Picture Perfect

Chapter 16

Alessia POV

If you had told me two months ago I would be sitting in some ice cream shop with the nerdiest kid at my school, about to tell him my whole life story, I would have made some snarky remark and brushed you off. Yet here I was. Perfect.

"I guess it started last night," I started explaining carefully, not wanting to share too much. "After Damien happened, I told him we needed to talk. We ended up getting into a big fight and...." I began to drift off, not really sure what I wanted to say. "We broke up," I breathed after a moment. Jonathan just nodded, waiting for me to continue. "It's more than that though."

"Okay," he said softly. The look on his face was full of concern. I didn't like it. I didn't need pity.

"I guess it's important to mention it happened at 2 o'clock in the morning, so when I marched into my house and ran up the stairs, I woke up my mom. She wasn't too happy to hear a door slam and see Damien running across our yard in the middle of the night. I guess I don't blame her, but when she tried to talk to me about it this morning we got into a fight. I didn't even get to say that I broke up with him she just assumed the worst," I folded my arms, knowing Jonathan probably did too. "But it wasn't like that and when I tried to say something, she said she didn't want me making a mistake." I choked a little on the last word. That's exactly how I felt.

"Oh, Alessia, I'm sorry," Jonathan said and leaned closer to the table.

"It's just hard," I looked away, knowing if I kept seeing his worried eyes I'd start to cry. "Knowing that I changed everything for my mom and my dad. I most definitely wasn't expected, so when my mom talks about what she was gonna do I can't help but feel guilty."

"I'm sure she doesn't mean it like that," he insisted softly.

"I know she doesn't, it's just-I don't know. I can't help but feel like it's my fault. That I'm her mistake."

"You're not, Alessia. You are so-"

"Please stop, I can't take any pity right now," I looked back at him, knowing my eyes were filled with tears. He seemed taken back, but he didn't let his soft, warm smile falter.

"Fine, then why don't you tell me about your mom and dad?"

"What do you mean?" He already met them. Multiple times. He knows my parents.

"How'd they meet? Their story. You don't seem to want to talk about your feelings all that much, so tell me about them?"

"Oh. Well it's a long story I guess," I shrugged.

"I've got time," he smiled and leaned back in his chair.

"Fine. I guess it starts in their high school chem class. They had been made lab partners for the entire class. You see as confident and outgoing my mom is now, she apparently was the total opposite in high school. She had very few friends and really only did school all the time. Now it wasn't because she was weird or anything, but when she's focused on something she sticks with it. She just didn't see the need to go out of her way and be popular or whatever. My dad on the other hand is a different story. My dad was captain of the basketball team and Mr Golden Boy himself. Kinda nauseating. So when they were originally paired up, to say they didn't get along was an understatement. My mom thought my dad was arrogant and lazy, while my dad thought she was uptight and weird. Perfect for each other right." I couldn't help but laugh at how crazy it really was that my parents ever even got together.

"So when your mom said I remind her of younger her, it's really an insult," Jonathan joked, making me smile a little. Whatever he was doing was helping, per usual.