Eden Cove Vol. 8

"A mask tells more than a face".-Oscar Wilde

Amelia laced up her running shoes and carefully made her way out the door of the B&B and down the stairs to avoid waking anyone. It was barely sunrise and Gracie was on Kai duty. She needed the run to clear her head before Kaden arrived and before her lunch with her sister. Amelia was a woman with a lot of secrets. She often felt as though no one in her life understood her and she wanted them to, then again, maybe she was happier if they didn't. She liked her secrets. The running calmed her mind and helped her plan her next moves. Millie was a nice person, but she was a calculated person. She suspected that the constant movement helped keep her from the boredom that sometimes crept in. She had come up with no other words for it other than boredom, restless, she wasn't really unhappy. She felt it early in childhood, this nagging sensation to do something, anything, different than she had done before. There had been all the hobbies she ran through when she was young, forcing her mother to keep up. That quickly turned to an obsession with boys in middle school, which quickly turned to sex by her freshman year in high school. She played on the girl's volleyball and field hockey teams and went to every boy's varsity sporting event EC hosted. Her parents thought she was really into sports but she, and Miranda, were really into the attention from the boys. Millie and Miranda learned a lot and learned it young. She met Kaden in middle school and while she dated him on and off, she kept it from getting serious. When he really made the move for a relationship during their junior year of high school, and since her obsession with him had never faded, she said yes. She really loved Kade and for a few months, he had all her attention. When she ended up in the back of a football player's truck one night, she realized she should stop but she didn't. She told Miranda she would tell Kade and it would never happen again. But she didn't, she couldn't find the words to tell him. Kade treated her so nicely and she found in him a kindred spirit, she had no doubt he would marry her and get her away from here. Miranda encouraged her to keep it a secret from Kade because she thought they were perfect together and that he might dump her if she confessed. She made Millie feel better about the little slip-up with whats-his-name. A few months later, Kaden got the flu and had to skip Miranda's birthday party. When Millie woke up in bed with a hot guy she met at the party who played ball at Dunmore Community College, she smiled. He wasn't going to be saying anything to Kaden. Of course, Miranda found out what happened but she didn't seem to think it was a big deal. And this pattern continued right up until Amelia and Kaden exchanged wedding vows. Millie had decided to be faithful to her husband. But she insisted they get far away from the Cove, she needed to start a new life and be a new person. They started over together, built a happy life, or so she thought. When she first realized that Kaden was having an affair, it took her by surprise and she did what it took to end it, without saying a word to him, she got pregnant. He was shocked that her birth control failed. Idiot. She just stopped taking the pill. Gracie snapped him out of that situation and things got back on track. But a few years later, she felt restless and started to think they needed something else, something was missing in their lives. The first kid worked so why not a second one? Tristan seemed to further help things, the perfect family. When Tris was a few years old she started running, she loved it. It grounded her and she was feeling better about life in general. They started trying other sports together as a family, they went bungee jumping, scuba diving, and zip lining. The kids loved it all. Then Kaden had his next affair and Amelia was so confused. Things were going so well or so she thought and so she got pregnant again. Then she joined a gym, got a hot younger trainer, she worked hard on her body and tried to stay relevant. Now, Amelia was suffocating and needed out of California and the life they had created. She didn't want to get a divorce, even though plenty of the women she knew in Cali were divorced. She hoped Kade would just go along with her new plans and things could be normal again.

*****

"Oh my God!" Jessa's voice rose high above the noise of the diner and a couple of people looked over toward the booth she and Millie sat in. "I had no idea you would ever consider moving back here!"

"Well, yeah, Cali is fun and all but it's not home. We've been gone a long time. Kaden flies in this afternoon and I haven't discussed this with him. I was hoping you could help me with that". Millie shot it straight and to the point.

"Me? How would I help?" Jessa's face was blank.

"Just by being you. If you could spend a little time this week, talk about KK's, talk about life here, talk about the town and remind him how great it is. Remind him what it looks like to grow up here. Obviously, you're grown but I mean for my kids. I mean, they could walk to the amusement park every weekend if they wanted!" Millie smiled as if remembering her own childhood. Jessa jumped at the opportunity to ask a few questions that she had never asked.

"Did you go to KK's a lot? Mom said you worked there one summer? Where did you work? Did you know they are rebranding for next year? This is the last year of KK's, well if Y2K doesn't end us all. They are going to put the old entrance sign on display on the boardwalk though". Jessa took a sip of her shake and looked at Millie expectedly.

"Yes, I went there a lot when I was younger, especially in middle school. I had my first kiss there actually, I was 11, the summer before sixth grade started. It was rainy that day, the best time to go and we were sitting outside of the Karousel. His name was Jared and he told me he didn't know how to kiss and I said I didn't either, then he kissed me. It was so sweet and special, I'll never forget it. He tasted like cotton candy". Amelia smiled, lost in another time when she was another person.

"Wow. That sounds like something out of a movie".

"It felt like it. And yes, I worked there for one summer in high school before I got engaged to Kaden. I worked at Bandit, have you worked there yet? That's fun, so many boys!" Amelia threw her head back and laughed.

"What? You dated a lot of boys at KK's? I always thought you just dated Kaden?" Jessa asked seriously. She had never heard her parents or Millie mention other boys before.

"Let's just say, Kade was not my first". Amelia made a face that made her look about seventeen again and Jessa giggled into her hand. It was the first time the two had engaged in anything close to "girl talk" and she was amazed that Amelia was confessing anything to her.

"Everyone thinks Adam was my first but he wasn't, I lost it to this guy, Kyle, down at the beach after a bonfire the summer before my sophomore year". Jessa whispered and laughed loudly, not many people knew that and it felt good to say it.

" You're kidding me! I thought Adam was your only boyfriend!"

"We're both learning things today". Jessa smirked playfully.

*****

Tuesday was the girl's first day of training at Get Creative, Molly and Jessa both grabbed their new navy blue aprons and headed out the door. The day passed quickly and both girls liked the front-end supervisor and the other two cashiers who were working that day. Since they both had cashier experience, none of that was new to them, just learning a new register and finding their way around the store and back room. Guy was there and made sure to introduce them to everyone and show them where the breakroom was and the smoker's area out back. They would work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday there until the Carnival of Chaos was over, then Guy would give them more hours.

Thursday, Jessa was stocking some yarn on a shelf when a plain-looking girl her age with a soft voice asked her for help.

"Excuse me. Where are the cross-stitch patterns?" Plain Jane asked politely and Jessa stopped what she was doing to help her find them, she was pretty sure it was aisle 12 or 13.

"This way, they are on aisle 12, I can help you". Jessa smiled kindly at the girl and walked with her in the correct direction wondering why any teenage girl wanted to cross-stitch anything when she heard a familiar voice call out,

"BABE! I FOUND THEM! ANNIE!"

This could not be happening. But sure enough, Adam rounded the corner and then stopped walking as he took in the sight of Jessamyn walking with Jane, or Annie as it were.

"Oh, thank you, she was just bringing me to find them!" Annie said smiling so big, Jessa thought her face was in danger of splitting in half. What the hell was going on?

"Hey, Jessa". Adam said gloomily, no smile on his face. "since when do you work here?"

"Since I need a job for the off-season". Jessa answered flatly.

"Jessa? You're Jessa? Oh my goodness! It is so nice to finally meet you! I'm Annamarie Louise Parks". Annie said, still smiling, eyes all lit up and Jessa couldn't help smiling back at her.

"Hello. I'm Jessamyn Nicole Ally. Pleasure to meet you". Jessa said and almost laughed out loud, why were they talking like this? Did she need to give out her social security number next? Adam looked pissed, which made Jessa happy inside for some reason.

"This is my girlfriend", Adam piped up, like she hadn't figured that out. Why else would he be walking her around a craft store and calling her babe?

"That is just lovely! She is lovely! Are you going to do this cross stitch together?" Jessa made her eyes as big and as innocent as possible now and put on a fake smile.

"Oh no, I'm doing this for my grandmother, she's sick and in the hospital". Annie looked down and Jessa felt like the world's biggest asshole and hoped Annie wouldn't cry or something.

"I'm so sorry, Annamarie. I'll pray for you both. That's a beautiful pattern, I'm sure she will love it. I have to go". Jessa turned and walked swiftly towards the back room. She heard little Annie calling out something like, "God bless you, Jessamyn".

Jessa slammed the door to the back room behind her and slid down it laughing because she didn't know what else to do. She felt awful but the laughter wouldn't stop. Much later in life, Jessa's therapist would tell her that she used laughter as a response to emotional pain and it would hit her hard. She would look back at moments like this and think about how painful it was to look at Annie, to see in her the things she wished she could be, to see that Adam had replaced her quickly and effectively. She was in so much pain but had no words for it.

*****

Jessa was so tired on Friday morning that she overslept and didn't think she would make it to the dock to see Freddy. The week had been a blur of shifts at the store and spending time with Amelia, Kaden, and the kids. She had been trying to paint Eden Cove in the best possible light but in reality, Jessa always thought she would move away too. Gracie loved her stories and asked lots of questions about her job at KK's.

She decided she had time to stop by Jammerz, the gas station on the corner, and thankfully Jon was working again.

"Sorry I missed you at the park last weekend, Hannah told me you were coming up with your friends". she said.

"Yeah, we did. I looked for you but I know you were working. Are you going to be off work on any of the weekend nights? Maybe we could go check it out together?" Jon tried and almost held his breath while he waited for a "no" from the beautiful girl who probably didn't want to date the gas station clerk.

"Yes!" Jessa said excitedly, "next weekend, they are having a big Halloween dance in the Pavillion on Friday night. So the maze, Ghosted, and the scary stuff on that side of the park and the boardwalk are open but not my maze. I can ask for the night off!"

"So, would you wanna go to the dance? Is it weird to go to work if you're off work?" Jon asked.

"Not weird at all, I'd love to go with you". Jessa said and gave him a real smile, "let me give you my number, and we can work out the details".

"That would be great". Jon said as he handed over a pen and a scrap piece of paper. He didn't ask girls out very often, after his last relationship ended, he decided he didn't need another girl taking advantage of him. But maybe this girl was different.

*****

Molly was securing the last boat into place in the shed when she thought she heard a noise behind her. She turned around slowly, listened, and then checked the boat again, the noise sounded again, a crackle. She listened closely, not able to tell where it was coming from. The crew was gone already.

"Hello?" she called out. It got dark inside the shed, even when it was bright outside. It spooked some of her crew so she mostly did the closing procedures alone, she wasn't one to spook easily. She started walking quickly towards the shed door when it started creaking open, she stepped back.

"Molly?" Jason walked in, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dark.

"Dammit, Jason! You scared me!" Molly screamed at him from the darkness and then walked towards him.

"Sorry, sorry. I wanted to catch you before you left". he said, closing the door behind him. Molly put her arms around his neck and kissed him. "That's what I was hoping you would do".

"That's it?" Molly asked innocently

"Well, maybe a little more". Jason moved his hands around her waist quickly.

"We could get fired for this". Molly whispered

"Only if we get caught, babe".

*****

Jessamyn strutted rather than walked up the exit of Waking Nightmare, threw her hair over her shoulder, and sat on the bench to start the rotation. She lit up a cigarette, pulled out a sparkly pink gel pen, and got to work. Her goth makeup was done up a little more tonight and she had finally gone ahead with the black lipstick and nail polish. Who cared what Finn thought about it anyway? She liked it.

"Damn," Finn said as he sat down next to her, taking the cigarette, taking a drag off it, and handing it back.

"Hey, Finn. I'm almost done with this. Hopefully no one calls in tonight". she gave him a wink and then added " oh, I'm off next Friday, I talked to Glenn."

"You're taking off? And passing up the opportunity to go work another location for the night?" he scoffed.

"Oh, I'll be here. At the dance, I have a date". Jessa said.

*****

Justin finished getting into his costume and tried to hide his annoyance as Courtney came up behind him and threw her arms around his neck. It wasn't really her that he was annoyed with, not specifically anyway. She was fine, she just wanted more attention than he wanted to give. He had been looking for a job all week and had come up empty-handed so far. He called and talked to Molly last night, she filled him in on the new job at the craft store and all the gossip he had missed. Including Jessa running into Adam and Annie at the store, he had already met Annie and he knew that she was a great girl. He wanted to talk to Jessa about it but Molly told him she met a new guy, Jon Zimms, and was going out with him next week. He remembered Jon from school and wasn't surprised that the girls didn't. Back then, the kid was a total band geek. So Justin had a plan to try to talk to Jessa tonight if he could shake off Courtney long enough to make that happen.

*****

Finn had zero interest in goth girls or whatever the hell they called themselves now. That is until he saw Jessamyn Ally look up at him from that bench, polo shirt stretched tight across her breasts, cleavage on full display for him as he stood above her, the glittery black on her eyes and mouth had every cell in his body on fire. Finn was committed to his previous decision of looking but not touching his sweet little partner. But damn, she was making that decision hard to stick to.

*****

Hannah and Hunter slowly crept out of the photo booth at the end of the boardwalk. She checked her watch and knew she would need to hurry or she would be late for her chaos zone position. She kissed Hunter one more time and ran off, past the bumper boats and towards the front of the park. Hunter walked off in the other direction, towards his maze, smiling up at the sky.

*****

Bev and Freddy stood at the front of the park and marveled at how many cars were already in the parking lot. They had another hour before they even opened up the ticket booths! This had to be the busiest Karol's had ever been on a Friday night in September.

"I guess the new management really hit on something with this Halloween stuff". Freddy said in a soft voice, a mix of sadness and wonder.

"You can't fight change forever. Everyone our age knows that. I wonder what it will do to the town. When they change the name? Two new rides next year is what Glenn told me". Bev responded and looked over at Freddy. Part of her wanted to take his hand, make a united front at the ticket booth, and say hell no, you're never taking down that Karnival sign! But she knew the changes were coming. The end of the season, the end of the year, the end of the century. Her grandchildren were talking about Y2K and the computers stopping because they would not know it was the year 2000 or some such nonsense and Bev just shook her head.

"Yes, two new rides and a new name. Everything changes, just like you said, but I'll still be here, God willing". Freddy smiled at her and Bev smiled back.

"Me too, God willing".

*****

"Jessa! Close off the line! The park closed 15 minutes ago and this line is still way too long. We're gonna be here all night. This is insane!" Finn shouted to Jessa and she nodded from the other side of the entrance line. She couldn't even see the end of the line and it had been that way all night long, she yelled for Logan to come with her and they made their way to the beginning of the line.

"Logan, time it and see how long the wait is from this point. We'll just keep turning people away. No one else gets in this line. The park is closed and so are we". Jessa instructed him.

"Got it, boss!" Logan agreed and they started the long process of directing guests to the exit, not to the entrance of their maze. A few people got nasty and called a few names, nothing they hadn't dealt with before. Almost 45 minutes later, they were back at the entrance of the maze, but the area was still crawling with guests. Obviously, they didn't have enough staff to get everyone out of the park. This was going to be a long night.

*****"

Jessa and Molly pulled up in the parking lot of Waveside at the same time and walked into the apartment together, exchanging stories about their night and how crazy things had gotten. Even though both girls were exhausted and it was past one in the morning, they decided to make popcorn and watch whatever was on TV to relax. The light was flashing on the answering machine, three new messages. Molly hit the play button.

"Hey, girls, it's Mom, oh sorry, Candy. I saw on the news how crowded it got at the park today and that the police had to be called to get everyone off the property! Give me a call when you get home, I'll be up late. Love you both"

"Jessa? Molly? Are you home yet? It's Lisa. I saw the news. Call me when you get home".

"Hey, Jessa, this is Jon. I heard about everything that went down at KK's tonight so, uh, I was just making sure you got home alright. Hannah just called me and told me about the cops and everything. Um, so just call me back and let me know you made it safely. Bye".

"Wow, bad news spreads really fast! Who do you wanna call first?" Molly asked as Jessa headed for the bathroom.

"Call your mom, I'm gonna change, then I'll call Jon and my mom back. Seriously, how nice is he?"

*****

Management at KK's learned quickly from the incident on Friday night and set a "capacity limit" for the park on Saturday and Sunday. That made the busy weekend much easier to deal with and all the big shot guys that they never normally saw were all over the park. They asked the employees questions about what issues they had and took notes. Jessa found this strange, on one hand, she thought it was nice that they wanted the opinions of the crews working the event but on the other hand, why didn't they know what they were doing before they started? She actually posed that question to Glenn when he came around to check on them Sunday evening and Glenn had laughed saying he didn't think Capeway had seen crowds like these at their circus shows.

By the end of the weekend, the entire crew was done. Exhausted and ready for the week away from the park. Jessa and Finn thanked everyone for their hard work and breathed a sigh of relief that it was over and done with. Finn walked her to her car and wrapped his arms around her tight.

"You were a rockstar this weekend, kiddo". he whispered in her ear, breathing her in and hoping she didn't let go too soon.

"You too. Thank you". she whispered back, resting her head on his shoulder, in no hurry to move away. The hug was simply a friendly one, though someone watching may have misunderstood, neither of them did. They felt relaxed and comfortable with each other. Jessa had begun to let go of her crush on Finn and he had stopped thinking about "what if" and focused on her friendship. Finn kissed her on the top of the head and walked away. He filed Jessamyn under "things that never started".

*****

Jessa called Jon and talked on the phone every night until Wednesday when she told him to just come over. They only lived a few floors apart and Molly was fine with it, Jason was there already and they were about to watch Friday the 13th. She was a little nervous about how he would get along with Molly and Jason but she didn't need to be, the night went better than expected. Jason and Jon got along like they had known each other for years, Molly thought he was hilarious and Jessa wondered how she managed to find a guy this great. They cuddled up next to each other and she used the scary parts as an excuse to grab his hand or arm and scoot closer to him. In truth, she had seen this movie so many times, none of it was the least bit scary. But Jon seemed to like her reactions, when it was over and he got ready to leave, he kissed her on the cheek and thanked her for inviting him over. If swooning was really a thing, she was doing it.

They had decided not to dress up for the Halloween Bash on Friday. Jessa had toyed with the idea but Jon said he would rather not and she agreed it would be a hassle to find costumes last minute. Although, she did work at a craft store and he could easily find a Jason mask but he wasn't feeling the idea so she gave up. She decided just to go with everything in black and skin-tight and picked up a glow-in-the-dark headband from the store to spice it up. The Pavillion looked like something out of a movie! There were crazy-looking pumpkins hanging from the ceiling rafters, lights in orange, blue, white, and yellow wrapped around every board, and flashing lights suspended from the fans.

"Oh, hell yes!" Jessa screamed as she pulled Jon onto the dance floor. He had already warned her that he didn't really dance but that he would try for her. He wasn't great but he was trying, Jessa spotted Justin and that Courtney girl to her right and turned her back to them. Nothing was going to ruin this night for her. She pulled Jon close and they had their first kiss there on the dance floor. Ugh, she got instant flashbacks of Taylor. She shook her head and kissed Jon again to block them out. Jon was instantly responsive to her advances, opening his mouth to her kisses and sliding his hand down her back, and pulling her closer. The rest of the dance passed in a blur of flashing light, loud music, and Jessa running her hands all over Jon's body while he did the same. She felt relaxed and free. They stopped and got the fun Halloween-themed drinks, talked to friends, they finally left and went out into the park to go through the chaos zones and Ghosted. Jessa couldn't have asked for a better first date. Everything about it had been perfect. When they made it back to her apartment door, she was nervous, she had been flirty and pushy on the dancefloor but she wasn't ready for anything else to happen with Jon. She didn't need to worry.

"I had a great time tonight. Thanks for going with me. I really like you, Jessamyn". Jon said seriously, staring her dead in the eyes.

"Thank you". she said, " I had a great time, I really like you. There is no one I would have rather been with tonight".

"I would really like this to be a thing, you know. Like, I mean, I want it to be just us. Are you into that? A relationship?" Jon stuttered out his question and Jessa smiled and nodded.

"I'm so into that. I'm into you". she said and kissed him again.

*****

Justin gently pushed Courtney back and tried telling her again that tonight he just needed to go home. The truth was, he was pissed off and had spent the entire dance watching Jessa make out with that dork Jon. What the hell did she see in him? Jon did look a little bit cooler than he did in high school, okay, Justin could admit that. He had the whole rock star thing going on now and he played in a band, whatever. But when Justin saw him grab Jessa's ass on the dancefloor in front of everyone? He stopped dancing altogether and Courtney asked what was wrong with him. Justin was trying not to be a hypocrite here because Courtney was practically dry-humping him all night but still, did Jessa have to act like that? It was gross. Justin was still replaying the whole scene in his head while Courtney was undressing.

*****

Molly was supposed to be staying with Jason but she was exhausted and just wanted to be in her own bed tonight. She decided she would call him when she got home and explain herself. She also learned a few juicy bits of gossip today that she wanted to share with Jessa, she needed some girl talk. She loved spending time with Jason but he didn't girl talk, obviously. So, she headed home with the two packs of wine coolers that Candy had given to her earlier that day and two bags of popcorn left over from the snack shop. She had found out that Jon's sister Hannah was sneaking around with that Hunter kid, not that interesting to Molly but sure to be of interest to Jessa. She found out that Candy was seriously dating Guy. That was odd and interesting since she had never dated anyone seriously, other than Molly's dad. And look how that turned out. But the real kicker was, that she found out Sarah had called Finn last night and told him she met someone else, and she ended it. Finn was once again single.

Make sure to check back for Volume 9 and see how things go once Jessa finds out about Finn.