Ho Hey by The Lumineers
Picture of and Aurora Willis

Jesse didn't hear the arrival of his aunt when she got home that Friday evening. His music was turned up as loud as he could have it without going deaf. He just finished recording a song yesterday so now it was time to make a beat that would fit nicely with what he wrote.

Most people thought Jesse spent his time punching people's faces in like his brother was known for but Jesse only knew what every other guy his age knew, if you're going to throw a punch, hit hard.

Since his father was convicted of murder Jesse had moved in with his aunt, his only soul guardian since his brother didn't bother to stay to take care of him.

He spent all his time now devoting himself to his music so he could possibly get out of the town he had grown to hate so much. It was his dream to go out into the real world and make a name for himself, one that no one knew about. He was tired of being the son of a murder or the brother of the infamous Justin Cress.

Jesse jumped three feet in the air when his aunt came running down the stairs of his basement slash bedroom.

"Yeah," he asked, pulling his head phones over his head.

"I've been calling your name for minutes now Jesse. I need your help with the groceries," she huffed before spinning on her heel and walking up the stairs to her bedroom.

Jesse rolled his eyes but did as she asked him to. His aunt Stella had tried very hard to be a parent and friend to him when he lost everyone but when he continued to shut her out, she gave up.

She spent most of her time either at the hospital working or in her bedroom relaxing. They hardly ever saw each other and tried to stay out of each other's ways for their own sake.

Jesse hauled in the multiple bags from the trunk of his aunt's car on the side of the road, with the large bundle of toilet paper stacked on top. With his vision gone he didn't see the girl running down his sidewalk and therefore, smacked right into her.

He held on tight to the groceries, knowing that if he dropped anything breakable he would be the one that would have to go back to the store which he didn't want to do. He heard the yelp and thump from the girl as she fell backwards onto the pavement.

Jesse twisted his body so he could see the pretty girl groaning on the sidewalk, her hands slightly bleeding from scrapping against the ground. Jesse noticed first thing that her shirt was tight against her body, same with her running pants which shot images into his brain. Her curly brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail which showed off her slender neck.

Jesse didn't bother to ask if she was okay because he's learned that when he tries to be nice to people in this town, they'll only back fire at him. He walked around her and backup to his front door.

"Um excuse me," she yelled angrily, "aren't you going to ask if I'm okay?"

She shot up from the ground and ran to catch up with Jesse.

He rolled his eyes when she stopped in front of him, blocking way into his house. "Are you okay," he asked blandly.

"You're an asshole," she seethed. "What is your problem?"

"My problem," he laughed. "My problem is that you aren't letting me into my own home."

"Well my problem is that you are rude."

Jesse raised his brow and analyzed the girl in front of him, making her shift on her feet. "I haven't seen you here before which is odd because it's a small town. I would know who you are and you would know who I am, therefore staying the hell away from me."

The girl looked confused for only a brief second before answering, "I moved in down the street last week."

Jesse looked down the street which he noticed did have new residents but he didn't bother to investigate. "Well welcome to the neighborhood," he said sarcastically.

His aunt was a single woman working as a nurse at the hospital a town over. She didn't have a lot of money obviously and his parents didn't have a lot either to give her when she took him in. They've been living in one of the worst neighbor hoods in town. Most of the houses have been in the process of falling apart, the sounds of sirens can be heard constantly throughout the night, and everyone knows not to wander the streets past dark. There have been to many drug deals gone wrong, house calls to 911, and murders, like his father, for the neighborhood to be deemed safe and lovely.

"Do you need help with those," the girl asked, pointing towards the bags of food.

"With your bloody hands? I don't think so."

Jesse watched as the girl's eyes shot down to her scrapped hands. Her face instantly grew white and it was only a few seconds before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fainted.

Jesse stared confused as the girl laid still on the pathway. He glanced around him nervously, cautious of the little kid watching him a few lawns over, his popsicle nearly hanging out of his mouth in shock. One wrong move and every one would think that Jesse has turned into a murderer, just like his father.

He stepped over the girl to walk inside and dump the groceries on the counter in the kitchen. He could hear the loud snores of his aunt Stella in the room at the end of the hall.

He went back outside and lifted the still unconscious girl into his arms. He cursed her as he carried her down his steps and into his room to lay on his bed. It was the only surface in the entire house that could fit her so she could lay down.

He glanced at her one last time before retreating back upstairs to put away the groceries. He was just shutting the cabinet door after had putting away bags of chips when the girl wandered into the kitchen.

"Are you going to faint again," he said cautiously.

"I'm sorry about that," she said, squeezing her eyes shut in pain. He reached for the top of the refrigerator to grab the box of medical equipment that his aunt keeps handy. "I'm not good with blood."

"I figured," he muttered as he pulled out two large band aids and some anti-bacterial spray. "Come here," he ordered gruffly.

She glared at him but leant next to the sink besides him anyways. He turned on the water and thrust her hand under it.

"What's your name," she asked softly, trying to distract herself from the bottle of anti-bacterial spray in his hand.

Jesse caught on to what she was doing and decided to play along. "Jesse," he said shortly.

"I'm Aurora."

Jesse sprayed it onto her hand, making her wince in pain. "Why did you move here Aurora?"

"My parents are getting a divorce," she winced, "my mom thought it was a good idea to move all her children to another a country."

"Where are you originally from," Jesse asked curiously. He was careful in putting the band aids on her  hands.

"Vancouver."

"Well your mom picked a shitty town to move to," he told her honestly.

"It doesn't seem too bad," she said, even though Aurora wanted nothing more than to go back to the place she's called home for her entire life.

"It's worse than it looks. Believe me." He turned his back to her to continue to put away the food.

"Do you go to Green Field High School?"

"Unfortunately yes."

"How come I didn't see you today?"

"Probably because I left half way through."

Aurora watched in quiet amazement as he reached up to put away a box of cereal on the top shelf, making his shirt rise and show off a hint of a tattoo on his rib cage.

When he straightened up he turned around and caught her gaze, sending her a glare. "You should go now. I have to go to work."

"Um alright," she mumbled, blushing under his glare. "It was nice to meet you and thank you for this," she said, holding up her bandaged hands.

"Whatever," he muttered.

She ran out of the house, thankful to leave the presence of the boy with the dark eyes.

When Aurora walked into her own home, a couple houses down from Jesse's, she was immediately bombarded with the sounds of her two younger brothers, Eric and Chris fighting over a video game.

"Don't pick the Dolphins," Chris yelled at his little brother Eric. "They suck!"

"You want to win against me don't you," Eric asked angrily.

"I want some competition," Chris argued. "You always choose the worse teams."

"Football," Aurora asked when she came into the room. "Really guys?"

"What," Eric asked innocently. "It's cool."

"That's funny because just last month you were telling me how football sucks and is for rednecks," she said suspiciously.

Her little brothers grew up watching hockey and adoring it. They played it their entire lives and knew everything there was to the game but now suddenly they're into football.

"Well this town doesn't have a hockey team. I'm pretty sure it doesn't even have any ice," Chris spoke up. "So we moved onto bigger and better things."

"And football is just like hockey minus the ice, did you know that Aurora," Eric asked her excitedly. He was only thirteen while Chris was fifteen and started his first day at Green Field High School today too.

"It's not anything like hockey you idiot," Chris muttered, shoving his brother's shoulder.

Aurora rolled her eyes and left the two boys to continue playing their American game. Even though America and Canada were right next to each other and seemed to be similar, she couldn't look past the obvious differences between the two.

Once she closed her door behind her she jumped onto her bed, loving the familiar feel of it. If she closed her eyes she could imagine she was back in Vancouver in her childhood bedroom, her friends waiting to hang out with her and Max, her boyfriend back home.

But she wasn't in Vancouver anymore. She was in a southern town in America where football seemed to rule everyone's lives. Not to mention how she had no friends what so ever.

She reached for her phone on her bedside table, glancing briefly at her ice skates hanging off the door knob of her closet door. Her brothers were right, there was no ice in this town, no frozen lakes or ice rinks that she could spend her time at. Aurora knew that for the price of her parent's happiness she had to give up something she loved, whether she wanted to or not.

She had one text from Max since she went on her run.

It read:

'Re-watched Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets for the 10th time. not the same w/o you.'

Aurora smiled softly, her heart warming at his words. She sent him a snap chat of her sad face, telling him she missed him.
They continued to snap chat back and forth until her mom got home.

"Aurora," she called from the living room.

Aurora groaned but rolled off her bed anyways, dragging her feet down the hall.

"How was school today dear," she asked her daughter sweetly, trying to pry a smile from her.

She hadn't forgiven her since she took her away from her home, friends, and dad in Vancouver. Aurora used to be close with her mom, but once she moved them to a whole different country once the divorce was settled their relationship took a turn for the worse.

"Horrible," she said shortly before spinning back on her heel and locking herself in her bedroom. Truth be told, today wasn't too bad, minus the incident with Jesse down the street. She just wanted to make her mom see the sense of uprooting her daughter from her life. She wasn't going to stop until her mom apologized for taking her from everything she cared about, especially Max.

That night, after she had her dinner in her bedroom and finished her homework she was given, she was blinded by the head lights of a car passing by.

Aurora looked out the window to see a car drive by Jesse's house. It stopped quickly and a couple teenagers jumped out of the car, wearing all black and each holding a roll of toilet paper. Aurora watched confused as they covered the front yard with the paper and threw some eggs at the windows.

She had never actually seen such an act happen before, she thought it only happened in movies. But as she watched she knew she couldn't do anything about it; besides it was all in good fun. Right?

Aurora started to ask herself what kind of person Jesse was.