Prologue/Chapter 1

PROLOGUE


“Watch where you’re walking, Roberts.”

Jessica glanced up from underneath her hood just in time to see the familiar sneer that usually adorned Vanessa Fordson’s face before watching her fade into the constant wall of snow that continued to cover everything in sight. Jessica let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding, and quickly issued an unheard apology to the spot in the blizzard that Vanessa had just disappeared through. She sighed and re-adjusted the bag she had slung over her shoulder, turned around and continued to trudge through the seemingly endless blizzard toward the refuge she so desperately sought. Her hood fell back down in her face, and although it provided a bit of shelter from the constant, brutal onslaught of wind she kept finding it partially blocking her line of vision, which would explain why the run-in with Vanessa was not the first mini collision she had experienced today, and she was fairly certain it wouldn’t be the last either.

Y’know, Jessica thought to herself, if it weren’t for this ridiculous wind right now this would be the perfect start to December. Jessica was still fascinated by snow and everything that accompanied what most people usually classified as a “traditional” winter. She had grown up in Los Angeles, and moved to Burlington when she was 16, after her sophomore year of high school. Even after 6 years of living in Vermont she still wasn’t used the snow and cold weather, but it was a welcome change from the heat of southern California. Sure, she missed being able to go for a walk barefoot on the beach in the middle of December, and wasn’t sure she would ever get used to having to dig her car, and sometimes the entire front of the house out of a mountain of snow, but she was still like a little kid on Christmas morning every time the weather even hinted at snow.

Jessica was lost in her own thoughts of California beaches and palm trees decorated with lights that she didn’t notice she was about run down a new victim who, unfortunately, also had his head in the snow-filled clouds.

“Umph. Sorry.” Jessica grunted as she, yet again, collided with because she still couldn’t see where she was going. She let out an exasperated sigh and shoved her hood all the way back off of her head, only to be greeted with a gust of wind providing her with a face full of wet snow. Well, that’s probably an attractive sight, she thought as she reached up to wipe the slightly melted slush mixture off of her face with her hands. She looked up to see who she had nearly knocked over, and got a quick glimpse of dark, shaggy hair and blue eyes before another gust of wind nearly knocked her over. She caught her balance quickly but managed to drop her bag in the process which, as Murphy’s law would have it, resulted in a pile of books, binders and assorted pens on the wet sidewalk instead of being still safely stowed in her bag. Ignoring the slightly bewildered look her second run-in victim of the day was giving her, Jessica huffed out loud and dropped to her knees to quickly shove everything back in her bag before the snow and wind did some serious damage to anything.

“Whoa, sorry! Are you okay?” He asked quickly, kneeling down beside Jessica and picking up the books closest to him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jessica said as she hap-hazardly shoved a stack of loose paper into a binder, not bothering to check if it actually belonged there or if it was even in any kind of order at all. At this point she didn’t care much about organization, she just wanted to get away from this awkward and slightly embarrassing situation and hide in her favorite corner chair in the coffee shop around the corner she was heading to. She let out a long breath as she shoved the last few scattered note cards in the bag, and looked up to see who was kneeling by her side. She was startled to see that his eyes were a familiar bright sapphire blue, and seemed to be searching her own eyes for answers she didn’t have just yet. Quickly glancing back down at her bag, she started fumbling with the latch as she stood up and tried to hide the sudden attack of nerves surging through her body.

“Um yeah sorry. I can’t see with this stupid hood up. Sorry,” she muttered mostly in one breath as she pulled her hood back up and pushed past the confused stranger who was still kneeling next to where Jessica had been seconds before.

Crap. Crap! Why right now? Why does something have to remind me of him EVERYWHERE I go? I mean, I know he’s not the only person in the world with eyes that color, but would it be so bad if he was so I didn’t have to deal with that reaction every time it happens? Jessica tried to keep her thoughts straight, but the combination of the memory of today’s date along with the ridiculous chance encounter with a complete stranger that triggered an even stronger memory she had spent the last 6 years hiding in the back of her subconscious so she would forget about it, trying to think straight was like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole: possible with the right tools, but generally not going to happen. I can’t believe TODAY of all days this had to happen. After..... Jessica forced her mind to fade out and not finish that sentence. There was NO WAY she was letting her emotions get the best of her right now, especially not when she was about to sit in the middle of a crowded coffee shop and struggle through two papers and a handful of reviews for her upcoming finals. Hitching her bag back up over her head so the strap nestled into her opposite shoulder, she shoved her gloveless hands into her pockets and continued to trudge through the never ending snow storm in search of a very large mug of hot coffee.



















CHAPTER 1

Pulling open the door of the coffee shop and hearing the familiar tinkle of the sleigh bells Rob, the owner of the shop, had tied to the door in honor of the upcoming holidays should have been a comforting sound, but like everything else today it was a bit un-nerving. Jessica wasn’t sure how much more she could handle today, but had a feeling that as it was only 3 o’clock in the afternoon she wasn’t anywhere near done with the onslaught of emotional turmoil. Even the normal blast of hot air provided by the heater placed right above the door on the inside of the shop seemed foreign as Jessica ducked forward a bit to cover her face before finally removing her hood completely and starting to unzip her jacket.

“Jessica! I was wondering when you’d wander in here,” Rob boomed across the shop from behind the counter. Jessica had been coming to Rob’s place ever since she had moved here, and he had taken over a sort of fatherly role in her mind. Jessica’s real dad still lived in LA with her mom, and since Jessica lived with her widowed aunt she needed some kind of father figure in her life. “I was starting to worry about you, kiddo. Haven’t seen you in a few days, everything okay?” Rob had come around the end of the counter to give Jessica his usual bear hug, which she appreciated today more than she normally did.

“Yeah, sorry. I’ve been pretty busy lately. Finals are coming up, and mom’s been calling me nearly every day because...” She hesitated for a split second before continuing. She was almost caught off guard again, but caught herself before finishing her thought out loud. Nice, Jess. Really smooth. Let’s just spill all of your darkest secrets in the middle of Rob’s place for everyone to hear.

“Because she’s your mother and she’s worried about you?” Rob finished for her, blissfully unaware of the mind trap Jessica had herself caught in right now.

“Yeah. She’s worried,” Jess finished. Rob to the rescue again, and he doesn’t even know it. “My classes are killing me this semester, and since Sarah started volunteering more at the shelter she’s not around as much so I’ve taken to stressing myself out more than normal.”

“Ah Jess. It’ll be okay,” Rob sighed, pulling her into another hug. “I know it sucks. Heck, it must be bad! You’ve missed 4 days of your usual Hazelnut Toffee Mocha! You haven’t missed that for a single day since I came out with that just for you!”

Jessica smiled for the first time today. “You know, you’re right. I could really use one today. Maybe that’s my problem.”

“You got it, kiddo. One very large Hazelnut Toffee Mocha coming right up. It’s on me today, no worries. Go curl up in your chair, I’ll bring it over to you when it’s ready.”

“Thanks. You’re the best, Rob,” Jessica said. Glancing over her shoulder quickly to make sure she didn’t have yet another run in with anyone else, she turned around and headed for her favorite worn-in chair in the corner by the window. Setting her bag down on the ground next to the chair, she tossed her coat on the back of the chair and flopped down onto the faded cushion, letting herself sink down in between the giant arms of the chair. Rob had wanted to get rid of the chair a while ago, but Jessica managed to convince him otherwise. Most of the wear and tear on the chair was from her, as she sat there every time she came in. Today of all days, she was grateful for its comfort and familiarity. She had always wanted a chair like this one back home in LA, but her parents wouldn’t go for it in her already tiny room. Sure, her daybed in her room at her aunt’s house was great to curl up on with a good book or her homework and laptop, but there was something about a good, comfy, well worn-in arm chair that made some things better. Jessica sat there for a few minutes, letting herself melt into the chair. She closed her eyes, and tried to forget about everything today had brought upon her, only to be jolted back to reality by Rob’s booming voice interrupting her thoughts from across the store.

“Jess! You want whipped cream today?”

“Um. Yeah, please. That’d be good,” Jess replied, opening her eyes.

“You got it.”

“Thanks.” She sighed and sat up, and reached down to open her bag so she could start on the mountain of papers and reviews she needed to plow through this weekend. Letting the flap drop down over the back of the bag, she started shuffling through the bag’s contents trying to decide what to start with. She wasn’t feeling particularly creative today and she didn’t want to have the freedom to let her thoughts wander, so she made the choice to start with her Desktop Publishing portfolio. That would be pretty easy, but structured and direction oriented enough that she would have to concentrate and not let her mind wander off to daydream while she worked. She pulled out her laptop and tucked it between her side and the arm of the chair and reached for her work book, only to discover it wasn’t in her bag. No. No no no. It was in here when I left class. It has to be here. Without the book, there was no way to finish her portfolio. Professor Rosen had one copy he kept for himself, but refused to post the instructions on the school’s website along with the rest of the course info. Jessica didn’t really talk to anyone else in her class, so getting the book from anyone else was out of the question too. With panic mode starting to set in, she didn’t even notice the blue-eyed stranger enter the coffee shop and approach the counter.

Maybe I left it in class. Rosen is going to kill me, but maybe I can get it back. Oh crap. This is ridiculous. Jessica shoved everything back in her bag, grabbed that and her coat and bolted up to the counter. “Rob, I’m sorry I have to run back up to school for a bit. I can’t find some of my stuff, I think I left it...” she trailed off when she saw who she had just interrupted talking to Rob.

“Jessica Roberts?” The blue-eyed stranger asked, holding out her missing books.

“Y - yeah. Where did you find those?!” Jessica asked in shock, taking the books from his hands.

“When your bag spilled out on the sidewalk, you dropped them. I picked them up and you took off before I could hand them back to you. Thought you might need them.”

“Oh my gosh yes. Thank you so much!” Jessica’s face broke into a smile and she looked up at him without realizing what making eye contact with him would do to her already whacked out thought process. Her chocolate brown eyes locked with his sapphire blue eyes, and she almost melted into an emotional puddle on the ground. It took more will power than she really had to avert her gaze to the ground, but she made herself to it and she took a step back. “Sorry,” she said, quieter than she meant to. Making her brain calm down, she took a deep breath and looked back up at him, being careful to avoid his gaze. “It’s been a long day and I’m a bit stressed and nervous about a lot of things and I thought I had lost these and without them I can’t finish my portfolio and if I don’t finish my portfolio I’ll fail my class and that really wouldn’t be -”

“Jess. You’re rambling.” Rob interrupted her less than eloquent explanation of today’s events. “Take a breath, you’re probably giving Joseph a headache. I know my head is spinning trying to keep up with your thought process.”

Well, at least his name is nowhere close to - never mind. Not going there. “Sorry,” she said rather sheepishly. Jessica tended to ramble when she got nervous, and the blue-eyed stranger - Joseph, his name was apparently - was not helping her nerves in the slightest.

“You okay, kiddo? You’re really jumpy and on edge today,” Rob said, clearly stating the obvious to anyone with-in a 5 mile radius of Jessica’s current location. “You sure there’s nothing else bothering you?”

“I’m sure. Sorry, I’m just really stressed and was convinced for a minute that I was going to fail because I couldn’t find those books,” she said, doing her best to slow down a bit and speak clearly and calmly. That, and this guy, Joseph, has the EXACT same eyes as Danny and we all know how well THAT ended. Well, okay you don’t. But I do. And it’s not good. On top of that, 6 years ago today I -

“Jess. You’re acting really weird today, calm down,” Rob said rather bluntly, yet again interrupting Jessica’s ongoing mental assault on her emotions. This is why Jessica really loved Rob sometimes. He had no idea what was going on inside her head, which was definitely a good thing, and yet he was always able to give her a serious reality check without knowing what he was doing. He had always been that way; completely oblivious to a lot of things going on around him, but somehow able to tap into the emotional stand point of everyone around him. It had it’s creepy moments, but today Jessica was thankful for Rob’s blissfully oblivious ability to interrupt her thoughts at exactly the right moment.

“Sorry, I just -”

“And stop apologizing, kiddo. Nothing’s been your fault today, it’s okay,” Rob interjected.

“Well, except for the collision on the sidewalk. Although, we could probably both blame each other for that one,” Joseph spoke up, reminding Jessica of the unfortunate chance encounter from earlier.

“Yeah, that one was my fault,” Jessica said. She turned to Joseph before continuing. Looking directly into his eyes, she forced herself to keep her nerves in check. “Sorry about that. It’s been a ridiculous day, and it’s slightly embarrassing and awkward but you’ve probably already...” she stopped herself mid-sentence due to a raised eyebrow from Rob. “And I’m rambling again. Right. Sorry,” she said, and visibly cringed immediately at her own apology. She took a deep breath, and was about to continue when the bells on the door jingled and a group of 6 or 7 rather loud high school kids pushed through the door. Judging by the numbers on the shoulders of the letter jackets they were all wearing, adorned with various multi-colored scarves, hats, and gloves, Jessica came to the conclusion they were Seniors and they were obviously trying way too hard to fit into the early college stereotype of hanging out at the local coffee shop to study or just be generally obnoxious.

“I should probably take care of these hooligans,” Rob chuckled, and ventured back around the counter to man the cash register. “Jess, if you’re done freaking out would you mind helping me?”

“Yeah, no problem,” she said, following him and stowing her bag and jacket under the counter. Remembering Joseph, she turned back to him and said “Look, thanks again. For the books. I really owe you for that. I’m sorry about being so out of it today, I really don’t know what my problem is.”

“It’s okay, no hard feelings. We’ve all been there, finals are killer I know. Especially for Publishing and Graphic Design majors. Yeah, I flipped through your books. Sorry,” he quickly explained to Jessica’s confused expression. “Anyway. Don’t worry about it. It’s not a problem. I was coming here anyway, it’s just coincidence I found you here. I’ll let you get to work. See you around, maybe?”

“Yeah. I guess so. I’m here a lot, so I’m sure I’ll see you eventually. Thanks, again.” Jessica turned her back to Joseph and let out the breath she had been holding before taking up post at the cash register to help Rob wade through the orders being placed by the obnoxious kids.

Jessica didn’t actually work at Rob’s place, but she had offered to help him out a few summers back when he had been really swamped with tourists one day, and it had been sort of an unspoken agreement between the two of them that Jessica would help him out while she was there if he needed it, in exchange for free drinks and keeping the old arm chair in the corner. She had never quite mastered making drinks the way Rob could, he was the expert of the shop. His other employees were top notch it seemed, but no one could make Rob’s signature drinks taste quite the same as he could. Regardless, Jessica usually stuck to the cash register and sometimes ventured to the drink station for some of the simpler drinks that didn’t require much skill, like cups of ice water. She may have been a complete whiz-kid when it came to art and design programs on almost any computer, but the drink machines always managed to completely baffle her.

“Hi. Um, can I get, like, a venti, um, caramel, like, latte?” drawled the bleach blonde valley-girl wannabe who was leaning on her boyfriend.

Jessica hid a disgusted eye-roll and punched the order into the register. “Four dollars and eighty seven cents. Would you like a receipt?” she asked as the boy blondie was leaning on handed her a credit card. A quick glance at the name revealed that either he was handing her blondie’s card, or trying to be the macho boyfriend and pay for everything using mommy’s card. Obviously his name wasn’t ‘Rachel McAdams’ but she wasn’t going to bother with it right now. Rob wasn’t the kind of shop owner that really cared about checking IDs anyway. He figured that if you were dumb enough to let your wallet or credit cards get stolen, then you could deal with someone using it to buy a five dollar cup of coffee.

“Nah, I never bother with ‘em. It’s just a cup of coffee, right?” He looked around at his group of misfit friends and laughed as he said this, obviously in a vain attempt to look the part he was trying to pull off: a high school senior who was just so hip and cool that he uses his no-limits credit card to pay for his carbon-copy girlfriend’s coffee.

Jessica shook her head just slightly in disbelief that people actually acted the way these kids did before informing him that Rob would have his drink ready at the other end of the counter shortly, and asking far too politely if she could help who was next in line. Making her way through the line of kids who all put on the facade that they were the epitome of cool because they used Starbucks drink lingo at the local coffee shop, Jessica handed the change to the last person in line, verbally ushered them down to the end of the counter and went to make her way to grab her bag and dive into the mountain of homework she had.

As Jessica bent down to retrieve her things from under the counter, she heard a familiar voice coming from somewhere over her.

“Got time for one more order before you head out? I promise I’ll use a complete sentence, without a single ‘like’ or ‘um’.”

She looked up to see Joseph standing opposite the counter, watching her and waiting for an answer. A faint smile crossed Jessica’s face. She was glad someone else at least appreciated the ability to speak in a manner that most people could understand. Glancing down toward Rob’s end of the counter, she saw he was still busy handing over drinks to the kids she just rang through.

“Sure,” she said, motioning for him to follow her down to the registers. “What can we get you?”

“Large coffee, black please. None of those weird syrups or anything for me,” he laughed softly.

“Spoken like a true coffee addict. Anything else?”

“More like a true art student with an entire portfolio of original work due tomorrow at 8am. And no, thanks. Coffee is all I need.”

“That’s a familiar feeling. What’s your concentration?” Jessica asked, genuinely curious. She was envious of anyone with actual art talent. She could draw, and she wasn’t too bad at it, but it was nothing spectacular. She worked her real magic on a computer, which she was really good at. She wouldn’t be the first to admit it, but her graphics and designs were incredible.

“Drawing, mainly. Charcoal is my favorite, but I’ve got work in pretty much any medium. I’ve started dabbling with paint recently, but I’m not really a fan,” he said as he handed her a few dollar bills.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s on me, since apparently I’m incapable of walking or communicating in a normal manner,” Jessica said, handing him the cup.

“Well then. Maybe I should literally run into people more often, if it’s going to get me free drinks.” He gave her a genuine smile, and Jessica thought she was going to have a heart attack. He has the same smile! What did I do to deserve this? I mean, come ON. Isn’t the eye thing enough?

“Well, thanks. See you around,” Joseph said, seeming to catch on to Jessica’s mini-freak out. He turned around and went back to his table, which had a rather large black folder next to it, which Jessica assumed was what he kept his work in. She watched as he pulled a smaller sketch book out of his bag, and flipped it open to a blank page before digging for something to draw with. She went to reach for her bag when she heard the bells on the door jingle again, and she looked up to see if she could make an escape from behind the counter, or if she would need to stick it out and keep ringing. She couldn’t quite see who had just walked in, as they had hat on and their hood up over that, which was pretty much protocol for anyone who ventured outside today, but instead of coming up to the counter to order they made their way towards the grouping of tables where Joseph sat. They pushed their hood back off their head, and much to Jessica’s disappointment she realized it was her first run-in victim of the day: Vanessa Fordson.