Jesse followed his father into their house. Sitting on the roof with June moments ago got him thinking, thinking about the future and more importantly their future. They had known each other for only a short year and had been dating for only a few months but still, they were happy. This definitely wasn’t the right time for them to be separated. Jesse looked out his kitchen window and saw June running down the road with her long blonde hair flashing in the sun light. She was so beautiful. His father interrupted his train of thought when he slapped his son on the shoulder. “Want to go help me at work?” His father asked a huge hopeful grin spread across his face. Jesse’s dad owned an auto body shop and he loved spending time with his boy fixing cars, Jesse on the other hand hated it. He loved assembling little machines and building little robots but he hated the exhausts smell to his father’s shop and the loud noises. He wasn’t a car guy. He was more like the nerd who covered it up with the bad boy, loves cars, man’s man act.
He was really popular in school but that was because no one really knew him. He frowned and shook his head. “No thanks…” he said, “I’ll see you tonight.” His father’s smile disappeared, “Alright… if that’s what you want. See you tonight.” With that he pulled his heavy winter jacket over his broad shoulders and stomped out the door in his winter boots. Jesse made himself a sandwich and poured himself some coffee has he walked up to his room.
He had pictures of the last five years of his life lining the walls and he constantly noticed that there was only one constant person in a lot of them. Paul. His childhood friend Paul was in the majority of the pictures, well at least until this year. This year Jesse hadn’t even spoken to Paul once even though he dated his sister, maybe even because. Paul and Jesse had been so close for so many years but until this year Jesse had never met his sister. She lived with her mother very far away and since his father had died in the beginning of this year his sister and his mother had moved back to him. The first time Jesse saw June he thought she was just a normal girl. She wasn’t skinny or huge and she didn’t wear a bunch of makeup to hide her flaws, instead she strutted them like her flaws were not flaws at all but things to be proud of and she loved talking about food. She wasn’t even afraid to eat on their first date like so many girls had been. She had munched down a whole burger and then an ice cream. To other’s she was considered not cool, too different, to comfortable with herself for her own good, but to Jesse she was perfect. The first time he saw her and saw the real her he knew that she was the one girl for him. At first glance he looked past her image. He saw that she was just as afraid of everything as everyone else. She didn’t show it on the outside though. It reminded Jesse of him in a way, one way on the outside and the opposite on the inside.

Jesse set down his half eaten sandwich and empty glass on his night stand and pulled out his homework. He tried to concentrate but his mind was somewhere else, with someone else. Finally giving up he got up and pushed his homework aside. He proceeded down the stairs in the direction of the living room when something caught his eye, the phone. There was a missed call and someone had left a message. Interested Jesse pressed the button and waited. He flipped through the mail as he listened. There were two missed calls. The first was Mrs. Chambers who lived across the street. She had lost her kitten again; it was the fifth time this week. Jesse laughed as he heard her desperate voice and deleted the message. Again Jesse waited. Finally the next message came up to a number Jesse didn’t know. He pressed play and it began, “John, It’s me… do you have it?...I need it now… can’t wait much longer… 100 thousand or no deal…June will pick it up… midnight …be there…”

Jesse sat down. He pulled out his inhaler and took a puff. Then to be on the safe side he took three more. He replayed the message over and over again, “100 thousand or no deal… June will pick it up.” It ran through his head over and over again. The reception had been bad but Jesse could still make out enough. His mind searched and searched through his memory trying to connect this message with something, anything. Then he remembered, he remembered going to the bank with his dad not long ago. He had been acting really strange that day. Like something was on his mind. He had asked him about it but he said that he was fine. He remembered how his dad had told him to wait in the car and how he hadn’t listened. He was about to walk in when he heard his dad’s husky voice he seemed frightened and hopeful. He was talking to the bank manager. Jesse didn’t hear exactly what he wanted; all he heard was withdrawal and the number 100 thousand. Back then he had thought he had just heard wrong and gone back to the car but now he knew what he had done. Someone who knew June needed money and was willing to exchange it for something that his father wanted. What? What was worth that much and who was that close to June, June why was she going to pick it up was?