahead to see Jules in the kitchen with flour all over her hair, yeah, she can be a bit clumsy. I run to the kitchen to hug her.

“Oh dear, you’ve come to visit me today, huh Vieve?” She says with enthusiasm. “Yes, Jules and how are we today?” I say to her. “Oh, I’m good. Just the usuals. My, my, Jason dear is that you?” She says wanting to pull Jace’s cheeks. Somehow, she’s the only one I know that calls Jace, Jason. My brothers thought she was creepy when we were young, I was the only one that found her amusing.

“C’mon children, get some aprons from the store and join me, there’s loads of work to do”.

I sigh and join her. She loves baking. I’ve told her countless times that she’d probably die baking a cake or something.

…/…

We sit in her house upstairs after taking a shower. She gave me an ointment to use for the pain and ever since, the pain has gone.

“Look Vieve, you have to understand that in life, you don’t always get what you want. The things that are meant to be for you would always find you” Jules says as she packs pastries for us to give Luke and Jay.

“Thank you for always listening to me, Julia,” I say and smile. “My pleasure dear,” Jules says. “You’d best be on your way now, it’s quite late,” she says to us. “Good night Jules,” I say as I head out. “Thanks for the pastries too,” Jace says as he bends to kiss her cheek. She waves as we enter the car and then, she goes inside.

We get home in time to see Luke and Jay in the sitting room, talking. Jace gives them the pastries and they dig in.

“You guys, Luke and I were just talking about how we should do a little get together for our circle of friends,” Jay says. “And who are the people in our circle?” I say, hating the idea instantly.

“Well, everyone that sat with us at the table today, plus each person is allowed to bring just one extra person,” Jay says and Luke looks at me. I don’t give anyone the satisfaction of figuring me out so I say “Fine!”.

I hurry up to my room to write down what Julia said in my book and with my pencil in my hand, I sleep off.

…/…

The week goes by, with Chris and Henry in and out of my house. I’m so happy they don’t have this rival thing going on, it would’ve been hard to work with them. They’re both mature and it’s cool. Despite my efforts to put a distance between myself and the pair, I’ve gotten quite close to them. Don’t you dare ask me how that is possible in less than 2 days?. These boys talk a lot. Just because they ride motorbikes and skip classes doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings.

Henry mostly talks about his granny. He lost his parents when he was eleven but they left him a shitload of money. He’s also a photographer and I found that to be very interesting.

Chris is rich too, maybe that’s why his last name is Rich. He mostly talks about his little sister, it’s cute the way he adores her.

Right now, I’m in my room thinking of what to wear for this get-together. Some part of me feels like wearing my PJs, but then that would be a disaster because everyone brought a plus one except me. It’ll feel like I’m the grinch.

I decided to call my human inspiration. “Luke, get your behind up here,” I say on the phone. “Sorry Tami, I gotta go,” Luke says before cutting me off. I kinda feel bad that I made him leave her but it’s just for a moment.

Luke opens the door to my room and says “Shouldn’t you call a girl for this”. “What’d you think is my problem?” I say to him. “Well, considering the number of clothes on your bed and you still being in your PJs. You don’t know what to wear,” Luke says in a bit of a haste. “Smartass” I mutter under my breath.

“Just throw on some jeans or something, you always look good in jeans,” Luke says. “Why thank you Sir, Luke,” I say. Luke gives me this look like I’m a weirdo and I just laugh.

I wear my black jeans that are ripped at my knees and my baggy grey shirt. I do love grey.

As I head downstairs, I hear someone shout “Hey, Grey is here” and I immediately know it’s Chris. “Why’d you call her Grey anyways?” Henry says to Chris and Chris says something in return but I can’t hear them as I was busy saying hi to Jay’s plus one.

She smiles a lot and she seems nice. “Hi, my name is Vanessa but you can just call me Van,” She says to me, still smiling. “I’m Gen,” I say. “Nice hair, by the way,” Nessa says. I think we’re gonna be good friends.

Someone knocks on the door and I wonder who it could be seeing as we were complete. I go to open the door and I see Darian standing there smiling. I hug him and smile. He puts his arm on my shoulders and I lead him to the sitting room.

I notice I haven’t seen Jace, so I check around and I find him in the kitchen, cooking with his plus one. “Hi,” I say. She leaves what she’s doing and hugs me. I don’t hug her back for a moment because I was surprised. Jace then mouths something along the lines of “she loves cuddling”. I nod and hug her back.

“My name’s Elle and I’m guessing you’re Genevieve”. “Just Gen,” I say to her. Only my grandmother calls me Genevieve and I always ask her why she likes stressing herself. Genevieve is long in terms of spelling and pronunciation.

She nods and we talk for a while before she joins Jace in fixing dinner. I walk to the sitting room and see Darian and Chris talking. I see Tami and Luke laughing and then I wave to Tami and she waves back. “Good, she’s friendly,” I say to myself.

The only person I don’t greet is Natasha. I mean, she’s been using her phone all evening plus she whines all the time and it’s starting to get to me. Chris do this, Chris do that, It’s annoying.

I walk up to Chris and Darian. Darian automatically put his arms around and hugs me from the back. His words, “Cuddling can never be too much”. We weren’t friends with benefits or anything, it’s just that he likes physical contact a lot and on days I want something like that, I go to him. Darian and I have been friends for a long time too.

“Hey, aren’t you going to show me some of your works?” I turn around to see Henry and I smile. “Okay, let’s go”

I take Henry to my room and we enter my secret lair where all the pictures I take are hanged. Henry looks at them and smiles. “You’re really good,” He says and I blush. I take out time to look at his dreadlocks. They’re really nice and long. I try to touch them but then, he turns to face me. He puts my hand at the tip of his hair slowly, then, he lets me run my fingers through them. The room starts getting smaller and I see him staring into my eyes.

I keep my gaze fixed on him and it’s like he’s making the air go away and then boom!