CHERRY. [JESS MARIANO]

I Want To Come Back

Jess

Jess stood in the middle of Luke's apartment nervously as he waited for his uncle to come back. There were so many ways this could go. Luke could kick his ass all the way back to New York, for one. Or Luke could kick his ass to the grave.

Either way, Jess was nervous. Looking around at the apartment he felt a pang of nostalgia. He'd never admit it but it felt good to be back here. Especially since he new Cassie was no further than a few blocks away.

She was probably the main reason he came back to this whack job of a town. But then again she was the main reason he left in the first place. He tried, he really did try to stay away. Then she came to see him.

It was as if all his hard work and courage he had built up to leave was for nothing. The minute he saw her it was as if he could finally breathe again. The few weeks that he went without her felt like living hell to him. Jess couldn't believe that he had gone seventeen years without her before.

So here he was, standing in the empty apartment waiting for Luke to get back. The place looked like it always was. His bed against the far left and his clothes and books still there.  He guessed Luke still didn't have the time to ship them over.

When Jess heard a pair of footsteps coming up the stairs he immediately went through what he was gonna say to his uncle in his head. The door opened and Luke came inside. He didn't notice Jess at first.

Jess picked up a book on the table and flipped through it as he waited for Luke to notice him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Luke stop in his tracks when he noticed his nephew standing in the middle of his living room.

He put the book back in it's rightful place on the desk and turned to face Luke. Jess put his hands in his pockets, where his fingers tapped nervously against his leg.

"Hey," Luke said with wide eyes. His usual backwards baseball cap on top of his head. He was clad in a dark blue flannel and washed out denim jeans.

Jess looked up at Luke anxiously. "Hey."

He looks at Jess as he nodded at his greeting. "How'd you get in here?" He asked as he threw his hands up.

Jess gestures to the door halfheartedly. "The door was open."

"I mean, I was in the diner. I would have seen you come up the stairs." Luke waves his hand to stop Jess from answering. "You know what, forget it. I don't wanna know." He sighs when Jess gave him no response. "So how's everything back home?"

"Fine." Jess answered, his mind preoccupied on how he should ask Luke what he wanted to ask.

"Your mum?"

"Fine," he responded again.

Luke nodded for a second as he looked for something else to say. "You in trouble?"

Jess smiled, slightly amused as he answered his uncle. "No."

"Then what the hell are you doing here Jess?" Luke walked toward him as he continued to speak. "You know, I called you six times. Now I didn't expect you to call me back so that we could sit on the phone in bed and watch Sleepless in Seattle together."

"I just expected you to call me to let me know you got home safe." Luke carried on when Jess made no move to talk. "No one mugged you on the bus, say you were okay, say-" Luke stopped himself again as if remembering who he was talking too.

Luke put his hands on his hips. "You know what? Never mind," he said. "Just tell me what it is you want, I got work to do."

Jess looked at the book on the table as if he could make it disappear if he stared hard enough. "I wanna come back," he mumbled loud enough so that Luke could hear.