Prohibited Feelings

Chapter Five | Never Wanted It For Me

"Hey, Luke's coming in a few minutes." Zander says sounding groggy.

I nod them ask, "You don't want to go either, don't you?"

"Not really, I have nothing better to do though." Zander says just before Luke pulls up to our house.

The two of us head out and pile into Luke's car. Zander sits in the passenger seat and I sit in the backseat. Zander and Luke greet each other with a peck on the lips, and Luke greets me with a smile.

"What are we going to be doing at Jake's house anyway?" Zander asks Luke and I as we start driving to Jake's house, awaiting either of us to respond.

"Jake told me that we're going to be watching 'School Of Rock' with the rest of the club and Max's band." I say from the back seat.

"This is going to be just wonderful." Zander murmurs sarcastically, speaking for the both of us.

"Well, I think it'll be fun, Zander." Luke says. "But if you really want to leave I'll take you back home."

Zander shrugs as he mulls over what Luke just said. His face remains somber as he considers the offer."Eh, it's fine," Zander finally responds. "No sense in going back home, I guess."

We arrive at Jake's house, and are immediately greeted by Jake at the door. With a smile, Jake invites us inside and shows us around his house then takes us to his living room. Jake's home has a warm and comforting atmosphere, which made me feel at ease.

"I know it's not much, but it'll be comfortable for everyone coming tonight." Jake says, placing buckets of popcorn on the coffee table, then handing one to me, and only me.

Milly and Sean arrive, followed by Max without the accompanying support of his band. Thankfully, Max isn't the type to hold grudges even though we beat him in the competition, so tonight won't be too awkward.

"Guess who brought candy?" Milly exclaims, holding bags of sweets in her palms. Milly makes her way to the living room while Sean and Max walk behind her.

"My parents are on a date, and my little brother's upstairs. Hopefully he won't bother us, but I can't promise anything." Jake says as he makes sure that everyone is comfortably situated.

Jake's brother emerges from the stairs upon hearing his name, making his presence known. I remember how Jake once told me that his little brother is incredibly immature, also how Jake once forgot him in a supermarket. He runs down the stairs only to sit right next to me.

"Hey there, pretty lady," the boy says with a cheeky grin, "You must be Jake's friend from the competition, you're the one who can sing, right? My name's Milo, what's yours cutie?"

"I'm Hailey, it's nice to meet you Milo." I say, a little awkwardly. There's no doubt that he's a Sterling.

The rest of the group, besides Jake, looks on in amusement as Milo continues to flirt with me. This is a very interesting experience to say the least.

"Milo, leave her alone," Jake says in embarrassment. "Hailey does not want to talk to you, get out of here."

"Fine, I didn't know you were that protective over your girlfriend." Milo says causing Jake and I to both become exceedingly flustered. Milo heads back upstairs to avoid getting reprimanded any more than he already has.

"I'm sorry about him, he's just like that all of the time." Jake apologizes to me, still embarrassed from what just happened.

"It's fine, I really don't mind." I reassure Jake, now noticing that everyone's staring at us.

Jake broke the silence in the living room by asking the group, "So who's ready to start to movie?"

Everyone settled either on the couch or on the floor, to my luck I was sitting on the couch in between Max and Jake. Eventually, Jake got up and grabbed a bag of chips from the kitchen, then came back to the living room to join the group again. As he sat down next to me, I realized that he was now sitting even closer to me. Our bodies were now pressed together, causing a slight tingle of electricity in my stomach which I was desperately trying to ignore.

Max noticed the interaction between Jake and I, his eyes narrowed with suspicion as a sly grin appears on his face. He then leans over to Zander, who was cuddling with Luke and whispers into his ear. He starts speaking just loud enough where I can hear the majority of the sentence.

"So, it looks like Jake and Hailey are getting pretty cozy, huh?" Max whispers to Zander, causing him to look over to see what he's talking about.

To Zanders horror, he saw exactly what Max was talking about. He saw Jake and I leaning against each other which was making me feel very uncomfortable. What I couldn't figure out was why Jake was sitting so close to me in the first place? The couch wasn't crowded at all, yet he still persisted on sitting next to me.

After an hour, the movie ends and everyone starts to trickle out. For the duration of the movie, Jake never moved an inch away from me. I sit up straight and divert my attention to the ground. Jake remains in the same position, now thankfully discarding any possible tension between us.

Milly and Sean say their goodbyes at the door and head home, leaving even less people left at Jake's house. It was pretty late, and I immensely needed to go home.

"Hey, is there a chance that any of you guys can take me home?" Max asks Luke, Zander, and me. "My mom's shift changed so that means I don't have a ride. What'll you say, blueberry?"

"Hailey's going to be staying here with Jake, Zander and I will take you home." Luke says without even asking for my opinion on the subject.

"Wait, she is?" Zander asks, not sounding too fond of the idea of me being alone with Jake which I wasn't particularly either. "You didn't tell me anything about that, Hailey." Zander says to me, looking at me with a confused expression.

"I'm okay with that, I'm free for the rest of the night." Jake tells me. "You can stay here with me if you really wanted to."

What was up with him today? A couple of days ago, I would've agreed without a single doubt to this request, but I'm trying my best to swear off my feelings for Jake. He's making it extremely hard to forget about my previous feelings though.

"You know, I still have homework to finish. I should really go h-" Before I can finish, I'm interrupted by Luke who appears to be conspiring with Max about something.

"Let's take you home, Max." Luke says before Zander can try to protest. "Bye guys!" Luke exclaims, now forcing Zander out of the door but still trying to be gentle with him.

"Have fun you two, just remember that Milo's still in the house. It's not too late to go to a motel or something." Max says, giving Jake and I a smirk before closing the door and following Zander and Luke outside.

This is the worst possible outcome of tonight. After vowing to focus on myself instead of Jake, I was set up on a date by Max and my brother's boyfriend.

Jake was cleaning up his living room and I got up to help him, we haven't exchanged any words yet, just frequent glances. All I know for sure is that this is going to be one hell of a night.