meant to be | j. parker¹

SIX

Aaliyah had rushed over to the cafe after an urgent text from JJ telling her to meet her in front of the doors. After parking her car, the girl had retreated over to the entrance and a grin came across her face spotting the blonde with a bouquet of roses in his hands. "JJ...what are you doing?"

He gave the girl a small peck on the lips before handing her the bouquet of roses. "Well, I was going to ask you to homecoming with roses and your favorite ice cream but..." he trailed off pointing down at the pavement that had melted ice cream running down it. "Your brother kind of pushed me and I tripped and spilled it."

"So, are you asking me to homecoming or not?" she questioned bringing the flowers up to her nose and giving them a whiff. "Yes, I am," he confidently stated bringing a smile to her face. "Of course, I'll go to the dance with you. I'm wearing white so wear something that'll match with that."

"Great, come on," he said guiding her into the cafe and walking over to the table with the others. "I assume you said yes," Jordan said watching the faint smile on his sister's face as she walked over to them with JJ basically attached to her hip. "Of course, I did," she responded, reaching her hand up to pinch the blonde's cheek.

"Spencer, dude, take a break, man. You've been working since we got here," Jordan said watching Spencer pass by them with a pizza box in his hand. "I can't, man. We extra busy today," he said walking away from them over to a couple.

"What, too corny for you?" Asher asked once Spencer reapproached them. "No, no. Y'all just take this homecoming thing real seriously. It's just a dance," he seriously stated. "What you don't have dances in Crenshaw?" Asher asked looking over at Aaliyah who was intensely staring at her phone.

"No, we do. It's just not that deep," Spencer said moving to stand next to JJ. "So, who are you taking to homecoming?" the blonde curiously asked fiddling with the ends of Liyah's hair. "Nobody, man. I'm rolling solo," he responded.

"Too many options?" she asked teasingly, looking up from her phone. "Something like that," Spencer nonchalantly shrugged.

"You know I can respect going solo," Asher spoke up once Spencer left. "It's better than rolling with a rival."

"Hmm. Here we go again," Jordan complained. "Listen, Ripley's just a girl. Okay? I like her. Who cares where she goes to school?"

"Did you run through the entire Beverly cheer team that fast, that you had to go and be a traitor?" Aaliyah questioned looking over at her brother. "I hate you," he scoffed reaching over to flick her on her forehead.

"Hey!" JJ yelled pushing Jordan's hand away. "Can you wait until after homecoming to mess up her pretty face?" Aaliyah threw the two chuckling boys a glare. "Or don't mess up my pretty face at all?"

"Hey," Layla said approaching the table with a somber expression on her face and looking at Asher. "Can we talk?"

"That didn't look good," JJ whispered. "No, it did not," Aaliyah nervously mumbled looking over at Jordan with wide eyes.

✯✯✯

"Okay...you look really hot," Aaliyah said eyeing JJ in his blue suit while they stood in her living room for homecoming pictures. The blonde gave her a soft smirk before responding. "Me? You look, so se—"

"Beautiful," Billy interjected looking at his daughter and her homecoming date. "I believe the word you're looking for, is beautiful."

"Yes, coach," JJ said clearing his throat before looking down at her. "You look so beautiful." After taking a couple of pictures and managing to avoid the drama between Jordan, Liv, and her date. The group finally made their way over to Beverly High and entered the dance. "Did you bring your flask?" Aaliyah asked reaching her hand in the inside pocket of his suit jacket, reaching for the flask, and also feeling his toned body up in the process.

"Be a little less obvious, babe," JJ whispered shielding the girl with his body and watching as she took a couple of sips from the silver flask. "You see those two blondes? The twins? Yeah, they kind of asked me to the dance because apparently, they didn't know we were a thing," JJ said pointing at two blondes in matching red dresses.

"You guys look more like triplets than me, Jordan, and Liv," Aaliyah scoffed sending the two girls a glare before turning back to him and wrapping her arms around his neck slightly dancing to the beat of the music. "Yeah, they're not my type anyway," JJ chuckled placing his hands on her hips and turning her around so her backside was placed directly against his front.

"JJ!" Asher called out walking over to him and Aaliyah looking kind of messy. "Where's that flask, baby?"

"Yo. Keep your voice down, bro," JJ said opening his suit jacket up for him to grab the flasks. "Now, we're talking. Hey, it's party time. Drink up," Asher said to the blonde eyeing Aaliyah for a quick second before turning around.

"Hey, maybe, don't follow Asher's lead?" Aaliyah suggested putting the flask back into JJ's jacket. "Now, come on. I wanna dance!"

"Oh, that's not good," JJ whispered into her ear watching Layla and Spencer dance while Asher sat by himself on the bleachers. "I guess, we all saw that coming," she quipped shrugging her shoulders.

While the two continued to dance Asher ended up on stage with a microphone in his hand. "What's up Beverly? To the best damn football team in Southern California! Aaron Miller, Mr. Strong Safety himself, get up here. Make some noise everyone. And that beast?" he said pointing over at JJ who gave Aaliyah a small shrug before a grin broke out across his face. "That beast, JJ, my boy. Best damn linebacker I've ever played with! And of course...The real MVP. Beverly's latest transfer, Spencer James. He's the best there is. Isn't that right, Layla? I mean, you did cheat on me with him, so you would know. No, no, it's okay. Really, it's okay. Because technically, I cheated first. Tell her Olivia. Tell her, go on. Tell your best friend how we had sex...And wait!" Asher said making eye contact with Aaliyah. "That's not even the best part. She wasn't the only Baker sister I cheated with, isn't that right Li? Tell Layla how it wasn't just sex we had actual feelings for each ot—"

Asher's stupid speech was quickly cut off by Billy who had stormed onto the stage, he grabbed the microphone from his hand and shoved him off of the stage. Aaliyah ran after JJ who basically smoke coming out of his ears and tried her best to ignore the brewing fight between Layla and Olivia. The sound of her heels clicked loudly against the pavement as she ran outside to where JJ was facing the parking lot with his back turned to her. "JJ?"

"My best friend?" JJ asked swiftly turning around to look at her. "My best friend? You not only had sex with him, helped him cheat on his girlfriend, but, you had feelings for each other? Do you actually have feelings for me or was this all some joke to try to make yourself feel better about being with Asher!"

"No, JJ, that's not it all!" she said as tears began streaming down her face. "I've liked you since the sixth grade. But, you always showed interest in other girls. So, when Asher came to me after some stupid fight he had with Layla. We had sex once. And then we kept doing it and the more we kept doing it...the more we started liking each other. Obviously, I felt guilty, Layla's supposed to be my best friend, and so are you. But, that doesn't mean I don't have feelings for you because I do. Asher and I haven't done anything in months!"

"I need time to think," he plainly stated, walking away and leaving the girl in tears.

1x07