Episode 2

I glare at Jax, unable to believe my eyes. This person, who had disappeared four years ago without any explanation, had the gall to show up here, on my front porch!

"I'mma have to ask you to leave," I say, forcing some kindness into my voice. "We're rather busy right now."

"That's why Mom sent me over. To help you unload the truck and to also tell you she's making some pizza to bring over for dinner," he looks down at Anita who is clinging to my leg. "Last time I saw you, you were just a baby!"

"She was two," I snap. "A toddler, not a baby."

"Potatoes Pototoes," he shakes his head. "Anything I can carry upstairs?"

"Hannah, who is this young man?" Dad asks, walking up to the house with a few boxes in his arms.

"Here, let me get some of those," Jax says, grabbing two of the boxes.

"Well hey, Jaxson! It's been a while," Dad exclaims.

That's an understatement.

"Yeah, it has been. Hanny and I were just talking about that," He looks at me out of the corner of his eye but I keep my face neutral. Or at least I think I am.

Hanny is my nickname that only my friends can use. You aren't a friend so don't call me that.

"Hannah must be happy to see you!" Dad smiles at me.

"Totally," I say sarcastically.

"Speaking of which," Dad shifts the remaining boxes in his arms and hands one out to me. "This one goes upstairs to your bedroom along with the ones Jaxson has."

"Lead the way!" Jax says as he nods towards the stairs.

I reluctantly peel Anita away from me and reach out for the box. WIthout looking at Jax,

I walk up to the stairs. I hear the sound of him following me but I don't want to look at him, let alone talk to him.

We reach the bedroom and I drop my box in the middle of the floor and turn around to leave. Jax grabs my arm, stopping me.

"What?" I say, irritated.

"You're still mad at me," he says, stating the obvious.

"Oh, no way! How could you ever get that impression? Of course, I'm still mad at you, you idiot! We were best friends for several years and then one day you stopped talking to me. No explanation, no text message to explain or say sorry, you just disappeared!"

"You're definitely mad at me," he mutters.

I roll my eyes.

"What can I do to fix it?" He asks, about to run his hand through his hair.

"Careful, you might stab yourself on those spikes," I yank free of his grasp and head towards the stairs.

"Hannah, I'm serious. I was going through a rough time and I didn't want to burden you with it," he sounds dejected, depressed, sorry.

"More like you didn't think I could handle it!" I turn around and yell at him. "You didn't think I could help you because I was a girl and couldn't relate to any of it!"

"I'm not sexist," he defends, looking taken aback. "I didn't tell anybody, not even my

Mom. Do you think I could put more on her after Dad's death?"

"No," I shake my head. "But I could have at least gotten a text message."

"I'm sorry," he says, looking deflated.

"It's too late, Jax. Four years too late," I turn and leave, not wanting to see him.

Unfortunately, he's helping us unpack so he's gonna be around for a while longer. I try my best to steer clear of him but I know it's kind of pointless. He lives next door. I'm going to have to get used to seeing him.

We've finished unloading the boxes and I quickly scurry down to the side of the house. There's a sliding glass door that leads to a living room and a blue door next to it, leading to a smaller room. Across the gravel driveway, I see a dirt mound covered on two sides by ivy vines. Up and over the mound is a pathway made from where someone cleared the ivy.

I need to clear my head so I decide to go for a walk. I walk up the hill and follow the path. It leads to the edge of the woods, the path cutting through a thorn patch and up to the top of our property.

Up here, there are three fence posts, forming a corner. I step up onto the lower bar of the fence and hoist myself up onto the post. I sit here, looking over into the farmer's field, watching the cows graze peacefully.

"It'd be nice to be a cow," someone says behind me.

Startled, I look to see who it is. "What do you want, Jax?"

"Nothing, just wanna talk," he answers, climbing up on the fence post next to me. "Ya know, you could hear me out for once instead of yelling at me and walking away."

"And you could have trusted me," I retort.

"Look, I'm sorry, I really am," he looks me in the eye.

I look away. "Sure."

"Hanny..."

I cut him off. "It's Hannah."

"Hannah, can you let me explain?"

"You have one minute, you better start talking," I say.

He begins. "After Dad died, I stopped believing in God. I was raised in church, you know that. I've grown up hearing everything about how God answers prayers and everything works out for good but when Dad died, it seemed like God had turned his back on us. Every night, I'd lay in bed, listening to Mom crying herself to sleep and I couldn't stand it anymore. I hated God. I wanted to do something to get back at Him. I was bitter at the world, Mom, God... you. "I got in with the wrong crowd at school and several nights, I was brought home by the police. Mom buried herself in her work as a way to cope with her feelings or whatever so I was alone at home most the time. I was mad at her for caring for her work more than she cared for me. I hated the school for making me waste so much time of my day doing nothing. I was mad at you and Nichole for not understanding."

"We couldn't understand because you never told us," I say gently.

"I know. And the funny thing is that you asked several times but I never told you. I wanted to reach out but I guess I thought no one would be able to understand," he bites his lip and looks down at the ground.

Silence envelopes us for a second.

"What exactly did you do to be brought home by the cops?" I ask.

"That's all behind me, Hannah. Just accept my apology?" He looks at me with hope in his eyes.

I jump down from the fence post before I answer him. "Nah. I like being mad at you. But... I'll forgive you. For now."

"Thanks," he smiles, jumping down to join me. He holds his hand out for a handshake.

"Truce?" I look at him warily before shaking it.

"Truce."

We walk back towards the house and I feel kind of happy. It's nice to have my friend back but it still feels odd. Like he didn't tell me everything or he's just doing this to appease his Mom.

"How's Nicks?" he asks, referring to Nichole.

"Still as mad at you as ever," I answer.

"You women are so petty!" he laughs.

"No, we just have good memories! And stop being so..."

"Sexist?" he finishes, his voice high as he tries to mimic me.

"No! So boyish!" I laugh, smacking him playfully.

I stop him, sobering as I do so. "Jax, you do anything to hurt me or my family again and this truce will be broken in a New York minute."

"I can tell you're from the big city," he says. "But that's totally fair."

"Good," I turn back to the path and try not to think about what Nichole will say when she finds out I'm talking to Jaxson Walker again.

***

"You what?!?" Nichole yells into my ear. "With who?"

"I talked to Jax Walker," I repeat for what seems like the fiftieth time. "Today. He's my next door neighbor."

"Girl, you have to move!" she exclaims. I smile as I imagine her flinging her hands around as she talks. "He's bad news, you know that!"

"We have a truce, it's cool," I say. I arrange my pillows on my bed and collapse onto them. "He does anything stupid to us again and I get to be mad at him forever."

"You know that boy better than anybody else. You know he's gonna do something stupid!" she yells.

"Nicks, calm down. It's fine," I assure her.

She sighs and I know she's done ranting.

"You know what you're doing," she says.

"I do," I say. "And I guess it's nice to have someone to call a maybe-friend in a new place."

"More like a Frenemy. He's nice sometimes and mean the others!" her voice fills with realization. "He's a terrible person! He's playing you!"

"Nichole Waters! Just... stop. He's changed... I think. He's different... maybe," I know that was lame but... what can I say? I think he really has changed.

"That was really convincing," she sighs, unappreciative. "Look, if you're sticking up for him, you do what you want with him. But let me know all the deets, especially if he has any cute friends."

"Oh my, Nicks, you're terrible," I laugh, relieved. This is the Nichole I know, not the one who yells my ear off for almost an hour. "But if there are, I'll get you some visuals."

"Thanks, Boo!" she says, a smile showing in her voice. "Hope your first day of school goes well for ya."

"Me too," I say, raising my eyebrows. "Talk to ya later!"

"Same," she pauses. "Lova ya, girl."

"Love you too," I hang up and lay my phone down on the floor next to my mattress. We weren't able to get my bed set up so I'm just sleeping on my mattress on the floor. I sigh and lay down, pulling my blanket up to my chin.