Free Fractured Fairy Tales by Catherine Stovall Page A

doing something. The young shopkeeper rolled his eyes, shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and judging by the way Jessica threw herself into his arms, eventually caved in.
    A nervous fluttering unfurled in JJ’s stomach at the realisation that she had probably just convinced Jack to attend his party. Come hell or high water, he was going to come face to face with the boy he’d been fantasising about all summer.
    JJ wasn’t sure what scared him more – meeting Jack and messing it up, or meeting him and having it go perfectly. He’d wanted enough people to know that the only thing more terrifying than rejection was getting exactly what he wanted.
    Jessica didn’t stay for long, leaving Jack alone in the store again. JJ watched as he finished reading his magazine and re-arranged the vinyl display, stopping only to pick a record and put it on. He moved with the quiet confidence of someone who had spent his life working diligently under the radar. JJ wondered what Jack’s favourite song was and who inspired him to make music. He wanted to know where Jack’s dad was and if he avoided his son the way JJ’s dad did.
    But more than anything, he wanted to know what Jack’s smile would feel like pressed against his own.
     
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    It was hard to keep one eye on the door and another on the drunken hockey player who was one tequila shot away from falling down the stairs, but JJ persevered. The marble floored foyer was full of teenagers, and the creepy pot dealer from the grocery store, all of them laughing, dancing and drinking. The juxtaposition of the scene – rowdy teenagers packed into his father’s expensively decorated house – made JJ smile.
    The main staircase split about halfway up, sweeping dramatically to the left and right to connect both wings of the house to the foyer. JJ’s room, bathroom, music room and walk-in closet took up the left wing of the house, so he hovered at the top of the left staircase, ready to retreat to his bedroom if the need arose.
    He was nervous, again. He hadn’t been nervous – really nervous – in a very long time. It irritated him as much as it excited him, knowing he could feel so strongly about another person. He had one chance to get this right and he was going to give it everything he had. JJ knew, as he gazed out at the people who loved, loathed and lusted over him that his life could change that very night. He couldn’t wait.
     
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    “Rosie, you have to get him to come to this party!” Jessica whined down the phone. “It’s at the Keswick house. JJ invited us personally. He has to come!”
    Rosemary Watson sighed, her blonde fringe caught in the huff of air. She cradled the phone between her shoulder and ear, glancing up at the ceiling that formed the floor of her wayward nephew’s bedroom. A muffled rumble of noise assured her he was in there, music blaring as usual, hiding from the world.
    “I’m with you, kid,” she assured Jessica, frowning. “I thought you had already convinced him? He came home yesterday mumbling something about peer pressure and stupid rich kids, so I thought you were good to go.”
    “We were, then he messaged me saying he was staying in! It’s the start of our senior year, we gotta go out with a bang.”
    “Alright, give me twenty minutes, then come get him. He’ll be on the porch waiting for you, I promise.”
    “You’re the best, Aunt Rosie!” Jessica replied, whooping with delight. “See you soon!”
    Rose hung up the phone, rolling her shoulders and bouncing on the spot as if she was psyching herself up for a fight. She’d spent all of her adult life auditioning for plays and musicals, and after the death of her sister, she’d stepped into the greatest role of all time – mother. If she could convince a casting director that she was a perky high school student, she could sure as hell convince Jack to go to one party.
    “Of course I ended up with the kid you need to convince to go to parties,”