Second Chances Ch.1

Second Chances

By: Penuvian2000

Foreward: This story will start out slow, it will not jump into sex right away. The first chapter establishes the relationship and friendship between the main characters. Joey a 27-year-old recently paroled Italian-American convict with a rough past, and Jasmine a 27-year-old Muslim American nurse. They Start out as next-door neighbors in New Jersey that become so much more.

Jasmine was thrilled to be home from work. She had been working extra shifts at the hospital the past several weeks to cover a co-worker on the night shift out on maternity leave. Finally, able to have several days off. As she pulled her Hyundai into her driveway, she saw a guy mowing her asshole neighbor’s lawn. Damn he’s hot she was thinking to herself. He was shirtless that showed off his muscles but was lean. Oddly he was wearing baggy jeans in the summer heat. The guy noticed her getting out of her car and gave her a friendly wave. “Feel free to mow my lawn when your done over there!” she called out jokingly as she headed into her house.

As she shut her front door behind her she facepalmed, she sees a shirtless hot guy and asks him to mow her lawn? Jasmine headed to her bedroom to change out of her nursing scrubs and stopped to look at herself in the mirror. A guy like that wouldn’t want someone like her, she’s overweight, from long hours in med school then even longer hours as an OR nurse. Absurdly thick black hair, and due to her Iranian heritage even slightly noticeable hair on her forearms. Even a dark patch of hair is noticeable through her light-colored panties. Guy like that would want a size two blonde white girl she thought as rolling her eyes. She threw a t shirt and athletic shorts on and curled up on her couch watching some mindless crime drama as she nodded off to take a nap.

She awakes to a knocking at her front door, several hours have passed. Jasmine yawns and answers the door. It’s the hot guy! Wearing a t shirt now.

“Uhhh hi, I’m Joey …Joey Coralucci” he starts out sounding super nervous “I know you were joking about the lawn mowing, but you looked like you are really tired as doctor or something so I kinda did your lawn too to help. Now that I’m saying it out loud, I realize how stupid I sound….” Jasmine looks out her door at her perfectly manicured lawn. “Whoa! It was a joke I’m sorry Joey, but wow thank you…I’m Jasmine by the way, wait Coralucci? You aren’t related to the guy next door, are you?” Joey cringes and responds “yeah that dickhead is my dad, I hope he isn’t an ass to you.” Jasmine hesitates with an answer and Joey responds “I’m sorry, I know he’s a drunk dick”

“Why are you apologizing for something you have nothing to do with?” Jasmine asks “Just don’t want you thinking I’m like that guy” Jasmine asks Joey would you want to come in, I can order a pizza or something. Joey hesitates “I don’t think that’s a good idea…” He pulls his pant leg up and there’s a black box strapped to his ankle. “I’m recently paroled and I’m on house arrest, I had to call my PO for permission to do your lawn”

“Wait you called for permission to help a random person that you don’t know just because?” “yeah I hope your not mad” Jasmine laughed at him “Joey you don’t know the help you are, please come in and I’ll order pizza” Joey followed her into the living room. “anything you want on your pizza?” “Uhhh do you like pepperoni?” “sorry Joe, that and sausage are out for me, I’m Muslim – No pork” Joey made a horrified face “Oh my god, I’m so sorry I didn’t know…wait I just said oh my god is that offensive too?” Jasmine laughed at his nervousness” its ok Joey, you didn’t know and you can say god around me, come sit ill get something to drink”

Jasmine ordered the pizza and brought a bottle of iced tea and glasses out to the living room. “So, Joey what’s your story? You don’t seem like a bad guy why are you on parole?”

He sighed “I screwed up when I was 16, got a DUI and into a car accident, got sentenced to 18 years, just got paroled” Jasmine was confused that story didn’t make any sense “Wait 18 years for a DUI? “Joey sighed again “I’ll go to the beginning – My parents split when I was 12, mom moved out of state. Dad fought for custody and because his business was here and mom was leaving the state granted him custody. He didn’t want me, just didn’t want to pay child support. By the time I was 14 I was sneaking his beers all the time, I was literally going to school buzzed. When I was 16, I found a bottle of whiskey, chugged it and stole the keys to his beloved Camaro. I went joy riding and got into a wreck and a little girl got hurt. Because of my history of drinking the book got thrown at me.”

Jasmine had to ask” did the girl die?” “No, she didn’t, just broke her arm – but she was the niece of the governor at the time. He pushed for maximum sentence and I was tried as an adult, I Was 17 when I was sent to prison. Finally got paroled at 10 years but I have to be good for the next 8 years or I’ll be sent back. Because my mom lives out of state, I had to move in with my dad the asshole.” Joe Coralucci Sr. her next-door neighbor often would yell racist and anti-Muslim comments at Jasmine if she was outside. Jasmine didn’t know what to say ‘I’m sorry you had to go through that Joey”

When the pizza arrived, they ate and chatted. They were having a good time until Joey heard his dad yelling outside “Joe, where the fuck are you, you god damned stunad! Wanna go the fuck back to the clink you fuckin’ dumbass!” Joey felt two feet tall after hear his drunk father yell obscenities to the whole neighborhood. “I better get going Jasmine, thank you for the pizza”

As Jasmine walked Joey to the door she gave him her number, “if you need to talk to someone please call or text me Joe and again thank you for the lawn” After she shut the door she heard Joey on the phone outside the window “Hi, Mrs. Jones – Yeah I finished the lawn, she was really nice, she invited me in for a pizza. I think I made a friend. Please don’t be mad at me for being late”

Jasmine felt bad, he was a really sweet and polite kid. Got screwed by a messed-up system but he didn’t seem like he had a bad bone in his body. It was starting to get late and Jasmine figured she would try to get her sleep schedule back on track now that she’s not pulling extra overnight shifts. She fell asleep and had dreams about Joey shirtless and all his muscles covered in sweat. She woke up with her hand down her panties entwined with the thick hair on her womanhood.

Few days later she was heading to the store to do some shopping and saw a familiar person walking down the road. She pulled over “Joey! Are your supposed to be out?” Joey was startled and jumped at getting yelled at from a random car that pulled next to him. “Oh, hi Jasmine, yeah my PO knows – I’m going to a meeting, part of my parole I have to attend AA meetings” “well hop in I’ll drive you” Joey looked nervous “uhhh Jasmine, it’s at a church is that ok?” She laughed “yeah Joe its fine, hop in”

As she pulled into the parking lot of St. Christopher’s church it surprised her how full the lot was. By the door of the church she noticed a dark colored BMW that has an employee parking sticker of the hospital she worked at. Joe told her he would be an hour, she told him she would wait. She browsed Facebook and snap chat for the hour. An hour passed quickly and Joey Hopped in her car. “Thanks again Jas” normally she didn’t like when people shortened her name but she liked it coming from Joey. “No problem Joe” She knew what happens in meetings was private so she didn’t ask but did make small talk with Joey. She was curious about the BMW but it was not her business. She dropped him off and went home.

Over the next few weeks, they fell into a sort of routine. She took him to his AA meetings, he did her lawn every week or so and she rewarded him with takeout, sometimes she would make Persian food. He loved it all. He always made sure he contacted his PO to notify her where he was. When they weren’t together, they would be texting or on the phone. She found out his Mom in Atlanta bought and paid for his cell phone. He was technology illiterate but jasmine was teaching him about things like texting, memes and social media.

One day she gets a phone call from Joey “Hey Jas, are you free today?” “yeah joe what’s up? “she replied. “could you take me to McDonalds, Wendy’s and Burger King? I got permission from Mrs. Jones to go job hunting” Jasmine has a little lightbulb go off “Hey joe, do you trust me? Meet me by my car I have a friend who can help”

Jasmine and Joey were driving along in jasmines car. She turned into the parking lot of her work. “Uhhh Jasmine, this is the hospital you work at, right?” smugly she replies “yeah” “you know I’m not a doctor or anything” Jasmine chuckled “Joe there are many jobs at a hospital, just trust me” She swiped her employee badge at an entrance and Joe followed her down a hallway of offices. “Let me speak with my friend” Jasmine tells joey as she disappears into an office. Few minutes later she pops out and motions for joey to come in. “Joe, this is snake he might be able to help you with a job” Behind the desk was a large Hispanic man in a hospital logo polo and khakis covered in prison tats and a massive snake that went around his neck that stopped by his ear. Joeys eyes nearly popped out of his head as he’s looking at the scariest man he’s ever seen – and he spent over ten years in a New jersey State prison. He looks at jasmine out of legitimate fear. “don’t worry” she silently whispers. “HiYa Joe! I’m snake – I run the household department here. Like you I’ve been in trouble with the law and worked my way here. I try to help good guys like you trying to get a fresh start” He gripped Joey’s hand in a handshake that joey was fairly certain turned the bones in his hand into pudding. “Uhhh Mr. Snake, what’s households’?” Snake boomed with a laugh “Just snake, no Mister, Households is what we call the services that keep the household of the hospital running - Cooking, Cleaning, stocking you name it – even delivering food to patients” Jasmine excused herself while they spoke and headed over to her department. She sees her two best friends at work Ty and Vanessa at the nurse’s station. She hears Ty yell in the most flamboyant fashion “gurrrrl it’s your day off why you up in this biz” she laughs “Ty you know Dr Henkel hates when you talk like that and when you wear eyeliner” she laughs at her gay friend’s makeup. “yeah, yeah but seriously why are you here?” “I took a friend to see Snake for a job” Ty and Vanessa both jump up “you brought the bad boy?” they ask, since Jasmine told them about Joey they have started referring to him as “bad boy” Behind them they hear someone clear their throat “Nevashani, I’m glad you want to visit your friends but I have a surgical department to run and Reynolds clean your face” She sees her boss Dr Henkel behind her. “Sorry doctor, I brought a friend here for a job” not amused glaring at the three of them “I hope they aren’t goofing off like several nurses I know”. After Dr Henkel left Ty joked “Ha! even Dr Henkel’s favorite get yelled at occasionally” It was an on going joke that Jasmine was Dr. Henkel’s favorite, she was always the number one nurse in the OR when assisting in surgeries.

When Joey and Jasmine left the hospital, he was grinning ear to ear. “thank you so much Jas. I can never repay you; Snake is going to start me in the kitchen” Joe was super excited. Jasmine was happy as well he wasn’t going to be flipping burgers at a fast-food place. She joked, “you can start by stripping for me” she laughed, she loved teasing and flirting with Joey because he always got super embarrassed and would turn red as a tomato. After she dropped him off, they were chatting on the phone. “Did you tell Mrs. Jones about your job?” “yeah she knows Snake and about the department he runs, she’s very happy I got a job working for him”

Because of differing work schedules, Jasmine couldn’t always take Joey to work or bring him home but she tried to when she could. He took the bus when she couldn’t, she felt bad but Joey was ok with it. When she would see him in the cafeteria, he always gave her extra of whatever she ordered – so much for losing weight. After several weeks’ jasmine had an idea. Joeys dad hated the fact they were friends, he never encouraged Joey and made sure to say derogatory remarks towards Jasmine. Jasmine thought of a way to get him out of that situation. “What if you move in with me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Joe its simple, I have a spare bedroom, your dad is an asshole and is drunk all the time – that’s not a good situation for staying sober. We talk every day what’s the difference if you lived here?”

Joe got permission from his PO Mrs. Jones. “she said she may stop by to inspect the place but it shouldn’t be an issue” Joey explained. It depressed Jasmine to see when Joey brought all his things it consisted of a carboard box of a few books, and two hampers of clothes and that’s it. He had nothing, and his dad never made him feel at home living there. She made Joey feel at home right away by making a nice dinner for the two of them. He loved her cooking, which by Iranian standards was mediocre that her father would remind her when he was speaking to her.

Dr. Abbas Nevashani was a gifted and well-respected cardiac surgeon, and Jasmines Father. Jasmine never did follow her fathers wishes and found herself disowned on several occasions. They worked in the same hospital and never spoke. One day Joey answered the door and was face to face with her father and mother who was the polar opposite of her father. She was very kind and encouraged Jasmine to make her own choices (behind her husband’s back).

“So, it’s true, my daughter is having a boy live here” Dr Nevashani said coldly to Joey. “Uh hi Mr. Nevashani, I’m Joey” and held his hand out. Her Father retorts “its doctor” then yells across the house in Arabic. Jasmine comes out of the kitchen and sees her father staring Joey down who looks like he wants to curl into a ball and disappear “Al’ab leave Joey alone, yes he’s renting my spare room” Jasmine and her father start arguing in Arabic while Joey stands there awkwardly. Jasmines mom Pareesa introduces herself to Joey quietly and says “just let them argue, they are going to anyway, whatever my husband wants she does the opposite. If he told her to breathe, she would hold her breath until she turns red” Joey laughs at Mrs. Nevashani’s joke. Dr Nevashani turns and scowls at Joey. “And what do you do to support my walida” Joe was confused at the Arabic word “Daughter” both Jasmine and her father say. “Well I just got a job working for Snake in the hospital kitchen” Jasmine groaned and Dr Nevashani scowled even more “I am aware of Mr. Hernandez’s department; he only hires criminals…” Joey realized his mistake as all the color drained from his face. Jasmine and her father argued for another half hour before he barked at his wife and walked out the door.

After they left Joey apologized for his blunder. Jasmine just shrugged it off. “If he didn’t find out today, he would eventually, this is not the first time I’ve been disowned. Not sure what it means when you have been disowned 4 times. “Jasmine explained that whenever she would not follow her fathers wishes he would disown her and not speak to her for months and act like she didn’t exist. She rejected the man he wanted her to marry when she was a teenager. She explained she was in med school but decided she wanted to be a nurse instead of a doctor and then she started working for her father’s rival Dr Henkel. Got disowned for all three.

“Wait you were going to become a doctor?” Joey asked. “yeah, I was even doing my rotations, another year and I would have been a doctor. Last minute I changed my mind. I didn’t like how cold and unfeeling doctors were like my father and I began to learn how compassionate nurses were. Doctors will tell you your sick and move on to the next patient, a nurse will hold your hand and make you feel better” Jasmine replied, Joey noticed she had tears in her eyes from the afternoons events. “Hey Jas, I’ll make dinner tonight just relax, put your feet up and watch some tv, let me do my magic.” She arched an eyebrow at her friend “you aren’t going to poison me, are you?” He laughed as he went into the kitchen. Within about 40 minutes whatever he was making smelled amazing, and Jasmine got up to investigate. He had a pot of pasta and something smothered in cheese and pasta sauce. “Sorry you just had the jar stuff, didn’t have what I needed to make it from scratch,” “Joe what ever it is its amazing” Joe ended up making chicken parm from ingredients he found in her kitchen and freezer. “Joey this is amazing!” he shrugged “ehhh its ok, I could do better” she laughed and stuck her tongue out at him “that’s not smug at all” He definitely turned the mood around.

After dinner they curled up on the couch and watched a movie. Jasmine ended up curling up with Joey under a blanket and leaning against his arm. She gently played with the forearm and was kind of snuggled with it. Out of the corner of her eye she thought the crotch of his jeans was bulging slightly. Is he getting hard? Is he going to make a move finally? She started wondering. She was tempted to make a move but Joey always got really embarrassed when she would flirt or drop hints. She was really starting to like Joey as something more than friends but he hadn’t made a move yet. She was starting to get self-conscious about this. Did he not find her attractive? Was it her weight? Her Ethnicity? Maybe he was gay?

She was lost in thought when Joey got her attention. “Hey Jas? You Ok? You were a million miles away” startled back to attention she apologized “Sorry, just thinking about stuff. Its Ok. Let’s get back to watching the movie.” After the movie they both got ready for bed and went to their bedrooms.

As Jasmine got undressed, she started examining herself in her mirror in her bedroom. She knew she was overweight. She could benefit from losing 30-40 pounds being she was 5’4” and 175 lbs. She did have a pretty face and decent boobs at 40D, but she had a little bit of a belly, thick thighs and an ass that could benefit from more than a little weight loss. “maybe that’s why he doesn’t want you Jas” she mumbled to herself. She pulled her bra and panties off and examined her self in detail. She had nice tits, she never got complaints from old boyfriends. She tried to keep her pubic hair maintained but she still had a full bush, her hair came in so thick it was impossible to keep shaved. “he hasn’t seen that to scare him away I don’t think that’s why”

She laid on her bed and started exploring her mound and thinking about Joey. She has seen him shirtless and for a taller skinny guy he is ripped. He swears it just from spending a lot of time working out in prison. What ever the reason it was hot. She felt her fingers dipping into the wet folds of her most intimate of areas imagining it was Joey. “Oh god Joe, just like that “she sighed as she started pinching her nipple. She had never done this, picturing Joey exploring her body while she pleasured herself and she was on cloud 9. After several minutes of no orgasm she gave up, she could feel it just out of reach. She was close but couldn’t get there.

Jasmine harumphed as she grabbed a fresh pair of panties and curled up in bed. “I’m gonna have to talk with Vanessa about ideas to get closer to Joe, Ty would just tell me to jump him”. Little did Jasmine realize Joey was down the hall in his bedroom having nightmares and crying himself to sleep.

Several days later one afternoon after work there was a knock at the door. Jasmine answered the door and there was standing an older black woman in a pant suit and a police officer. “uh hi is everything ok?” The woman smiled “you must be Jasmine; Joseph talks about you constantly – I’m Shirley Jones Joseph’s parole officer” Jasmines heart sank. She drove Joey home from work so she knew he didn’t break any rules and he never left the house other than work and AA meetings. Mrs. Jones saw Jasmine’s alarm and reassured her “Oh no sweetie nothing bad is going on, I actually have good news. Is Joseph around?”

Jasmine went to Joeys room to get him. “Hey Joe, Mrs. Jones is here and wants to see you she said she has good news” They came back downstairs to her living room. “Hi Joseph” Mrs. Jones smiled as they came into the room. “Mrs. Jones, I told you its Joey is something wrong?” “No honey, I actually got good news – Your house arrest is over, because of rules of the county Officer Pettle here will be removing your monitor. That’s why he’s here. But there is a formality.” Joey shrugged “weekly pee test? Ill show you to the bathroom” After they disappeared Jasmine was standing there with Officer Pettle. “She has to go with him?” the officer replied. “yeah she has to watch and check it, kind of weird having to watch people pee all day” then he laughed at his own joke. Mrs. Jones and Joey returned to the living room, with joey grinning ear to ear. “Go ahead officer, he passed like I knew he would”. A minute later joey no longer had the monitor on his ankle and bouncing around like a massive weight was gone from his leg. Jasmine laughed at him “C’mon Joe, lets go out tonight and celebrate...wait its allowed right?”

Mrs. Jones laughed “yes you kids can go out, just Joe knows the rules he has to follow but go out have a good time he’s earned it. I know he got a rough deal and I have been fighting to get that monitor off. If the former governor’s family had a say he wouldn’t even have been paroled.” Jasmine thought about her statement, Joe got the maximum sentence possible for something that happens daily all over the country and got punished hard for it, even though he was a great guy.

After Mrs. Jones and Officer Pettle left they hopped in Jasmines car. “Where we going?” Joe asked. “let’s go to the mall, we can get dinner and you can buy stuff with that paycheck you haven’t been using for the past few months other than to pay utilities. Oohh I know, I have a wedding to go to in April you can help me find a dress.” Joe Shrugged “yeah sure”.

They arrived at the mall and were walking around, chatting on where they were going to eat. “Joe since your free you can be my date to the wedding” he looked startled “but I don’t even know the person getting married” Jasmine rolled her eyes “Nurse from 3rd floor, I worked with her before I started working in the OR. You will be my date – she doesn’t have to invite you” Jasmine found a dress store on the upper level near the food court. Both her and joe were browsing through the racks and he would find some to suggest, some good some bad. Some made jasmine laugh. “Joe, I can’t wear that, its white. That’s bad luck at a wedding. Ill wear it to ours” She teased as Joey looked like he stopped breathing for a second making Jasmine laugh. After jasmine found several dresses, she dragged him to the dressing rooms. “Am I supposed to be back here Jas?” Sometimes his naiveness was cute. “No, you stand in the hall, ill go in the dressing room. Try something on, open door, you give thumbs up or down and rinse and repeat.” Joe nodded and she went into the dressing room. She had her favorite already, she wanted to see if Joe liked it too. First one he liked, next one he didn’t. She had similar opinions. She tried on a navy blue and really liked it and open the door. “whoa Jas I really like that one.” She did too hopefully the one she was saving for last was even better. She pulled on the light green one she saw several weeks back. Its cost was outrageous and she had been contemplating it, now that she could take Joey, she decided she was going to get it. When she opened the door, she thought Joey’s eyes would pop out. “Jas, holy crap your hot…I mean your always hot but that looks really good on you, I didn’t mean it that way you are hot all the time. No not like that sorry sorry.” She loved when Joe got flustered, it was cute. And he confirmed that he thought she was attractive in his special way. “I know what you mean, Joe I got one last one to try” He nodded. “This one is going to have to be really special to top that” She really didn’t have one but she definitely was going to top it, hopefully she wasn’t going to cross a line between them.

Jasmine opened the door and Joey turned super red “Jasmine!” She was standing there in her panties and her bra. “well Joe do you like?” he started stuttering and stammering “I uh um well your hot, but were friends, I uhh um” She started to giggle at Joe and his incoherence when she heard an employee coming. She darted back in the dressing room and got dressed. She stepped out and put the other dresses on the return rack and carried the green dress to the cashier. Joe was still bright red from Jasmines playful flirting and the show she put on.

“375 dollars” the cashier tells Jasmine and Joey went from bright red to all the color draining from his face. Jasmine went ahead and paid and Joey was still in shock from the price. “Don’t worry Joe, I wasn’t going to get it unless I had a date which I do now” Joey gulped.As they walked out of the store she was still laughing when they heard yelling and Joey gets knocked to the ground.

“What the heck, watch where you are going asshole” she yelled at the guys who knocked Joey down. A group of meathead guys was surrounding them and a Jersey Shore wannabe spoke up. “Shut the fuck up bitch, our problem is with the drunk asshole here who shouldn’t even be out of prison. “A crowd was forming. The ringleader picked Joey up and he started pleading “look man I don’t know what’s going on” The guy punched Joey in the face and the gut. “You put my sister in the hospital years ago, you weren’t supposed to get out.” Jasmines heart dropped this was a family member of the girl he got in a car accident with. Before she could react, she saw the knife plunge into Joey’s side and the meathead punched him in the face three more times before tossing him over the railing down to the first floor with a crash. “JOEEYYYY!” Jasmine screamed and started running towards the escalator, running down the wrong way escalator just because it was closer.

Joey landed on a cell phone stand. His leg was bent at an unnatural angle and the display he landed on was filling with blood, the knife had pulled out of the wound in the fall. The medical training Jasmine knew kicked in and she ripped the expensive dress out of her shopping bag and started applying pressure to the wound. She started screaming for help while another crowd was forming below the commotion upstairs. “Please Joe hold on, I Love you. I can’t lose you Joey Coralucci, I love you Joey” She pleaded as the blood was soaking through the dress over her fingers.

To Be Continued