6 A Second Chance?

Lily stared at him, uncomprehending.

This man was Jackson Priestly? Her the eleventh grade classmate?

Impossible.

This had to be a joke.

Once that thought passed through her mind, everything clicked into place. Of course this was just one of Jackson's pranks. The jerk was always messing with her and trying to humiliate her. He graduated from putting him in her hair in middle school to just outright antagonizing her every chance he got. They had the misfortune of sharing a few mutual friends. One of them being the youngest triplet, Eril.

Lily could never understand why that boy like hanging out with someone as toxic as Jackson. Yes, they both have teamed up together to come up with hilarious pranks that could make anyone laugh. Jackson was just someone who likes to take it to the point where someone's feeling got hurt.

And now, he was hiring strangers to follow and harass her. What the heck did she do to deserve him targeting her?

The older man noticed that something was wrong when he saw how hatefully she was glaring at him.

"Wait, Lils, I can explain--" She didn't give him a chance. Before he could finish whatever drivel would be his excuse, she head-butted him.

"Excuse me," came the voice of the waitress who served her earlier. "Is everything alright?" She stared at them in suspicion.

"Yeah," he said in a muffled voice at the same time Lily answered, "no."

"Is she...okay?" the waitress addressed the man, looking at Lily in concern. The girl tried to tell the woman that she was in danger or at the very least, feeling harassed, but the man pressed her against himself again.

"Yes, we're fine," he told the worried woman. "She was just going through some things."

Somehow, this vague answer worked.

"I understand," the woman's tone was understanding and soft. "She must be overwhelmed. My niece sometimes needs blows a fuse when she gets frustrated." She looked at the girl, taking her trembling as being shakened and not frustrated. "Do you want me to bring a weighted blanket? I usually keep one on me whenever she visits and needs to hide in the back."

"No," the man denied. "But, thank you. We'll be leaving now."

What--

He stood up, still managing to keep her struggling body pressed against his. She heard the clinking of coins as the man paid for her meal and with that, he took her out of the Greasy Palace.

************************

Jackson was going to get gut punched.

That was what Calen thought as he watched the older man and the younger girl shout at each other. He still didn't know why he agreed to go back in time with The Jackass to complete this mission, but here he was. He watched as the older man kept messing with their younger friend. It was weird to see him so loose after years of dealing with his miserable diatribe. But he guessed being back with the person he loved brought back the vitality he'd lost.

Calen had to admit, he missed the obnoxious charm he used to display.

When Jackson had first realized he loved Lily, the other girl had disappeared from all their lives; never to be heard from again. She just up and left on the day of graduation only taking her documents, some money and a small bag of clothes with her. Jackson had joked around about her just throwing a temper tantrum and claimed that she would be back within a week. Yet weeks turned to months and months turned to years.

They never heard from their friend again.

It was around college time that Jackson began to derail. Everyone had moved on from Lily's disappearance. It was hard, but they had no choice. She was declared missing, possibly dead and they needed to move on with their lives. Calen would from time to time visit her parents, who had aged considerably from searching for their daughter. They would smile at him, ask him how he was doing, but the pained look never went away.

There was a point in time when Calen had decided to not come back to his old neighborhood. The triplets were long gone, each going on their own path. He still kept in touch with them through emails and calls. Still, without them there he felt there was nothing tethering him in place. He idly went through the motions in his classes as he planned out what direction his future should take. He then remembered that one of his professors had mentioned an exchange program that would last a duration two years. Figuring that he should check it out he headed to that professor's office during their office period.

That was when he ran into Jackson.

He had lost touch with Jackson by his sophomore year in college. The other boy had gone to a private University in the area, one that had small classes and ongoing nepotism. From what Calen had heard, Jackson's family had to make a deluge of donations as the boy was more focused on partying than studying. Whenever they did run into each other, he seemed to always have one foot in one trouble making one scheme after another. Whether it was impressing beautiful girls with his wealth or trashing the mansion his parents bought him as a graduation gift, Jackson was focused wholeheartedly on living a debauched lifestyle. And he didn't need any of his old friends in it.

It was through the grapevine--mostly social media-- that Calen heard how Jackson seemed to have fallen off the deep end. One of their classmates claimed that they would hear him go off on a tirades about how cruel it was for Lily to just leave them all behind and just do whatever she damn well wanted. If anything, he was suppose to be the one to "leave all these losers behind".

Honestly, the girl had commented on one of their reunion page, it seemed like he was missing her. Yeah, they never got along in high school, but for some reason he was the one to bring her up more than anybody in conversation.

Another person had like that comment and claimed to see him question the detective time to time about the status of her case, even though many people including them have concluded she was not coming back. Calen had disregarded this as his classmates just romanticizing their past interactions. Jackson had always belittled Lily as a spazzed out loser. Where the hell was all that sudden concern coming from?

Though as he laid eyes on the current Jackson, he felt there may have been some validity to those claims.

Jackson seemed like a shadow of his past self. It may have been due to not seeing him for awhile, but the other man was more haggard in appearance. His face was sallow, the tan he painstakingly maintained was long gone. His hair was longer, not as meticulously kept as before. He had bags under his eyes, looking like he was bruised. When he saw Calen, he didn't make one single snide remark.

Instead, he had given him a small smile.

"Hey," he greeted him. "How are you doing?"

Calen nodded at him. "I'm doing good." He hesitated before adding, "you?"

Jackson gave a small, pathetic laugh. "I could be doing better."

They stood there a moment outside of the oak doors, silent.

"What are you doing here?" Calen asked.

Jackson shrugged. "I'm transferring here."

This threw Calen for a loop. The Priestly family were one of the most prideful people to come into existence. The fact that their golden boy was being transferred here meant he had gotten on his parent's last nerves.

"Really?" Calen had to make sure he actually heard right.

Jackson let out a sigh before nodding again. "Yes, really."

They cut their conversation--if it could be called that--short as the professor opened the door. Calen had another surprise waiting for him in that meeting. He found out not only did the exchange program last three years, but that Jackson would be one of the students also going along.

That meeting, that trip, was beginning of their long adventure to finding Lily.