Jess

It was the first day of university for Jess and she had been worrying about it for weeks. The last few days it was the ONLY thing she could worry about as the date drew nearer and nearer. This was a relief because it meant that she could stop worrying about other things going on in her life. Things such as her ex Riley. He left for uni a few days ago and it kind of felt like another end to her. She pretended that she had moved on when she was with her family and friends, pretended it didn’t hurt when she heard his name and that she didn’t still think about him a lot. Walking across campus she wondered what he was doing now. Whether he had settled in, made any friends. Whether he thought about her at all.

It was that thought that stopped her from noticing the tall guy she was about to walk into. She ran headlong into him, making him lose his grip on a piece of paper he’d been staring at.

“Oh, sorry!” She said and dived to the floor to grab it before the wind blew it away. The boy was tall, with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes, the kind Jess always wished she had. His backpack was hanging off one shoulder and, although it was the first day of classes, he already looked stressed out.

“Don’t worry about it, it was my fault,” he said, smiling and taking the paper back. “Thanks. Please say you’re new here too?” He sounded a bit desperate.

“I’m new here too,” Jess smiled.

“Oh thank god.” He sighed. “I’ve been wandering around for ages with this stupid map,” he held it up “and I’m still lost! I’m Andrew by the way.”

“I’m Jess. I thought I would be lost by now too, but I think I’ve got the idea of where everything is. Where are you trying to go?”

After that they became pretty good friends.

A few months later, mid-november, Jess woke up with a searing pain in her chest and ribs. Getting up, she tried to ignore the pain and get ready for her morning classes. She stumbled downstairs to get some pills and looked into the mirror above the table. Groaning she turned away, not wanting to see how pale or tired she looked.

The pain got worse as she went through her morning routine until she couldn’t stand up straight. It hadn’t been this bad in a while.

Accepting defeat, she filled a hot water bottle and headed back up to bed. When she got to her room she emailed her tutors, telling them why she wouldn’t be there and asking if they would email that day's work to her to do at home. After getting their replies, she drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up, she had a text from Andrew.

Hey, where are you? If you’re ditching, you should’ve told me; you know how much of a rebel I am :P

She smiled and replied.

I’m not feeling too good. You’ll have to be a rebel by yourself.

He answered almost immediately.

Aw that sucks. At least you get to stay in bed and be looked after!

I wish. Mum’s going to her girlfriends tonight so I have to look after Chris. I don’t like telling him when something’s up so I’ll just have to look after myself.

He took longer to reply this time.

That’s too bad. I have to go, but I hope you feel better soon! Uni’s no fun without you.

She smiled and sat up, getting started on her coursework.

Later on that night she was feeling well enough to stand up straight and didn’t want to spend the day in bed. She got up, had a bath and headed downstairs. She was sitting watching Casualty and thinking about what to cook for dinner when her phone started ringing. It was Andrew.

“Hello?” She said. There was a knock at the front door.

“Hi, would it be weird if I was outside your house right now?” Andrew asked.

“Yeah, a little,” she laughed, opening the door.

“Well oops,” he said from the doorway. He hung up the phone with a grin.

“What are you doing here?!” She was suddenly very conscious of the fact that she had been in bed all day.

“It’s unacceptable that you have no one to look after you. So I brought medicine!” He held up a bunch of carrier bags Jess hadn’t noticed. “I can go if you want… I mean, I didn’t mean to impose or anything..” He looked unsure.

“No no, its fine. Come on in.”

Andrew cooked dinner for the both of them, refusing to let her help in any way. He was forcing her to sit down and watch the rest of her programme when Chris came down.

“Er, who’s this?” He asked when he saw she wasn’t alone. Andrew stepped forward.

“I’m Andrew. I’m guessing you’re Chris. This might seem a bit weird but I brought some stuff round for Jess and didn’t want to leave you out so..” He pulled a big bar of chocolate out of one of the bags and handed it to Jess’ little brother. Then he went to the kitchen to check on dinner.

“I like him,” Chris said to his sister, before heading back upstairs to his xbox. Her laughter followed him as he went.

Once they had eaten their dinner, Andrew and Jess headed back to the living room.

“I also brought this. In case, you know, you wanted to watch it?” It was the new spiderman movie she had been dying to see. “Could you put it on while I get dessert?” He asked.

“Dessert? There’s more?! How much did you spend?!” She demanded, searching around for the right remote.

“Enough. Be right back!” He came back in with Ben&Jerrys and two spoons.

Throughout the film he made sure Jess had drinks and that her hot water bottle was still hot. Despite sleeping a lot that morning, she was really sleepy by the time the film was over due to the good food and painkillers. Andrew helped her up to bed.

“I’m just going to wash up and then I’ll leave okay? Don’t worry, I promise not to rob you.”

“You don’t have to wash up,” She protested sleepily from the bed. “I’ll do it. In .. the morning.” She insisted between yawns.

“Don’t be silly! I made the mess, I should clean it up.” And he left before she could protest some more.

The next morning, she began to wonder if it had been a dream. But when she walked into the kitchen she found the washing up done and a bunch of roses in a vase on the table. A note in front of them said:

To match the one on your wrist.

I hope you’re feeling better today

Thanks for letting me take care of you

Andrew

xoxo

For the first time in far too long Jess actually felt happy. Glancing down at the tattoo on her wrist she got ready for classes and the only thing that hurt was her face from the smile that was plastered across it all morning.