He's The One [Billie Joe Armstrong Fanfic] (Book 2 of Not The One)

6) Jasmine

ALIYAH'S POV
"Alright, bye man. And take care," Ethan said before hanging up.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Jakob has a fever. Joey stayed to take care of him."

"That was sweet of Joey," I thought out loud.

"Well," he started, "looks like it's just gonna be the two of us."

"Mmmhm." I awkwardly looked around the room, avoiding eye contact with him. I went like that for a minute.
I counted, even.

"What do you wanna watch?" He asked finally.

"Umm...anything...I don't know." My voice got softer on every word.

"You can pick a movie over there, if you want." Ethan said, pointing to his organized stack of dvds. I eyed the stack, searching for a good movie to watch. Not long, I was able to pick one. We finished the movie with occasional screaming and cussing.

"Why are the characters in horror movies stupid?" Ethan said through his popcorn. "I would like to see someone who would actually do something clever to save his own life."

"Maybe they're only trying to show us that fear and anxiety can make our minds go dull," I suggested.

He turned to me, eyebrows raised. "You have a point."
He remained silent before asking, "do you think you can survive if that would happen to you?"

"If I have someone chasing me with a knife, I'd probably piss myself...then get killed, of course."

Ethan chuckled.
"Seriously speaking though," I continued, "I don't really know if I could survive. I'm stupid most of the time."

He beamed at me. "Only a smart person would say that, Jasmine."

I felt my body stiffen from head to toe. No one has ever called me by my first name since...

"You alright?" Ethan asked with concern.

"Yeah. It's just...it's been long time since someone has called me Jasmine," I said. "No one calls me that anymore."

"Why?" Ethan placed his bowl on the floor. "If you don't mind me asking."

"Long story. I might go on forever about it."

He gave me the sweetest smile ever. "It's okay, we have forever."

I think my heart stopped beating for three seconds. I had to remember how to breathe. "Okay then."

I told him how I was bullied when I was a kid and how my parents didn't care about it.
"I wanted to transfer schools but they wouldn't let me. I was too afraid to fight back since the other kids were twice my size. So...I did something that's enough to get me kicked out of school. That way, I wouldn't get to suffer another day of eating fists for lunch."

Ethan hung on to every word as I continued. "Since then, I told everyone to call me Aliyah. Hearing someone call me Jasmine still brings a shiver down my spine. I feel like they're haunting me...kind of silly, but that's the truth."

The room was silent after I finished. I felt like every human being in the world listened to my story.

"I'm sorry I called you Jasmine earlier," he finally said. He reached over and lightly squeezed my hand. "You wanna change the way you hear 'Jasmine'?"

I looked into his eyes intently. "How?"

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