The Hourglass 5 EXTRA: Justin Jessica 2

At the end of their kindergarten days, both of them got used to saying goodbye and anticipating the tomorrow that will come also they got used to their parents evaluating each other and them while nodding their head with a faint smile on their face.

Days passed, the cute girl that only have one friend grew up into a beautiful and liked girl in her school, possessing so many friends that she even troubled by how to spend time with them but still her most important FRIEND is still Michael and she always spend the most with him. The bullied and isolated boy became a good-looking teenager that opened up to others with a few friends of his own while trying every day to woo Jessica.

In the process of growing up, Jessica slowly realized that the boy that treated her the kindest, the boy that pulled her out from her loneliness, the boy that made her days bright, the boy that she only thought as friend fell in love with her, as dense she is or as unobvious he is, she gradually can see that.

The moment she realized this she began to think hard because she sees Michael at most as her close older brother and her best male friends where she can even tell him the things that she hesitates to tell her girl friends.

She hesitated in telling him the truth, she is afraid because she didn't want him to leave her, she wants him to be always at her side but she only want her as her best friend as her clumsy older brother that will always protect her, so Jessica selfishly think, so she decided to just let things be she delayed the inevitable but the result isn't the same as the one she expected. She expected Michael would gradually distance himself from her to make things less awkward, to make the pain in his heart lessen, to keep the good memories of her as it is but she is wrong.

That day, the day Michael came to her desk with a bright smile on his face , at that moment she knew what he was going to say and at that moment she resolute herself and took the initiative by asking Michael to wait at the classroom when the school ended and everyone have already gone home.

She knew that Michael adored the fictional character in these novels, manga, anime, he wants to be them. He want to have their courage, their luck, their power, their epicenes, and lastly but not the least their happy ending, well at least Michael very rarely watched the one with the sad or bad ending as he always imagine and empathize himself as them as it is his wish, it is his dream to reach the happy ending…

That afternoon she waited on his desk while closing her eyes while caressing the desk where her best friend sat on and she decided ' I decided I will even lie to him if it means he will stay by my side even if I didn't truly love him romantically it's possible.' Jessica decided that firmly like a wall in her heart but the wall easily crumble before his anticipating smile.

She opened her eyes and looked toward the door as she heard the door is opening so she smiled and stood up from his desk. As he approaches her with his expression of expectation, hope, relief, happiness and…love…

The moment she saw his expression, Jessica couldn't hold the wall from falling down, she just couldn't because she imagined one day what if Michael found out about the truth and she imagined how much he would be hurt and she compared it to the pain he would felt now, she decided to tell him the truth.

So before Michael got to speak anything, as she still had a little hope that if his love for her isn't revealed they would be still be friends and it would continue to be so until their death.

"Michael, I want you to help me with something!" she shouted these words while starring at Michael.

Then she softly said "I want you to help me to confess to Mario Agustian."

Right after she finished the last word, Jessica began to blush in embarrassment because she knew about his feeling yet here, she is asking for help to do something like that and then she saw that Michael's face froze before he opened and closed his mouth a few times without making any sound as if his voice was robbed from him in that moment.

After a few seconds Michael closed his eyes for a second before opening eyes and tried to answer her in his normal voice while raising the corner of his mouth as if wanting to make a smile but she could see through it from her experience of years being together with him, that smile is a smile littered with sadness and his tone of voice suggest he himself was about to cry.

"Alright."

Then Michael turned his back from her and ran off from the classroom.

In the classroom.

"Thank you!" Jessica said this because she knew her small hope succeed, if he at least agreed it means he won't distance himself from her.

But at the same time tears flowed down from her eyes as she kneeled down on the cold floor. She knew just how much it hurt him but it would hurt much more if she lied because lies this big would eventually come to and the truth would be exposed.

Jessica sobbed in the cold, empty, lonely classroom, she felt sad, angry at herself, confused why can't she just fell in love with him, a boy that bring her so much joy, a boy that changes her whole world, she just can't understand it.

Perhaps that's juts how human's feeling works.

On the next day both Michael and Jessica tried to act natural like there is nothing wrong or out of ordinary but their close friends was able to tell that, they just didn't comment on it as they knew their place.

Chapter end