Just Friends

THIRTEEN

It had been a few days since the party, meaning a few days since Jaden and I had slept together. We hadn't spoken to each other since, and I think the boys were starting to take notice as they stopped teasing us.

They found out what Jaden and I had did because apparently sometime during, Josh had walked with Nessa and immediately ran downstairs to tell everyone.

Gotta love him.

I was currently downstairs with Kip sitting on the couch playing video games. We heard the front door open and looked at each other in confusion as we were the only two home and the rest of the boys were out doing things.

Josh was out with Nessa at some coffee shop, Bryce was somewhere with Addison I believe, griffin was on date with Riley, and Ant and Avani went out to film TikTok's. As for Jaden, he left out of nowhere two hours ago without saying a word to kio or I.

Jaden walked into the living room, giving us a slight glance before walking up to his bedroom.

"I don't get what's going on with him. After the party, he acts like he doesn't even know me." I say pausing the game to get up to go after him.

Kio grabbed my hand before I could do so. "Leah, I hate yo say this, but you're probably one of the dumbest and most obvlious person I've ever met."

I stopped and looked at him, my face probably revealing that had hurt me just a bit. "What? Why would you say that?"

"If you can't see that that boy," he paused before pointing towards the way Jaden walked away, " is in fucking love with you, then I don't even know what to say. We all know it, don't try and say it's not true. Everyone except you can see the way he looks at you, the way he acts around you, and the way he will literally chose you over anyone. Leah, the only reason he's avoiding you is because he thinks you don't feel the same, he's hurting over what happened at the party because even if it didn't mean anything to you, it meant something to him."

Woah. That took me by surprise. It can't be true, Jaden would never see me in that way. He can't see me that way. We have talked about how it's better for us to just remain friends and try our best to not catch feelings for each other.

I guess we both have gone against that statement.

I stay on the couch next to kio and buried my head in my hands. "Are you serious? That's not possible. I appreciate you trying to make the situation better, I think I just need to try and work things out with him. I'm going to go and talk to him."

Kio nodded and watched me walk away, speaking before I got out of his view, " just saying, if you say anything besides what we all want you to say, you'll just end up hitting him more."

~\*!.["}^

Walking to Jaden's room, my stomach was in butterflies. What if what kio said was true? What if Jaden really does have feelings for me? He would put our friendship at risk like that.

I knocked on the door before opening it to reveal Jaden laying on his bed with his earbuds in listening to music. I walked over him and stood at the end of his bed before tapping his shoulder.

He looked up at me before looking back down at his phone and turning his music up.

"Jaden Please."

He was still ignoring me and I was starting to get annoyed with it. I took the earbuds from his ears, grabbed his phone, and stuck them in my back pocket before beginning my rant.

"Look, whatever happened between us I am so incredibly sorry. If I could take back what happened that night just to go back to the way we're you know I gladly would. The truth is, I don't regret it. Do I wish it didn't change us? Yes. I'm just glad it happened with you and not some stranger I didn't know. I want the old us back, the pair who did everything together. The 'us' that was practically unstoppable and out fights weren't even fights, they were small arguments that we would laugh about later. I want us back."

"Leah, I can't go back to being friends with someone I have feelings for, not after everything."

My heart shattered heating that. A relationship with Jaden wouldn't be terrible, but j have learned my lesson. Chase and I were good friends before dating, he cheated and that whole friendship was thrown out the window.

Tony and I we're friends too, but we put our friendship when things ended, even though we both agreed that it was to help me get over chase someone caught feelings in the end.

Anytime I try to follow my feelings and be more with  one of my friends, it never ends well. I don't want the same thing to happen with chase and Tony. I'm not willing to put another friendship at risk like that.

" I wish this wasn't so hard. If only you knew how much I care about you. So much in fact that that is why we haven't became anything more than friends. I can not put us at risk like that. I'm not good with relationships, I think I've proven that. I want to see you happy with someone who can give you the world and treat you the way you deserve to be treated. Maybe that can be me in the future, but for now, Jaden, I don't want a relationship."

Jaden looked up at me before grabbing my arm, bringing to where I was basically straddling his lap. He put his hands on the back of my neck before bringing me in and kissing my lips.

"So I assume, just friends?" He asked when we pulled away.

I nodded.

"Damn, the friend zone really hurts."

~\*!.["}^