I Swear It: Herophine

Chapter 25

After sprinting out of the club with Josephine's hand firmly in my own we make our way to my car, my face still covered in makeup and my fake eyelashes blowing in the wind.

"Hero, please, you have to let me take a picture!" Jo squeals in the passenger seat of my car while I try to drive and shield my face from her phone.

"I think you got plenty of me on the stage at the show, plus Mateo has a whole bloody video of me hobbling around in those damn heels. I think you have enough love."

"One selfie, pretty please! I'll let you use one of my Korean facemasks after we take your makeup off!"

I don't know what the fuck that means but what I do know is Mercy puts that shit on her face for twenty minutes so agreeing to one more embarrassing picture means I'll get at least twenty minutes with Josephine and I can't find it in me to turn that down.

"Fine," I say, genuinely nervous these pictures will be on instagram in a matter of seconds, "one more, but you can't post this shit around, these pictures are for your eyes only. Got it?" She nods her head excitedly, unbuckling her seatbelt to squirm closer to me as we stop at a red light.

"Okay, do your very best sexy face little Miss thing," she says as she snaps the picture, her face broken in half with a smile as mine is in a permanent scowl. I see her clicking away but before I can snatch the device out of her hands, she turns her head and gives my jaw a firm kiss. I hold my breath as she takes one more picture of us, this time with her tongue tracing the length of my jaw, a small laugh escaping her lips as the car behind me honks, indicating the light is green.

"I may have taken more than one Hero. I hope you're not too terribly upset with me." She offers in a sweet as pie tone as her face tells me she's anything but innocent and that she knew what she was doing with her little stunt. I only grunt in response, shifting uncomfortably in my seat as we make our way to her apartment with her direction.

I park in front of her building, where I have countless times before, only this time with her in tow. I open her door for her and help her out of my car, seeing as she's too distracted with the pictures of the photo shoot on her phone to realize the car as stopped.

"This is my favorite I think," she says as she places the phone in my hand as we make our way to her elevator. It's one of us in the car, only half of her face is visible but I can tell she's laughing by the crinkles by her eye and it appears it was snapped the moment I realized she was taking more than one picture because I look absolutely murderous. I begin to swipe and find the pictures of her kissing and nipping at my jaw, which I quickly decide, are my favorite. In these, it's my face that's partly obscured and hers that is the center of attention. Her eyes are closed, her mouth pulled into a smirk as the tip of her pink tongue peeks out making contact with my skin. My mouth is hanging open and my neck is flushed in the picture, I decide to send all of them to myself, despite Josephine clawing at my arms in the elevator to give her the phone back.

"Don't worry baby, I didn't delete any of them, just sent myself some of the good ones." I wink at her as the doors open to her floor and we make our way to her apartment.

"No Katie around tonight?" I ask after we enter the surprisingly quiet flat and reminding myself that girl likes to make her appearance at the most inopportune times.

"No, her and Rob are at his parents lake house this weekend. I've got the place all to myself." She says over her shoulder as she walks into the bathroom, likely grabbing supplies to take this shit off my face.

Just as I begin to smile, thinking about all the fun we could have in an empty apartment Josephine's voice cuts off my thoughts, "Don't even think about it mister. I'm too drunk to trust myself which is why you're going to be a gentleman and leave once we take your facemask off."

And that right there is exactly what I needed to remind myself that I am working towards something greater than one night with her. Which is why I sat like stone as she scrubbed makeup off my face for 20 minutes, even when she had to climb onto my lap because I wouldn't let her take my eyelashes off out of fear they would rip my skin off. It is also probably why I am still sitting here, facemask long since removed from my face, watching Eurovision on her couch with her at an ungodly hour and not the least bit tired.

"Hey Hero?" Jo asked me, keeping her eyes on the television in front of us, making me question if I actually heard her whisper.

"Yeah Jo?" I look directly at her and watch as she licks her lips before biting down on them before turning to me.

"Did you have fun tonight? With me?" she asks and goes back to worrying her bottom lip.

"I can't say it's how I thought the night was going to go but yeah, I had fun. I always have fun with you." I say and when she offers me nothing more I continue. "Where is this coming from? Did someone say something? Did I come across rude? I swear I didn't mean to if I did, that club was so fun" my mind running away from me at her continued silence until she puts me out of my misery.

"No, no one said anything it isn't that. I just. Well I guess I'm a little confused." She looks to me quickly, worrying that bottom lip of hers as she always does and this time I don't say anything in her silence. I'm not sure what confused her and I don't think guessing is the correct approach with her.

"Do you... well... is this still something... am I... fucking hell," she lets out a breathy laugh and I sit there, waiting.

"This is stupid," she finally settles on and that's when I break.

"Nothing you say can be stupid Josephine. What's confusing you? Talk to me maybe I can help. Am I what? Is this still what?"

"I guess I just want to know how you feel. I had so much fun with you tonight and I want to know if you had fun with me as your friend Josephine or if you had fun with me as the girl you're still trying to fuck." It comes out in one long exhale, her eyes closed, cheeks tinged pink, hands in little fists on her lap. And I, out of anger, sit there staring at her until one eye opens, then the other.

"Are those my only options?" I ask with an angry huff. Friends? A fuck? What the fuck else does she want me to do to show her this is real for me?

"What else do you—" she begins but I don't let her.

"So I can only have you in my life as a friend or as a girl I can fuck and chuck? Those are the options you're giving me? Or those are the options you think I want?" I run my hand through my hair, chuckling darkly as I stand to my feet.

"Christ Jo can't you see I'm trying? I've told you. I want this. You. Not for a night. Not for a quick fuck and not to be your fucking friend either. I don't want to just be your friend." Which isn't necessarily true, if that's all she's willing to give me I'll take it.

"Hero, I..." she starts and stops. Her eyes darting around my face, my cheeks flushed with anger, my eyes glaring at her, my jaw clenched, keeping me from saying something I might regret.

"I'm going home. I think maybe you're the one that needs to tell me what tonight meant to you, because I know what it meant to me. Let me know when you figure it out." I move towards her front door, pulling my shoes on and I see her follow me out of the corner of my eye. She's wringing her hands in front of her chest, fidgeting from one foot to the other and I feel somewhere deep in my chest that the next words out of her mouth are going to make or break me. This. Us.

"Hero?" she says, with wide eyes and heaving chest when I finally stand up and look at her, "what are you doing on December 19th?"